2019 fall

Pride In Progress

On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, Williams Magazine highlights four alumni activists who are helping to reshape LGBTQIA culture on campus and in the world. Here is how community grows: someone sees an empty space and imagines it full. Mike Dively ’61 grew up in an era when being gay wasn’t discussed openly—not…

Read More...
Art illustrating the concept of memory

The Shape of Memory

What do we remember, what do we forget and why? It’s a complicated question, one that defies easy answers. It becomes even more challenging as we consider that remembering can be both a profoundly personal act as well as something taken on collectively—and that even those memories widely considered tangible or true are remarkably malleable,…

Read More...
President Maud S. Mandel speaks with Tom Gardner ’79, president of the Society of Alumni.

Williams Today

President Maud S. Mandel discusses her first year on campus—and what’s to come— with Tom Gardner ’79, president of the Society of Alumni. It was easily one of the busiest times of the semester. First-year students were barely settled into their dorm rooms. Classes had just begun. Key alumni leaders were in town. And the…

Read More...
PHOTO OF ARTWORK BY PUNU OR FANG CULTURAL GROUP, GABON, FIRE BELLOWS ON STAND,

From Ethnography to Art

Michelle Apotsos joined the art history faculty in 2014 as Williams’ first scholar focused on the art of the African continent. Though her work filled a gap in the college’s curriculum, she soon found that the materials and collections already here, particularly those of the libraries and the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), were…

Read More...
Photo of Anne Skinner working with her senior honors student, Larissa Silva ’20

Digging Into Chemistry

Anne Skinner came to Williams in 1966, when her husband Jim was hired to teach chemistry. At the time, there were two full-time female professors at the college, and coeducation was still several years away. But Skinner, armed with a doctorate in chemistry, was determined not to be what she calls a “trailing spouse.” She…

Read More...
Illustration from 1835 of An Anti-Slavery meeting on Boston common

Abolitionism in Context

Williams College was an early proponent of the movement to end slavery. But as Darin Li ’21 discovered when doing research for the history course Slavery in the American South, the seemingly good intention prevalent at the college depended on deeply racist ideas. “The Williams College Anti-Slavery Society, founded in the 1820s, did not envision…

Read More...
A pink and orange abstract illustration

Impression Management

We’re not nearly as susceptible to misinformation in the digital age as we previously thought, says psychology professor Jeremy Cone. Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, “pizzagate” went viral on social media. The story—that Hillary Clinton and several others were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of the basement of a D.C. pizzeria—had no basis…

Read More...

In Memoriam

In September, the Williams community said goodbye to Marsha Altschuler, professor of biology, emerita, and former chair of the biology department, who died at the age of 69. Altschuler taught at Williams from 1985 until her retirement in 2014. She was active in the college community, teaching in Williams’ summer program for teachers and in…

Read More...

Strategic Planning Underway

What is our shared vision for the future of Williams? Eight working groups held about 120 strategic planning conversations with members of the college community in the fall to begin answering that question—one that President Maud S. Mandel says “every responsible educational institution should ask itself once a decade or so.” In September and October,…

Read More...

Like Minds

Brooklyn native Nathan Thimothe ’22 is the first recipient of the newly created E. Wayne Wilkins Jr. ’41 Community Outreach Fellowship, whose namesake, known as “Wilk,” has spent a lifetime building community. Thimothe, who over the summer worked with nonprofits in Pittsfield and North Adams, spoke with Williams Magazine about his service. What calls you…

Read More...

Outstanding Educators

A mathematician and an astronomer have been honored by their respective professional associations for their teaching, research and overall excellence. Pamela Harris, assistant professor of mathematics, received the 2019 Henry L. Alder Award from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). The award recognizes distinguished teaching by a beginning college or university mathematics professor. The organization…

Read More...

A Closer Look: Garfield, Reimagined

Garfield House opened in the fall as the second new residence hall to be built on campus in 40-plus years—and only the second building in Massachusetts to meet “Passive House” criteria for energy performance, considered the most stringent in the industry. Passive houses feature a well-insulated building envelope, high performance windows and passive solar heating….

Read More...

At a Glance

Read More...

A Place of Peace

At the start of his Convocation Address, renowned neurologist Martin A. Samuels ’67 told the Class of 2020 that he decided to set aside his prepared remarks, having spent the previous night thinking about all that had happened since his own Williams graduation and that very moment. Reflecting on the campus, he remarked: “And there…

Read More...

Recently Published

In her carefully researched memoir My City of Dreams (TidePool Press), Lisa Gruenberg ’76 provides a 21st-century testimony of the Holocaust, interweaving her own life story with those of relatives dead or “lost to darkness.” Anthony Kronman ’68 argues in The Assault on American Excellence (Simon & Schuster) that, in order to graduate as good…

Read More...

Grants for Protons and Proteins

Two science professors have received more than $740,000 in combined grants to support their ongoing research in physics and chemistry. With a grant from the National Science Foundation, Protik Majumder, the Barclay Jermain Professor of Natural Philosophy, continues his research using semiconductor diode lasers to measure with high precision the properties of heavy-metal atoms such…

Read More...

Called to the Mountain

On Friday, oct. 11, the Williams community awoke to an email from President Maud S. Mandel, who wrote: “On a colorful Friday in fall / Nixing classes still takes some gall / But I woke up today / And said to myself: Hey / Let’s get out and go have a ball.” So began Mountain…

Read More...

Disappearance, Reappearance

The modern-day dismantling of the 9th century BCE palace of King Ashurnaspiral II began in the mid-19th century, with its excavation by British archeologists. In 2015, the palace was demolished by ISIS. Among the thousands of objects lost, removed or destroyed were 13 limestone reliefs. Two more reliefs from the palace are among the oldest…

Read More...

Profound Questions

Every week this semester, six brave students venture in pairs to my office or my home. They’re coming to participate in a tutorial I’m teaching: Memoirs, Memory and the Modern Jewish Experience. While a president’s time is usually filled with meetings, travel and events, and students’ schedules rarely lead them to my office or my…

Read More...

Comment

Letters Support for Steel Your picture and comment on U.S. Steel’s Braddock plant is not just (“Justice for All,” summer 2019). A few clarifications: The plant has 900 well-paying jobs. USS is in full compliance with all current environmental standards. USS is investing over $1.3 billion to modernize this complex, making it globally competitive. This…

Read More...

Writing From the Heart

Interview by Julia Munemo “Parenting is just a slow process in preparing your child to leave you,” says Jill Margaret Shulman ’87, author of the recently published College Admissions Cracked, a month-by-month guide aimed at helping parents through what she promises doesn’t have to be the worst moment in a family’s history. By one metric,…

Read More...