This is Vassar...April 2009

Vassar Researcher (and Alumnus) Wins Robot Prize

Congratulations to Joshua de Leeuw ’08, a faculty research associate in Vassar’s Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory, who has recently garnered national recognition for achievements based on his work in Vassar’s labs.

De Leeuw placed second in Kia Motors and Microsoft’s worldwide RoboChamps Kia Motors Urban Challenge programming competition. The international tournament challenged programmers to create a simulated robot car which could independently drive through a virtual 3-D city. For his winning submission, de Leeuw received a $10,000 cash prize.

In addition, de Leeuw appeared in Predator X, a two-hour documentary about the newly discovered Svalbard pliosaur, which was broadcast on the History Channel in late March. The discovery of this 50-foot marine reptile in August of 2007 sparked research efforts across the globe, some of which took place in Vassar’s very own robotics lab. De Leeuw worked with fellow VC researcher Marianne Porter and biology professor John Long on conducting tests using a four-flippered robot named “Madeleine” to estimate the creature’s physical build and ability.

Photo credit: Russell Monk

Vassar Community Offers Each Other “Mini-Courses”

Remember the rigors of physics getting you down? That mid-semester feeling of being crushed by the weight of English lit? This year, students can take a study break and still be studying. Vassar’s Office of Campus Activities has put together a series of “mini-courses” for the entire college community — classes which anyone at Vassar, from students to staff, had the opportunity to propose.

These special-interest classes revolve around popular topics not usually taught as part of a liberal arts curriculum; some cover subjects not usually taught in a classroom setting at all. The “Magic: the Gathering: Fundamentals” class, for example, taught by Ian Relihan ’11, covers the basic rules of this popular collectible-card came. Cary Blum ’09 is teaching a class that purports to instruct its students in “all the little tricks that will have you beating your friends at Scrabble every time.” The classes, all of which began in late March (or will begin in early April), run through June 2009.

While some classes would appear to be more serious and intellectually minded (“Queer Pop Culture,” “Modern Day Stereotypes and Racism,” “Linux for Human Beings”), others, such as the mini-courses in Texas hold ’em poker and the history of the hookah, might seem less so. All, however, serve as a refreshing departure from everyday academia. Jay Leff ’10, for example, is the instructor for “Beer Tasting,” a 21-and-over class that meets (naturally) in the Mug. Each week the class will focus on a different beer or region, and will “sample as many as possible, while discussing the nuances of each.” Matthew Vassar would be proud.

A Sampling of April Speakers

Suzan-Lori Parks, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, will lecture on behalf of the Black Students Union on April 6. Named one of Time magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave,” Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most exciting and acclaimed playwrights in American drama today. In 2002, she became the first African-American woman awarded with the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. In addition, Parks has received two Obies, two NEA grants, and a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the MacArthur “genius award.” She is currently director of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Read Hilton Als's New Yorker profile of Parks.

Professor Emeritus Eamon Grennan (pictured), poet, translator, and essayist, will read from his latest book of poems, Matter of Fact (Graywolf Press, 2008), on April 16 at the Vassar Bookstore. The reading is part of the bookstore’s Faculty Author Series. “The facts here are filtered through the senses of someone word-drunk who’s raised himself on Hopkins and Celan, Stevens and Shakespeare, as well as his immediate Irish forebear, Seamus Heaney,” Publishers Weekly said in a starred review of the book. Tea and Irish soda bread will be served. Listen to Eamon Grennan read his poem "Watch".

Sergio Ramírez, leading Nicaraguan writer and intellectual, will read from his newly translated novel A Thousand Deaths Plus One on April 22. For more than thirty years, Ramírez was active as both a high profile politician and novelist in Nicaragua. He was one of the founders of both the Frente Ventana and The Twelve, intellectual groups struggling against the Somoza dynasty’s dictatorship in the late 1970s. After the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979, Ramírez became the country’s Vice President. Now, Ramírez is best known as an independent progressive leader and one of the foremost contemporary Latin American writers. Ramírez will also be appearing at the PEN World Voices Festival in New York City.

Helen Zia, journalist and author, will present the Asian Student Alliance Conference Lecture on April 24. Zia has been a magazine writer, editor, and investigative reporter for more than 20 years. She is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People. The book was a finalist for the 2000 Kiriyama Prize, which was established “to recognize outstanding books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia.” Zia’s investigative journalism on issues ranging from civil rights and peace to women’s rights and countering hate violence and homophobia has earned her numerous awards. Her lecture at Vassar will focus on issues of post-racism. Read an excerpt from Asian American Dreams.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Vassar College Bookstore

The Drama Department Spring Season

Vassar’s drama department has two big productions on its lineup this spring. Over Parents’ Weekend (this coming weekend), Vassar Professor of Drama and Director of Theater Christopher Grabowski will direct Mary Zimmerman’s Tony-winning play Metamorphoses, which uses postmodern techniques to refashion the stories from Ovid’s great poem. “It is exciting to stage this profound and dreamlike tale,” says Professor Grabowski. “Metamorphoses explores the elemental and poetic aspects of Ovid’s classic, while underscoring the difficult, yet salutary, nature of change and changing.”

