Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Art Historian Maxwell Presents 'Castles,' March 1

Chestertown, MD, February 27, 2007 — It will be a journey back to the Middle Ages via art and architecture when Robert A. Maxwell, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, presents "Castles, Towns and the Problem of Romanesque Art" at Washington College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Thursday, March 1, at 4:30 p.m.

The Romanesque period is perhaps best known for its pilgrimage churches and great abbeys like Cluny, Moissac and Santiago de Compostela. The 11th and 12th centuries, however, saw the greatest flurry of building not along pilgrimage routes or in reclusive mountain passes, but in towns and around castles. Dr. Maxwell's lecture will explore this lesser known side of Romanesque production, focusing on the steep rise in urbanism in France's Aquitaine region. He will argue, furthermore, that attention to the urban quality of Romanesque production compels reconsideration of the great abbeys and reclusive pilgrimage sites and their place in the broader scope of medieval art.

Dr. Maxwell has written on sculpture, manuscripts and medieval art's historiography. Thursday's lecture draws from The Art of Urbanism in Medieval France, his forthcoming book on architecture and urbanism in the Romanesque period.

"Castles, Towns and the Problem of Romanesque Art" is presented by the Washington College Department of Art and the Department of History. Admission is free and open to the public.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Career Week 2007, February 26 - March 2

Chestertown, MD, February 23, 2007 — The Center for Career Development is hosting a variety of workshops and information sessions for Career Week, February 26 - March 2, 2007.

Monday, February 26

Walk Right In!
Resume Review, Career Fair Tips, Job Search Ideas, etc.
No Appointment Needed. Free Portfolios.
Career Center 8:30 - 4:30

Tuesday, February 27

What Happens After May 20th?
Recent Grad Alumni Panel will share their post-WC, first job, grad school and life experiences.
Kim Dannenfelser '06 - Wells Fargo Finanicial
Julie Smith '06 - Echo Hill Outdoor School
Eric Christopher '06 - Queen Anne's County Schools
Career Center 4:30 PM

Wednesday, February 28

Money: Making It & Keeping It !
Nuts & bolts discussion regarding basic budgeting, investing, insurance, etc.
Free personal follow-up available.
Alice Glen, '63 - Financial Advisor
Career Center - 1:30 PM

Thursday, March 1

Alumni/Senior Networking Dinner
Seniors - Join us for dinner after which alums 3-10 years out will talk about their career paths after WC.
Tim Reath, '96 - Financial Advisor, Morgan Stanley
Gia Grier, '02 - Public Outreach Specialist, Tetra Tech., Inc.
Rob Savidge, '01 - Environmental Scientist, Straughan Environmental
Jennie Corwell, '03 - Financial Analyst for US Navy
Travis Elliott, '04 -Research Associate, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Amy Levak, '04 - Assistant Director Annual Fund, Goucher College
Hynson Lounge - 5:30 PM

Friday, March 2

Walk Right In! - Day 2
More opportunities to ask questions about job search, interviews, cover letters, resumes, grad school, etc.
No appointment needed. Free portfolios.
Career Center 8:30 - 4:30

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

An Examination of Arctic Climate Change, February 22

Chestertown, MD, February 19, 2007 — David Monsma, J.D., of the Aspen Institute will present "Arctic Climate Change: Sovereignty, Trade and the Environment" at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Thursday, February 22, at 7:30 p.m.

Monsma, the Aspen Institute's Executive Director for the Program on Energy, the Environment and Economy, concentrates on three areas of expertise: 1) environmental management and reporting, 2) carbon and securities disclosure, and 3) environmental sustainability.

Prior to his current position with the Aspen Institute, Monsma taught undergraduate and graduate courses in law and ethics at the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola College in Maryland. Previously, he was Director of Business and Environment at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) in San Francisco.

He also has served as the Environmental Management Task Force Coordinator for the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD); managed the environment program at the Council on Economic Priorities (CEP) in New York City; and was staff counsel and Director of the Pollution Prevention Project for the Environmental Action Foundation in Washington, D.C. Monsma began his legal career in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) at USEPA Headquarters.

The "Arctic Climate Change" lecture is presented by the Joseph H. McLain Program in Environmental Studies. Admission is free and open to the public. Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. For more information, call 410-778-7731.

Authorized 'Inconvenient Truth' Presentation At Washington College, February 26

Chestertown, MD, February 19, 2007 — Global warming is real. Its impacts are already felt, and the Eastern Shore needs to take action now to confront the climate crisis.

