Community Dance Day is Saturday

The Washington College Dance Program will host its 8^th Community Dance Day on Saturday, November 6 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center on campus.

Open to Children grades K-8, this is an opportunity for dance instruction in creative movement, hip hop, and Broadway dance. Members of the Nu Delta Alpha Dance Honor Society will lead the instruction. No prior dance experience is necessary. For more information contact Professor Karen Smith at 410/778-7237, ksmith2@washcoll.edu or N∆A president Rachel Dittman at rdittman2@washcoll.edu.

Panel Will Discuss College-Town Culture and Town/Gown Relations Nationwide

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Town/gown relations will take center stage on Thursday, November 18 when geographer Blake Gumprecht, author of the widely-praised 2008 book The American College Town, comes to Chestertown to highlight a wide-ranging panel discussion about college towns and the people – young and not so young – who live in them. "The College Town: A Conversation" will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Norman James Theatre on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

View photos from the event.

Comprised of both townsfolk and gownsfolk, the panel – which includes Gumprecht, three Chestertown residents and a city planner from Newark, DE – will explore some of the enduring questions about college towns. Is every community with an institution of higher learning a “college town”? How do college towns differ from their surrounding communities, or from urban areas with similar amenities? How do college towns negotiate the sometimes conflicting needs and interests of students and permanent residents?

Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, will moderate the conversation, which will include open Q&A time with the audience and touch on some questions unique to Chestertown.

“The Starr Center is delighted to sponsor this conversation about what makes college towns uniquely vibrant communities,” said Goodheart. “As Chestertown and Washington College both face decisions for the future, we hope that the discussion will help us to see our own community in new ways.”

As a geographer, Blake Gumprecht’s interests lie in the “personalities” of different places. Using examples from across the country, his book examines what makes a college town a college town and what characteristics separate it from other kinds of communities. In the process of writing the book, Gumprecht conducted research on 60 very different college communities, eventually settling on 8 to profile extensively.

Published to rave reviews, The American College Town won the 2008 J.B. Jackson Prize from the Association of American Geographers and was selected as the Outstanding Academic Title in 2009 by Choice, a magazine published by the Association of College & Research Libraries. The Philadelphia Inquirer noted, “There are red states and blue states, and then there are college towns – a universe of their own, anomalous political creatures. This brilliantly worked-out idea by a University of New Hampshire geographer is that rarest of things – the first full-length study of its subject.”

During the panel’s discussion, Newark city planner Roy Lopata, who was profiled in Gumprecht’s book, will provide an “outsider’s” perspective on the nature of college towns in general. Chestertown residents rounding out the panel will be Chris Cerino, chair of the Chestertown Planning Commission; Dave Wheelan, a Washington College alumnus, former college administrator, and current publisher of The Chestertown Spy; and Carla Massoni, the civic-minded owner of a downtown art gallery that bears her name. They will offer their observations on how residents, students, and tourists interact in Chestertown’s college-town setting.

“The College Town: A Conversation” is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the event. The conversation is cosponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College and The Chestertown Spy.

* * *

About the C.V. Starr Center

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience supports the art of written history and explores our nation’s past–particularly the legacy of its Founding era–in innovative ways through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach. From its base in the circa-1746 Custom House along Chestertown’s colonial waterfront, the Center seeks to bridge the divide between past and present, and between the academic world and the public at large. It also serves as a portal onto a world of opportunities for Washington College students. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

Castelli Exhibit Extended Two Weekends

CHESTERTOWN—The Kohl Gallery exhibition “Marc Castelli: The Art of the Waterman, The Simison Collection,” originally set to close at the end of Downrigging Weekend, will remain open for the next two weekends, November 5-7 and 12-14.

The exhibition features more than 20 paintings of working watermen and their boats by beloved Chesapeake Bay artist Marc Castelli. Seventeen of the paintings are on loan from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael’s, which received them as a bequest of Tilghman Island collector Diane Simison. The exhibition is co-sponsored by the Maritime Museum and the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College.

The Kohl Gallery is located in the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Gallery hours for the Castelli show during these two special weekends only will be Friday noon to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit: http://kohlgallery.washcoll.edu.

