Potash Hill - Marlboro College
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Potash Hill - Marlboro College
MARLBORO COLLEGE Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Marlboro, Vermont 05344 Paid Putney, VT Change Service Requested Permit No. 1 Potash Hill The Magazine of Marlboro College . Summer 2010 Editor’s Note Parting Shot Ethan Denny is a Marlboro junior who just finished an International Honors Program, traveling around the world to learn about globalization, economics, anthropology, ecology and social movements. He says, “I believe in being informed by as wide a perspective as possible and in not being stuck in one field alone.” Getting “the big picture” is part of the intellectual culture at Marlboro, and it is integral to several of the stories in this issue of Potash Hill. Becky Catarelli’s pioneering treatment of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for example, stretches our definitions of politics and environmental science. Talia Jackson’s and Amer Latif’s insights provide a broader understanding of the word “jihad,” and Jim Richardson brings 20 years of professional perspective to bear on the issue of reproductive health. Two events this spring offer dramatically different perspectives, the social activism of the late Howard Zinn and the economic activism of Tom and Deneen Borelli. Although Ethan shares some of his experiences on page 35, he says that the reality of his international adventure was “far, far more strange, maddening, enlightening and exultant.” Perhaps this is in the nature of opening minds to broader perspectives. I hope you find something strange, maddening, enlightening or exultant in this issue of Potash Hill, and that you submit a letter describing why. You can see reactions to the last issue on page 60. —Philip Johansson, editor Edi tor: Philip Johansson A rt Edi tor: Dianna Noyes ’80 St af f Ph ot ogr ap h e r s : Marcus DeSieno ’10, Adam Keller ’10, Thea Cabreros ’12 Potash Hill welcomes letters to the editor. Mail them to: Editor, Potash Hill, Marlboro College, P.O. Box A, Marlboro, VT 05344, or send email to: [email protected]. The editor reserves the right to edit for length letters that appear in Potash Hill. Potash Hill is available online at Marlboro College’s website, www.marlboro.edu. After four years behind the camera, providing rich woodwardesign images for numerous Marlboro publications and web Front cover: Plastic shards littering a Hawaii beach are only the most obvious effect of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. While Becky Catarelli did her Plan on changing gender boundaries in Vietnam, the alumna has gone on to explore the social and ethical dimensions of environmental impacts such as 100 tons of floating trash (see page 12). Photo by Becky Catarelli Back cover: Zebras nuzzle at Masai Mara Reserve, Kenya, the site of Jaime Tanner’s research on spotted hyenas (see page 2). Photo by Jaime Tanner Marlboro College Mission Statement The goal of Marlboro College is to teach students to think clearly and to learn independently through engagement in a structured program of liberal studies. Students are expected to develop a command of concise and correct English and to strive for academic excellence informed by intellectual and artistic creativity; they are encouraged to acquire a passion for learning, discerning judgment and a global perspective. The college promotes independence by requiring students to participate in the planning of their own programs of study and to act responsibly within a self-governing community. pages, graduates Marcus DeSieno and Adam Keller take a much-deserved cruise on the fire pond “party barge.” Thanks and bon voyage, Marcus and Adam. Photo by Thea Cabreros Potash Hill T h e M a g a z in e o f M a r lb o r o C o lle g e L i b er a l A r t s Science Hyena Skulls and the Social Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Humanities The Greater Jihad: struggling to “do the beautiful” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Social Sciences The Cosmopolitics of Garbage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Arts Sam Is My Brother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Perspective Undue Burden: the crisis of reproductive health care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 O n & O ff t h e H i ll The extended family of Luis Batlle, New faculty member sinks teeth into biology, Keeping up with the classics, WHIP program puts wellness first, Graduate school joins virtual learning cooperative, Spring events test degrees of activism, Alumni trustees take the lead, Worthy of note, Commencement 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 A lu m n i N ew s Class Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Return to Table of Contents S C I E N C E SCIENCE HYENA SKULLS and the SOCIAL ORDER BY JAIME TANNER An intimate look at the social and anatomical complexities of spotted hyenas suggests a key role for their massive, bone-crushing skulls in the evolution of female dominance. Hardly deserving of their reputation as cowardly scavengers, spotted hyenas are actually quite successful predators. Up to 85 percent of their diet consists of food that they have killed themselves, and it is much more common for lions to steal kills from hyenas than the other way around. Spotted hyenas are the most abundant large carnivores in Africa, and they owe their success to endurance, complex social behaviors and jaws that crush bones like after-dinner mints. In my own research I have sought to shed light on the role of hyenas’ specialized skulls in the evolution of their social system. Spotted hyenas belong to the family Hyaenidae, which also includes brown and striped hyenas, both solitary scavengers, as well as aardwolves, which feed solely on termites. Spotted hyenas are unique among hyaenids in that they are highly social, living in clans that can range in size from nine to 100 individuals. Clan members cooperate to defend a common territory and resources against other hyenas and against their fiercest competitors—lions. 2 Potash Hill . SUMMER 2010 Return to Table of Contents Return Table offeed Contents Opposite:toFlamingos in Lake Nakuru, Kenya. Above: Spotted hyena skulls reveal the development of the adults’ massive jaws and teeth. Photos by Jaime Tanner SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 3 SCIENCE individuals and their offspring feeding first at a kill. One of the most unique aspects of spotted hyena biology is that adult females are larger, more aggressive and socially dominant to all adult males within a clan. Adult males, conversely, are at the bottom of the social hierarchy, below females and their offspring. The social rank of an individual is not determined by strength or size but rather is inherited maternally. Female spotted hyenas give birth to one or two cubs in an isolated den hole, usually an abandoned aardvark or warthog den. After four to six weeks in their natal den, the cubs are transferred to the clan’s communal den, where all the other cubs in the clan reside. This is the social hotspot of a clan, where mothers, cubs and other members of the clan come to meet and greet. It is here, at the communal den, that cubs first learn their ranks in relation to others by observing their mother’s interactions with other hyenas. Cubs will remain at the communal den until about 10 months of age, at which time they will begin to join their mother on forays away from the den and begin to feed regularly on carcasses. Spotted hyenas nurse their young for a relatively long period of time, weaning cubs between 8 months and 2 years of age. This is particularly interesting considering that spotted hyenas are also capable of giving birth by the time they are 2 years old. A common misconception about spotted hyenas, at least among Africans, is that they are hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female genitalia. Although this is untrue, it is understandable how this myth might have come about: To the untrained eye, it is very difficult Although spotted hyenas are very social and will hunt in groups to take down an animal as have external genitals that look almost identical to those of males, on average, is readily capable of subduing an adult wildebeest weighing 400 pounds. Unlike the including a fully erectile phallus and “pseudoscrotum.” As if this weren’t big cats, spotted hyenas do not stalk their prey; they are instead referred to as “coursers,” which odd enough, females need to urinate, copulate and give birth through run their prey down to exhaustion. They have incredibly high endurance, and their characteristic this phallus, with far-reaching implications. The birth canal is elon- sloping posture makes running long distances more energetically efficient. gated, so much so that the umbilical cord must tear inside the female Spotted hyenas are not only successful predators, but also efficient at feeding on their prey. Descended from scavenging, bone-cracking ancestors, they have the strongest jaws of any land carnivore and are capable of cracking open and consuming bones as big as giraffe leg bones. before the cub can be born. It is not unusual for cubs, particularly to first-time mothers, to die during this arduous process. Why would natural selection favor such a costly piece of They have highly specialized skulls that are capable of generating and sustaining large forces. equipment? Many hypotheses have been put forth to explain We estimate that an adult hyena is capable of producing bite forces as large as 7,000 Newtons. masculinization of female spotted hyenas. To date, the most likely explanation is that natural As reference, an adult human, biting down as hard as he or she can, will generate between 150 selection has not favored this trait, per se, at all. Instead, it may merely be a side effect of and 300 Newtons of force. Their bone-cracking ability allows spotted hyenas to make use of an selection for socially dominant females. In order for females to be bigger, stronger and more entire carcass, and they will eat just about everything except for the horns, hooves and teeth. aggressive they have high levels of male-like hormones, even during pregnancy. This may In a matter of mere minutes a group of hyenas can reduce a 400-pound wildebeest to barely expose developing fetuses to high levels of these hormones, which may in turn cause fetal more than a bloody patch of grass on the ground. females’ genitals to form in the same “package” as that of males. Despite years of research, Living in large social groups means that there is the potential for intense feeding competition between spotted hyenas at a kill, with up to 20 clan members feeding on a carcass at the same time. This competition is mediated, in part, by a rigid dominance hierarchy. A lifelong social rank determines the priority of access to resources, such as food and mates, with high-ranking 4 to tell the difference between males and females. Female spotted hyenas large as a zebra or buffalo, they usually hunt alone. A single adult hyena, weighing 120 pounds Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents we still do not completely understand how this happens. Nevertheless, it is clear that there is strong selection for female dominance—but why? My own research on spotted hyenas has sought to shed light on the evolution of female dominance in this species. I worked under the guidance of Dr. Kay Holekamp, who established Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 5 SCIENCE might take a long time to develop but do not have intense feeding competition (striped hyenas). These findings will help tease out the relative importance of these variables in the evolution of spotted hyena female dominance. While our knowledge about spotted hyenas has come a long way from the misconceptions of hunched, cowardly scavengers waiting to steal the kills of magnificent lions, there is still much to learn about these unique animals. I plan to continue investigating selective pressures on the behavior and anatomy of hyenas and other mammals throughout development. the Mara Hyena Project over 20 years ago in the Masai Mara National Reserve, in southwestern Kenya. During this time researchers like myself have been following the same population of spotted hyenas and recording their age, sex, social rank, genetic relatedness, body measurements and social behaviors. We can identify each member in the study population from their unique spot patterns and other identifying characteristics. The wealth of data accumulated over the years has allowed Kay and her students to investigate questions about spotted hyena development, social behavior, cognition, hormones, interactions with humans and more. Jaime Tanner is the new professor of biology at Marlboro, with interests in animal evolution, behavior and development. For more about Jaime, go to page 27. *See “Post-weaning maternal effects and the evolution of female dominance in the spotted hyena.” Watts, H.E., J.B. Tanner, B.L. Lundrigan and K.E. Holekamp (2009). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276: 2291–2298. For my dissertation research I focused on the development of the bone-crushing skull Marlboro goes to Kenya and feeding behavior in spotted hyenas. At the Michigan State University Museum, we have amassed a unique skull collection for which we know the age, sex and social rank of each speci- Over spring break, Jaime and political science professor men. Using this collection, and comparable measurements from anesthetized hyenas in the wild, Lynette Rummel led six students from the Biology of I was able to track the changes in size and shape of skulls throughout development. Additionally, Mammals class for two weeks in Kenya. They visited Lake during the two-and-a-half years that I spent collecting data in the field, I conducted a “feeding Nakuru National Park (where they were found imitating fla- speed” experiment, in which I recorded the time that it took for hyenas of different ages to eat mingoes, pictured) as well as Masai Mara, and had the unique opportunity to observe African animals in their natural habitat. a goat femur. These were all fascinating details of hyena development to reveal, but you may be They also spent valuable time with the Maasai, one of Kenya’s ethnic groups, and learned about their culture. wondering what they have to do with the evolution of female dominance. One aspect of behavior upon which selection should be strong is maternal care, since this has “When I woke up for the morning game drive it was still dark as night. The first sight we saw was a huge herd of buffalo a direct impact on a female’s “fitness”—her ability to pass her genes on to the next generation. with many young. There was this one lonely buffalo separated from the herd with one of his horns missing. It must have As I mentioned earlier, females will nurse their offspring for a relatively long period of time, longer been a fresh wound because it appeared to still be bleeding. The horn was most likely lost in a fight. In buffalo society the than most other carnivores. What I found in my research was that it takes a long period of time for old and sick are cast out and tend to be more aggressive.” the skulls of young spotted hyenas to develop into the specialized bone-cracking skulls of adults. —Joella Simons Adkins ’12 In fact, their skulls continue to grow until they are 3 years old, a full year after they are able to reproduce. Likewise, when I looked at their feeding speed, I found that spotted hyenas do not reach adult abilities until they are 3 years of age. These findings help explain why there is an extended period of offspring dependence in this species. Because spotted hyenas live in large groups where there is likely to be intense feeding “Four adult elephants and two young. Isaac tells us that the adults wave their ears to indicate unhappiness. The very big one is now waving its ears toward our car. Also she is walking closer. We are now backing up and driving away.” “Baboons—I don’t like them. It offends and unnerves me that they are so much like humans but are not, in fact, human. A little too close to home, if you ask me.” —Emily Field ’11 competition, large, aggressive females are better able to take care of their highly dependent 6 offspring. This new hypothesis for the evolution of female dominance in hyenas was proposed “It was my last night to sleep on African soil, and I felt sad. Then the sounds of the group at the campfire softly crept by my colleagues and me in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.* Our next step will be to into my consciousness. I think it was Gina who sang first, and so beautifully. Then the Maasai began to sing, a chanting, compare the rates of development that we have found in spotted hyenas to those of other rhythmic sound accompanied by a high, aria-like solo. I was transported, and I fell asleep full of satisfaction and gratitude carnivores with intense feeding competition but without specialized bone-cracking skulls at witnessing such different worlds become one, around the campfire.” (lions and wild dogs), and to those of species that have specialized bone-cracking skulls that —Lynette Rummel, politics professor Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 7 HUMANITIES The Greater Jihad: TJ: Although “jihad” literally refers to both cannot burn crops; you cannot hurt women an inner and an outer struggle, in contem- and children and old people; religious places struggling to “do the beautiful” porary times the outer dimension of jihad cannot be desecrated. Yet even though we’re has overshadowed the inner, more personal using the same concept of jihad today, modern meaning. The word has frequently been used warfare is qualitatively different than the fight- by Muslims to indicate any war fought in the ing that once took place. Muslim scholars have name of Islam, from Muhammad’s time. This only grudgingly, and with abhorrence, allowed application of jihad has been exploited by the this kind of warfare because it’s the only way Western media to such an extent that the pub- to protect a state. Most jurists consider the lic is generally ignorant of its deeper meaning. majority of modern methods of conflict— BY TALIA JACKSON ’09 AND AMER LATIF Recent graduate Talia Jackon wrote, “If an American on the street were asked what ‘jihad’ meant, they would typically say, ‘Islamic holy war.’” Talia and her Plan sponsor, religion professor Amer Latif, delve into the broader meaning of jihad to reveal how struggle defines Islam. forget suicide bombing—to be against Islamic AL: A specific kind of jihad is to fight against people who are threatening the community. 8 The same word is used whether it refers to a law, the common good and the preservation of innocent life. Fighting is considered to be a final recourse, not to be taken lightly. But Talia Jackson: In the Muslim world the idea Amer Latif: No matter where human beings of jihad, or ‘struggle,’ is the defining nature of are and wherever they live, the issue is how existence. From an Islamic perspective, to be to live one’s life. And the way different human is to struggle. But life for Muslims is not cultures conceive it and the images they use merely a struggle to survive; there is a larger for it are sometimes strikingly similar. This struggle as warfare has taken up more and purpose. When Muhammad, the founder of notion of greater jihad would be familiar to more of our consciousness. Conflict is what Islam, returned home with his men after a most people in the world, in the sense people makes news; it’s just as simple as that. Yet spoke of is inward, concealed in the inner long battle in the early seventh century, he use when they say, “I’m struggling to make jihad as fighting is merely one manifestation dimension of the human soul. Inside people said, “We have returned from the lesser jihad a life,” or “I’m fighting for my kids.” It’s that of the broader concept of what it means to there dwell doubts in matters of faith; there to the greater jihad.” Those with Muhammad universal sense of living that is encapsulated, live life. From an Islamic point of view, also exists jealousy, anger, greed and fear. begged the messenger to tell them, “What the larger sense of striving that the Qur’an it’s part of the whole picture. It’s just one Muhammad professed that people overcame could be greater than struggling against the refers to. It casts all this experience that we element of the greater struggle, just part these feelings by struggling to do good and do unbelievers with the sword?” Muhammad told have, being here on earth, within a broader of life: Sometimes you have to fight. God’s will. This is humanity’s “greater jihad.” them that the greater jihad was “struggling framework: that we are struggling on the against the enemy in your own breast.” path to God. Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Muslim state fighting in the name of Islam, such as Pakistan, or a terrorist group fighting against the state in the name of Islam, such as the Taliban. In recent times, the idea of Since Muhammad’s day there have been specific ways in which war is carried out. You Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents these outward struggles are nothing compared to the most important work you have to face within yourself. TJ: The greater struggle that Muhammad While the inner dimension of jihad is often eclipsed in current political and religious SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 9 rhetoric, it is very present in the Qur’an. In who is striving to assure that her kids are AL: The act of praying five times a day is For others an understanding of the world and this central scripture of Islam, jihad is a broad safe is just the same as a legal scholar who islam. But does a person understand and themselves may be based on societal custom. concept that at times suggests physical struggle, is struggling to find the answer to a pressing have faith in what he’s doing or is he simply People may be defined by their experience: but violent conflict is rarely explicitly stated. legal issue. It’s not even a metaphor; in a imitating? What is his intention in doing If their father is a farmer they too become For example, the Qur’an says: way it really gives a literal sense of how to this: Is it for show or is it for God’s sake? a farmer. Muslims have families, individual live one’s life. It’s not simply the act. It’s a situation of hopes, dreams and desires that are all factors O men, bow you down and prostrate from Talia Jackson’s Plan of Concentration in religion and political science, which also explored the struggle for Islamic identity in Algeria the heart: the understanding with which in their decisions. But their primary goal in do good happily so you shall prosper; TJ: A useful guide to what the greater jihad an action is done, the intention behind it. life, in being human, is to serve God. and struggle for God as is His due, entails can be found in the “three dimensions” of The three dimensions are outward actions, for He has chosen you, and laid on Islam, known respectively as islam (submission), inward understanding and real motivation. has been appropriated by Islamic extremists Talia started graduate you no impediment in your religion. iman (faith) and ihsan (doing the beautiful). If one is attentive of the presence of God, for their violent purposes, and by the media studies at Smith College They come from the Hadith of Gabriel, one of if one is aware of the unity of existence and covering them, the meaning of struggle for the written accounts of Muhammad’s words and feels that they are going to be held account- most Muslims is more benign. By engaging in deeds. In the Hadith, Muhammad teaches that able, then it’s a very different endeavor. the idea of jihad present in each of the three yourselves, and serve your Lord, and Far from engendering a violent holy war, humanity’s struggle is a matter of courtesy toward God. Just as children are encouraged by their parents to write thank you notes when someone has given them gifts, Muslims are encouraged to struggle for God as an expression of thanks for the gift of existence. following a car accident. this summer, where she is working on her master’s in social work. dimensions of Islam, the majority of Muslims Amer Latif is professor TJ: The idea of faith governing all elements hope to follow God’s guidance, walking the of religion at Marlboro during Ramadan. But the first dimension is only of life, both the public and the private, is path toward the divine. As the Qur’an says, the beginning of humanity’s struggle. very foreign to non-Muslims. In Islam, faith “To every one of you, we have appointed a While islam is at the level of action, iman is synonymous with understanding. Yet understanding one’s place in the world is a the unity of God. God describes himself in it is easy to have faith when you have a good universal principle: Every human being wants the Qur’an through many different attributes: job and live a comfortable life. It is harder to to understand how he or she fits into the He’s the loving, the merciful, the kind, the have faith and struggle in God’s path when world, what the right things are to do in life. forgiving, the life giver and the life taker. But the rewards are not on the surface, when you For some people their guiding principle is one of his names is also “the real.” So to say see or experience hardship. A Muslim can individuality—they spend their lives search- God is one is to say reality is one: There is a only achieve iman through struggle. In the ing for what defines them as an individual. certain order to existence. This is a supremely Qur’an, God says that those who truly have optimistic statement. When the Bible or the faith are those who do not doubt. Qur’an says that things are connected, it con- Although a narrower concept of jihad and her own personal struggle with paralysis such as ritual prayer, paying alms tax and fasting the way to submit to God is through actions, is at the level of understanding. For example, AL: The broader context for jihad is that of and was one of the sponsors of Talia’s Plan. He received his Ph.D. right way and an open road.” last year from Stony Brook University, with a dissertation on Rumi’s interpretation of the Qur’an. The third dimension of