Faculty Accomplishments

Rabbi Rachel Isaacs was a guest on Shmuel "Rosner’s Torah Talk" on the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Isaacs discussed Shavuot and "the connection between harvest and Torah, the burden of Torah, the Jewish religion and Jewish People, and growing potatoes and cucumbers," the website reports.

Associate Professor of Sociology Damon W. Mayrl coauthored a study, "What Do Historical Sociologists Do All Day? Analytic Architectures in Historical Sociology," recently published in one of the top journals for sociology, American Journal of Sociology. Mayrl and Assistant Professor Nicholas Hoover Wilson of Stony Brook University used quantitative and qualitative techniques to analyze 37 award-winning publications in historical sociology between 1995 and 2015. "We show that historical sociology comprises no fewer than four distinct analytic architectures that rely on different kinds of sources and use evidence and theory in different ways," according to the paper's abstract. "We find suggestive evidence that the recognition of these different architectures has varied over time, such that award-winning works of historical sociology increasingly use architectures that favor the heavier use of primary sources and/or constructive theoretical syntheses. These findings suggest that analytic architectures are a consequential facet of the practice of social research that may yield important insights into dynamics of scholarly recognition, consecration, and methodological pluralism across the social sciences."

Assistant Professor of Biology Suegene Noh coauthored a paper recently published in the journal PeerJ titled "Endosymbiotic adaptations in three new bacterial species associated with Dictyostelium discoideum: Paraburkholderia agricolaris sp. nov., Paraburkholderia hayleyella sp. nov., and Paraburkholderia bonniea sp. Nov.” Noh and her colleagues had discovered over the years that there are three species of bacteria in the genus Burkholderia that are found in close association with the amoeba (and biomedical model organism) Dictyostelium discoideum. In this paper, we describe the morphological and physiological characteristics of each of these species and show through genome comparisons and molecular phylogenies that they are distinct from other known Burkholderia species. Therefore, Noh said, they deserve new species status, and the researchers formally named them Burkholderia agricolaris, Burkholderia hayleyella, and Burkholderia bonniea.   

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has published a paper in the well-respected journal Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Climate Change. In reviewing 28 years of literature on climate change adaptation in small islands, Robinson finds that most island research has been published by scholars in the developed world. She calls for more island research from island scholars, and for such studies to be published in top-tier, high impact-factor journals as a way of legitimizing "island studies." This, she argues, would help legitimize islands as early indicators of common global challenges.

Colby students in the Humanities Lab AR393 Museum Practicum – The L.C. Bates Museum: History and Collections, taught by Professor Véronique Plesch, have created a new website for the L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley, Maine. Click here to learn about the history of the museum, take a virtual tour, access informative learning materials, and read research papers on different aspects of the museum and its collections. The L.C. Bates Summer Exhibition 2020, Maine Waters and its Inhabitants, curated by Colby students Lola Collins ’20 and Sabina Garibovic ’22 under the supervision of Plesch, is also available on the website, accessed here. Discover 37 works by 21 artists who depict Maine’s aquatic world and its denizens, whether they live in the water, on it, or near it.

A book published in 1985 by Tom Tietenberg, Colby's Mitchell Family Professor of Economics, Emeritus, was given the Publication of Enduring Quality Award by the Association of Environmental Economists. Tietemnberg's book, Emissions Trading: An Exercise in Reforming Pollution Policy, "was the first comprehensive review of large-scale attempts to replace command and control regulation with incentive-based environmental regulation under the Clean Air Act," according to a citation from the association.  

Two poems by Professor of English and Creative Writing Adrian Blevins are included in the Spring 2020 issue of Washington Square Review. The poems, "Northern Status Anxiety" and "Overall Status" are from Blevins's manuscript-in-progress, Status Pending.

Assistant Professor of Spanish Bretton White has a new book out: Staging Discomfort: Performance and Queerness in Contemporary Cuba (University Press Florida, June 2020). "Following the 1959 revolution, nonconformists were monitored and reported by local committees and punished or reformed by the government. Censorship was rampant, and Cuban art suffered as the state tried to control the national message. Through the lens of queer theory, White explores how the body has been central to the state’s fear-based marginalization of gay life and looks at the ways these theatrical performances defuse that fear," according to UPF's website.

Professor of History Paul Josephson has a new book out titled Chicken: A History from Farmyard to Factory (Polity, June 2020) that looks at the history of the "most plentifully eaten and popular animal protein in the world." The book tells the story of "the chicken's rise [that] involves a whole host of factors; from art, to nineteenth-century migration patterns to cold-war geopolitics" and how the chicken transformed from a "backyard scratcher to hyper-efficient industrial meat-product." Josephson also discusses the endearing qualities of chickens and shows that "the chicken’s relationship to humanity runs deep; by treating these animals as mere food products, we become less than human."  

Associate Professor of Biology Dave Angelini has been named to the executive committee of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), the largest and most prestigious professional association of its kind. Angelini will serve as chair of the Division of Evolutionary Developmental Biology starting in January 2021. An expert in evolutionary developmental biology (EvoDevo), Angelini said he was honored to be asked to join the society. His appointment comes on the heels of a four-year position as secretary of the Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology. The SICB, founded in 1902, encourages interdisciplinary cooperative research that integrates across various aspects of biology, promoting new models and methodologies to enhance research and education, Angelini said.  As chair, Angelini will advocate for other EvoDevo professionals, especially students and early-career researchers and professors. “I’m going to be very interested in undergraduate involvement with the society,” Angelini said. He would like to invite the SICB to provide recommendations around the undergraduate curriculum in the field of evolutionary developmental biology, a subject not often included in the undergraduate curriculum. “But I teach it at Colby,” Angelini said, “and I’d just love to give some serious thought to how the field can be represented and ways to make that happen and resources to provide to support people who want to do it.” [caption id="attachment_43617" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Associate Professor of Biology Dave Angelini, right, in the field conducting research on bumblebees. Angelini has been elected to the executive committee of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.[/caption]   Supporting students and junior members of the field is key to the society’s mission. “A lot of what we do revolves around trying to provide opportunities for people, especially from underrepresented parts of the world, Latin America, especially, to have a forum where they can present their work and get the kind of recognition amidst the larger scientific community that they deserve,” he said. Angelini should know. As a student, he attended SICB meetings himself and found them important. ”They were very formative, very important experiences,” he said. ”So to the extent that I can provide that for other new people in the field, that's what I want to do.” These opportunities include speaking at conferences, serving within the society, and attending society meetings, especially critical for students to present their work and expand their networks. Other opportunities exist through the society’s professional journals and with its robust online presence. Among Angelini’s goals when he becomes chair is to expand the geographic inclusivity and education of the division, to make global connections and learn more broadly about what’s happening in the field. He also hopes to increase the society’s educational outreach to the general public and K-12 schools, using as a model his own citizen science project, Bugs in our Backyard. Angelini believes strongly in the importance of having an understanding of the natural world, especially during this pandemic with so many people experiencing nature deprivation. “The natural world has impacts on our way of life, whether we choose to recognize that or not,” he said. “And I think as citizens it's really important for people to understand the role that biology plays in their lives, the impact that it can have on their lives.”