This is Vassar...February 2009

Vassar’s Intellectual Buffet

In 1998, the Dean of the Faculty’s Office and AAVC created the Intellectual Buffet at Vassar. These evenings, held twice a year at Alumnae House, bring together professors from across disciplines to discuss a single topic. The audience of fellow faculty members and college colleagues enjoy an engaging presentation that often leads to lively conversations at the tables. Over the years, topics have ranged from “Realities and Representations” with history, film, religion, and political science professors to “Hot and Cold Reflections on Climate Change” (art, earth science, and geography) to “Media, Representation, and Technology” (women’s studies, computer science, and anthropology).

“I always enjoy these events for the rare opportunity they offer to learn about my colleagues' research and intellectual orientation,” said Associate Professor of Sociology Leonard Nevarez. “I also find that the stimulating nature of the presentations raises the bar for dinnertime conversations afterwards, which are among my favorite scholarly moments at Vassar.” Nevarez joined Professor of English Paul Kane (English) and Professor of Philosophy Giovanna Borradori to discuss “Contemporary Meanings of Place.”

The series continues today and is attended by 85–100 faculty and their guests plus representatives of AAVC. The most recent Intellectual Buffet was held on January 29. Professors Erica Crespi (biology), Eve Dunbar (English), Ismail Rashid (history and Africana studies), and Michael Bennett (science, technology, and society) addressed the question “In this post-election nation, how will the changing national conversation on race influence or affect our teaching?”

Depicted above: Professor Ismail Rashid

A Sampling of February Speakers

Charles Simonds, sculptor, will talk about his work on February 4. Simonds’s sculptures are miniature architectural worlds and landscapes. Most are landforms with small chambers and towers; some are abstract organic shapes. Much of Simonds's career has been spent creating these sites, whether they are museum installations such as “Ritual Place,” or temporary public works, as in the small dwelling places Simonds has built on the streets of New York's Lower East Side, Venice, Berlin, Dublin, and Shanghai. Simonds has also created large public installations at various sites, including Lewiston's Artpark.

Imani Perry, professor at the Rutgers University School of Law, will deliver the Norman E. Hodges Endowed Biennial Lecture in Race and American Law on February 5. Perry’s talk is entitled “A New Day?: The Reality and Rhetoric of Race in the Obama Era.” Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, she was a fellow and adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center. She has also taught at Harvard College and Suffolk University in the History and African American Studies departments. At Rutgers, she teaches advanced constitutional law, law and literature, and critical race theory. Her scholarly work is in the areas of race, legal history, and culture.

Yossi Chajes, professor at University of Haifa, Israel, is this year’s Dr. Maurice Sitomer annual lecturer. Chajes’s February 12 lecture, “Songs of the Lord in Strange Lands: Sacred Music and the Faces of Contemporary Jewish Spirituality,” will include musical illustrations, and he will be accompanied by his daughter, violinist Levana Chajes.

Augusten Burroughs, author, will give the Alex Krieger '95 Memorial Lecture on February 17. Burroughs’s best-selling memoir Running with Scissors spent more than four years on The New York Times bestseller list, and spawned an Oscar-nominated film. Burroughs has also published three other memoirs, and two collections of essays. His books have been published in over 25 countries, and his writing has appeared in magazines, literary journals, and newspapers around the world.

Frances Sternhagen '51, actress (pictured) is the 2009 recipient of the AAVC Award for Distinguished Achievement. Sternhagen will be performing selections from the Marta Góes play A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop ['34] on February 26 in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Powerhouse Theater. Sternhagen has won two Tony Awards, been inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and is familiar to millions of television viewers through her performances in television shows such as Cheers, ER, and Sex in the City. The AAVC Award for Distinguished Achievement is presented annually to an alumna or alumnus who has reached the highest level in her or his field.

Student-Curated Show in the Palmer Gallery

In 'ôdē-ō,fīl (pronounced audiophile), 12 Vassar students present individual sound works that exemplify the versatility of artistic expression engendered by recent developments in digital technologies. Some of the artists approach the act of sound recording as an attempt to inscribe one’s phenomenological experience. Others experiment with sounds derived from nature, language, industry, and popular music to form unique sound works. Ultimately, the pieces in this show demonstrate a marked desire to explore the ways in which digital sound technologies enable artists to explore new ideas of perception and the construction of identity. The title of the show points to the critical role that sound plays in semiotics and the difficulty in reconciling a compulsion to make the unheard heard through visual or other means.

