Video: President Elect Mitchell B. Reiss Addresses Washington College Community

More about Mitchell B. Reiss

In the Footsteps of Founding Patron George Washington, Ambassador Mitchell B. Reiss (Ret.) to Serve as 27th President of Washington College

Chestertown, MD -- The Board of Visitors and Governors of Washington College, founded in 1782 with the patronage of the nation's first president, has selected Mitchell B. Reiss, 52, who has served as a U.S. Presidential envoy, ambassador, policymaker, lawyer, author and university professor, to be the College's 27th president.

Reiss will assume the presidency on July 1, 2010, succeeding Baird Tipson, who since 2004 has led the liberal arts college, which is Maryland's first institution of higher learning and the nation's 10th oldest.

"I am deeply honored to have been selected as Washington College's next president," said Reiss. "This is a remarkable and impressive institution. It does something both rare and important. It provides young men and women with the opportunity to think critically, express themselves persuasively and listen respectfully to the views of others. These skills are the very best possible preparation for understanding our world, for contributing to our society and for achieving personal balance and well-being. This is as true in the 21st century as it was when the College was founded in the 18th century. My wife Elisabeth and I are excited to be joining the Washington College family."

In announcing Reiss's selection, Albert J.A. Young, a Bel Air, MD, attorney and alumnus who chaired the search committee, observed that the College and Reiss have connected at a propitious moment. "Thanks to a recently completed $100 million construction effort that has transformed our campus, a pivotal acquisition of property on the Chester River to expand our presence on the waterfront, and a commitment to sound fiscal management, Washington College is poised to make a great leap,” Young said. "Mitchell Reiss, with his sterling academic credentials and rich and varied career experiences, is just the person to continue to move us forward. The search committee is thrilled to secure such a talented, capable leader."

Reiss currently serves as diplomat-in-residence at The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, where he has also served as vice provost for international affairs, dean of international affairs, director of the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies, professor of law at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law, and professor of government.

Taylor Reveley, President of William & Mary, saluted Reiss's appointment. "Washington College has chosen splendidly for its next president," he said. "Mitchell Reiss's accomplishments as a diplomat and as a dean, professor and scholar at William & Mary have been extraordinary."

From 2003 to 2007, Reiss served as President George Bush's Special Envoy for the Northern Ireland Peace Process, the role in which he attained the rank of ambassador. For his service, the State Department honored him with its Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service. He has also served the U.S. Department of State as director of policy planning, where he reported to Secretary of State Colin Powell and helped develop U.S. foreign policy, with special emphasis on Iraq, North Korea, China, Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Earlier in his career, Reiss helped managed the start-up and operations of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), a multinational organization designed to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program; he was also KEDO's chief negotiator with the North Koreans. Reiss was a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., where he started the Center's nonproliferation and counterproliferation programs. He practiced corporate and banking law for three years at the firm of Covington & Burling and was Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor as a White House Fellow in 1988-89. He has served as a consultant to the Office of the Legal Advisor at the State Department, the General Counsel's Office at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories.

Reiss has published widely on issues of international trade, security and arms control, has provided expert commentary to national and international media, and is a frequent speaker on these topics at conferences domestically and internationally. He has authored three books: the forthcoming Negotiating with Evil: Why States Engage with Terrorist Groups; Bridled Ambition: Why Countries Contain Their Nuclear Capabilities and Without The Bomb: The Politics of Nuclear Nonproliferation. He has served as a co-editor and as a contributing author for more than 20 books, and is published frequently in leading academic and foreign policy journals and in the news media.

Reiss is a cum laude graduate of Williams College, where he competed in intercollegiate tennis and squash. He earned a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, and received a certificate from the Academy of International Law at The Hague, Netherlands. He holds a doctorate of philosophy in international relations from Oxford University and a juris doctorate from Columbia University. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Reiss is married to the former Elisabeth Anselmi, whom he met when he was studying at Oxford and she was performing as an actress in the West End of London. Married for 23 years, they have two children, a son Mathew, 19, who is a sophomore at Brown University, and a daughter Michael, 16, who is a high school junior in Williamsburg, Virginia.

About Washington College

Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College was the first college chartered in the new nation and today ranks among the nation's top 100 selective liberal arts colleges. The College enrolls approximately 1,200 undergraduates from 35 states and 40 nations. With a student to faculty ratio of 12 to 1, the College emphasizes the transformative power of small classes and close connections between professors and their students. Among the College's distinctions are the following:

· The Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest literary undergraduate prize in America, and one element of a flourishing community of student writers supported by the Rose O'Neill Literary House

· The Douglass Cater Society of Junior Fellows which funds projects and research independently initiated by students

· The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, an institute that sponsors the annual George Washington Book Prize for the year's best work on early American History

· The Center for Environment and Society, which uses the College's setting in the Chesapeake Bay region as a learning laboratory to shed light on the reciprocal relationship between humankind and the natural world.
· The Goldstein Program in Public Affairs and its Institute for Religion, Politics and Culture sponsors lectures, student participation in models and conferences, and projects that bring student and faculty together with leaders experienced in developing public policy.

The College is located in Chestertown, MD, named by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of America's most distinctive historic communities, approximately 90 minutes from Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Recalls Fall of Communism In Washington College Lecture

CHESTERTOWN – The Honorable Philip Dimitrov looms large in the modern history of Eastern Europe: He led the Bulgarian reform movement while his country was still under Communist rule, and subsequently became the first post-Communism Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

Former Prime Minister Dimitrov will recount those turbulent times when he presents “Religion and the Transition from Communism in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe” at Washington College’s Litrenta Lecture Hall on Monday, November 23, at 7 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs and its Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture.

As the winds of change began sweeping over Europe’s Communist bloc countries in the waning years of the Cold War, Dimitrov was active in the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), a broad coalition against continued rule by the Bulgarian Communist Party.

After the demise of the single-party Bulgarian Communist state in 1990, Dimitrov became Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 1991. During his term, the new government managed to make nascent democratic institutions work and started an ambitious set of political and economic reforms.

Under Dimitrov’s administration, observance of human rights became an irrevocable legal and ethical norm, and previous ethnic tensions and abuses were eliminated. Foreign policy focused on integration into Europe and the West.

The Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture explores the role of religious belief in public life and is a vital part of the Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, which was established in 1990 to encourage students to enter public service by introducing them to exemplary leaders, both in and out of government. The Goldstein Program has hosted journalists, political activists, foreign policy analysts, diplomats, military commanders and government officials of both national and international stature.

The Goldstein Program and the Institute sponsor lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, student participation in models and conferences, and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders experienced in developing public policy.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to “Religion and the Transition from Communism in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe” is free and open to the public.