Islam, ihsan, nects one’s life, one’s struggles, and makes is the verbal noun of the word ahsana, “to meaning of them in this broader perspective: do right, act with kindness, do something Where did I come from; where am I going? uprightly; to give something goodly.” I’m struggling along the path of God. It’s a Islamic scholars William Chittick and way of making sense of the meaning of life Sachiko Murata translate this word as “doing that tries to unify all aspects. Jihad provides the beautiful.” Ihsan is not only performing an coherence to one’s way of thinking about action, or understanding the reason behind ineffability. As part of his research he traveled to Turkey with Amer Latif, on a grant from the the world, so things are not disjointed. it, but doing so with the intention of serving Jerome I. Aron Fund, to interview Sufi teachers and practitioners. “From the Sufi perspective, God. If a Muslim thinks, acts and understands music may be seen as a reminder of our place within the cosmos and as one path toward God,” is greater jihad. You strive with your money, with such intention, he is remembering said Mike. His research built upon readings of 13th-century mystics and scholars Ibn al-Arabi and Rumi, as well as contemporary with your bodies, with your selves. A mother God in every moment. scholars. “By being welcomed into the oral tradition of Sufism, I was opened to a world beyond the texts,” he said. Everything that one does in one’s life 10 This article is adapted Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Music and mystical experience “Practice is nothing other than struggle,” said bassist Mike Harrist ’10, referring to both spiritual and musical practice. “It is knocking on the door, waiting for it to be opened from the other side.” For his Plan of Concentration, Mike focused on the relationship between musical experience and Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 11 SOCIAL SCIENCES In addition to littering beaches, the garbage patch is wreaking havoc on the ocean’s residents as marine animals increasingly mistake these pelagic plastics for food. Larger animals, including sea turtles, seals and albatrosses, ingest plastic bags, bottle tops and cigarette lighters. Because plastic degrades into smaller and smaller pieces, yet never entirely disappears, smaller organisms feed on minute plastic particles that resemble plankton. Plastic chemicals enter the marine food chain and eventually humans when we eat seafood. Furthermore, plastics adhere to poisonous chemicals like PCBs, DDT and dioxin, which then accumulate in the tissues of marine animals and find their way into the foods we eat. Mounting scientific evidence suggests that our waste may be causing irreversible damage to our own bodies. My exploration of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch investigates this stunning The Cosmopolitics of Garbage environmental problem through the lens of what is known as “continental philosophy.” Among other things, continental philosophy critiques the objectivity of science and recognizes both “nature” and “society” as purely human constructs rather than diametrically opposed realities. Nonhumans, a category that can include beings as diverse as animals, mountains, rivers Building on her own encounters with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Becky Catarelli explores nonhuman relations, “thing BY BECKY CATARELLI ’04 power” and new ethical horizons. and even our own plastic trash, are taken seriously as mediators in worldly relationships. In an From the end of the shoreline where we were crouched in the sand picking out tiny bits of plastic, are actually dragging it off the beach or filtering tiny pieces of it from the sand, it is disturbing to I could see torches springing to life farther down the beach and crowds of tourists making their way a degree that is difficult to capture in words. The long list of items we encountered on the beaches down to the water for night snorkeling. Once in a while, a honeymooning couple would walk by included jar lids, plastic cutlery, toothbrushes, combs, umbrella handles, plastic bottles, children’s and ask what we were doing. No one had heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and they all toys and especially fishing gear. We also consistently found the knotted sections from black plastic moved on quickly when we showed them the tiny pieces of plastic that we were carefully extracting garbage bags: the edges around the knots were full of teeth marks, the rest of the bags having been from the sand and that could be seen washing in with the waves. When darkness fell, we trudged mistaken for food. attempt to understand our intricate connections with our own trash, I spent some time working with an energetic couple who devote most of their time and financial resources to cleaning up and collecting samples of plastics from Hawaii’s beaches. The plastic that is washing up in Hawaii is overwhelming to even think about, but when you down the beach with eight buckets of degraded plastic—an hour’s work. The section of beach we left behind hardly looked any different. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered and named by captain-turned-marine-researcher Charles Moore in 1997, while he was taking the long way back to California from a sailing race in Hawaii. Traveling through the center of the gyre, he was so profoundly influenced by the trash he 12 The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a vast area within the North Pacific subtropical gyre where saw floating in the water that he has dedicated his life to researching and raising awareness about plastic debris gathers in a soup-like mixture that has been called the world’s biggest “landfill.” This the issue. Moore’s experience can be understood through the concept of “affect,” as used by conti- concentration of trash is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and to contain a stunning 100 nental philosophers. Affect is not the feeling itself, but rather the power that makes us feel. Some million tons of plastic, circulating for years before some of it washes up on windward beaches in nonhumans possess this power to such an extent that it can influence a human to act in ways that Hawaii and elsewhere. Beyond the obvious environmental impacts, this sea of garbage has even are different from actions intended by a cognitive mind. When we not only re-encounter our own deeper consequences in terms of our ethical relationship with the world. waste, but learn that it is circulating back into our bodies in dangerous ways, the intensity can Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 13 SOCIAL Perhaps the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has not yet spoken loudly enough to influence humanity on a global scale, but it continues to gather emissaries, human and nonhuman, transforming a modest network into a burgeoning issue. Some enlisted humans have dedicated their lives to the garbage patch; some, like myself, have been affected enough to engage in an academic SCIENCES exploration of the network; and a great many others have chosen to forgo a plastic bag at the supermarket because they understand that the same bag may eventually end up lodged in the throat of a marine animal or incorporated, in some form, into a human body. We are all people who, to varying extents, have taken up the issue of the garbage patch as it flexes its political muscles. Cosmopolitics does not begin and end with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Beyond this prominent example, countless other actor networks are affecting the world around us, influencing our actions and altering our paths. The issue of ozone layer depletion started with an exclusively nonhuman assemblage way up in the atmosphere and eventually led to the creation of the Montreal Protocol’s effective policies controlling the use of chlorofluorocarbons. The same thing is happening with carbon emissions today: They are deeply embedded in a cosmopolitical process that includes a Becky Catarelli received be so strong as to cause us to switch trajectories. Moore’s life path was altered through such an her master’s degree in encounter with a nonhuman assemblage of plastic bits. nature, society and environmental policy from Oxford University for her research sum- Once affect has seized our attention, it is through ethics that we adjust to these nonhuman messages and learn to relate anew to the world around us. Everyone who has ever taken a plastic bag at a supermarket or purchased a bottle of laundry detergent is complicit in the Great Pacific marized in this article. Garbage Patch, making it an ethical dilemma that implicates most humans the world over. Becky was recently However, continental philosophy does not interpret ethics exclusively as a code of conduct, but awarded a Clarendon instead as a process of relations forged between actors in a profoundly connected network. Rather Scholarship to continue than simply understanding and following a set of rules, living ethically involves openness to the her graduate work at continuous adjustment and repositioning of relations with the things around us, something that Oxford, where she is investigating the future vast network of human and nonhuman participants, and that has been gaining momentum as the number of enlisted actors increases. Cosmopolitics asks nothing but that we pay attention to nonhumans and take them seriously. Admittedly, although this approach is useful in thinking about our ethical relations with the world, it is not necessarily practical in an immediate sense. Yet if we are willing to treat our waste products as legitimate actors with the power to do us harm, we may finally be in a better position to understand the intricate ethical webs in which we are entangled and avert future ecological disasters. Captain Moore and the trash-collecting couple I met in Hawaii are doing with great fervor. Through affective encounters and their impact on ethics, nonhumans emerge as substantial beings with the political agency to directly involve humans in environmental issues. Dubbed The shifting balance of global power “cosmopolitics” by philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers, this new theory encourages us to No stranger to subtropical gyres himself, Kevin Cabrey ’10 grew up on a sailboat that Above: Plastic bottles engage with nonhuman entities by acknowledging and responding to what political scientist rarely stayed in one place for long, living and learning in more than 50 countries. Kevin’s and eel cones, used to Jane Bennett calls their “thing power.” Cosmopolitics begins when things are drawn together, comprehensive worldview contributed to his Plan of Concentration in politics, which trap eels in Korea, are or rather attract each other, by virtue of their thing power, without the benefit of human agency. looked specifically at the future of political and social development in rising nation- Until recently, the oceans and all the nonhuman actors in their currents have assembled virtu- states like China, India and Brazil. “Part of this includes looking at the contradictions, ally outside of any human awareness. Now these things have formed a network whose nonhuman crises and increasing decline of American hegemony and Western neo-imperialism,” said participants include, among other things, the ocean, our plastic trash, marine animals and toxic Kevin. “But most interesting are the paths to power being taken by emerging nations chemicals. This network can in turn influence human actions through affective encounters, like China, and the ways in which modern conceptions of market economics are being successfully married to socialist statism compelling humans to speak on its behalf. In this way, things like the garbage patch become and other alternative development strategies. The more we can contextualize America’s own failures and limitations as it pur- politically potent as more actors, both human and nonhuman, become involved in the issue. sued its recent path of development, the better we can understand how emerging powers can avoid the same errors.” of the Maldives in the face of sea level rise. among the flotsam that washes up on the shores of Hawaii from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Photos by Becky Catarelli Despite its unfamiliarity in typical political circles, this nonhuman influence can spark a large-scale mobilization of human resources working to enact real political change. 14 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 15 ARTS I had heard this, knew it already. I had told it myself to some younger kids. I wasn’t going to stop him though. Who would? The world would pull up a chair and cut the static. Sam was the armistice on Christmas. He could talk. “The dance was pretty boring, so I left and followed the tracks home. And the snow was starting to let up a little, but it was still hard for me to see anything.” Drawing shadows with his exhalations on the concrete in the cold. He kept going. He said he tripped on something that he thought was a piece of wood. The snow let up for good, as if to let him see it. He said he turned around. “It was a dog’s leg. Like a golden retriever, or something. Not much snow on it either. It’d just happened. Just been severed.” He said he looked around for the rest of him but didn’t see anything. I’ve been drowning ants in the sink lately. I’ve been sitting in the sun and going through entire packs of cigarettes. I’ve been listening to my neighbor’s wind chime at night. I hold my breath and listen. I went to the creek today. I woke up early even though I only got a few hours of sleep. Even though nobody’s really expecting anything from me. I could hear my aunt whispering to my mother in the living room. I could hear televised weather reports from across the house. am Is r e h t o r My B Today I woke up, drank some coffee and followed the tracks all the way to the creek. No water though. Still. We’ve probably had two weeks of 100-degree weather, maybe more. The creek bed was scorched. Pink skin flaking off. The plants on the bank looked like they were sweating white dust. Bleached crawdad skeletons everywhere. Like the picture you showed me of the two BY ERIC BREEDEN ’11 One summer it was just me, Sam and the boring-ass city of Nashville. We’d stand in the doorways of air conditioned buildings on Broadway, or sit on the steps in front of this bookstore on Fifth instead, but I’m not going to say that. “He moved. He moved up north, got a job.” Disappeared, Avenue. Then we’d walk some more. He’d ask questions like, I wonder if we could spend the maybe. “He disappeared.” Like Huck Finn with the pig’s blood that looked so human. Or I night in the art museum? or, Could we get into a bar? or, I wonder if we could find some water- could say that you turned into something else. That way you’d still be here. melons? At the bar they told us: You guys look just like brothers, and you’re both too young. just a chemical transformation. Increased serotonin. That godsend. But if you look at them side by side, it’s amazing. The article had color pictures, side by side. There was a stack of magazines in the waiting room. I picked one from the stack. On the left side of the page, the grasshopper, the homebody—a sigh of green, no patterns. But the other one, the one next to him, the iridescent afterthought. I wish I could show you, Sam. This one, he was electric with bumblebee stripes. He was the one who left. He was the one who obliterated civilizations, then left. Sam was older than me. He had these stories. Jeans rolled once, pacing wet asphalt. Adderall driven, talking and talking. I’d catch up next to him and listen. We’d wander and always find a fire escape or a row of pissed-off dogs, or both. Once this redneck even chased us in his truck So we went for the watermelons. The grocery stand was easy to steal from. Rows of the brightest fruit I’d ever seen, watermelons so enormous they didn’t seem real. Like giraffes. He liked their colors, I think. It wasn’t the taste. It was how they changed from bright red to pink to white as you ate them. He’d take a bite and watch the water ease out. The best part was when we’d find the top of some building and drop the rinds from it. We’d drop them and they’d burst like watery stars on the pavement. At the stand, we each grabbed one and lumbered off like pregnant women. Sam knew where to go, because he said, “I know where to go.” From the top of a parking garage we watched the city turn blue, then darken. The windows were squares of light stacked up, with some getting brighter, a few going out. We cut into the watermelons. They poured out over the concrete edge. A wasp dipped down to drink from Sam’s slice. He drank until his wings were damp. Sam let him after we knocked over his snowman. 16 I didn’t stay that long. From now on I’m not going to say what happened to you. I haven’t thought of what to say I read that locusts aren’t genetically different from grasshoppers. Did you know this? That it’s Potash Hill . Photo by Joanna Moyer-Battick ’12 people buried at Vesuvius. But soon enough, every night I guess, we’d stop somewhere and I’d listen to him. drink until he had enough. Sometimes Sam could get real quiet. He’d just sit by himself for a while, or “This is true. The time I was walking home in the snow after that dance or whatever it was.” stare at something like he was praying. He stared at the wasp as it drank. That stuff killed me. SUMMER 2010 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 17 no shirt and used to burn whatever trash blew into his yard. I have no idea what happened to him. Anyways, I had a cigarette hanging in my mouth and I was pushing the lawn mower into the garage when this wasp fell from the gutter and stung my hand. Sam thought the whole thing The crickets started up again, started laughing. Somewhere in a pile of sawdust and dead grass a snake waited as quiet as an empty road. On a road near that, a tree fell through a house maybe you were asleep at the same time, somewhere else. I think that maybe you accidentally Tennessee, and is study- walked over into my dream. Or maybe it was me. Maybe I found your dream, finally. at Marlboro. For his Plan In it, you’re standing on a tiny patch of pavement in the center of a field. You’re wearing 19th-century America. I guess, or change. the marriage. Was it your marriage? You’ve made it to the bottom and you’re not dizzy. Of course you’re not dizzy. thing and here you are at the bottom of the hill. The sunlight is picking every wisp from your MacArthur Prize (see jacket and slinging them like sparks over me. You look at me. And what you give me is this: that in the dream, I don’t know it’s a dream. photo titled “Cousin.” The last night I saw my brother we drove to the creek. We sat in the car a for while. I was still The image depicts her drinking, still drunk from earlier in the day. I closed my eyes, heard Sam eating sunflower seeds twin brother and cousin beside me. That’s what he did after he quit smoking. I lifted a cigarette to my mouth. their bodies made them Anyways, this is what I have. This story, or whatever it is. It’s yours. And there’s one thing left in it, Sam. Do you remember how we used to flip rocks over in the creek looking for crawdads? And when we actually found one how we were too scared to pick it up? Look. Self-portrait and plasticity “No.” reflection of the other,” “This guy had a parrot on his shoulder that kept biting him as he was driving and he’d just hit it with a water bottle and say, Lucy and I have a love-hate relationship.” “New possibilities for self-representation, and the tools allowed by digital and situational manipulation, treat the human body as a thing that is moldable, transformable and ulti- “When were you hitchhiking?” mately correctable,” said Kelsey Wolcott ’10, who did her Plan of Concentration in gender He didn’t answer. He just grabbed the cigarette out of my mouth, took one puff and said, studies and painting. “For this reason, the self-portrait can show us the bodily manifesta- “Well,” as he opened the car door and got out. tions of cultural desires, ideals and fears.” Kelsey focused on the self-representations of On the other side of the window he looked like a faded, invulnerable image of himself. two contemporary photographers, Cindy Sherman and Nikki S. Lee, to explore the gendered Around him, yellow flowers slouched, staring down at the dirt. The crickets, a steady drone. themes implicit in portrait plasticity and the rhetoric of limitless possibility. “Self-portraits I had the feeling that all of it was being filmed. exhibit a kind of fantasy, one that provides insight into the psychology of both the maker and the culture in which they One time I climbed a tree in the woods and it began to snow. The borders of each flake sank into each flake. There was nothing particular anywhere that day. Nobody remembers this day. 18 I wanted to say that I wish I had gotten out of the car. The time when we drove to the creek where we used to fish when we were kids. I wish I had gotten out. That’s all. “Did I tell you about the guy who looked like Karl Marx,” he asked, “who gave me a ride one time, the guy with the parrot.” look as if one was a she said. I made you my brother in the story. And if they could have seen us they would have thought the same thing. There was no other way to write about it. I don’t know how to write about it. I am. was awarded this year’s “I thought the shape of In that article I read, I found out that locusts tend to emerge when there’s an overpopulation of grasshoppers. When you can turn around and see someone just like yourself, you have to leave, But you had to tell me here. That this is where you’ve been. A thousand years of not saying any- on a beach in Maine. Right through Sam too. Tonight, I thought, the whole thing is funny. Everything that lives can long enough to outgrow the suit. Long enough to miss the occasion for the suit. The graduation, Joanna Moyer-Battick of “balance,” for her feel it. The crickets laughed right through the windows of the car. Right through that house. a suit that’s too small for you and it’s covered in dry grass. Like you’ve been rolling down a hill You lean like a tree in the steady dream light. The sun follows you. And I finally know it. page 41), on the theme that looked like ours. That happened here. Away from my dream, but close enough that I could agree on that. ing writing and literature “Leaves of Grass” and After he walked off, I noticed how loud the crickets were. It sounded like they were laughing, seconds. I didn’t even notice the clouds at first. Then one bucket of ice was dropped over the car. I woke up thinking about you. I don’t necessarily think I was dreaming about you. I think that of Walt Whitman’s He rolled up the legs of his jeans, turned around and looked through the window. How could I have thought of snow? He squinted, made a James Dean face. I did the same to him. His was better. it over the sting. I watched him. He held my hand out and rubbed the tobacco in. “This always Eric Breeden is from of self in the context I can see my face in the lens that faces me. and it grew and grew, kept growing until it was interrupted by hail. A few seconds of hail. Only a few It worked. Which is why I tell it now. exploring the meaning I could have left. That’s why I remember it. I could have left you before any of this. Sometimes was perfect. He put his cigarette out, tore it open, dampened the tobacco with his spit and spread works,” he said. I didn’t say anything. of Concentration he is ARTS One time when me and Sam were about eight we were smoking these cigarettes that Sam got from some white-trash kid. Sam traded a Mountain Dew for them. The kid wore a coat with Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents have been embedded.” Kelsey says her own paintings and needlework, such as the study shown here, “focus specifically on the articulation of the artist-subject dynamic.” Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 19 reproductive health care BY JIM RICHARDSON ’64 doctors say are often the safest and best way with limited financial resources. I believe to protect women’s health; the court’s deci- this is an injustice that is exacerbated by sion reverses medical precedent by placing inequalities in reproductive health care. ideological opposition to a procedure above women’s health. As unbelievable as it may sound, our nities for women and men by enabling them until 1965, for the laws banning birth control country could revert back to the pre–Roe to decide when to have children. Planned Will the next generation of women and families to be overturned in Griswold v. Connecticut, v. Wade era in the near future. Although the Parenthood provides family planning and have access to comprehensive reproductive and another eight years before Roe v. Wade recently passed health care legislation did not health care to all women, particularly those health care, or will they be dealt more blows legalized abortion. include it, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) success- with limited incomes, some on Medicaid and fully amended the House’s version of the bill others without any health care insurance limiting their right to birth control and abor- But in recent years, individuals and tion services? As a former professional in the groups opposed to abortion and birth control to ban abortion coverage, thanks to heavy at all. Early childbearing limits any person’s field of reproductive health for 22 years, I am have succeeded in gradually restricting full lobbying support from the U.S. Conference opportunities, but most pronouncedly in these gravely concerned that recent developments access for women and families to reproductive of Catholic Bishops. Meanwhile, the U.S. underserved populations, perpetuating the may topple nearly a century of gains in health care. In various states across our coun- Supreme Court is one justice away from being cycle of poverty. Over the years I have found women’s health. try, legislators have enacted laws that limit able to overturn Roe v. Wade, once again that women and men who are empowered to sexual health education programs in public denying women the right to make their own plan when, and if, to be parents are more likely so much? There are many issues here, from schools and that allow pharmacists decisions regarding pregnancies. Far from to achieve their fullest potential. the roles of women, men and sexuality in to refuse to fill prescriptions when they preventing abortions, reversing Roe would American culture to overpopulation and have a religious or moral disagreement with produce similar results to those in other coun- self-determination and privacy of reproduc- the continuing tension between religious the drug’s use. In my own state of Michigan, tries where abortions are done illegally: septic tive health care will need a new generation of beliefs over reproduction. But for me it largely I have personally witnessed women forced infections and greater risk of death for women, advocates. The significant accomplishments comes down to a matter of social justice. I to meet onerous requirements, such as predominantly poor, minority women. we enjoy today would not have been possible firmly believe that we all have certain human so-called “counseling sessions” that provide rights that include an opportunity to achieve misinformation, as a condition to receiving to any and all opportunities of our society just work of many. The future of reproductive our full potential. reproductive health services. Invariably, it because we are white, male and from a family health care depends upon new people who is the economically challenged and racial of means, like the majority of state represen- believe in social justice to become part of the in our country have struggled and fought for minorities who bear the brunt of these obsta- tatives and justices in the examples I’ve cited. movement. For me, it’s not enough to just their right to self-determination and privacy cles to obtaining reproductive health care. We attended good schools and could pay for sit on the sidelines and consider the debate a college education and are acquainted with intellectually; it’s important to take action. For at least 95 years, women and families about sexuality and reproduction. The move- 20 The advocacy and services I have devoted my career to are aimed at advancing opportu- The future of women’s health is in jeopardy: Why should a white, male retiree care Meanwhile, landmark cases in the courts Some of us are privileged to have full access The 95-year movement for access, without the sacrifices, leadership and hard ment for comprehensive reproductive health are setting precedents placing further limits others of privilege who can connect us to Otherwise we can kiss goodbye to our free- care started in 1916, when Margaret Sanger on women’s health services. A 1992 U.S. good jobs. And then there are those in our doms, like the freedom to make basic decisions opened the first birth control medical clinic, Supreme Court case allowed states to restrict society who have fewer opportunities because about our health care without some white, in Brooklyn, New York. This was at a time abortion access so long as these restrictions they are female, persons of color or people male congressman deciding what’s best for us. when it was illegal for women to vote, sign do not impose an “undue burden” on women contracts, own bank accounts or divorce hus- seeking abortions. In 2007 the court banned bands, let alone have information about birth certain abortion procedures in the second control or family planning. It took 49 years, trimester of pregnancy, procedures that Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents PERSPECTIVE UNDUE BURDEN: the crisis of SUMMER 2010 Jim Richardson retired last year after more than two decades as CEO of Planned Parenthood of East Central Michigan. He still enjoys working in his community as a volunteer. For more information on this issue, contact Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, NARAL Pro-Choice America or the National Organization for Women. . Potash Hill 21 O N & O F F T H E H I L L ON & OFF THE HILL The extended family of Luis Batlle A much beloved mentor at both Marlboro College and Marlboro Music School and Festival, Luis Batlle recently retired from his duties at the college for health reasons. The festival celebrates its 60th season this summer; Luis has participated for most of those years and has taught music at Marlboro College since 1980. His illustrious musical legacy is a reminder of the shared Photos by history on one humble campus, Luis’ extended year-round family. Roger Katz (opposite) and “Even in the beginning I knew all the employees of the college, because most of them were Robert George our employees,” said Luis, who was first invited to Marlboro by festival co-founder Rudolf Serkin (above) in 1956. “The current admissions building was then the building for both the college staff and all the staff of the music festival. Many of them worked for both. It was very family-like.” Luis became friends with Tom Ragle, president of “I appreciate that Luis made his amazing musical talent a part of our lives—I will Marlboro from 1959 never forget the times he let me lie on the floor under his piano so I could listen to to 1981 and a great him practice. Luis shares his wonderful family and makes all of us feel that we are music lover, but for part of that family too. I am honored to have been included in his circle of friends. many years he really He has a deep generosity of spirit, a quality of soul, which, as Emily Dickinson put didn’t know much it, ’. . . sings the tune—without the words, And never stops at all.’” about the college that —Jet Thomas, former religion professor enlivened the campus in the fall. After each festival season, he returned to his native Uruguay to continue his promising musical career there and raise his family. His best inkling of the college’s academic caliber came in the years when theater professor Geoffrey Brown directed a summer repertory theater in the barn behind 22 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 23 Marlboro House, now the Colonel Williams “Luis’ generosity is on so many levels. He’s been generous in “Luis has invited so many outstanding impressed with the quality of these productions. come because of their devotion to him and to his students. If a student is having trouble, he’s there for that Luis’ annual migration to Uruguay came to the attentive audiences he and Stan Charkey student. As an accompanist he is there to serve the music, an end in 1978, when he moved to the United have created here,” said Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, States full time to co-direct Serkin’s Institute president. Meanwhile, Geri introduced a broader for Young Performing Musicians in Guilford, academic perspective to the summer festivals, the composer and that person he is playing with. This takes so much discipline and courage, day by day, year by year.” Vermont, and teach part time at Boston University. He brought along his four children, at Marlboro as soon as she arrived. At first it just seemed like the logical choice. “Then I read a publication of the college, and there was an excellent article in it written by T. Wilson (professor of literature and writing) about language and learning,” said Luis. “I ing guest lecturers like renowned Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt. “Last summer there was one violinist who came to Geri and said, ‘I want to know more about poetry,’” said Luis. “And so they read poetry together all summer. Through Geri Opposite: Luis performs and me, many of the musicians have gotten to know more of the college.” with Kyle Ambrust and Teaching at the college was a natural extension of Luis’ many summers of working with Sasha Cooke in the 2008 festival. was very impressed, and I said to myself, ‘I want world-class musicians on the same campus. “It seemed to me that the college had the same my children to go there.’ Look what happened: philosophy, the same ethical approach as the festival,” he said. “Of course, the students are Moss Hollow with his all four of them came to Marlboro.” His son different, but the approach to learning is the same.” daughter, Eliza Batlle, Luis Batlle ’83 started the next year, and his younger sons followed a few years later. “I am one of the lucky few to have grown “The participants in the festival are the elite in their field,” said Jorge. “Those of us who attended the college are not quite at that level, although some alumni have achieved such recognition. However, both institutions teach art and life, and their approaches are similar. up with the festival,” said Jorge Batlle ’88, Luis’ It is the process that they teach, not the ends: Students in both the college and the festival youngest son, now a lawyer in New York. “I search for their voices. It is not the brilliance of the performance or the quality of the Plan that grew up not just with my father and my broth- is venerated, but the understanding of what it takes to reach that pinnacle of success.” Above: Luis strolls down followed by Geri and festival manager Anthony Checchia. Photos by Pete Checchia ’92 Pete Checchia, son of the festival manager, and a 60 years of musical passion ers and sister, and not just with many wonderful musicians, but with the entire Marlboro family. Luis. In keeping with the multidisciplinary approach at Marlboro, over the years he sat in on math For five weekends this summer, starting on July 17, the Marlboro This family extends to the college, which later classes with Joe Mazur, physics classes with John MacArthur, biology classes with Bob Engel and a Music School and Festival will mark its 60th season with special opened my eyes to literature, philosophy, reli- whole year of Shakespeare with Audrey Gorton. “Having the great Luis Batlle audit your Latin class gone on to be one of the performances featuring chamber music from all musical periods. gion and art. Marlboro’s wonderful professors is not something you’re ever going to forget,” said former classics fellow Mark Pobjoy. leading photographers of As in previous years, Luis Batlle will be among those selecting instilled in me the gift of knowledge and the diverse instrumental and vocal combinations for each week’s thirst to seek it always.” program from some 70 works in rehearsal at any one time. “Rudolf Serkin used to say frequently that the festival was a ‘republic of equals,’” said Luis, echoing some of the same democratic and egalitarian ideals of Marlboro College. “There are no teachers and students, just people of different ages and experiences. In each group we try to include one person who, because of his or her age, has a knowledge that only years of experience can give. And the young participants contribute their talent and enthusiasm.” When music professor and festival co-founder Blanche Moyse moved on from the college faculty in 1980, the college community eagerly welcomed Luis. “The job came with a wife,” Luis is fond of saying, as a few months later he married literature professor Geraldine Pittman. Together they have been an invaluable cultural link between the college and festival over three decades. Luis has brought dozens of top musicians from the festival and beyond to play concerts during the school year, a tradition that continues through the “Music for a Sunday Afternoon” series. 24 by lecturing on Dante, for example, and invit- HILL and Eliza Batlle ’82, his eldest, started college THE —Stan Charkey, professor of music OFF how many concerts he does for the community, generous with & musicians to perform at the college, and they ON Inn. A lover of theater, Luis was highly Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents “One of the things I miss is that the college was once so small, you could know everybody,” said Luis recalls bringing his third child, Leopoldo Batlle ’88, to the festival when he was only four years old. “Leopoldo was such a mischievous child,” he said. “The only way that he could be still is if he snuck out in the morning and went to the concert hall, when Pablo Casals was at his orchestra. Marlboro alumnus, began photographing the music festival in 1983. He has the classical music world as well as an acclaimed multidisciplinary visual artist. www.petesart.com He would sit for hours there. And you’d see this 4-year-old entranced by the 96-year-old master.” Over the years Luis has shared countless solos, duets, trios and other “He’s a very patient teacher, and he teaches music in a way that I suspect ensembles, attracting is somewhat unusual. Luis will keep playing you the music until you begin eminent musicians to the to respond to it somehow. He doesn’t sit at the piano and play a theme, college to perform works and say, what do you think of that? No, no. He whips out the tape player and of Mendelssohn, Mozart, plays you a whole movement, and then just looks at you—he keeps looking Haydn, Schumann, Chopin at you until you finally choke up something.” and many more. He collaborated with the Brattleboro —Tim Little, professor of history Music Center and the Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 25 Windham Orchestra, and performed all 32 Beethoven piano tion with a Marlboro course on Beethoven’s life. For several years Luis was the principal organizer of an annual concert to benefit ON New faculty member sinks teeth into biology sonatas in a memorable series of eight solo concerts in conjunc- & Morningside Shelter, netting thousands of dollars for the homeless biology faculty member and valuable complement to the sci- Center for the Performing Arts, in September 2008. ence program, who wrote the feature starting on page 2. Jaime THE This spring semester Marlboro welcomed Jaime Tanner, a new of the new Paul and Dorothy Olson music library in the Serkin OFF in Brattleboro. His last public appearance was for the dedication comes to Marlboro with a wealth of teaching experience, hav- “Luis is indelibly identified with Marlboro College as well as ing served as a Darwin Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of his reputation as a teacher and his wide range of friendships among Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at the University HILL Marlboro Music School,” said Ellen. “With his musicianship, of Hawaii. She taught a study abroad program on the behavioral the best musicians in the world, he is the strong link between ecology of African mammals and received an Excellence-In-Teaching Award at Michigan State the two Marlboros.” University, where she earned her Ph.D. in 2007. “I strive to equip students with the tools they’ll need to answer questions about the natural Above: Luis and Geri world,” said Jaime. “I want them to know how to think critically about science and how to ask celebrate the graduation good scientific questions.” of his son, Leopoldo. All in the family: Josh Moyse Archive photo The grandson of Blanche and Louis Moyse, music faculty members and co-founders of the festival, Josh Moyse joined Marlboro as a guest director in the theater program this spring. It was a homecoming of sorts, as Marlboro is where his parents, Linda ’61 and Michel Moyse ’63, Blanche and Louis’ son, Jaime is also an accomplished field researcher, having conducted research on the behavior and ecology of free-living spotted hyenas in Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve since 2001, as well as doctoral research on the feeding behavior and skull morphology in this unique species. “My research takes an integrative approach, combining behavioral, morphological and performance data to understand developmental changes in hyenas and other members of the Order Carnivora,” said Jamie. Her field studies included measuring the biting force of hyenas, not a task for the faint of heart, and comparing skull structure in hyenas of assorted ages. This research is part of a growing body of literature demonstrating that the relationship between mor- first met. “I wouldn’t be here if not for the college, truly,” said Josh. He grew up in the area, but went to college at New York University and received his M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Josh has been a director for over 20 years, working extensively with New York and Los Angeles theaters and with film companies in Los Angeles and Vermont. His projects have ranged from adapting great literature such as Heart of Darkness to more avant-garde and interdisciplinary projects. At Marlboro he worked with students to create a postmodern adaptation of Dashiell phology and performance changes as an animal grows and faces different challenges. Jaime has published her research in Journal of Morphology, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society and Journal of Developmental Processes. She has also served as a reviewer for Behaviour, Journal of Mammalogy, Journal of Morphology and Canadian Journal of Zoology. This spring, Jaime taught General Biology and Biology of Mammals, with students from the latter class joining her on a spring break trip to Kenya to learn about some amazing mammals there and continue her hyena research. The Marlboro community looks forward to many years of zoological erudition with Jaime. Hammett’s classic detective novel The Maltese Falcon. “My family has walked this campus in some capacity for over 60 years, and I was keen to continue a family tradition in some way,” said Josh. “I also suspected that the rigorous and independent academic environment would welcome my challenging some preconceived notions about the nature of theater.” 26 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 27 Keeping up with the classics the hell I had done. This feeling was not helped by I had thought I was coming to the world’s most technologically advanced country.” “A year of college teaching right after completing my own bachelor’s program was a very special opportunity,” said Martin Cropp, Marlboro’s third classics fellow and a professor emeritus of classics at the University of Calgary. “I returned to a job in the U.K. Department of Trade, but four years later switched to graduate school and a university teaching fellows from Oxford University to come to Marlboro career. I wouldn’t have done that without my year at Marlboro.” He also College, and in time he, like others, found it to be would have missed the opportunity of winning the Wendell Cup cross- a uniquely meaningful experience. This fall marks country ski race, three months after his first outing: “I got the tip to use the arrival of Marlboro’s 31st classics fellow, William purple wax and no one else did.” Guast, as well as the emergence of a new fellow selector, Mark Pobjoy, a former classics fellow himself. Above: Former classics who taught math at the time and was Geoffrey’s best man, twice. “Marlboro gave me, at a very young age, a remarkable opportunity to teach bright students Philip deMay, who was a classics fellow for two years starting in 1991, learned to drive in Vermont, which might have been a liability when he returned to England. “I bought my first car, a large ’70s Buick, fellow Rob Wendt in the best liberal arts environment imaginable,” said Mark, a classics fellow from 1989 to 1991. though it didn’t work very well,” said Philip, who is still a teacher of clas- explores Ephesus, “It gave me responsibility for looking after a whole subject and designing courses, something sics at Sevenoaks School in Southern England. “It was a real treat to live an ancient Greek that is done by numerous committees here in the U.K.” Mark is dean of faculty at Magdalen and work in the countryside, to enjoy cross-country skiing and swimming College, Oxford, as well as chair of the Committee of the Deans of Faculty for the 44 Oxford at South Pond.” and Roman city in modern Turkey. Opposite: Recent classics fellow Emma colleges. He has been on the interview panel for the Marlboro fellowship since 1993, but recently became the convenor of that panel. The classics fellowship was the inspiration of Tom Ragle, former Marlboro president, who studied ancient Greek history and literature as an undergraduate at Harvard. Interest in classics selector Mark Pobjoy. was high at Marlboro when he arrived in 1958, and Tom was encouraged by teaching a section on Thucydides in Roland Boyden’s ancient Greek history class. “Out of this came an interesting and fun debate between the Herodotians, led by Roland, and the Thucydideans, led by me, as to which was the better historian,” said Tom. He was well aware that the classical tradition was stronger in England than in America, and he garnered a five-year grant from the Old Dominion Foundation to support a teaching fellow each year. “Although Tom had set up the classics fellowship as a five-year trial, it was clear within five weeks that the demand would be permanent,” said Nicholas Barber, the first classics fellow to come to Marlboro, in 1963. “What I certainly didn’t realize was that Tom’s imaginative idea of bringing in an inexperienced Oxford classicist would still be going strong nearly 50 years later.” Now a retired shipping executive and chair of Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum, he wanted to be an academic. He enjoyed teaching a Greek class with three students, and watching them progress from complete beginners to reading the Revelation of St. John. “The class in which we all adopted the persona of another person in the class was particularly memorable, with Mark Anderson, now one of your trustees, doing a very good job of impersonating me,” said Paul. “Enjoying teaching at Marlboro influenced me to train as an elementary school teacher after my return to England, as I valued the cross-curricular enquiry which the Plan of Concentration allowed,” said Steve Higgins. He was a classics fellow from 1983 to 1985, and after eight years in the elementary classroom he returned to university. He is now professor of education at Durham University. “I have always had an interest in the quality of thinking and reasoning, whether of 6-year-olds, those studying to be teachers themselves or the doctoral students I supervised.” “I love my job. I would not be here were it not for Marlboro,” said Andrew Bell, associate professor of history at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and author of Spectacular Power in Nicholas was impressed with the enthusiasm of Marlboro students for the classics. A stunning the Greek and Roman City. Andrew suspects he is the only classics fellow to “wangle” three years 17 students signed up for his Greek Civilization course, representing 17 percent of the student out of the fellowship, and is still awestruck by the academic rigor he encountered at Marlboro. body. “I was teaching Latin to no less than 6 percent of the total enrollment and Greek to 4 “I distinctly remember having my 25th contact hour of the week and being just stunned by the percent, surely records for any liberal arts college at that time.” realization of both the quality of a student’s question and my ignorance,” he said. “Hence While Nicholas was already committed to a career in shipping, with a company that named its ships after Homeric heroes, Marlboro made an indelible impression on him. “It helped me 28 For Paul Elbourne, classics fellow number 21 and now a lecturer in linguistics at Queen Mary, University of London, coming to Marlboro confirmed what he had already expected: that Park and new fellow Potash Hill . HILL Rob was the 13th in a long line of classics ship and support of faculty and students at Marlboro, especially longtime trustee Ted Wendell, I decided to go to graduate school.” Emma Park, the 29th classics fellow, who was at Marlboro from 2007 to 2008, is currently grow enormously as a person, as well as opening my eyes to the limitless possibilities of the working on her doctorate in classical literature and philosophy at University College, Oxford. United States,” he said. “In other words, it was a fundamentally formative experience.” She happily remembers getting to know the students and faculty at Marlboro, as well as the SUMMER 2010 THE having to share a party line with the next apartment. school, Crown Woods, and retired as principal there in 2000. He fondly remembers the friend- OFF a week before the start of term and wondering what company,” said Geoffrey, who spent six years as head of classics at London’s largest co-ed high & the fall of 1978, “arriving in the middle of nowhere ON Rob Wendt vividly recalls turning up Route 9 in Geoffrey Fallows, who followed Nicholas in the fall of 1964, would have to agree. “The year confirmed the enormous satisfaction of teaching my subject and the enjoyment of students’ Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 29 beauty and remoteness of the campus. “It gave me time to think about what I wanted to do, learning—and laughing—a lot, on otherwise and a chance to experience teaching different areas of classics and to learn from so many quiet Friday afternoons.” interesting members of the community, some of whom I am still in touch with.” Not every classics fellow has gone on to a career in academics. Rob Wendt, who now fondly Although three WHIPsters graduated in May, the impact of 47 Marlboro students remembers his year that started with the ill-omened trip up Route 9, went into law and is now spending 18 hours engaged in dialogue on a Senior Crown Prosecutor. But each fellow found his or her own benefits in the Marlboro health and wellness issues in the last three experience. “The Religion, Literature and Philosophy seminar was a complete revelation,” semesters has been very visible. WHIPsters said Rob. “My English classical education had taught me a lot about a relatively few things, have revived the flagging Health & Wellness but RLP opened my eyes to a whole world of interest. Everybody should read Kuhn’s Copernican Committee and invited several speakers to Revolution and Dante’s Divine Comedy. Marlboro gave me lifelong interests and special campus to jumpstart dialogues, particularly on friendships for which I will always be extremely grateful.” issues of sexual assault and consent. They also “Marlboro provides a very fresh perspective on the world,” said Andrew Singer, the most took charge and organized campus talks recent fellow, who left Marlboro this spring and is now travelling in India for a few months to on sexual health and on alcohol and other consider his next step. “To be part of an American liberal arts institution with a strong ideology, drugs during the fall orientation program. to participate in the workings of this small but active community, is a stimulating new experience. I’m sure I have benefited from this as much as the students.” “The resulting programs were infinitely better received by their peers than the programs I have seen previously at the college,” said Ken Schneck, dean of students. “We are excited to WHIP participant Jack Rossiter-Munley ’12. see what the next crop of WHIPsters will produce, even as we are fortified by the visual of an WHIP program puts wellness first increased number of those hooded sweatshirts on campus and by all that those sweatshirts have come to represent.” What would compel 16 percent of the student population to commit to nine weeks of Friday afternoon health training sessions? Home-baked goodies and hooded sweatshirts haven’t hurt, but the real incentive is learning about healthy choices and facilitating health education among peers. Marlboro’s Wellness & Health Informed Peers (WHIP) program has been so successful that it was named “Program of the Year” for New England, from among 130 institutions, by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators last November. “While group facilitation and peer education were the goals of the program, we also concentrated on educating ourselves about a variety of topics, ranging from nutrition to rape to stress management,” said Olivia Sanders ’10. Olivia was a “WHIPster” from the spring of 2009, the program’s first semester. “This program is an excellent idea for Marlboro and really can Teachers across Vermont will take part in a new certificate program at Marlboro College Graduate School, gaining cutting-edge skills in online education, thanks to a partnership with the Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative. The cooperative, which was established through an initiative funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to bring K–12 virtual education to Vermont, will pay the tuition for selected participants starting this summer. “Marlboro College Graduate School is proud to play a leading role in developing this program with the Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative,” said Sean Conley, associate dean of the gradu- make an impact on this community; indeed, it already has.” To facilitate the training sessions, the student life staff reached out to local health care providers who were willing to lead discussions on health education topics. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and included a representative from Planned Parenthood to discuss ate school. “VTVLC’s efforts are consistent with the core goal of our program to use technology to improve access to quality educational opportunities for students.” VTVLC was founded last fall by Jeff Renard, an alumnus of the graduate school’s Master of sexual and reproductive health and someone from the Brattleboro Retreat to lead a dialogue Science in Information Technologies program. Based on a $400,000 grant from the Vermont about alcohol and other drug use. Department of Energy, the cooperative was tasked to lead, manage and develop a system that “The presenters are experts in their areas,” said Re Gorham, director of health services at provided online learning opportunities for all Vermont K–12 schools. Before launching VTVLC, Marlboro and a nurse practitioner. “They provide the students with excellent contacts from commu- Jeff spent 10 years as the distance learning coordinator with the River Valley Technical Center nity organizations that both support and are supported by our small rural college health center. It is in Springfield, offering virtual courses throughout Vermont and New Hampshire. inspiring to see so many students becoming more informed and involved in peer health education.” Lucy DeLaurentis ’10 said, “The presenters created a relaxing setting where, after learn- 30 Graduate school joins virtual learning cooperative “Vermont now joins 26 other states in the country by offering a virtual school option to its students,” said Jeff. “The initial phases of this program will require support from school ing information about a specific topic, we could openly discuss our thoughts and ask questions. administrators as we train teachers to teach online and ramp up course offerings.” Along with One of my favorite memories may have been from the afternoon we discussed sexual health, as Marlboro College Graduate School, Jeff has brought in Community College of Vermont, it led us to share amusing stories. When I think about my experience with WHIP, I remember Global Classroom and the Learning Network of Vermont as VTVLC partners. Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 31 “Think of a food co-op; we want schools to become supporting members by offering courses from their schools that, in turn, will get them seats in other online courses being offered by The VTVLC partnership soundly supports the graduate school’s mission to develop online Although he has been a Marlboro trustee for 11 years, in May Dean Nicyper became the first alumnus in the history of the college to chair the board. Succeeding him as vice-chair is Sara & learning opportunities that connect students throughout Vermont and the world. Alumni trustees take the lead ON other schools around the state,” said Jeff. OFF Coffey ’90, so now two Marlboro graduates are leading the trustees for the first time. “My respect and admiration for Marlboro dates back to my years as a student here,” said “I don’t believe it’s possible to be neutral,” said Howard Zinn, author, Also, it is always fun to be on campus again.” what Marlboro gave to me then and it is very satisfying to have an opportunity to give back. Dean takes the helm at a time when rising costs, shifting demographics of high school University. Zinn passed away in January, leaving a legacy of more than 30 graduates and increasing demand for professional training poses challenges for the college. He books, including the best-selling People’s History of the United States. “The received his J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law, and focuses on com- world is already moving in certain directions. And to be neutral, to be mercial disputes, art law, intellectual property, product liability and securities litigation. Dean passive, in a situation like that, is to collaborate with what is going on.” has published articles on related subjects in The National Law Journal, New York Law Journal, evening retrospective of film and theater. The afternoon featured a screen- American University Law Review and Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal. “After graduating from Marlboro, I was a professional musician for seven years prior to ing of the 2004 documentary You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, followed by sociology becoming a lawyer,” said Dean. “My experiences as both a musician and a lawyer taught me professor Jerry Levy’s rendition of Zinn’s one-man play, Marx in Soho. In the evening, Branden many things, such as the significance of thinking creatively when solving problems and the Grant ’11 directed fellow students and faculty in The People Speak, a live dramatization that amount of hard work and discipline required for accomplishing any significant task well. I also Above: Branden Grant gives voice to those who spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history. This was followed learned how to manage and grow an enterprise. I hope to draw from all of my prior experience narrates The People by a video of Zinn’s 2004 lecture at Marlboro College, introduced by film professor Jay Craven, while serving as chair.” Speak, a dramatization Zinn’s student at BU, protégé activist and longtime colleague. based on Howard Zinn’s work. Opposite: Trustees Bart Goodwin and Dean Nicyper at commencement 2010. HILL human rights activist and longtime professor of political science at Boston In April, Marlboro celebrated Zinn’s career through an afternoon and THE Spring events test degrees of activism Dean, a partner at the New York law firm Flemming Zulack Williamson Zauderer. “I appreciate Dean succeeds Bart Goodwin, who stepped down as chairman after “Howard Zinn was a generous friend, a mesmerizing teacher, an unparalleled storyteller,” six years of strong guidance, leaving Marlboro College in a financially said Jay, who reminisced about earning a semester’s credits from Zinn for helping stage the 1971 sound position. With the support of the board and President Ellen May Day protests against the Vietnam War. “His vivid and detailed historical narratives capti- McCulloch-Lovell, Bart was a major proponent of a balanced budget. vated us as students, providing a fresh vision and a sense of our own ability to make a difference.” “For Marlboro to prosper, we have to operate within our means “I had a modest goal when I became a teacher,” said Zinn. “I wanted to change the world.” and yet have the resources to weather ups and downs,” said Bart, a Another shade of activism entirely was celebrated later in April, when conservative analysts partner at BCI Partners in Greenwich, Connecticut. His experience Tom and Deneen Borelli made a presentation titled “The Tea Party Movement: Political Activism in the finance industry and specifically as a venture capitalist made in the Economic Arena.” The Borellis are fellows at the National Center for Public Policy him ideally suited to guide a young college experiencing growing Research and frequent contributors to print and broadcast media. Their lecture was supported by pains. He was also a strong supporter of the graduate school’s the Thomas Thompson Trust, which provides funding for speakers “whose views run counter to launching of the MBA in Managing for Sustainability program. the prevailing opinion on campus.” “I feel that it will be very meaningful to have a Marlboro graduate as “The tea party movement was born from a sense of shock,” said Deneen Borelli. “Suddenly Americans’ sense of fairness was violated, and they were jolted out of their political stupor.” the chair,” said Bart of his successor. “I know that Dean will bring dedication and energy to the position.” But while public dissent has historically related to issues of war or social change, the Borellis’ activism is in response to the government economic stimulus package and other costly policy initiatives such as the new health care bill. “Our concern is that the power of special interest groups dilutes the voice of everyday citizens to influence public policy,” said Tom Borelli. “The tea party movement has the potential to break the cozy relationship among special interest groups and stop the growth of government and the loss of liberty.” For information about upcoming events, go to www.marlboro.edu/news/events. 32 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 33 Readers who enjoyed the article This spring, Marlboro John Sheehy, professor of of Arts and Sciences (VAAS) by philosophy professor William welcomed Sean Conley writing and literature, had awarded a fellowship to Ellen Edelglass in the last Potash (below) as the new associate a story included in the recent McCulloch-Lovell, president, in Hill (Winter 2010) will not be dean of the graduate school. book The Good Men Project: recognition of her many contribu- surprised to learn that he gave “As someone working in teach- Real Stories from the Front “I’ve been reading and doing a tions to the arts and humanities. a paper last November called ing and technology, I’ve known Lines of Modern Manhood. lot of research on ‘mega’ mines The fellowship highlights her “Rooted Cosmopolitanism: about the Marlboro College Edited by Tom Matlack, the and on Argentina’s native for- work as executive director of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Graduate School for a long time book features personal essays ests and fauna,” said Chrissy the President’s Committee Place.” That was at the annual and have attended some excel- by a broad range of men Raudonis ’11 (below), who did on the Arts and Humanities, meeting of the International lent technology-in-education describing the challenges, her World Studies Program during the Clinton administra- Association for Environmental workshops here,” said Sean. He triumphs and life-changing internship this spring with a tion, and as executive director Philosophy, where William also finds that the graduate school moments that define man- small NGO called Argentina of the Vermont Arts Council moderated a session on Asian draws from the same educa- hood in America. John’s story Natural. The group works with from 1975 to 1983. “Being attitudes toward nature. At tional values that sets Marlboro describing his relationship with a wide range of environmental named a fellow of VAAS holds the concurrent meeting of the College apart from other his dad, “Skeff,” was included and social issues, from loss of great meaning for me,” said liberal arts colleges, and applies in the film of The Good Men biodiversity to indigenous rights, Ellen. “I believe in the creative them to professional educa- Project as well. John also had but is right now focusing on enterprise, that creativity can tion. “What really intrigued a nonfiction story, titled “Red opposing giant mining opera- be taught and leads people to me was the student-centered, Line,” published in the fall tions with equally huge envi- be the artists of their own lives. student-directed approach to 2009 issue of Fourth Genre. ronmental and social impacts. I especially want young people “Instead of furthering the to develop their own special ‘development’ of the country, voices in ways that change these mines result in the exit of their lives and the world.” In capital, leave the local people January, Ellen was also elected sick and without livelihoods, and to the board of directors of use obscene quantities of energy the Council of Independent and water,” said Chrissy. Colleges, which supports college was pleased to be appointed regional cabinet member for the ACUHO-I (pronounced he chaired a session called “To Speak Against/Within Oppression(s): Methodologies of Embodied Social Criticism.” farm manager Erin Riordan ’10 (above) appeared on a panel at the Vermont-wide Northeast Organic Farming Association conference in Burlington. In a panel called “Student Farms on AH-coo-HO-ee) Foundation the Rise,” Erin articulated the in February. The foundation operates charitable and edu- “In the first class with one cational projects in support of professor, our entire worldview the Association of College and was turned on its head, spun University Housing Officers– around, torn apart and recon- International, a professional structed again, all in less than organization with members an hour,” said Ethan Denny ’12, very exciting and inspiring to selected for the “best of” gala from 900 colleges and univer- and that was before he started see the range of college farms,” concert at the end. “The confer- sities. “Being connected and traveling. Ethan spent the last college farms faced the same the American College Dance Festival at Boston University. Out of 45 dances presented by students from 36 New England colleges and universities, both of those by Marlboro students were ence sparked a new passion in my soul: I’m more invested in my dance than before and I am grateful for that,” said André, who choreographed one of the dances and performed it with Amity. The other dance was a solo work choreographed and performed by Amity. “This was a huge honor for the students and also some wonderful recognition for the college, as Marlboro was the only college to be represented twice in the gala,” said Kristin Horrigan, dance professor. and university leadership to advance institutional excellence. history of Marlboro’s farm and its role in the community. The panel of student farmers from seven Vermont colleges then entertained questions. “It was said Erin. “Most of the smaller graduate education.” Sean came to Marlboro from The New School in New York City, where Led by students in politics he was chair of the department professor Lynette Rummel’s of English language studies and “dedicated hour” group, the helped launch a new online Marlboro community responded master’s program in teaching decisively to the earthquake English to speakers of other in Haiti by donating more languages. Before that, Sean than $11,000 in support of spent 10 years in teaching and humanitarian efforts there. administration at the School for This considerable sum was International Training. raised in a matter of a couple working for an organization two semesters in a program “I knew this part of the world like ACUHO-I is invaluable to called Rethinking Globalization, problems as Marlboro, strug- weeks from students, faculty, was very small, geographically, residential campuses so we run by the International Honors gling to gain administrative staff and especially trustees, but it’s one thing to know it can remain on the forefront of Program at the School for support and funding, maintain and went to Partners in Health, and another to see it,” said what colleges and universities International Training. With 25 themselves over the summer an organization with 25 years Kelly Pierce-Bulger ’11, who are doing to meet the needs other students, he travelled to and find a clear mission. But it of experience in Haiti. Levi of students,” said Kyle. Washington, D.C., Tanzania, was awe-inspiring to hear about Gershkowitz ’12 said, “Now Jordan through CIEE (Council India, New Zealand and Mexico, colleges that had succeeded and there is discussion about how to on International Educational never staying in one place lon- that had successfully integrated make this some sort of model, Exchange). “It seems that ger than a few days. “In New farming into their college.” so when similar natural disasters almost anywhere you go in the Zealand we stayed on a marae, happen in the future, Marlboro northern part of this country, a Maori meeting place, and is prepared to respond.” you can see Palestine. This fact slept in long rows in the main has given me new insight into house and learned about how the reason that the refugees are the Maori see the world as a so set on their right of return. beautiful old woman,” said They can literally see their Ethan. “The critical thinking land; they just can’t get to it.” and lived experiences I have had Kelly brushed up on her Arabic, will help my studies immensely, learned about Jordan’s history not to mention the simple and explored cultural sites such growing up and life learning as Petra, the Dead Sea and the I have done.” spent her spring semester in HILL ing prowess at a conference of of housing and residential life and Existential Philosophy, tomatoes needed tending, THE were recognized for their danc- when he says it, the director In February, long before the OFF (above) and Amity Jones ’10 Audette (above) is sneezing Society for Phenomenology & In February, André Morgan ’12 Although it sounds like Kyle ON Last fall, the Vermont Academy Worthy of note Citadel of Amman. 34 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 35 Drew Tanabe ’12, who Following a long tradition of In February, Emily Mente ’11 participated in the United college students working at the and Anna Knecht ’11 (below) Nations climate change con- nearby Marlboro Elementary opened the doors of a Women’s ference in Copenhagen last School, Kelly Ahrens ’12, Erin Resource Center, with support since its owner’s death in 1959,” Organization for Nuclear December as a representative Riordan ’10 and both Paige from Town Meeting and many Laura said. “He also finds— Research in Switzerland, of the national youth group Martins (Paige Lynne Martin ’11 other members of the commu- eventually—the explanation which Adrian participated SustainUS (Potash Hill, Winter and Paige Elizabeth Martin ’11; nity. “I’ve been very impressed of unacknowledged sorrows in 36 years ago. Recognition 2010), reports being a bit what are the odds?) put in with the amount of support on behind his marriage. That has been much swifter confused by the proceedings. time assisting teachers. Paige campus,” said Emily. Located in makes it sound sentimental, for Adrian’s new book, “I had gone in thinking that Elizabeth was on a study a cozy downstairs room in the but I promise it isn’t.” Conferences That Work, there would be some sort of abroad program in France dur- Gander World Studies Center, which explores the limits of agreement, or disagreement, ing the spring semester, but the the WRC provides a space for traditional conferences and and it seemed to be something other three worked through young women to explore issues the strengths of “peer confer- in between,” said Drew. “There the year. “I helped with math of gender, sexism and oppres- were some interesting devel- in the third-fourth grade and sion. The center has already opments; it illuminated how read to kids in all the primary hosted many events, including important China was going grades,” said Paige Lynne, who a community potluck, a gender to be. I was very defensive of balanced her time between this bender costume workshop and the outcome at first, but that and working as a family respite discussions on queerness and defense slowly turned into worker through Health Care feminism, sexual health and frustration. It made me more and Rehabilitation Services in the sexual misconduct policy. interested in non-UN processes Brattleboro. “Kids have great “We are also in the process of for environmental change, such minds and it is very good to building a library and a media as environmental law and grass- be reminded of that weekly. center so we can screen a film roots actions.” Drew is work- Although it does not tie in series,” said Anna. “We would ing with other activists across with my studies, I believe I will greatly appreciate contributions Vermont to make 100 percent probably get involved in this of any kind from the alumni renewable energy a viable vein of work once I graduate.” community: advice, books or HILL The inspiration for former with people I never would mathematics professor Joe have dreamed I’d be able to speak to,” said Ken Schneck, dean of students (above). “Amy Ray from the Indigo Girls? Ari Shapiro from NPR? Legendary civil rights champion Evan Wolfson? C’mon! These guests are my heroes.” Ken was talking about This Show Is So Gay, the local radio show he hosts with admissions office manager Becca Sheehan (above), which was recently given global reach by websites QNation.fm and week, Becca and I receive the most incredible emails from LGBT individuals and allies for whom our show is their only gay outlet in their very closed communities,” said Ken. “Sometimes we forget that people are even listening, but these reminders are of facilitating experience. Mazur’s latest book, What’s Grant Li, Chinese language Luck Got to Do with It?, came professor, presented a paper while waiting in a 7-Eleven for on “distributivity” at the a tow-truck. “I watched as per- May meeting of the son after person put down $20, International Association $50, even $100 for Megabucks of Chinese Linguistics. In tickets,” said Joe. “It awakened Tao of Division: Syntactic an old desire in me to write Conditions on Distributivity about the follies of believing in (Harbin Institute of Technology Press, 2009), Grant proposes Photography professor John gambling windfalls.” Available an elegant, Zen-like theory to Willis has a new book due from Princeton University Press explain why languages differ in out this fall called Views from in July, What’s Luck Got to Do expressing collective meanings the Reservation, published by with It? traces the history of of plural nouns. “In essence, I Columbia College Chicago’s gambling from the Neolithic Age to the global economic Former visiting professor developed a theory by doing Center for American Places. Part of his ongoing collaboration crisis brought on by financiers’ Wyn Cooper has just come away with other theories that with residents of the Pine Ridge out with his fourth book of specifically address the prob- trillion-dollar bets. lem,” said Grant. “Rather than Reservation in South Dakota, working directly I focused on home to the Oglala Sioux, the the whole system of grammar, book offers John’s intimate from which solutions to the perspective on everyday life and specific problems would landscapes along with reflec- follow, via a free ride.” tions of community members. poems, Chaos is the New Calm. The book is composed of 50 “loose” sonnets, some rhymed, some not, ranging from travelogue to inner monologue, from social commentary to solitary musings. Poet T.R. Hummer The book will also include a incredibly humbling.” said, “Wyn Cooper explores CD of traditional music, titled For more information on these items, an overlooked territory that Heartbeat of the Rez. go to the following websites: Return in Kind (Separate Star, Chrissy Raudonis www.argentinanatural.org.ar 2010) is writing professor Laura of Frank O’Hara and the Kelly Pierce-Bulger kelly-in-jordan.blogspot.com Stevenson’s latest book, just more unalloyed sentiments Ethan Denny ihp.edu/page/lettershome/#rg out in June, about a widower of contemporary popular lies between the crafty irony who learns his wife has left him Women’s Resource Center email [email protected] 150 acres of Vermont land he Ken Schneck www.ThisShowIsSoGay.com didn’t know she owned. “Upon John Sheehy www.goodmenproject.com arriving in Vermont, he finds Adrian Segar www.conferencesthatwork.com that he has inherited not an Wyn Cooper www.wyncooper.com investment in ski country, but an old farm with a family grave- Or if you are interested in the day-to-day happenings on campus, check out yard and a house untouched Marlboro’s very own YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/MarlboroCollege#p (but mysteriously maintained) or the Potash Phil blog at www.marlboro.edu/communities/alumni/blog/. Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 THE ences,” based on his 20 years “Each week, we get to speak ClickClickExpose.com. “Every 36 OFF gubernatorial elections. CERN, the European & financial sponsorship.” a series of experiments at ON platform for upcoming recognition was based on HOT OFF THE PRESS Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents culture, discovering Former computer science professor Adrian Segar was unexpected equivalencies and startling imbalances.” among about 70 physicists who were awarded the 2009 European Physical Society Prize for High-Energy and Particle Physics for the discovery of “weak neutral currents.” The SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 37 Commencement 2010 paper that tells us we did something great, came together and made something. Whether or not we run into each other at some date in the future, our lives intertwined, connected at the prover- Beyond the accolades for your seven volumes of poems, you are commendable for your impact included 80 undergraduates, completing Plans of Concentration on our appreciation for creative writing and its fundamental role in higher education. “Vision ranging from performance art to solar cell biochemistry, and one and craft are inseparable,” you have said. “The hardest part is balancing clarity and mystery, master’s degree in philosophy (Peter Blair ’01). President Ellen precision and resonance, but it is in this work that the act of making a poem becomes primarily McCulloch-Lovell told the graduates that while they might forget an act of discovery, a lens through which to see the world.” HILL family, friends and community members. The class of 2010 THE For more than 30 years, you have engaged readers with your fierce and unexpected poetry. OFF From the honorary doctor of letters citation for Ellen Bryant Voigt: Persons on May 16, an idyllic spring day, to be celebrated by & The largest graduating class in Marlboro history gathered in ON bial collegiate hip known as Marlboro College. There’s something remarkably special about that. details of their courses of study, they would not forget the empathy research on the physical nature of memories and their malleability. An honorary degree was conferred From Ellen Bryant Voigt’s address: upon Ellen Bryant Voigt, former Vermont Poet Laureate, who evoked the words of one of her prede- obsessively, patiently, without reaching cessors and the first commencement speaker at Marlboro, Robert Frost. Honorary degrees were also too quickly for meaning and category, conferred upon Francis Voigt, founder of the New England Culinary Institute, as well as J. Barton what John Keats called “negative Goodwin, Marlboro trustee, who officially stepped down as chairman at this commencement. The capability”—is actually the major part of valediction was offered by classics fellow Andrew Singer, in Latin and English, quoting Horace: any creative thinking, as distinguished from “He who has made a start has accomplished half of the task; dare to be wise; begin.” “thoughts” or received wisdom or their they have for each other or the respect they have earned from peers and faculty members. Senior speaker Will Mees explored recent To observe— popular cousin, “self-expression.” Creative From President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell’s address: thinking is real work; it doesn’t swagger; it You are impossible to is full of self-doubt; it doesn’t dazzle in the characterize. You are Marlboro’s largest graduating class, ever. You range in age from 21 to 35. You are strong and uncertain, tenacious and flexible. You learned languages we don’t teach and traveled to countries on the State Department’s watch list; one-third of you studied abroad. You played at open mic night or you stayed in the library late; you partied, you argued, your discussions spilled from the classroom into the dining hall into the dorms, cottages and apartments downtown. You served on the selectboard, as town crier and on academic and Town Meeting committees. This year, I thought a lot about what constitutes a college; as its members change, what lasts? What deserves protecting? What demands improving? For what is a college blogosphere; it seems to keep you circling and idling, going nowhere, and yet it is what drives any field of inquiry forward, whether the sciences or the humanities, social sciences or the arts—we can see the range in your impressive “Plans of Concentration.” Because what it circles toward, with diligence and a little luck, is a thrilling discovery: some congruence between almost any disparate objects you choose to observe. No matter where you enter the web, you can find the spider. but its people? What is a college but the ideas and ideals its members pass on and strive for as From the valediction by Andrew Singer: they participate in this very particular place? plures amici sunt. optima opera, nuper perfecta, sunt documento altae regulae animi in hoc collegio. vos multi ex vobis opera mecum fecistis; laudo. inter se iuvantes per ipsa amicitia communitatem veram fecistis, quae imagines superstat et vero Photos in this section by Thea Cabreros, Dianna Noyes and Jeff Woodward From Will Mees’ senior address: nobis profuit. I have worked with many of you; many more I know as friends. Your fine projects, Regardless of recently completed, are testament to the high intellectual standards of the community. I praise you. who we hung out with, of where we spent most of our time or Through supporting one another, by your very friendship, you have created a true community that what we did with that time, Marlboro has acted as a commons: exceeds ideals and has enriched us all. a single thread weaving through each and every one of our lives. I’d like to think I speak for all of us when I say that there For full transcripts of addresses and citations, as well as photos and video, has never been a group of people I have so readily been able go to www.marlboro.edu/news/commencement/2010. to identify and have so readily identified with. All of us here today, patiently, anxiously waiting to receive that little slip of 38 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 39 The Helen W. Clark Prize is awarded by human history and culture with a passion the visual arts faculty for the best Plan of for the natural world. Erin Riordan Concentration in the fine arts. Alisha Langerman Academic Prizes ON community and who unites an interest in & The Sally and Valerio Montanari Theatre who demonstrate excellence in the natural contribution to the pursuit of excellence sciences, who use interdisciplinary approaches in theater production. Simon Moody and who place their work in the context of THE The Buck Turner Prize is awarded to students senior who has made the greatest overall OFF Prize is awarded annually to a graduating HILL larger questions. Morgan Ingalls and Will Mees Willson Gaul. The Freshman/Sophomore Essay Prize is The William Davisson Prize, created in 2008 given annually for the best essay written by the Town Meeting selectboard and named in honor of Will Davisson, who served as a faculty member for 18 years and as a trustee for 22 years, is awarded to one or more students for extraordinary contributions to the Marlboro community. Willson Gaul and Sophia Cleary The Ryan Larsen Memorial Prize was established in 2006 in memory of Ryan Jeffrey Larsen, who felt transformed by the opportunities to learn and grow within the for a Marlboro course. Ayla Mullen Sarah Horowitz. The Audrey Alley Gorton Award is given in memory of Audrey Gorton, Marlboro alumna and member of the faculty for 33 years, to the student who best reflects the Gorton qualities of: a passion for reading, an independence of critical judgment, a fastidious attention to Simon Moody. matters of style and a gift for intelligent con- The Roland W. Boyden Prize is given by versation. Sarah Horowitz and Sari Brown the humanities faculty to students who have embrace of the Marlboro College community. demonstrated excellence in the humanities. It is awarded annually to a junior or senior Roland Boyden was a founding faculty mem- who best reflects Ryan’s qualities of philo- ber of the college, acting president, dean and sophical curiosity, creativity, compassion and trustee. Noah Burke and Ursula Roessiger spiritual inquiry. Mike Harrist and Amity Jones Joanna Moyer-Battick. The Robert H. MacArthur Prize was established in 1973 in memory of Robert MacArthur, class of 1951, and recently rededicated to Robert and also to John and to John and Robert’s parents, John and Olive MacArthur, who founded the science program at Marlboro College. The contest for the Amber Schaefer. prize is in the form of a question or challenge The Hilly van Loon Prize, established by the offered to the entire student community. class of 2000 in honor of Hilly van Loon, Joanna Moyer-Battick; second prize, Mary Coventry; honorable mention, Sophia Cleary, Marlboro class of 1962 and staff member for 23 years, is given to the senior who best Amity Jones. The Rebecca Willow Prize, established in 2008 in memory of Rebecca Willow, class of 1995, is awarded to a student whose presence Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Lauren Deshay and Levi Gershkowitz reflects Hilly’s wisdom, compassion, community involvement, quiet dedication to the The Dr. Loren C. Bronsen Award for spirit of Marlboro College, joy in writing and Excellence in Classics was established by the celebration of life. Amber Schaefer family of Loren Bronsen, class of 1973, to encourage undergraduate work in classics. brings personal integrity and kindness to the 40 Noah Burke. Amanda DeBisschop Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 41 2010 Graduates and their Plans of Concentration Bachelor of Arts SOCIOLOGY PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the relationship between agriculture and sustainability. PROJECT: A historical sociology exploring how the emergence and spread of agriculture affected human-environmental relationships. Sponsor: Gerald Levy Outside Evaluator: Robert Rakoff, Hampshire College Anthony Bisceglia Bachelor of Arts VISUAL ARTS/Sculpture PLAN SUMMARY: A study of sculpture and other media supported by a paper on 20th-century artists using soft form. PROJECT: An exhibition of sewn sculpture and other media. Sponsors: Timothy Segar, Thomas Toleno Outside Evaluator: Joseph Smith, Mount Holyoke College Joshua Boykin Bachelor of Science CHEMISTRY PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the organic molecules used in photovoltaic cells with an emphasis on dye-sensitized solar cells and an exploration of the potential of solar power to become a primary source of energy in the United States. PROJECT: A paper focusing on dye-sensitized solar cells and current research to increase their efficiencies. Sponsor: Todd Smith Outside Evaluator: Peter Talmadge, Greenfield Community College 42 Christopher Michael Boyle Kevin Cabrey Bachelor of Arts LANGUAGES/Applied Linguistics and Spanish PLAN SUMMARY: La vida galapaguena: Bachelor of Arts POLITICS A collection of essays and journals exploring second language acquisition and culture in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, with supplementary work conducted in Spanish. PROJECT: A case study of English as foreign language students in the Galapagos Islands and a paper researching and analyzing their performance in English. Sponsors: Tom Means, Rosario de Swanson Outside Evaluator: Beatriz Fantini, SIT World Learning Meredith Vitale Cann Bachelor of Arts PHILOSOPHY Bachelor of Arts PSYCHOLOGY PLAN SUMMARY: An analysis of the sublime in Longinus, Burke, Kant and Lyotard from the perspectives of aesthetics, morality and politics, with particular attention to the sublime as a symbol of freedom. PROJECT: A paper mapping the use of the sublime through the works of Longinus, Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant. Sponsor: William Edelglass Outside Evaluator: John Drabinski, Amherst College PLAN SUMMARY: An examination of empathy and its similarities and differences in humans and dogs. PROJECT: A paper examining empathy in humans. Sponsors: Thomas Toleno, Jonathan Mack Outside Evaluator: David Johnson, Greenfield Community College Return to Table of Contents Amanda Justine DeBisschop Bachelor of Arts LANGUAGES/Ancient Greek & Literature/Contemporary American Poetry & WRITING/Poetry Bachelor of Arts VISUAL ARTS PLAN SUMMARY: A study of visual arts exploring printmaking, ceramics and sculpture through themes of repetition. Also a study of artists of the 20th and 21st centuries who explore aspects of appropriation. PROJECT: A show of artwork including prints, ceramics and sculpture. Sponsors: Timothy Segar, Michael Boylen, Cathy Osman Outside Evaluator: Craig Stockwell, Vermont College PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of love in three parts: an English translation of Plato’s dialogue The Symposium, an analytical essay linking The Symposium to Galway Kinnell’s The Book of Nightmares and a collection of original poetry. PROJECT: A collection of original poems. Sponsor: T. Hunter Wilson Outside Evaluator: Jacqueline Gens, New England College Mary Grace Theresa Coventry Bachelor of Arts RELIGION Bachelor of Arts MATHEMATICS & WRITING Noah Aaron Burke Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 PLAN SUMMARY: A critique of democratic theory and practice in the antebellum era. PROJECT: Exploring the transformations of the democratic paradigm in the 1828 presidential election and its implications for republican participation. Sponsors: Kathryn Ratcliff, Meg Mott Outside Evaluator: Tom Redden, Southern Vermont College Martin Cahill PLAN SUMMARY: A study of genetic engineering to reduce automobile pollution. PROJECT: A paper on using archaeal metabolism to filter harmful car exhaust and turn it into a useable fuel. Sponsor: Todd Smith Outside Evaluator: Scott Tighe, University of Vermont Bachelor of Arts BIOCHEMISTRY Josephine R. Colburn PLAN SUMMARY: A political exploration of systemic epoch in the contemporary world. PROJECT: An analysis of development in the 21st century through examining the decline of empire and the rise of a pluralistic alternative. Sponsor: Lynette Rummel Outside Evaluator: Jon Western, Mount Holyoke College PLAN SUMMARY: A study of several topics in mathematics, ranging from game theory to advanced calculus, and a focused examination of structure and narrative in games, covering both the design and implementation of games and their mechanics. PROJECT: Designing a tabletop board game. Sponsors: Matthew Ollis, John Sheehy Outside Evaluator: Chris Dupuis, freelance game designer Ashley Deanne Breazeale Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES & POLITICS HILL Michelle Fischer. PLAN SUMMARY: A study of female adolescence in the United States, drawing on perspectives from history, psychology and cultural studies. PROJECT: A study of how single-sex schools impact female self-esteem. Sponsor: Kathryn Ratcliff Outside Evaluator: Rebecca Hains, Salem State College Keara Castaldo PLAN SUMMARY: An investigation of the development of American neoliberal ideology, including a history of the movement in terms of its ideological conception and the progress and process of its instigation in American politics, both domestic and otherwise. PROJECT: A paper on the development of neoliberal policy and institutions. Sponsors: Timothy Little, Gerald Levy Outside Evaluator: Jon Western, Mount Holyoke College THE John Wilson Bean Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES/Psychology PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the public service model in alternative architecture and its impact on the poor communicated through ethnographic writing, film and design. PROJECT: Middle Class Architects: A case study of aspiring public service professionals. Sponsors: Gerald Levy, Timothy Segar Outside Evaluator: Christian Churchill, St. Thomas Aquinas College OFF PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of performance through a theatrical and academic examination of the social dynamics of contemporary strip clubs in the United States. PROJECT: A theatrical representation of contemporary strip clubs through the lens of an original musical set in a fictional club. Sponsors: Brenda Foley, Kristin Horrigan Outside Evaluator: William Seigh, Keene State College Anne Wilson Davis Bachelor of Arts HISTORY & Bachelor of Arts THEATER/Dance/Performance Studies Evan Clossman Bachelor of Arts SOCIOLOGY ON Toni Lynn Baldi Kenton Howard Card Art history teacher Erin Benay, Sophia Cleary and dance teacher Kristin Horrigan. PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the themes of suffering, healing and the social construction of reality as depicted in the biblical book of Job and in the poetry of Rumi, supplemented by personal narrative. PROJECT: A paper exploring the nature of suffering and healing, as depicted in the biblical book of Job. Sponsors: Amer Latif, John Sheehy Outside Evaluator: Michael Pittman, Albany College of Pharmacy Sophia Cleary Bachelor of Arts ART HISTORY/Modern and Contemporary & DANCE PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the relationships between conceptual and performance art with a focus on artistic appropriation and authorship. PROJECT: A paper examining the concepts of object and subjecthood in the works of conceptual and performance artists from the 1960s and ’70s. Sponsors: Erin Benay, Kristin Horrigan Outside Evaluator: Frazer Ward, Smith College Return to Table of Contents Evelyn Rose Crawford Bachelor of Science BIOCHEMISTRY/Avian Biology PLAN SUMMARY: A broad analysis of the interactions between organisms and their environment from a biochemist’s and endocrinologist’s perspective. PROJECT: Paper discussing laboratory research on the effect of an endocrine-disrupting chemical, bisphenol-A, on gene expression in chicken testes. Sponsors: Todd Smith, Robert Engel Outside Evaluator: R. Thomas Zoeller, University of Massachusetts Amherst Toni Baldi and family. SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 43 Marcus John DeSieno Bachelor of Arts PHOTOGRAPHY PLAN SUMMARY: A critical investigation into the ethical issues surrounding representation in documentary photography. PROJECT: A photographic gallery exhibit investigating a consumer-oriented American landscape. Sponsor: John Willis Outside Evaluator: Virginia Beahan, Dartmouth College Carolyn Victoria Drumsta Bachelor of Arts ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES & BIOLOGY/Evolutionary Biology Bachelor of Arts POLITICS/Journalism PLAN SUMMARY: An inquiry into the nature of perception, drawing on cognitive psychology, philosophy and mathematics. PROJECT: A paper examining Gibson’s ecological optics informed by geometry of the perceptual field. Sponsors: Thomas Toleno, William Edelglass Outside Evaluator: Anthony Barrand, Boston University PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the anatomy and physiology of the human kidney, with the goal of using mathematical tools to predict the severity of kidney disease. PROJECT: A paper detailing work on mathematical models of kidney functions. Sponsors: Todd Smith, Matthew Ollis Outside Evaluator: Armand Balboni, Westfield State College PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the impact of educational systems in South Africa and the United States. PROJECT: A history of education in South Africa. Sponsors: Carol Hendrickson, Jonathan Mack Outside Evaluator: Amy Grillo, Union Institute and University Sarah Rachel Horowitz PLAN SUMMARY: An analysis of Mexican democracy, focusing on the media’s role in influencing national politics. PROJECT: A paper on democratic change in Mexico, focusing on the democratic transformation of the country to a multi-party system during the 1990s. Sponsors: Lynette Rummel, Dana Howell Outside Evaluator: Michael Clancy, University of Hartford Von Caterina Ferguson Willson Barrett Gaul Bachelor of Arts ASIAN STUDIES & POLITICS Bachelor of Arts WRITING/Creative Nonfiction PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of women and the supernatural in American history from the mid-19th century to the present, with an emphasis on the evolution of the spiritualist movement and the theme of the supernatural in the short fiction of Edith Wharton and Charlotte Gilman. PROJECT: Women and the evolution of spiritualism. Sponsors: Kathryn Ratcliff, Gloria Biamonte Outside Evaluator: Joanne Hayes, Greenfield Community College Bachelor of Arts ART HISTORY/Museum Studies Antonio Raphael Iaccarino PLAN SUMMARY: A study of Vietnam’s domestic and foreign policies since 1986. PROJECT: A paper based on research with Hanoi residents regarding economics and changing lifestyles in Vietnam since 1986. Sponsors: Seth Harter, Gerald Levy, Lynette Rummel Outside Evaluator: Kate Jellema, independent scholar PLAN SUMMARY: The composition and critical analysis of literary nonfiction, with an emphasis on personal narrative. An original book-length account of running the Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon, supported by analysis of selected personal narratives. PROJECT: A personal account of running the Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon. Sponsor: T. Hunter Wilson Outside Evaluator: John Caldwell, author Michelle Leigh Fischer Bachelor of Arts ANTHROPOLOGY & RELIGION PLAN SUMMARY: An investigation of New Age religion using fieldwork and library-based research. PROJECT: An ethnography of the Correllian Nativist Church. Sponsors: Carol Hendrickson, Amer Latif Outside Evaluator: Abigail Adams, Central Connecticut State University Christopher Franz Sean Gerety Bachelor of Arts ECONOMICS PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the economics of the Internet with a focus on creative content and property rights. PROJECT: A paper analyzing property, piracy and the production of music from Gutenberg to Google. Sponsor: James Tober Outside Evaluator: John Levin, School for International Training Bachelor of Arts FILM/VIDEO STUDIES/Screenwriting and Criticism & ASIAN STUDIES/Daoism PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the spiritual dimensions of the martial arts, specifically traditional Chinese martial arts and their relationship to Daoism, and an examination of how martial arts and spirituality have been portrayed in film. PROJECT: A screenplay concerning the spiritual dimensions of East Asian martial arts. Sponsors: Seth Harter, Jay Craven Outside Evaluator: William Phillips, Dartmouth College Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents PLAN SUMMARY: To combine a solid foundation in psychology, Spanish and applied linguistics in order to apply them to the Colombian context of English language learning, history, culture and armed conflict. PROJECT: Field study in Colombia examining the teaching of English as a second language. Sponsors: Thomas Toleno, Rosario de Swanson, Tom Means Outside Evaluator: Beatriz Fantini, SIT World Learning Bachelor of Science BIOCHEMISTRY/Molecular Biology Bachelor of Arts WRITING/Photography PLAN SUMMARY: A study of white-nose syndrome and population decline in bats, including laboratory research exploring the cause of the syndrome. PROJECT: A study of changes in gene expression in mammalian cells exposed to Geomyces destructans, using microarray technology. Sponsor: Todd Smith Outside Evaluator: Scott Darling, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration through writing and photography of the possibility of finding meaning in loss, especially as it relates to family. PROJECT: A collection of nonfiction pieces using memoir, interview and research to explore the death of my brother and its impact on my life, my family and my community. Sponsors: John Sheehy, John Willis Outside Evaluator: Janis Greve, University of Massachusetts Amherst Gordon MacKay Jackson Bachelor of Arts FILM/VIDEO STUDIES Bachelor of Arts MUSIC & RELIGION John “Spike” Carter ’09 and Adam Keller. Bachelor of Arts PSYCHOLOGY/Linguistics & LANGUAGES/Spanish Morgan Knight Ingalls Michael Brian Hamby Michael K. Harrist PLAN SUMMARY: A study of morality emphasizing the selective mechanisms by which it evolved, including an in-depth analysis of its adaptive function. PROJECT: An exploration of the philosophical implications of evolutionary ethics, including a comparison with historical accounts of morality. Sponsors: William Edelglass, Robert Engel Outside Evaluator: Richard Lewontin, Harvard University 44 PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of late 19th-century French painting and how artists in Paris perceived and framed reality as well as an investigation of perceptions of space and organization in museum display and curatorial processes. PROJECT: A study of framing, mirroring and window motifs found in late 19th-century French painting and how social, political and geographical developments during the time influenced artists. Sponsors: Erin Benay, Cathy Osman Outside Evaluator: Carol Ockman, Williams College HILL PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of how gendered identity is created in a mass-mediated society, drawing on socio-historical analysis and photography. PROJECT: An exhibit of portrait photography and autobiographical collage. Sponsors: John Willis, Kathryn Ratcliff, Gloria Biamonte Outside Evaluator: Rebecca Hains, Salem State College Alexander Douglas Hunter Bachelor of Arts ANTHROPOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY THE Bachelor of Arts PHOTOGRAPHY & AMERICAN STUDIES/American Literature Shelby Marie Holton Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES/Literature OFF Lucy Michelle Joanna Alexander DeLaurentis Caitlin Going Bachelor of Science BIOLOGY & MATHEMATICS & and Amanda DeBisschop. Rik Ganguly Bachelor of Arts PSYCHOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY ON Writing and literature teacher T. Wilson Parker Matthew Davis Emmerson PLAN SUMMARY: An examination of music and spirituality with an emphasis on the ways in which certain music’s supposed abstract and expressive nature may make it possible for the practitioner to engage with the ineffable. PROJECT: A paper that draws parallels between mystical and musical experience with an emphasis on the performative nature of both disciplines. Sponsors: Stanley Charkey, Amer Latif Outside Evaluator: Etan Nasreddin-Longo, independent scholar Return to Table of Contents Mark Genszler ’95, Alexander Hunter and Michael Hamby. PLAN SUMMARY: Write, produce and edit an original film reflecting the filmmaking philosophies of Lloyd Kaufman and Roger Corman. PROJECT: The complete production of an original film, including scripting, filming, scoring and editing. Sponsor: Jay Craven Outside Evaluator: Kenneth Peck, independent film scholar SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 45 Bachelor of Arts LANGUAGES/Linguistics PLAN SUMMARY: Studies in documentary film