International Week, November 10-14: Washington College Celebrates Cultural Diversity And Understandin

Chestertown, MD, October 31, 2003 — Washington College's Office of International and Diversity Affairs and Student Government Association Diversity Affairs Committee present International Week, November 10-14. Students, staff and faculty are invited to take advantage of the scheduled events and activities to celebrate Washington College's diverse student body and to encourage international understanding and cooperation.

Monday, November 10

9:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m., Casey Academic Center Gallery. Enjoy face paining and a display of international costumes, plus the opportunity to meet some of WC's international students and learn about different countries around the world.

7 p.m., Casey Academic Center Forum. “ The Legacy of Ralph Bunche,” a lecture by Dr. Badi Foster on the first African American Nobel Prize winner.

Tuesday, November 11

7:30 p.m., Custom House Library. The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “A Hundred Years of Modernity: Turkey from the Ottoman to the Iraq Crisis and Beyond,” a lecture by Faruk Birtek, professor of sociology, Bogazici University, Istanbul, and a Visiting Fellow at the C.V. Starr Center. Reception to follow.

Wednesday, November 12

7:30 p.m., Hynson Lounge. “The Development of the New Europe: The Case of Slovenia,” a lecture by the Hon. Davorin Kracun, Slovenian Ambassador to the United States.

Thursday, November 13

4:30 p.m., Sophie Kerr Room, Miller Library. “Social and Political Change for Women in Uganda: The Effect of HIV/AIDS,” a lecture by the Hon. Joyce Mpanga, former Member of Parliament, Uganda. 8-10 p.m., Casey Academic Center Forum. “The United Nations in Crisis,” a behind-the-scenes simulation featuring student participants from the International Studies Council.

Friday, November 14

7:30 p.m., Norman James Theatre. The Washington College Film Series presents Read My Lips, a deliciously sinister French noir thriller with an absorbing character study of two lonely outsiders (a deaf secretary and an ex-con) who gradually recognize their mutual dependency. French with English subtitles, 115 minutes.

C.V. Starr Center Presents Vanity Fair's Sam Tanenhaus On Buckley And McCarthy, November 4

Chestertown, MD, October 27, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “TWO WHO MADE A REVOLUTION: BILL BUCKLEY AND JOE MCCARTHY,” a lecture by author Sam Tanenhaus, contributing editor to Vanity Fair and Visiting Fellow at the C.V. Starr Center. This free talk will be held Tuesday, November 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. All are invited to attend.
A prolific writer and close chronicler of America's contemporary political scene, Tanenhaus is the author of the critically acclaimed biography, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (Random House, 1997), and is currently working on a biography of William F. Buckley, Jr. His November 4th talk will focus on his research for this book and examine the rise of the modern conservative movement from two men who ascended to national prominence at the same moment and worked together closely half a century ago: William F. Buckley and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Tanenhaus is a former editor at The New York Times and his articles have appeared in The American Scholar and Commentary, among other periodicals. In addition to his biography of Whittaker Chambers, he is the author of Louis Armstrong: Biography of a Musician (1989) and Literature Unbound: A Guide for the Common Reader (1984).
For more information about events, programs and speakers sponsored by Washington College's C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Speaker Explores The Legacy Of Ralph Bunche, First African-American Nobel Peace Prize Winner, November 10