Washington College Department Of Drama Presents 'Troy Women'

Karen Hartman play is adapted from Euripides’ ‘Trojan Women’

CHESTERTOWN – The Washington College Department of Drama will present “Troy Women,” Karen Hartman’s modern adaptation of Euripides’ “The Trojan Women,” at the Tawes Theatre on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 19-21, at 8 p.m.

A bold new take on Euripides’ 415 B.C. classic about the horrible costs of war, “Troy Women” deals with themes as resonant today as they were in the midst of the Peloponnesian War, when Euripides’ tragedy debuted.

The story of the fallen royalty of Troy is offset and illuminated by the chorus: five distinct women whose voices become increasingly unified as the tragedy mounts.

Hecuba and the women of Troy mourn and celebrate their city on the morning after its destruction. Together, they grieve the deaths of their husbands and children as they await their fates at the hands of their Greek captors.

With modern elements adapted into Euripides’ classic, Hartman’s “Troy Women” adaptation is a chilling, brutal, but accessible portrait of women during war.

Directed by Professor of Drama Tim Maloney, who appears in the play as Poseidon, the Washington College production of “Troy Women” also features Alyssa Velazquez as Athena, Polly Sommerfeld as Hecuba, David Smaus as Talthybius, Katie Muldowney as Cassandra, Maggie Kobik as Andromache, Joe Rittenhouse as Menelaus, and Emmy Landskroener as Helen.

Also appearing as women of Troy are Maggie Farrell, Marta Wesenberg, Alexi Lemper, Brittany Rankin and Connie Carpenter. The Greek soldiers are played by John Lesser, Kevin Lemos and Jim Lyons.

Tawes Theatre is located in the new Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. Admission to “Troy Women” is $3 for students, $5 general admission; for reservations and more information, call 410/778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

College Calls For Nominations For President's Medal And Distinguished Service Awards

Deadline for Nominations December 2, 2009

CHESTERTOWN, MD, NOV. 12 – Baird Tipson, President of Washington College, today called for nominations for the annual President’s Medal and the President’s Distinguished Service Awards—to recognize employees, as well as community members and organizations, for meritorious service to Washington College and/or Chestertown and the greater Kent County community.

The College is accepting nominations until December 2, 2009. The award recipients will be honored at the College’s George Washington’s Birthday Convocation on February 19, 2010.

The President's Medal recognizes the accomplishments of an individual or an organization that has made significant contributions to the advancement of Washington College and/or the region. Previous recipients include: Richard Miller, Leslie Raymond, Ruth Briscoe, Nancy Dick, Chris Havemeyer, Jim Siemen, the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Department, the Kent Family Center, Tracey Davenport and Summer Days Math & Science Camp for Girls.

The President’s Distinguished Service Awards recognize exceptional performance, leadership, and service by faculty and staff of Washington College. Last year’s recipients were: Vickie Anderson, Billie Dodge and Shirley Dorsey.

Nominations will be reviewed and evaluated by the President’s Awards Advisory Committee. Complete nomination information and criteria for the 2010 awards are available online at president.washcoll.edu.

Nomination Rules & Criteria

Individuals may be nominated in either or both award categories. Nominees will be considered for an award only in the category for which they have been nominated. Individuals serving on the Awards Advisory Committee are not eligible for nomination. Nominations in both categories are due by December 2, 2009. Nominations should include a cover sheet with the following information: (1) the name of the nominee; (2) the award for which the individual or organization is being nominated; and (3) the name of the nominator.

The President’s Medal

The recipient of the President’s Medal will be an individual or organization with an exemplary record of sustained and acknowledged contribution to the quality of life in Chestertown, Kent County, and/or at Washington College. The candidate's career or organization’s work should be distinguished by a dedication to the fulfillment of the ideals represented in the Washington College Mission Statement and by service to their fellow human beings. Particular emphasis will be placed on contributions that have had a wide-ranging positive influence on Chestertown and the Washington College community.

Eligibility: Any individual or organization may be nominated for the President's Medal. A nominee should have at least five years of demonstrated service.

Nomination Materials: A letter of nomination should be submitted, clearly indicating why the individual or organization should be so honored and how the individual or organization exemplifies the criteria for this award. A résumé, curriculum vitae, or brief background sketch of the nominee should accompany the nomination letter. At least two, but no more than three, seconding letters of nomination may accompany the nomination or may be sent under separate cover. In subsequent years, nominations submitted in the past two years will automatically be reconsidered; however, updated information is encouraged.

President’s Distinguished Service Awards

The President’s Distinguished Service Awards recognize exceptional performance, leadership, and service by an employee of Washington College. The recipient of this award will have a record of exemplary performance and distinctive contributions to the operation of an administrative, academic, research, or service unit on campus. He or she will have clearly demonstrated initiative toward the improvement of the College’s programs or campus activities and will have shown commitment to the campus community as a whole.

Eligibility: Any member of the faculty or staff who has been employed by Washington College for at least five years (in any of one or more capacities) may be nominated for a President’s Distinguished Service Award. No more than five awards will be given annually. The awards will be distributed equitably between salaried and hourly employees.

Nomination Materials: A letter of nomination should be submitted, clearly indicating why this individual should be so honored and how the individual exemplifies the criteria for this award. A résumé, curriculum vitae, or brief biographical sketch of the nominee should accompany the nomination letter. At least two, but no more than three, seconding letters of nomination may accompany the nomination or may be sent under separate cover. In subsequent years, nominations submitted in the past two years will automatically be reconsidered; however, updated information is encouraged.

Deadline for Nominations: The deadline for the receipt of nominations and supporting materials for both the President’s Medal and President’s Distinguished Service Awards is December 2, 2009. Nominations or supporting materials received after that date will not be considered.

Nominations should be sent to President’s Awards Advisory Committee, c/o President’s Office, Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620.

Poet Leslie Harrison To Present Reading At Washington College

CHESTERTOWN – Award-winning poet Leslie Harrison will present a reading at Washington College’s Rose O’Neill Literary House on Thursday, November 19, at 4:30 p.m.

Harrison’s "Displacement" was the 2008 Katherine Nason Bakeless winner in poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. The work was published by Mariner Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in July 2009.

Harrison also has had poems and prose published in Poetry, Southwest Review, The New Republic, Barn Owl Review, Gulf Coast and elsewhere.

She holds graduate degrees from the Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Irvine, where she completed her MFA in 2006. She has been a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Harrison’s reading at Washington College is presented by the Sophie Kerr Committee. Admission is free and open to the public.

Scholar Explores Emerson, Photography in Rose O'Neill Literary House Talk

CHESTERTOWN – Sean Meehan, Assistant Professor of English at Washington College, will present “‘This is a Fragment of Me’: Emerson and the Poetics of Metonymy” at the Rose O’Neill Literary House on Tuesday, November 17, at 4 p.m.

