British Scholar Shares European Perspectives On The War On Terrorism, March 30

Chestertown, MD, March 28, 2005 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents “European Perspectives on the War on Terror,” a lecture by Eric Grove, Professor of Politics and International Studies and Director of the Centre for Security Studies at the University of Hull, England. The talk will be held Wednesday, March 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Grove writes prolifically on the history of and issues relating to military, defense and security policy. He became a civilian lecturer at the Royal Naval College-Dartmouth, in 1971 and left at the end of 1984 as Deputy Head of Strategic Studies. After a short period with the Council for Arms Control, he became a self-employed strategic analyst and defense consultant, teaching at the Royal Naval College-Greenwich and the University of Cambridge, and working with the Foundation for International Security. In 1988 he founded the Russia-UK-US naval discussion and confidence building talks that, with the recent addition of France, still continue. Since 1993 he has been at the University of Hull where he is now Professor of Politics and International Studies and Director of the Centre for Security Studies. His books includeVanguard to Trident—the standard work on post-1945 British Naval policy—and The Future of Sea Power. He was a co-author of the original edition of the official publication BR1806, The Fundamentals of British Maritime Doctrine. He has just completed a new history of the Royal Navy since 1815. Grove is Vice President of the Society for Nautical Research and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He frequently appears on radio and television in the United Kingdom as a commentator on naval, defense and security issues.

The talk is sponsored by Washington College's 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.

Free Spring Events: Community Invited To Learn More About The Resources Of The College's Miller Library

Chestertown, MD, March 22, 2005 — The Friends of the Clifton M. Miller Library invite the community to learn more about the many resources offered by Washington College's library and made available to the public. The following Spring 2005 events are free and the public is invited to attend.

On Thursday, March 24, Dr. Benjamin G. Kohl, Sr., Professor of History Emeritus, Vassar College, will speak on "Writing an Entry for the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Cecilia M. Ady and the Birth of Renaissance Studies," at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room, Miller Library. The Friends of the Miller Library recently purchased the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for the library, and the 60 volume set will be available for use later this year.

On Wednesday, April 20, John Danz, Board Member of the Friends of the Miller Library, presents "Things Were Seldom What They Seemed: The Inaccurate Nature of Early Maps," at 4 p.m. in the Newlin Room, Miller Library. If you have an interest in the history of cartography, you will definitely want to attend.

Finally, on Friday, April 22, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Class of 2005 and Friends of the Miller Library will host a book sale. All proceeds will benefit the Class of 2005 gift to Miller Library. Please come and take advantage of many book bargains!

For more information about how to join or support the mission of the Friends of the Miller Library, contact Nancy Nunn at 410-810-7139.

Harwood Lecture Presents Presidential Advisor Karl Rove On Politics And The Polarized Press, April 18

Chestertown, MD, March 20, 2005 — Washington College's Spring 2005 Richard Harwood Lecture in American Journalism presents Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, on “The Polarized Press: Media and Politics in the Age of Bush,” Monday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Washington College's Tawes Theatre. The event is free and the public is invited to attend, but seating will be limited. Doors will open at 7 p.m.

As the person most credited with orchestrating President George Bush's 2000 and 2004 election victories, Rove is praised by many as a masterful political strategist and demonized by just as many for the very same reason. He has been a conservative mover-and-shaker since his days as executive director of the College Republican National Committee in the early 1970s. Rove cut his teeth working on Republican campaigns in Texas as well as for George H. W. Bush's vice presidential run in 1980 and for George W. Bush's 1993 gubernatorial campaign. Prior to his recent posts as a Presidential Advisor and appointment as White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Rove served as president of Karl Rove & Company, an Austin, Texas-based public affairs firm. In addition, he has served as a member of the Board of International Broadcasting, which oversees operations of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, and served on the board of the McDonald Observatory. Rove has taught at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and in the Journalism Department at the University of Texas at Austin.

Questions and answers will be moderated by John Harwood, The Wall Street Journal's National Political Editor since 1997 and son of the late Richard Harwood of The Washington Post for whom this lecture series is named. An astute political observer whose perspectives and analysis appear in the WSJ's column “Capital Journal,” Harwood also contributes regularly to PBS television's political roundtable, Washington Week, and appears frequently on CNN, Fox, NBC, and other television news outlets for expert political analysis.

