This is Vassar...November 2008

Three Big Drama Department Shows

Wondering about upcoming drama performances at Vassar for the fall-winter season? Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, translated by Paul Schmidt and directed by Associate Professor of Drama Christopher Grabowski, will be performed at the Powerhouse Theater November 20–22 at 8 pm. Two student productions are also slated for the stage: Michael John LaChiusa’s First Lady Suite features singing versions of a variety of First Ladies and will be directed by Caitlin Crisp ’09 (pictured) as her senior project. This production is made possible by the Joan Kostick Andrews ’52 Fund and will be shown November 6–8. Directing the show “has been a great experience,” Crisp says. “The drama faculty have been really supportive and helpful,” she adds, “which has made this production a lot less overwhelming than it could have been.” The second student project, Caryl Churchill’s Skriker, directed by Nate Silver ’10, portrays an alternate universe where London is haunted by gremlins. The show is made possible by the E.J. Safirstein ’83 Memorial Fund and will be performed December 4–6 at 8 pm at the Martel Theater’s Heinlein Stage. For more information, including how to get tickets, please contact the box office at boxoffice@vassar.edu or telephone 845.437.5584 or 5599.

Class of 1951 Observatory Open to the Public

Did you know that the Class of 1951 Observatory is free and open to the public on weather-permitting Wednesday nights from 9–11pm? Faculty, staff, students, and local residents can check out the rings of Saturn, Capella sparkling low in the Northeast, or catch up on what Jupiter's moon Europa is doing now that it has begun peeking out of eclipse by Jupiter’s shadow.

Photo credit: Will Faller

Vassar Hosts “Varieties of Secular Experience” Conference

“Varieties of Secular Experience: Pedagogy, Politics, and Meaning in the Liberal Arts” will be a two-day conference held on Vassar’s campus from November 13–14, sponsored by Vassar, Williams College, Macalester College, and Bucknell University. Two years ago, the sponsoring schools formed the “Secularity and the Liberal Arts Project” to explore how a secular learning environment both enables and limits students’ questions of meaning and purpose; the conference is the conclusion of that project. Reverend Samuel Speers (pictured), director of Vassar’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, notes that all four schools value secular ideas “as a means to promote tolerance and critical thought, and to create democratic institutions and civic engagement.” But, he adds, they also ask “whether uncritical secular assumptions are unintentionally stripping some students and faculty of fundamental aspects of their identity.”

Conference participants will include faculty and chaplains from a number of schools, such as Amherst, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and MIT. Vassar professors Randolph Cornelius, Rachel Kitzinger, and Amitava Kumar, among others, will serve as panelists and moderators. And a number of alumnae/i also will be in attendance, including three recent graduates — Laura Votey ’06, James Reich ’05, and Jonathan Figdor ’06 — who are all current students at Harvard Divinity School.

Supported by a grant from the Teagle Foundation, the conference will include a number of lectures, panel discussions, and presentations, beginning with a roundtable featuring eight student panelists who will discuss how these issues are engaged on their respective campuses. The conference sessions are free and open to the public; all will take place in Main Building’s Villard Room.

Explore the A. Scott Warthin Museum of Geology and Natural History

You’ve been back to campus for reunion. You’ve walked into the Aula to register. But have you ever turned right instead of left at the entrance to Ely Hall and visited the A. Scott Warthin Museum of Geology and Natural History? Now on display, says museum curator Lois Horst ’04, are a number of new and old treasures, including a stuffed Great Auk (recently rediscovered in Olmsted Hall), which has been extinct since the late 1800s. The museum also has a “Souvenirs” case, featuring “bullets from Waterloo, a piece of George Washington’s coffin, a bit of mosaic from Pompeii,” and a chunk of cooled lava with an Italian coin embedded in it — possibly collected by Matthew Vassar himself, Horst notes in the summer edition of Terra Firma, the earth science and geography department’s annual newsletter.

The museum has also recently unveiled a new cabinet for its fluorescent minerals collection (pictured), which, Horst says, took months of work to finish. The glowing specimens are housed in a retrofitted armoire in a windowless foyer outside the department’s administrative offices, with black melamine lining the interior of the cabinet and a Plexiglas shield in front to protect viewers’ eyes from the ultraviolet light of the lamps. (One of the samples is actually a Vassar “VC” made from fluorescent sand.) The new display is very popular with schoolchildren, Horst says. “The total effect is stunning,” she writes in an article in the July/August issue of UV Waves, the newsletter of the Fluorescent Mineral Society. “When we switch on the UV lights, the collective ‘Ooh!’ is very satisfying!”

