John Barth Reading to Open Book Festival

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Acclaimed novelist John Barth kicks off the third annual Chestertown Book Festival on Friday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. at Washington College with a reading from his new manu­script, Every Third Thought: A Novel in Five Seasons, from Counterpoint Press. The reading will take place in Hynson Lounge, on the College campus (300 Washington Avenue), with a reception and book signing to follow.

Sponsored by the College's Rose O’Neill Literary House and The Chestertown Book Festival, the reading is free and open to the public. For more information: http://www.chestertownbookfestival.com/, and http://lithouse.washcoll.edu/.

Smithsonian Scientist to Share Research on Harmful Nutrient Flows into the Bay

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A Smithsonian scientist who studies harmful nutrient flows into the Chesapeake Bay will talk about his research when he visits Washington College Thursday, September 15. Thomas Jordan, Ph.D., senior scientist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), will lecture at 7:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, John S. Toll Science Center, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

The title of Jordan’s talk is “Nutrient Overload to Chesapeake Bay: Where It Comes From, and Ways to Control It.” Presented by the Joseph H. McLain Program in Environmental Studies and the Washington College Chapter of Sigma Xi, the event is free and open to the public.

Jordan works in SERC’s Nutrient Lab, where he and colleagues study the flows of nitrogen and phosphorus in ecosystems, the effects of human-induced nutrient enrichment on marine life and water quality, and ways of removing excess nutrients. Since the early 1970s, the lab has monitored discharges from watersheds of the Rhode River, in Anne Arundel County. In the 1990s, it expanded its research to encompass the entire Chesapeake Bay basin, comparing discharges from hundreds of watersheds. SERC scientists explore the effects of geological differences and agricultural and urban land uses, as well as the restorative potential of riparian forests and wetlands.

Photo, bottom: Dr. Thomas Jordan inspects an automated monitor that records flow and samples water flowing in and out of a restored wetland. The wetland removes nutrients from the runoff it receives from nearby cornfields. Photo courtesy of SERC.

Questions for Thursday's "9/11 NOW" Panel Can be Submitted through Wednesday Night

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Do you have a question about American security in a post 9/11 world for four top counter-terrorism experts to address? If so, you can email it in advance of the special panel discussion taking place Thursday, Sept. 8, at Washington College. Marking the 10-year anniversary of the Al Qaeda attacks on the United States, the panel, titled “9/11 NOW,’’ will convene in Decker Theater, Gibson Center for the Arts, at 5 p.m

To submit questions or topics for the panel, email them by midnight, Wednesday, Sept. 7, to Matthew Icenroad, Assistant to the President, at micenroad2@washcoll.edu.

Sponsored by the College’s Richard L. Harwood Colloquy and the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, the event is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations are required. Those unable to get to campus can watch the event live from the College Website: www.washcoll.edu.

College President Mitchell B. Reiss, author of Negotiating with Evil: When to Talk to Terrorists (2010, Open Road), will moderate. (CNBC’s Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood was originally announced as moderator but had to cancel because of a work conflict: he will be covering President Obama’s speech on job creation later that evening.)

The panelists will be CIA veteran Cofer Black, retired U.S. Navy Admiral Dennis Blair, George Mason University professor and author Audrey Cronin, and Harvard professor of international affairs Sarah Sewall. Each brings a unique perspective based on his or her experiences or research in the fields of warfare, intelligence and international security issues.

To read more about the panelists, click here for an earlier article on the event.

Senior Jim Schelberg's "Partners in Philosophy" Prison Program Featured in Washington Post

Senior James Schelberg’s “Partners in Philosophy” program, a series of summer classes he and several Washington College professors taught to inmates at the Jessup Correctional Institution, was featured prominently in the Washington Post. Education reporter Daniel de Vise attended the final class of the summer, where he witnessed Art History professor Donald McColl teach about ethics issues in art history.

In addition to classes developed and taught by Schelberg, himself, earlier lessons were taught by philosophy professor Kevin Brien, English professor Philip Walsh, and C.V. Starr Center director and history professor Adam Goodheart, all of whom volunteered their time and expertise at the Maryland prison.

Click here to read the Post story, which was posted online September 1 and was front page of the Metro section in the September 3 print edition.