Dr. Meehan began his scholarly focus on the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson with a dissertation on photography in 19th-century American autobiography, completed at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Meehan recently published a book based on that dissertation, Mediating American Autobiography: Photography in Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, and Whitman. His upcoming lecture on Emerson and metonymy is part of his current work-in-progress, a study of Emerson’s engagement with the practice and theory of education and an exploration of Emersonian ways of learning both from the past and for the future.

Dr. Meehan was awarded the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association Fellowship for 2005-2006 from Houghton Library, Harvard University. He published an article based on research he did at Houghton in Emerson Society Papers (2006), “Living Learning: Lessons from Emerson’s School.”

In addition to teaching the courses “Emerson and Whitman” and “American Environmental Writing,” Dr. Meehan teaches “Literature and Composition” and is the Director of Writing for Washington College.

Dr. Meehan’s presentation is part of the Rose O’Neill Literary House’s recently relaunched “Tea and Talk” series, which highlights the work of authors and scholars on the faculty and staff of Washington College.

The series will continue in Spring 2010 with presentations by Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies Christine Wade, Assistant Professor of Drama Michele Volansky, and Vassar College Professor Emeritus of History (and Washington College Trustee) Benjamin Kohl.

Admission to “‘This is a Fragment of Me’: Emerson and the Poetics of Metonymy” is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410/778-7899 or visit lithouse.washcoll.edu.

Whitbeck, Washington College Alumnus-Turned-TV Correspondent, Presents 'Amazing Race: Latin America'

CHESTERTOWN – Harris Whitbeck, a member of Washington College’s Class of 1987 and now the host of a popular TV program, will give a presentation on his show, “The Amazing Race on the Discovery Channel: Latin America,” at Washington College’s Litrenta Lecture Hall on Thursday, November 12, at 7:30 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs.

“The Amazing Race on the Discovery Channel: Latin America” is a reality television game show produced by the Discovery Channel in association with Disney.

The program features 11 teams of two in a race across Latin America to win $250,000.

Prior to his current television assignment, Whitbeck was an international correspondent for CNN.

The Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs was established in 1990 to encourage students to enter public service by introducing them to exemplary leaders, both in and out of government. The Goldstein Program has hosted journalists, political activists, foreign policy analysts, diplomats, military commanders and government officials of both national and international stature.

The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, student participation in models and conferences, and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders experienced in developing public policy.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to “The Amazing Race on the Discovery Channel: Latin America” is free and open to the public.

Award-Winning Novelist Debra Spark To Present Reading At Washington College

CHESTERTOWN – Award-winning novelist Debra Spark will read from her fiction at Washington College’s Sophie Kerr Room on Thursday, November 12, at 4:30 p.m.

Spark is the author of the novels Coconuts for the Saint and The Ghost of Bridgetown and editor of the anthology Twenty Under Thirty: Best Stories by America’s New Young Writers.

Spark’s thoughts on the craft of writing have been collected in Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing.

Her short fiction, essays, articles and book reviews have appeared in Esquire, Ploughshares, Epoch, Agni, Gingko Tree Review, narrativemagazine.com, The New York Times, New England Travel and Life, Food and Wine, Yankee, Down East, The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle, among other places.

She has been the recipient of several awards including a Pushcart Prize and the John Zacharis/Ploughshares Award for Best First Book.

Spark currently teaches at Colby College and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Her latest novel, Good for the Jews, has been published this fall by University of Michigan Press.

The Sophie Kerr Room is located in Miller Library. Admission to the reading is free and open to the public.

Civil Rights Activist Charlie Cobb, Jr. Visits Washington College

CHESTERTOWN – Renowned journalist, activist and author Charles E. Cobb, Jr., a guiding force in the 1960s struggle for civil rights, visited Washington College on Tuesday, November 3rd to present a talk titled “From Freedom Summer to Barack Obama” at the college’s Casey Academic Center Forum.

Cobb’s lecture and book signing was sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Black Studies Program, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Now renowned as a distinguished and award-winning journalist, Cobb spent his early years on the frontline of the Civil Rights Movement. From 1962 to 1967 he worked as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the Mississippi Delta and was a major architect of the Freedom School program that became a crucial part of the famous 1964 Freedom Summer.

Mr. Cobb is the author of On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail (Algonquin Books, 2008), a firsthand account of the movement told through in-depth exploration of the churches, courthouses, and public squares in which activists challenged centuries of racial discrimination.

A founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, Cobb began his journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for WHUR Radio in Washington, D.C. In 1976 he joined the staff of National Public Radio as a foreign affairs reporter, bringing to that network its first regular coverage of Africa.

In 2008 the National Association of Black Journalists honored Cobb’s work by inducting him into their Hall of Fame. View “From Freedom Summer to Barack Obama” event photos.

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About the Starr Center
The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience explores our nation’s history – and particularly the legacy of its Founding era – in innovative ways. Through educational programs, scholarship, and public outreach, and especially by supporting and fostering the art of written history, the Starr Center seeks to bridge the divide between past and present, and between the academic world and the public at large. From its base in the circa-1746 Custom House along Chestertown’s colonial waterfront, the Center also serves as a portal onto a world of opportunities for Washington College students. Its guiding principle is that now more than ever, a wider understanding of our shared past is fundamental to the continuing success of America’s democratic experiment. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

Former NEH Chair Bruce Cole To Speak At Washington College

Chestertown – Bruce Cole, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and current president and CEO of the American Revolution Center, gave a presentation at Washington College’s Casey Academic Center Forum on Monday, November 9, at 5 p.m.

In his talk, “My Provenance: From Aunt Gertrude to Sydney Freedberg,” Cole related his experiences as a lifelong devotee of Renaissance art and his work as the head of the NEH. The retrospective narrative touched on the influences, experiences and exposure to art that shaped Cole’s sensibilities from an early age. The mentors who cultivated his passion for art – from his aunt during his boyhood years to the great Renaissance art historian Sydney Freedberg during years of academic training – are recalled with fondness and gratitude.

Cole is one of America’s preeminent Renaissance art scholars. For two years he was the William E. Suida Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. He is a corresponding member of the Accademia Senese degli Intronati, the oldest learned society in Europe, and a founder and former co-president of the Association for Art History.

As chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Cole launched “We the People,” an initiative to encourage the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture. Under Cole’s leadership the NEH's budget increased for research, preservation, education and public programs on American history and culture and for the study of culture in other lands and in earlier civilizations.

