Colby faculty members engaged in groundbreaking work in 2025. We’ve compiled a selection of stories to showcase their scholarship. This post features work from the Humanities and Social Sciences divisions.
Humanities
Tanya Sheehan: Transforming the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art Journal
As executive editor, art scholar Tanya Sheehan oversaw a dramatic increase in the venerable journal’s readership and quality
Ben Baker: Where AI Meets Hip-Hop
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Ben Baker studies the data of dance
Flavien Falantin: Why We Can’t—and Shouldn’t—Forget Françoise Sagan
The French professor and scholar uplifts the iconic French writer who inspired repressed women worldwide
Taka Suzuki: Art as a Form of Inquiry
Filmmaker Taka Suzuki invites us to look beyond what we see and consider new possibilities
Bess Welden: A Window into the World of a Working Artist
Bess Welden’s playwriting students get a firsthand look at the creative process
Social Sciences
Sanval Nasim: A Full-Circle Experience for Colby Economist
Sanval Nasim ’08 teaches students about the importance of environmental economics
James Siodla: Why Housing Prices are So High in Maine
A study coauthored by Associate Professor Jim Siodla identifies minimum lot-size restrictions as one major reason
Chris Soto: How a Colby Professor is Helping to Shape Personality Research
Professor of Psychology Chris Soto receives a prestigious award from the European Association of Personality Psychology
Zoe Shan Lin: A Scholar of the Song
Assistant Professor of History Zoe Shan Lin wins an important fellowship to continue her research into medieval China
Winifred Tate and Suzanne Menair: Stories of Maine’s Rural Workers
With prestigious grant, Colby anthropologists will create oral histories of workers and community building in rural Maine
