Washington College News

On Spring Break Trip to Japan, WC Students Will Study Politics and Culture, Offer Tsunami Aid

2012-02-01T17:28:00.004-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Eighteen Washington College students will enjoy a weeklong study-tour of Japan thanks to a generous grant from the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership (CGP).

Professor Andrew Oros, associate professor of political science and international studies, designed the Spring Break trip for students in his “Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy” class to enhance their study of Japanese society and politics. He then sought funding from the CGP.

The Center responded with the first grant under a new initiative called the Japan-American Collegiate Travel Program, intended to give American undergraduate students a more balanced and nuanced understanding of Japan by funding short-term trips there that relate directly to academic coursework. The $52,000 Collegiate Travel Program grant will cover almost all the costs of the trip, including airfare and lodging.

In addition, Dr. Oros used the first “Curriculum Innovation” grant awarded at Washington College to cover the costs of curriculum redesign, trip research and study materials. That $2,500 grant is part of the faculty enhancement monies created through a gift from the Hodson Trust.

Oros designed the trip in collaboration with Professor Noriko Narita, a long-time lecturer in Japanese at the College. In addition to visiting museums, shrines, an onsen bath and a traditional inn during the trip, the students will meet with Japanese politicians and government workers at the national and local levels.

Based primarily in Tokyo, the WC group also will spend a day and a half in Matsushima, a scenic tourist destination and fishing center outside Sendai that was hit hard by the tsunami. While in Matsushima, the students and professors will donate children’s books to a new village library, help assemble prefabricated buildings or cultivate local vegetable plots, and deliver relief funds collected on campus by the Asian Culture Club and other student groups.

The students will be visiting areas of Japan believed to be a safe distance from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, still a source of unsafe levels of radiation. From Tokyo, where they will visit the U.S. Embassy and the Japanese Diet (parliament), they will bullet-train past the Fukushima area to reach Sendai, and then travel on to Matsushima by local train.

For Oros, the upcoming trip achieves one of his top goals as a professor—to get students interested in Asia. “This opportunity to take 18 students on their first trip to Japan is a thrill for me,” he says. “This kind of personal interaction with the students is what drew me to Washington College. I’m grateful for the support of the College in pursuing this grant, and of course to the Japan Foundation for offering such an innovative funding program.”

He credits Professor Narita for suggesting and planning the service trip to Matsushima. “I could not have arranged this without her partnership. I’m especially excited to be able to take students to the affected area and to see it myself.”

To donate to the campus relief funds, please contact Noriko Narita at nnarita2@washcoll.edu or 410-778-7861. The group will depart for Tokyo on March 10, 2012 to arrive on the one-year anniversary of the disaster.

Photo of nighttime Tokyo courtesy of photoeverywhere.

Tolkien Scholar to Talk at Literary House

2012-02-01T16:52:00.006-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College hosts Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 4:30 p.m. She will lecture on the topic, “Oo! Those Awful Hobbits: Tolkien Versus the Academy.”  The event is sponsored by the College’s Sophie Kerr Committee and is free and open to the public.

Flieger has taught courses on J.R.R. Tolkien at the University of Maryland for the past 35 years and has published three books on his fiction: Splintered Light, A Question of Time, and Interrupted Music. She also edited an expanded edition of his short story Smith of Wootton Major and co-edited a collection of essays on the history of Middle-earth, as well as a critical edition of Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-Stories.” She is co-editor with Michael Drout and Douglas Anderson of Tolkien Studies, the only journal devoted exclusively to Tolkien’s work.

Flieger also is an author of her own fiction: a fantasy novel titled Pig Tale, its sequel The Inn at Corbies’ Caww, and the Arthurian novella Avilion. To learn more about Verlyn Flieger, visit http://mythus.com/.

The Literary House is located at 407 Washington Avenue. For more information on its programs, visit http://lithouse.washcoll.edu/.

Prominent International Banker from Qatar to Deliver Inaugural Talk in Leadership Series at WC

2012-02-01T15:55:00.003-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Influential international banker Raghavan Seetharaman, chief executive officer of Qatar-based Doha Bank, will deliver the inaugural address for the new George Washington Leadership Series at Washington College. Seetharaman will speak Wednesday, February 8, at 5 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. His topic will be “New World Order and Opportunities: Bilateral Trade, Investment, Banking and Finance between the Gulf and U.S.”

A native of India, Seetharaman is an unconventional leader known for setting a fast pace and embracing globalization and new technologies. He transformed Doha Bank from a small, traditional business into the fastest growing bank in the Middle East, adding new offices around the globe and expanding from basic consumer banking into areas such as financial services, insurance and real estate.

The charismatic executive joined Doha Bank in 2002 and in about five years had increased its market share of retail banking in Qatar from 4 percent to more than 25 percent. As head of one of the largest banks in one of the world’s richest countries—Qatar controls vast reserves of oil and natural gas—he often provides analysis and opinion on world-wide economic issues for major news outlets, including the BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera.

A 2007 profile in Forbes described him as a devout Hindu and a fitness enthusiast who practices yoga daily. He also is known for wearing a tuxedo to work every day. “I don’t carry any ideological baggage,” he told Forbes. “My only philosophy is that if one works for an institution, then you are obligated to make a success out of it.”

Washington College created the Leadership Series to honor the vision and values of founding patron George Washington, especially his belief in a better future achieved through education, respect for scholarship, and the ideals of leadership, character, and service to others. Under its auspices, leaders from a variety of professions and walks of life will be invited to campus to interact with students and faculty and to deliver a public address.

The Forum is located on the main floor of the Casey Academic Center (CAC), across the entrance drive from Roy Kirby Jr. Stadium, on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. For more information: http://www.washcoll.edu.

Kohl Gallery "artNOW:Baltimore" Features Five Contemporary Artists Starting February 10

2012-02-01T13:18:00.022-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Kohl Gallery at Washington College will showcase the work of five fascinating contemporary artists in an exhibition titled “artNOW:Baltimore,” opening Friday, February 10 and continuing through March 30. Featured artists Christian Benefiel, Leslie Furlong, Andrew Liang, René Treviño and Karen Yasinsky work in a variety of media, from drawing to video to inflatable sculpture, and each is attracting growing acclaim for his or her provocative works.

An opening reception with all five artists is scheduled for 5 p.m. that Friday evening in the Gallery, which is in the Gibson Center for the Arts on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Both the exhibition and the reception are free and open to the public.

artNOW:Baltimore is the first of three group shows that will focus on up-and-coming artists from nearby cities. The Baltimore component will be followed in subsequent years by artNOW:Washington and artNOW:Philadelphia. Co-curator Alex Castro, an artist and designer who lectures in the Washington College Art Department, says each exhibition will present a group of artists whose works collectively reflect the creative identity of their home city. “What unites them is an intensity of exploration and a youthful vigor,” he adds. Collaborating with Castro on the show is Cara Ober, a Baltimore-based artist and professor of art who covers the visual arts for the magazine and online journal Urbanite.

About the Artists:

Christian Benefiel is a sculptor who uses his skills in metalworking, ceramics, woodworking, glassblowing, sewing and digital media to bring shape and form to his visions. A recent winner of an Individual Artist Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and a Roth Endowment Award, he has exhibited throughout the United States and in Finland, Latvia, Estonia and England. Benefiel studied as an undergraduate at East Carolina University and earned his MFA from the University of Maryland. For more on his art: http://christianbenefiel.com/home.html.

Using photographs and video, Leslie Furlong explores our urban landscapes, probing how they change and how they affect our perceptions and emotions. She holds a B.A. in Photography from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a MFA in Photography and Digital Imagery from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited in group shows at venues that include the Corcoran, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Berliner Liste. She also has been shown at Baltimore’s Contemporary Museum, Maryland Art Place and the Creative Alliance. More at http://www.lesliefurlong.com/.

Andrew Liang has a fertile imagination, and he translates his wild imaginings into highly detailed fantasy drawings and paintings. Sometimes he creates colorful cartoonish images that he might in turn incorporate into a large installation with moving parts (like the 2009 Human Foosball installation for 12 players, a life-size game he created with Michael Benevento). A native of Taiwan, he has lived in Baltimore since 1998. Learn more at http://www.andrew-liang.com/blog/.

A native of Kingsville, Tex., René Treviño earned his B.A. from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and his master’s in fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His art often reflects his identity as a Mexican-American gay man and his obsession with detail, pattern and the symbolic power of historical portraits. Gallery owner Costas Grimaldis has written of Treviño, “Through icons, images, and artifacts Trevino explores his own identity as an underrepresented minority in post-Warhol society. The role of celebrity, the weight of history and the waning influence of religious artifacts are all fair game for his contemplative subject matter.” For images and more information: http://renetrevino.net/.

An accomplished painter who has exhibited in prestigious venues from Berlin to Los Angeles, Karen Yasinsky has transitioned in recent years into a filmmaker. She creates evocative stop-motion animation from costumed clay models or drawings, imbuing her silent characters with personality and emotion through subtle movements. Tom Hall, the arts editor of WYPR radio’s Maryland Morning, has said that Yasinsky’s films “center on characters who can convey with just the slightest gesture how difficult it is to truly connect with another person.” The artist holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and mathematics from Duke and a master’s in painting from Yale. She has exhibited internationally, from Berlin and Prague to New York and Los Angeles. Click here to hear her interview with Tom Hall for Maryland Morning.