Cole came to the Endowment in December 2001 from Indiana University in Bloomington, where he was Distinguished Professor of Art History and Professor of Comparative Literature. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Cole was chosen for a second term in 2005, a reappointment unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate.

In November 2008 President Bush awarded Cole the Presidential Citizens Medal “for his work to strengthen our national memory and ensure that our country’s heritage is passed on to future generations.”

The medal is one of the highest honors the President can confer upon a civilian, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Earlier in 2008, Cole was decorated Knight of the Grand Cross, the highest honor of the Republic of Italy.

In 2009 Cole became president and CEO of the American Revolution Center, which will have its headquarters in Philadelphia near Independence Hall. The American Revolution Center will establish the first national museum to commemorate the entire story of the American Revolution and its enduring legacy. The Center’s museum will display a distinguished collection of objects, artifacts and manuscripts from the American Revolution era, and will offer programming, lectures, symposia and interactive learning for teachers, students and the general public.

Cole’s appearance at Washington College is co-sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Friends of the Miller Library, the Department of Art and Art History, and the Washington College Academy of Lifelong Learning.

Admission to “My Provenance: From Aunt Gertrude to Sydney Freedberg” is free and open to the public.

Prof. John Conkling Profiled in Washington Post

WC's own John Conkling is one of four professors profiled in the cover story of this week's Washington Post Magazine. You can read the article at this link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/23/AR2009102302137.html

Congratulations, Dr. Conkling!

Poet Taije Silverman Presents Reading At Washington College

Chestertown – Award-winning poet Taije Silverman will present a reading at Washington College’s Rose O’Neill Literary House on Wednesday, November 11, at 4:30 p.m.

Taije Silverman’s poems have appeared in Poetry, Shenandoah, Ploughshares, Five Points, Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner and other journals. The recipient of the 2005–2007 Emory University Creative Writing Fellowship, as well as residencies from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, she is now Assistant Visiting Professor at Ursinus College, outside of Philadelphia.

Silverman’s first collection of poems, Houses Are Fields, was published by LSU Press in 2009, and selected as the debut book in the Sea Cliff Series. Thrice nominated for the Pushchart Prize, she has received the Anais Nin Award from the Academy of American Poets.

Silverman’s reading at Washington College is presented by the Sophie Kerr Committee. Admission is free and open to the public.

WC's Bryan Matthews on "Retention Matters" in Inside Higher Ed

WC's Bryan Matthews has a great op-ed piece, "Retention Matters," published in "Inside Higher Ed." You can read it at this link:

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/11/02/matthews

Congratulations, Dr. Matthews!

Got Trees?

Chestertown – The Center for Environment & Society (CES) at Washington College and the Town of Chestertown are pleased to announce that the Town has received a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust in order to begin implementation of the Town’s Community Forest Master Plan.

This plan involves planting a minimum of 2,000 trees within the Town’s official boundaries over the next four years, beginning with this Fall/Winter planting season, in order to eventually reach a 45% tree canopy cover.

The Town is offering a “buy one tree, get one free” program for residents of Chestertown proper only; the coupons are available at Town Hall on Cross Street.

The Center for Environment & Society works to instill a conservation ethic by connecting people to the land and water.
It supports interdisciplinary research and education, exemplary stewardship of natural and cultural resources, and the integration of ecological and social values.  For more information, visit www.ces.washcoll.edu or call 410/810-7161.

From The Western Front To The Home Front: World War I Historian Presents Armistice Day Lecture At Washington College

Chestertown – Martha Hanna, Professor of History at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will present “Husbands and Wives, Fathers and Children: Family Life and Military Service in France during World War I” at Washington College’s Litrenta Lecture Hall on Wednesday, November 11, at 5:30 p.m.

The event, this year’s Conrad M. Wingate Memorial Lecture in History, is being held on November 11 to honor the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I.

Dr. Hanna is a specialist in the history of modern France, with a particular interest in the First World War. During a research trip to Paris in  2000, she unearthed a previously unknown collection of wartime letters written by a peasant couple, Paul and Marie Pireaud.

The Pireauds had been married only six months when World War I began in 1914. Called up to serve in the French Army for almost five years, Paul saw action in some of France’s bloodiest battles, while Marie joined her parents and in-laws in tending the farm that had been left in their care.

The letters of Marie and Paul chronicle the day-to-day life, anxieties and abiding love of a couple separated by war.

Numbering well over a thousand letters, the Pireaud collection – perhaps the only extant collection of letters written by French peasants that includes the letters of both husband and wife – formed the foundation of Dr. Hanna’s latest book, Your Death Would Be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War (Harvard University Press, 2008).

Examining wartime experience from the vantage points of both the military and home fronts, Your Death Would Be Mine was hailed by the London Review of Books as “a vivid picture of the Great War.” In a starred review, Booklist enthused, “Hanna offers a fascinating look at one peasant couple separated and in love….”

Your Death Would Be Mine won the American Historical Association’s 2007 J. Russell Major Prize, the Society for Military History’s 2008 Distinguished Book Award (Biography and Memoir category) and the 2007 Colorado Book Award for History/Biography.

Dr. Hanna also is the author of The Mobilization of Intellect: French Scholars and Writers During the Great War (Harvard University Press, 1996) and numerous articles on the cultural history of France during the early 20th century.

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.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to “Husbands and Wives, Fathers and Children: Family Life and Military Service in France During World War I” is free and open to the public.

Washington College's Afro-Cuban Ensemble, Jazz Combo To Perform

Chestertown – The exciting drum and song traditions of a vibrant musical culture will come alive on campus when the Washington College Afro-Cuban Ensemble performs in Hotchkiss Recital Hall on Wednesday, November 11, at 9 p.m. The Washington College Jazz Combo also will perform, presenting enduring classics from the American jazz canon.

The Afro-Cuban Ensemble was founded in 2005 by percussionist and ethnomusicologist Kenneth Schweitzer, D.M.A., of the Washington College Department of Music. The November 11 concert will include Santeria drums and songs, rumba, popular sones and boleros (as in “The Buena Vista Social Club”) and Brazilian bossa nova.

Schweitzer also leads the Washington College Jazz Combo, which will round out November 11’s entertainment. The Jazz Combo is composed of a small group of Washington College students (both majors and non-majors) who show exceptional talent and motivation. The goal of the ensemble is to provide members with professional opportunities; playing in club-like settings and providing ambient music in a variety of venues both on and off campus.

Hotchkiss Recital Hall is located in the new Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public.

Dance Program Hosts Community Dance Day

The Washington College Dance Program will host its Sixth Annual Community Dance Day at the Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center on Saturday, November 7, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

No prior dance experience is necessary to participate in the program, which is open to children grades K-8.

