External Posts

A short story by Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing Sarah Braunstein is included in the forthcoming Best American Short Stories 2025 collection. The collection will feature Braunstein's story "Abject Naturalism," which previously appeared in The New Yorker. The Best American Short Stories 2025 is edited by Celeste Ng and published by HarperCollins. It will be available at the end of October 2025.

Artdaily, which covers a wide range of art news and has an international reach, included Colby's announcement on the unveiling of a monumental sculpture, the first major piece of a promised gift to the College from Rob Radloff and Ann Beha, D.F.A. ’24.

Gianluca Rizzo, the Paul D. and Marilyn Paganucci Associate Professor of Italian Language and Literature, won the Elio Pagliarani National Prize for Poetry from the Elio Pagliarani Literary Association. Rizzo was honored with the prize in published work section for his "Testamentum porcelli." The awards ceremony took place in the Cinema Hall of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and honors Elio Pagliarani, an Italian poet and literary critic for whom the prize is named.

Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Computer Science Stacy Doore and James M. Gillespie Professor of Art Véronique Plesch participated in the panel “Curating Access: Expert-AI Descriptions for Blind and Low Vision Museum Visitors” at the AI and the Liberal Arts Symposium that took place at Connecticut College Oct. 17–19, 2025. Doore and Plesch reported on the research they have been conducting for the past year developing multimodal AI tools to automate accessible artwork descriptions to support blind and low vision museum visitors. Two colleagues from Amherst College, Miloslava Hruba (study room manager and European print specialist, Mead Art Museum) and Douglas Hall (IT research computing specialist) also reported on their research on the topic.

Assistant Professor of Classics Kassandra Miller has won the Barbara McManus Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the Women’s Classical Caucus. The award recognizes Miller's article "Intentional Menstrual Suppression in Imperial Rome,” which originally appeared in the Journal of Roman Studies (JRS 114, 2024: 27– 59). Critieria for the Barbara McManus Award include work that reframes a debate, changes the direction of research, asks entirely new questions, and applies a theory or methodology in a new way.

This past week, Dan Shea, the Marson-Muller-McNulty Professor of Government, was a special guest on NPR’s On Point, where he discussed the Maine senate race. Additionally, Nick Jacobs, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Associate Professor of American Government, was interviewed about young rural voters for an in-depth podcast segment, which also appeared on All Things Considered.

Michael Burke, professor of English and creative writing, emeritus, published an essay in the journal Rustica, Issue 4. In his essay, "A Kind of Magical Thinking," Burke tells the story of the four vehicles that have been stolen from him, "which seems like more than my fair share," he said.

Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Ashton Wesner coauthored a paper out in the journal Education Sciences for its special issue "Rethinking Engineering Education." Wesner's open-access article "Educating Socially Responsible Engineers Through Critical Community-Engaged Pedagogy" investigates how social justice course content and community-engaged learning experiences can change engineering student attitudes toward civic engagement and social responsibility. The authors' interviews and focus groups showed that engagement with community-led projects during coursework were important factors in both increasing students' interest in engineering and potentially retaining underrepresented students in engineering higher education.

For important national segments, both PBS NewsHour and CNN interviewed Visiting Professor Dr. Nirav Shah about the CDC's response to the government shutdown, including the wave of firings and rehirings.

The South China Morning Post interviewed Assistant Professor of Government Gloria Xiong for a major article that analyzed the NBA’s rise, fall, and return to China. Xiong’s expertise is economic statecraft in U.S.-China relations.