The Kohl Gallery is located inside the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, Md., 21620. The gallery is open Wednesday and Thursday 1 to 5 p.m., Friday noon to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. (Closed Monday and Tuesday.) For more information: http://kohlgallery.washcoll.edu/.

Images, top to bottom: A portion of Andrew Liang's "Double Dribble" 2010 site-specific installation. Christian Benefiel's "The efficacy of wishing," 2001, wood, dacron, steel, cast iron, automated blower system. Karen Furling's "Parking Lot Series #1," 2009, color photograph. Andrew Liang's "Tanned Wing," 2012, detail from site-specific installation. René Treviño's "Aztec Rainbow," 2010, acrylic on Mylar. Karen Yasinsky's "Angela," 2012, ink on paper.

Cuarteto Latinamericano Strings to Offer Passionate Mix for Valentine’s Concert

2012-01-31T14:28:00.010-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The award-winning string ensemble Cuarteto Latinoamericano will offer a Valentine’s treat for music lovers as the 60th annual Washington College Concert Series continues Tuesday, February 14 at 8 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts.

Formed in Mexico in 1982, the acclaimed Cuarteto consists of the three Bitrán brothers—violinists Saúl and Arón and cellist Alvaro—along with violist Javier Montiel. The group is known around the world as the leading proponent of Latin American music for string quartet. At Washington College, they will mix that music with beloved pieces from European and American composers Mozart, Barber and Gershwin.

The program will include “Four for Tango” by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, and pieces from Brazilian composers Francisco Mignone (Barcarola, Minuetto, Tres Canciones Españolas) and Heitor Villa-Lobos (String Quartet No. 5) plus George Gershwin’s Lullaby, Samuel Barber’s Adagio from Quartet Opus 11, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor K. 546.

Tickets at $15 for adults and $5 for students (Washington College students free with ID) will be available at the door. There is no reserved seating.

The Washington Post praised Cuarteto Latinamericano as “matchless in tonal magnitude, tuneful fluency and concentrated teamwork.” The group has toured extensively around the world and been featured with many orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, the Dallas Symphony and the Símón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela.

The four musicians also have collaborated with many other artists, including cellist Janos Starker, pianists Santiago Rodriguez, Cyprien Katsaris and Rudolph Buchbinder, tenor Ramon Vargas, and guitarists Narciso Yepes, Sharon Isbin, David Tanenbaum and Manuel Barrueco. They recorded two CDs with Barrueco and have commissioned guitar quintets from American composers Miguel del Aguila, Michael Daugherty and Gabriela Lena Frank. For more on the quartet: http://www.cuartetolatinoamericano.com/en/

To purchase tickets in advance or learn more about the Washington College Concert Series, please call 410-778-7839, email director Kate Bennett at kbennett2@washcoll.edu, or visit http://news.washcoll.edu/concertseries.php.

Prize Winning Violinist and Pianist Next Up As Free Noon Concerts Continue in Hotchkiss

2012-01-27T11:06:00.005-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College Music Department continues its free lunchtime concert series, “12 at Hotchkiss,” on Friday, February 3 with the violin and piano duo of Lydia Chernicoff and Ronaldo Rolim. The program will include Sonata in G minor by Debussy, Six Romanian Dances by Bartók, and Sonata in E-flat Major by Strauss.

Lydia Chernicoff received her B.A. in violin performance at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where she was concertmaster of both the Concert and Symphony Orchestras. She is now pursuing a master’s degree at the Institute. Chernicoff began her violin studies at the age of 8 and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. She has played professionally with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.

A native of Brazil, pianist Ronaldo Rolim has been praised for his interpretive power, brilliant virtuosity and rich sonorous palette. He began his musical studies at 4 and was later admitted as a full scholarship student at the Magda Tagliaferro School in São Paulo. After winning major national competitions in Brazil, he came to the United States and eventually studied with Benjamin Pasternack at the Peabody Institute, where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and received the Pauline Favin Memorial Award in Piano. In 2011, he was accepted into the prestigious Artist Diploma program at the Peabody Institute.

Ronaldo is active as a solo and chamber musician in his native Brazil and abroad, having performed in such venues as London’s Steinway Hall and Théâtre de Vevey in Switzerland. He formed Trio Appassionata with Peabody colleagues Lydia Chernicoff and cellist Andrea Casarrubios in 2007. The Trio has performed at Carnegie Hall and recently concluded a residency with Chamber Music Sedona, in Arizona.

Launched last fall, the 12@Hotchkiss series features internationally acclaimed musicians from the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. It invites students, staff, faculty and the general public to experience live classical music at noon on the first Friday of each month. All concerts are held in Hotchkiss Recital Hall in the Gibson Center for the Arts, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

For more information and a schedule of upcoming concerts, visit http://music.washcoll.edu/12hotchkiss.php or contact concert series director Grace Eun Hae Kim at 410-778-6457 or gkim2@washcoll.edu.

Acclaimed Biographer Ron Chernow Featured Guest of College Convocation February 24

2012-01-25T12:41:00.006-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—One of America’s most celebrated and influential historians, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow, will be the honored guest at the 2012 George Washington’s Birthday Convocation at Washington College on Friday, February 24. Chernow will receive an honorary doctorate and deliver remarks based on his most recent book, Washington: A Life, a biography of the nation’s first president (and Washington College’s founding patron) that earned Chernow the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Biography.

The special Convocation will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Decker Theatre, inside the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a reception in the Underwood Lobby of the Gibson Center.

Ron Chernow has won countless awards for bringing important figures from American history to vivid life on the nonfiction page. His first book, The House of Morgan, won a National Book Award in 1990, and the Modern Library Board selected it as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the 20th century.

Each of his subsequent books has met with similarly lavish praise and accolades, starting with The Warburgs, a portrait of an influential German-Jewish banking family published in 1993, and followed by The Death of the Banker, a 1997 collection of essays; Titan, his best-selling 1998 biography of John D. Rockefeller; and the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton, winner of the first George Washington Book Prize, which is presented by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Mount Vernon to the year’s best nonfiction book written about the Founding Era.

In October 2010, The Penguin Press published Mr. Chernow’s long-awaited biography of George Washington. The 904-page tome racked up an impressive list of awards and honors that culminated with the Pulitzer. Writing in The New York Review of Books, Gordon Wood praised the work as “the best, most comprehensive, and most balanced single-volume biography of Washington ever written.” In March 2011, the New-York Historical Society gave the book the coveted American History Book Prize, endowing Mr. Chernow with the honorary title of American Historian Laureate.

A frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Chernow is a familiar figure on national radio and television shows and has appeared in numerous documentaries. He recently served as president of PEN American Center, the country’s preeminent organization of authors. An honors graduate of Yale and Cambridge, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The Birthday Convocation is also the time when the College recognizes the special contributions of an alumnus, a community member and outstanding employees. This year, public relations executive Kevin O’Keefe ’74, president of the Baltimore office of Weber Shandwick, will receive the Alumni Service Award in recognition of the time and expertise he has shared with his alma mater through the years. Educator Molly Judge, head of Chestertown’s Radcliffe Creek School, which serves children with learning differences and has collaborated with the College on special projects related to teacher training, will receive the President’s Medal.

In addition, President Mitchell Reiss will present Distinguished Service Awards to four College employees—Director of Creative Services Diane Landskroener ’76 M’81, Director of Communications Marcia Landskroener M’02, Health Services nurse Carol Thornton, and Business Management professor Terry Scout—to recognize their long and exemplary service to the College.

On Saturday evening, February 25, the College will host its annual George Washington’s Birthday Ball, a formal affair that further celebrates the life of the Father of the Country. In 1781, General Washington gave his name and 50 guineas to the founding of the College at Chester, now Washington College. He also served on the first Board of Visitors and Governors and, in 1789, three months after becoming President of the United States of America, accepted an honorary degree from the College.

For more information on Convocation and Birthday Ball, please visit http://www.washcoll.edu/birthdayball/.

Photo credit: Nina Subin

Vanderbilt Professor and Author to Explore Racial "Passing" in America Thursday, February 2

2012-01-23T15:46:00.011-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD— One of the most persistent of the myths that Americans tell themselves about race is that the line between black and white is a matter of genetics rather than choice. But new scholarship is chipping away at this assumption, revealing how men and women, and sometimes entire families, have consciously stepped across the color line.

In a February 2 presentation at Washington College, law professor and historian Daniel Sharfstein will delve into the dramatic stories of three black families who responded to times of great racial upheaval by seizing opportunities to reinvent themselves as white. Among the author’s astonishing discoveries is an antebellum Southern family that – after covertly crossing the line from black to white – became wealthy sugar planters, slaveholders, and ardent Confederates.

Sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, Sharfstein’s talk, “The Invisible Line: A Secret History of Race in America,” is free and open to the public, and will begin at 5:00 pm in the college’s Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall. A book signing will follow the presentation. The talk is co-sponsored by the Black Studies Program, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture.

Sharfstein’s recent book, The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (Penguin, 2011), has been lauded far and wide as a masterpiece, a work that, in the words of writer Melissa Fay Greene, “overthrows nearly everything Americans thought they knew about race.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed called The Invisible Line “a must read for all who are interested in the construction of race in the United States,” and the Boston Globe praised its “you-are-there” approach to history as “spellbinding.” The New York Times lauded Sharfstein’s “astonishingly detailed rendering of the variety and complexity of racial experience.’’

Sharfstein is an associate professor of law at Vanderbilt University. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he has held fellowships from Harvard University, New York University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the New York Times, The Economist, the Washington Post, and other publications.