Members of the Nu Delta Alpha National Dance Honor Society, under the direction of Professor Karen Smith, will offer classes in hip-hop, Broadway dance and creative movement.

For more information, call 410/778-7237 or contact ksmith2@washcoll.edu.

Acclaimed 'Second Nature' Art Exhibition Continues At Washington College's New Kohl Gallery

Rarely seen works by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro et al. displayed

 

“The first exhibition at the Kohl Gallery … is striking and wonderful … The work on view in that gallery is in every way interesting and delightful. It is a pleasure for the eye, a feast for the intellect, a wonderful view of the diversity and the humanity of the 19^th century.… A great critic … said that in the past there had been an art for the gods, an art for kings and queens and princes, and that finally, in the 19^th century, there was an art for mankind, an art of democracy, available to everyone…. landscape painting. I recommend that you rush right over as soon as you can to the Kohl Gallery and see this wonderful and varied show.”

-- Linda Nochlin, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Modern Art, Institute of Fine Arts/New York University, contributing editor of Art in America and author of numerous groundbreaking books including Women, Art, and Power and The Politics of Vision

 

Chestertown – “Second Nature: Masterpieces of 19^th-Century Landscape Painting,” featuring seldom-displayed masterworks from some of the major artists of the period, is on view at Washington College’s new Kohl Gallery through November 15.

The exhibition features 23 rarely seen paintings from a private collection, including artworks by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Frederic Edwin Church, Camille Corot, Martin Johnson Heade, Thomas Moran, Alfred Sisley and Thomas Worthington Whittredge.

The new gallery and its opening exhibition have been a hit – there were more than 1,200 visitors in the first week alone.

The masterpieces constitute an auspicious debut for the College’s first-ever climate-controlled, secure exhibition space, the 1,200-square-foot Kohl Gallery, funded by Washington College parents Benjamin and Judy Kohl.

The Kohl Gallery is located in the newly opened Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts, a $24-million renovation and expansion of the original performing arts center built more than 40 years ago.

Sponsored by Brown Advisory, “Second Nature” was curated by Donald McColl, Nancy L. Underwood Chair in Art History, Chair in the Department of Art and Art History and Director of the Kohl Gallery at Washington College.

Dr. McColl was assisted by students in last spring’s Museum Studies class at the College, by Kohl Gallery Interns Colleen Kearins ’09, Erin Harrison ’09, Riley Carbonneau ’10 and Andrea Roth ’11, and by alumni of, and colleagues in, the Department of Art and Art History.

Though its origins are traceable to the Renaissance, landscape painting flourished in the 1800s as never before. Artists, increasingly freed from state or church patronage, catered to a growing system of galleries, dealers and collectors. Landscape, previously considered a minor genre, began to garner new respect, and evolved in tandem with a reverence for natural beauty, and a national pride felt by artists for the sweeping vistas of their respective homelands.

Artists in the exhibition not only documented rare and distant species, and made images so powerful as to spur the formation of America’s first national park, but also helped lift the spirits of those who were too ill to walk in nature, by creating a likeness of a spring flower or a lush field that could well outlast its subject.

Visitors to the “Second Nature” exhibition see stirring examples from landscape painting’s apogee, including such works as Claude Monet’s “Le Val d’Antifer,” Thomas Moran’s “Tantallon Castle,” George Inness’ “Landscape with a Split-Rail Fence” and many others.

“Second Nature: Masterpieces of 19^th-Century Landscape Painting” continues at the Kohl Gallery on Tuesdays through Saturdays through November 15. Gallery hours are: Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesdays through Fridays from 2 to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (The gallery is closed Sundays and Mondays.) A $5 donation is requested. Students are admitted free of charge.

One Nation, Under Debt: 'I.O.U.S.A.' Screened At Washington College

CHESTERTOWN – The Washington College Republican Club will present a screening of the acclaimed (and alarming) documentary “I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation, Under Stress, In Debt” at Litrenta Lecture Hall on Sunday, November 1, at 7 p.m.

“I.O.U.S.A.” opened to resounding praise in 2008. The New York Times hailed it as “resolutely non-partisan … a documentary everyone should see.” Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times declared, “‘I.O.U.S.A.’ accomplishes an amazing thing. It explains the national debt.”

The United States, as the film warns, is on the brink of a financial meltdown. Throughout history, the federal government has found it nearly impossible to spend only what has been raised through taxes.

Now, burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions, the documentary asserts.

Featuring candid interviews with both average American taxpayers and government officials, “I.O.U.S.A.” helps demystify the nation’s financial practices and policies. The film follows former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he quixotixally crisscrosses the country explaining America’s unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens.

The film interweaves archival footage and economic data to paint a vivid and disturbing profile of America’s current economic situation. But the ultimate power of “I.O.U.S.A.” is that it moves beyond doomsday rhetoric to proffer potential financial scenarios and propose solutions about how Americans can recreate a fiscally sound nation for future generations.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to “I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation, Under Stress, In Debt” free and open to the public.

Washington College 2009-2010 Concert Series Continues With Lute Recital By Richard Stone

CHESTERTOWN – The 58th season of the Washington College Concert Series continues with a performance by lutenist Richard Stone in Hotchkiss Recital Hall on Sunday, November 1, at 4 p.m.

Stone has performed worldwide as a soloist and accompanist. The New York Times called his playing “beautiful” and “lustrously melancholy,” while the Washington Post described it as having “the energy of a rock solo and the craft of a classical cadenza.”
Stone recently completed a two-season nationwide solo tour performing the Bach lute suites.

The founder and co-director of the Philadelphia baroque orchestra Tempesta di Mare, Stone studied lute at SUNY Purchase and as a Fulbright Scholar at London’s Guildhall School. He is an instructor of baroque lute and theorbo (a type of lute with an extended neck) at the Peabody Conservatory.

The 2009-2010 Washington College Concert Series will continue with performances by the Gemini Piano Trio in Decker Theatre on January 23, the Lyric Brass Quintet on February 27 and pianist Inna Faliks on March 28.

Season tickets are available in advance or at the box office on performance nights. Single admission tickets, available at the box office, are $15 for adults, $5 for youth 18 and under. Hotchkiss Recital Hall is located in Washington College’s new Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. For more information, call 410/778-7839.

Fifth Annual 100-Voice Choir Gospel Concert Set To Raise Spirits, Honor Alumnus Rev. Vincent Hynson '87, November 7

Charity Concert Raises Funds for Minority Student Scholarship Program at Washington College




CHESTERTOWN – On Saturday, November 7, the 100-Voice Choir returns to raise spirits and celebrate the life and example of the late Rev. Vincent Hynson, Washington College Class of 1987 alumnus and Kent County community leader.