'ôdē-ō,fīl is curated by Joseph Redwood-Martinez ’11 with generous support from the Academic Enrichment Fund, the Vassar Student Association, the Vassar Public Art Committee, and the Office of Campus Activities. The exhibit will run from February 10 until February 23 in the Palmer Gallery in Main Building. For gallery hours please contact Campus Activities: 845.437.5370.

Vassar Makes the Top-Ten List

Vassar College has been named among the ten best private liberal arts college values in the United States by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. The monthly magazine’s just-released 2008-2009 Best Values in Private Colleges list honors colleges that combine exceptional education with outstanding economic value, emphasizing academic quality and affordability. Vassar has ranked consistently higher on Kiplinger’s list the past three years, earning the 10th position in 2008-2009, 18th in 2007-2008, and 20th in 2006-2007.

Vassar will provide more than $35 million in scholarship aid this school year, nearly 25% of the college's operating budget. The college considers applicants strictly on their academic qualifications in its "need-blind" admissions policy, and provides financial aid to support the full demonstrated need of all of its students. In fact, responding to a number of students whose family incomes have suffered from the past year's economic decline, Vassar will provide $1 million more in financial aid than originally projected for the current academic year.

Science Publications Features Vassar Scientists

In recent months research led by Vassar senior Matthew Winnick ’09, pictured, has been featured by the magazine Science News, and the leading journal Science has published a bioethics essay co-authored by Jacob Moses ’07. Winnick is majoring in both physics and earth science, while Moses, who earned his Vassar degree in science, technology, and society, is now a research assistant at the Hastings Center, a non-partisan bioethics research institution also based in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Concerned about the runoff effects from road salt usage on wintry roads, Winnick and his three co-authors researched pollution levels in four streams on or near the Vassar campus, and established the freshwater mussel Elliptio companata as an effective tool for tracking the chemistry of freshwater bodies over time.

According to the Hastings Center, the emerging field of synthetic biology "aims to create new life forms that will produce medical therapies, inexpensive biofuels, and other beneficial products." As the institute begins to explore synthetic biology's ethical implications, Vassar alumnus Jacob Moses joined two of Hastings's research scholars — including Vassar adjunct professor Erik Parens — to consider "Do We Need Synthetic Bioethics?" in an essay for the September 12, 2008, issue of Science.

The Campus Celebrates “Darwin Days”

On February 12 and 13, Vassar marks Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin Of Species. This multi-disciplinary celebration will have visual presentations, talks given by members of the Vassar community, hands-on activities, and to finish the celebration, dramatic readings adapted from the play Inherit the Wind, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Lois Horst ’04, who curates Vassar’s A. Scott Warthin Museum of Geology and Natural History, explains, “In order to celebrate these significant Darwin anniversaries in 2009, many of the academic departments at Vassar came together and arranged a series of free events. In addition to the presentations, there will be a special Darwin-themed exhibition in the museum, located in Ely Hall.”

Jodi Schwartz (left) and Jenny Wilson-Cohen '09

Jodi Schwartz, an assistant professor of biology who was also instrumental in this campus-wide celebration of Darwin, says, “Our celebration is very interdisciplinary as Darwin's influence is far-reaching and more than just biology. I hope ‘Darwin Days’ broadens the communication between the science and non-science communities at Vassar, with the socio-cultural aspect of the programs. It should be a great learning experience for everyone.” One of Schwartz’s students, Jenny Wilson-Cohen, a senior majoring in neuroscience, designed an original computer game, “Evolution Simulation,” which will be demonstrated during the mornings of the “Darwin Day” events. “The game simulates the evolution of a species over generations, representing Darwin’s ideas about change over time. Evolution affects everything.”

The Vassar departments that will participate in the Darwin events include anthropology, biology, computing and information services, drama and film, earth science and geography, French, and psychology.

Photo credit: John Rizzo