Faculty Accomplishments

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.

Assistant Professor of Education Lauren Yoshizawa published a paper titled "The Imposition of Instrumental Research Use: How School and District Practitioners Enact Their State’s Evidence Requirements" in the American Educational Research Journal. "The Every Student Succeeds Act builds on prior efforts to bridge the gap between research and practice through the imposition of evidence requirements. This article presents findings from a small-scale micro-process study of three districts in one state during their first year of implementing those requirements," Yoshizawa writes in her abstract.

Professor of Philosophy Lydia Moland wrote a piece published in The American Scholar titled "Freedom Tales" about activist and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. In addition to writing novels, Child wrote books for children to help them understand America's racial transgressions. "Her stories guaranteed young readers that honesty, ingenuity, and integrity were their birthright, characteristic of every American from the local farmer to George Washington," Moland wrote. "The overall message was clear: American children should treasure the ideals of freedom and equality they had inherited and pass them on."

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has published an article titled "Climate justice for small island developing states: Identifying appropriate international financing mechanisms for loss and damage." Appearing in the journal Climate Policy, the article qualitatively analyzes the appropriateness of five of the international financial mechanisms that scholars have argued should be urgently considered under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: levies on (1) airline travel, (2) fossil fuel extraction, (3) greenhouse gas emissions, (4) bunker fuel usage, and (5) financial transactions. The results indicate that, of the five mechanisms, levies on airline travel and fossil fuel extraction would most appropriately account for and meet the needs of small island developing states from a climate justice perspective. Matthew Lai '22 is the first author. Emmanuel Salas '21, William Thao '22, and Anna Shorb '22 are the other coauthors.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has published a paper titled "The dynamics of institutional arrangements for climate change adaptation in small island developing states in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans." Appearing in the journal Sustainability Science, the paper uses semi-structured interview data to construct "networks of action situations." It finds that there are a few strategic actors involved in multiple, mutually reinforcing, and sometimes conflicting arrangements, which are simultaneously being shaped and reshaped at different scales. It also finds varying patterns of power, politics, and participation that act as both drivers of and barriers to adaptation in these countries. D'Arcy Carlson '21 is a coauthor.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has published an article titled "We are a people": Sovereignty and disposability in the context of Puerto Rico’s post-Hurricane Maria experience." Appearing in the Geographical Journal, the article highlights the impact of historically enduring colonial structures of non-sovereignty on post-hurricane response and recovery in the Caribbean and argues that Puerto Rico’s status as a Commonwealth of the United States influenced the nature and outcome of the U.S. Federal Government’s response to Hurricane Maria in 2017. Tilly Peck '22 is a coauthor.

Obelisks, the latest book by Professor of Art Gary Green and Associate Professor of Italian Gianluca Rizzo, was reviewed in PhotoBook Journal. "In a very real sense Obelisks is indeed a guidebook. But Green and his collaborator, poet Gianluca Rizzo, perform a deft shift in this book by foregrounding not only questions of space, but questions of time as well," reviewer Steve Harps writes of the 4 ½” x 9” softcover book that feels like a guidebook in his hand.