Strings Attached: Tea & Talk Series Welcomes Poet & Harpist Meredith Hadaway March 18

Chestertown, MD, March 13, 2003 — Washington College's O'Neill Literary House Tea & Talk Series continues its spring lecture series on Tuesday, March 18 at 4 p.m. with “Strings Attached,” a poetry reading and Celtic harp performance by Meredith Davies Hadaway, Vice President for College Relations at Washington College. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Hadaway has played the harp in local and regional venues, and has traveled to Ireland as a guest artist for the Clifden (Connemara) Community Arts festival. She is currently a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from Vermont College.

On April 22, the spring Tea & Talk Series will conclude with a talk by equity actress Polly Kuulei Sommerfeld, a lecturer in drama at Washington College, speaking about “What's Equity Got to Do With It?”, a Q&A focusing on the challenges faced by professional actors.

The Tea & Talk Series provides opportunities for college faculty and staff to share their areas of expertise with the college and with the surrounding community. All talks are held at the O'Neill Literary House on Washington Avenue in Chestertown. Tea is served at 4 p.m.; talks begin at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Speaker Explores The Political And Cultural Symbolism In American Mapmaking

Chestertown, MD, March 12, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “THE GEOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION IN AMERICA: 1880-1950,” a lecture by Susan Schulten, assistant professor of history at the University of Denver. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The author of the book The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2001), Schulten will explore how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography in America from 1880, when maps first became widely available, to 1950, the beginning of the Cold War. Her research tells the story of Americans beginning to see the world around them, how maps of the historical period represented U.S. attitudes toward the world, and how four influential institutions—publicly available maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and the public school system—conveyed through mapmaking and the teaching of geography the political and cultural ideology of our nation. Publishers Weekly described Schulten's book as “a well-documented account of how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography… Theory is wisely balanced by a hodgepodge of odd and interesting facts about maps, politics and American cultural trends.”

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

New College Guide Lauds Washington College

Chestertown, MD, March 11, 2003 — Washington College has been ranked 9th among “100 Colleges That Are Better Than You Think” in the new college guide, Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That Is Best for You, authored by Washington Post columnist and education reporter Jay Mathews and just released by Prima Publishing.

Mathews compiled his list of 100 colleges that deserve a closer look by America's college-bound students based on interviews and a survey of high school guidance counselors and teachers around the country.

“I have spent much of this book deriding the notion that successful marketing equals academic excellence and reminding readers that they should choose colleges based not on fame, but whether the schools fulfill their personal desires and dreams,” writes Mathews. He conducted his survey, he explains, by asking “counselors and teachers to tell me what their graduates, dropping by for a visit, had told them about under-appreciated schools. Each was asked to name as many as ten schools that had proven to be much better than their small reputations would suggest.”

With the results of this survey, Mathews compiled his list of “100 schools that deserve more attention than they are getting.” Ranking Washington College 9th in the national survey, Harvard Schmarvard found noteworthy the College's pre-med program and its ability to place its students in medical schools; its popular Washington Scholars program guaranteeing $10,000 annual tuition scholarships for National Honor Society students; and its “solid liberal arts education” on “an elegant and petite campus.”

“We are very proud to be recognized in this new college guide,” said Dr. John S. Toll, President of Washington College. “It validates the unique, engaged-learning experience that we offer our students, exemplified in the close student-teacher interaction and research that we maintain across the curriculum.”

Recent months also have seen Washington College move from Tier III to Tier II in the national liberal arts and sciences colleges rankings in the 2003 U.S. News and World Report America's Best Colleges guide.

Sophie Kerr Weekend March 21-22: Novelist Tim O'Brien To Speak March 21

In the spirit of the writer and her gift that established the nation's largest undergraduate literary prize, the Sophie Kerr Weekend at Washington College welcomes award-winning author Tim O'Brien to the College's Norman James Theatre, Friday, March 21, at 4 p.m.

Known for his gripping novels about the Vietnam War experience, O'Brien will read from his works with a book-signing to follow.

This a free event and the public is invited to attend. Learn more about the Sophie Kerr Legacyat Washington College.

Author Chris Bolgiano To Speak On Appalachian Forests March 19, Read From Her Works March 20

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2003 — Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society announces the next event in the popular Journeys Home Lecture Series. Author and environmentalist Chris Bolgiano will speak on “The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Sustainability,” Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. in Easton's historic Avalon Theatre. On Thursday, March 20, she will also give a 12:30 p.m. luncheon reading from her works, titled “A Field Guide to Home,” at Washington College's O'Neill Literary House. Tickets are required for the Avalon Theatre lecture. The Washington College event is free and open to the public, and a complimentary lunch is included, but seating is limited. Please call 410-810-7151 by March 13 to reserve a place.

Bolgiano has spent years studying the globally unique Appalachian Forest. Through slides and readings, she will tell the stories of people and places that illuminate what “sustainable” really means in our postindustrial woodlands. Born in Germany, Bolgiano grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and received an undergraduate degree in history and a graduate degree in library science from the University of Maryland. She currently serves as adjunct professor for rare books and manuscripts at James Madison University while pursuing her freelance writing. She has written travel articles for the New York Times and The Washington Post, investigative reports for a wide variety of environmental magazines, and nature essays for various anthologies. Her first book, Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People (1995), examined the interactions between cougars and people across North America. Her second book, The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and Renewal (1998), recounts the natural and cultural histories of the southern Appalachian region, and garnered a prize from the Southern Environmental Law Center. Bolgiano continues to explore how modern society can achieve harmony with the natural world and has just finished a book on sustainable forestry called Living In The Appalachian Forest.

