External Posts
James M. Gillespie Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Tanya Sheehan has been awarded two top research fellowships in art history in 2026-27 to complete her current book project, After Harlem Hospital: Modern Medicine and African American Art. As a Clark Fellow, Sheehan was in residence for five weeks in the summer of 2026 at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. Beginning in December 2026, she will be in residence over three months at the Smithsonian Institution, as the William H. Truettner Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Sheehan’s After Harlem Hospital explores the subjects of medicine and public health in 20th-century art by African Americans. The book is forthcoming from Yale University Press.
Bess Welden, senior lecturer of performance, theater, and dance, was a guest on the EOLPodcast sponsored by the End of Life University. Welden was joined by Laura Cleminson, an end-of-life doula and the founder of Pre-Dead Social Club. Together, they have developed the Death Wings Project and Toolkit to invite people to come together in community and foster open conversations about loss and grief. On the podcast, which aired Aug. 31, 2026, they shared how art-making and storytelling are used in their workshops to help people navigate loss together through creativity.
James R. Fleming, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, Emeritus, will appear on the syndicated radio show Coast to Coast AM to discuss his book Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control on Sept. 16 at midnight Pacific time. He is also an invited speaker at the conference La Quéte de l’Eau Atmosphérique, Historical, philosophical, theological, political, and legal issues at the Collège de France in Paris Oct., 8-9. His presentation is titled "Promises and controversies of weather and climate control projects: The checkered history of atmospheric mastery.”
An essay titled “Josefina Auslender’s Bodies of Evidence” by Véronique Plesch, the Ellerton M. and Edith K. Jetté Professor of Art, is included in the newly published book Josefina Auslender: Drawing Myself Free (edited by Cassandra Mesick Braun, 73–81. Brunswick, Maine, and New York: Bowdoin College Museum of Art in association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., 2026). Plesch's piece focuses on Los Cuerpos (The Bodies), a haunting series of graphite drawings created during Argentina’s "Dirty War" (1976–1983). Grounded in Freudian psychoanalysis and Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, the essay examines how these bound, faceless figures emerged as an involuntary visual response to state-sanctioned violence and enforced disappearances (desaparecidos). Contextualizing Auslender alongside artists who bear witness to political trauma, she analyzed the series as a cathartic processing of trauma, a reclamation of corporeal truth (habeas corpus), and a visual counterpart to the maternal activism of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
The Portland Press Herald reported on Colby’s hire of Adrienne Shibles, one of Maine’s most successful basketball coaches, to lead the women’s program. Shibles started her coaching career at Colby, went on to record the most victories in Bowdoin women's basketball history, served as head coach at Dartmouth and Swarthmore, and is now returning to Colby, where it all began.
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Gail Carlson will be at the Blue Hill Public Library Sept. 3 to lead a discussion on "Human Health and the Climate Crisis," a theme selected by the Brooklin Climate Response Committee. Carlson will discuss “how climate change impacts public health, what is at stake, and how to take action,” according to the Penobscot Bay Press. She is the author of Human Health and the Climate Crisis, published in 2022, and directs the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment at Colby.
Véronique Plesch, the Ellerton M. and Edith K. Jetté Professor of Art, participated in the 14th Conference of the International Association of Word and Image Studies ("Word, Image and Social Dynamics"), held Aug. 24–26, 2026, in Amsterdam and Utrecht, The Netherlands. She presented a paper titled “The Shape of Words: Ben Shahn’s Illustrated Books,” which draws on eight book maquettes featuring original art and calligraphy by Ben Shahn in the collection of the Colby College Museum of Art. In the fall of 2024, Plesch taught a course on these works in a Humanities Lab at Colby (see the student-created website). Additionally, she participated in a roundtable at the conference on “Pedagogies of Word and Image,” presenting a paper titled “Teaching Art History in the Age of AI."
Inside Higher Ed interviewed sociology professor Neil Gross about his new book, What Happened to College? In the Q&A, Gross discussed his research on how students' choices in roommates, social clubs, and majors contribute to political polarization on campus, offering insights on how higher education institutions can actively counter ideological self-isolation.
Colby College was listed as part of Town & Country’s annual round-up of premier alternative Ivies. The list captures insights into schools offering top-notch faculty, research, and strong career placement opportunities.
Fortune magazine interviewed David Watts, director of the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, on Colby’s unique approach to educating students on the risks and value of AI. Watts highlighted that “the future of technology in education can no longer be confined to the four walls of the computer science building.”