The concert will be held at Decker Theatre in the College’s new Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are just $7 per person and are available at the door or in advance from the Compleat Bookseller or Twigs and Teacups in downtown Chestertown.

This year’s concert—through the efforts of many volunteers and Sylvia and Bill Frazier of S & B Productions—will provide three hours of music, song and dance to put anyone and everyone “in the spirit.”

In addition to performances by the 100-Voice Choir, the concert’s line-up includes performances by guest soloists Rev. Tyrone Wilson and Sister Karen Frison, the Harp & Soul String Trio, the Variations, the Burke Family Singers, the Anointed Vessels, the Mount Plymouth Ensemble, and, back by popular demand after last year’s show-stopping performance, a special guest appearance by acclaimed gospel trumpeter Wade Johnson.

Also featured will be an address by inspirational speaker Master Markel Newman.

Proceeds from the concert benefit the Vincent Hynson Scholarship at Washington College. The impetus of Washington College President Baird Tipson, the scholarship honors the late Rev. Vincent Hynson—beloved Kent County teacher, coach, pastor, and community leader—who passed away in 2004.

The scholarship is presented to an entering freshman who is a graduate of a secondary school in Kent County, who demonstrates financial need, and whose achievements and aspirations most closely emulate the values of community service exemplified by the life of Rev. Hynson. The scholarship covers 100 percent of the cost of tuition, room and board, books, and fees for the recipient.

“Vincent Hynson was a bridge-builder whose life was dedicated to uplifting our community,” said Dr. Tipson, who lends his voice to the tenor section of the choir. “His was the kind of life young people—and all people—should emulate. My hope is that this scholarship honors his life by helping local students who want to give back the chance to develop their talents and to realize their dreams through a Washington College education.”

To be considered for the Vincent Hynson Scholarship, interested students should submit a scholarship essay and complete all admissions and financial aid application requirements no later than February 15, 2010. Essay instructions and admissions and financial aid information are available from the Washington College Office of Admissions by calling 410/778-7700.

The 100-Voice Choir Gospel Concert is sponsored by S & B Productions, Washington College and the Kent County Arts Council. Seating is limited, so advance ticket purchases are recommended. For more information, contact S & B Productions at 410/778-6006, the Washington College Office of College Relations at 410/810-7111, of the Kent County Arts Council at 410/778-1149.

Long History Of Jews In Poland To Be Presented In Washington College Lecture

CHESTERTOWN – Washington College’s Office of the Provost & Dean will present “In Search of Polin: Chasing Jewish Ghosts in Today’s Poland,” a lecture/slide presentation by Dr. Gary S. Schiff, Adjunct Professor of History, at the Casey Academic Center Forum on Thursday, November 5, at 4:30 p.m.

“In Search of Polin” is based in part on Schiff’s summer 2009 trip to Poland, where, in addition to tracing some of his family roots, he was on the trail of “a thousand years of Jewish history.” Professor Schiff teaches courses in Jewish history at Washington College.

Prior to the Holocaust, the largest concentration of Jews in Europe was to be found in Poland – 3.3 million people, or roughly 10 percent of the Polish population.

The percentage was actually much higher in the cities; in Warsaw, for example, Jews comprised about a third of the population. In other cities, such as Bialystok, Jews were in the majority.

Poland’s Jewish population density was due to its rare open-door policy during the Middle Ages, when Jews were not only welcome, but invited with incentives. As early as the 13th century, Polish kings, in order to help bring their nascent land up to the economic standards of their contemporaries, offered liberal charters of rights and economic opportunities to entice more Jews to relocate there.

As restrictions, persecutions and expulsions periodically reared their heads further west throughout the medieval period, Jews continued to flock from throughout western and central Europe into Poland.

In the 1880s, pogroms under Russian rule spurred a mass exodus of Polish Jews to the United States. Poland was the largest source of Jewish immigrants to America.

Of the 3.3 million Jews in Poland at the onset of World War II, 3 million were killed in the Holocaust. Most of the survivors emigrated. Only a handful remain. Before the war, there had been more than 500 synagogues in Warsaw. After the war, only one remained.

In addition to the shocking death toll of Polish Jews, the vast majority of Jews from throughout Europe who were killed in the Holocaust died in Poland, where they arrived by the trainload to the infamous Nazi death camps built there.

The lingering echo of such horrors is the reason, said Schiff, that some Jews today consider Poland “one big Jewish cemetery, and won’t go back there, even to visit.”

But there is much of great historical interest left to see there as well, he notes. Schiff’s journey into Poland’s Jewish past included the personal – he toured the area where his family had lived since the 18th century and unearthed old family marriage records in the town of Ostrow’s City Hall – to the deeply historical – in Krakow, the old royal capital and the first Polish city to acquire a major Jewish presence, he found “a gold mine of Jewish history,” including famous synagogues and graves dating back to the 15th century.

On the other end of the spectrum, Schiff also visited the horrific concentration camps of Treblinka, Majdanek, Plaszow (where “Schindler’s List” was filmed) and Auschwitz, where at that site alone 1.1 million Jews, including 200,000 children, were put to death. “It’s so vast,” Schiff said of Auschwitz, “it’s hard to imagine evil on such a massive scale.”

Admission to “In Search of Polin: Chasing Jewish Ghosts in Today’s Poland” is free and open to the public.

Extended Hours Announced For New 'History On The Waterfront' Multimedia Walking Tour

Extra times added for Downrigging Weekend

CHESTERTOWN – During Downrigging Weekend, October 30-November 1, the popular new multimedia walking tour “History on the Waterfront: A Journey into Chestertown’s Past” will be open for extended hours.

The tour, created by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, opened October 9; its regular hours of operation are Fridays from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 40 p.m.

For Downrigging Weekend, tours will run during regular hours on Friday, and from 2 to 5 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

“History on the Waterfront: A Journey into Chestertown’s Past” offers a walk back in time to an era when the streets of this port town bustled with revolutionaries and convicts, slave traders and heroes of the Underground Railroad.

The audio-guided tour, lasting approximately forty-five minutes, begins and ends at the home of the Starr Center, the c. 1746 riverfront Custom House. As participants stroll along the historic waterfront, they hear music, reenactments and firsthand accounts of life in the colonial port.

Exploring the inside of the Custom House, they delve into the lives of past residents, including Thomas Ringgold IV, who was both a leader in the fight for colonial rights and, at the same time, a large-scale slave trader.

Other actual historical figures in the tour include Isaac Mason, a young Chestertown slave who escaped through the Underground Railroad.

Participants have an opportunity to see one of Washington College’s most treasured artifacts, a 200-year-old painting of Chestertown, done by an anonymous artist a few years after the Revolution. One of the very few surviving depictions of an 18th-century Chesapeake landscape, and perhaps the richest in detail, the painting provides a unique visual entry point into the world the tour recreates.