Noted Author David Campbell To Share Research On America’s Mix of Religion and Politics Sept. 29

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A scholar whose study of America’s religious attitudes and institutions has revealed a surprising mix of polarization and tolerance will discuss his findings at Washington College, Thursday, September 29. David Campbell, co-author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (Simon & Schuster, 2010), will speak at 4:30 p.m. in Hynson Lounge on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

Campbell is the John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and the founding director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. He is also the author of Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life and the editor of A Matter of Faith: Religion in the 2004 Presidential Election.

As an expert on religion, politics, and civic engagement, he has often been featured in the national media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio, as well as the major television networks. American Grace, which Campbell co-wrote with Harvard professor Robert Putnam, won the 2011 Woodrow Wilson Award from the American Political Science Association, an honor given annually for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs. Booklist called American Grace “an essential resource for anyone trying to understand twenty-first-century America,” and the Washington Post called it “the most sweeping look yet at contemporary American religion.”

Offering a mix of historical sweep and detailed narrative, American Grace follows the decline of religious observance in the 1960s, its resurgence in the 1970s and 80s with the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right, and the exodus of young people from organized religion in the 1990s. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly applauded Campbell and Putnam for persuasively arguing two apparent contradictory theses: “First, that a ‘new religious fault line’ exists in America, a deep political polarization that has transcended denominationalism as the greatest chasm in religious life; and second, that the culture is becoming so much more accepting of diversity that the first thesis will not tear the country apart.”

Examining data from two large national surveys, Campbell and his co-author reveal surprising aspects of the nation’s religious life today, among them that between one-third and one-half of all American marriages are interfaith, that some one-third of Americans have switched religions at some point in their lives, that 89 percent of Americans believe others outside their faith can still get to heaven, and that young people are more opposed to abortion than their parents but more accepting of gay marriage.

In mid-August of this year, Campbell and Putnam co-wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times in which they discussed what their research had revealed about the origins of the Tea Party, its particular mix of religion and politics, and its dwindling popularity. “Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics,” they wrote. “The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.”

Campbell’s visit to Washington College is sponsored by the College’s Institute for Religion, Politics and Culture and C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. The lecture is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow. For more information about Campbell and the book, visit http://americangrace.org/index.html.

George Washington Book Prize Celebration Honors 2011 Winner Pauline Maier, September 16

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Americans, including both ordinary citizens and political leaders, have been arguing about the Constitution for more than two centuries. It’s a debate that began almost as soon as the ink was dry on the document in 1787, according to a recent book by Pauline Maier, the winner of this year’s $50,000 George Washington Book Prize.

Maier, whose prizewinning book is Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, will speak about her work on Friday, September 16, when she is honored at the Seventh Annual George Washington Book Prize Celebration at Washington College. She will share insights into a series of debates that played out after the drafting of the Constitution, as citizens, journalists, and politicians argued state by state over whether to ratify the nation’s founding document.

Hosted by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, which administers the Prize, the event begins at 4 p.m. with a book signing in the lobby of the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. Following at 5 p.m. in Decker Theatre is “Making History: A Conversation with Pauline Maier,” where Adam Goodheart, director of the Starr Center, will lead an interview and audience Q&A. The conversation will be followed by a reception in the Underwood Lobby. All events are free and open to the public.

By special arrangement with the Maryland State Archives, a replica of the ship Federalist will be displayed at the September 16 event. The Federalist was the centerpiece of a grand parade in 1788 marking Maryland’s ratification of the Constitution, and later sailed to Mount Vernon to be presented as a personal gift to George Washington. Audience members will also receive facsimile copies of rare 18^th-century Maryland documents related to the Constitution.

Washington College, which was founded in 1782, has special historic ties to the Constitution’s creation, notes Goodheart: “Our founding patron and member of the Board of Visitors and Governors, George Washington, presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787. And no fewer than six other members of our Board were delegates to Maryland’s state ratifying convention — five voted in favor of the Constitution, one against it. Here, as in much of the nation, the debate was passionate and sometimes vehement.”

Maier is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of several previous books on American history, including From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776 (W.W. Norton, 1992); The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams (Knopf, 1980); and American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, (Knopf, 1997), which was on the New York Times Book Review "Editor's Choice" list of the best 11 books of 1997 and a Finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle Award.