production and narrative film criticism. PROJECT: A documentary film exploration of “hero” narratives in movies. Sponsors: Paul Nelsen, Jay Craven Outside Evaluator: William Phillips, Dartmouth College PLAN SUMMARY: A research-based examination of the nature of second language acquisition, focusing on the complications associated with adult language learning, specifically of English speakers learning Mandarin. PROJECT: A comprehensive study of language acquisiton theory. Sponsors: Grant Li, Tom Means Outside Evaluator: Elka Todeva, SIT Graduate Institute PLAN SUMMARY: A study of Czech and Soviet cultural identity in the 20th century through literature and film. PROJECT: An examination of the relationship of socialist realism to Czech new wave. Sponsors: Dana Howell, Geraldine Pittman de Batlle Outside Evaluator: Polina Barskova, Hampshire College PLAN SUMMARY: A study of political disintegration in the aftermath of Richard Nixon’s presidency through an original script and theatrical performance. PROJECT: The writing of an original play, The Tiger Heart, and the staging of the production. Sponsor: Brenda Foley Outside Evaluator: Jennifer Madden, Wheaton College Alisha Langerman Bachelor of Arts PHYSICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE/Wind Energy Bachelor of Arts VISUAL ARTS & ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES/Ecological Design PLAN SUMMARY: An examination of the physics of wind power. PROJECT: Computer models of wind turbine design and energy production. Sponsors: Travis Norsen, Jim Mahoney Outside Evaluator: Patrick Quinlan, University of Massachusetts Amherst PLAN SUMMARY: A study of visual art exploring the contemporary relationship between humans, ecology and the built environment, accompanied by research in vernacular architecture and ecological design. PROJECT: Exhibit of woodcut prints and photography exploring human relationships within environments of sprawl, industry and abandonment. Sponsors: Timothy Segar, Cathy Osman Outside Evaluator: Brian Cohen, independent artist, Bridge Press Bachelor of Arts in International Studies LANGUAGES/Applied Linguistics Language faculty members Amity Jones Bachelor of Arts DANCE & RELIGION/Islam PLAN SUMMARY: A study of spirituality and physicality drawing on modern dance and Islam. PROJECT: A body of choreographic work exploring the connections between inward experience and outward expression. Sponsors: Kristin Horrigan, Amer Latif Outside Evaluator: Candice Salyers, Smith College Adam Susemihl Keller Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES/Media Studies PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of how technology and mass communication have shaped the nature of community and public discourse in the United States. PROJECT: From mixtapes to the iPod: A radio production focusing on personal audio devices. Sponsor: Kathryn Ratcliff Outside Evaluator: Benjamin Aslinger, Bentley University 46 Mia Noel Ariella Mara Miller Alec Koumjian Christopher Kwiat Rosario de Swanson and Grant Li. Ariella Miller. PLAN SUMMARY: A study in biopolitics, public health and HIV. PROJECT: A paper describing HIV infection and potential new therapies. Sponsors: Todd Smith, Meg Mott Outside Evaluator: Armand Balboni, Westfield State College PLAN SUMMARY: A study of how languages are learned, drawing from both theoretical analysis of communicative language teaching and personal experience learning Portuguese in Brazil. This study is then applied to create a semester-long curriculum for the teaching of English as a second/foreign language. PROJECT: A compilation of beginner-level English lesson plans outlining a semester’s worth of English instruction. INTERNSHIP: Florianopolis, Brazil Sponsor: Tom Means Outside Evaluator: Alvino Fantini, SIT World Learning Laura Lancaster Bachelor of Arts VISUAL ARTS/Art History PLAN SUMMARY: A study in relief sculpture and works on paper that calls into question notions of the natural and the artificial, connected to an art historical study looking at images of violence and monsters in 19thand 21st-century art and popular culture. PROJECT: Art exhibition of artwork that emphasizes themes of collection, specimens, and natural and artificial materials. Sponsors: Cathy Osman, Erin Benay, Timothy Segar Outside Evaluator: Soo Sunny Park, Dartmouth College Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Tobey Sol LaRoche Bachelor of Arts LIBERAL STUDIES/Education PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of music’s role in early education, with a focus on fostering creativity and improvisation in young children. PROJECT: A study of some of the more influential methods of music education used in the United States, with inquiries into the value of creativity and improvisation skills gained in the early years of primary schooling. Sponsor: Thomas Toleno Outside Evaluator: Ellen Jahos, Keene School District Bachelor of Arts ART HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY/Visual Art PLAN SUMMARY: An examination of the conceptual art movement focusing on the subject of artistic intention and the art object, as well as a look at the formal element of repetition, complemented by an exhibition of works on paper. PROJECT: A philosophical exploration of the conceptual art movement with regard to artistic intention and the art object. Sponsors: William Edelglass, Erin Benay, Cathy Osman Outside Evaluator: Nathan Margalit, Mount Holyoke College PLAN SUMMARY: An interdisciplinary study of environmental management with a focus on collaborative, place-based and adaptive planning, drawing on economics, environmental philosophy and policy studies. PROJECT: A case study of the Northern Forest planning initiative, examining history, process and outcomes. Sponsors: James Tober, William Edelglass Outside Evaluator: Jan Dizard, Amherst College Return to Table of Contents PLAN SUMMARY: An examination of contemporary U.S.–Middle East relations, reflecting foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration, post 9/11 American film and personal experiences in the region. PROJECT: The Bush Doctrine: Analysis of foreign policy under George W. Bush. Sponsors: Lynette Rummel, Jay Craven Outside Evaluator: Tim Kipp, Brattleboro Union High School Brooke Gale O’Donnell Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES/Literature PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of antebellum literary culture with a focus on the life and work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. PROJECT: A paper focusing on the expansion of the antebellum literary marketplace with an emphasis on Hawthorne’s relationship to critics and to the popular female authors of the day. Sponsors: Kathryn Ratcliff, Gloria Biamonte Outside Evaluator: Lise Sanders, Hampshire College Susannah Lane Mohan Lisa E. Orenstein Bachelor of Arts WRITING & RELIGION Bachelor of Arts PSYCHOLOGY/Education PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the reciprocal relationship between identity and perception through creative nonfiction and a literary analysis of an ancient Indian epic and one contemporary American novel. PROJECT: A piece of creative nonfiction about a summer spent in Tibet. A literary paper about the construction and expression of identity through myth-making in Marilynne Robinson’s novel Housekeeping. Sponsors: Amer Latif, Gloria Biamonte Outside Evaluator: Martha Ackmann, Mount Holyoke College PLAN SUMMARY: The review and application of intervention types for school-aged children with AD/HD. PROJECT: The design of a research proposal that tests the skills approach against other treatment interventions for school-aged children with AD/HD. Sponsors: Thomas Toleno, Jonathan Mack Outside Evaluator: Dorothy Osterholt, Landmark College Isaac Daniel Lawrence Bachelor of Arts ECONOMICS & PHILOSOPHY Bachelor of Arts POLITICS & FILM/VIDEO STUDIES Simon Moody Lindsay Kathleen Christopher O’Rourke Bachelor of Arts LITERATURE/Irish Studies/Classics & WRITING Michaela Wood. Bachelor of Arts THEATER PLAN SUMMARY: An examination of the history and use of race as a thematic device on the American stage, culminating in a production of Rebecca Gilman’s play Spinning into Butter. PROJECT: A performance of Rebecca Gilman’s play Spinning into Butter. Sponsor: Brenda Foley Outside Evaluator: Peggy Rae Johnson, Keene State College Return to Table of Contents HILL Christopher Odegard Bachelor of Arts FILM/VIDEO STUDIES THE Francisco Alejandro Mugnani Bachelor of Science BIOCHEMISTRY/Immunology & POLITICS/ Political Theory OFF William Hunter Mees Bachelor of Arts THEATER & Heidi Koos Bachelor of Arts CULTURAL HISTORY & LITERATURE/ Russian & East European Studies ON William Allen Jenkins Amber Lyn Nuite Bachelor of Arts HISTORY & LANGUAGES/Spanish PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the history of Argentina and of the tango in Argentina and elsewhere. Much of the written work will be in the Spanish language. PROJECT: A paper exploring the history of the Argentine tango. Sponsor: Timothy Little Outside Evaluator: Elsa Borrero, The Putney School PLAN SUMMARY: A comparative study of James Joyce’s Ulysses and the classical epic. PROJECT: A paper exploring both the classical and Irish elements of episodes in Ulysses. Sponsors: Heather Clark, Timothy Little, Andrew Singer, Laura Stevenson Outside Evaluator: Susan Brown, independent scholar SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 47 Amber Schaefer Garth Thomas Sutherland Paul Tarr Vorvick Gelek Namgyal Yeshi Bachelor of Arts VISUAL ARTS & SOCIOLOGY Bachelor of Arts POLITICS Bachelor of Arts THEATER/Sociology Bachelor of Arts PHILOSOPHY/Buddhist Philosophy PLAN SUMMARY: A cross-disciplinary study of quality, value and accomplishment in everyday life as reflected in fine art. PROJECT: Painstaking crudeness and elaborate ineptitude: An exhibition of sculpture, painting and mixed media objects. Sponsors: Cathy Osman, Gerald Levy, Timothy Segar Outside Evaluator: Lynn Richardson, Keene State College PLAN SUMMARY: The politics of pluralism: An exploration of felony disenfranchisement in the United States and Nepali nation building. PROJECT: A paper exploring women’s political voices within the Nepali nationbuilding process. Sponsor: Meg Mott Outside Evaluator: Ann Armbrecht, Goddard College Bachelor of Arts POLITICS/Political Theory & AMERICAN STUDIES PLAN SUMMARY: A study of live action role playing games in the northeastern United States, with particular focus on the organizational and personal aspects of “LARPing.” PROJECT: An investigation and analysis of live action role playing games, supported by studies of theoretical models drawn from major thinkers in sociology and performance studies. Sponsors: Paul Nelsen, Gerald Levy Outside Evaluator: Ethan Gilsdorf, independent scholar and writer PLAN SUMMARY: A study of Buddhist theories of karma. PROJECT: The first translation into a European language of Chu dang shing gi A Guide to the Buddhist Path), by the 18thcentury Tibetan scholar Gung thang, together with a commentary and introductory essay. Sponsor: William Edelglass Outside Evaluator: Eric Nelson, University of Massachusetts Lowell Nathaniel Weeks Annalisa Rose Yoder Bachelor of Arts MUSIC/Musicology Bachelor of Arts PSYCHOLOGY PLAN SUMMARY: A broad study of music history, with a focus on the evolution of electronic music. A study of music composition and performance combining a wide range of influences including jazz, concert music, musique concrete and electronic music. A study of recording, mixing and mastering both electronic and acoustic instruments. PROJECT: A research paper on early electronic music with a focus on musique concrete and its influence on the rest of the field. Sponsor: Stanley Charkey Outside Evaluator: John Levin, independent scholar and composer PLAN SUMMARY: Use of psychology to evaluate cultural memory and perceived status. PROJECT: An analysis of the relationship between the cultural memory of the history of colonization in the United States and Mexico and an individual’s attitudes toward outside cultures and other members of his/her culture. Sponsor: Thomas Toleno Outside Evaluator: Kate Jellema, independent scholar Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES & ECONOMICS & POLITICS PLAN SUMMARY: An interdisciplinary exploration of the contested relationship between public and private space in the United States, with an emphasis on the contemporary urban environment. PROJECT: New London, Connecticut, and the Kelo decision: A study of urban redevelopment and property redistribution. Sponsors: Kathryn Ratcliff, Meg Mott, James Tober Outside Evaluator: Myrna Breitbart, Hampshire College Timothy Patterson Bachelor of Arts THEATER & FILM/VIDEO STUDIES PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of an apocalyptic perspective in contemporary theater and film through the production of three original short films. PROJECT: The writing, filming and editing of three short films. Sponsors: Brenda Foley, Jay Craven Outside Evaluator: Kenneth Peck, independent film scholar André Perez Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the relationship between political agency and storytelling within the transgender community through the lens of media analysis. PROJECT: A multimedia exhibit that attempts to portray a history of transgender activism and reframe trans issues as a community struggle. Sponsors: Kathryn Ratcliff, John Willis Outside Evaluator: Joelle Ryan, University of New Hampshire 48 Bachelor of Arts HISTORY Evan George Taylor PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the natural world with a focus on the disturbance ecology of New England and Pacific coast forests. PROJECT: Field research and analysis of the effects of the 2008 ice storm in the woods of Marlboro, Vermont. Sponsor: Jennifer Ramstetter Outside Evaluator: R. Matthew Landis, Middlebury College PLAN SUMMARY: A theoretical and practical exploration of the teaching of history in high schools in the United States, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. PROJECT: An essay exploring the teaching of history in U.S. high schools, including but not limited to how curriculum is designed and how elements of history are emphasized or ignored. Sponsors: Timothy Little, Gerald Levy Outside Evaluator: Amy Grillo, Union Institute and University Erin Elizabeth Riordan Michael C. Sotak Bachelor of Arts LITERATURE & WRITING/Environmental Studies Bachelor of Arts ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES/Renewable Energy Georgios Michael Loring Tsangaris PLAN SUMMARY: A study of environmental perspectives in literature, focusing on contemporary American poetry with supporting work in creative writing and ecology. PROJECT: Paper on ecological perspectives in contemporary American poetry focusing on Mary Oliver, Gary Snyder and Wendell Berry. Sponsor: T. Hunter Wilson Outside Evaluator: Jacqueline Gens, New England College PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of the environmental and social challenges that face the public acceptance of renewable energy, with a focus on wind power. PROJECT: A paper addressing the environmental challenges and benefits of renewable energy. Sponsors: Jennifer Ramstetter, Gerald Levy Outside Evaluator: John Kidder, Vermont Technical College PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the historical development of American youthful countercultures informing an ethnographic and photographic portrait of contemporary punk subculture. PROJECT: An ethnographic study of punk counterculture in contemporary America. Sponsors: Gerald Levy, Kathryn Ratcliff, John Willis Outside Evaluator: Wilson Valentin-Escobar, Hampshire College Zorn Sunshine-Carter Olivia Danielle Sanders Bachelor of Arts PSYCHOLOGY & AMERICAN STUDIES/Gender Studies PLAN SUMMARY: A psychological and cultural examination of adolescent female development, focusing on how constructions of femininity shape identity formation. PROJECT: An investigation of adolescent identity formation through an analysis of five Marlboro women’s narratives on their femininity and sexuality. Sponsors: Thomas Toleno, Kathryn Ratcliff Outside Evaluator: Lauren Duncan, Smith College Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Bachelor of Arts SOCIOLOGY PLAN SUMMARY: A study of United States foreign policy from World War II to the present day. PROJECT: A study of contemporary U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Central Asia. Sponsor: Gerald Levy Outside Evaluator: Jon Western, Mount Holyoke College Bachelor of Arts SOCIOLOGY & AMERICAN STUDIES Bachelor of Arts SOCIOLOGY & BIOLOGY PLAN SUMMARY: The relationship between food, exercise and lifestyle from a sociological and biological perspective. PROJECT: An ethnographic study of foodfocused lifestyles in a small academic community. Sponsors: Gerald Levy, Todd Smith Outside Evaluator: Willem Brooke-deBock, Kaplan University Bachelor of Arts AMERICAN STUDIES/Gender Studies/ Painting PLAN SUMMARY: A study of the selfrepresentation of selected contemporary female artists with an emphasis on how the gendered body is reconfigured in the context of postmodernism and an analytical paper complemented by artwork. PROJECT: Virtual selves: Plasticity and manipulation in the works of Cindy Sherman and Nikki S. Lee. Sponsors: Kathryn Ratcliff, Cathy Osman Outside Evaluator: Lise Sanders, Hampshire College Michaela D. Wood Bachelor of Arts DANCE/Artistic and Scientific Approaches Mary Coventry. Return to Table of Contents Kelsey Wolcott Return to Table of Contents PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of body/ mind connection in dance movement practices. PROJECT: A paper exploring the underlying connections between performed contemporary dance and dance/movement therapy. Sponsors: Kristin Horrigan, Jaime Tanner Outside Evaluator: Megan Frazier, Shriner’s Hospital for Children HILL Pooja Patel Bachelor of Arts ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES/Forest Ecology THE Tim’s friend in college. Elizabeth Shepherd Julia Rose Langworthy Powers-Boyle bstan bcos (Similes of Water and Trees: OFF father Richard Sanders, who was & Olivia Sanders with art teachers Tim Segar and Cathy Osman, and Olivia’s PLAN SUMMARY: An exploration of democratic visions within educational theories with a historical case study in progressive education. PROJECT: A paper analyzing how different educational or political theorists draw pedagogical methods from their visions for radical democracy and social change, including John Dewey, Paulo Freire and bell hooks. Sponsors: Meg Mott, Kathryn Ratcliff Outside Evaluator: Amy Grillo, Union Institute and University ON Nicolas Graham Petr Mengbi Zhou Bachelor of Arts HISTORY & ASIAN STUDIES PLAN SUMMARY: An examination of the changing European attitudes toward “going native” in British India and other British dependencies, as well as the attitudes of the native population toward the changing sentiments. PROJECT: A paper outlining, from the late18th century to the 20th, the Far East imperial expansion of the British and the native response. Sponsors: Seth Harter, Timothy Little Outside Evaluator: Thomas Williams, Green Mountain College Peter A. Blair Master of Arts PHILOSOPHY Thesis: “Otherwise than the true: Verification and responsibility in late Levinas.” A study of truth, verification and responsibility in Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics. Sponsor: William Edelglass Outside Evaluator: Eric Nelson, University of Massachusetts Lowell SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 49 A L U M N I N E W S ’51 ’57 “After 40 years of ministry in the Episcopal Church,” writes the Rev. REGINALD RODMAN, “serving as rector and vicar in parishes and missions in Colorado, Hawaii and Oregon, I have retired from active ministry. The shock of retirement is mitigated by my new and deepening relationships with salmon. As always, I continue to be impressed by the growth and development of Marlboro. Best wishes and high regards.” ’59 BRUCE and BARBARA COLE write, “Living close to the college gives us the opportunity to attend many functions, one of which was the ceramics department show featuring MALCOLM (ORV) WRIGHT ’62 and Michael Boylen’s beautiful creations. A fitting tribute to 40 years. Barbara’s continuing (very) part-time work in the bookstore continues to impress us with the vibrancy of the college.” ’64 “I am finally a married man,” writes DANIEL MOORE. “Got married on November 14, 2009. On our honeymoon, we drove past Marlboro College. My bride, Adrienne Rarick, was impressed. Looking forward to many more days.” “Still find it hard to believe no one I knew was at the 60th reunion,” BARBARA (BUNKY) ZIMMERMAN tells us. “The college looks great—so big. Am living in Oregon with Zoe (my Lhasa Apso) and two cats. Roni died four years ago and I still miss him. Am trying to learn computer, but am not good at it. Hi to all—come see me if you get around here.” 50 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 “I’m halfway through a new book,” writes ART MAGIDA. “This one’s for Macmillan and is about Erik Jan Hanussen, aka ‘Hitler’s Jewish clairvoyant.’ Fascinating, disturbing guy. Publication date (if I’m lucky): spring 2011.” JENNIE TUCKER tells us: “All is well here in the Blue Mountains (Oregon). Enjoying semi-retirement. Summer garden was devastated by grasshoppers—fifth year of the hungry buggers. Addicted to ISC.com. Online Scrabble, what fun.” ’68 “Glad to hear Marlboro is doing so well,” writes MARK KLIMO. “Always fond memories of those formative years. Best to all. Hello, TIM LITTLE. Went fishing with RON WHITEHORNE ’63 recently.” ’69 SHEILA LANGDON GARRETT is in her tenth year teaching at The Meeting School in Rindge, New Hampshire. “I became a grandmother in September and it’s like falling in love. My granddaughter Lily lives with my son, Eli, and his wife, Jennifer, in Massachusetts, not too far away. I have many connections to Marlboro these days. I am in regular contact with SUE WHITEHORNE RUSTEN ’68 and TIM MAYO, and have also had a visit from JAVED CHAUDHRI ’65 and his wonderful wife, Yasmeen. The Meeting School considers itself a feeder school for Marlboro and it has been one almost since it was founded in 1957. Two TMS grads were already at Marlboro when I got there in 1963— BRUCIE TUCKER ’66 and ANGELA (SHOOGIE) WOOD LEVINE ’64. I’ve seen both of them at Meeting School reunions. DAPHNE CROCKER ’71 also graduated from TMS and she visited here a few years ago on her way to sing with Blanche Moyse. Since I’ve been teaching at TMS we’ve had several students graduate from here and go to Marlboro. I don’t even remember all of them, but I know JONATHAN BOYNTON ’09 graduated last year and ZACH PEARSON ’12 will in the coming years. SHOSHANNA BRADY went to Marlboro for a while and is still in the area. DEVIN GREEN ’11 and SUSANNAH MOHAN ’10 are currently enrolled, as far as I know. If anyone knows of high schoolers that you think might do well at Marlboro and would benefit from a couple of years (or even four) here first, please send them our way. If you want to see me virtually, check out the video on our website (www. meetingschool.org) and if anyone is in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, stop by. It’s very lovely here and I live in a yurt on the edge of woods and orchards.” ’72 JUDY MCCLAREN ASBURY reports that she will be having an exhibition of her paintings at the Nagasaki Peace Museum in Nagasaki, Japan, this year. It will open on August 10, the day after the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of that city, and many of Judy’s paintings were inspired by this event. DENA DAVIS was on a Fulbright teaching assignment at University of Padua, in Italy, from May through June 2010. “Things are good for us in Austin,” writes HAROLD ZAKON. “Our 19-year-old daughter, Daniella, is attending Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, a western and larger version of Marlboro. I visited MELANIE GIFFORD ’73 in Washington, D.C., and FRANK PEKOC in Cleveland this past year. Great fun to see you both.” In February, former pottery professor Malcolm Wright ’62 and pottery professor Michael Boylen each shared their work at a joint show in Drury Gallery. Michael retired this spring after 30 years (see Potash Hill, Winter 2010). ’73 ALICE GROSSMAN tells us: “How fun to discover that my colleague in the art department at Pingree School, a small private high school north of Boston, is also a Marlboro graduate. BARBARA Opposite: Josie Colburn ’10 celebrates receiving her diploma. Return to Table of Contents Return P h o t o b to y JTable e f f W oof o dContents ward Return to Table of Contents NEWS Joan and CHARLES STAPLES write, “Our latest world travel of note was an ambitious and memorable three-week tour in South Africa, plus visits to Swaziland and Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls). Included were Johannesburg, Soweto, Kruger National Park, Kwazulu Natal, Port Elizabeth and south coast to Cape Town and vicinity. We learned much from a learned indigenous tour director, and engaged many sights of interest.” ’67 ALUMNI Class notes are listed by year and include both graduates and nongraduates; the latter are listed under the class with which they were associated. SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 51 DIANNA NOYES decided it was time to try something new and signed up for pottery classes at Brattleboro Clayworks this spring. “Let’s just say that I have a whole new appreciation of the craft, and my reverence for those of you who make a living from it, or even an avocation of it, has sky-rocketed.” Sunny Tappan ’77: Swimming in poetry Everyone who has heard Sunny read STEVE VAN NESS writes, “Busy life. Four kids: 23, 18, 13 and 12. Two companies. Launching new music web biz in April, at Gimmesound.com. Still doing events: impactartsevents.com.” her poetry, or enjoyed her choice of daily poem for the campus online Town Crier, will ’82 be pleased to hear that she had ABBY JACOBSON is back in Putney, Vermont, after two years of residing at a small boarding school in the White Mountains. “While there, I did some ice climbing, sailing and whitewater rafting, as well as some spectacular hiking. Now, being home again, I’m employed at a therapeutic residential program called The Tapestry Program, which is for Vermont women coming out of the prison system. Challenging work, but I’m grateful for a poem published this spring in The Aurorean, a biannual poetry journal out of Maine: Last Swim of the Season Gail Manyan Henry ’72 celebrated her 60th birthday in good company at her New Hampshire Gravel strewn with rust-orange home. Joining her were (back row) Barbara Hornthumb ’72, Gail, Bob Plumb ’73, Rosemary needles, dry green of maples Siragusa Zamore ’73, Peter Zamore ’74, Will Wootton ’72, (seated) Rick Clare ’75, Bruce edging towards red and yellow, Droste ’72, Lulu Ballantine Wootton ‘85 and Pamela Cersosimo ’77. the sand pocked with dull footprints, a faded towel bereft on a stump, canoes bellyup on weeds— the water’s still warm. Tonight a Nor’easter is warned, but now it’s quiet and a cormorant’s skimming a wing’s length above the lake. galleries, artists, cultural organizations, cheesemakers and landscape designers to further populate the trail. On April 23–25, the arts council hosted our third Poets and Writers Weekend, showcasing the literary, visual and performing arts in a grassroots, Marlboro-style event. I was pleased to help bring Marlboro’s nonprofit certification program to our southwestern corner of Vermont. It was received well and was much needed by our nonprofit sector.” ’76 WHITNEY ’97 and I are the largest alumnae contingent from any college in the school. Hopefully one day Barbara (theater arts) or I (photography) will send one of our students Marlboro’s way.” ’74 “I have been working to build visibility for the creative community in southern Vermont, as part of my efforts through the Greater Manchester Arts Council,” writes BETH MEACHEM. “We have developed an online virtual art trail designed to build cultural tourism awareness in the region. Marlboro’s Drury Gallery will be on the trail, and we are encouraging other 52 MELISSA METTLER ABRAMS writes, “It’s mid-November and we’re in the midst of our second snowstorm in Fort Collins, Colorado. This is a wonderful city—we’d love to have visitors if anyone is interested. My husband and I are coping with two teenage daughters and still managing to stay sane.” “Orion turns 2 on January 18,” writes CHRISTOPHER NOTH. “Finishing Sex and the City 2. Trying to find a new space for the Cutting Room (rock ‘n roll club I had for 10 years on West 24th) so we can do a fundraiser for Rainforest Action Network, a great organization.” Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 work at all. My son Drew, age 21, now resides in Arcata, California—home to the famous redwoods—where he’s working as an independent contractor and musician. My other son, Lee, age 20, is a full-time student at Castleton State College, where he hopes to major in sports management. I’d love to hear from any of you either by email ([email protected]) or via Facebook.” DANIEL PICKER writes, “I published a book review in Rain Taxi Review of Books in the online edition this winter. The previous spring, I published my fourth and fifth poems in RUNE: The MIT Journal of Arts & Letters, where (at MIT) I was invited to read my work for the second time. Also, last spring I published my poetry in the annual edition of Bridges, where I’ve published about 15 poems since 1997.” “I’ve been in Las Vegas since 2001, which was my return to the U.S. after nearly a decade living abroad in Colombia,” writes TIM PRATT. “Until being laid off in December, I was a reporter at the ’78 REGGIE BLASZCZYK published two books last year—American Consumer Society, 1865–2005: From Hearth to HDTV and Rohm and Haas: A Century of Innovation— both available on Amazon.com. In fall 2009, she was a visiting research scholar at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and has joined the editorial board at the Journal of Design History, the leading international journal in its field, published by Oxford University Press. In what little spare time she has, she enjoys watching Law & Order reruns that feature former classmate CHRIS NOTH ’76, and keeps her eye out for British productions with MADELEINE POTTER ’79. Daniel Kane ’90: The poetics of sociability “Art isn’t something the tortured individual has to sweat over in the solitary hell of an attic,” said Daniel Kane. “Art is something that can literally happen at a party. Art can be fun.” Daniel is the author of We Saw the Light: Conversations between the New American Cinema and Poetry (University of Iowa, 2009), a book focusing on the exchanges—social, literary, aesthetic and collaborative—between experimental and avant-garde American filmmakers and poets of the postwar era. We Saw the Light examines artistic communities in the 50s and 60s, largely based in San Francisco and New York, communities commonly affiliated with “New American ’79 Cinema” and the “Beat,” “San Francisco Renaissance” and “New York School” move- “Still happy in the mountains of Pennsylvania,” writes ED MCMULLEN. “Ah, wilderness.” ments. Within these communities, Daniel shows, through anecdote and analysis, how artists in different media effectively influenced and inspired each other. Daniel is currently working on a cultural history detailing how the New York ’80 SOPHIE BLACK had another poem published, in the May 17 issue of The New Yorker, titled “Private Equity.” See it at www.newyorker.com/fiction/ poetry/2010/05/17/100517po_poem_black. Return to Table of Contents proto-punk and post-punk scenes of the 60s, 70s and 80s were informed and influenced by poetic formations like the French Symbolists and Beat Generation writers. He is a professor of American literature at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, which he says is “sort of like the San Francisco of England.” Return to Table of Contents In April, current students enjoyed a casual discussion with local alumni Michelle Chasse Holzapfel ’73, David Holzapfel ’72, Nels Kloster ‘97 and Sarah Edwards ’78 about life after Marlboro and how they chose their vocations. Las Vegas Sun these nine years, covering minority affairs, immigration and social services. In Colombia, I also did reporting, in both English and Spanish, for publications ranging from the New York Times, the Economist and the Miami Herald to the Associated Press. My wife, Joana, who’s a scenic designer and art teacher, and 13-year-old son, Jesse, are both from Cali, Colombia; my younger son, Dylan, was born in Henderson, Nevada, and now we’re all looking for new opportunities, perhaps starting over somewhere else. All ideas are welcome at [email protected]. And old friends or new voices from Marlboro are always welcome here in Vegas, while we’re still here.” “I’m still working at Slippery Rock University,” writes DAVID SKEELE, “teaching acting, directing shows and running the playwriting program. This summer, we’ll take my latest ‘play of supernatural horror’ to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.” ’84 JOHN MAJONEN and ELLY WETTEMANN MAJONEN ’87 write to tell us: “John is running marathons. Elly just presented several workshops at the Marlboro College Graduate School on the social and emotional foundations of early learning. Older daughter EMMA MAJONEN ’13 is currently in Chennai, India, and emails with Marlboro alum ATHAR KHAN ’88. Small world.” SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 53 “At its best, I believe medicine is a dialogue individual and society,” said naturopathic doctor Anna Abele. She recently founded A Natural Path, a new center for naturopathic healing with locations in West Brattleboro, Vermont, and Northampton, Massachusetts. Anna, who studied developmental psychology while at Marlboro, worked in the field of psychiatric crisis for seven years after graduation. It was there that she became inspired to explore alternative forms of healing. “If you wish to gain firsthand experience of the limitations of modern medicine, psychiatric crisis is a good place to learn,” said Anna. She began studying herbal medicine, and eventually decided to get her naturopathic doctor degree. Anna worked at the Brattleboro Naturopathic Clinic before opening her own practice. “I like working to reduce suffering,” said Anna. “I enjoy thinking outside the box and working toward answers for people who have fallen through the cracks in our systems. It is satisfying to know that I do my best on a regular basis for the good of others.” ’89 STEFANO LUZZATTO sends some updates about himself and TONYA BLOWERS ’90. “We have recently moved to Trieste, Italy, from London with our two children, Francesca, 11, and Michaela, 7. Tonya is teaching creative writing and I am working for UNESCO at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. This is a research institute whose mission is to ‘promote excellence in science in the developing world.’ So on top of my personal research, I help to coordinate a variety of schemes to help individual scientists in countries with poor resources and poor research infrastructure to carry on their research. It feels like the perfect job for me, bringing together many different aspects of work that I have experienced in different places at different times.” Dr. JAMES ROUSE is the wellness doctor for QVC television. He is co-founder and creator of Mix1, an all-natural nutritional beverage. James reports he is happily married to Debra, and they have two daughters, Dakota, 12, and Elli, 7. ’88 “I am enjoying life now, working as a nurse for Compassionate Care Hospice in Brooklyn, New York,” writes MONIKA LYMAN. “Love to stay in touch with old friends. Find me on Facebook, if you want.” ANDREW KOSCIESZA continues to build the music program at Montgomery County Community College in suburban Pennsylvania. The program has just launched an associate degree with transfer agreements in place with Temple University, University of the Arts, West Chester University and others. Barring unforeseen circumstances, by the time you read this Andrew’s promotion to associate professor will be finalized. Melinda continues to build the dance program at the same institution. Daughter Ariel (who now goes by Aiden James) is completing her third and final year teaching English in Japan. Christopher is in his junior year at Gettysburg, and is considering changing to a political science major. Any friends are strongly encouraged to visit or to drop an email: [email protected]. ’86 “In May 2009 I received a Master of Divinity degree from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary,” writes SANDRA RUDD. “In November 2009 I was ordained as a Lutheran pastor. In December I began serving at Sitka Lutheran Church in Sitka, Alaska. I am having fun getting to know the town, the people and the history. The church is the oldest Lutheran church on the West Coast, as it was founded by Finnish Lutherans in 1840 while Alaska was still in Russian hands. Almost all the cruise ships to Alaska stop here, and so if you or your family happen to be on one, please stop by and say ‘hi.’” 54 METTE SCHWARTZ writes, “My middle school curriculum work has expanded to involve math as well as science, which some may remember has been a perennial Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 ’91 C. J. CHURCHILL reports, “My partner, Jody Jeglinski, and I were married on June 12 in Amherst, New Hampshire. We’ve been together since 1996 and are thrilled to celebrate the legal recognition of our union.” ’92 MIKE CRANE took a leave from running his community development consulting business to help rebuild Iraq. “I have a one-year contract with the U.S. State Department and am leading several urban planning initiatives. I was honored to witness the first free election in a completely sovereign Iraq since . . . well, ever. I live in the Mesopotamian Valley on the Tigris River; some call it the cradle of civilization. I’m trying the find the civility.” ’93 “I’m still reporting half-time for the public radio show Marketplace and (ostensibly) freelancing with the other half of my time,” writes SEAN COLE. “I’m also planning to move to Toronto on May 1. Any Marlboro alumni up there in the Great White North? Please get in touch: [email protected]. In terms of fellow alumni sightings, I recently, and wonderfully, reunited with JENNA CHANDLER-WARD ’92 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We had a drink and then walked over to Buckaroo’s Mercantile, the kitsch and curiosity shop in Central Square owned by BROOKS MORRIS ’92. It was like old times—except we’re all so much more attractive now. I often have the pleasure of hanging out with AARON TIEGER ’97 and attending Andrew Gates ’94: Witness in Haiti When Andrew Gates traveled to Haiti in ’90 ’85 where I have been for 11 years now, and have begun presenting at conferences around the country. My husband, Dan, and I have been married 20 years—but Marlboro College and Putney School have all our money…so, we’ll see about that trip. I live just a few miles from the college in Marlboro, so please look me up if you’re ever in the area.” January, he intended to perform demolition “I recently had lunch up on the hill, as a parent,” writes SOPHIE LAMPARD DENNIS. “Yes, my son ERIC ’13 is finishing his freshman year at the college. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the college from this new vantage point—and I must say I have been very impressed (once again) by the level of education that he is receiving. Hearing about the goings-on in Schrader is kind of fun too. He is moving heavily into science, and enjoyed taking Bob Engel’s last class in fall ’09 (Physical Geography) and two classes with JENNY RAMSTETTER ’81 this spring. He is also an artist, and has been taking film and drawing this year. My older daughter, Coral, graduated from University of Vermont in dairy science last spring, and has just returned from six months in Chile, where she was working on a dairy farm (she was there for the earthquake). And my younger daughter, Marie, is a junior at The Putney School, where she just finished up a great season on the basketball team. She is also a fabulous horseback rider. For my part, I am still teaching at Landmark College in Putney, Return to Table of Contents work in Port au Prince, the capital, in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. He and a group of six other men raised $5,000 and a large supply of food, but they did not make it past the outskirts of the city before their truck driver refused to go on. It was here that Andrew’s group came across an orphanage housing 19 children but lacking any food, and they donated their food supply and money to the orphanage that very morning. “We never really had a specific plan for the food or cash when we left, simply believing that we’d find someone who needed them. In the end, we didn’t have to look far,” Andrew said. He was moved by the effect on the spirit and morale of the children. “When I arrived, they were listless and still; before the first meal was finished, they were starting to sing and play.” Andrew then found a Red Cross field hospital in the same neighborhood, where he relied on his paramedic training to treat Haitians with various maladies, from fractures to dysentery, for his remaining eight days there. “My experience in Haiti has reinforced my sense of gratitude for all of my many privileges; it is a daily reminder of how fortunate I am here,” he said. When Andrew is not building houses in Austin, Texas, he helps his wife in her immigration law practice. Return to Table of Contents his poetry readings. And who should be in the audience at one of those readings late last year but DAVID DILORENZO ’95. Always great to see him. Also, CATE MARVIN ’93 and I both had poems published in the anthology Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days (University of Iowa Press). Finally, I’ve discovered that actor CHRIS NOTH ’78 and I both studied poetry at Marlboro, both lived in a cabin there, and both took off for Indonesia afterwards. All of this makes me wonder why I was never featured on Law and Order: Criminal Intent.” NEWS between self and other, mind and body, interest of mine. My husband and I are still lovingly restoring our 1707 house in Westborough, Massachusetts.” ALUMNI Anna Abele ’91: Exploring alternative forms of healing ’94 GINA DEANGELIS writes, “David, Audrey and I welcomed Dominic Joseph on October 30. He’s a happy little guy and a lot of fun to have around! I still work in education outreach for Colonial Williamsburg, where I’m finishing up a years-long project called “The Idea of America,” an all-digital high school history-and-civics curriculum created by Colonial Williamsburg and distributed by Pearson. Just trying to change the face of American history education, that’s all. Hoping to get to New England for the national fife and drum muster this August. Hi to all the folks I don’t already see on Facebook.” ’95 “My husband and I are doing great,” writes ELIZABETH BLAIR. “We’re always amazed by the words and actions of our 4-year-old, Vincent—truly is a ‘great age.’ Still living in Tampa, Florida. Please stop in if you’re in the Sunshine State.” ERIK PEARSON writes, “Enjoying life in Austin, Texas. Our two kids will start elementary school this year. Business is going well: http://VisibleContact.com. Enjoyed a trip to Peru this year, exploring opportunities in international health care technology.” “I’ll be processing Jersey cow milk this spring, when my son’s heifer freshens,” says MAYA ZELKIN, “and leading four ‘traditional foods’ workshops at a local cooperative store in March. Happy eating to all.” ’96 ROBIN GAY’s research article, titled, “My body or my mind: The impact of state and trait objectification on women’s cognitive resources,” was recently published in SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 55 ’97 ’04 GARY GOTTLIEB and MELANIE KNIGHT GOTTLIEB ’02 write to tell us that Melanie was promoted to admissions operations director at Webster University. Gary is now associate professor at Webster, and had his third book—How Does It Sound Now? Legendary Engineers and Vintage Gear—published by Thomson in October 2009. He was also moderator for the panel “How Does It Sound Now: the Evolution of Audio” at the Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit in September 2009. “I moved back to Vermont in May of ’08,” writes HEATHER BRYCE, “and I’m so happy to be back. I’m working as a developmental educator at Early Intervention (working with children 0 to 3 years old with disabilities and supporting their families), in central Vermont. I am still dancing, now in the Burlington area, and hope to be performing again soon. I recently got engaged to a wonderful man, Eric Labor, and couldn’t be happier. We are planning to get married in May of next year. I hope everyone is well; I always like hearing from Marlboro friends and have plenty of room for visitors.” ELIOT GOODWIN and ALLISON LENNOX were married on Sunday, September 6, 2009, in Shelburne, Vermont. HEATHER GREENWOOD tells us: “I’ll be graduating (a bit later than anticipated) from Antioch with my master’s degree in resource management and conservation this summer. Next stop: Find a job that pays my loans.” ALAINA HAMMOND’s one-act play, The Party Continued, was produced in January, part of the InGenius 2010 Short Play Festival at Manhattan Theatre Source. The Party Continued Marlboro once again held a successful series of gatherings for alumni and prospective students in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C, Chicago, Los Angeles, San KELLY STOCKWELL says, “Hey folks, check out our hot new bluegrass band, www.hotmustardbluegrass.com.” Francisco, Seattle and Portland. Attendees at the San Francisco event included (front row) (second row) Sarah Fielding ’09, Liz Ross ’01, Astra Valters ’97, Kaern Kreyling ’86, ’98 SARAH R. LAVIGNE and GEORGE LEONIAK ’05 would love to share the news that they have a new baby boy born on March 16, 2010. His name is Basil Strix Lavigne Leoniak. All are very happy and well. Check out Sarah’s new blog: lavignephotography.blogspot.com/. ’99 KATE QUIN-EASTER writes, “Erica and I are deep in the throes of graduate school. I entered the University of Southern Maine’s master’s in adult education program in September 2009. It’s been an adventure relearning how to read quickly and deeply and write decent papers. I’m still working at Job Corps in Limestone, Maine, and enjoying the life of a career transitions counselor (this means that it’s my job to get trainees into a job, military or, my favorite, college). We are proud horse-owners now and I’m loving the sedentary life of the ‘horsewife.’ Northern Maine is as gorgeous as ever and we welcome visitors. It’s getting harder to believe that it’s been over 10 years since graduating college. Where has the time gone? Hellos from afar, especially to CAROL HAMMOND ’96, KITTY ELLYSON ’94, DEB BRUCE, JODI CLARK ’95 and JENN KARSTAD ’97.” 56 Alan Rosenblith ’02: Redesigning the dollar Deana Bramley ’08, Jordan Hendrickson ’07, Althea and Sophie Fyfe, Rob Fyfe ’94, “There has never been a time when we have more freedom to create the Zoe Maas-Fyfe ’94, Christopher Mahoney ’02, (back row) Krista Haimovitch ’94, Todd world we want to live in,” said Alan Rosenblith, who lives in Portland, Oregon. Andrews ’01, Caely French ’07, Cameron Campbell ’07, Jeff McGuire ’81, Brian Richard ’86 “Redesigning currency is right at the core of our creative potential as a species.” and our own Mark Genszler ’95, alumni director. Alan is the director of The Money Fix, a feature-length documentary exploring American society’s relationship with the almighty dollar, which recently won a ’01 “I got married!” writes BOBBY DROZEK. “Still living in Somerville, Massachusetts, working as a psychotherapist at the Veterans Administration.” DAVID FLEMING writes, “My wife and I will be moving to Wellington, New Zealand, where I’ll be starting work on a Ph.D. Any Marlboro alums in New Zealand should look us up.” JENNIFER FLEMING is expecting her first child in mid-May. “Can’t wait to be a parent. We think it’s a boy. Many blessings this year.” ’02 A staff reporter for the New Haven Independent, THOMAS MACMILLAN won the 2010 National Award for Excellence in American Journalism on Latino issues for his coverage of East Haven police harassment of Hispanics. Judges called Tom’s ongoing coverage of alleged racial profiling “a fine example of traditional Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 shoe leather reporting, consistent news coverage and the use of video, digital photos and court documents to provide context for the overall story. A strong marriage of multimedia and journalism.” In June, HEATHERJEAN MACNEIL announced the launch of Proxy’s “fruition collection,” a limited edition assortment of fashion accessories ethically sourced from the highlands of Guatemala, the Arequipa markets of Peru and the villages of northern Thailand. Heatherjean started Proxy (Potash Hill, Summer 2009) to provide “fashion forward” apparel for women by empowering and employing workers in an effort to create a sweatshop-free, sustainable world. To learn more about Proxy or see the collection, go to proxyapparel.com. Green Apple Award. The Money Fix documents alternative money systems that help solve economic problems for the communities in which they operate. The project was inspired by Alan’s experiences studying permaculture, including “invisible architectures” that shape how societies function, while working on an organic farm in New Mexico. “Most of us take the monetary system for granted, but it has a profound and largely misunderstood influence on our lives,” said Alan. Alan also directed a documentary on organic farming and natural building in New Mexico, called Dreams of Green. Since directing The Money Fix, he has become involved in efforts to redesign currency on a systemic level. He ’03 co-founded the MetaCurrency “Still in Louisville,” writes ANGELA SCHULDT, “working as a crisis therapist with children and families in the local community mental health center. I’m getting married to longtime love Joey in September. Looking forward to visiting Vermont someday soon.” Return to Table of Contents premiered at Marlboro in October 2003 as a staged reading starring RYAN CAMPBELL ’07, JAMES GARREN ’05, SARAH SEAGRAVE ’05, AMIALYA BELLEROSE-ELDER ’06, STEPHANIE KRUTSICK ’06 and GARRETT COOK ’07. “After about five years of living in New Haven, Connecticut,” writes ELIZABETH (LIZZIE) THEIS, “I’ve recently moved to Brooklyn, New York, to complete my graduate degree in the media studies program at the New School. I am continuing to make video art and work with young filmmakers. This June, I will be overseeing a youth filmmaking project in conjunction with Bushwick Open Studios, as well as showcasing some of my own work. I am also working on funding my first feature-length narrative film, which I hope to shoot this fall. I’m doing the typical Brooklyn loftliving thing with a handful of artists, and I couldn’t be any happier. You can check out some of what I’m doing on my website, which, depending on the time of this printing, may or may not only lead to my blog: www.lizzieboredom.com. I hope all are well. I often miss the hill and would love to hear from people.” NEWS ULLA VÄLK writes, “Been living and working as a freelance artist in Amsterdam, Holland, for the past few years. Just finished illustrating a children’s book called Pancakes at Midnight, written by Jenny Curtis Fee, to be published in 2010 by Urban Crayon Press (www.urban crayonpress.com). Keep an eye out for it.” ALUMNI the European Journal of Social Psychology and subsequently written up by MillerMcCunne online magazine as one of their feature articles. She writes that she is still in New York City and working at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She would love to hear from fellow Marlboro folks at [email protected]. ’05 LUCAS ROUNTREE completed his first motion picture with Poison Apple Films, Renfield the Undead. He worked as the costume manager, designing and creating over 20 looks for the feature-length film in addition to supervising wardrobe and make-up and choreographing a bonus reel in Greek theatrical style (keeping with his studies, naturally). He looks forward to a lucrative career within the horror genre. In January, he met his life partner, Étienne-Émile Laurent Skrabo, and they are moving forward with their ambitions to take over the free world through “art, life, love, all things gay.” Currently, Lucas is compiling his dance works