U.S. Marine Studying at Washington College to Share His Experiences in Afghanistan

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College junior James Schelberg (above, far left), a U.S. Marine veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will recount some of his military experiences Wednesday, November 17 at 5:00 p.m. Schelberg’s talk, “War in Afghanistan: A Marine’s Experiences,” will take place in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center, on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

A native of Baltimore County, Schelberg enlisted in the Marine Reserve in 2005 and was shortly thereafter deployed to Iraq for a six-month combat tour. He served with the 4^th U.S. Marine Division’s 4^th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in Haditha, Anbar Province.

Upon his return, Schelberg enrolled at Washington College with the support of a Hodson Trust Star Scholarship, a full scholarship offered to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. After his sophomore year, Schelberg’s unit was called back into service and he was deployed to Afghanistan for a seven-month combat tour in Helmand Province. Safely returned, he is now continuing his studies at Washington College, where he is a Student Associate at the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

“This talk is an opportunity for the Washington College community to experience second-hand the realities faced by the people of Afghanistan,” said Schelberg. “The war in Afghanistan often seems far-removed from our daily life here at Washington College, but its effects are truly global.”

Schelberg’s talk will offer a boots-on-the-ground perspective on the war-torn nation and its people, sharing his own memories of hope, progress and tragedy.

A double major in humanities and philosophy, Schelberg was heavily involved in one of the Starr Center’s most exciting recent projects. His 2008 discovery of a treasure trove of family letters at the Poplar Grove estate in Queen Anne’s County led to a ground-breaking partnership between the College and the Maryland State Archives, and a summer internship at the Archives for Schelberg himself.

In 2009, Schelberg received a Comegys Bight Fellowship from the Starr Center to study the writings of 18^th-century American evangelist Jonathan Edwards under the mentorship of Professor Peter Weigel of the Department of Philosophy & Religion. His fellowship experience included a research trip to Oxford University, where he will return this coming summer as a participant in the inaugural Washington College Oxford Summer Experience.

Sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, “War in Afghanistan: A Marine’s Experiences” is free and open to the public.

* * *

About the C.V. Starr Center

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

Photograph: James Schelberg, far left, poses with members of his platoon.

Starr Center Director Goodheart Launches "New York Times" Online Series on America's Civil War

CHESTERTOWN—Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, will offer glimpses back to our nation’s most tumultuous time in a new online history column for the New York Times that launched Monday, November 1.

His articles are part of a series entitled “Disunion,” marking the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Goodheart’s contributions will recount what was happening on specific days 150 years ago. The first installment, “The Last Ordinary Day,” sets the stage for Lincoln’s election as the nation’s 16^th president: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/the-last-ordinary-day

Washington College students James Schelberg ’12 and Kathy Thornton ’13 are contributing research to the Times’ website, mostly by combing through pages from original Civil War-era newspapers. These sources are available via the Readex America’s Historical Newspapers archive, an online resource offered through the College’s Miller Library.

Thornton, a sophomore from Clarksville, MD, says working with Goodheart and being able to read original newspapers from the Civil War era has opened up possibilities for her as a student and researcher. “I’ve looked through issues of the New York Herald online for any articles written by Henry Villard, a Herald correspondent who accompanied Lincoln after he was elected on November 6, 1860. I was just amazed reading through the daily newspapers knowing that it was the closest thing to actually being there 150 years ago, knowing that we could really follow the sequence of events because we had access to each day's history.

“To know that I have the opportunity to research original documents and that my research is being used for the New York Times is incredible. How often do you get to say that you were part of a New York Times research project as a sophomore in college?”

For many columns, Goodheart will draw from research he completed for his upcoming book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening. Scheduled to be published in April by Alfred A. Knopf, 1861 explores the issues and events that divided the nation.

“That year has always fascinated me as the moment when the country—not just the government, but individual Americans—faced so many decisions,” Goodheart said. “Americans had to decide not only, ‘What side am I on?’ but also ‘What kind of country do I want America to be?’ I wanted to explore the larger cultural, ideological and political themes of that time.”