Washington College's Harwood Lecture Series in American Journalism was established to honor the distinguished career of the late Washington Post columnist and ombudsman Richard Harwood, who served as a trustee and a lecturer in journalism at the College. Recent speakers in the series have included such political and media figures as Howard Dean, Robert Novak, John McCain, James Carville, Judy Woodruff, Al Hunt, Mark Shields, and Paul Gigot.

Coffeehouse Mraz-Amatazz: Singer/Songwriter Jason Mraz Plays WC's Lifetime Fitness Center, April 8

General Admission Tickets On Sale March 21

Chestertown, MD, March 20, 2005 — Listen up you Live at Java Joe's junkies! Washington College's Student Events Board welcomes singer and songwriter Jason Mraz, with special guest, to the College's Benjamin A. Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center, Friday, April 8, at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Tickets for Washington College students, faculty, and staff are $15 per person with a five ticket maximum and can be purchased in the Student Affairs Office, 12 noon to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

General Admission tickets for the public are $25 per person and are available through all TICKETMASTERlocations or by calling 410-547-SEAT. Tickets will be available day of show for $30 per person.

Hailing from Mechanicsville, Virginia, Mraz grew up as a fan of the Dave Matthews Band and the Agents of Good Roots. With a poetic style mixing country and roots rock with coffeehouse folk, jazz, and the rhythmic charge of hip-hop, Mraz began his apprenticeship with an early interest in musical theater, which he pursued following high school at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. He dropped out after a year to take up guitar and to focus on songwriting, but his training as a vocalist would show itself on his debut album which critics praised for its marked clarity and vocal range.

In 1999, Mraz headed west and settled in San Diego, known for its coffeehouse music circuit where singer/songwriters such as Jewel found their start. Playing local shops, Mraz eventually landed a weekly slot at hot-spot Java Joe's. At the same time, Mraz met drummer Toca Rivera and the two began performing together—Mraz on acoustic guitar, Rivera on djembe—developing a live show that featured as much comedy as music. Over the next two years, Mraz's following grew, garnering him the attention of major record labels. In early 2002, Mraz signed with Elektra Records and returned to Virginia to write and record his debut studio album, working with veteran producer John Alagía and his high school heroes, the Agents of Good Roots, as his backing band. The resulting effort, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, was released in November 2002.

For more information, visit Jason Mraz's official website, www.jasonmraz.com.

Board Of Visitors And Governors Approves Tuition Increase For The 2005-2006 Academic Year

Chestertown, MD, March 16, 2005 — Washington College's Board of Visitors and Governors has announced increases to the College's tuition and fee schedule for the 2005-2006 academic year. Under the Board's 2005-2006 plan, tuition for full-time students will increase by $2,240 to $28,230, while the basic charge for on-campus housing will rise by $200 to $3,000. Basic board fees will remain unchanged at $3,200, and the Student Service Fee will be held constant at $560. The total cost for tuition, room, full board, and fees for 2005-2006 will be $34,990.

“This is a large increase, beyond the rise in the consumer price index, but the Board approved it under my recommendation, because we believe a Washington College education is worth the cost and because tuition and fees alone still generate far less than the real cost of a college education,” said Baird Tipson, President of the College.

The difference in the true cost to support the education of each student at Washington College, Tipson noted, is derived from income earned on the College's endowment, government grants, auxiliary operations and private donations.

“Together, these resources permit us to give students every educational advantage, while maintaining and advancing the college's position as one of the nation's great small liberal arts colleges,” Tipson said.

These sources also offset the actual cost of tuition for a vast majority of Washington College students. According to the College's financial aid statistics for 2004-2005, 91 percent of students receive merit or need-based institutional aid, with an average award of $14,000 per student.

“Today's Washington College students are members of the most competitive and selective classes in this College's history,” Tipson added. “Our accomplishments in the past decade have been affirmed by such measures of success as the College's rising status in the U.S. News & World Report's national rankings. There is a cost to maintaining this excellence, but there is a lasting benefit to the intensively personal and challenging education that we provide. The real proof of our worth is in our unwavering commitment to our students—I think students and parents see this immediately, and I am committed to sustaining it as the hallmark of Washington College.”