Mary Zimmerman’s play brings with it a very specific technical challenge. “We’ve had to build a pool onstage,” says Vassar Quarterly editorial assistant Baize Buzan ’10, who is performing in the production. “The Powerhouse,” she says, “now looks like it’s been flooded.” The stage of the theater is currently an eight-inch-deep wading pool, constructed out of fiberglass. A brick-faced stairway, designed to look like it is part of the theater, leads from the center of the pool to a metal sliding door through which gods and goddesses come and go. A four-foot-deep trough — indistinguishable to the audience from the rest of the onstage pool — allows both the divine and the mortal to make watery entrances and exits.

The Experimental Theater of Vassar College will present the play in the Powerhouse Theater April 2–4 at 8:00 p.m.; there will also be a 2:00 p.m. matinee on Saturday, April 4.

For her senior project, Julianna Allen ’09 has created, directed, and choreographed a new theatrical adaptation of the novel Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, titled Fighting from Never/Land: A Badass Production. “Rather than a restatement of the traditional Peter Pan, Never/Land is a new interpretation of the experience of play and childhood,” says Allen, “possibly leaving everyone with a more hopeful outlook on adulthood.” Allen, an aspiring fight choreographer, hopes that her adaptation explores how people “can flourish or suffer with the use of their ability to learn and play, nurture and destroy,” she says. Never/Land will be performed in the Powerhouse April 29–May 1 at 8:00 p.m.

Although both productions are free and open to the public, seating is very limited and reservations are required. For more information, please contact the box office at boxoffice@vassar.edu or telephone 845.437.5584 or 5599. (Note that in Metamorphoses, some content may not be suitable for children.)

Speaking of the Powerhouse, parents of current college-age students and rising high school seniors might be curious to know that the Powerhouse Theater Apprentice Training Program is currently accepting applications. Now in its 25th season, Powerhouse offers young aspiring theater artists a chance to work with emerging and established professionals, and to produce their own shows (such as A Long Fatal Love Chase by Sarah Gmitter, pictured). Applications are due April 17. Learn more at the Powerhouse website.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Powerhouse Theatre

Africana Studies 40th Anniversary Conference and Reunion, April 17–19

Vassar’s Africana Studies Program, as part of its 40th anniversary celebration this year, presents a conference and reunion on the weekend of April 17–19. Organized around the theme “Forty Years at Vassar: African Identities in the Diaspora,” the conference will feature keynote speakers Randall Robinson, social justice advocate and founder of TransAfrica, and Noliwe M. Rooks, associate director of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. Conference events will take place in the Villard Room, the Aula, and Alumnae House.

A full schedule of lectures and panels open to the public is available at the Vassar development office's regional programs website.

Photo credit: Jim Smith

Current Students, Vassar Voices

Want to read more student voices talking about life on campus? Vassar’s Office of Admissions has asked four current students to blog about their daily lives. Bloggers include Kyle Chea ’10, founder of Vassar’s Multi-Racial/Biracial Students’ Association; Casey Gonzalez ’10, editorial director for the student style magazine Contrast; Joe Bubar ’11, infielder for the Vassar Brewers; and Brian Farkas ’10, editor-in-chief of the Misc (pictured). For a sample of their blogging to date, read this March 9 post from Farkas, “Sustainability and Composting at Vassar”:

“Vassar, Greenway work to improve sustainability.

“When it comes to sustainability, composting is not a sexy issue. Futuristic wind turbines, shiny solar panels, and anything proceeded by the word ‘green’ seem to take center stage in the national media. But many environmentalists agree that composting is another crucial activity to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Vassar is working hard to close its carbon footprint, and has an extremely strong composting program. Our student government is working to expand that program to the Retreat (one of the most popular dining facilities on campus). As you can see in the video, a company called Greenway, which currently manages Vassar’s composting, did an ‘audit’ there a few weeks ago to study how their system might work in that facility. Students and faculty are optimistic that our composting endeavors will successfully expand within a year.

“To learn more about the college’s efforts at sustainable food solutions, check out the Campus Dining site. And to learn more about Vassar’s academic programs about the world around us, read about our popular Environmental Studies Program.”

In other Vassar news-related news, Farkas has just published a new book with iUniverse titled Covering the Campus: A History of The Miscellany News at Vassar College. “In addition to digging through the paper’s print and microfilm archives,” Farkas says, “the project involved interviewing more than 100 former editors and writers for the paper” — alums from ’37 all the way to ’07. President Hill wrote the forward to the book. All profits, Farkas says, will be donated toward digitizing the archives of the Misc.

Photo Credit: John Rizzo

Pack Your Bags for Poughkeepsie:
Reunion 2009

Graduates from classes spanning 1934 through 2004 will travel back to Poughkeepsie for Vassar Reunion 2009, June 5–7. Vassar Reunion usually welcomes back around 1,500 alumnae/i and their families and guests. General events will include the all-class dinner on Friday night, fireworks, dancing at the Mug, the alumnae/i parade, the faculty lectures of the Alumnae/i College program, and the Saturday-morning Presidents’ Hour, during which Vassar President Hill and AAVC President Meg Venecek Johnson ’84 will speak and present the 2009 AAVC Spirit of Vassar Award to Alison Church Hyde ’59. Dinners, receptions, and panels will, as always, highlight the class-specific schedules for the weekend.

Watch your mailbox in early April for registration materials. Online registration is open as of April 1. We look forward to seeing you in Poughkeepsie!