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Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in colonial Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is dedicated to fostering innovative approaches to the American past and present. Through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach, and a special focus on written history, the Starr Center seeks to bridge the divide between the academic world and the public at large. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

College Hosts Orioles Legend Rick Dempsey In Conversation with former Governor Hughes

2012-01-19T13:34:00.002-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Rick Dempsey, the Most Valuable Player of the 1983 World Series and a former star catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, will speak at Washington College on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at an event moderated by former Maryland Governor and Easton Yankees pitcher Harry Hughes. "A Conversation with Rick Dempsey" will begin at 1 p.m. inside Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

Presented by the Washington College baseball team, the talk will be followed by light refreshments and the silent auction of a selection of autographed items. Admission is free and open to the public, though donations to the Washington College baseball team will be accepted.

Dempsey played 24 seasons of Major League Baseball with six teams, including 11 and one-half with the Orioles. He is tied for eighth in MLB history in seasons played and is one of only three catchers to play in four different decades. He played on three World Series teams and won two championships, including 1983 when he was named the World Series MVP in the Orioles' five-game series win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Now in his fourth year as a member of the Orioles' broadcast team, Dempsey has been teaming with Jim Hunter for 4 years hosting the "O's Xtra" pre- and post-game shows on MASN. Dempsey also serves as an analyst on a selection of game broadcasts. Prior to joining the team's broadcast operations, Dempsey spent five years on the Orioles' coaching staff.

Before his career in politics, Governor Hughes played minor league baseball in the Eastern Shore Baseball League, starring as a pitcher for the Easton Yankees. The Easton native began his political career representing Caroline County in the Maryland House of Delegates. He later served as a member of the Maryland Senate representing Caroline, Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot Counties and as Secretary of Transportation for the state before being elected governor, an office he held from 1979 to 1987.

A staunch advocate for the Chesapeake Bay, Hughes signed the Chesapeake Bay Agreement into law during his governorship. After leaving office, he served as a member of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting public awareness, restoration, and protection of the resources of the Chesapeake Bay.

Dempsey is the latest in a series of high-profile former Major Leaguers who have given talks at the College in the last decade. The Washington College baseball team has also presented talks by Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Brooks Robinson and former Oriole center fielder Paul Blair.

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Burger Tasting to Showcase Locally Produced Meats and Other Food Items Sunday, Jan. 29

2012-01-09T17:13:00.004-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—If you think cold weather means you have to wait a few months for fresh local food, think again. On Sunday, January 29, four local producers will showcase their beef at the second annual “Andy’s Burger Night” from 1 to 4 p.m. at Unity Nursery on Rt. 213 near Church Hill. The event, created to showcase locally produced food items, is inspired by the Burger Nights that were so popular at Andy's, the beloved tavern that operated on High Street for two decades.

 Sassafras River Beef, Cedar Run Farm, St. Brigid’s Farm and Crow Farm will each bring something different to the tasting table. Two of Chestertown’s favorite chefs, Robbie Jester and Kevin McKinney, will cook up sliders on the grill and serve them with Eve’s Cheese, Lockbriar Farm apples and cider, bread from Against the Grain bakery, salad from Chesapeake Greens, and vegetables from Priapi Gardens, Colchester and Homestead Farms. Andy’s Spinach and Sweet Potato salad and Cindy’s chili will round out the menu.

“People will be amazed at how much food is available locally even in the dead of winter,” says Tara Holste, program manager at Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society, which is organizing and sponsoring the event.

The growers will be on hand to talk about their farms and products. Beer and wine will be for sale from 16 Mile Brewery and Cassinelli Winery. In addition, a group of local musicians will perform open-mic style throughout the event. In the spirit of being eco-friendly, diners are asked to bring their own plates, utensils, and cloth napkins.

Tickets, priced at $15 each (children under 12 free) and $25 per couple, are available at Unity Nursery or online at http://andys-ctown.com. (Space is limited. If advance reservations sell out, there will be no tickets available at the door.) All proceeds will benefit the Locavore Lit Fest, which returns to Chestertown March 29 through April 1, 2012.

For more information call 410-810-7162 or email tholste2@washcoll.edu.

Jan. 14 Concert to Kick Off Local Celebrations Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King

2012-01-09T11:54:00.004-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD––The life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be celebrated with a special concert on Saturday, January 14th, at 4 p.m. in Norman James Theatre at Washington College. The theater is located in William Smith Hall. Ample parking is available on the college campus and along Campus Avenue in Chestertown.

"Songs of the Civil Rights Movement" will feature local talent including Sombarkin, Pilgrim Travelers, New Gospelites, Bob and Pam Ortiz, Mt. Olive Mass Choir, Still Pond Coleman Mass Choir, Sylvia Frazier, Stask and El Piostrowski, Bob and Janet Kelley, Rev. Anthony Brown, and God’s Wealth. The concert is FREE and open to the public. Sponsors include the Chester Valley Ministers' Association, Kent County Arts Council, Washington College's Office of the President, Center for Environment & Society, CV Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and Office of Multicultural Affairs.

The songfest is one of two events honoring the legacy of Dr. King. The other is the annual MLK Breakfast on Monday, January 16th, at 7 a.m. at the Rock Hall Volunteer Fire Company. Breakfast tickets cost $10 and are available at the door. Contact jtitus2@washcoll.edu or jfairchild2@washcoll.edu or call 410-778-7295 for information.

Poet Hadaway Receives Prestigious Fellowship

2011-12-21T16:57:00.002-05:00

AMHERST, VA. – Poet Meredith Davies Hadaway of Chestertown has been awarded a fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). Funded by the William G. Sackett Fellowship Endowment, the award will provide a three-week working retreat in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in spring 2012. Hadaway, who serves as Vice President of College Relations and Marketing at Washington College and – occasionally – as an adjunct instructor in English, will focus on her poetry in the company of 25 other artists during her fellowship.

Hadaway has published two volumes, The River is a Reason (January, 2011) and Fishing Secrets of the Dead (2005), both issued by Word Press in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of Hadaway's poems was recently selected by Mark Doty for honorable mention in the 2010 Robinson Jeffers Tor House Poetry Prize. Another was chosen for inclusion in Best Millennium Writings Awards. She has received two Pushcart nominations and a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. In addition to publishing poetry in numerous literary journals, she is a frequent contributor of book reviews to Poetry International and serves as poetry editor for The Summerset Review.

Hadaway also is an avid musician who has combined poetry and Celtic harp in performances around the U.S. and Ireland. She holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, an M.A. in Psychology from Washington College, and a B.A. in English Literature from American University.

The VCCA is one of the nation's largest year-round artists’ communities and has served more than 4,000 artists since its inception in 1971. It provides lodging, meals, and an undistracted environment where visual artists, writers, composers, performance artists, filmmakers and other collaborative artists can focus on their work.

Previous VCCA Fellows have received worldwide attention through publications, exhibitions, compositions, performances, and have earned major awards and accolades, including MacArthur grants, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts awards, Rome Prizes, Pollock-Krasner grants, National Book Awards, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and Academy Award nominations.

Hodson Trust Awards $2 Million to WC for Scholarships, Faculty Development, Technology

2011-12-19T15:14:00.007-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Hodson Trust, Washington College’s single largest benefactor, has awarded $2,004,250 in grants to fund scholarships, faculty development and technology upgrades to the school it has supported for more than nine decades.

In announcing receipt of Hodson’s generous annual gift, College President Mitchell B. Reiss explained that more than $1 million is earmarked for the Hodson Trust Merit Scholarship Fund, which provides four-year awards to full-time students who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, character and citizenship. Sixty-four current Washington College students receive merit scholarships funded by the Trust. “In this economic climate, these scholarships are vitally important as students and families stretch their resources to meet the cost of a private education,” says Reiss. “The Hodson Trust’s steadfast support in this area is greatly appreciated.”

An additional $44,764 will support ongoing Hodson Trust Star Scholarships for veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Washington College currently has three veterans enrolled under the program.

Professional development for the faculty is another priority traditionally supported by The Hodson Trust. This year’s gift will add $412,500 to the endowment of the Hodson Trust Faculty Development Fund, established last year to fund competitive grants for faculty research, scholarship, seminars and other opportunities for learning and advancement. An additional $37,500 is available to support grant awards in the coming year. “Our gifted faculty, and the myriad ways in which they share their enthusiasm and expertise with our students, is at the heart of our mission,” said Reiss. “By empowering the faculty to stay current and engaged in their subject areas, we can continue to inspire our students to pursue their own passions.”

The 2011 gift also boosts by $200,000 the endowment for the Hodson Trust Chair in Economics, currently held by associate professor Lisa Daniels.

In response to the College’s technology needs, The Hodson Trust has earmarked $300,000 to help pay for upgrades in admissions software and website architecture. Over the next two years the College will implement a new software program for prospective students and introduce a new website design and content management system.

The Hodson Trust’s generous support of Washington College began more than nine decades ago. The Trust was established in 1920 by the family of Colonel Clarence Hodson to benefit four private educational institutions in Maryland: Washington College, Hood College, St. John’s College and The Johns Hopkins University.

Colonel Hodson, who grew up in Somerset County, founded the Beneficial Loan Society, a groundbreaking home mortgage business that grew into a major financial services corporation. An initial investment of $100 grew over the ensuing decades into a trust that has awarded more than $230 million to the four beneficiary institutions. For more information, visit www.hodsontrust.org.

Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences founded in Chestertown in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington. It was the first college chartered in the new nation. To learn more, please visit www.washcoll.edu.

Town and College Announce Agreement on Armory

2011-12-06T15:33:00.006-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Town of Chestertown and Washington College have announced an agreement that will, if fully realized, transfer ownership of the Chestertown Armory to the College. The announcement follows a Town Council vote Monday night, December 5, on the most recent proposal from the College.

Under the agreement, the College agrees to pay the remaining debt service on the Armory property, estimated at $320,000, to reimburse the Town for approximately $10,000 already spent on an environmental study of the property, and to bear the costs of all future environmental remediation of the site. In addition, the College will provide easements that allow the continuation of the Chester River promenade along the waterfront portion of the Armory site, and will provide access to the promenade from Quaker Neck Road. Finally, the College pledges to provide no fewer than five days per year of community access to the Armory.

The Town and the College will now begin the lengthy process of negotiating the transfer of the property with the Maryland Department of Planning’s Clearinghouse for surplus state property, the Maryland Department of General Services, and the Board of Public Works. Included within this process will be negotiations with both the Maryland Military Department and the Maryland Historic Trust on appropriate easements and other conditions for the transfer.

Once the College assumes ownership of the property, it must undertake a full evaluation of the conditions of the buildings and grounds, retain the services of an architectural firm to develop plans for the renovation, and launch a fund raising drive before any work can commence. The College has pledged to work collaboratively with the Town Planning Commission in the rehabilitation of the Armory property.

In a letter to the Council dated December 5, Washington College President Mitchell B. Reiss reported that the school’s Board of Visitors and Governors, following discussions held during its regularly scheduled meeting December 2 and 3, agreed to make a gift of $200,000 to the Town of Chestertown.

“The Board wanted the College to make a significant contribution to advance Chestertown’s vision for the Chester River waterfront,” Reiss explained Tuesday in acknowledging the agreement. “The $200,000 will assist the Town with master planning, infrastructure, and recreational initiatives.”

President Reiss expressed his appreciation to the Town Council, Mayor Margo Bailey and Town Manager Bill Ingersoll for their persistence and faith in pursuing a fair and mutually beneficial resolution to the issue. “We look forward to working with the Town as we go forward with plans to build a state-of-the art waterfront campus — plans that will incorporate the historic Armory property and be a point of pride for Washington College and the entire Chestertown community.”

Book by Starr Center's Jill Ogline Titus Explores Ultimate Case of Resistance to Integration

2011-12-05T18:24:00.008-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A new book by Jill Ogline Titus, Associate Director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, tells the story of one Virginia county’s radical reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Published this month by The University of North Carolina Press, Titus’s Brown’s Battleground: Students, Segregationists, & the Struggle for Justice in Prince Edward County, Virginia explores how Prince Edward County simply closed all its public schools to avoid integrating them.

Five years later, when the county was forced to reopen its schools, the battle continued as county officials worked to ensure that the “new” system remained segregated, impoverished and substandard.

Titus first learned about the story while working as an intern in the Philadelphia office of the National Park Service’s National Historic Landmarks program, which in 1998 had designated Prince Edward County’s Moton High School as a National Landmark. “I had known that the Brown v. Board of Education decision included a Virginia case,” she says. “But it wasn’t until I started digging into the specifics of the history of Moton High School that I realized that resistance to the decision had been so intense as to shut down an entire county’s public school system.”

Titus, who earned her Ph.D. in History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2007, wrote her dissertation about the closing of the Prince Edward County schools. In converting her research into Brown’s Battleground, she shifted her focus to the people whose lives were affected not only by that one drastic decision, but also by the prevailing attitudes and prejudices of the time. “I wanted to show modern-day readers the disastrous consequences that befell children, the most vulnerable members of our society, when a group of adults decided that their community could do without a public school system.”

Adam Goodheart, the Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center, says Brown’s Battleground “perfectly exemplifies the kind of historical writing that we strive to foster here at the Starr Center: deeply researched, intellectually rigorous, and elegantly narrated. Moreover, it speaks powerfully to questions that still challenge us today.”

Titus agrees that the story she tells is still relevant a half-century later. “We’re living in an age of mounting retreat from Brown v. Board of Education, and intensifying debate over the future of public education itself. I see the Prince Edward crisis as a cautionary tale for our time,” she says. “It challenges the idea that any substitute for a public school system can consistently provide quality education for all children, regardless of their ability to pay.”

Before joining the staff of the Starr Center in 2007, Titus worked extensively for the National Park Service as a ranger-historian at several historic sites. While serving as a historian with the National Historic Landmarks Program, she helped create the Sites of Conscience Project, which encourages stewards of historic properties to make their sites centers of civic dialogue. Her articles and reviews have appeared in Journal of Southern History, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, The Public Historian, and The American Scholar.

WC's Peer Mentors Host Horizons Children For a Saturday Play Day and Campus Tour

2011-12-02T12:00:00.014-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College’s Peer Mentors recently hosted a Play Day for some 30 students from Kent County’s Horizons program, a six-week enrichment program for low-income students hosted each summer at Radcliffe Creek School. The Horizons students are drawn from Kent County public schools, grades K through Five. The local program annually serves approximately 60 children, and plans to add a Grade Six classroom next summer.

Senior Jesse Schaefer, a Peer Mentor Leader, says the idea for the Play Day was sparked at last spring’s Neighbors for Good day on campus, when Sarah Feyerherm, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, introduced her to Connie Schroth, Executive Director of Horizons. “I had been eager to incorporate a community service element into the Peer Mentor program, and Horizons seemed like a perfect organization to connect with,” she adds.

Radcliffe Creek School, located on Talbot Boulevard in Chestertown, is one of approximately 20 independent schools that host an affiliate of Horizons, a national enrichment program that works to combat “summer slide” in academic skills and reduce the achievement gap between low-income students and their peers from middle- and high-income families. During the six-week sessions over the summer break, Horizons teachers work with students to maintain and improve on skills learned during the school year, bolster students’ confidence, and encourage creativity.

In creating the Washington College Play Day, the Peer Mentors sought “to expose these students to a college campus in the hopes of illuminating college as a relevant and attainable goal,” says Schaefer.

“The Horizons kids really responded well to the Peer Mentors, who were enthusiastic, creative, and served as great role models,” says Feyerherm, who coordinates the Peer Mentor program. She adds that the experience not only helped the Peer Mentors polish their teaching skills, but also reminded them that “they live for four years in a community in which they can make a difference.”

The day began at about 8:30 a.m. with introductions and breakfast snacks and ended with lunch and a tour of the College campus. In between, the students took part in their choice of two activities from the half-dozen being offered by the college students—juggling, acting/improv exercises, basketball, art, balloon animals, and dancing.

Senior Ryan Adams-Brown says that as the day went on, many of the students who had been shy at first started to open up. “It was really cute whenever I would hear ‘Miss Ryan, watch this!’ and they would show me a dance move they finally figured out, or a balloon animal they’d made. My favorite part was getting tapped on the thigh and getting a hug as one of the little girls that I had in my dance session was about to leave. It was the cutest thing! I think it’s safe to say that everyone went home happy that day.”

Sophomore Hilary Rosenberg agrees. “[The Play Day] was a fantastic experience,” she says. “I honestly didn’t even notice the time pass because I was having so much fun. It felt so great to just play, and I hope to do it again next year.”

Her chances of repeating the experience are looking good, according to Feyerherm. “We are planning to make this a once-a-semester event where the Peer Mentors either host the Horizons students on campus or we do some other activity with them,” she says. “We hope to continue this every year.”

Connie Schroth wrote to Feyerherm to express hers and the children’s appreciation for the day. “Play Day was perfect in every way,” she said. “The Horizons children were delighted with everything, and the Peer Mentors were so empathetic, sensitive, and energetic. It does take a village to make a difference.”

Professor Striner's Maverick Fix for Nation's Economic Malaise is Cover of PBK Quarterly

2011-11-30T09:05:00.012-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College history professor Richard Striner’s proposal for fixing the U.S. economy is the cover story of the Winter 2012 issue of American Scholar, the quarterly magazine published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. His historically rooted pitch: Congress could create money, as it did during the Civil War, funding public projects that shock the economy back to life.

Striner, a Lincoln scholar whose 2010 book Lincoln's Way explored the use of broad presidential powers under six Administrations, says his research for that book piqued his interest in monetary policy, especially how the United States financed its wars and used major public works projects to boost employment. The son of an economist, he delved into U.S. monetary history from the Civil War forward. His proposal may be heresy to some, he notes, but a number of well-respected economists were saying much the same thing back in the 1930s and ’40s.

Striner’s proposal is different from any previous “Greenback” proposal because he envisions a dynamic partnership between Congress and the Federal Reserve—a partnership that would use all of the existing powers of “the Fed” to prevent or counteract inflation.

“I’m hoping this proposal will stimulate a major reconceptualization of what money is,” Striner says. “Most Americans have no idea of how our money supply is created or how money enters circulation, because the subject is hardly ever explained in vivid language that the general public can understand. This article, among its other aims, seeks to rectify that situation.”

To read the article online, visit http://theamericanscholar.org/how-to-pay-for-what-we-need/.

–30–

November 30, 2011

Professor Oros Joins US-Japan Policy Network

2011-11-29T12:50:00.003-05:00

WASHINGTON, DC—Washington College associate professor of political science and international studies Andrew Oros has been selected to participate in the second cohort of the “U.S.-Japan Network for the Future” program sponsored by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.