Journeys Home is collaboration between the Center for the Environment and Society, Adkins Arboretum, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. Tickets to the Avalon lecture may be purchased at the door or by contacting the Adkins Arboretum at 410-634-2847.

To learn more about educational events and program sponsored by the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society, visit the center online at http://ces.washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7151.

Washington College Hosts Alternative Futures Weekend April 4-5

Forum to Focus on Scenario Planning for a Delmarva Conservation Corridor

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2003 — Washington College will sponsor and host its first Alternatives Futures Weekend Forum titled “CHOOSING FUTURE LANDSCAPES FOR THE DELMARVA PENINSULA: THE ROLE OF A CONSERVATION CORRIDOR,” Friday and Saturday, April 4-5, 2003, on its campus in Chestertown. Delmarva farmers, environmentalists, business people, community planners and concerned citizens are encouraged to attend the weekend forums, on one or both days, and participate in a scenario planning process to examine land use alternatives for the region that can help preserve its unique character, environment and sense of place.

Registration is required to participate. Interested individuals and organizations can learn more about the Alternative Futures Weekend, and complete the online questionnaire and registration form, by visiting http://ces.washcoll.edu.

As a result of an initiative led by U. S. Representative Wayne Gilchrest, a provision of the recently enacted federal Farm Bill establishes a demonstration program under which the U.S. Department of Agriculture may approve Conservation Corridor Plans designed and submitted by state and local governments on the Delmarva Peninsula. This program provides an opportunity to improve land conservation on the peninsula while, at the same time, increasing the economic viability and sustainability of agriculture and fostering orderly and responsible development.

Washington College believes that its new Alternative Futures Forum is an appropriate initiative to facilitate the design and planning of a Conservation Corridor. “The College's role will be limited to that of a facilitator and host, and will not advocate any particular outcome or means of reaching an outcome,” said Dr. John Toll, President of the College. “Rather, Washington College's role will be to assist concerned and interested citizens of the Delmarva Peninsula in systematically examining alternative futures and the role that a Conservation Corridor can play in achieving a desirable future for the unique environmental and cultural region that we share.”

“There is no doubt that the landscape of the Delmarva Peninsula is changing,” said David Shaw, visiting scholar of environmental studies and project coordinator of the College's Alternatives Futures Forum. “The traditional working landscape of agriculture, forestry and Chesapeake Bay watershed supporting small towns and rural communities is increasingly under pressure from low farm commodity prices and from residential development. The people of the peninsula can influence the future, but only if we carefully consider our alternatives and work together toward reaching and implementing consensus goals for that future.” The Alternative Futures Forum will employ the well-developed scenarios planning technique, explained Shaw, to create “visions” of possible futures for Delmarva.

“Scenarios are powerful ways of mapping out probable pathways to the future, but they are not predictions,” he said. “They are stories of how the future might play out. While scenarios do not predict the future, a well-constructed group of scenarios will contain most, if not all, of the probable aspects of the future and will highlight the key variables that will push the actual future toward or away from elements of the various scenarios.”

Each day of the Alternative Futures Weekend will begin with welcoming remarks and an introduction scenario planning. Then, the participants will divide into three groups to explore separately the consequences of the three scenarios and to consider for each scenario how best to design and to implement a Conservation Corridor to support a vision for the future of the Delmarva Peninsula. At the end of each day all participants will gather to share their results and findings. The scenarios will then be shared with Congressman Gilchrest and other leaders to optimize Federal support for the future development of the Eastern Shore.

For more information and registration information, visit http://ces.washcoll.edu/af, or call Jean Sucharewicz at Washington College's Custom House, 410-810-7161.

Alexander Stille, Acclaimed New Yorker Writer, To Speak On “The Future Of The Past” March 31

Chestertown, MD, March 4, 2003 — On Monday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m., Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “The Future of the Past,” a lecture by Alexander Stille, author of the recent book of that title and frequent contributor to New Yorker magazine. Stille will discuss the provocative thesis of his latest book, in which he ranged across the globe to portray how cultures worldwide are losing touch with their own history. The event will be held in the College's Hynson Lounge. It is free and open to the public. A book-signing will follow the lecture.

“Our society is in the midst of a fundamental rupture with the past,” Stille says. Although modern technology – such as carbon-dating and genetic research – makes it easier to recover some historical data than ever before, he observes, technology and its byproducts also “threaten to destroy in a few generations monuments and works of art that have survived thousands of years of war, revolution, famine, and pestilence.” His research for his book – which began as a series of New Yorkerarticles – took him to places as far-flung as Egypt (where fast food franchises share the desert vista with the Great Pyramid), New Guinea (where natives are trading in their traditional carved canoes for power boats), and the Vatican (where a lone monk from Milwaukee fights a one-man crusade to revive the Latin language). In his lecture, he will describe what he found on his travels, and how it fits together into a global cultural phenomenon.

The Future of the Past, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is Stille's third book of history and reportage, and has been widely praised. Publisher's Weekly called it “a must-read for anyone interested in the preservation of our world's decaying treasures.” The Future of the Past was preceded by Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic (1995) and Benevolence & Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism(1991), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Award and Italy's Premio Acqui. Besides his work for the New Yorker, Stille is a frequent contributor to the New York Times “Arts and Ideas” page, the New York Review of Books, and the leading Italian daily La Repubblica. He holds degrees from Yale University and the Columbia School of Journalism, and taught at Vassar College as Distinguished Gladys Delmas Professor. He lives in New York City.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.