Grasonville resident John Cleveland, selected from thousands of applicants and personally trained by Al Gore, will present the PowerPoint version of the award-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Monday, February 26, at 7 p.m.

This traveling version of "An Inconvenient Truth" is up-to-date and contains scientific and observational data specific to the Delmarva region. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session as well as a discussion about what members of the community can do to help stop global warming.

John Cleveland is the Founder and President of the Global Warming Action Alliance. "This is the single most important issue of our generation," he said. "When our children and grandchildren ask us if we knew about the climate crisis and what we did to fight it, we want to be able to answer them proudly. Maryland, and especially the Eastern Shore, needs to understand the significance of this issue and learn how to be part of the solution."

Admission to "An Inconvenient Truth" is free and open to the public. The presentation is sponsored by Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society in cooperation with the Climate Project and the National Wildlife Federation. Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. For more information, call 410-778-7295.

Washington College Announces $50,000 Book Prize Finalists

Chestertown, MD, February 19, 2007 — In commemoration of George Washington's birthday, Washington College today announced three finalists for the 2007 George Washington Book Prize.

The $50,000 award—co-sponsored by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Historic Mount Vernon—is the largest prize nationwide for a book on early American history, and one of the largest for nonfiction.

The finalists are A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation (Holt), by Catherine Allgor; In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery and the Making of a Nation (Penguin), by François Furstenberg; and Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution (Simon & Schuster), by Charles Rappleye.

"For more than 200 years, Americans have been engaged in an ongoing—and sometimes contentious—conversation about the meaning and significance of our founding era," says historian Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold director of Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, which administers the prize. "The Washington Prize recognizes books that contribute fresh ideas to that national conversation, and approach American history in new ways, as all of this year's finalists do. All three of our nominees can be characterized as 'rising stars' in the field."

The winner will be announced at a gala celebration May 22 at George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Virginia. Previous winners were Stacy Schiff for A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America, in 2006; and Ron Chernow forAlexander Hamilton, in 2005.

This year's finalists were selected by a jury of three historians: Richard Bushman of Columbia University, Theodore J. Crackel of the University of Virginia, and Pauline Maier of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They reviewed more than 60 books published last year on the founding period in American history, from about 1760 to 1820—time of the creation and consolidation of the young republic.

The jurors called Catherine Allgor's second book about the famously gracious Washington hostess, Dolley Madison, "elegant" and "sympathetic." Allgor "captures Dolley Madison's charm and charisma, and spells out in new, impressive detail the political role she played," they wrote. An associate professor of history at the University of California, Riverside, Allgor won two prizes for her first book, about the political influence of early Washington wives, before it was even published. Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government (University of Virginia, 2000) was awarded Yale University's George Washington Egleston Prize and the Organization of American Historian's Lerner-Scott Prize. Later, it also won the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic's James H. Broussard's First Book Prize.

François Furstenberg's book about the myth-making that helped unite the young American republic is an "artfully composed, accessible study of the post-revolutionary period," the judges opined, and "brings to center stage the invention and celebration of the founding fathers, and particularly of George Washington." Furstenberg brings alive both the popular texts—schoolbooks, almanacs, and newspapers—of the era and their authors, from Noah Webster to the Eastern Shore bookseller Mason Locke Weems, unauthorized biographer of Washington and inventor of the cherry tree myth. These are the men who composed the Gospel of the new republic, Furstenberg argues, canonizing Washington and the other Founding Fathers and touting the new religion of "consent of the governed," while whitewashing that discordant element of the story of consent—slavery. Furstenberg earned his Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University in 2003 and, after doing postdoctoral work at Cambridge, joined the faculty at the Université de Montréal, where he is an assistant professor of history. In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation is his first book.

Charles Rappleye is an award-winning journalist, a former crime reporter who spent most of the past decade as news editor and columnist for the LA Weekly. The jurors attribute some of the power of Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, The Slave Trade, and The American Revolution to his reportorial and story-telling instincts. "Rappleye, a journalist, spotted the ideological polarity represented by Moses and John Brown and turned the greatest contradiction in the Revolutionary period into the history of two men: one a Baptist-turned Quaker opponent of slavery and the other a passionate revolutionary who was a major actor in the slave trade," they wrote. "Rappleye's book shows how this contradiction was not a conflict between North and South but a battle waged in the North, within a state thought to be one of the most independent and liberal of any in the Union, and in fact within one family."

