Faculty Accomplishments

Adam Howard, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Education, wrote the chapter titled "Intrinsic Aspects of Privilege" in the recently published book Anti-Oppressive Education in "Elite" Schools: Promising Practices and Cautionary Tales From the Field. In the chapter, Howard offers a definition of class privilege as a form of identity and makes a case for why we need to focus on the intrinsic aspects of privilege, using examples from his own teaching.

Assistant Professor of Geology Bess Koffman has been awarded a $16,700 grant by the Outreach Program of the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) to support the development and teaching of a week-long science course, Volcanoes and the Ocean Ecosystem, for 4th- and 5th-grade students. "Following two iterations of teaching the course to Pribilof Islands students (Bering Sea, Alaska), we will revise the lessons with student and teacher feedback and make the course materials available on the Canvas learning management system for broader use throughout Aleutian Islands, Shumagin Islands, and Alaska Peninsula schools," she explained. This project expands upon the work supported by a separate NPRB research grant to Koffman and Bigelow scientists Catherine Mitchell, Benjamin Twining, and Karen Stamieszkin.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Eric Aaron is the senior co-chair of the third annual Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence conference, held next February in Vancouver. As co-chair, Aaron reviews applicants and puts together programming for the conference. The AAAI's mission is to advance the tools, techniques, and overall state of artificial intelligence with a focus on admitting minority and under-represented students into the program. Colby is the only small liberal arts undergraduate institution to have a representative on the conference committee.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Hannen Wolfe's interactive sound exhibition Cacophonic Choir was selected for the international contest New Technological Art Award (NTAA) 2022. Out of 836 applications received from around the world, Cacophonic Choir was one of 20 works selected to be exhibited in Ghent, Belgium, this February. The exhibition aims to bring attention to the first-hand stories of sexual assault survivors.

Professor of Art Véronique Plesch contributed an essay to the Fall 2021 Maine Arts Journal. The essay, Graffiti: Captivity and Freedom, is part of the journal's partnership with the statewide initiative Freedom & Captivity, spearheaded by Catherine Bestman, the Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth Bartlett Professor of Anthropology. Plesch's essay stems from her research on graffiti, and specifically "on graffiti executed in places of passage and of confinement, in other words, in places of freedom and of captivity," she writes.

Colby's Charles A. Dana Professor of Education Adam Howard will be a visiting scholar at Purdue University's Honors College for three days in late September. Howard, an expert on social class issues in education, will give talks in classes, present a lecture at the Graduate School of Education, and deliver a keynote titled "Crisis of Privilege."

Damon Mayrl, associate professor of sociology, has coauthored a new study, "Visualizing the Expanding Space of Consecration in American Sociology, 1980-2020," which was recently published in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. "We show that the number of award-winning books and articles in sociology has continued to increase, even as membership in the discipline's flagship association, the American Sociological Association [ASA], has declined," explained Mayrl. "We suggest that these trends are related to pressures toward isomorphism within the ASA, symbolic inflation, and a deteriorating job market."

Associate Professor of Sociology Damon Mayrl has coauthored a new paper, "Religion at the Frontline," forthcoming in the journal Sociology of Religion. The study examines how religion mattered to local officials' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. "We found that overall, local officials personally and publicly complied with public health recommendations," said Mayrl, "but that religious affiliation and religious nationalism distinguished those who did from those who did not." This research was recently picked up in an article in the Washington Post.

Joanna Weidler-Lewis, visiting assistant professor of education, was the lead author of a paper published in the journal Mind, Culture, and Activity. Titled "The identity affordances of tools: an examination of visual design tool use in STEM," the article "compares how visual design tools are used during an internship for high schoolers co-researching science journalism through infographics" and encourages educators to "be mindful of, if not make explicit, properties of tools when designing for learning."

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has been invited to visit Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. Through its rich programming, Perry World House facilitates critical conversations about global policy challenges and fosters interdisciplinary research on these topics. It presents workshops and colloquia, welcomes distinguished visitors, and produces content for global audiences and policy leaders around the world. While at Penn, Robinson will contribute to the "Global Shifts: Migration, Urbanization, and Climate Change" research theme and present a series of workshops on climate diplomacy, environmental policy, and climate change adaptation.