from 2000– 2010 into a film documentary and asks his fellow dancers from Marlboro to contact him via email if they have contributions that may be applicable to his work: [email protected]. Project, whose aim is to make the core infrastructure of the American economy “unencloseable.” Alan is currently in post-production on a third film about the efforts of the MetaCurrency movement, entitled Milk & Honey: The Film. For more information on The Money Fix, visit http://www.themoneyfix.org. Return to Table of Contents “I’ve been back living in Toronto for most of the past five years,” writes ANTHONY SCHEIN. “There are a few of us in the area, including REBECCA SCHEIN ’01, NAHUM BROWN ’01, CAITLYN PAXSON and CHRISTIAN SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 57 ’09 Chelsea Connell ’08: Building health clinics in Kenya sive in the fall of 2006, World Studies Program student Chelsea Connell wanted to do more for the villagers there. Many people were living without clean water and electricity, and Chelsea heard stories of suffering, such as women giving She began working with the Funzi and Bodo Trust, a charitable foundation that works with villagers in Bodo and Funzi to create better living conditions. KATHERINE PARTINGTON starred in Overload, a new murder-mystery feature film, which won the Indie Spirit Special Recognition Award at the Boston International Film Festival in April. The film, directed by Newfane filmmaker Robert Fritz, has also gained critics’ awards at the L.A. Reel Film Festival and the Honolulu International Film Festival. Since its founding in 2006, the Funzi and Bodo Trust has opened two new health clinics, and worked to improve the local economy as well as the educational system in the villages. Chelsea, with the help Alumni profiles by Mary Coventry ’10 of her mother, raised $7,000 toward the construction of the These class notes include submissions from October 2009 through April 2010. Alumni may submit items for the next issue of Potash Hill by October 1, 2010, at alumni.marlboro.edu or by emailing [email protected]. clinic in Bodo, served by the same staff as the Funzi clinic. “With additional fund raising, Demonstrating Newton’s law of universal gravitation, or merely throwing apples over the roof of Hendricks? the Bodo clinic will also be If you know who these rascals are, what they are up to or why there happen to be so many Swedish automobiles on campus, drop us a note at [email protected]. able to have electricity,” said Chelsea. “Then the government will provide it with a refrigerator as well as Photo by Clemens Kalischer vaccines, free of charge.” Potash Hill Meanwhile, Chelsea has been working with “at risk” children in New York, MCCRORY ’07. I’ve put my pursuit of a master’s in communication and culture on hold (almost done) while working as a political aide to a Toronto City councilor. We’ve had some big legislative wins here, including a tax and partial ban on outdoor advertising, which I worked very hard on. Toronto has seen visits from ‘Tall’ CHRIS LEWIS and RICHARD PLATZMAN this year, and from RACHEL FEDERLIN ’06 in summer 2009. Marlboro alumni are always welcome for a visit here.” “I’m finally settling into life in the Northwest,” writes MICHELLE WRUCK. “I tried to live in Portland, Oregon, for a couple of years, but despite what Los Angeles thinks, Portland is a big city, in my opinion. So, I’m moving up north. I’ve been learning a bit about boat building from voyagingproject.com, an anarchist collective of sailors who are fixing up a 100-year-old ketch and then sailing down to the Caribbean to explore and connect 58 with good people. In the fall, if I haven’t joined the boat project, I’ll be attending the Wilderness Awareness School Anake yearlong program, a radical naturalist training that I’ve been looking into for the last couple of years. LIZ CRAIN is enrolled in the program now, and will be enrolled in the second-year mentoring apprenticeship next year while I’m there. ASHLEY BIES, currently halfway through a doctoral program in conservation biology and field ecology (big surprise), is thinking about taking a break from structured academia and joining the program next year as well (WOODS Leadership Training ’05 reunion). While I’m enrolled I’ll be volunteering part time at the Clearwater Free School nearby. It’s taken me a while to find a niche outside Marlboro—anybody else with me?—so I’m especially glad to finally be feeling a bit more settled. I miss the Green Mountains nearly every day and dream about coming back to reconnect with community and land. Anybody need a house-sitter? Wishing you all love and luck. Come visit.” Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 NEWS birth in canoes because they didn’t have access to a hospital or health clinic. ALUMNI NICOLE CASTRO writes, “Like many, I am working a job simply to pay the rent and staying busy looking for something better in the meantime. Yesterday was the first warm day in Portland. I sat outside in the afternoon and chased the sun as it set, while listening to a friend play his guitar, just as I was doing on campus this time last year. Some things never change.” After traveling to the coastal fishing village of Bodo, Kenya, for a language inten- welcomes your letters, submissions of poetry and fiction and queries for feature articles. and has been accepted in the accelerated Registered Nursing program at the ’06 “How do you know that the life you’re living is meaningful?” writes LESLIE LOY, who runs the largest house at Camphill Soltane, a community for people with special needs. “I guess, in my case, it comes from living with people who are utterly honest with you and who tell you like it is. MARY WELCH and I have lived in the same house, a sprawling ranch-style abode just outside of Philadelphia, since the last major snowstorm hit our community in February. Each morning, we wake at the crack of dawn only to find ourselves jumping into a jam-packed day of meetings, meals, projects, laughter, tears, frustrations, joys. Sometimes we’re more exhausted than we’ve ever felt before, but occasionally that pays off: We can stop and realize we’re blessed to live with friends who care, who will walk with us through thick and thin and who, at the end of the day, can look at you and know whether you need to laugh, Return to Table of Contents University of Miami. She hopes to pursue a dual master’s degree in nursing and international public health. cry or just go outside and run through the apple orchard. Mary currently teaches pottery and helps in the instrumentmaking courses with our students and community residents while I work ‘part time’ for WeStrive.org (co-founded with MATTHEW CORTEZ TEMPLE ’03).” ’07 TESSA WALKER is “In grad school. Loving it, but Marlboro was way better. Miss you guys. Love, T.” Return to Table of Contents ’08 “I have applied to several New England law schools,” writes ALEX OSTROW, “and took a trip to Haiti in April to work with fellow Marlboro alumnus MATT LEVASSEUR ’07. As part of an internship, I represented the ACLU at this year’s GOP and Democratic conventions in Worcester. I am also working for a book publisher and still DJing. Special thanks to Catherine O’Callaghan, Gerald Levy and Edmund Brelsford.” Address them to Editor, Potash Hill P.O. Box A, Marlboro Vermont, 05344 or email them to [email protected] SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 59 somewhere. The other guy between Maggie and Carla I first thought was Larry Dunham ’64, but the briefcase between his legs makes me think that it is not Larry as I remember him. We lived in Mather House next door to one another at some point. This was certainly not a gospel bunch.” “The man wearing shorts is Bob Hawthorne, a faculty member and a fine baritone or tenor in Blanche Moyse’s chorus, also often a soloist,” said Jenny Olmsted Wages ’67, who Letters guessed the photo was from between Marlboro thrives because of your support. 1965 and ’67. “The gal on Bob’s right We received several letters regarding the photo on page 46 of the last Potash Hill (Winter 2010), showing was perhaps Susan Whitehead (from pioneer gangsta rappers cutting some rhymes in front of the dining hall. While most readers agreed on Martha’s Vineyard)…definitely familiar. four of the participants, other identities are less certain. And the woman on his left is a faculty member and wife of another faculty “While I can’t tell you who was singing “Susan Whiting is standing third from “The woman with her back turned and member. Was it Stamm? Think she had or what was being sung in the photo- left,” said Stephenie Smith ’68. “Bob the ample arse is myself,” said Maggie a little daughter named Allegra. The graph on page 46, I can tell you who a Hawthorne next to her on her left. Marx. “The woman behind me is far right gal is Carla Nord-something couple of the people were,” said Carla I recognize the woman just to Bob’s Carla Nordstrom. The woman to the (probably not Nordstrom, but close to Nordstrom ’67. “Susan Whiting ’67 left with her head down but I can’t left of the guitarist is ‘Soo’ Whiting that). Sorry I can’t be more definite. was the woman standing next to the remember her name. Her last name and next to her with the white socks Now I think the faculty woman may guitar player. I think that the woman was Smith, I think…Cindy Smith? I is, I believe, the chemistry professor. be Ed B-something’s wife, not Stamm. with the light shirt and short hair was also recognize the girl on the extreme My guess is that this was 1963–4.” Sorry, I have ‘Can’t think of that word’ Maggie Marx ’70, and I’m standing right but can’t come up with a name. at the far right with the cutoff shorts, Maggie Marx is standing in the fore- “I recognize Sue Whiting looking at leather jacket and loafers—don’t ground facing the guitar player. Don’t the guitarist, who I think is George “From left to right, I think we’re remember ever having a pair of loafers.” have a clue who he is. That’s puzzling something, but not quite sure,” said looking at John van Kirk ’71, because I knew all the guitar players Jeff Adams ’66. “Next to her is Bob Godfrey Day ’70, ‘Soo’ Whiting, Bob on campus.” Johnson (again, I think) who was Hawthorne, Sherry Bromley (that a science professor of something. one took a while), Carla Nordstrom, “Wow,” said Ted Wendell, trustee since 1979. “Bob Hawthorne, chemis- Your gifts matter, no matter their size. High rates of participation in annual giving by alumni, parents and friends encourage others to give, whether the gift is $10 or $1,000. Your gifts support all areas of the student experience. Annual gifts ensure that we can continue our generous financial aid program and provide opportunities like faculty-student research, student life initiatives and campus energy and greening projects. Online giving is easy—and easy on the environment: marlboro.edu/giving disease at age 65. Ed Brelsford?” try teacher and former trustee, is dead “We think we see, from left to right, (Actually, Bob Johnson ’68 was a sci- someone I can’t recognize, and Maggie center. Cindy Smith, I think, is to his ‘Soo’ Whiting, Bob Hawthorne, ence student of that era. —ed.) In the Marx,” said Carol Hollander ’70. left and Sue Whiting is to his right. Far Maggie Marx and Carla Nordstrom,” foreground, with her butt, is Maggie right in the photo is Carla Nordstrom. said Cathi Hodnicki Wilkin ’66 and Marx. To the right of her is Carla (Sherry Bromley, who is still a neighbor I probably should know the others, but Roger Wilken ’67. “We’re well, living Nordstrom. I remember Carla because of the college, is quite sure she is not the bells aren’t ringing.” since 1971 in Guilford.” she lived in Nyack, New York, pictured. —ed.) and her father was a professor 60 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 61 IN In Memoriam philosophy of the college. For his Massachusetts, and attended the and Tamworth. Her flower gardens New Hampshire, and Rachel Wickersham & Taft, often referred commitment, hard work and clear Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode at the Fry House provided her with Boyden ’79 (whose husband is to as the nation’s oldest major law thinking, Dick was awarded an honor- Island. In 1939 she enrolled at Black great pleasure. Cynthia was very well Pieter van Loon ’88) of Marlboro, firm, where he served until 1989. ary Doctor of Humane Letters degree Mountain College in North Carolina. informed about flowers and delighted as well as four grandchildren and In addition to his work as a lawyer, from Marlboro College in 2001. There she met Roland, and when she in their beauty. five great-grandchildren. Dick taught United States Army In addition to his generosity to graduated in 1943 they became engaged. Cynthia established the library MEMORIAM York City law firm of Cadwalader, —Tim Little ’65 Intelligence Classes for 15 years at the Marlboro, Dick was a major con- Command and General Staff School tributor to the University of Illinois, intelligence, and when Cynthia in the early 1960s, sang in Blanche Donald Tong ’51 in New York. He was awarded the Marlboro Music School and Festival graduated she enlisted in the navy Moyse’s chorale over the years and A resident of Hawaii, Donald Tong Decorated Bronze Star and retired and the American Folk Art Museum. herself and was assigned to a large continued to support the academic passed away in October 2008. Donald Richard Taylor, former trustee from the Army as a lieutenant colonel. He served on the board of directors naval hospital in Mississippi. Cynthia’s and social life of Marlboro College. was a city planner, and after retiring For several years Dick and his of several United States and foreign organizational and typing skills were Roland and Cynthia hosted spectacu- he served as a managing partner in his A devoted trustee of Marlboro College wife vacationed in Vermont, which corporations, entertained former more valuable than her nursing skills, lar New Year’s Eve parties into the family’s land development company. for 37 years, Richard Taylor died reminded Maureen of her native presidents of foreign countries at his and she spent the war as secretary 1970s, open to all who dared to brave Donald and his wife, Leonora, lived in in Sarasota, Florida, last December, Ireland, before building a home in New York home, entertained British and record keeper to the doctors. the elements. Following Roland’s Hilo, on the big island of Hawaii, for at the age of 92. Dick was born in East Dover in 1960. There they raised royalty and represented major United Cynthia and Roland were married death, in 1981, Cynthia continued to 50 years before relocating to a senior Kewanee, Illinois, where his family beefalos, which they found more States and foreign Fortune 500 compa- in 1945 and moved to Lucier Road divide the year between Marlboro and community in Honolulu. They stayed owned a wagon and buggy business suited to Vermont’s steep terrain and nies as lead attorney in international the following year. Tamworth. She went to China with in touch with Donald’s classmate and the first automobile dealership poor soil than the cattle Dick’s fam- acquisitions. He loved United States Roland was the first faculty faculty and students from the college Bob Hamner ’52, and revisited the in Henry County. He went to the ily had back in Illinois. In the 1960s, history and its presidents, as well as member hired by Marlboro College, and to Italy with friends. She walked Marlboro campus in the 1980s. University of Illinois, were he was a Dick began his long commitment to classical music, opera and the New and during the early years of the col- and skied as the seasons allowed, member of the Army ROTC’s horse Marlboro College through financial York Yankees. Dick treated everyone lege’s existence, Cynthia was pressed and took up listening to opera while cavalry and editor of the university support and dedicated participation equally and respectfully, and he was an into service as a provider of clerical continuing to read poetry, dramatic Henry Smith, former student yearbook. Upon graduation in 1939, on the board of trustees. eternal optimist. He often remarked support, writing tutor and assistant literature and the novels of Henry Another Marlboro pioneer, Henry that the three most important words to the dean. She frequently remarked James. She loved classical music and “Hank” Smith died in Brattleboro in “Dick joined the board because he entered the Army as a second Roland was serving in naval at the Marlboro Elementary School lieutenant for what was to be a of his friendship with and respect for in the English language are “please” later upon the youthful high spirits of the mystery novels of Ngaio Marsh April at the age of 82. Hank was born one-year tour of duty, before World Arthur Whittemore, whom he had and “thank you.” the first students, who were nearly all and Josephine Tey. in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and War II started. Dick often called the met aboard ship on a trans-Atlantic war years, when he worked as an crossing,” said Tom Ragle, former to Dick for his loyalty and integrity spirited herself, and her lively chatter friend who went well out of her way to in the South Pacific from 1944 to 1946, intelligence officer, the longest Marlboro president. “He played many over many years. contrasted with Roland’s more mea- support persons whose circumstances before coming to Marlboro College “one” year of his life. key roles on our board, such as nego- sured tone. No one who ever played required it. In the last year of her life, for two years starting in 1948. Hank Marlboro College says “thank you” of her generation. Cynthia was high- served in the navy as a gunner’s mate Cynthia was a faithful and loyal tiations with the Marlboro Music Cynthia Boyden charades on her team could doubt the her caretakers noted her serenity and worked at the Brattleboro Reformer for Kewanee, where he married Maureen School and Festival, and was always The widow of dean and longtime force of her intelligence or the clarity commented on the lengthy silences many years, then as a safety supervi- Hoey, an Irish colleague in the war friendly, concerned, helpful, generous faculty member Roland Boyden, of her expression. with which she punctuated her days. sor with Ebasco Constructors until effort. He earned his J.D. from the and meticulous.” Cynthia Boyden died at her home Those who had known her longer he retired in 1987. He enjoyed many After the war, Dick returned to Dick served as chairman for 10 University of Illinois in 1946 and In 1950 the Boydens inherited on Lucier Road, in Marlboro, in the Fry House in Tamworth, New reflected on her regard for those adventures with his wife, Barbara, an L.L.M from Columbia University years and treasurer for 17, and held an December 2009. She was 88 years Hampshire, and thereafter Cynthia caretakers. She leaves three daughters, especially backpacking, canoeing and in 1947. He then joined the New unbending faith in the principles and old. Cynthia grew up in Winchester, divided her time between Marlboro Jennifer and Rebecca of Tamworth, bicycling. In 1988, they completed a 62 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents SUMMER 2010 . Potash Hill 63 cross-country bike tour and followed Marlboro for 15 years, retiring in 2007, Brattleboro area to work at Marlboro. that with other tours in the United then returned to work part time for Theodora co-authored a book, States, Europe and New Zealand. a period in 2008 and again in 2009. Furniture Making Plain and Simple, “Sandy had an affinity for the college in 1984, and was appreciated in the Philip Crafts ’57 and its community that continually admissions office for her sweet and The longtime owner of Crafts Country brought her back, and we welcomed positive character. Store in Marlboro, and a resident of her with open arms,” said Anne Pratt, West Dover, Vermont, Philip Crafts senior financial management officer. David Soyer died in May at the age of 79. Phil “She was a friend to all students, fac- Longtime college neighbor and graduated from Wilmington High ulty and staff during her time here, participant in the Marlboro Music School and served for six years in and provided invaluable service in a School and Festival since the 1960s, the army before attending Marlboro, multifaceted capacity.” David Soyer died in February at the age of 87. The founding cellist of where he studied forestry. He recalled that one year he paid half of his Maureen DesChenes the Guarneri String Quartet, David tuition in cans of maple syrup, when A Marlboro resident for 24 years, played with the ensemble for 37 years, the college didn’t have enough to Maureen DesChenes died in January traveling the world and playing 100 send to contributors. He met his wife, at the age of 64, following a lengthy concerts a year. David retired in 2001, Margaret, in Marlboro, and married illness. A graduate of Morse College, but made a last appearance at the her in the Marlboro Meetinghouse in Connecticut, she served as an Metropolitan Museum of Art last May church in 1952. Phil was a special administrative assistant to biology pro- before the quartet retired as a whole. education teacher for many years, fessors at Central Connecticut State He was on the faculties of Curtis receiving a master’s from Vanderbilt University for 20 years. After moving Institute of Music, the Julliard School University, and taught in Vermont, to Vermont, Maureen worked for sev- and the Manhattan School of Music, Colorado, Florida and Massachusetts. eral years in the development office and was still giving lessons until two He “retired” in 1984, and owned for Marlboro College as well as in the weeks before he passed away. and operated Crafts Country Store same capacity at World Learning, in until 1994. Phil enjoyed being in Brattleboro. She enjoyed spending the woods, and loved camping and time in the American Southwest, traveling with his family. loved nature and was an avid reader. Sandy Vonderhorst Theodora Poulos Marlboro resident and longtime The associate director of admissions staff member at Marlboro College, at Marlboro College for seven years Wilma “Sandy” Vonderhorst died in in the 1980s and ’90s, Theodora March after a courageous battle with Poulos died in December at the age cancer. She was 70 years old. Over of 81. A graduate of Endicott College, the years she worked at the Holstein she worked at The Experiment in Association, Skyline Restaurant and International Living and as an editor at Mt. Snow Ski Shop making hats. for Ladies Home Journal and Charles Sandy worked as a staff accountant at Scribner Sons before returning to the 64 Potash Hill . S U M M E R 2 0 1 0 Return to Table of Contents Editor’s Note Parting Shot Ethan Denny is a Marlboro junior who just finished an International Honors Program, traveling around the world to learn about globalization, economics, anthropology, ecology and social movements. He says, “I believe in being informed by as wide a perspective as possible and in not being stuck in one field alone.” Getting “the big picture” is part of the intellectual culture at Marlboro, and it is integral to several of the stories in this issue of Potash Hill. Becky Catarelli’s pioneering treatment of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for example, stretches our definitions of politics and environmental science. Talia Jackson’s and Amer Latif’s insights provide a broader understanding of the word “jihad,” and Jim Richardson brings 20 years of professional perspective to bear on the issue of reproductive health. Two events this spring offer dramatically different perspectives, the social activism of the late Howard Zinn and the economic activism of Tom and Deneen Borelli. Although Ethan shares some of his experiences on page 35, he says that the reality of his international adventure was “far, far more strange, maddening, enlightening and exultant.” Perhaps this is in the nature of opening minds to broader perspectives. I hope you find something strange, maddening, enlightening or exultant in this issue of Potash Hill, and that you submit a letter describing why. You can see reactions to the last issue on page 60. —Philip Johansson, editor Edi tor: Philip Johansson A rt Edi tor: Dianna Noyes ’80 St af f Ph ot ogr ap h e r s : Marcus DeSieno ’10, Adam Keller ’10, Thea Cabreros ’12 Potash Hill welcomes letters to the editor. Mail them to: Editor, Potash Hill, Marlboro College, P.O. Box A, Marlboro, VT 05344, or send email to: [email protected]. The editor reserves the right to edit for length letters that appear in Potash Hill. Potash Hill is available online at Marlboro College’s website, www.marlboro.edu. After four years behind the camera, providing rich woodwardesign images for numerous Marlboro publications and web Front cover: Plastic shards littering a Hawaii beach are only the most obvious effect of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. While Becky Catarelli did her Plan on changing gender boundaries in Vietnam, the alumna has gone on to explore the social and ethical dimensions of environmental impacts such as 100 tons of floating trash (see page 12). Photo by Becky Catarelli Back cover: Zebras nuzzle at Masai Mara Reserve, Kenya, the site of Jaime Tanner’s research on spotted hyenas (see page 2). Photo by Jaime Tanner Marlboro College Mission Statement The goal of Marlboro College is to teach students to think clearly and to learn independently through engagement in a structured program of liberal studies. Students are expected to develop a command of concise and correct English and to strive for academic excellence informed by intellectual and artistic creativity; they are encouraged to acquire a passion for learning, discerning judgment and a global perspective. The college promotes independence by requiring students to participate in the planning of their own programs of study and to act responsibly within a self-governing community. pages, graduates Marcus DeSieno and Adam Keller take a much-deserved cruise on the fire pond “party barge.” Thanks and bon voyage, Marcus and Adam. Photo by Thea Cabreros MARLBORO COLLEGE Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Marlboro, Vermont 05344 Paid Putney, VT Change Service Requested Permit No. 1 Potash Hill The Magazine of Marlboro College . Summer 2010
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