Page 140 of 178
A June 8 Washington Post article cited research by Jim Fleming, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society. The article, titled "New bill would prohibit the president from nuking a hurricane," mentioned Fleming's book “Fixing the Sky: The checkered history of weather and climate control," and says that the idea of "nuking the weather into submission is nothing new," to which Fleming added, "people have been discussing the possibility for almost as long as nuclear weapons have existed."
The 17-year career of Colby Museum of Art's Sharon Corwin, the Carolyn Muzzy Director and Chief Curator, was heralded in the Portland Press Herald article "Outgoing director elevated Colby museum into a new league." As Corwin prepares to leave the museum at the end of June to become president and CEO of the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago, her legacy at the Colby Museum includes doubling the size of the collection and the museum's expansion. Finding a replacement for Corwin is made easier because of her leadership, which has led to the museum becoming a top-tier institution. "Sharon has great standing in her field. We love her at Colby, but she is beloved in the art world, and that doesn’t hurt when you are looking for a new director,” President David Greene told the Press Herald. “Sometimes I dread a job search. This one, as much I dreaded losing Sharon, I was looking forward to this search because I knew we would be attracting incredible, interesting people.”
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Arisa White had her poem "My Beautiful People" published on the site Hoctok. The first stanza reads: we’ve seen this before, we’ve felt this before we’re standing on shoulders and someone’s standing on yours and crying heals and clears your vision, attunes the eyes on the back of your head, forges your insight with salt this is the beauty of being awake in your body your water whets the truth in yourself
Amber Hickey, faculty fellow in American studies, conducted an interview with the photographer Mikael Owunna for the magazine Aperture. Hickey and her co-interviewer Anney Traymany "spoke to Owunna about the gravity of this series, and how it might be mobilized as a speculative tool of creative resistance. Although most of this conversation was conducted prior to the murder of George Floyd, the video that circulated of Floyd’s death, repeatedly reposted, adds new weight to the question that drives Owunna’s photography: what is that space we can imagine beyond the limits of white supremacy, racism, and violence?"
Assistant Professor of Government Laura Seay was tapped to comment on a story regarding misinformation in a statement by U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter regarding the death of George Floyd. In a video address, McCarter said "while no action can bring George Floyd back to his family, the officers involved have been arrested," which is not true.  "This feeds fuel to the fire," Seay, a scholar of Africa's Great Lakes Region, told Washington Post reporter John Hudson. "Providing misinformation to Kenyans, whether intentional or not, is harmful to the United States' interests in East Africa and further undermines the efforts of diplomats there to build support for the United States."
Author and ABC News Anchorman Dan Harris '93 appeared on NewsCenter Maine's show 207 to talk about his career path, which began in Maine after graduating from Colby, and his 2014 book 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works. "In these unsettled times, when so many people are more stressed-out than ever, could meditation make you ten percent happier? I don’t know. What I do know is that I found Dan’s journey fascinating. Watch both parts of our conversation and listen to what he has to say. This much is clear: the guy knows how to tell a story," said the show's host, Rob Caldwell.
Author and ABC News Anchorman Dan Harris '93 appeared on NewsCenter Maine's show 207 to talk about his career path, which began in Maine after graduating from Colby, and his 2014 book 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works. "In these unsettled times, when so many people are more stressed-out than ever, could meditation make you ten percent happier? I don’t know. What I do know is that I found Dan’s journey fascinating. Watch both parts of our conversation and listen to what he has to say. This much is clear: the guy knows how to tell a story," said the show's host, Rob Caldwell.
Catherine Besteman, the Francis F. and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor Department of Anthropology, was a guest on the podcast None of the Above in an episode titled "Airstrikes in East Africa." In the episode, Besteman and Nairobi-based journalist Amanda Sperber "unpack why the United States is waging an unofficial drone war in Somalia and explore the history and human costs of this conflict. They discuss the evolution of Al-Shabaab (an affiliate of Al-Qaeda), civilian casualties from U.S. airstrikes, and how Somalia exemplifies what many consider to be the strategic and moral failings of America’s global war on terror," according to the episode's landing page.
Professor of Latin American Studies Ben Fallaw has coedited a new book: State Formation in the Liberal Era: Capitalisms and Claims of Citizenship in Mexico and Peru (The University of Arizona Press, 2020). The book "offers a nuanced exploration of the uneven nature of nation making and economic development in Peru and Mexico. Zeroing in on the period from 1850 to 1950, the book compares and contrasts the radically different paths of development pursued by these two countries," the publisher reports.
National media continues to show significant interest in Colby’s Pay It Northward campaign and the fall semester. CNBC’s "Power Lunch" featured President Greene, who said that “always expanding and finding new ways so that our students get a great step up into the world is absolutely essential to us.” Additionally, he said the College is “putting in a really robust testing system that will make it one of the safest campuses in the country.”