Sophie Kerr Weekend Brings Author Christine Lincoln '00 And Musical Poets Brady's Leap To Campus, March 18

Chestertown, MD, March 9, 2005 — Washington College launches its annual Sophie Kerr Weekend literary celebration with a reading by alumna Christine Lincoln, author of Sap Rising and winner of the 2000 Sophie Kerr Prize, Friday, March 18, at 4 p.m. in the College's Norman James Theatre. Following Lincoln's reading, Brady's Leap, a band of musically inspired poets from Youngstown, Ohio, will give a free performance. Both events are open to the public.

Lincoln attended Washington College as a non-traditional student and is distinguished not only for winning the Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate literary prize in the nation, but for her critically-acclaimed collection of short stories, Sap Rising, published by Pantheon Books a year after her graduation. Her inspiring story of hardship, perseverance and creative accomplishment appeared everywhere from the pages of the New York Times to the Oprah Winfrey show. Lincoln's debut work, Sap Rising, is a series of connected narratives that take readers inside the hearts and minds of African Americans whose lives unfold against in a fictional rural Maryland community, brought to life with an engaging, natural style and an extraordinary sensitivity and depth of emotion. The New York Times wrote, “Lincoln writes with understated grace and a terrific eye for detail,” while People magazine called the work “Lyrical…shimmering, worldly-wise.”

The literary celebration will continue with a performance by Brady's Leap, a klatch of writers and poets who share their love of language and stories through music. Celtic ballads and original songs, poems spoken and set to music, layered a cappella and instrumentals, from the eighth century to eight o'clock this morning—all of this fills the room and pulls each listener into every tune.

Sponsored by Washington College's Creative Writing Program and Admissions Office, the annual Sophie Kerr Weekend brings young, high school-age writers to campus for three days of creative writing workshops, seminars and readings with some of today's top literary lights. The weekend events also celebrate the legacy of the late 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, Kerr 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.

The New Yorker's Alistair Reid On Translating Neruda And Borges, March 16

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2005 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr Committee and Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures present “Lost in Translation: Neruda and Borges,” a lecture by poet and essayist Alistair Reid, Wednesday, March 16, at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room, Miller Library. The talk is free and open to the public.

Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda are two of the most significant voices in 20th century Spanish American letters. Born in Buenos Aires in 1899, Borges was blind through most of his adult life, yet achieved worldwide fame for his poetry, short stories and essays. His works in all genres are noted for their concision and intellectualism, and many of his most popular stories concern the nature of time, infinity, identity and literature itself. Such images as the mirror, the double, the library and the labyrinth are used to explore the nature of the universe and humanity's place in it.

Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet (1971), was born Neftalí Recardo Reyes Basoalto in 1904 in the town of Parral. He adopted his pen name, Pablo Neruda in memory of the 19th century Czech poet, Jan Neruda. He served in several diplomatic posts during his youth and, near the end of his life, was Chile's Ambassador to France during the presidency of Salvador Allende. Neruda died in September 1973, shortly after the coup d'etat that overthrew Allende. Neruda's poetry celebrates life, love, the sea and nature in all its manifestations. While Borges was often viewed as living and writing in the proverbial “ivory tower,” Neruda deeply believed that poetry could and should be used as a weapon in the struggle for human dignity and justice. Perhaps that view is most dramatically expressed in the epic sweep of his work The Heights of Macchu Picchu.

Alistair Reid—poet, essayist, translator and author of children's books—came to the United States from his native Scotland in the 1950s following service in the Royal Navy and graduation from St. Andrews University. A staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1959, he has also been a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, for which he has written a number of essays related to Latin American literature. A personal friend of both Neruda and Borges, he is also the author of highly acclaimed translations of their major works. Along with Gregory Rabassa, he was awarded the PEN Kolovakos Award for Translation in 2001.

ABC News Correspondent Betsy Stark On Covering The Broadcast Business Beat, March 21

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2005 — The J. C. Jones Seminar in American Business, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Washington College's Business Management Program, presents a talk by ABC News' Senior Business Correspondent, Betsy Stark, Monday, March 21, at 7 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. A Reception will follow, sponsored by the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

An accomplished financial journalist who has reported on most of the major business stories of the last two decades, Stark regularly covers the stock market, job market, housing costs, energy prices and tax policy, helping to keep the American public abreast of the economic issues that most affect their lives. Her reports on the economy, Wall Street, business trends and companies around the world are featured regularly on ABC's World News Tonight, Good Morning America, ABC News Radio and ABCNEWS.com.