The Jurors

Richard Lyman Bushman is Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University. His first book, From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765, won the Bancroft Prize in 1968. Before he joined the faculty at Columbia, he taught at Harvard University, Brigham Young University, Boston University, and the University of Delaware. The Portland, Oregon, native received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. A leading authority on early American cultural and religious history, his books include Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (University of Illinois, 1984), King and People in Provincial Massachusetts (University of North Carolina Press, 1985), and The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (Knopf, 1992). The Mormon History Association named his most recent work, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Best Book of 2006.

Theodore J. Crackel is editor of The Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia and a renowned early military historian. He was previously editor of Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800, at East Stroudsberg University and was a visiting professor at West Point during the school's bicentennial (2001-2002). His books include Mr. Jefferson's Army: Political and Social Reform of the Military Establishment, 1801-1809 (New York University Press, 1987) and West Point: A Bicentennial History (University Press of Kansas, 2003).

Pauline Maier is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her B.A. in American History and Literature from Radcliffe College, was a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics, and earned her Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. She is widely recognized as an authority on the American Revolution. Her books include From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Resistance to Britain (Knopf, 1972), The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams (Knopf, 1980), and American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (Knopf, 1997). She also wrote the first eight chapters of a college textbook, Inventing America (Norton, 2002). She has contributed to history programs on PBS and the History Channel. She is writing a book about the ratification of the U.S. Constitution for Simon & Schuster.

Sponsors of the George Washington Book Prize

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience was founded at Washington College in 2001 to promote new scholarship in American history, culture, and politics. Founded in 1782 in colonial Chestertown, Md., Washington College is the only college George Washington supported personally, donating both his money and his name to the project, and serving on its board.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is located in midtown Manhattan and promotes the study and love of American History, both nationally and internationally. It creates history-centered schools and research centers, and enrichment programs for teachers, including the Teaching American History grants it co-sponsors with public school districts. It produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibits, and sponsors lectures by eminent historians. It also funds the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington Book Prizes and offers fellowships for scholars to work in history archives, including its own Gilder Lehrman Collection.

The oldest national preservation organization in America, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association has owned and managed George Washington's home for nearly 150 years, opening its doors annually to about one million people. The George Washington Book Prize is an important part of its many outreach programs to teachers and students nationwide.

For more information, visit gwprize.washcoll.edu.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Digital Video Challenge Winner Receives Honorable Mention at 2006 Communicator Awards

Chestertown, MD, February 16, 2007 — Competing against the best film and communications majors from campuses across the country, Corey Holland '10 received Honorable Mention in the "student produced" category for his short film "WAC Zombies" at the 2006 Communicator Awards, which recognizes outstanding digital productions.

The video placed first in the Multimedia Production Center's 24-Hour Digital Video Challenge last semester, in which participants have one day to submit a completed film with key elements announced at the start of the competition. In addition to the 24-Hour Video Challenge, the Multimedia Production Center regularly sponsors workshops, a 60-Seconds-or-Less Digital Video Festival and a Music Video Challenge.


Watch Video on Youtube

Friday, February 16, 2007

Joan Smith Appointed George Washington Book Prize Coordinator

Chestertown, MD, February 15, 2007 — Washington College is pleased to announce the appointment of Joan Katherine Smith as the new George Washington Book Prize Coordinator.

Smith, an award-winning freelance journalist and longtime staff writer/editor for the San Francisco Examiner, brings a wealth of publishing-industry experience to her new role as overseer of one of the nation's largest writing prizes.

Jointly presented by Washington College, Mount Vernon and the New York-based Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, the George Washington Book Prize annually awards $50,000 to an author whose book sheds new light on the Revolution/Founding period of American history. Washington College's involvement in the prize is managed by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

"Joan brings to the Book Prize job exceptional skills and contacts as a reporter and editor," said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Starr Center. "She's also one of those very rare writers who are just as delightful in person as on the page—with all the sparkling intelligence, curiosity and charm that shine through her published work. I am thrilled to welcome her onboard at the Starr Center."

For Smith, the job description was ideal. "I love books," she said, "and I love early American history. The George Washington Book Prize is attracting more and more entrants from top national publishers each year, so it's a wonderful time to be getting involved with it."

Smith has won seven writing prizes, including the Penney-Missouri Award for Individual Reporting. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue and O: the Oprah Magazine.

