Philosopher to Explore Freedom Versus Occasionalism, September 8

Chestertown, MD, August 31, 2005 — Washington College's Department of Philosophy and Philosophy Club present "Is Freedom an Exception to Malebranche's Occasionalism?," a lecture by Sean Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, Thursday, September 8, at 4 p.m. in the Common Room of the Casey Academic Center.

Greenberg, a specialist in early modern philosophy with a strong interest in moral psychology, will discuss Nicolas Malebranche-a leading Classical Modern philosopher of the seventeenth century who developed the theory of occasionalism-in light of contemporary problems of the human will. After earning his Ph.D. from Harvard, Greenberg is currently researching early modern concepts of emotions and the will.

The event is free and open to the public.

Prudent—and Imprudent—Choice in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Lecture September 19

Chestertown, MD, August 31, 2005 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr Committee presents "'Blameth Nat Me if that Ye Chese Amys': Deliberation and Prudent (or Imprudent) Choice in The Canterbury Tales," a lecture by Professor Robert Hanning, Columbia University, Monday, September 19, at 4:30 p.m. in the Rose O'Neill Literary House. The event is free, and the public is invited to attend.

A member of the Columbia faculty since 1963 and Professor of English since 1971, Hanning has focused his research on Old and Middle English literature, Chaucer, Medieval Romance, Boccacio, Castiglione and Ariosto. He is the author of The Vision of History in Early Britain (1966) and The Individual in Twelfth-Century Romance (1977), as well as the co-translator, with Joan Ferrante, of The Lais of Marie de France (1978). Although a lifelong New Yorker, Hanning has taught as a visiting professor at Yale, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and NYU, and has served as Director of the Bread Loaf program at Lincoln College in Oxford.

The lecture is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, which works to carry on 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.

Washington College Named to Princeton Review's Top Northeastern Colleges 2006

Chestertown, MD, August 25, 2005 — Washington College has been chosen as one of 224 select Northeastern colleges and universities profiled in The Princeton Review's new 2006 edition of The Best Northeastern Colleges, now available in bookstores nationwide. The Princeton Review cites "individualized attention" and a "well-respected creative writing program" as two of Washington College's major draws for today's college-bound students.

"The schools in this book all have excellent academic programs," said Robert Franek, Vice President of Publishing for The Princeton Review. "We chose them from several hundred Northeastern schools we considered based on institutional data we collect about the schools, our surveys of students at them, and our visits to schools over the years."

The Best Northeastern Colleges covers select institutions in the District of Columbia and eleven states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. For this edition, The Princeton Review surveyed 53,000 students at the 224 schools in the book. Students were asked to rate their schools on several matters from the teaching ability of their professors to the campus food. Candid comments drawn from the student surveys lace the book's narrative profiles for each of the colleges.

Washington College students surveyed by The Princeton Review emphasized the College's focus on maintaining a small student/faculty ratio (12/1), teaching excellence and close sense of community with comments such as: "the professors are amazing; there is plenty of opportunity to meet with them and to further discuss any issues in class. They are wonderful at helping students advance their careers in their chosen fields." Another student applauded Washington College's "great psych program and excellent record of placement into medical schools," while another remarked: "Since WAC is a liberal arts college, there is an easy mix of different types of students."

"We are very proud to be included in this guide," said Washington College President Baird Tipson. "Fostering an intimate learning environment in which professors are more than just teachers, but are mentors to our students, is a deeply held and abiding value of Washington College. We are glad to be recognized for it."

Poetry Reading: Meredith Davies Hadaway Explores the Inner Landscape of the Eastern Shore, September 7

Chestertown, MD, August 16, 2005 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr Committee presents Meredith Davies Hadaway reading from her new collection, Fishing Secrets of the Dead, Wednesday, September 7, at 4:30 p.m. in Hynson Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

Hadaway, who serves as the College's Vice President of College Relations and Chief Marketing Officer, started this series of poems in September 2000 as a thesis requirement while earning her MFA in Poetry at Vermont College, after the death of her husband. Inspired by the Chester River that flows beside her home, Hadaway's collection of verse—a finalist in the Word Press First Book competition—explores the natural landscape of the Eastern Shore and its connection to the complexities of love and loss. Hailed by critics for their poignancy, Hadaway's poems have appeared, or will appear, in Absinthe Literary Review, Ellipsis, Isotope, Lilliput Review, MARGIE, Currents, Delmarva Quarterly and Milestone.

The reading is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, which works to carry on 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 Congo in African-American Literature and Visual Arts, Talk September 13

Chestertown, MD, August 16, 2005 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr Committee presents "Black Atlantic Routes: The Congo in African American Literature and Visual Arts," a lecture by Dr. Ira Dworkin, University of Miami, Tuesday, September 13, at 4:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. The talk is free and open to the public.

A Post Doctoral Associate in African-American Studies and American Studies, Dworkin earned his doctoral degree from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where his dissertation, American Hearts: African American Writings on the Congo, 1890-1915, received the Melvin Dixon Prize for the Best Dissertation in African American Studies at CUNY. His work argues that African-American writings about the Congo disclose how American culture has been transformed and reformed by racial ideology and transnational politics and has appeared in American Literature, CLA Journal, The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, A Companion to 20th Century American Poetry and XXL, a hip hop magazine.

The talk is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, which works to carry on 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.

A Moment in Gonzo History: Hamilton Versus Burr

Chestertown, MD, August 13, 2005 — In preparation for the September 15 inauguration of the Washington Book Prize Lecture Series, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents a moment in Gonzo history—a radio broadcast of the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

Listen to the audio file

Vocal talents include James Sutcliffe, Kees de Mooy '01, John Buettner '89, and Diane Landskroener '76 M'81.

Sound editing by Greg Waddell and recording by Shane Brill '03. Music courtesy of Astralyte.

Related press release: Chernow Examines "The Man Who Imagined Modern America"

Author Ron Chernow Examines Alexander Hamilton, "The Man Who Imagined Modern America," September 15

Talk Inaugurates George Washington Book Prize Lecture Series

Chestertown, MD, August 12, 2005 — Historian and author Ron Chernow, recipient of the inaugural George Washington Book Prize for his 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton, will speak on "Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Imagined Modern America," Thursday, September 15, at 5 p.m. in the College's Tawes Theatre. A book signing will be held at 4:30 p.m. This is the first of the annual George Washington Book Prize Lectures to honor winners of the prize. The event is free and open to the public.

Mr. Chernow, who accepted the award in May at a ceremony at Mount Vernon, examines the contentious and multifaceted political and financial genius who served as George Washington's aide-de-camp, became a Revolutionary War battlefield hero and Constitutional Convention delegate, co-authored The Federalist Papers and served as the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury. Although his life was cut short in a tragic duel, Hamilton left to America a political and economic vision that continues to shape the nation.

An honors graduate of Yale and Cambridge, Mr. Chernow is recognized as one of the most distinguished commentators on politics and business in America today and has been hailed by Newsday as "one of today's best writers of history and biography." In addition to Alexander Hamilton, Mr. Chernow has authored several critically-acclaimed works, including The House of Morgan, which took the National Book Award as the best non-fiction book of 1990, The Warburgs (1993), The Death of the Banker (1997), and Titan (1998), a biography of John D. Rockefeller. A frequent contributor to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Mr. Chernow is a familiar figure on national radio and on television news and documentaries. He and his wife Valerie live in Brooklyn, New York.

The George Washington Book Prize was conceived by Washington College's C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience—in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mount Vernon—to recognize outstanding published works that contribute to a greater understanding of the life and career of George Washington and/or the founding era. At $50,000, the George Washington Book Prize is the nation's largest literary prize for early American history—far greater than those accompanying prestigious literary awards such as the Pulitzer Prize for History at $7,500, the National Book Award at $10,000 and the Bancroft Prize at $10,000.

"The creation of the George Washington Book Prize is a tremendously exciting project for Washington College, Mount Vernon and the Gilder Lehrman Institute," said Ted Widmer, Director of the College's C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. "We hope that it will bring alive the founding era for all of our constituencies—students, alumni, history lovers and readers everywhere. Ron Chernow's biography of Hamilton is a great first recipient, because it restores the influence of a great neglected founder, and it also reminds us how much we owe to his patron, the founder-in-chief."

Support for the annual prize is provided by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate.

Founded in 1994 by two New York business and philanthropic leaders, Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute sponsors a wide range of educational programs for both teachers and students, with a commitment to promoting "the study and the love of American history." Headquartered in New York City, the Institute uses its impressive collection of rare historic documents to encourage history education and new scholarship through exhibitions, publications, and other outreach programs. The Institute has established similar prizes for scholarly books written about the Civil War era and African American history. The Lincoln Prize was created in 1990 in conjunction with the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, and the Frederick Douglass Prize in 1999 in cooperation with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University.

The oldest national preservation organization in America, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association has owned and managed the home of George Washington for nearly 150 years, opening its doors annually to approximately one million people. The George Washington Book Prize is an important component in the Association's aggressive outreach program, which engages millions of teachers and students throughout the nation.

Established in 1782, Washington College holds the special distinction of being the only institution of higher learning that the first president patronized during his lifetime. Washington donated fifty guineas to the school, gave his consent for it to be named in his honor, and served on its Board of Visitors and Governors.

For more information about the George Washington Book Prize, visit gwprize.washcoll.edu.

Press release: Historian Ron Chernow Awarded First Annual George Washington Book Prize for Alexander Hamilton