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Raffael Scheck, the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Chair in History, has published his seventh book. The book is titled Spring 1940: How People in Europe Experienced the Western Campaign (Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg, 2024) and is written in German, Scheck's mother tongue. The book builds on diaries and letters from German, Belgian, and French soldiers and civilians, as well as records from the British soldiers deployed in France and Belgium. Its central argument is that most contemporaries experienced the defeat of France and its allies in May-June 1940 as the decision and conclusion of World War I. Much of the fighting (and, for the British and French, the preparations during the phony war) took place on the old World War I battlefields and near the giant cemeteries. For Germans, their victory seemed to give meaning to the two million dead German soldiers of 1914-18, and they were extremely thankful to Hitler for providing this (apparent) closure. For the Nazi regime, the presence of Black soldiers in the French army bolstered its racist narrative that a "racially purified" Germany had defeated a "degenerate" France, and the Nazis used the victory as a "proof" for their racial theories. Millions of Belgian and French civilians, driven from their homes by fearful memories of German occupation in World War I, accepted that this campaign had decided World War I and that they would live in a German-dominated Europe. German moderation, even friendliness, toward civilians and European soldiers (but not toward African prisoners of war) eased this transition. For only a few, the campaign in western Europe did not only conclude World War I, but also really started World War II.
In a Boston Globe review of the Colby Museum's The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury, critic Murray Whyte noted that "every piece in the exhibition is a monument" to the artist, and just "pick one from the astonishing array of riches here, really, and you’ll see what I mean."
Assistant Professor of Spanish Tiffany Creegan Miller recently was a guest on CulturalStudies, a podcast about the politics of culture. She discussed about her recent book, The Maya Art of Speaking Writing: Remediating Indigenous Orality in the Digital Age, as well as the work in support of reproductive justice that's happening now at the Oak Institute for Human Rights.
Professor of Mathematics Scott Taylor received a $5,700 grant to support Sum Camp, a day camp in Waterville that uses the arts and math games to build numeracy. This new support for Sum Camp is provided by the Mathematical Association of America and the John and Mary Neff Foundation. Taylor will use the grant to implement a program called “Multiply the Math,” which will help him infuse mathematical conversations into every aspect of the camp, tying together mathematical themes that occur organically across the camp day.
Colby’s Buck Lab for Climate and Environment published research this week using a new tool called the Climate Reality Check, a project co-led by Associate Professor of English Matthew Schneider-Mayerson and supported by Colby students who evaluated climate change in popular films. It was covered by various media, including the Los Angeles Times, the Portland Press Herald, and Fast Company, which noted the findings are “bound to raise eyebrows throughout the industry."
Central Maine News produced a photo essay of the final rehearsal of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, which was performed by the Colby Symphony Orchestra and Choirs. The Masterwork concert at the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts "drew capacity crowds" and involved a combined ensemble of 170 students and community members.
The latest collection of poetry by Professor of English and Creative Writing Adrian Blevins, Status Pending, is a finalist for the Maine Literary Awards, presented by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Status Pending (Four Way Books, 2023) is Blevins four collection of poems, hailed by critics as "a magical book" that "finds uncommon delight in common words, vernacular syntax and a range of playful poetic forms."
New Scientist featured research by Josh Martin, assistant professor of biology, who identified an anatomical oddity in the Australian leaf-planking praying mantis species: a bump projecting from their chests that’s “the world’s weirdest tongue.”
Tanya Sheehan, the Ellerton M. and Edith K. Jetté Professor of Art, delivered an invited lecture at Kenyon College's Gund Gallery in Gambier, Ohio, April 8, 2024. Titled “Public Art, Public Health: Jacob Lawrence and the Murals of Harlem Hospital,” her presentation examined representations of race, medicine, and health in Harlem between the 1930s and '50s. Sheehan explores this subject in depth in her current book project, which focuses on the art of Lawrence, his mentor Charles Alston, and the team of muralists Alston supervised at Harlem Hospital in 1936-40. Click here for an image of Sheehan lecturing in the Gund Gallery.
CentralMaine.com published a short piece about the Colby baseball team hitting a historic mark when it secured the best season in program history.