At the San Francisco Examiner, Smith was especially noted for her interviews and profiles of well known authors and public figures, including Jimmy Carter, Salman Rushdie, Joyce Carol Oates, John Irving, E.L. Doctorow, Bob Woodward, Kazuo Ishiguru, Isabel Allende and A.S. Byatt. In addition to serving on the staff of the Examiner, Smith also was a senior editor atRedbook.

EnviroPanel Discussion on Sustainability Features Alumni Speakers, February 21

Chestertown, MD, February 15, 2007 — The Center for the Environment & Society (CES) is hosting a Green Drinks reception at 6:00 p.m. and EnviroPanel discussion at 7:00 p.m. at Washington College's McLain Atrium on Wednesday, February 21.

Dr. John Seidel, Director of the Center, will moderate the panel discussion. "We need to focus public attention on sustainability," says Seidel, who believes that protecting the integrity of our land and water is key to the long-term well-being of every community.

Panelists include Capt. Andy McCown from Echo Hill Outdoor School, Jeanette Snyder from Save the Bay, Bruce Alexander from the Department of Natural Resources, environmentalist Tom Hopkins from Villa Julie College, Katy Bishop from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Michael Scozzafava from the Environmental Protection Agency, and Angie Crenshaw, an environmental planner with Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association (MAMRA).

The program is designed to provide students with an opportunity to build a network of professional contacts. Who should attend? Those eager to chat with eco-minded professionals, or anybody curious about students, faculty and alumni who are "thinking green," promoting social responsibility, and working to improve the environment.

The February 21 event is part of the College's George Goes Green initiative. Participants are invited to sign the Green Pledge and to sample "renewable energy" drinks like Kyoto Cooler, Solar Solution, Global Warmer and CES Splash. The 6:00 PM reception, co-sponsored by WC Alumni Relations, features a cash bar and complimentary refreshments. Admission to the panel discussion is free and open to the public. For information, call 410-778-7295 or e-mail jfairchild2@washcoll.edu.

CES supports interdisciplinary education, research, and the integration of ecological and social values. It promotes exemplary stewardship of natural and cultural resources and works to instill a conservation ethic by connecting people to the natural world.

Mount Vernon's James C. Rees Presents 'George Washington's Leadership Lessons,' February 20

Chestertown, MD, February 15, 2007 — In this era that yearns for wise, decisive leadership, what insights can America's original natural-born leader impart to us? Join James C. Rees, Executive Director of George Washington's Mount Vernon, when he presents "George Washington's Leadership Lessons: What the Father of Our Country Can Teach Us About Effective Leadership and Character," at Washington College's Hynson Lounge on Tuesday, February 20, at 4:30 p.m.

Rees's lecture, presented by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, ties in with his newly published book of the same title, and a booksigning will follow Tuesday's presentation.

Both the book and the author's lecture offer an enlightening guide to the leadership wisdom of America's first great leader. Washington was more than just an inspiring battlefield commander; he was critical to the founding and success of the United States of America. His leadership, his vision and his courage united a war-torn country and set the United States on the path to greatness. Washington's historic contribution to this nation—his leadership and his character—are as relevant and valuable today as they have ever been.

Rees discusses not only Washington's leadership talents, but his business skills and acumen as well. Most people aren't aware that Washington was also a successful businessman and visionary entrepreneur.

Exhibiting qualities sorely lacking in so many of our political and business leaders today, Washington remained steadfastly honest and ethical, following guiding principles that would benefit leaders around the world. "George Washington's Leadership Lessons" reveals a man of true character, worthy of emulation not just in the realm of politics and war, but in all leadership positions.

As Executive Director of Mount Vernon, Rees oversees the second-most visited historic home in America, with approximately one million visitors annually. He has appeared on "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," "CBS Sunday Morning," C-SPAN, CNN and PBS.

Admission to "George Washington's Leadership Lessons" is free and open to the public. Hynson Lounge is located in Hodson Hall. For more information, call 410/810-7161.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

WC Drama Department's My Name Is Rachel Corrie Vivifies Late Peace Activist, February 15, 16 And 17

Chestertown, MD, February 12, 2007 — Washington College's Drama Department will breathe life into the words and spirit of Rachel Corrie, the U.S. peace activist who died tragically in the Gaza Strip, with their production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie,on February 15, 16, and 17 at 8 p.m. in the College's Norman James Theatre.