“History on the Waterfront” was orchestrated by the Starr Center’s associate director, Jill Ogline Titus, and narrated by the Center’s director, Adam Goodheart. The Center’s program manager, Michael Buckley, who also produces the weekly radio series “Voices of the Chesapeake Bay,” oversaw the technical aspects of the production.

Students and faculty across several Washington College departments offered their talents to the creation of the tour, which showcases College and community expertise not just in American history, but in music, drama, and audio production. Those familiar with the local scene may make out several familiar voices, including that of Kent County’s beloved vocalist Karen Somerville.

Major funding was provided by the Maryland Humanities Council and other organizations, which saw the project as a landmark opportunity to connect Chestertown’s rich history to the larger stories of America, of the Chesapeake region, and of freedom and slavery in the 18th century.

The project, which will eventually include a web component and virtual tour, is funded by grants from the Helen Clay Frick Foundation, the Stories of the Chesapeake Heritage Area, and the PNC Foundation Legacy Project, with support from the Maryland Humanities Council.

For more information, call 410/810-7161; please check the Starr Center website at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu before visiting. Tours begin at the Custom House, 101 S. Water Street, at the intersection of Water and High Streets. They are free of charge.
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About the Starr Center
The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience explores our nation’s history – and particularly the legacy of its Founding era – in innovative ways. Through educational programs, scholarship, and public outreach, and especially by supporting and fostering the art of written history, the Starr Center seeks to bridge the divide between past and present, and between the academic world and the public at large. From its base in the circa-1746 Custom House along Chestertown’s colonial waterfront, the Center also serves as a portal onto a world of opportunities for Washington College students. Its guiding principle is that now more than ever, a wider understanding of our shared past is fundamental to the continuing success of America’s democratic experiment. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

'Athey's Field': Washington College's Sports History Comes Alive In New Book

Chestertown – The long and colorful history of athletics at Washington College, from the earliest baseball teams fielded in the 19^th century to the multi-faceted program of the present day, is chronicled in the new book Athey’s Field, published by the Literary House Press.

Edited by Justine Hendricks ’07, a writer on the Office of College Relations staff,  John Lang, lecturer in the Department of English, and Director of Communications Marcia Landskroener M’02, Athey’s Field contains a series of essays depicting the different eras, teams and characters that comprise the saga of Washington College sports. Included are portrayals of the figures – such as legendary coach Tom Kibler and Major Leaguer Bill “Swish” Nicholson – whose guidance and talent helped mold the school’s athletic program through the years.

Athey’s Field, as its title suggests, is dedicated to Edward L. Athey, a beloved coach and administrator at Washington College for nearly 50 years. The book has been produced in concert with the dedication, construction and recent opening of the College’s Athey Baseball Park.

Athey himself laid the groundwork for the book; its origins were in a comprehensive research project undertaken by Athey and others that yielded a treasure trove of Washington College sports history, much of which has found its way into the newly published work.

Athey, described in the book’s foreword as “the man who embodied Washington College Athletics for the entire second half of the 20^th century,” enjoyed an illustrious 47-year career at the school. In addition to serving as Athletic Director for 39 years, he coached basketball for 13 years, was head baseball coach for 28 years, and distinguished himself as a soccer coach for 31 years. At various times he also coached track, tennis, cross country and junior varsity lacrosse.

In all, Athey amassed 690 varsity coaching victories at Washington College; he is the only coach in the College’s history with at least 600 wins at the school. He was inducted into the Washington College Hall of Fame in 1982, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.

A key figure in the College’s athletics history, Athey also happens to be a devoted enthusiast of that history – he long has been considered a walking encyclopedia of Washington College sports facts, figures, obscure trivia and fond memories.

Several years ago, Athey, H. Hurtt Derringer ’59 and Charles B. Clark ’34 undertook the monumental task of researching and documenting the history of Washington College athletics. Old narratives were gathered, later entries were added, and a manuscript totaling more than 400 pages eventually grew out of the project; it is from this archive that the newly published Athey’s Field originally took shape. Essays from yesteryear have been interwoven with chapters contributed by present-day scribes to form a compendium that spans the decades.

Illustrated with vintage photographs and brimming with the lore of glory days, legendary players and championship seasons, Athey’s Field is available for $14.95. For ordering information, visit http://lithouse.washcoll.edu/literaryhousepress.php.

'Song Yet Sung' Author James McBride Presents Reading At Washington College

Chestertown – Best-selling author and musician James McBride will present a reading from his acclaimed new book Song Yet Sung at Washington College’s Decker Theater in the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts on Thursday, October 29, at 4:30 p.m.

McBride has written for the Washington Post, People, the Boston Globe, Essence, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times. He is the author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna.

In his latest work, Song Yet Sung, McBride follows a group of slaves as they escape to freedom through the swamps of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Publishers Weekly praised the work as “intricately constructed and impressive … McBride … nails the horrors of slavery as well as he does the power of hope and redemption.” The Washington Post noted, “McBride’s engagement with the historical continuum provides a new slant on an old subject. He may have set his novel in the 1850s, but he is writing about the hurdles we yet face.”

Song Yet Sung was chosen by the Maryland Humanities Council to represent the One Maryland One Book program for 2009, and was chosen by Washington College for its First-Year Book program.

The First-Year Book program gives new students a common experience over the summer and introduces them to Washington College’s tradition of bringing great writers to campus.

“Song Yet Sung: A Reading by James McBride” is sponsored by the Rose O’Neill Literary House, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Department of English, the Dean of the College, Gunston Day School’s In Celebration of Books, Kent County Public Library, and the One Maryland One Book program of the Maryland Humanities Council.

Admission is free and open to the public.

'Poisoned Waters': Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist/Producer Presents 'Frontline' Documentary At Washington College

Chestertown – In Poisoned Waters, a PBS Frontline documentary showing at Washington College on October 28 at 7:00 PM in Litrenta Lecture Hall, veteran journalist Hedrick Smith examines threats to the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound.

Two days later, at a lecture on October 30 at 5:00 PM at the historic Prince Theatre in downtown Chestertown, Mr. Smith will explore how these two iconic bodies of water are indicators of a larger national problem.

Drawing on interviews with scientists, fishermen, bureaucrats, chicken farmers, whale watchers and other people who rely on and care deeply about America’s waterways, Smith tells a fascinating and disturbing story about the steep decline of our country’s biggest bodies of water.

