Faculty Accomplishments

Professor of English Debra Spark penned a review of Getting Lost, a new book by Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Noble Prize in Literature. Published on the website Frenchly, Spark's review questions why Ernaux published Getting Lost after already covering the same material in her novel Simple Passion, which recounts her love affair with a Russian diplomat. "In the end, I found it tormenting (and boring) to read about Ernaux’s torment," Spark wrote. "The feminist in me does not want to see a woman of Ernaux’s accomplishments feel as she does, though, of course, I’ve seen many an accomplished woman do the same."

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has coauthored an article titled "The unequal geographies of climate finance: Climate injustice and dependency in the world system." Appearing in the journal Political Geography, the article asks whether climate finance follows the expectations of world-systems theory and reproduces relationships of dependency. It finds that it does, in many ways. However, potential avenues exist for challenging spatial dependency, contesting the unequal balance of power between states, and advancing climate justice.

Mathematician and Research Associate Jan Holly has won a Paul R. Halmos - Lester R. Ford Award from the Mathematical Association of America for her paper “What Type of Apollonian Circle Packing Will Appear?” which originally appeared in the American Mathematical Monthly, 128:7. Holly's article "stands out for its rich set of gifts: several directions for further inquiry and numerous specific questions for which the reader has been well-prepared by the author. Indeed, the author’s use of easily accessible analytic techniques, complex geometry, and visual reasoning, including definition of a key sub-packing, offer a reader both inspiration and multiple tools for further study," the MAA said. The Paul R. Halmos - Lester R. Ford Award recognizes "authors of articles of expository excellence published in The American Mathematical Monthly."

Véronique Plesch, professor of art, traveled to Belgium to present a paper Oct. 7 at the University of Liège in Belgium's international conference "Now the arts connect: Tom Phillips’ Constellations." Plesch's paper on the contemporary British artist is titled "Tom Phillips’s Paradoxes: Word and Image in A Humument."

Professor of Art Véronique Plesch wrote an essay for the catalog for the retrospective exhibition of the works of Barbara Sullivan, titled Barbara Sullivan: "Forty + Years." The show is on view through Nov. 10, 2022, at the Emery Community Arts Center at the University of Maine at Farmington.

"Community" is the theme for the 2022 fall issue of the Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly, and Professor of Art Véronique Plesch contributed an art historical piece to it titled “Creating Community.” Plesch, who serves on the journal's editorial board, also wrote "Introduction: Fall 2022: Community" for this issue.

Associate Professor of German Alicia E. Ellis was recently selected to serve on the Yale Graduate Student Alumni Board. And she was elected to the executive board of the German Studies Association (GSA). Both positions are for three-year terms. Ellis is an interdisciplinary scholar of comparative literature, with expertise in German studies, African-American studies, and Caribbean literature.

Associate Professor of Music Steven Nuss will be the featured speaker/performer at the Oct. 17 meeting of the Japan Society of Boston. His presentation is titled "Shaking the Foundations of Meaning: The logic and illogic of Zen chant and thought" and will include a group lesson in Zen Buddhist chant and meditation, led by Nuss and Colby student practitioners Samuel Xue '25 and Vincent Li '23.

Assistant Professor of History Kelly Brignac published an article titled "African Indentured Labor in Senegal and Ste. Marie, Madagascar, 1817-1830" in the journal Slavery and Abolition. Brignac's paper "explores the forced indenture, or engagement, of Africans in the French empire after the 1817 abolition of slaving," she wrote in her abstract. "French officials insisted that engagement constituted a free labour practice that liberated engagés from African slaving markets. In contrast, engagés argued that they had been traded as captives and were enslaved to the French. Overall," she concludes, "a study of engagement offers an opportunity to study definitions of slavery and the slave trade in the era of abolition,"

In this new publication, Assistant Professor of Government Nicholas Jacobs demonstrates the power of “rural resentment” for explaining electoral outcomes in contemporary American politics. He explains how voters use their “sense of place” to evaluate both major political parties and candidates down the ballot. Even after controlling for usual explanations of vote choice, such as racial resentment, support for populist candidates, and economic issues, resentment toward urban areas and urban elites motivates rural residents to vote for the Republican Party.