Chestertown, MD, October 23, 2003 — Washington College's International Week presents “The Legacy of Ralph Bunche,” a lecture by Badi Foster, president of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, on Monday, November 10, at 7 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Though few recall his name, Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-1971) was the first African American and the first person of color anywhere in the world to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Bunche received the prize in 1950, hailed for his work as a United Nations mediator in Palestine from 1947 to 1949, the height of the bloodiest confrontations between Arabs and Israelis. After months of ceaseless negotiating, Bunche secured an armistice between the fledgling State of Israel and the Arab states. For more information on the life of Dr. Ralph Bunche, visit www.pbs.org/ralphbunche.
Dr. Badi Foster is an educator, an advocate for social change and development for the poor and underprivileged, and an innovative management professional. In November 2000, Dr. Foster was named the sixth president of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, America's oldest continuously operating foundation serving the needs of African Americans, Native Americans, Africans, and the rural and urban poor. The Fund has been a pioneer in pursuing equity for and unity among diverse ethnic and racial groups while promoting the core value of education for human development. Dr. Foster's life has mirrored those core principles. Born in Chicago, he spent his adolescent years in Africa and completed secondary school in Morocco. He earned an undergraduate degree in international relations with an emphasis on Africa from the University of Denver, and as a Fulbright fellow focused his doctoral research on the impact of rapid urbanization in Africa. Dr. Foster has served as consultant to the Ford Foundation for projects centering on higher education in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Tunisia. He received his Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and has received many academic honors and served in numerous public service positions.
The lecture is sponsored by Washington College's Student Government Association Diversity Affairs Committee and Office of International and Diversity Affairs.

Hands Out For Halloween! WC Students To Collect Canned Goods For The Needy, October 31

Chestertown, MD, October 23, 2003 — Washington College's Hands Out Service Organization will be collecting canned goods for the needy on Halloween night, Friday, October 31, between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Students from Washington College will join trick-or-treaters in Chestertown, but don't be surprised if they don't want your candy! Instead, they will be asking for your donation of canned or other imperishable food items to help restock local food pantries serving the underprivileged in Kent County.
Hands Out encourages Washington College students and faculty to lend a helping hand locally and regionally to those in need. Projects include food and clothing drives and other local community projects addressing specific needs. For more information or if you would like to join in this volunteer effort, contact Kerry Kauffman at 410-810-1872, or via e-mail: kkauffman2@washcoll.edu.

Poet Suzanne Cleary To Read At Washington College, Oct. 30

Chestertown, MD, October 23, 2003 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr and O'Neill Literary House Lecture Series present a reading by poet Suzanne Cleary, Thursday, October 30, at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room of the Miller Library. All are invited to this free event.
Suzanne Cleary was born and raised in Binghamton, NY. She earned a M.A. in writing from Washington University and a Ph.D. in literature and criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She currently works as an associate professor of English at SUNY-Rockland in Suffern, NY. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review and other journals, and her book reviews have appeared in Bloomsbury Review and Chelsea Review. Writing about Cleary's recent collection Keeping Time (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2002), U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins observed, “I have long been anticipating this first book, and the chance to express how highly I value Suzanne Cleary's poetry. Her poems have a vigorous forward roll to them and are strung together by daring chains of association. It is refreshing to read a poet who wants to hide nothing, to turn over all the cards at once. High time she had a book, a place for her original voice to echo.”
The reading is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, which carries on the legacy of Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, MD, whose generosity has done so much to enrich Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, she left the bulk of her estate to the College specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most “ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor,” and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships, and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Science, Politics, And The Struggle To Save The Bay

Chestertown, MD, October 23, 2003 — Washington College's Joseph H. McLain Lecture Series and the Center for the Environment and Society present "CHESAPEAKE BAY BLUES: SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE BAY, " a lecture by Dr. Howard Ernst, Assistant Professor, U.S. Naval Academy and Senior Scholar, Center for Politics, University of Virginia. A book signing will follow. The event will take place Thursday, Oct. 23, Hynson Lounge, 7:30 p.m.

Reflections On Landscape And Life: British Naturalist Richard Mabey To Discuss The Environments Of His Native Land, Oct. 29

Chestertown, MD, October 21, 2003 — Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society presents “THE WOOD AND THE WET,” a lecture by Britain's foremost nature writer, Richard Mabey, Wednesday, October 29, at 4 p.m. in the Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Richard Mabey is considered one of Britain's most gifted and evocative writers on nature and the environment. For more than 30 years, as a writer and broadcaster, he has educated British audiences about their nation's own natural history, habitats, flora and fauna. He is the author of more than 20 books including the popular Food for Free, Flora Britannica, Country Matters and The Common Ground, which examines the future of Britain's countryside. In his lecture “The Wood and the Wet,” he will introduce us to his work in progress, Nature Cure, which describes his move from the natural environment of Britain's forested Chiltern Hills to the flat, wet fenlands of Norfolk. His talk will reflect on the contrasting characters of these two habitats and the different cultural and psychological meanings that they have for their inhabitants.
To learn more about events and programs sponsored by Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society, visit the center online at http://ces.washcoll.edu.