The program was created to identify and support American professionals who are becoming specialists on Japan, its international policies and its relationship with the United States. To that end, the Network sponsors workshops, seminars and other opportunities for learning and collaborating.

In 2012, Network participants will participate in a two-day workshop and weeklong meeting in Washington, D.C. and a two-day retreat in Montana. They also will be hosted for a week of study in Japan in June of 2013 and will participate in a public symposium and panel on current events in early 2014.

Professor Oros is one of 14 scholars and/or policy analysts chosen from around the country. The group includes faculty from George Washington University, Stanford, Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan, along with representatives from the Congressional Research Service, the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, and the United States-Japan Foundation.

The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation promotes understanding and cooperation in U.S.-Asia relations. Maureen and Mike Mansfield’s values, ideals and vision for U.S.-Asia relations continue through the Foundation’s programs, which create networks among U.S. and Asian leaders, explore the underlying issues influencing public policies, and increase awareness about the nations and peoples of Asia. The Foundation has offices in Washington, Tokyo, and Missoula. For more information, visit www.mansfieldfdn.org.

The Center for Global Partnership (CGP) at the Japan Foundation (a Japanese Independent Administrative Institution, or Dokuritsu Gyosei Hojin) works to enhance dialogue and interchange between Japanese and U.S. citizens on a wide range of issues. With offices in Tokyo and New York, the CGP operates grant programs as well as self-initiated projects and fellowships. For more: http://www.cgp.org.

Governor's Appointments to College Board Include Pew Trusts Head Rimel, Realtor Janney

2011-11-28T19:09:00.013-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College announced that Governor Martin O’Malley has appointed Pew Charitable Trusts head Rebecca Webster Rimel and real-estate executive Margaret Goldstein Janney ’76 to serve on the College’s Board of Visitors and Governors. Rimel will serve a six-year term, and Janney will fill the remainder of a 4-year term. In addition, business executive Peter D. Davenport was reappointed to a new six-year term.

By agreeing to help guide the 230-year-old college, board members follow in the footsteps of General George Washington, who donated to its founding in 1782 and served on its first Board of Governors.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts for the past 17 years, Rebecca Rimel has led the public charity’s expansion from about 60 employees in Philadelphia to more than 600 staffers located throughout the country and around the globe. The Pew Trusts fund data-driven solutions and goal-based investments to improve public policies, inform the public and stimulate civic life.

Rimel joined the Pew after a short but stellar career in nursing. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction from the University of Virginia School of Nursing in 1973 and then worked as head nurse in the University of Virginia Hospital Emergency Department and as coordinator of outpatient facilities before becoming an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery. With that post, she became the first nurse to hold a faculty position at the University of Virginia Medical School. She has authored numerous scientific articles on head injuries.

After earning a master’s degree in business administration from James Madison University, Rimel started her work at Pew in 1983 as Health Program Manager. She was promoted to Executive Director five years later and accepted her current position in 1994. The work she oversees in Pew’s original office in Philadelphia focuses largely on urban issues and the arts, while the staff in the Washington, D.C., office works on issues related to the environment, state policy, public health and national economic issues. The internationally renowned Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Rimel is an emeritus Trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and has served on advisory boards and committees for numerous other non-profits, including the Council of Foundations, the University of Virginia, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. She currently serves on the board of Deutsche Asset Management/DWS Funds and CardioNet, Inc. She also is a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and a member of the American Philosophical Society and its prestigious Wistar Association. She lives in Kennedyville, Md., with her husband, Patrick Caldwell.

Margaret Goldstein Janney ’76 brings years of experience in government service and politics to the board, beginning with the time she spent campaigning with her father, the late Louis L. Goldstein ’35, a longtime member and former chair of Washington College’s Board of Visitors and Governors who served as Maryland Comptroller for nearly 40 years. A graduate of St. Stephens and St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Va., she earned her B.A. in political science from Washington College and took graduate courses in government and public administration at American University.

Janney worked in Washington, D.C., in the office of Maryland Congressman Roy Dyson for several years before joining the staff of New Jersey Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, where she worked for seven years as Assistant to the Legislative Director. She finished her Capital Hill career as Executive Assistant to Senator Paul D. Wellstone of Minnesota, whom she served from March 1991 to May 1999. In 1996, she was awarded a Certificate of Service from the United States Senate.

Janney has worked in real estate since she and her husband, William R. Janney III ’76, moved to Naples, Fla. She was an owner and agent of Janney Real Estate Services for nearly a decade before joining Amerivest Realty as a realtor early this year. She has been active in alumni affairs for her alma mater, serving as the 1970s decade representative on the Washington College Alumni Council and as co-president of the South West Florida Alumni Chapter.

Returning Board member Peter D. Davenport is Vice President for Marketing at Thomas Scientific, a New Jersey-based company that distributes scientific equipment and laboratory supplies, including those manufactured in Chestertown at its subsidiary, LaMotte Company. Davenport also serves as Executive and Trustee of the Davenport Family Foundation.

In his other volunteer affiliations, he is a member of the Birmingham Township Planning Committee, a trustee of the Stroud Water Research Center, a member of the Board of Regents of Mercersburg Academy, and a Board member of the Brandywine River Museum. He and his wife, Sylvia, both graduates of Tufts University, live in Chadds Ford, Pa.

Washington College Names Fundraiser Gretchen Dwyer As New VP for Advancement

2011-11-22T11:01:00.004-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College has named Gretchen Dwyer, a fundraiser and 16-year veteran of school development and alumni-relations work, as its new Vice President for College Advancement beginning in mid-January of 2012.

Since 2004, Dwyer, 39, has served as Senior Director of Campaign and Leadership Giving at Bennington College in Vermont. In that role, she managed leadership giving, planned giving, prospect research and donor stewardship. She built and managed Bennington’s leadership-giving program, greatly increasing both the number of donors and the size of gifts to the college during her tenure. She also served on occasion as Interim Vice President for External Relations.

Before joining the Bennington College staff, Dwyer worked for two years as Director of Development at the Tower School, an independent K-9 school in Marblehead, Mass., and for four years at Boston University, where she served as the Director of Development and Alumni Relations for the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

In announcing the appointment to the campus and alumni communities, Washington College President Mitchell B. Reiss cited Dwyer’s fundraising successes and her reputation for forging strong working relationships with multiple constituencies. “I am delighted that Gretchen has agreed to join us at Washington College,” he said. “She has been a central figure in the success of a number of our nation’s premier advancement programs. The leadership-giving program Gretchen built and manages has been responsible for Bennington College’s receipt of more six-, seven-, and eight-figure gifts in the past seven years than in its entire 79-year history. I am confident she will make enormous contributions to Washington College.”

“I am very excited about coming to Washington College and Chestertown,” said Dwyer. “I am looking forward to building on the staff’s great fundraising and alumni relations successes and working together with all members of the Washington College community to raise support for such a dynamic and distinctive college. The combination of the College’s attributes—its known strengths in writing, the excellent programming at its CES [Center for Environment and Society] and C.V. Starr Center, a proud alumni body, a stellar faculty and talented students—is irresistible to me. My family is also excited to join the Chestertown community.”

A native of California, Dwyer earned a bachelor’s degree in English and African Studies from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and a master’s degree in literacy, language and cultural studies from Boston University. She and her husband, Tom Dwyer, have three children, ages 6, 5, and 2.

Dwyer’s appointment concludes a lengthy national search and fills a year-long vacancy in Washington College’s Advancement office. President Reiss thanked Barbara Heck, the Associate Vice President for Leadership Gifts, who has led the department since October of last year. “Barbara and the entire Advancement staff have worked diligently to keep donor development and stewardship on course. I know they will assist Gretchen in every way as we welcome the Dwyer family into our campus and our community.”

Visiting Neuro-Economist to Explain What Really Motivates Our Financial Decisions

2011-11-17T16:57:00.002-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—As economic concerns and debt continue to dog the U.S., and European leaders work to avert financial catastrophes in their own countries, it seems more important than ever to understand just how people make monetary decisions—at home, in business, and in government. Are we even capable of reasonable decisions in the midst of so many temptations to misspend?

Economist Daniel Houser will offer some answers from the field of neuroeconomics when he delivers a talk titled “Temptation and Self-Control” on Tuesday, November 29 at Washington College. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, on the College campus (300 Washington Avenue).

“Temptation and the need for self-control are ubiquitous features of human lives, and can play an important role in the way we make economic decisions,” says Houser, Chair of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a faculty member of its Center for the Study of Neuroeconomics. His talk will explore the ways temptation influences not only our purchases but also our productivity at work, and will discuss strategies for improved self-control.

The event is co-sponsored by the Washington College Department of Psychology, the Omicron Delta Epsilon International Honor Society in Economics, the Washington College Chapter of Sigma Xi and the Daniel Z. Gibson-John A Wagner Visitor Fund. For more information, http://www.washcoll.edu.

College Seeks Nominations for President’s Medal, Distinguished Service Awards by December 9

2011-11-17T15:50:00.005-05:00

Chestertown, MD—Washington College president Mitchell Reiss has called for nominations for two annual honors – the President’s Medal and the President’s Distinguished Service Awards – that recognize meritorious service to Washington College and/or Chestertown and the greater Kent County community. The College is accepting nominations through December 9, 2011. Award recipients will be honored at the College’s George Washington’s Birthday Convocation on Friday, February 24, 2012.

