External Posts

Robert A. Gastaldo, the Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology, Emeritus, has published a paper 10 years in the making in the Geological Society of America Bulletin. Titled "A tale of two Tweefonteins: What physical correlation, geochronology, magnetic polarity stratigraphy, and palynology reveal about the end-Permian terrestrial extinction paradigm in South Africa," the paper offers results to settle the debate of whether or not there were pre-extinction or post-extinction unique groups of animals during the end-Permian extinction. Gastaldo's interdisciplinary team provides several sets of independent evidence demonstrating that there was no extinction of land animals as widely held in the literature. This finding has implications for modeling how terrestrial animals and plants might respond to our current climate challenges of rising temperatures and increasing C02 levels. That means, Gastaldo said, that "we no longer have a model for how life on land, particularly the animals, responded to changing climates and conditions on Earth during what has been called the 'Mother of Mass Extinction' events."  The paper is the culmination of 10 years of research that began with several undergraduate projects in a locality called Tweefontein (two springs) in South Africa's Karoo Basin. The geology majors who first worked on these rocks were Mduduzi Langwenya '14, Kody Spencer '14J, and Tara Chizinski '14. Subsequent to their graduation, Kathy Trafton '16, Jiawen Li '16, Takuto Sasijama '16, along with Sam Sinkler '18 and Kaci Kus '18, were instrumental in both field and laboratory studies, several of which resulted in honors projects and coauthored publications.  

Associate Professor of Sociology Damon Mayrl and Dahlia Venny '22 have coauthored a new paper, "The dejudicialization of religious freedom?" published in Social Compass. The study "conceptualizes the dejudicialization of religious freedom (DRF) in institutionalist terms, examines the structural forces that have facilitated JRF [judicialization of religious freedom], and considers whether and how they may be waning in recent years," according to its abstract.

As president of the Maine Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German, Associate Professor of German Arne Koch was invited to the Maine Department of Education's virtual signing ceremony to celebrate a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Goethe-Institut Boston. Koch expressed enthusiasm for the MOU, which will promote German language and cultural education in Maine.  The event was covered by Maine's Education Department's newsroom.

Master Drummer Messan Jordan Benissan, applied music instructor in African drumming and director of the African Drumming Ensemble, was featured in a video on Maine Public's "Assignment: Maine" series. Originally from Togo, West Africa, Benissan has been teaching drumming at Colby since 1999. He's also a restauranteur, operating Me Lon Togo Bistro in Camden.

An Art Daily article reported on the opening of the new exhibition at the Colby College Museum of Art, Inside Out: The Prints of Mary Cassatt. The show "highlights Cassatt’s creative process and her fearless experimentation," Art Daily said, and includes "a selection of rare trial proofs that document her first forays into printmaking. Cassatt’s trial proofs and early-state impressions reveal her step-by-step process. As viewers look at them, they’ll see her learning and taking risks, fearlessly innovating and experimenting, and in doing so creating some of her most intimate and captivating works of art." The exhibition remains on view through Nov. 1, 2021.

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, provided commentary to the Portland Press Herald on the significance of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday. Gilkes said the holiday will "generate conversation about African American history and the discovery that it is a lot more complex than we realize."

Patrice Franko, the Grossman Professor of Economics and Director of Global Studies Program, shared her insights with the Globe and Mail for an article about the drop in the number of Canadian tourists traveling to New England and the connection between Maine and Canada. “We share histories,” she noted, “[and] in a way, that border was not a border.”

A video of Visiting Assistant Professor of English Adam Giannelli reading his poem "Stutter" was included in Poets & Writers. A recent winner of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry, Giannelli is working on a poetry book focused solely on stuttering.

Jacob Young '20, Martha Arterberry, the Clara C. Piper Professor of Psychology, and Joshua Martin, assistant professor of biology, have coauthored a new paper, "Contrasting Electroencephalography-Derived Entropy and Neural Oscillations With Highly Skilled Meditators." Published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience-Cognitive Neuroscience, the study "examined the neurophysiological responses by highly skilled meditators while meditating and while engaging in a mind-wandering task."

Associate Professor of Psychology Erin Sheets and Nathan Huebschmann ’19 have coauthored a new study, "Don’t Fear Conflict: Relationship Stress Beliefs in Friend, Familial, and Romantic Relationships," published in Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research. "Believing that stress can have positive effects (i.e., having a stressis-enhancing mindset) has been shown to mitigate the negative impact of stressful experiences on mental health," stated the paper's abstract. "Relationship strain seems to particularly affect the well-being of those who believe that conflict is debilitating rather than believing that conflict can be productive."