Media Coverage

Loren McClenachan was quoted in the National Geographic article titled "The silent decline of the platypus, Australia’s beloved oddity." The decline was noted in a study that made use of historical data, which is McClenachan's specialty. "For species like platypus, whose population declines happened before ecologists started studying them, these types of historical observations are extremely valuable,” said McCleanchan, Colby's Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies.

Gary Green, associate professor of art, had his work chosen for JRNL NO. 2, published by Fotofilmic, a gallery and publisher in Vancouver. Green's work was juried by U.K. photo book publishers Stanley/Barker and will be included in Fotofilmic's next photography publication, which will include 11 other artists from all over the world.

Jim Condron '92, a sculptor and artist from Baltimore, has a new exhibition at Wilson College library's Sue Davison Cooley Gallery opening Sept. 4. Titled You Never Wash it Off Completely, the exhibit uses relics and artifacts from the college that Condron collected with the help of "Wilson archivists, professors, and students to construct compelling art installations from historic artifacts," according to a press release from the college. “A typical archives exhibit has a literal feeling with traditional objects arranged with descriptive labels, but in this art installation, Condron magnificently captures both the feeling of belongingness, as well as the fleeting nature of each individual’s experience," said Amy Ensley, director of Wilson's Hankey Center for the History of Women’s Education. "This is about shared memories across time and the celebration of a community that endures.” The exhibition was reviewed by ArtDaily.com, which said, "Each work of art is titled with a textual fragment from literature that intends to add to the piece’s rhetoric rather than naming or defining it. Titles are applied to the works the same way Condron assembles materials and are appropriated from literature by an array of great authors such as Toni Morrison, Ray Bradbury, Don DeLillo, and others."

Jim Condron '92, a sculptor and artist from Baltimore, has a new exhibition at Wilson College library's Sue Davison Cooley Gallery opening Sept. 4. Titled You Never Wash it Off Completely, the exhibit uses relics and artifacts from the college that Condron collected with the help of "Wilson archivists, professors, and students to construct compelling art installations from historic artifacts," according to a press release from the college. “A typical archives exhibit has a literal feeling with traditional objects arranged with descriptive labels, but in this art installation, Condron magnificently captures both the feeling of belongingness, as well as the fleeting nature of each individual’s experience," said Amy Ensley, director of Wilson's Hankey Center for the History of Women’s Education. "This is about shared memories across time and the celebration of a community that endures.” The exhibition was reviewed by ArtDaily.com, which said, "Each work of art is titled with a textual fragment from literature that intends to add to the piece’s rhetoric rather than naming or defining it. Titles are applied to the works the same way Condron assembles materials and are appropriated from literature by an array of great authors such as Toni Morrison, Ray Bradbury, Don DeLillo, and others."

The French newspaper Le Monde interviewed Raffael Scheck, Katz Distinguished Teaching Professor of History, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Paris. The interview, conducted in French, asked Scheck the question: why were there no black soldiers in the Free French division that liberated Paris? Scheck answered "that this division, which had become an armored division, was 'whitened' at the behest of the United States because American generals did not think that black French soldiers (who had been very prominent in the Free French armies in the beginning) could drive tanks. Moreover, the British authorities did not want any more black soldiers on their territory because they argued that there had been many incidents with black GIs," Scheck reported via email. Watch the interview here.

L. Sandy Maisel, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, gave comments on the FOX news story titled "Trump says Jewish Americans who vote Democrat show 'lack of knowledge' or 'complete disloyalty'," which aired Aug. 23. Maisel's comments begin at 1:30 seconds in the two-minute Associated Press story.

The startup software company Eariously, co-founded by Nick Rimsa '13, has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Maine Technology Institute. The grant will allow Rimsa to "continue working with software design and development specialists to bring its product to market," the Central Maine Growth Council reported. Eariously software converts digital text—from a website, a PDF, email, etc.—into audio that can be listened to on a laptop or phone. "Maine’s entrepreneurship leaders are ensuring that software startups see success by designing for our success. We’re very happy to be making Eariously here,” Rimsa said of his Waterville-based company. Mainebiz also shared the story.  

Raffael Scheck, the Audrey Wade Hittinger Katz Distinguished Teaching Professor of History, was interviewed for BBC Newsday on Aug. 15, which marked the 75th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, an event that "paved the way for the Allied invasion of southern France during World War Two." In the four-minute interview, Scheck told the BBC that the "units landing in August 1944 were mostly from North Africa and also from the west and central African colonies of France." Scheck, an expert on French Black African soldiers in World War II, said they black soldiers “took part in the liberation of the key ports of Toulon and Marseille.”  

The final beam for the new athletic center was hoisted into place Aug. 6, completing the skeleton of the building, reports the Morning Sentinel. "It’s the largest single project in the college’s history, according to Colby President David A. Greene," the Sentinel said. "In April 2017, Greene said the athletic complex was one of two things, the other being the arts, that would draw people to Waterville and sustain the revitalization of the city that the college and community had embarked upon."

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, was quoted in the article "From New York to Alabama, blacks worshipped in own spaces before slavery’s end" in Religion News Service Aug. 1. The article looks at the buildings and the religious practices used by blacks during and after slavery. “African Americans did not become Christian by default but they came out of slavery with a Christianity that was critical of the people who enslaved them,” Gilkes said in the article. “All you have to do is look at the spirituals to see where African Americans were connecting with the Bible in spite of the fact that you had white missionaries who had a truncated Bible that they were sharing with slaves because they didn’t want them to know about Moses,” she said.