Through the President’s Medal, the College honors an individual or organization from the greater Kent County community who has established an exemplary record of sustained positive contribution to the quality of life in the region and/or at the College. The candidate’s career or organization’s work should be distinguished by service to their fellow human beings and reflect the ideals represented in the Washington College Mission Statement (http://academics.washcoll.edu/missionstatement.php). In addition, a nominee should have at least five years of demonstrated service in a particular area.

Last year’s recipient was Community Food Pantry president Jim Fouss. Previous recipients include Richard Miller, Leslie Raimond, Ruth Briscoe, Nancy Dick, Chris Havemeyer, Jim Siemen, the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Department, the Kent Family Center, Tracey Davenport, Summer Days Math & Science Camp for Girls, Eileen Dickey, and Jane Hukill.

The President’s Distinguished Service Awards go to Washington College employees who through exceptional performance, leadership and service have made distinctive contributions to the operation of their departments or the campus community as a whole. Nominees can be any members of the faculty or staff who have been employed by Washington College for at least five years.

As many as five Distinguished Service Awards may be given each year. The 2011 recipients were Associate Professor of Mathematics Louise Amick, faculty secretary Catherine Naundorf, John Toll Professor of Psychology George Spilich, Director of Waterfront Activities John Wagner, and Advancement Office secretary Patsy Will (since retired).

Nominations for both awards involve a letter of recommendation, two or three seconding letters, and a résumé or bio recounting the person or organization’s history and accomplishments. Nominations will be reviewed and evaluated by the five-member President’s Awards Advisory Committee. The faculty and staff members who make up the advisory committee for the 2012 selections are George Spilich (Chair), Kate Moncrief, Debby Bergen, Darnell Parker, and Chris Rainer.

Complete nomination information and criteria for the awards are available online at http://president.washcoll.edu/presidentsawards. Completed nomination materials should be sent to: President’s Awards Advisory Committee, c/o President’s Office, Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620.

Photo: Community Food Pantry president Jim Fouss accepts the 2011 President's Medal from Mitchell Reiss during the George Washington's Birthday Convocation in February.

College and Friends Celebrate 50th Birthday of Arctic Wildlife Refuge with Film Screening

2011-11-17T14:58:00.004-05:00

CHESTERTOWN — About the size of South Carolina, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to caribou herds, polar bears, grizzly bears, muskox, doll sheep, wolves, wolverines, snow geese, peregrine falcons and other migratory birds. Discover this isolated and breathtaking preserve at a special screening of the documentary film America's Wildest Refuge on November 29th at Washington College.

In celebration of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 50th Anniversary, the community is invited for cake and refreshments first, at 6:30 p.m. in the McLain Atrium, located in the Toll Science Building on Campus Avenue in Chestertown.

The film, which has a running time of 50 minutes, will be shown at 7 p.m. Colby Hawkinson, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service specialist at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, will be on hand that evening to answer questions and explore connections between the Arctic and Eastern Neck Refuges.

The event is sponsored by Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society, the Friends of Eastern Neck Inc., and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For information email to jfairchild2@washcoll.edu or call 410-778-7295.

Study Shows Graduates of Private Liberal Arts Colleges More Satisfied with Their Educations

2011-11-16T11:05:00.008-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College alumni were among those surveyed for a major comparative study on the value of a residential liberal-arts education. Conducted on behalf of the Annapolis Group, a consortium of 130 private liberal-arts colleges, the survey shows that compared with alumni of larger universities, graduates of the AG member schools showed significantly higher satisfaction with the lasting impacts of their college experience on their lives and careers.

As a participating member of the Annapolis Group, Washington College had submitted the names of 100 randomly selected alumni to the company that conducted the survey, Hardwick Day.

According to the executive summary prepared by Hardwick Day, “On measure after measure—from the quality of the learning experience to the nature of their engagement with faculty and peers, from the impact on intellectual and personal development to the value to their careers—alumni of private liberal arts colleges, where the residential experience is a core dimension, say that they benefitted dramatically personally and professionally, academically and socially from their college experience. They report this in far greater numbers and percentages than do alumni of large state universities, including the top public universities.”

Click here to read coverage of the survey in Inside Higher Ed.

Or visit the Annapolis Group Web site to read its announcement of the survey results.

Photos by Keanan Barbour-March.

The Veterans Project Seeks to Recognize War Service of Washington College Alumni

2011-11-11T16:37:00.008-05:00

CHESTERTOWN—The Awards Committee of the Washingon College Alumni Association is compiling a list of College alumni who have served our country in battle.

Director of alumni programs Judie Barroll is heading up the Veterans Project. Her husband Stewart's great-great-great grandfather, War of 1812 veteran James Edmondson Barroll, Secretary and Adjutant of the Troop of Horse, Kent County Militia, is the first of more than 200 veterans listed so far. Recent alumni are listed for combat service in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Click here to see the list.)

“The Awards Committee initiated this project more than a year ago,” Judie explains. “Through an article in Washington College Magazine and by contacting alumni through phone calls and e-mails we have been able to compile a pretty comprehensive list. But we know there are still some war veterans missing and some inaccuracies. This is a living, breathing document that is constantly changing, and we need alumni help.”

The list will live on the Alumni web page (http://www.washcoll.edu/alumni/) as it progresses and will ultimately be a valuable record for historians of the College. Judie says the Awards Committee also plans eventually to have the list framed and displayed in a prominent location on campus, “as one simple way to honor our Washington College alumni who have served or are serving our country.”

For more information, contact Judie at jbarroll2@washcoll.edu or 410-810-7143

Washington College Team Wins CIA's Tri-State Intelligence Simulation at Georgetown

2011-11-08T11:06:00.006-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College took home the top prize in the largest-ever Undergraduate Crisis Simulation organized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) November 3 at Georgetown University. The team of four Washington College students won the Maryland bracket and beat out other finalists William & Mary (Virginia bracket) and American University (D.C. bracket). A total of 12 schools competed, including the University of Maryland, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Sweetbriar College.

The team from Washington College consisted of senior International Studies majors John Preston Hildebrand and Kathleen Pattie; senior Political Science major Kelsey Newborn; and junior Economics major Alex Anbarcioglu. Dr. Andrew Oros, Director of International Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science, recruited and advised the team. Also working with the students was a CIA mentor, an actual collection analyst at the Agency who was assigned to the Washington College team.

The simulation held at Georgetown University last week was one of about 50 such competitions the CIA plans to host around the country this year. The half-day exercise requires speed-reading, quick thinking and cogent writing to provide timely advice to policymakers seeking to resolve an imagined but realistic international crisis.

The four-student team, guided by their CIA mentor, had just two hours to sift through piles of information about an urgent development on the Korean peninsula and prepare a short memo and 10-minute oral briefing for the Director of the Agency, as played by a CIA staff member. “Instead of being stressed, we were all running on adrenaline and excitement,” recalls Pattie. “We really benefited from our teamwork. Even though we had only just met the week prior, our ability to bond together, delegate tasks, and make seamless transitions along with quick decisions was a major asset.”

The top teams from each state division advanced to a final round, where – in front of about 50 other participants, including fellow students, faculty and CIA personnel – they delivered a five-minute briefing to a panel of CIA staff members role-playing the Director of National Intelligence and other senior staff. The Washington College team divided labors according to each member’s strengths: Pattie compiled pertinent questions for Anbarcioglu to ask at a briefing session that only one representative from each team could attend. Newborn wrote the written brief, and Hildebrand delivered the oral briefings. “Our team’s greatest success came from knowing each other’s strengths and encouraging each other,” says Newborn.

“It was an incredible experience,” adds Hildebrand. “I was blown away by the level of realism that the CIA put together for us. Our analyst assured us it was very close to being the real thing.”

The CIA sees the Undergraduate Crisis Simulations as a way to showcase the kind of work its analysts perform and to encourage undergraduates to consider careers in intelligence analysis. If the Washington College team is any indication, the Agency achieved its goal. “I had previously thought about a career in intelligence but had always associated it with movies and television depictions,” says Pattie. “By participating in the simulation I got a clear understanding of what the job entails and was not disappointed by the level of excitement. Now I have a more definitive idea of what the CIA contributes to the nation and am eager to learn more about possible careers there.”

Hildebrand says the fast-paced simulation sealed the deal for his career interest: “The analysts were all incredibly professional and showed the best side of the Central Intelligence Agency. I will definitely be applying for a position in the near future.”

The team’s success illustrated ways Washington College is meeting its goals, as well. “The entire experience proves that despite going to a small school, we are getting the same high level of education that students are getting at larger institutions,” notes Newborn.

“A huge part of our advantage was the analytic nature of WAC's curriculum,” adds Anbarcioglu. “Rather than rote memorization, teachers prize lateral and creative thinking.”

Professor Oros agrees with his students’ assessments that the simulation underscores skills that many Washington College courses convey. “Our small class environment, which offers many opportunities for group collaboration and stresses communicating effectively in writing and speaking gave our students an advantage,” he remarks. “It’s gratifying for me as a professor to see employers stressing the importance of the same skills I stress in the classroom, and to see my students utilize those skills in action.”

Photo: From left, professor Andrew Oros and students Kathleen Pattie, Kelsey Newborn, Preston Hildebrand and Alex Anbarcioglu strike a team pose.

Do Fish Feel Pain? Afraid So, Says Researcher Coming to Lecture Nov. 16 at the College

2011-11-07T16:27:00.011-05:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Do fish feel pain? And does it matter? These are the questions Victoria Braithwaite, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, will address in a lecture at Washington College on Wednesday, November 16. Part of the McLain Lecture Series, the talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center, 300 Washington Avenue. A book signing will follow in the McLain Atrium.

