2017 fall

A digital collage of works found in WCMA.

Data Collection

The Williams College Museum of Art is pushing the boundaries of curation and blurring the lines between art and technology. By Denise Valenti What is pink? It seems a straightforward enough question. Pink is flamingos and cotton candy. It’s pencil erasers and Pepto-Bismol. It can be lips or lipstick, the delicate petals of a tea…

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A trash bag made of gold sits in a corner with a royal blue wall and teal floor.

The Value of Waste

A look at what we accumulate and what we discard—and the changing systems and judgments surrounding both. At the risk of oversimplifying things, Williams professors Joel Lee and Eiko Maruko Siniawer ’97 are fascinated by trash. For Lee, an anthropologist, what began as a cultural and religious history project within a community of sanitation workers…

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Moving Forward Together

Adam Falk will leave Williams in December to become president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. When we sat down with him to plan the magazine’s coverage of his tenure, he made an important observation: “This story is about Williams’ ideals, principles and priorities; it shouldn’t be about me.” We took what he said to…

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Picture of two men standing in the Housatonic river. Water up to their knees. Both wear waders.

The Meandering Housatonic

Assistant Professor of Geosciences José Constantine and geosciences major Emmett Blau ’18 are investigating whether a river’s natural movement across its floodplain, and the subsequent oxbow lakes it produces, are acting as natural filters of the river’s pollutants. Their case study is the Housatonic River, which cuts through Berkshire County and western Connecticut before releasing…

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The Hibernation Equation

Medically induced hypothermia, also known as targeted temperature management, is becoming standard care to treat patients suffering from cardiac arrest, and it’s currently in clinical trials for stroke treatment. Cooling the body in this way reduces brain damage associated with cardiac arrest, perhaps by slowing metabolic demand of the brain. Currently, hypothermia in a clinical…

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From the Eph’s Bookshelf

The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole. By Michelle Cuevas ’04. Dial Books, 2017. A girl’s friendship with a lonely black hole that follows her home from NASA helps her to face her own sadness.         Rebel Power. By Peter Krause ’02. Cornell University Press, 2017. The balance of power…

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Moving People and the Economy

Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi. By Kenda Mutongi. The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Kenda Mutongi was walking along a street in Nairobi, thinking about what she’d like to research for her second book, when she realized the answer was right in front of her. “Matatus are everywhere, but we don’t know…

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Course Catalog

The Law has long been a concept in Jewish thought and practice, as was famously articulated in the early 20th century by Franz Kafka’s parable “Before the Law.” Kafka later included the parable in his novel The Trial, published posthumously in 1925. This semester, students in religion professor Jeffrey Israel’s course Judaism: Before the Law…

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Open to Interpretation

Critics have drawn connections between Barbara Takenaga’s abstract paintings and the Big Bang Theory, the night sky and psychedelic experience. But as viewers consider a new survey of her work curated by Debra Bricker Balken at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), Takenaga wants them to keep in mind: “I still see them as…

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Noticing Language

Comparative literature professor Lama Nassif is examining how society influences the way we speak and how the way we speak influences society. How and why do languages change over time? How can language choices reflect a person’s identity? And how do the words we speak intersect with and communicate power relationships among and between individuals…

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Sustaining Zilkha

Since 2012, the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives has selected six to seven students each year for its summer internship program. Interns have worked as food-waste specialists, energy conservation analysts and artists in residence, among the many jobs focused on sustainability that impact the campus community. “Our internship program speaks to the college’s commitment to…

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In Memoriam

Retired professor John Sheahan and retired hockey coach William McCormick died in August. Sheahan was 93, and McCormick was 88. Sheahan, the William Brough Professor of Economics, emeritus, began a four-decade career at Williams in 1954 as a member of the original faculty of the Center for Development Economics, which he served twice as chair….

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$5.5M Mellon Grant Aims to Diversify the Academy

The Creating Connections Consortium (C3) has received a $5.5 million, five-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund tenure-track positions in the humanities across 28 liberal arts colleges within the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers consortium (LADO). Williams, with Middlebury and Connecticut College, cofounded C3 in 2012 to address the challenges of diversity in…

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Celebrating the Skies

People passing by Schapiro Hall in early October were met with an unusual sight: the construction of a celestial pavilion. The structure was the result of a biennial design competition in the course Architectural Design II, taught by Lecturer in Art Ben Benedict. Students were given two weeks to design a small structure that captured…

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At a Glance

Mark your calendars for the second annual Teach It Forward: Impact Challenge, which will take place from Jan. 25 to Feb. 5, 2018. Last winter, 325 alumni participated in the 10-day challenge, which involved making a gift of any size to the Alumni Fund and then performing volunteer work. Ephs were able to multiply their…

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Octet Takes the Field

The Williams Octet, one of the college’s longest-running a cappella groups, sang the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 27. After rehearsals with Brad Wells, Williams’ Lyell B. Clay Artist in Residence and director of choral activities, and a simulation of the two-second feedback over the stadium’s sound system, 20 student and alumni members…

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In the News

In what news outlets around the world are calling “the largest and longest marine migration ever documented,” nearly 300 species of fish, shellfish and other ocean life rafted across the Pacific Ocean on manmade debris from Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami and washed ashore, alive, on the Canadian and U.S. coasts. That’s according to a…

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Majumder Named Interim President

Protik “Tiku” Majumder, the Barclay Jermain Professor of Natural Philosophy and director of the Science Center, will serve as interim president of Williams beginning Jan. 1, 2018. The announcement follows news of the upcoming departure of President Adam Falk, who after eight years at Williams will become president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Falk…

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Maroja Receives $137K in Grants

Luana Maroja, associate professor of biology, received two grants from the National Science Foundation totaling $137,315 to support her research into evolutionary genetics. The grants will help fund two projects Maroja is working on related to speciation and genetics. She and her students are collaborating with colleagues at Cornell University to study the importance of…

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Just Mercy

Bryan Stevenson, whose book Just Mercy is this year’s Williams Reads selection, visited campus on Sept. 14 for a talk and book signing. The founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative spoke to a packed Chapin Hall about “American Injustice: Mercy, Humanity and Making a Difference.” Stevenson’s talk kicked off a year of…

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We Greet Them With a Song

Friday, Oct. 13, dawned crisp and clear—perfect weather for Mountain Day. President Adam Falk rang the chapel bells to kick off a day packed with outdoor activities, including a performance atop Stone Hill. Watch a video recap of Mountain Day at http://bit.ly/mtnday2017.

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The Choices Ahead

After eight years as president, I’ll be leaving Williams in December. And while I’m looking ahead to my future at the Sloan Foundation, I’m also looking back on what we as a community have accomplished together. I see much to be proud of. We’re moving toward completion of a sophisticated new Science Center. Recruiting a…

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Comment

CONTINUING THE QUEST I find it very unfortunate that you did not mention Gina Coleman ’90, the former associate dean who convinced the Williams administration to join QuestBridge (“Begins the Quest,” summer 2017). I was in the second class of Williams students admitted through the program, and I know from personal experience how much time,…

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Embracing We the People

In my role as president of Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), I work with children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers who have had few choices in life. Most have been raised in abject poverty under repressive governments, subject to human trafficking, sexual and gender-based violence, abduction and torture. They are often witnesses…

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The Glory and the Honor

What do an architect and urban planner, a pioneer in higher education access, a slam poet and an endocrinologist focused on gender identity in children have in common*? They are among the 161 Williams alumni to receive Bicentennial Medals for distinguished achievement since 1993. Founded on the college’s 200th birthday, Bicentennial Medals were inspired by…

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