Senior Sarah Byrne will star as the twenty-three year old who died four years ago this March after she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer. At the time of her death, Corrie was shielding the home of a Palestinian civilian in a refugee camp in the Rafah area of the Gaza strip. Corrie's devastating death marked a landmark; it linked Palestinian suffering to the American progressive movement.

Despite rave reviews and sold-out audiences with its London opening, it took another year for the controversial play to make a U.S. debut. The progressive New York Theatre Workshop postponed its American premiere indefinitely out of concern for the political climate relating to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coma and the election of Hamas. When the play finally graced the New York stage, it struck a chord with its audiences. Not only did they connect with the self-portrait of a sensitive young woman struggling to find her purpose, but also with the diatribe on the atrocities of Israeli occupation.

Corrie's own journal entries serve as the basis of the play. Her parents have said, "Rachel was a real human being. Sometimes, when people idealize her, we feel vulnerable for her. Knowing the complete human being, would they feel the same? Through My Name is Rachel Corrie, people can know a more complete Rachel."

Directed by Professor Dale Daigle and Senior Erika Salomon, WC's production also features the talents of Senior Harry Wright. Admission is free, but reservations are required. For show information, call 410-778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

A 'Quartet For The New Millennium' At Norman James Theatre, February 21

Chestertown, MD, February 9, 2007 — Cuarteto Casals, an up-and-coming Spain-based string quartet attracting international attention, will perform at Washington College's Norman James Theatre on Wednesday, February 21, at 8 p.m.

Since its founding in Madrid in 1997, the Cuarteto Casals has been recognized as one of Europe's most distinguished young string quartets. "Here is a quartet for the new millenium if ever I heard one," enthused Tully Potter in The Strad magazine.

This violin/ viola/ cello foursome has garnered extensive critical acclaim and has won top prizes at many international competitions, including First Prize at the 2000 London International String Quartet Competition and First Prize at the Johannes Brahms International String Quartet Competition in Hamburg (2002). In September 2000, the ensemble was honored with the Catalonian Music Critics Prize.

Upcoming and recent activities include performances at the Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Lincoln Center (New York), Beethovenhaus (Bonn), Philharmonie (Berlin), Library of Congress (Washington), Konzerthaus (Wien), Weill Reciatal Hall (New York), Philharmonie (Cologne), and tours throughout Europe, the United States, South America and Japan.

Last September the Cuarteto Casals released a three-disc CD set of the complete early quartets and divertimenti of Mozart—the group's third commerical recording for the prestigious Harmonia Mundi label. Cuarteto Casals is heard frequently on NPR and the BBC, and is a fixture on the Continental European classical radio and TV-concert scene.

Norman James Theatre is located in William Smith Hall. Reservations are strongly recommended for the February 21 performance, presented as part of the Washington College 2006-2007 concert series. Admission is $15 for adults, $5 for students and youth 18 and under. For tickets and more information, call 410-778-7839.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Heflin Presents Enviro-Lecture On 'Protecting The Bay,' February 12

Chestertown, MD, February 7, 2007 — Changing the bad into the good, and helping to save the Chesapeake: These are ideals to live by for anyone concerned about the region's environmental health. And they are ideals turned into reality by Lonnie Heflin, whose company, Bay Organics, is in the vanguard of eco-conscious industry. Join Heflin as he presents "Composting Agricultural By-products: Protecting the Bay on Both Sides of the Bridge" at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Monday, February 12, at 7:30 p.m.

Hurlock, Maryland-based Bay Organics captures nutrients from agricultural byproducts of the Eastern Shore and converts them into environmentally friendly media for growing flowers, vegetable gardens and lawns. Hatchery waste, for example, is turned from an environmental negative into a positive—from offal to a turf enhancer. It's a recycling-process equivalent of being "an alchemist," said Heflin. "We can take materials that most people would prefer to not even know exist and convert them into value-added materials."

Heflin's talk is being presented by the Center for the Environment and Society. Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410-778-7295.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

President + Congress = 'Rivals For Power,' February 13

Attention all WC students, faculty and staff: event postponed

James Thurber's lecture, "Rivals for Power," originally slated for this Tuesday, February 13, at 7:30 p.m., has been postponed due to the threat of inclement weather. The talk has been rescheduled for September 25.

