Faculty Accomplishments
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Assistant Professor of French Studies Flavien Falantin appeared on the Radio France podcast Le Cours de l'histoire discussing a forthcoming book that he coedited with Céline Hromadova, Bonjour tristesse 1954-2024. The book is on the iconic French writer Françoise Sagan, best known for her debut novel Bonjour tristesse (Hello Sadness), which caused a sensation both in France and internationally when it was first published 70 years ago. The book celebrates this significant anniversary as well as the 20th anniversary of Sagan's passing. Falantin also discussed his last monograph, Faut-il brûler Sagan? [Must We Burn Sagan?], published in 2023. Radio France is akin to the BBC or NPR and holds an essential place in the French cultural landscape.
Professor of Mathematics Scott Taylor wrote an essay titled "The mystic and the mathematician: What the towering 20th-century thinkers Simone and André Weil can teach today’s math educators" published by the academic news organization The Conversation. "André achieved renown as a mathematician; Simone was a formidable philosopher and mystic. ... Both wrestled with the best way to teach math. Their insights and contradictions point to the fundamental role that mathematics and mathematics education play in human life and culture," Taylor wrote in his essay.
Ellerton M. and Edith K. Jetté Professor of Art Tanya Sheehan has published a major research article on the 11 paintings that artist Jacob Lawrence created in 1949-50, when he was treated for anxiety and depression at Hillside Hospital in Queens. Her article, “'A Different Kind of Struggle': Jacob Lawrence’s Hospital Series and the Politics of Art as Therapy," appears in the June 2024 issue of The Art Bulletin, the College Art Association’s flagship journal, which features on its cover a painting from Lawrence’s Hospital series titled In the Garden (1950, North Carolina Museum of Art). At midcentury, critics praised the Hospital series for its similarities to the asylum art of Van Gogh and its apparent lack of interest in Black struggles. Sheehan’s reinterpretation of Lawrence’s work shows, however, that he had much to say about the social and psychological conditions of African Americans in picturing the hospital’s predominantly white patients. Entering into conversation with Hillside’s clinical practices, his paintings offer powerful statements about both the aesthetics and politics of art as therapy.
Associate Professor of Sociology Damon Mayrl has won two awards for his article "The Funk of White Souls: Toward a Du Boisian Theory of the White Church," published in the journal Sociology of Religion in 2023. The honors include the Distinguished Article Award from the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the Distinguished Article Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on the Sociology of Religion.
Damon Mayrl, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, co-edited a newly published volume titled After Positivism: New Approaches to Comparison in Historical Sociology. The books brings together a collection of essays attempting to rethink the purpose and possibilities of the comparative method in historical sociology. Mayrl and his coeditor were recent guests on the New Books Network podcast discussing the volume.
Ghada Gherwash, assistant professor of writing and director of the Farnham Writers' Center, has been honored with the 2024-25 Martinson Innovation Award from the Small Liberal Arts College-Writing Program Administrators. Chosen from an exceptionally competitive pool, Gherwash's initiative, “On Linguistic Justice in the Writing Center: A Genesis Story,” shows how "meaningful and sustainable linguistic justice efforts can grow from grassroots efforts to cross-campus conversations—fostering, in documented ways, a more inclusive learning environment," according to the SLAC-WPA press release.
Professor of Art Véronique Plesch gave a talk for the South Solon Historical Society at its South Solon Meeting House on Aug. 13, 2024. She spoke to a group of more than 50 people on the building, its history, and the mid-century frescoes it houses. Plesch had frequent occasions to mention the work of the students in the Digital Lab AR397A Tradition and Innovation in Mid-Century Frescoes: The South Solon Meeting House that she taught in the fall semester 2022 and the website the students created.
Assistant Professor of Russian Melissa Miller collaborated with Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Ashton Wesner on a post in 4S Backchannels, a blog for the Society for the Social Studies of Science. Titled "Keywords in the Critical Medical Humanities: A Model for Research and Teaching," the post covered Colby's Public Humanistic Inquiry Lab (PHIL) 2024 conference that "explored how research and teaching in the liberal arts can help navigate some of medicine’s thorniest ethical dilemmas." Miller was the post's author and a conference participant while Wesner, 4S Backchannels editor, invited the PHIL to contribute to the report.
National Geographic interviewed Tanya Sheehan, the Ellerton M. and Edith K. Jetté Professor of Art, for its article "These manipulated photos are the original political deepfakes." Sheehan, an art historian, commented on early photo-editing techniques, dating back to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. “In the darkroom, [photographers] had lots of control over framing and the relative exposure of an image,” often altering photographs to shape a certain truth. They also improved people's appearance. “People who frequented photographic studios expected their portraits to show their ‘best selves,’ and retouching was seen as crucial to that goal,” Sheehan pointed out.
On July 11, 2024, Professor of Art Véronique Plesch spoke at the Waterville Historical Society on “Where the Dead Reside: Burials and Cemeteries in History." Motivated by the current project of a trail through Waterville’s Pine Grove Cemetery, the illustrated talk aimed at providing historical context. Surveying millennia of funerary practices, from the ancient Egyptians through today, the lecture stopped at some salient moments in history and considered what we can learn from cemeteries. The talk is available on YouTube: first half here, second half, here.