The book’s narrative actually begins in 1860, with Abraham Lincoln’s campaign for president, and ends July 4, 1861, when President Lincoln sent a message to Congress outlining his plans for prosecuting the war. “But the climax is really May of 1861, when enslaved African Americans began to free themselves—more than a year before the Emancipation Proclamation,” says Goodheart.

The “Disunion” series will feature other historians contributing commentary and perspective as well. To bookmark Goodheart’s ongoing contributions, use this link: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/adam-goodheart/.

Goodheart has been the director of the C.V. Starr Center since 2006. His articles appear in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many other publications. Based at the circa-1746 Custom House along Chestertown's colonial waterfront, the Starr Center supports the art of written history and explores our nation’s past—particularly the legacy of its Founding era—in innovative ways through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach. For more information, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

–30–

Washington College a Kiplinger "Best Value"

CHESTERTOWN—Washington College is one of the 100 best values among private liberal arts colleges, according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. The publication’s annual list, released October 28, looked at data from 600 private universities and colleges before selecting the 100 universities and 100 liberal arts colleges that best combine a high-quality education with an affordable price.

To determine its combination of quality and affordability the survey considered such statistics as freshman test scores, student-to-faculty ratio and graduation rates, then determined the actual cost of tuition and fees after need-based aid and merit scholarships were considered.

The Best Values in Private Colleges list will appear in the December 2010 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine and will be available at www.Kiplinger.com.

WC Hosts Talk on Watermen, Chat with Captains During Downrigging Weekend in Chestertown

CHESTERTOWN—As part of Downrigging Weekend in Chestertown, Washington College will celebrate the maritime traditions of the Chesapeake Bay with a Saturday lecture on the waterman’s culture and a Sunday forum with the captains of several visiting ships.

Saturday, October 30, a talk and reception will mark the closing of the exhibition “Marc Castelli: The Art of the Waterman, The

Simison Collection,” which has been on display in the Kohl Gallery of Art since October 2.

Beginning at 4 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Pete Lesher, chief curator at the Maritime Museum, will talk about the heritage of the Chesapeake Bay watermen. He will include words from the watermen themselves, mined from the oral history archives at the Museum. Afterward, the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College will host a reception in the Kohl Gallery. Students from the CES’s groundbreaking Chesapeake Semester will be on hand to share their experiences with guests.

The exhibition features more than 20 paintings of working watermen and their boats by beloved Chesapeake Bay artist Marc Castelli. Seventeen of the paintings are on loan from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael’s. Tilghman Island collector Diane Simison donated them to the museum at her death. The exhibition has been co-sponsored by the Maritime Museum and the CES. Prior to Saturday’s closing event, it will be on display during Kohl Gallery hours (Thursday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Friday noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday noon to 5 p.m.).

Both the Kohl Gallery and Decker Theatre are located in the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts, on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. The events are free and open to the public.

Captains Forum, Sunday 2:30 p.m., Custom House

Sunday afternoon Michael Buckley, program manager with the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, will moderate an informal forum with the captains of several visiting ships. The public is invited to attend this free Captains Forum to ask questions and learn what it’s like to command a tall ship in the 21st century.

The forum will take place between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. in the Washington College Custom House, 101 S. Water Street, downtown Chestertown. Buckley will record the discussion for “Voices of the Chesapeake Bay,” the popular radio series he hosts each Sunday morning on WRNR-FM radio, 103.1. The taping will be broadcast on the November 6 show, between 7 and 10 a.m.

Established in 2001, Downrigging Weekend marks the close of the Chestertown-based schooner Sultana’s sailing season and the beginning of “downrigging” for many of the region’s tall ships and traditional sailing vessels. The weekend offers the public opportunities to view, board and sail on the assembled fleet and to join in celebrating the maritime heritage of the region. The fleet of “tall ships” and historic vessels scheduled to participate in Downrigging Weekend 2010, include the 1812 privateer Lynx; the tall ship of Delaware, the Kalmar Nyckel; Maryland’s goodwill ship, the Pride of Baltimore; and a fleet of historic Chesapeake Bay buyboats.

Photo: Captain Jan Miles at the helm of Maryland's goodwill schooner, The Pride of Baltimore.