Chestertown, MD, February 2, 2007 — An American University scholar is visiting the Shore to discuss a timely political topic: the tug-of-war between the U.S. President and the U.S. Congress. Join James A. Thurber, Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, when he presents "Rivals for Power: Cooperation and Conflict Between Congress and the President," at Washington College's Hynson Lounge on Tuesday, February 13, at 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Thurber has been on the faculty of American University since 1974 and was honored as the University Scholar/Teacher of the Year in 1996. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He is author and co-author of numerous books and more than 75 articles and chapters on Congress, congressional-presidential relations, congressional budgeting, congressional reform, interest groups and lobbying, and campaigns and elections.

He is author or editor of Congress and the Internet (2002) with Colton Campbell, Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations, Second Edition (2002), The Battle for Congress: Consultants, Candidates, and Voters (2001), Political Advertising in Election Campaigns(1999), The Role of Political Consultants in Elections (1999), Remaking Congress: The Politics of Congressional Stability and Change (with Roger Davidson, 1995), Campaigns and Elections, American Style (with Candice Nelson, 1995), and Divided Democracy: Cooperation and Conflict Between Presidents and Congress (1991).

"Rivals for Power" is being presented at Washington College by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs. Hynson Lounge is located in Hodson Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410/778-7116.

Friday, February 2, 2007

Kenneth Miller Discusses 'A Dangerous Set Of People,' February 8

Chestertown, MD, February 1, 2007 — The American Revolution continues to resonate as the source of many relevant lessons—including an intriguing one involving civilian-military interaction and the law of unintended consequences. Join Kenneth Miller, Assistant Professor of History, when he presents "A Dangerous Set of People: British Captives and the Making of American Identity in Revolutionary Lancaster, Pennsylvania" at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Thursday, February 8, at 4:30 p.m.

"A Dangerous Set of People" is being co-sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society.

Dr. Miller's presentation is derived from his dissertation, which he is currently revising for publication. He explores the initial encounters between American civilians and British prisoners of war during the American Revolution, and shows how the presence of British prisoners fostered the formation of a common American identity in an ethnically diverse community.

Prisoners of war, observes Dr. Miller, offer a useful lens through which to examine the local development of national identity. Historians have demonstrated how interaction with a hostile "Other" promotes the growth of national consciousness by encouraging diverse groups to transcend differences and define themselves collectively against a common enemy.

During the first year of the Revolutionary War, many American officials remained conscious of their lingering cultural bond with the British. This sense of shared kinship influenced Americans' early prisoner policy. Congress recommended that host communities pursue a policy of loose supervision, allowing captives to mix freely with local inhabitants with the aim of fostering amicable relations between residents and prisoners. By promoting peaceable relations, Congress hoped to elicit the prisoners' sympathy for Americans and their cause.

Their mounting difficulties with the prisoners prompted American officials to rethink their policy. British captives proved contentious and rebellious, thwarting American designs. In Lancaster, residents and prisoners soon found themselves at odds. Escalating complaints from local officials ultimately induced Congress to institute a more rigorous system of controls. Thus, contrary to the hopes of American officials, rather than improving relations between combatants, close interactions between captors and captives widened the breach between antagonists. As residents grew increasingly alienated from the British, they became more deeply invested in a distinct American identity.

Admission to "A Dangerous Set of People" is free and open to the public; a reception will follow. For more information, call 410-810-7161.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

An Exploration Of Biodiversity And Conservation, February 6

Chestertown, MD, February 1, 2007 — The Joseph H. McLain Program in Environmental Studies will present "Biodiversity, Conservation, and National Park & Reserve Establishment in Madagascar," a lecture by Carl M. Gallegos, Ph.D., at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Tuesday, February 6, at 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Gallegos is an International Environment and Natural Resources Management Consultant and a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer. During his more than 35 years of experience, Dr. Gallegos has held a number of positions, including Director of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Enterprise Office for the USAID Africa Bureau, Bureau Environmental Officer for USAID Africa, Supervisory Natural Resources Manager in the USAID/Madagascar Mission, and Chief Forester for USAID in Washington, D.C.

Prior to working for USAID, Dr. Gallegos was Senior Research Forester and Vice President of the Venezuela Project for International Paper Company. For four years he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile, where he was Professor of Silviculture and Forest Genetics at the Universidad Austral de Chile.

Dr. Gallegos has a Ph.D. in Forest Genetics and Forest Soils from North Carolina State University, a Master of Forestry degree from Duke University in Tropical Forest Ecology, and a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from Doane College in Nebraska.

Admission to Monday's environmental lecture is free and open to the public. Litrenta Lecture Hall is in the John S. Toll Science Center. For more information, call 410-778-7731.