Have We Gone Too Far? ACLU President On National Security Vs. Civil Liberties, November 6

Chestertown, MD, October 20, 2003 — Washington College's William James Forum and Goldstein program in Public Affairs present Nadine Strossen, President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), on “Protecting Civil Liberties and National Security After 9/11: How to Strike a Balance,” Thursday, November 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend. Please note, this event was originally scheduled for September 17, but was rescheduled because of Hurricane Isabel.
Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law at New York Law School, has served as President of the ACLU since 1991, and has written, lectured and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. The National Law Journal has twice named Strossen one of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” and in 1998, Vanity Fair included Strossen in “America's 200 Most Influential Women.” Since becoming ACLU President, an unpaid, volunteer position, Strossen has made more than 200 public presentations per year and comments frequently on legal issues in the national media. She was a regular guest on ABC's “Politically Incorrect” with Bill Maher and is a weekly commentator on the Talk America Radio Network. In October 2001, Strossen made her professional theater debut as the guest star in Eve Ensler's award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, during a week-long run at the National Theatre in Washington, DC.
Strossen's writings have been published in many scholarly and general interest publications (approximately 250 published works). Her book, Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights (Scribner 1995), was named a “notable book” by the New York Times and was republished in October 2000 by NYU Press. Her co-authored book, Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (NYU Press 1995), was named an “outstanding book” by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America. Strossen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College in 1972 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1975. Before becoming a law professor, she practiced law for nine years in Minneapolis, MN, and New York City.
The talk is sponsored by Washington College's William James Forum and Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy and the media.

Speaker Explores The Political And Cultural Symbolism In American Mapmaking, November 5

Chestertown, MD, October 20, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “THE GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION IN AMERICA,” a lecture by Susan Schulten, assistant professor of history at the University of Denver, Wednesday, November 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
The author of the book The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2001), Schulten will explore how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography in America from 1880, when maps first became widely available, to 1950, the beginning of the Cold War. Her research tells the story of Americans beginning to see the world around them, how maps of the historical period represented U.S. attitudes toward the world, and how four influential institutions—publicly available maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and the public school system—conveyed through mapmaking and the teaching of geography the political and cultural ideology of our nation.
Publishers Weekly described Schulten's book as “a well-documented account of how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography… Theory is wisely balanced by a hodgepodge of odd and interesting facts about maps, politics and American cultural trends.”
For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Historian To Discuss The Underground Literature Of 18th Century France, October 23

Chestertown, MD, October 14, 2003 — Washington College's Conrad Wingate Memorial Lecture Series presents “Mademoiselle Bonafon and the Private Life of Louis XV: What the Butler Saw and What the Public Read in 18th Century France,” a lecture by Princeton historian Robert Darnton. This free lecture will be held Thursday, October 23, at 4 p.m. in the College's Norman James Theatre. The public is invited to attend.
A former Rhodes scholar, Dr. Darnton holds a Doctor of Philosophy in history from Oxford University (1964) and now serves as the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of European History at Princeton University. He is well known for his behind-the-scenes approach and research into the undersides of history, the history of books and the history of censorship with a specific focus on 18th century France. His books include The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History (1985); Berlin Journal: 1989-1990 (1993); The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (1996), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; and the recently released George Washington's False Teeth: An Unconventional Guide to the Eighteenth Century (Norton, 2003). In his October 23rd lecture, Dr. Darnton will discuss his most recent research on the underground literature in France attacking King Louis XV and the general theme of illicit literature as it related to public opinion in 18th century Paris. Taking an “historical perspective to current questions” viewpoint, Dr. Darnton sees 18th century France as a society awash in “information” and an underground press with parallels to our own time with the profusion of information and rumor on the Internet.
The Conrad M. Wingate Memorial Lecture in History is held in honor of the late Conrad Meade Wingate '23, brother of late Washington College Visitor Emeritus Phillip J. Wingate '33 and the late Carolyn Wingate Todd. He was principal of Henderson (MD) High School at the time of his death from cerebrospinal meningitis at age 27. At Washington College, he was president of the Dramatic Association, president of the Adelphia Literary Society and vice president of the Student Council in 1922-23.

