Honoring Ephraim Williams
The 300th birthday of college founder Ephraim Williams on March 7 was a time of celebration—and also reflection. At various moments in February and March, the campus community gathered to examine his legacy and the implications of his will, which, upon its execution, provided $11,000 for the “Support and maintenance of a free School (in…
The Italian Job
With the help of art major Grace McEniry ’12, E.J. Johnson ’59 discovers the architect behind a famous, temporary theater built in the 16th century to celebrate France’s new king and his Italian queen. In the light-filled architecture studio on the second floor of Spencer Studio Art building, Grace McEniry ’12 spent the Winter Study…
Dispatch from the Hot Zone
During the worst ebola epidemic in history, Ephs traveled to the front lines to lend a hand. Garrett Ingoglia ’92 has witnessed the broad spectrum of human suffering and loss in the course of a decade-plus career working in humanitarian relief and disaster response and recovery. But when he headed to Liberia last fall into…
Standing Strong
WARNING: This article contains information about sexual assault that may be upsetting or difficult to read. Players collide with one another. Elbows fly. Feet pound the ground. And Nakita VanBiene ’15 feels safe here on the rugby pitch, surrounded by her teammates. “The nature of the sport is that if you don’t work together as…
Memory, Encoded
What if you could safely keep your most important information in a database that could only be unlocked by your own memory? A web-based model developed by professors Brent Heeringa and Nate Kornell does just that. The model relies on the proven strength of the human ability to correctly recall a series of images. “I like…
Biography and Its Discontents
Jorge Sempru?n’s life was an open book. His substantial body of work—memoirs, fictional works and screenplays—drew heavily from his experiences growing up in exile, fighting in the French Resistance, surviving 18 months in a Nazi concentration camp and then working clandestinely from France to overthrow Spain’s military regime. But to Soledad Fox, professor of Spanish…
Operations Research
Students in Steven J. Miller’s Operations Research class spent last fall learning mathematical theories and computer science coding programs—and then applying those skills to problems in the community. “I wanted students to find out what happens when they use math in the real world, working with real people on real-life problems,” says Miller, associate professor…
Other Books
The End of the Rainbow: How Educating for Happiness (Not Money) Would Transform Our Schools. By Susan Engel, Williams senior lecturer in psychology. The New Press, 2015. An alternative view of education, drawn from theory and classroom experience, in which happiness is the ultimate goal. From Joseph Bensman: Essays on Modern Society. Edited by Robert Jackall,…
Examining Freedom
The concept of freedom has been on Neil Roberts’ mind for much of his academic career. Is it a state of being or an idea? Are humans born enslaved? How can we talk about freedom without talking about its opposite? And what, truly, is its opposite? In Freedom as Marronage (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Roberts…
Answering Big Questions
Mathematics professor Satyan Devadoss has received a three-year, $79,591 grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The organization seeks to give “great minds the space and resources to stretch their imaginations.” Devadoss’ project, “Mathematics, Dualism and the Renaissance Revival,” proposes to “break down walls between the physical and cerebral,” he says. The project is divided into four…
The Body as Book
During this year’s Book Unbound initiative, at least one course hopes to “disrupt the idea that a book is a material object contained within a binding,” says associate theater professor Amy Holzapfel. In The Body as Book, a collaboration between the theater and dance departments, “We’re asking what it means for the book to be embodied…
Encountering the Original
February marked the 500th anniversary of the death of Aldus Manutius, a man considered by many to be the grandfather of the liberal arts. A Venetian scholar, teacher, editor and publisher, Aldus was the first to publish Aristotle in the original Greek, and he had a hand in determining which texts the scholars and students…
A Closer Look: Design School
From her perch on a counter in a second-floor classroom of Sawyer Library, Pamela Mishkin ’16 draws four buckets on a dry-erase board. She, Matt LaRose ’16 and Chris Owyang ’16 (all pictured, above) are explaining how they’d redesign the college’s online course catalog, which is clunky and difficult to navigate. It’s the second week…
244 Admitted to Class of 2019 Via Early Decision
The college has offered admission to 244 students under its early decision plan. The 112 women and 132 men comprise 44 percent of the incoming Class of 2019, which has a target size of 550. Students hail from 33 states as well as 10 countries. U.S. students of color make up nearly 30 percent of…
