External Posts

In an article titled "Where the Buffs Roam" Down East magazine asked "10 art-world luminaries," including Sharon Corwin, director and chief curator of the Colby College Museum of Art, "to share the under-the-radar places where they find great Maine art." Corwin recommended the Langlais Sculpture Preserve in Cushing to see the wooden sculptures by Bernard Langlais. “To experience these sculptures in the gorgeous landscape where he made them is really special," she told Down East.

Professor of Art Véronique Plesch delivered a public lecture at Bates College May 15. Her lecture, “’Desiring Italy’ and Taking Her Home,” took place in the context of the short-term course "Desiring Italy," taught by Rebecca Corrie, the Phillips Professor of Art and Visual Culture.

[caption id="attachment_42303" align="alignright" width="300"] Moondust in your hair, crib, Karen Condron’s clothing, 2019[/caption] Sculptor and artist Jim Condron '92 has an exhibition at Wings Over Wall Street, a benefit gala for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Condron's exhibition, Close to You, is the first contemporary art exhibition at the annual event, held May 22, 2019. The sculptures pay homage to Condron's mother, who passed away last July from ALS and was the 2015 winner of the MDA Spirit Award. "To make the sculptural works, Jim Condron combines his mother’s clothing and shoes with materials such as a bicycle, a crib, mannequin arms, yarrow, and straw to create intangible forms that express his mother’s ebullience throughout her life and the challenges of the disease," a press release from the association said.

Facsimile Cabinet of Women Origin Stories, an exhibition by Theaster Gates at the Colby College Museum of Art, was reviewed in the Boston Globe May 9. The exhibition includes cabinets holding "3,000 photographs and page mockups from Ebony and Jet through the years, specifically of women," the Globe reports. "There’s something monumental about it: The cabinets emanate significance and authority, a purpose-built archive of Very Important Things that had always been there, and always would be."

The Los Angeles Times cited James R. Fleming, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, in an article titled "The real climate change controversy: Whether to engineer the planet in order to fix it." The article is very loosely based on Fleming's book, Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control. 

In a Mainebiz article titled "Maine’s colleges and universities find new, innovative areas for growth," Colby is highlighted for its investment in downtown Waterville. President David A. Greene told Mainebiz that "in order to remain relevant, Maine colleges must continue building open, collaborative relationships with their communities." Of note were four projects Colby has undertaken downtown, including the construction of the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons and a proposed downtown art gallery. “The cloistered walls of our academic institutions are beautiful,” Greene said, “but they have to be permeable.”    

Professor of Psychology Martha Arterberry was profiled by the psychology journal Infant Behavior & Development, at which she serves as editor-in-chief. The profile shows how her path from undergraduate work at Pomona College, to an exchange program at Swarthmore College, to graduate work at the University of Minnesota kept her research focused on infant perception. Arterberry finds "working with babies and trying to figure out what they can see and what they know a really fascinating puzzle, and she enjoyed the questions, methods and new discoveries," the article reports. Arterberry is the journal's second female editor-in-chief and is moving the journal forward in several ways, including a renewed focus on special issues, introducing new formats for articles, and ensuring the journal "stays with its history and remains interdisciplinary and international." A supportive, nurturing approach is essential. “My hope is that people come away from their engagement with the journal feeling it had been worth their time, even if they don’t get the acceptance,” she told the journal.    

Christian A. Johnson Professor of Liberal Integrated Study Joe Reisert just completed his term as president of the New England Political Science Association by chairing the group's 2019 annual meeting in Portland. Political scientists have gathered annually under the NEPSA banner since 1949, and this year's NEPSA gathering broke the association's record for attendance and conference papers. Longtime members of the NEPSA report that two presidents, Reisert and Cal Mackenzie—the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, emeritus, who was president in 1987-88—have had more of a positive impact on the development of the association than have any of the other 70 or so leaders. Reisert, as longtime treasurer, then vice president, president-elect, and president, has shepherded the steady growth that this year's gathering exemplified.

Associate Professor of Art Tanya Sheehan coauthored the latest installment in the Smithsonian’s “Double Exposure” book series. Pictures with Purpose: Early African American Photography (2019) examines photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Sheehan’s contribution to the book focuses on vernacular, or everyday, photos and what they can tell us about the African-American experience before and after Emancipation. Through case studies from the museum, she outlines the many motivations that shaped the creation, dissemination, and consumption of such images. While most aimed to preserve likenesses and memories, honor individuals, and uplift the Black race, others reinforced racial stereotypes and challenged Black agency. The book has been reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and at Buzzfeed, among others.

Professor of Education Adam Howard has been awarded a visiting fellowship in the Department of Sociology at University of Copenhagen for the fall 2019 term. The fellowship is designed to "attract world-leading social scientists who spend three months collaborating with members of the faculty" according to the university.  During the fellowship, Howard will mainly work with Claire Maxwell, professor of sociology, on a book that they're coauthoring. He will also work with doctoral students, give lectures, and collaborate with scholars involved in the Sino-Danish Center at the university on the development of a new research project on elite schools in China.