Tea & Talk Series Hosts Prof. Tom Cousineau Speaking On The Tragic Tradition In Western Literature

Chestertown, MD, October 13, 2003 — The O'Neill Literary House continues its 2003-2004 Tea & Talk Series on Monday, October 20, at 4:30 p.m. with a talk by Washington College English professor Tom Cousineau titled “Singing Songs while Killing Goats: From Oedipus the King to Waiting for Godot.” The event is free and all are welcomed to enjoy tea and discussion at the O'Neill Literary House. Tea served at 4 p.m.
“The title of my talk refers to ‘tragoidia,' the Greek word for tragedy which is usually translated as ‘a song sung while sacrificing a goat,'” says Professor Cousineau. “The talk itself grows out of the many classes involving Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot that I have taught here at the College. Over the years, I've pondered the different ways in which each play gives expression to the ritual practices out of which Western drama developed. The talk will reflect my research on this topic and my thoughts on it as I worked on various publication projects. In fact, these reflections became a fundamental reference for my forthcoming book, Ritual Unbound: Reading Sacrifice in Modernist Fiction.”
Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in historic Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Since its dedication in 1985, the rambling and eclectic O'Neill Literary House has been the locus of the College's creative writing and literary culture.

Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet W.D. Snodgrass To Read At Washington College, October 16

Chestertown, MD, October 13, 2003 — Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.D. Snodgrass will read at Washington College on Thursday, October 16, at 7 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room of the Miller Library. All are invited to this free event.
William DeWitt Snodgrass was born in Wilkinsburg, PA, in 1926. His more than twenty books of poetry include The Fuehrer Bunker: The Complete Cycle (1995); Each in His Season (1993); Selected Poems, 1957-1987; The Führer Bunker: A Cycle of Poems in Progress (1977), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry; After Experience (1968); and Heart's Needle (1959), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1960. He has also produced two books of literary criticism, To Sound Like Yourself: Essays on Poetry (2003) and In Radical Pursuit (1975), and six volumes of translation. His honors include an Ingram Merrill Foundation award and a special citation from the Poetry Society of America, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Snodgrass is often credited with being one of the founding members of the “confessional” school of poetry—a classification he vigorously eschews—having had a tremendous impact on that facet of contemporary poetry. “Like other confessional poets, Snodgrass is at pains to reveal the repressed, violent feelings that often lurk beneath the seemingly placid surface of everyday life,” observed critic David McDuff. Snodgrass' later works also show a widening vision, applying the lessons of self-examination to the problems of modern society. In style and technique, Snodgrass' poetry “successfully bridged the directness of contemporary free verse with the demands of the academy,” according to Thomas Lask of The New York Times.
The reading is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, which carries on the legacy of Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, MD, whose generosity has done so much to enrich Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, she left the bulk of her estate to the College specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most “ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor,” and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships, and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Scholar To Discuss Maoist Terrorism And Guerrilla Wars In Peru And Nepal, October 23

Chestertown, MD, October 13, 2003 — Washington College's International Studies Program welcomes David Scott Palmer, Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University, speaking on “Terror in the Name of Mao: True Believers and People's War in Peru and Nepal,” Thursday, October 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Forum. Dr. Palmer's talk will present a comparative analysis of Maoist guerrilla organizations in Peru (the Shining Path) and Nepal. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Dr. Palmer has worked on issues related to political development, insurgency, border disputes, and civil-military relations in Latin America since studying in Chile and Uruguay and serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in highland Peru in the early 1960s. His major publications focus on Peruvian politics at both the national and local level, the Shining Path, the Latin American military, the Peru-Ecuador border conflict, drug trafficking and United States-Latin American relations. He served as Chair of Latin American and Caribbean Studies for 12 years at the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of State, including four years as associate dean. He has consulted with the United Nations Development Program, the Ford Foundation and USAID, most recently as a Conflict Prevention and Mitigation Specialist in Nepal. He lectures and consults regularly on terrorism and related issues for various government institutions, including the State Department, the National Intelligence Council and the U.S. Armed Services.

The Nuts & Bolts : WC Prof's New College Writing Guide Emphasizes Clarity Over Clutter

Chestertown, MD, October 9, 2003 — Michael Harvey, a professor at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, has released a new book that just might replace Strunk & White's Elements of Style as the perennial writing tool for college students. At $4.95, The Nuts & Bolts of College Writing (Hackett, 2003) presents in 100 pages a how-to approach for college writers, identifying the qualities that distinguish good writing from bad and providing practical measures for avoiding the potholes on the road to effective expression.
Harvey has taught writing to college students for more than 20 years, first as a peer tutor at the University of Maryland, then as a graduate student at Cornell University, and then as a professor. “I've taught a lot of writing-intensive courses over the years, and for a long time I've wondered how best to help students become better readers, better writers—better thinkers,” he said. “That is the origin of this book.”
The most common mistakes in students' writing, he said, center on what he calls the “pompous” style: weak verbs, nominalizations, passive voice, and long, shapeless sentences. His Nuts and Bolts Guide is an attempt to try to get students to write plain sentences with strong verbs, rhythm, and emphasis-—in other words, to write in a more natural, plain-spoken voice. All this in a slim volume priced under $5, so as to be nonintimidating and accessible to all.
“When you grade a lot of student essays, you tend to see the same mistakes over and over again—fear of active verbs; fear of expressing bold opinions; a tendency to say in 30 words what could have been said in a dozen; preference for big, college-sounding words,” Harvey said. “You also see other problems—things like poorly organized paragraphs, weak transitions, overly broad or overly timid claims, and clunky use of quotations. I came to realize that students write in what they think is an adult or collegiate voice—big words, weak verbs, and the passive voice. In a sense, they are imitating the models they had been given, in textbooks, in official documents, in how too many leaders and bureaucrats tend to communicate.
Unfortunately, we are betraying the need for clarity in expression and giving our students unhelpful models of communication.”
For Harvey, students' mastery of clear expression is not merely a technical skill, but a moral act. “When we write unclearly, we are very often trying to hide something. That's a moral choice and a bad social convention of our time,” he said. “Students learn to camouflage their writing from an early age, but I think we need to train young people to have the courage of their convictions, to express their views or observations without fear, and to do so clearly.”
A book on college writing might not seem to be an inspired work, but for Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts Guide most certainly is.
“I've been inspired to do this by my students, my teachers, and the many writers I've read. But one modern writer stands out—George Orwell. I read 1984 when I was quite young and it made a big impression on me. For Orwell, clear language, decency, and honest politics all went together, and tyranny began with the corruption of language. That remains a powerful lesson in our world.”
So who should have this book, and why?
“I think every undergraduate should have this book, or one like it. Society is held together by words. Paraphrasing Disraeli, we govern ourselves with words, so it is our responsibility to know how to use them well.”
The Nuts & Bolts Guide to College Writing is available online from www.hackettpublishing.com and Amazon.com. A companion website can be found at www.nutsandboltsguide.com. Signed copies of The Nuts & Bolts Guide to College Writing are also available in the Washington College Bookstore. To order a copy, contact the Bookstore at (410)778-7749.