Faculty Accomplishments

A new book by Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Tizoc Chavez has been named a co-winner of the American Political Science Association Foreign Policy Section's Best Book Award, which recognizes outstanding scholarly monographs related to foreign policy. His book, The Diplomatic Presidency: American Foreign Policy from FDR to George H.W. Bush (University Press of Kansas, 2022), was selected based on criteria such as importance of topic, novel theory, novel research, innovative research methods, effective execution of research methods, and overall excellence.

Assistant Professor of Art Amanda Lilleston and Torsten Brinkma '22 have works included in a new exhibition, In the Moment, at Cove Street Arts in Portland, Maine. "With a lively mix of contemporary artists, In The Moment captures meaningful relationships between seemingly disparate disciplines: art and sport," according to the gallery's website. Lilleston, who has three pieces in the show, creates artwork that depicts an evolving relationship with human anatomy, physiology, and ecology. Brinkema, who also has three pieces on display, is a sculptor and also creates with film and photography. The show runs October 12-December 2, 2023  

Printmaker and Assistant Professor of Art Amanda Lilleston has a show titled deep field at the Zillman Art Museum at the University of Maine in Bangor. Maine-based artist Lilleston "explores biological narratives through woodcut printing and collage in her exhibition deep field. The prints highlight the concept of transformation, depicted in burgeoning colors of flora," according to the museum's website. 

For the fall issue of the Maine Arts Journal, Professor of Art Véronique Plesch wrote the introduction as well as her "Art Historical Musings" column with an essay titled "Art Matter." Plesch also did an interview with photographer Rosamond Purcell and compiled and introduced texts by art critic Lucy Lippard on the notion of "Dematerialization in Art." Colby’s participation in this issue is larger than ever: alumni Jim Condron '92 and Duncan Hewitt ’71 and Colby’s new Assistant Professor of Digital Media Takahiro Suzuki contributed essays.

Takahiro Suzuki, Colby's new assistant professor of art, digital media, had his work screened at the Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) Festival, an artist-run event at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Suzuki's eight-minute film, electric moonlight & the language within the leaves, is "a modern re-telling of the Japanese tale of the bamboo cutter and the moon princess" and was included in the festival's program titled Decomposition. He also has two upcoming screenings of the same work in October at ULTRAcinema in Mexico and Antimatter Media Art Festival in British Columbia.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has published an article titled "Vulnerability-Based Allocations in Loss and Damage Finance" in the journal Nature Climate Change. Based on a review of past debates relating to the identification of priority beneficiaries of international adaptation finance, the article cautions against the adoption of quantitative vulnerability indicators as this will not fully depoliticize allocation decisions, given the power dynamics between and among contributor and beneficiary countries.

Professor of Mathematics Scott Taylor has a new book out. Introduction to Mathematics: Number, Space, and Structure (American Mathematical Society, 2023) is a textbook for courses (such as Colby's Mathematical Reasoning) that teach students to read, write, and construct mathematical proofs and logical arguments. In the book, "concepts are illustrated using both geometric and number examples, while frequent analogies and applications help build intuition and context in the humanities, arts, and sciences," according to the publisher.  It is "designed to foster the mental flexibility and rigorous thinking needed for advanced mathematics ... and the main prerequisite is the willingness to engage in a new challenge."

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has coauthored an article titled "(Un)just post-disaster mobilities in small island developing states: Revisiting the patterns and outcomes of three major environmental disasters in the Caribbean." Published in the journal International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, the article qualitatively contextualizes the structural factors that affected mobilities following the eruption of the Soufriére Hills volcano in Montserrat in 1995, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and the passage of Hurricane Irma across Barbuda in 2017. It calls for (1) more appropriately designed insurance products, (2) debt forgiveness to help increase fiscal space for response and recovery, and (3) the use of legal channels to make governments liable for unjust mobilities. Sonia Griffen '23 is the lead author. Her work was funded by the F. Russell Cole Student Research Fellowship and the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment.

Assistant Professor of Government Nicholas Jacobs authored the recently published paper "Seeing Red and Blue: Assessing How Americans Understand Geographic Polarization, Secession, and the Value of Federalism."  In the first scholarly assessment of American’s contemporary views toward secession, Jacobs explores the growing divide between “red” and “blue” states, highlighting the increasing partisan polarization at the national level. Despite heightened talk of secession, the study contends that these sentiments might be more of an expressive partisanship driven by the growing concern over inter-state differences and the legitimacy of federalism, rather than an actionable drive toward separatism or civil war.

Professor of Art Véronique Plesch participated in the 13th Conference of the International Association of Word and Image Studies “Sedimentation: Towards and Archaeology of Word and Image” that took place August 28-September 1 at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She organized and chaired a session with Augustto Cipriani (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte) on “Graffiti as Sedimentation / Graffiti como sedimentação” and presented a paper on “Naming and Seeing Graffiti.” She also organized and chaired a session with Catriona MacLeod (University of Chicago) on “Cutting and Pasting: New Approaches to Collage / Couper et coller : nouvelles approches sur le collage.” Jointly with MacLeod, she presented a paper titled “Prehistories of Collage.” In 2018–19, Augustto Cipriani spent six months at Colby working on his Ph.D. dissertation, which he defended in November 2021 with Plesch as the outside member of the committee.