Braithwaite, Associate Director and Professor of Fisheries and Biology at the Penn State Institute of the Neurosciences, researches the evolution of animal cognition with a focus on fish learning, perception, and memory. In her 2010 book Do Fish Feel Pain? ( Oxford University Press), she discusses the ethical questions raised by current fishing practices. According to Braithwaite, fish are not the simple-brained creatures most of us perceive them to be, but are instead complex animals with accurate memories, stress responses, and physiological similarities with other vertebrates—even humans.

In light of recent scientific evidence showing that fish have specialized pain receptors, she argues that the kinds of protective measures in place for other animals should be extended to fish.

Braithwaite’s lecture is sponsored by the McLain Program in Environmental Studies and the campus chapter of Sigma Xi, a scientific-research honor society. The Joseph H. McLain ’37 Program in Environmental Studies was established in 1990 to recognize and augment study in the fields of aquatic and environmental studies.

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With "Big Girls Don't Cry," Author Examines 2008 Election from a Feminist Perspective

2011-11-04T15:25:00.005-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—In the fresh eyes of political observer Rebecca Traister, the presidential election of 2008 not only brought the first African American president in U.S. history into office, but also marked a sea change for women in American politics. Traister, author of Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women, will be at Washington College Tuesday, Nov. 15 to explain the how and why of the new landscape left in the wake of Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama after the last ballot was counted.

Traister’s talk, “Big Girls Don’t Cry: Women, Politics and the Media,” will take place at 5:30 in Hynson Lounge on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Sponsored by the Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, the event is free and open to the public.

On her web site (www.rebeccatraister.com), Traister recalls a few of the significant events that are chronicled more fully in her book: Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman in the nation’s history to win a state presidential primary; GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin concluding a nationally broadcast debate by reaching for her newborn son, and First Lady Michelle Obama moving her family into a White House built in part by slaves.

“These are not small things,” says Traister. “These are changes that have piled up fast, creating a world that our grandmothers could barely have dreamed of, that many of our mothers thought they’d never live to see.”

Big Girls Don’t Cry has been praised for revealing important new lessons from the 2008 election. Author Anne Lamott described Traister as “the most brilliant voice on feminism in this country, and said of the book, “I couldn't believe how much Ms. Traister captured and illuminated a story with which I had thought I was so well versed: the 2008 election. She told it as if for the first time.”

A reviewer for Publishers Weekly said Traister “bludgeons conventional political wisdom by trenchantly exposing Palin’s strange triangulation of mainstream feminism, Clinton’s need to appear vulnerable in order to appeal to women, and the precarious position of black women—some of whom were conflicted between supporting candidates who mirrored their gender or their race … Traister does a fine job in showing that progress does not proceed in straight lines, and, sometimes, it’s the unlikeliest of individuals who initiate real change.”

For more information on the event, visit http://www.washcoll.edu/.

Poet Dora Malech to Read at Lit House Nov. 17

2011-11-04T10:25:00.003-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Poet and artist Dora Malech will read from her collections at the Rose O’Neill Literary House on Thursday, November 17. The reading, part of the English Department’s “Living Writers” course, begins at 4:30 and is free and open to the public.

In a review of Malech’s 2009 debut poetry book, Shore Ordered Ocean (Waywiser Press), writer Bill Mahire wrote, “Dora Malech knows just about everything there is to know about the risky music that lives in language. But she also knows about Truth and Beauty. She’s far too wise to try and make these last two rhyme, but she constantly tempts them into conversation.”

Malech’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Best New Poets, American Letters & Commentary, The Yale Review and other publications. She has received numerous writing fellowships, including a Frederick M. Clapp Poetry Fellowship from Yale, a Truman Capote Fellowship, and a 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship.

Malech has been both a participant and an instructor at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A native of Bethesda, Md., she now lives in Iowa City, IA, where she coordinates the Iowa Youth Writing Project, an arts outreach program for children and teens.

For more information: http://lithouse.washcoll.edu/.

Crossing Racial Lines in Kent County: Nov. 15 Programs Explore Local – and Personal – History

2011-11-04T10:01:00.004-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD— Less than half a century after legal desegregation came to Kent County, many stories of the community’s long and complex racial history are only beginning to be told. But two special public programs on November 15 will present firsthand accounts of extraordinary family and personal sagas stretching back 200 years. Writer Dionne Ford will explore the history of her own family in “From Slaves to Senators: A Kent County Family in Black and White,” at 4:30 pm at Washington College; a roundtable discussion at the Heron Point retirement community, “Growing Up in the 1960s in Chestertown,” will follow at 8 pm.

Ford’s talk, hosted by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College and co-sponsored by the Black Studies Program and Office of Multicultural Affairs, will be held in Litrenta Lecture Hall, John S. Toll Science Center. The evening roundtable will take place in Heron Point’s Wesley Hall, 501 Campus Ave., Chestertown. Both events are free and open to the public.

Ford’s journey into her Eastern Shore family’s interracial roots began at the age of 12 with a simple question: “Grandpa, are you white?” His answer sent her on a lifelong quest to piece together the stories of the masters and slaves, Confederates and senators, preachers and entertainers whose lives eventually led to her own. Ford's great-great-grandfather, William R. Stuart, was a white Eastern Shore native and Confederate soldier who had several children with one of his African-American slaves, Tempy Burton. (Stuart’s father, also named William R. Stuart, was an early alumnus of Washington College.)

Ford blogs about her search for her ancestors at http://dionneford.com, often interweaving stories of her great-great-grandparents with those of her interracial immediate family. Her reflections on racial identity and self-determination have also appeared in the New York Times, the NAACP’s blog, and Brain, Child magazine. A former TV reporter, Ford has received several fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and is currently at work on a novel about a black expatriate in Brazil. Her November 15 talk will focus on the process of delving into what she calls “a not uncommon but often untold part of American history,” and its implications for her family.

The evening program, featuring Chestertown natives Armond Fletcher, Milford Murray, and Ellsworth Tolliver, will focus on a later period of Kent County history, but will explore some of the same themes: where and why American society draws racial lines, how these lines shift over time, and how we might transcend them today. Each of these three speakers experienced racial segregation firsthand and was an active participant in the struggle to integrate Kent County schools and instigate civil rights reform on a local level.

In sharing their stories, they hope to contribute to a larger understanding of the legacy of segregation on the Eastern Shore, and encourage dialogue across racial lines. “Both of these programs deal with different aspects of a topic that shapes all of our lives, and we hope that many people will be able to continue the conversation from one event to the other,” says Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Starr Center.

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Photograph: Dionne Ford poses with her daughters at the entrance to Washington College, where her great-great-great-grandfather was a student.

Goodheart Is in the Oval Office When Obama Names Fort Monroe a National Monument

2011-11-02T17:04:00.014-04:00

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Adam Goodheart, director of the C.V. Starr Center at Washington College, was in the Oval Office Tuesday, Nov. 1, when President Obama signed the executive order naming Virginia’s Fort Monroe a National Monument. Goodheart’s focus on the fort in his best-selling book 1861: The Civil War Awakening and in an excerpt published in the New York Times Magazine (“How Slavery Really Ended in America,” April 1, 2011) were influential in making the case that the fort was an important historic site worth preserving.

Goodheart’s writing brought to light the story of three slaves who in May 1861 escaped their Confederate slaveholders and sought refuge in the Union garrison at Fort Monroe. That courageous act by the three slaves marked the real beginning of emancipation, he contends.

Virginia officials sent Goodheart’s book and the Times excerpt to key members of the Obama Administration who were considering National Landmark status for the fort. They also asked Goodheart to write a letter directly to the President explaining the site’s significance. In recognition of his role, the White House invited the historian to witness yesterday’s signing along with elected officials and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Yesterday’s signing ceremony marked the first time President Obama has used his power to create a new National Monument.

Goodheart described the experience as “thrilling, and a great honor,” and says he was able to speak briefly with President Obama before and after the signing. “We chatted about my book and the historical significance of the fort. He asked me about the college, and I told him about our proud presidential tradition going back to George Washington. He said, ‘Sounds like a pretty good place to study history.’ ” recalls Goodheart. “I asked him if he'd ever been to the Eastern Shore and he said he hadn't, so I told him we'd love to have him out here anytime, and also that I hoped Malia and Sasha would consider coming here one day.”

Photos: Top, in this official White House photo by Pete Souza, Adam Goodheart chats with President Obama after the official signing ceremony. Bottom, from left at the signing: Adam Goodheart, Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va., Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., Hampton, Va., Mayor Molly Ward, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Robert Russa Moton Museum Director Lacy Ward Jr., Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., and Army Secretary John McHugh. Photograph by Susan Walsh for AP.

For more coverage on this historic event:

President Obama Designates Fort Monroe a National Monument: Official Video from the White House

Obama designates Fort Monroe a national monument - Darlene Superville, The Associated Press

President Obama Designates Fort Monroe A National Monument, Historic For Role In Slavery - Trymaine Lee, The Huffington Post

In the Oval Office, a Passage to Freedom - Adam Goodheart, The New York Times

Dance Honor Society Offers Free "Community Dance Day" for Area Children Saturday, Nov. 5

2011-11-02T15:49:00.004-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College Dance Program will host its 10th Community Dance Day on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the dance studio of the Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center on campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

Open to children in grades K through 8, this free event is an opportunity for dance instruction in creative movement, hip hop, and Broadway dance. Members of the college chapter of Nu Delta Alpha Dance Honor Society will offer instruction. No prior dance experience is necessary.