Five Faculty Receive Tenure
Five Williams faculty members have been promoted to associate professor with tenure, effective July 1. They are: Quamrul Ashraf, economics Ashraf’s research focuses on topics in long-run economic growth and development, economic demography and agent-based computational macroeconomics. He teaches courses on macroeconomics and economic growth and development, both in the economics department, where he’s technology coordinator, and…
Freeman to Study Pure Math as Churchill Scholar
Jesse Freeman ’15 was one of 14 students nationally to be awarded a Churchill Scholarship for study at the University of Cambridge in 2015-16. He is the third Williams student ever to receive this honor. The Bethesda, Md., native plans to pursue a Master of Advanced Study in pure mathematics and hopes to go on…
Sharif Rosen Named Muslim Chaplain
Sharif Rosen joined the Williams community in February as Muslim chaplain and assistant director of the Center for Learning in Action (CLiA). Rosen is the second person to serve in this role, which strengthens the partnership between the chaplain’s office and CLiA. In addition to serving as a religious, programmatic and educational resource to Muslim…
Williams Receives Carnegie Designation for Engagement
Williams’ engagement with the wider community, including its student volunteer programs, experiential courses and public events such as Winter Blitz and the Great Day of Service, have earned the college a Community Engagement Classification for 2015 from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Williams was one of 240 recipients selected nationally—and one of…
Harrington Honored for Outstanding Research
The Computer Research Association has awarded Emma Harrington ’15 its Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award for her work involving software defect detection. A computer science and economics double major, Harrington is writing a senior thesis on what motivates people to produce free content online. She is a Phi Beta Kappa inductee, teaching assistant and Computer Science…
Claiming Williams: A Day of Learning
On Feb. 5, participants in Claiming Williams joined together to ask and answer the question “Why Should I Care?” The day began with opening remarks from President Adam Falk, who said the goal of Claiming Williams is “not to feel good about Williams. The goal is to make Williams better. So what I wish you…
Ending Sexual Violence at Williams
As an educator, as a father—as a human being—I hope for a day when sexual violence does not occur. But we can’t wish this problem away. As Williams’ president, it’s on me to speak about this scourge, to tell you how we’re addressing it at Williams and to lift up the work of those who’ve committed…
Sex Work and Sports Events
In “Sex Work and Sports Events” (fall 2014), using “sex work” to refer to prostituted people represents a perspective that supports legalized prostitution. This term normalizes an industry that is based on exploitation and avoids recognizing the structures that allow the commercial sex industry to be growing across the globe. The answer is not an illogical…
History of the Book
“History of the Book” (fall 2014) was a lively printer’s case of printing history. But one important little machine was missing: the manual typewriter. Its keys gave first light to most books and other writings for 100 years after the 1870s, and it is still used in the developing world. It helped feed my family…
Why Liberal Arts?
I applaud the Committee on Educational Policy’s effort to explore the question “Why Liberal Arts?” (fall 2014). However, the inclusion of alumni on the committee would provide valuable perspective on how the breadth of academic, cultural, athletic and social experiences available through a Williams education creates the foundation for a rewarding and fulfilling personal and professional…
Converging Territories
Lalla Essaydi’s artistic work is at once imposing and intimate. Converging Territories #10, part of the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) collection, is a large-format, nearly life-sized self-portrait. Yet the scene Essaydi depicts—she is seated, with her back to the viewer, amid pools of white fabric that she’s covering with Arabic calligraphy—evokes a domestic…
The Racial Imaginary
In 2011, poet Claudia Rankine ’86 put out an open call for letters discussing the creative imagination, creative writing and race. Responses were first posted online and have been collected into a publication due out in March titled The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind (Fence Books), which Rankine…
Jews at Williams
With regard to “Gentlemen Jews” (summer 2014): whether or not my relative (on my mother’s side) Edward S. Greenbaum, Class of 1910, or his brother Lawrence Greenbaum, Class of 1909, was screening Jewish applicants, my father, Harry Meirowitz (later Harry Merwin), Class of 1920, the son of a working-class immigrant Jewish family, was not excluded from…