Expert on Latin America Offers Outlook for Security Among “Guns, Gangs and Cartels”

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Howard J. Wiarda, one of the nation's most respected and influential scholars on Latin America and U.S. policy in the region, will speak Thursday, October 20 at Washington College on the topic of “Guns, Gangs and Cartels: Hemispheric Security in the New Millennium.” His talk will take place at 5 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

Presented by the Louis L. Goldstein ’35 Program in Public Affairs, the event is free and open to the public.

Wiarda is the Dean Rusk Professor of International Relations at the University of Georgia and founding head of the university’s Department of International Affairs. He also serves as a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. For nearly a quarter century he has divided his time among the academic, policy, and think-tank worlds. Among his many prestigious posts, he has been visiting scholar/research associate at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University; founding director of the Center for Hemispheric Studies at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; course chairman at the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of State; lead consultant to the National Bipartisan (Kissinger) Commission on Central America; and Thornton D. Hooper Fellow in International Security Affairs at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

A prolific author, Wiarda has written or edited more than 70 books, including American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins, 1996), Development on the Periphery (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), European Politics in the Age of Globalization (Harcourt, 2001), Latin American Politics and Development, (6th ed., Westview, 2006), and Political Development in Emerging Nations (Wadsworth, 2004). He also is the author of more than 300 articles, book chapters, op-eds, and congressional testimonies. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Florida and an M.S. degree from the National Defense University.

For more information visit www.washcoll.edu.

Scottish Underwater Archaeologist to Discuss Lives of the Ancient Loch Dwellers

CHESTERTOWN, MD—On Wednesday, October 12, Washington College will welcome underwater archaeologist Nick Dixon, director of the Scottish Crannog Center, for a lecture on “Early Iron Age Loch-dwellers of Scotland: Excavation, Interpretation, and Reconstruction.” The talk will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center.

The Scottish Crannog Center, a beneficiary of the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology, is devoted to the research and preservation of historical “crannogs,” artificial islands that served as dwellings for people who lived in the region from about 500 BC until the 17th century AD. The cold, dark, peaty loch waters have helped preserve the organic remains at the sites, including plants, seeds, nuts, animal bones and droppings and insects. In at least one case, excavators discovered a butter dish that still carried remnants of butter. Dixon will discuss the significance of these finds and the insights they provide into the daily lives of ancient peoples.

Dixon has taught at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. He currently is researching Scotland’s Loch Tay and its bounty of well-preserved finds.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Anthropology Club, Lambda Alpha, and the Center for Environment and Society.

Washington College Hosts Paris Conference On the “Arab Spring” Uprisings

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Program in Islamic, Turkish and Near Eastern Studies, part of the Institute for Religion, Politics and Culture at Washington College, is hosting an international conference on the Arab Spring in Paris, October 13-15. Experts from eight international universities will gather at a conference center near the French capital to discuss such issues as the roles played by women and social media in the uprisings, and the cooperative actions of Muslims and non-Muslims.

Participants from Washington College include conference organizers Tahir Shad, associate professor of political science and international studies, and Joseph Prud’homme, assistant professor of political science, and students Zulekha Abu, Thomas Eli Banghart, Cortnee Doll, Julia Jaquette and Megan Precourt.

Scholars from the following universities will present papers and discuss the causes and effects of the “Arab Spring” popular uprisings throughout the Middle East: University of Delaware, Bogazi University (Turkey), University of Southampton (UK), American University of Cairo (Egypt), Al Akhawayn University (Morocco), De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (Philippines), Oxford University (UK), St. John’s University (New York and Rome), and Loyola University (Chicago).

The papers and discussions from the International Conference on the Arab Spring will be published by Peter Lang Publishers as a title in the book series Washington College Studies in Religion, Politics and Culture. For more information: http://irpc.washcoll.edu/.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Speak at Washington College October 24

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf will speak at Washington College Monday, Oct. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts. He will talk about Pakistan, regional security and terrorism. Those unable to be on campus for the event can watch it as a livestream from the College website, www.washcoll.edu.

Musharraf, a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and the 10th President of Pakistan, ruled the country as Chief Executive from 1999 to 2001 after a military coup and as President from 2001 to 2008. After 9/11, he became an important ally of the United States in the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda, which made him an enemy of anti-American Islamist fighters in his own country. Later, a bitter dispute with Pakistan’s Chief Justice led to a loss of popular support and accusations that he had violated the constitution with his actions against the judicial branch.

Since leaving office under the threat of impeachment, Musharraf has lived in exile in London and Dubai. But last fall he formed a new political party—the All Pakistan Muslim League—and announced plans to return to Pakistan to run for President in the 2013 elections.