Before joining ABC News in 1998, Stark worked at Dow Jones for 10 years, where she was correspondent and later senior producer of the weekly Wall Street Journal Report. In 1996 she was named anchor and editor of her own live, daily business news program, Heard on the Street A.M., produced by Dow Jones for a local New York station. She also anchored its public affairs program, Metro Journal, which won an award for local political coverage in its first year.

More recently, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants honored Stark with an Excellence in Financial Journalism Award for her story titled “Paying Down the Debt.” She also received a Hess Campaign Report Award from the Brookings Institute for a report entitled “Anti-Business Populism,” examining a Gore campaign strategy. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award for her participation in ABC's millennium coverage and a George Foster Peabody award for her participation in the network's coverage of 9/11. Earlier in her career, as a documentary producer for Inside Story, the PBS series on the media, she was honored with an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting.

The talk is sponsored by the J. C. Jones Seminar in American Business, established in honor of the late James C. Jones, Jr., a Baltimore businessman and 1947 graduate of Washington College who remained active in alumni affairs throughout his life and served on the Board of Visitors and Governors of the College.

Second Annual Janson-La Palme Lecture Addresses The Spanish Palace As Mirror Of Spanish History, March 31

Chestertown, MD, March 4, 2005 — The Washington College Department of Art presents the second annual Janson-La Palme Distinguished Lecture in European Art History, “The Spanish Palace as Mirror of Spanish History,” a talk by Jonathan Brown, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. The talk will held Thursday, March 31, at 4:30 p.m., in the College's Casey Academic Center Forum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The lecture will discuss the major palaces built and decorated by the Habsburg and Bourbon monarchs of Spain from the 16th to 18th century and how they reflect the changing fortunes of the Monarchy during this period, as it gradually evolved from the leading world power to the lesser status of an important European state. Among the palaces to be discussed are the Escorial, the Alcazar of Madrid, and its successor, the New Royal Palace, Madrid, which still stands in the western part of the city.

Jonathan Brown is a leading historian of Hispanic art of the early modern period (1400-1700). He has been a member of the faculty of the Institute of Fine Arts since 1973. Professor Brown is the author/co-author and editor/co-editor of 25 books and catalogs devoted to Spanish and Latin American art. Much of his work has centered on Spanish painting of the 17th century and includes monographic studies of Velázquez, El Greco, Zurbarán, Murillo, and Ribera, among others. His book, Velazquez. Painter and Courtier (Yale University Press, 1986), was a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Professor Brown has also studied patronage and collecting at the court of the Spanish Habsburgs. He is now preparing an exhibition on Goya's last works for The Frick Collection.

In recent years, Professor Brown has been promoting the study of the colonial art of Spanish America. He was co-organizer of a major exhibition in Madrid, Los Siglos de Oro en los Virreinatos de América (1999). More recently, he contributed the lead essay to the catalogue of an exhibition of Mexican colonial painting opening in Denver in April 2004. He is now co-editor of a history of painting in colonial Spanish America.

Professor Brown has lectured widely in the museums and universities of the United States and Europe. In 1981-82, he was Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford, and in 1994, Andrew W. Mellon Lecturer in Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. His contributions to the study of Spanish art and culture have been recognized by Spanish government, and he has been awarded the Gran Cruz de la Orden de Alfonso X el Sabio; Comendador de la Orden de Isabel la Católica; Medalla de Oro de Bellas Artes; and, by the Universidad de Salamanca, the Premio Antonio de Nebrija.

The Janson-La Palme Distinguished Lecture in European Art History was established by Washington College Professor Emeritus Robert J. H. Janson-La Palme and his wife, Bayly, to bring internationally known scholars on European art to campus for public lectures and presentations. In his retirement, Dr. Janson-La Palme remains active in historic preservation, participates in national and international conferences in his field, and frequently contributes to Renaissance Quarterly. The inaugural lecture in the series, held in March 2004, featured Nicholas Penny, Senior Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art, on “Painting and the Third Dimension in Italian Renaissance Art.”

Concert Series Welcomes The Flute And Harp Duo, Sparx, To The Tawes Theatre, March 20

Chestertown, MD, March 3, 2005 — The Washington College Concert Series—now in its 53rd season—welcomes Sparx, a flute and harp duo from Wilmington, Delaware, to the College's Tawes Theatre, Sunday, March 20. Concert begins at 4 p.m. Single tickets can be purchased at the door, $15.00 for adults and $5.00 for youth 18 and under. Season tickets are available for $50.00 per person in advance or at the box office on performance nights.