For more information contact Professor Karen Smith at 410-778-7237 or or N∆A president, Aubrey Hastings, at ahastings2@washcoll.edu.

Kohl Gallery to Display Rare Egyptian Funerary Objects through Dec. 2

2011-11-01T16:56:00.004-04:00

CHESTERTOWN—The Kohl Gallery at Washington College has extended the run of its special exhibition, “For Now and Forever: Funerary Artifacts from Ancient Egypt,” through December 2, 2011. The 33 items in the show date from the 3rdcentury CE to the 3rd millennium BCE and include funerary and votive objects in bronze, wood, stone and faience. Except for one object loaned by the Johns Hopkins University Archaeological Museum, all the objects come from a private collection in Baltimore whose owners wish to remain anonymous.

“This is such a unique opportunity for the campus and the region to have access to these beautiful, ancient objects, many of them never before shown in public,” says acting gallery director Patrice DiQuinzio, Associate Provost for Academic Services. “We are so grateful to their owners for allowing us to display them longer.”

“These artifacts reveal how the ancient Egyptians prepared for their journey to the afterlife,” says exhibition curator Fatma Ismail, a lecturer in the Department of Art and Art History. “And they illustrate how a fundamental human concern, the nature of life and death, connects us all.”

To view a video tour of the exhibit with comments from Ismail and exhibition designer Alex Castro, click here or visit http://kohlgallery.washcoll.edu/.

The Kohl Gallery is located in the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown. Gallery hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays 1 to 5 p.m., Fridays noon to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays noon to 5 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday.

Poet H.L. Hix to Read at Lit House Nov. 3

2011-11-01T15:46:00.002-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College will welcome poet H.L. Hix to the Rose O’Neill Literary House on Thursday, November 3. His poetry reading, part of the English Department’s “Living Writers” course, will begin at 4:30 p.m.

“H.L. Hix is that rare poet who is equal parts historian, journalist, archivist, and singer,” said fellow poet and poetry critic Susan M. Schultz. One reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly wrote of Hix’s work, “Sometimes achingly beautiful, sometimes grisly and violent, and sometimes tersely intellectual, Hix’s collections have always been hard to forget.”

Hix’s poetry has been published in many national journals, including Harvard Review, Poetry, and McSweeney’s. He has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and has won prestigious poetry awards such as the Grolier and the T.S. Eliot Prizes.

Hix’s 2006 collection Chromatic (Etruscan Press) was a National Book Award finalist for poetry.

A professor of creative writing at the University of Wyoming, he has also served as a visiting professor at Shanghai University and at the University of Texas. His Nov. 3 reading at Washington College is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee and is free and open to the public.

Duo Orfeo Brings Innovative Guitar Music to Washington College Friday, November 11

2011-10-31T15:35:00.003-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Innovative guitar pair Duo Orfeo will perform Friday, November 11 at 8 p.m. in Hotchkiss Recital Hall, Gibson Center for the Arts, as part of the 60th season of the Washington College Concert Series. Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for youth 18 and under, or $50 for a season ticket that includes all four remaining concerts, and can be purchased at the door. Washington College students are admitted free with a valid ID.

Joseph Ricker and Jamie Balmer met in 2001 as students of guitarist Phillip de Fremery, a pupil of Andrés Segovia, and formed Duo Orfeo six years later. They use both classical and electric guitars to explore a diverse body of music, from traditional western compositions to their own bold arrangements. The pair has recorded two albums, The Grace Sessions, a 2005 recording that includes music of Bach, Brahms, Boccherini and Albéniz; and Duo Orfeo, featuring music of Federico Mompou, Eric Satie, Frédéric Chopin, Radamés Gnattali, and Francesco Da Milano.

In April of this year, Duo Orfeo participated in the critically acclaimed “Machines” project, a live performance art collaboration with pianist Oni Buchanan, trombone quartet The Guidonian Hand, and kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson. “Machines” featured the world premiere of Duo Orfeo’s arrangements of the music of Arvo Pärt for electric guitar duo. For more: http://www.duoorfeo.com/.

To purchase tickets in advance or for more information, please call 410-778-7839 or email concert series director Kate Bennett at kbennett2@washcoll.edu. Details on the remaining concerts in the series can be found at http://news.washcoll.edu/concertseries.php.

Washington College Hosts IBM Executives for Talks to Mark 100th Anniversary of “Big Blue”

2011-10-31T10:40:00.013-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College welcomes three IBM executives to campus Wednesday, Nov. 2 to mark the 100th anniversary of a company that has transformed the business world and remained vital through a century’s worth of technological and social challenges. This event, entitled “IBM at 100: An American Icon's Global Impact on Business and Corporate Citizenship” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts.

The moderator will be Norris Commodore ’73, a graduate of Washington College and member of its Board of Visitors and Governors who is Director for Worldwide Contracts and Negotiations at IBM. He will introduce two IBM colleagues as speakers: Catherine Lasser, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Global Distribution Sector of IBM Sales and Distribution; and Sally Scott Marietta, Program Manager for Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs. Lasser and Marietta will paint a picture of IBM that includes both technology and corporate social responsibility.

IBM, often called “Big Blue,” ranks 18th on the 2011 Fortune 500 list and is first on Fortune’s list of Information Technology Services firms. As a recent article in USA Today points out, “IBM has consistently bet on the introduction of new technology, from time clocks, butcher scales and coffee grinders; to punch-card machines and typewriters; to tape storage, mainframes and personal computers; to acquiring the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers; and, now, to smart social media.”

Catherine C. Lasser joined IBM in 1978 and has held both technical and leadership positions during her career. In her current role, she links the company’s technical expertise with consumer needs to get real-world solutions into the market quickly. She holds a BA in mathematics and computer science from SUNY Binghamton and an MBA in Finance from Iona College.

Sally Scott Marietta directs IBM’s community engagement and corporate citizenship in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Prior to joining IBM, she was Executive Director of the Maryland Economic Development Commission and, before that, vice president of The Greater Washington Board of Trade. She serves on the boards of several major grant-making groups and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education. She also is active in the Roundtable’s Tapping America’s Potential Coalition and its Business Coalition for Student Achievement.

The evening with IBM is sponsored by the Business Management Department, the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, the Global Perspectives: Research and Writing Program, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Sigma Beta Delta Business Honor Society, and Washington College Students in Free Enterprise (WC SIFE). It is free and open to the public.

WC Senior Stephan Jordan Is Named Student Rep on Maryland's Higher Education Commission

2011-10-26T17:06:00.008-04:00

ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Martin O’Malley has appointed Washington College senior Stephan Jordan as the student representative on the Maryland Higher Education Commission. Jordan was officially sworn in to office October 21 by Mark Mumford, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Kent County. He will serve a one-year term representing all students at Maryland’s colleges and universities, both public and private.

Washington College president Mitchell B. Reiss calls the appointment a high honor for Jordan and for Washington College. “It’s a testament to Stephan’s poise, confidence and leadership skills. Preparing our students to be engaged citizens is an important part of our mission at Washington College, and Stephan is a wonderful testament to our success. I know he will contribute in a significant way to the work of the commission.”

The son of Russell and Angela White, Stephan Jordan came to Washington College from Tuscarora High School in his hometown of Frederick, Md. The political science major has been active in a number of campus activities and groups. In addition to serving as a peer mentor, he chaired the Honor Board for the Student Government Association, performed with the Washington College Vocal Consort and the campus acappella group WACappella, acted in and directed theater productions, and was inducted into the national leadership honor society Omicron Delta Kappa.

As a Hansard Scholar, he spent the fall semester of his junior year in London, studying parliamentary government and British public policy at the London School of Economics and Politics. Jordan also completed an internship in the House of Commons, the elected body of the British Parliament. He was a Parliamentary Intern and Research Assistant to Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, Scotland. During his time in Parliament he completed in-depth research projects, worked with constituents and government agencies, attended public debates in the House of Commons and even attended Prime Minister’s Question Time.

The Maryland Higher Education Commission establishes statewide policies for public and private colleges and universities, and for private career schools. The Commission reviews and approves the start-up and continuation of new colleges and universities in Maryland, as well as requests for new academic programs at established schools. The Commission's 12 members are appointed by the Governor with Senate advice and consent. The student member is appointed to a one-year term. The other 11 appointments serve five-year terms.

This is the second time in four years that a WC student has been selected to serve on the MHEC. Joshua Ackerman served in 2009.

Below, Stephan Jordan was officially commissioned for his state post by Kent County Circuit Court Clerk Mark Mumford, right. Photo by Antoine Jordan.

"Sex, Lies, and the Founders," Final Beeman Talk Traces Media's Evolving Coverage of POTUS

2011-10-26T16:56:00.003-04:00

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Acclaimed historian Richard Beeman delivers the final lecture in his “Inventing a Nation” series on Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 pm in Decker Theatre of the Gibson Center for the Arts at Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue. In a talk titled “Sex, Lies, and the Founders: The American Presidency, Democracy, and the Media, ” Beeman will discuss how the democratization of American presidential politics and the development of an aggressive news media has eroded the barrier between a president’s public life and his private affairs.

The talk is sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center at Washington College, where Beeman is a Senior Fellow, and is free and open to the public. For more: http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu/