College Welcomes Award-Winning Author Joyce Carol Oates for Talk and Book Signing

Chestertown, MD, February 28, 2002 — The Sophie Kerr Lecture Series at Washington College presents a talk and book signing by acclaimed author, Joyce Carol Oates, on Friday, March 22, 2002, at 4 p.m. in the College's Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

In the world of American fiction, Oates stands out of one of the nation's most accomplished and prolific contemporary writers. At age 31, Oates became one of the youngest writers to receive the National Book Award for fiction for her novel them, the story of a poor Detroit family trapped in a cycle of violence and poverty. Oates published her first book, an anthology of short stories entitled By the North Gate, at age 25 and has averaged two books a year ever since. She has not limited herself to any particular genre or even to one literary style. As novelist John Barth said, "Joyce Carol Oates writes all over the aesthetical map," and her work includes over two dozen novels, numerous short story collections, poetry, plays, essays and literary criticism.

A diverse practitioner, Oates has written novels of realism and psychological exploration, realistic short stories—for which she garnered the O. Henry Special Award for Continuing Achievement—Gothic parodies, and suspenseful tales that infuse the ordinary with terror. Critics praise her for exploring the dark side of American life. As she stated in Chicago Tribune Book World, "I am concerned with only one thing: the moral and social conditions of my generation." She has taught creative writing at Princeton University since 1978.

Washington College Hosts Four-Part Series on the Challenges of the War on Terrorism

Chestertown, MD, February 22, 2002 — During the month of March, the Washington College Department of Sociology and Anthropology is sponsoring a four-part speaker series on the history, context, policies and challenges of America's war on terrorism. The talks are free and the public is invited to attend these timely and important discussions.

On Monday, March 4, 2002, Ralph Begleiter, Distinguished Professor in Journalism at the University of Delaware and former CNN world affairs correspondent, will present the first lecture in the series, "WHOSE MEDIA?: MEDIA ETHICS AND NEWS COVERAGE OF THE TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAINST AMERICA." Prof. Begleiter will discuss issues of government and media relationships during the war on terrorism.

On Wednesday, March 6, 2002, Dr. Daniel L. Premo, Goldstein Professor in Public Affairs in the Department of Political Science at Washington College, will discuss the historical context of the war on terrorism in a lecture titled "THE U.S. WAR ON TERRORISM: OLD WINE IN A NEW BOTTLE?"

On Monday, March 18, 2002, Joe Miller, Assistant Director of Occupational Safety at the University of Delaware, will present "THE NBCS: AN OVERVIEW OF A FEW AGENTS OF TERRORISM. ARE WE READY?" Mr. Miller will discuss the threat of and response to nuclear, biological and chemical weapons attacks.

The series will conclude on Wednesday, March 20, 2002, with the lecture "U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AND THE WAR ON TERRORISM," presented by Dr. Tahir Shad, Chair of the Department of International Studies at Washington College.

All talks in the series begin at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Litrenta Lecture Hall, Dunning Room 113.

Black History Month Reading: Poet Calvin Forbes On Campus February 28th

Chestertown, MD, February 21, 2002 — The Sophie Kerr Committee, in celebration of Black History Month, presents poet Calvin Forbes reading from his work on Thursday, February 28, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Sophie Kerr Room, Miller Library. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

A former assistant professor of creative writing at the College, Forbes is "one of the prominent black voices to develop out of the 1970s . . . He communicates a . . . highly moral philosophy as well as the thoughts and emotions of a writer whose artistic ability and vision are still expanding," according to Dictionary of Literary Biography essayist Robert A. Coles. Forbes spent his poet's apprenticeship hitchhiking around the United States, working with poet Jose Garcia Villa at the New School for Social Research, and studying the works of John Donne, Gwendolyn Brooks and Philip Larkin. Whether writing about the lives of street people or the origin of the artistic impulse, in all his work, observes Coles, "Forbes is skillful in the way he suggests double, and sometimes, triple layered meanings through tight control over simile and metaphor, both of which spark clear, powerful phrases and images."

Forbes was born in Newark, NJ in 1945. He attended the New School for Social Research, Rutgers University, and Brown University, where he earned his M.F.A. His books of poetry include "The Shine Poems" (Louisiana State University Press, 2001), "From the Book of Shine" (1979), and "Blue Monday" (1974). His poems have appeared in many journals and can be found in anthologies such as "A Century in Two Decades: A Burning Deck Anthology, 1961-81" (1982) and "New Black Voices" (1972). His honors and awards include fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. Forbes currently is an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he teaches writing, literature and jazz history.

Scholar Explores The Marketing Of "Primitive" Artifacts In The Modern World

Chestertown, MD, February 15, 2002 — The Washington College Department of Art and Department of Sociology and Anthropology present "THE POST-PRIMITIVE ARTIFACT: A GLOBAL TALE," a lecture by Shelly Errington, professor of anthropology at University of California-Santa Cruz, on Wednesday, February 27, 2002, at 8 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Prize, Prof. Errington has focused her recent work on the political and semiotic analysis of the status and fates of non-Western artifacts in the late twentieth century. Her lecture will trace how "Authentic Primitive Art" was invented as a category, institutionalized, and had its triumph during the twentieth century. Its hallmark was that it was made anonymously and for ritual purposes, not for the market, but by the turn of the twenty-first century, a category shift had occurred, legitimizing made-for-the-market artifacts. This presentation briefly traces the rise and fall of Authentic Primitive Art and then sketches some new and emerging categories, exemplars, selling venues, and marketing of neo-primitive and post-primitive artifacts in the context of global events.

Prof. Errington's lecture is cosponsored by the Campus Events and Visitors Committee, the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, the Art History Club, the Anthropology Club, and Lambda Alpha, the National Collegiate Honor Society for Anthropology. For more information on this or other events at Washington College, call the Campus Events Office at 410-778-7888.

Author Susan Stranahan To Speak On Sense Of Place On The Susquehanna River

Chestertown, MD, February 14, 2002 — The Washington College Center for the Environment and Society and the Journeys Home Eastern Shore Lecture Series present "A RIVER JOURNEY: THOUGHTS ALONG THE WAY," a lecture by Susan Q. Stranahan, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of "Susquehanna: River of Dreams" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). The talk will be held Thursday, February 21, at 5 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge.

Stranahan will explore how the Chesapeake Bay region's sense of place migratedup the Susquehanna River and finally took root there. "The result," she writes, "has been an awakened fondness for and protectiveness toward the river and its watershed. It was my good fortune to watch it happen."

Until recently, Stranahan was a staff writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she covered regional and national environmental and conservation issues for more than two decades. In 1979, she covered the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident, and her articles were the major component in the entry that won The Inquirer the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. She has received several state and national journalism awards, including the Pennsylvania Wildlife Federation's Conservation Communicator of the Year, and has written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Audubon, Time, Fortune, and Mother Jones. She is working on a second book and freelances articles for several national publications.

Stranahan also will appear Wednesday, February 20, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the Historic Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD, as part of the Spring 2002 Journeys Home Eastern Shore Lecture Series co-sponsored by the Center for the Environment and Society, the Adkins Arboretum, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, the North American Wildfowl Trust, and the Maryland Center for Agro-ecology. Her February 20th lecture, titled "Finding the Way Home," will address her early recognition of the tremendous sense of place that exists on the Chesapeake and the benefits of such deep-rooted identity with a region. She will be introduced by Frances Flanigan, former Executive Director of the Alliance for Chesapeake Bay. Ticket prices for Journeys Home are $10 per individual lecture. Student tickets are half-priced.

To learn more about this or other events sponsored by the Center for the Environment and Society, visit the center online at http://ces.washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7151.

Scholar To Discuss The Expulsion And Persecution Of Jews In 14th Century France

Chestertown, MD, February 14, 2002 — The Conrad M. Wingate Lecture Series and the Washington College History Department present "EXPULSION AND EXILE: FRENCH JEWS IN THE EARLY 14th CENTURY," a lecture by William Chester Jordan, Professor of History at Princeton University, on Wednesday, February 20, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge.

Professor Jordan's talk will "open the books" on the tragic history and persecution of European Jews in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries when the Christian monarchs of England and France, amidst the rising religious fervor of the Crusades, abandoned their traditional roles as protectors of the Jews and expelled them from their lands.

Professor Jordan received his Ph.D. in history from Princeton University and now directs its Program in Medieval Studies. He was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1997. In 2000 the Medieval Academy of America awarded him the Haskins Medal, the highest award given to a medievalist, in recognition of his scholarship and service to the field. He is the author of several books, including "The French Monarchy and the Jews from Philip Augustus to the Last Capetians" (1989). His most recent work, "Europe in the High Middle Ages" (2001), is a new title in the Penguin History of Europe series. He was also editor-in-chief of the four-volume "Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia for Students" (1996) designed for middle school students and of the one-volume "Middle Ages" (2000) intended for eight to 10-year olds. He directed the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies from 1994 to 1999.

For more information on this or other events at Washington College, call the Campus Events Office at 410-778-7888.

Poet Daniel Mark Epstein To Read From His Works, Lecture On Millay February 19th

Chestertown, MD, February 8, 2002 — Washington College welcomes award-winning poet, biographer, essayist and playwright Daniel Mark Epstein to campus Tuesday, February 19, 2002. He will read from his works at 4 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room of the Miller Library, and present the lecture "Poetry and Biography: Writing the Life of Millay" at 7:30 p.m. in the Hynson Lounge. Both events are free and the public is invited to attend.

Born in Washington, DC, Daniel Mark Epstein was raised in Maryland and received his B.A. in English from Kenyon College in 1970. His poetry has earned him numerous awards and fellowships, notably the NEA Poetry Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Prix de Rome and the Robert Frost Prize. His work has been anthologized in several collections of essays and poetry, and his books include biographies of Aimee Semple McPherson and Nat King Cole, and seven volumes of poetry. His most recent book, "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves & Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay" (Henry Holt & Co., 2001) has garnered both critical and popular success by giving readers unique insights into Millay's legendary life and "ecstatic" creative process. Mr. Epstein lives in Baltimore.

Mr. Epstein also will be signing books from 11 a.m. to 12 noon on Wednesday, February 20, at the Compleat Bookseller, 301 High Street, Chestertown.

The reading and lecture are sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee and the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

P. Trams Hollingsworth to Recieve 2001 Washington College Alumni Service Award

Chestertown, MD, February 6, 2002 — The Washington College Alumni Association is proud to honor P. Trams Hollingsworth '75 M '95 as recipient of the 2001 Alumni Service Award. She will receive the award Friday, February 15, 2002, during the Alumni Service Award Dinner held at Washington College.

"Each year, as part of the College's week of Washington's Birthday celebrations, our Alumni Association recognizes an individual whose outstanding and continued support enriches the experience of our undergraduates and inspires our alumni," said Susan Stobbart Shapiro '91, president of the Washington College Alumni Council. "We consider Trams to be an exceptional alumni role model, and, with this award, honor her selfless example of alumni stewardship."

A 1975 graduate of Washington College, Trams worked as a travel agent and as a nightclub manager on the Caribbean island of Montserrat before making Chestertown her permanent home. She joined the Washington College staff in 1986 as a special events coordinator and one year later was named director of alumni affairs. Trams devoted the next fourteen years to the care and nurturing of the alumni body, employing a creative, energetic approach that endeared her to everyone. She reorganized the Alumni Council to operate more effectively, cultivated relationships with prominent alumni, and breathed new life into alumni programming. Among the popular outreach programs she devised were the Life After Liberal Arts series, the Birthday Toast Around the World, Wild About WC Zoo Tours and WC Odyssey Faculty-Guided Tours of Museums and Other Cool Places. In a daring mission in New York City in 1998, Trams and her associate Kristina Tatusko Henry '88 appeared on the Today Show, plugging Washington College to Matt Lauer as the home of the Division III national lacrosse champions.

Trams also raised the standards for Reunions, introducing thematic programming, dinner and dancing under the stars, and fireworks. She also worked to establish new alumni chapters and to engage chapters more fully in the mission of the college. She was instrumental in establishing the Kent and Queen Anne's Chapter Flea Market to provide scholarship support for local students.

A former English major, Trams is also a gifted writer. Her story about her experiences as an adoptive mother first appeared in the "Washington Post Magazine" and was later reprinted in the "Washington College Magazine." She briefly considered fulfilling a book contract before turning her attentions back to Washington College. Trams earned her master's degree in psychology from Washington College in 1995.

Call For Student Papers—Washington College and Goucher College Announce Redefining the American Identity: A Student Conference on Ethnic Diversity

Come Join the Discussion on Diversity in an Open, Intellectual Forum

Chestertown, MD, March 28, 2002 — This student conference is sponsored by Washington College and supported by Goucher College to address the theme of ethnic diversity and national unity in the United States.

Inspired by the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the conference will serve as a forum for discussion exploring issues that celebrate or challenge the diversity of the United States and the unifying forces of democracy that hold our nation together. As evidenced by the recent events—the terrorist attacks, the backlash against Arab-Americans, the rallying of national pride and identity—one characteristic of America that is unique and that should be a source of strength and pride is its diverse communities.

Topics of the Conference will be

1. Where self-identity and national identity meet: Looking at solutions to conflict

2. E Pluribus Unum: Making it work

How to submit a paper

Papers eligible for submission must have been written within the last year, from Spring Semester 2001 to Spring Semester 2002.

Submit a copy of your paper to the Conference Committee, care of Bonnie Ryan (see address below) no later than February 28, 2002, for review of submission to the Conference. Please include your name, college level, and your e-mail address and phone number.

You will be notified by the Committee if your paper qualifies by March 15, 2002.

Why submit a paper?

Great experience in presenting at a conference

Good for your vitae/resume

Inclusion in the Washington College Review

Great exposure for you and the college!

For further information please contact

Conference Committee
c/o Bonnie Ryan
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Washington College
300 Washington Avenue
Chestertown, MD 21620
410-810-7493

In Honor of Presidents' Day: Historian, Writer Daniel Aaron to Speak on the Presidents of the 20th Century

Chestertown, MD, February 1, 2002 — The C.V. Starr Center for the American Experience at Washington College, in celebration of Presidents' Day, presents "PRESIDENTIAD," a reading by Daniel Aaron, professor emeritus at Harvard University, Monday, February 18, 2002, at 4 p.m. in the College's Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Professor Aaron is the author of numerous works on American history and literature, including Men of Good Hope (1951), Writers on the Left (1961), The Unwritten War (1973) and American Notes (1994). He also served as the founding president of the Library of America series of classic writings by American authors.

For Washington College, Professor Aaron will read for the first time from the "Presidentiad" section of his forthcoming memoir, Circlings: A Personal History of the United States, 1912-2000. The "Presidentiad" shares reflections on every president of his lifetime, from Woodrow Wilson to the present.

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College opened in Fall 2001 to encourage the broad study of American history and culture and the ways we give daily new meaning to what George Washington called "the great experiment." In keeping with the special history and character of Washington College, the Center focuses on the nation's founding moment, ideals and experiences by highlighting contemporary scholarship and research in these areas.