Photo credit: Rick Jones

VSA Sponsors Meet Me in Poughkeepsie Day

On October 10, 2008, droves of Vassar students, faculty, and staff journeyed off campus for the first-annual Vassar Student Association-sponsored event “Meet Me in Poughkeepsie.” Before the day, myriad VSA organizations planned unique and dynamic opportunities that students could elect to participate in, including visiting Storm King sculpture garden; ice skating at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center; Vassar cycling team-sponsored bike rides around town; serving lunch at the Lunch Box, a local food pantry; and more. The "Raymond Goes Latin" event, for instance, sponsored by Raymond House and its House Fellows Natalie Friedman ’95 and Chris Miller, featured an excursion to El Bracero, a beloved Mexican restaurant in town. In addition to enjoying a complimentary dinner, the 22 students who signed up were given the chance to learn from the owner, Honorio Rodriguez, about his experiences as a community leader and immigrant to Poughkeepsie.

Friedman, assistant professor of English and associate director of Vassar’s Learning and Teaching Center, said, "We were motivated to take Raymond House to El Bracero because many members of our House Team are of Latino/a origin. We wanted to raise awareness about the growing Latino/a population in Poughkeepsie, and Mr. Rodriguez gave us a sense of how much that community has changed since his arrival to Poughkeepsie in 1990. Watching him interact with our students, hearing them speak Spanish with him, really showed us that Vassar has grown more ethnically diverse, and gave the students a sense of connection to downtown Poughkeepsie. And the food was delicious!"

Photo credit: Ben Rutkowski '09

A Sampling of November Speakers

Teddy Cruz, architect, will deliver the Margaret McCurry ’64 art department lecture in Taylor Hall on November 12. Cruz's lecture is titled “Practices of Encroachment: Urban Waste Moves Southbound, Illegal Zoning Sips into North." Cruz's work as a designer is inspired by shantytowns along the border between San Diego and Tijuana. Read an article from San Diego Magazine.

Boubacar Boris Diop, Senegalese author, journalist, and screenwriter, will lecture in Sanders Hall on November 6. Diop’s most recent work is L'Afriquea-dela du miroir, published in 2007. Read more about Diop.

Phil Griffin ’79 (pictured), MSNBC President, will speak in Sanders Hall on November 18. As this year’s Executive-in-Residence, Griffin will speak on “Politics and the Media in 2008.” He has worked for MSNBC since its launch in 1996 as a producer and executive, most recently as overseer of NBC News’ Specials coverage. To read more about Griffin, visit his MSNBC profile.

Anne McClintock, University of Wisconsin professor, will deliver a lecture titled “Paranoid Empire: Specters of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib” in Taylor Hall on November 6. She is a professor of English and women’s studies and has written several books, including two forthcoming titles: Screwing the System: Essays on Sexualties and Skin Hunger: A Chronicle of Sex, Money, and Desire.

Rob Nixon, University of Wisconsin professor, will lecture in Taylor Hall on November 5 about “Slow Violence, Gender, and Environmental Time.” Nixon, a native of South Africa, teaches English and has published three books; his latest, to be published by Harvard University Press in 2009, will bear the same title as his lecture. Browse articles written by Nixon for The New York Times.

David H. Reiley Jr., Yahoo! research scientist, will deliver the 2008 Martin Crego Lecture in Economics in Sanders Hall on November 3. His presentation is titled “Retail Advertising Works! Measuring the Effects of Advertising Sales via a Controlled Experiment on Yahoo!” Reiley has advocated the use of experimental (rather than observational) research in economics. Read his Yahoo profile.

Alumna Sausto-Grady ’04 Named Assistant Women's Soccer Coach

Nicole Sausto-Grady ’04 returns to her alma mater as the assistant women’s soccer coach. After one year playing for Temple University, Sausto-Grady transferred to Vassar, where she was a starting defender for three years, earning Liberty League All-Academic Team honors in each year. She graduated with her A.B. in studio art and has worked as a teaching assistant at Hyde Park Elementary School since 2004. The Rhinebeck, New York, resident also served as the junior varsity girls' soccer coach in the Rhinebeck Central School District in 2005–06.

Photo credit: Carlisle Stockton

Four Sociology Alumnae/i Return to Campus to Discuss Justice Reform

Four Vassar graduates, all former sociology majors, return to campus on November 3 to discuss their work for justice reform and the ways in which the Vassar experience prepared them for their present careers. Alumnae/i include Casey Eiseman '01, project manager for Esperanza, an organization in partnership with the NYC Department of Probation; Sarah Fromm '01, director of public policy and communications for the Women's Prison Association; Rob Hope '00, re-entry services manager, Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota; and Judah Schept '01, Ph.D. student in criminal justice, Indiana University. The program is sponsored by the Sociology Department, the Career Development Office, and AAVC.

Help Name AAVC’s Social Networking Feature on its Online Community

The new social networking feature will allow you to invite your classmates and other alumnae/i to be your friend within AAVC’s Online Community. Each profile will include an "Invite as a Friend" link. You’ll simply click on that link and your friend will receive a personalized email inviting them to become part of your network of friends. You’ll also be able to send email to your entire network of friends. This new feature is just a small upgrade to our Online Community, but one that we hope will enhance your experience as a registered member. We hope you’ll participate in the vote and visit the community again soon!