He could face arrest upon his return; in February of this year, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges that, while President, he failed to provide adequate security for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007. Musharraf has denied the charges, calling them politically motivated.

Musharraf’s Oct. 24 visit to Chestertown stems from his personal acquaintance with Washington College professor of political science and international studies Tahir Shad. The talk is sponsored by the Program in Islamic Turkish and Near Eastern Studies of the Institute for Religion, Politics and Culture and is free and open to the public.

The campus community and general public are invited to submit questions for the Q&A session that will follow the talk. Please email questions to aoros2@washcoll.edu by end of day Thursday, October 20. For more information, visit http://www.washcoll.edu.

Scholar Shares the Evolution of Whitman’s Poetry Through his “Biography” of Leaves of Grass

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Preeminent Walt Whitman scholar Ed Folsom will speak at the Rose O’Neill Literary House on Monday, October 24 at 4:30 p.m. In his talk, “Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: The Biography of a Book,” Folsom will present excerpts from a book-in-progress by the same title.

Folsom, editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review and co-director of the digital Whitman Archive, is Roy J. Carver Professor of American Literature at the University of Iowa. Though his courses encompass nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, he has a particular passion for Whitman’s work.

“A Whitman poem feels like a living, growing thing,” says Folsom, whose upcoming Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: The Biography of a Book (under contract with The University of California Press), examines the many drastic changes the poet made to his work from its original publication in 1855 until his death.

Folsom received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for the research and writing of the book. He has been recognized with the University of Iowa’s President and Provost’s Teaching Award and has been named an outstanding faculty member by the Graduate College. He was a featured expert in the 2008 PBS documentary “Walt Whitman,” part of the network’s American Experience series, and has been an invited lecturer at the annual meetings of the American Literature Association.

Folsom’s lecture will be followed by an open house in the Print Shop with a demonstration by Master Printer Mike Kaylor. Both the lecture and the print shop event are free and open to the public. Sponsors are the Sophie Kerr Committee and the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

Professor Jehanne Dubrow Wins Poetry Prize As a Voice on the Jewish Experience

CHESTERTOWN, MD—English professor and Rose O’Neill Literary House director Jehanne Dubrow has been named the top winner of the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award for poetry on the Jewish experience.

The annual poetry competition is administered by the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California, Berkeley. A reception was held on Sunday, September 25 at the Morrison Library at UC Berkeley in recognition of Dubrow and other poets who placed in the contest. Dubrow won the top prize for three of her prose poems from her manuscript-in-progress, The Arranged Marriage.

“It's wonderful to be recognized not only as a poet but also as a voice in American Jewish culture,” says Dubrow. “I am also excited to receive this award because the prose poems that won come from my manuscript-in-progress; so, the prize is encouragement to keep writing, to keep trusting in the story I have to tell.”

The Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award was created in 1987 by Nedda Fratkin, Marvin Rosenberg, and Violet Ginsburg in memory of their mother, a community volunteer who moved to California at the turn of the 20^th century. The award is sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

100-Voice Choir Returns to Washington College October 22 for Seventh Annual Gospel Concert

CHESTERTOWN, MD–The 100-Voice Choir and special musical guests will raise spirits in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the Washington College campus on Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 4 p.m. (doors to open at 3:30 p.m.) to celebrate the life and example of the late Rev. Vincent Hynson. A 1987 alumnus of Washington College, Rev. Hynson was a dedicated and beloved teacher, coach, pastor and community leader in Kent County who died of cancer in 2004. The gospel concert in his honor will benefit the Vincent Hynson ’87 Scholarship at the College.

Special guest artists will include the Stillpond Coleman Mass Choir, the Second Generation Choir, the Gibbs Trio, the interpretive dance pair “Undivided Hearts,” Washington College’s WACappella, Minister Otis Williams on keyboard, and 8-year old cellist Tia Raimond-Jones, granddaughter of Leslie and Vince Raimond of Chestertown. Mrs. Denise Jones of Mt. Olive A.M.E. Church in Worton will serve as M.C.

Founded in 2005, the 100-Voice Choir is the vision of Sylvia Frazier, a gospel music producer and promoter who runs S&B Productions with her husband, Bill Frazier. The annual fundraising concert in honor of Vincent Hynson is co-sponsored by Washington College and the Kent County Arts Council and is organized by S & B Productions. Tickets, at $7 a person, will be available in advance at The Compleat Bookseller and Scottie’s Shoe Store, both in the 300 block of High Street, downtown Chestertown.

For more information, contact S & B Productions at 410-778-6006 or the Kent County Arts Council at 410-778-1149.

Photos: Top, Lester Barrett performs at last year's concert. Above, the granddaughter of Vince and Leslie Prince Raimond will perform at the 7th annual concert October 22.