The jury that chose Ratification as a finalist from among 59 entries called it “a tour de force of extraordinary research and scholarship.” Ratification has received praise from innumerable reviewers and readers, including the eminent American historian Richard Beeman, who called it “a magnificent, comprehensive account of the political contests by which the people of America, in James Madison’s words, breathed ‘life and validity’ into the United States Constitution.” Historian Jack Rakove said, “One finally comes away from Maier’s story with a profound respect for the political enterprise and intellectual commitment that made ratification a sublime inaugural moment of American democratic politics.”

“It’s been the work of my life to explore the popular components of the Revolution,” Maier said. “We tend to think that it is the contribution of a very few well known heroes but I think there’s a bigger story going on. I am impressed always with the intelligence and the eloquence that comes out of ‘ordinary people.’ People were following events. They understood that their fate and the fate of their children was involved in it and they were very capable of expressing their views. And it’s part of the story we need to know.”

Created in 2005 to honor the year’s best book about America’s founding era, the George Washington Book Prize was presented that year to Ron Chernow for Alexander Hamilton. Subsequent winners were Stacy Schiff (2006) for A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, Charles Rappleye (2007) for Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution, Marcus Rediker (2008) for The Slave Ship: A Human History and Annette Gordon-Reed (2009) for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which also won the Pulitzer Prize for History, the National Book Award and the Frederick Douglass Prize. Last spring, the 2010 prize was awarded to Richard Beeman for Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution.

The College co-sponsors the Book Prize with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate.

About the Sponsors of the George Washington Book Prize:

Washington College was founded in 1782, the first institution of higher learning established in the new republic. George Washington was not only a principal donor to the college, but also a member of its original governing board. He received an honorary degree from the college in June 1789, two months after assuming the presidency. The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, founded at the College in 2000, is an innovative center for the study of history, culture and politics, and fosters excellence in the art of written history through fellowships, prizes, and student programs. www.washcoll.edu.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supporting the study and love of American history through a wide range of programs and resources for students, teachers, scholars, and history enthusiasts throughout the nation. Gilder Lehrman creates and works closely with history-focused schools through its Affiliate School Program; organizes teacher seminars and development programs; produces print and digital publications and traveling exhibitions; hosts lectures by eminent historians; administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state and US territory; and offers national book prizes. The Gilder Lehrman website, www.gilderlehrman.org, serves as a gateway to American history online with rich resources for educators designed specifically for K–12 teachers and students.

Since 1860, over 80 million visitors have made George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens the most popular historic home in America. Through thought-provoking tours, entertaining events, and stimulating educational programs on the Estate and in classrooms across the nation, Mount Vernon strives to preserve George Washington’s place in history as “First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of His Countrymen.” Mount Vernon is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, America’s oldest national preservation organization, founded in 1853. A picturesque drive to the southern end of the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway, Mount Vernon is located just 16 miles from the nation’s capital. www.MountVernon.org.

Martha’s Kitchen Brings “Home-Grown Goodness” to Dining Options in Hodson Hall Commons

The Washington College dining service has cooked up a new concept for the Hodson Hall Commons food court, one that serves up locally grown food in a flexible format. Martha’s Kitchen—a nod to Mrs. George Washington—offers an eclectic menu inspired by student feedback. “After many conversations with students I found they were looking for something with a less corporate feel, “ says director of dining services Donna Dhue. “Specifically, they wanted entrée salads, some Tex-Mex options and the ability to get a good grill sandwich.” That translates, for starters, into a selection of quesadillas, five fresh salads, burgers (veggie, turkey and beef options), grilled cheese and cold sandwiches.

“The menu is a little eclectic, but home grown,” says Dhue, “Where possible we will feature local food items, such as grass fed beef from St. Brigid’s Farm and salad greens from Chesapeake Greenhouse,” she adds.

Adding to the distinct local feel are a couple of menu items with a decidedly Washington College twist: The “Elisabethan Cobb Salad” is named after campus First Lady Elisabeth Reiss, and her husband, former ambassador Mitchell Reiss, is honored with a chicken parmesan sandwich called “The Negotiator.”

The former Coyote Jack space now occupied by Martha’s Kitchen has been renovated with green counters, bead-board paneling and a more open feel.

Dhue says Martha’s Kitchen is, by design, a work in progress. “One of the best parts of this concept is that we can see what works and what does not and make changes as we go according to student feedback. The new design reflects this opportunity and allows us to be flexible with the menu.”