He interviews watermen who lament the loss of the Bay’s seafood abundance and tracks the Chesapeake’s “dead zone” back to its biggest source — the proliferation of chicken houses (and manure) across the Delmarva Peninsula.  He also examines the perils to the Chesapeake and to Puget Sound from growth and development, as well as from the multiplicity of untested and potentially harmful chemicals that wind up in our waters.

Hedrick Smith is a Frontline producer and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly with the New York Times. What’s shocking about his latest feature on the water crisis is how well-known the problems are. Scientists for years have been scooping up samples with chemicals, mostly from everyday household products. They’ve been pulling PCB-riddled salmon out of the water for decades. There are documented cases weirdly mutated frogs with six legs, intersexed fish (males carrying eggs), and drinking water loaded with contaminants— two-thirds of which are so new they elude modern filtration methods.

By focusing on the home of the blue crab and the playground of the orca, which aren’t overwhelmingly similar, Smith highlights a pervasive decline in the nations waterways and he takes us beneath the surface to see the terrible trouble caused by sprawl-related pollution and unregulated toxic industrial, agricultural and municipal runoff.

Both events are free and open to the public.  Sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society, the Chesapeake Semester at Washington College, and Sultana Projects. For more information, visit www.ces.washcoll.edu or www.sultanaprojects.org or call 410-778-7295.

Award-Winning Journalists Discuss 'Age Of Obama' At Washington College

Chestertown – Award-winning journalists from both sides of the political spectrum will convene to discuss “The Age of Obama: Do We Need a Middle Ground?” in Hotchkiss Recital Hall at Washington College’s Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts on Wednesday, October 28, at 7 p.m.

The event, presented as this year’s Richard Harwood Colloquy on National Affairs, will feature bestselling author and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and award-winning syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker. Moderating the disussion will be CNBC Washington correspondent and New York Times political writer John Harwood.

E.J. Dionne is a twice-weekly columnist for The Washington Post, writing on national policy and politics from a liberal perspective. He previous worked at The New York Times, covering local, state and national politics, and also serving as foreign correspondent in Paris, Rome and Beirut.

A professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Dionne has been a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC's “This Week” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He is the author of several books, including the bestseller Why Americans Hate Politics, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award nominee.

Kathleen Parker is an award-winning conservative syndicated columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group. Her twice-weekly opinion pieces appear in more than 350 newspapers. Parker started her column in 1987 when she was a staff writer for The Orlando Sentinel. Her column was nationally syndicated in 1995 and she joined the Washington Post Writers Group in 2006.

Her writings in support of American troops, first-responders and other front-line participants in the war on terror were among the reasons The Week magazine named her as one of the country’s top five columnists in 2004 and 2005.

John Harwood is the chief Washington correspondent for CNBC and a political writer for The New York Times. He began his career at The St. Petersburg Times, where he served as state capital correspondent, Washington correspondent and political editor. He was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and subsequently spent 16 years at The Wall Street Journal, covering the White House, Congress and national politics. In addition to CNBC, Harwood also frequently appears on MSNBC, “NBC Nightly News,” “Meet the Press” and PBS’ “Washington Week.”

In 2002 Harwood was part of the Wall Street Journal team that won the Pulitzer Prize in the breaking-news category for its coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Also on that prize-winning team was Gerald Seib, with whom Harwood co-authored the 2008 book Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power, hailed by The New York Times as a major new work of Washington-insider journalism.

As the 2009 Richard Harwood Colloquy, “The Age of Obama” joins a long list of notable panels and lectures presented over the years. The series was established to honor the distinguished career of the late Washington Post columnist and ombudsman Richard Harwood (John Harwood’s father), who served as a trustee and a lecturer in journalism at Washington College. Speakers have included such political and media figures as Karl Rove, Howard Dean, Robert Novak, John McCain, James Carville, Judy Woodruff, Al Hunt, Mark Shields, and Paul Gigot.

Admission to “The Age of Obama: Do We Need a Middle Ground?” is free and open to the public.

Set Sail For Terror: 'Spectral Tide' Author Presents 'Phantom Ships And Ghostly Crews' At Washington College

Chestertown –  It will be a Halloween-week voyage into high-seas horror when Eric Mills, author of The Spectral Tide: True Ghost Stories of the U.S. Navy, presents a lecture and booksigning at Washington College’s Rose O’Neill Literary House on Tuesday, October 27, at 4 p.m.

In his talk, “Phantom Ships and Ghostly Crews: A Haunted History of the U.S. Navy,” Mills will offer up several hair-raising accounts from his book, newly published by the Naval Institute Press.

The Spectral Tide is the first-ever book that presents all of the U.S. Navy’s rich cargo of paranormal phenomena in one chilling volume.

The eerie list is long, a litany of ghostly occurrences down through the ages. There is the great Stephen Decatur, whose mournful apparition still stalks the halls of his famous home – said to be one of the most haunted spots in Washington, D.C.

Or consider the case of the USS The Sullivans, now a floating museum and the source of much disturbing spectral activity – poltergeists opening locks, hurling objects, and turning radar antennas that are no longer under electrical power. An employee quit the museum, on the threshold of madness, after bearing witness to the sudden appearance of a bloody, ectoplasmic face.

Then there are the repeated sightings of the handsome USS Lexington ghost, “polite . . . kind . . . smartly dressed in a summer white Navy uniform,” described by witnesses as having memorably piercing blue eyes.

From translucent sails to phantom crews, from the flaming ghost-ship to the infamous psychic anomaly at the Naval Academy, from spirit-infested aircraft carriers to battleships where the dead still linger, The Spectral Tide offers a haunted history of the U.S. Navy.

In his advance praise for the book, author James E. Wise enthused, “Eric Mills takes us into a world of mysterious shadows that haunt ships and give life to the voices of long lost seamen. Many of his tales are unknown or little known to readers of naval history which makes his work all the more compelling.  His literary style is almost poetic…. A fascinating read.  A book that should be included in every mariner's library.”

Mills also is the author of Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties and Chesapeake Bay in the Civil War, which is now going into its fifth printing. His articles appear in Naval History, Proceedings, Chesapeake Bay Magazine and other publications. He is currently completing a master’s degree in history at Washington College, where he serves as Director of Media Relations.

With Mills’s October 27 presentation, the Rose O’Neill Literary House is relaunching its popular “Tea and Talk” series, which highlights the work of authors and scholars on the faculty and staff of Washington College.

The series continues on November 17 with “This is a Fragment of Me: Emerson and the Poetics of Metonymy,” a presentation by Assistant Professor of English Sean Meehan, author of Mediating American Autobiography: Photography in Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, and Whitman.

Admission to “Phantom Ships and Ghostly Crews: A Haunted History of the U.S. Navy” is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410/778-7899 or visit lithouse.washcoll.edu.