The duo of Joan Sparks, flutist, and Anne Sullivan, harpist—Artists in Residence at Wilmington's Tatnall School—brings radiance to a repertoire that includes composers of the 20th Century such as Rodrigo, Saint-Saens, and Faure, and works from time-honored masters such as Mozart, C. P. E. Bach, and Vivaldi. In 1996, composer Lowell Liebermann chose Sparx to perform the World Premier of his Sonata for Flute and Harp, Op. 56. During their 20-year collaboration, Sparks and Sullivan have taken their music from San Diego and New York City, where they won the National Flute Association Chamber Music Competition in 1988 and 1996, to hospitals and healthcare centers where they perform for those who would not otherwise be able to experience the wonderful world of chamber music.

For ticket information and a 2004-2005 season brochure, call 800-422-1782, ext. 7839. Individual tax-deductible patron memberships begin at $75.00. Contributing patron memberships begin at $150.00, supporting at $250.00 and sustaining at $500.00. All membership packages include two tickets, and all donations over the price of the tickets are tax-deductible.

Season tickets and memberships can be purchased by check or money order through the mail from the Washington College Concert Series, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620-1197.

C. V. Starr Center Creates Frederick Douglass Fellowship Program To Support Research In Minority Studies

Visiting Fellow Marlon Saunders to Give Music Workshop, March 15

Chestertown, MD, March 3, 2005 — Washington College's C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is pleased to announce the creation of the Frederick Douglass Fellowships, established through a generous gift of Maurice Meslans and Margaret Holyfield of St. Louis, Mo. Named in honor of African-American author, activist, and diplomat Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)—who was born in Talbot County, Md., about 30 miles south of Chestertown, and retained a deep attachment to the Eastern Shore until the end of his life—the Fellowships will fund grants to Washington College students who are working on projects related to African-American, Latino, gay and lesbian, and other minority American studies. The grants will allow students to take research trips, purchase books, and work on their projects in lieu of part-time or summer jobs; each recipient will be paired with a faculty mentor who will supervise his or her work.

In addition, the fellowships will fund short residencies at the C. V. Starr Center by scholars and artists in the field, who will teach and lecture during their stay. The first of these, with musician and teacher Marlon Saunders, a Kent County native now living in New York City, will be held March 12 through March 19. Saunders has toured internationally and recorded with such artists as Sting, Bobby McFerrin, and Dianne Reeves. His solo debut album, Enter My Mind, was released in 2003 and rated “exceptional” by Vibe magazine. His music blends soul, gospel, and jazz traditions with the rhythms of hip-hop.

During his weeklong residency, Saunders will give a free lecture and workshop, “The Singer Meets the Ear,” on Tuesday, March 15, in the College's Norman James Theatre at 3:30 p.m. The public is invited.

A professor of voice at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Saunders is currently at work composing a three-part suite that will evoke, through music and words, the African-American heritage of Kent County, scheduled to premiere at Chestertown's Prince Theatre in February 2006. During his residency at Washington College, Saunders will work on the project, meet informally with students, and speak about his work as a composer and performer.

The C. V. Starr Center is also pleased to announce the student winners of its inaugural Frederick Douglass Fellowships: Paula Potter '06 and Alyse Shelton '06. Potter, a junior American studies major from Joppa, Md., will use her fellowship to develop a teaching unit for elementary school students that will educate them about the Civil Rights Movement and segregation using primary-source materials such as photographs, music, and speeches. Her faculty mentor for the project is Peggy Donnelly, assistant professor of education. Shelton, a junior sociology major from Bladensburg, Md., will study the impact, positive and negative, on Chestertown's African-American community of the move to integrate public schools in 1968. She will conduct interviews as well as documentary research. Her faculty mentor is Steven Cades, professor of sociology. Each student will receive a grant of $1,000, and each faculty mentor will receive an honorarium of $500.

The next group of Frederick Douglass Fellows will be chosen in the fall of 2005 for the spring semester of 2006; the deadline will be announced early next semester. For more information about applying for the fellowships, please contact Adam Goodheart, agoodheart2@washcoll.edu, or Alisha Knight, assistant professor of English and American studies, aknight2@washcoll.edu.