Columbia's Musick Plays "The World of George Washington," November 11

Chestertown, MD, October 30, 2006 — The Washington College 2006-2007 Concert Series Season continues with a performance by Columbia's Musick, "The World of George Washington," Saturday, November 11, 2006, at 8 p.m. in the College's Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall.

Perfectly complementing Chestertown's 300th anniversary celebration, Columbia's Musick will perform "The World of George Washington," a dramatic and engaging musical portrait of our first president. Featuring stirring marches, celebratory songs, and chamber music from the collection of Washington's stepdaughter, Nelly Custis, their program promises to transform audiences to the eighteenth century. They will also delight with dance and theatrical tunes treasured by our founding father as well as songs lamenting his death in 1799 and festive music from later commemorations of Washington's birthday.

Columbia's Musick is one of the few groups in the country devoted to the seldom-heard music of early America. The ensemble has toured widely, performing their Washington concert at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and Boston's historic King's Chapel, where the group is Ensemble-in-Residence. Columbia's Musick is a member of the New England States Touring Roster, the New Hampshire Arts Council's Artist Roster, and the South Carolina Arts Commission's Artists-in Education Roster. The ensemble members include D'Anna Fortunato, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Gregg, tenor; Peter H. Bloom, baroque flute; Judy Bedford, baroque bassoon; and Richard C. Spicer, harpsichord and director.

For ticket information and a free 2006-2007 season brochure, call 410-778-7839 or 800-422-1782, ext. 7839, or e-mail kbennett2@washcoll.edu. Individual tax-deductible patron memberships begin at $75.00. Contributing patron memberships begin at $150.00, supporting at $250.00, and sustaining at $500.00. All membership packages include two tickets, and all donations over the price of the tickets are tax-deductible. Season tickets are available at the box office on performance nights.

Season tickets and memberships can be purchased by check or money order from the Washington College Concert Series, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620-1197.

Peter Pan Syndrome on Stage: WC Drama Department Presents Boys' Life, November 2, 3, and 4

Chestertown, MD, October 30, 2006— Washington College's Drama Department presents Boys' Life, a senior thesis directed by Greg Schaefer, written by Howard Korder, November 2, 3, and 4, at 8 p.m., in the College's Reid Basement. Reservations are required. For show information, call 410-778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

Why do men do what they do? Will they ever grow up? Howard Korder's Pulitzer Prize nominated Boys' Life explores these questions and themes of love and friendship as it follows the lives of friends, Jack, played by senior Harry Wright; Don, portrayed by junior Tim Helmer; and Phil, depicted by junior Phil Doccolo. Through a variety of hilarious, fast-paced scenes, the twenty something college buddies struggle through life, love, and, of course, the relationships with their female counterparts. Rounding out the cast in a variety of comic roles, the ensemble includes: junior Juliana Schoettler, freshman Liz Murphy, sophomore Mary Lide, senior Keighty McClallen, freshman Annabelle Shore, and sophomore Mike Golze.

"People my age will really be able to relate to this story and these characters," says Director Greg Schaefer, "As college students, we are at a very intimidating time in our lives, and this play allows us to sit back and watch characters going through these very real, very personal struggles, that so many of us are about to face. Anyone who's ever been a man, or ever had a relationship with a man, will definitely identify."

Celebrate GIS Day at Washington College, November 15 and 16

Chestertown, MD, October 30, 2006 — Washington College's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Lab will be celebrating GIS Day 2006 on Wednesday, November 15, and Thursday, November 16. The two-day celebration will introduce the Washington College and Chestertown community to GIS and will commence with a GIS Lab open house, Wednesday, November 15, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., in room 206 of Goldstein Hall, followed by GIS Program Coordinator, Dr. Wendy Miller, presenting "So, What is GIS?" Wednesday, November 15, at 7 p.m., in room 100 of Goldstein Hall.

On Thursday, November 16, activities will include a hands-on GIS workshop from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., in the computer room of the Casey Academic Center, and a Geocaching workshop (GPS), from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., to be held outside. If you would like to attend these workshops, please call 410-810-7177 or email wmiller3@washcoll.edu to register. All events are open to the public, faculty, and staff, and students are encouraged to attend.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computerized mapping system that stores, displays, and analyzes any type of data that has a geographic location. A GIS takes data from a table, spreadsheet, or database and creates a map. It allows for the ability to view, understand, and visualize data in ways that are simply not possible using rows and columns. Visit the open house to investigate all that the Washington College GIS Lab has to offer and to ask any burning questions. Dr. Wendy Miller's lecture will additionally shed light on GIS as a discipline and its specific projects. Thursday's hands-on GIS workshops will allow participants to create their own map, join a scavenger hunt utilizing GPS units, and gain practical experience in the field of GIS.

Washington College's GIS Day is part of a global event whose motto is "Discovering the world though GIS." On November 15, hundreds of organizations, schools, and towns will celebrate GIS Day, proving once again that geography does matter. To learn more about these global events, visit the website, http://www.gisday.com, or to learn more about GIS at Washington College and its GIS Day, visit the website, http://gis.washcoll.edu.

Lost Culture: Scholar to Examine the Middle East in Two Lectures, November 8

Chestertown, MD, October 30, 2006 — Washington College's Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, the Department of Art, the Campus Events and Visitors Committee, and the Arabic/Middle East Club present two lectures by Dr. Hashim Al-Tawil, Professor of Art History at Henry Ford Community College, November 8, in the College's Hynson Lounge. Both talks are free and open to the public.

"Lost Culture of Iraq: The Looting of Iraqi Antiquities, Artworks, and other Cultural Materials" will be presented Wednesday, November 8, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in the College's Hynson Lounge. The lecture will address the looting of Iraqi culture after the 2003 invasion, including the damage inflicted on and to museums, libraries, galleries, art collections, public monuments, and other cultural institutions.

"The Arab People and the Middle East: History, Art, and Culture of the Lands and the People," will be presented Wednesday, November 8, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., in the College's Hynson Lounge. Dr. Hashim Al-Tawil will trace the history of the Arab people in the region of the Middle East from its earliest records to the present, with close connection to the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, through the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic civilizations. Additionally, his lecture will explore the characteristics of the Arab people through examination of their diverse ethnic groups, religions, and cultures from the pre-Islamic time to the present time.

Hashim Al-Tawil, Professor of Art History at Henry Ford Community College, specializes in the research of the history of Arab and Islamic art and culture. He was on the faculty of the University of Baghdad and active in the Iraqi art scene during the 1970's and 1980's. He is also a lecturer at the University of Michigan and the Detroit Institute of Art and is a frequent guest speaker at local and national universities in the United States and abroad.

Student Programmers Score High in ACM Contest

Chestertown, MD, October 28, 2006 — Teams from Washington College participated in the Mid-Atlantic regional playoffs of an international programming contest run by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) October 28. One of the teams, the WC Wildcats, placed 17th out of 135 teams, higher than opponents from Johns Hopkins and UMBC, and just below a team from Maryland at College Park. A second team, the WC Wolves, placed 100th overall.

The Wildcats were also awarded a plaque for being the top team at the local site—after placing above Delaware, Drexel, Rowan, and Temple.

These results are the strongest showing of any Washington College programming team since they started competing in 1998. Professor Shaun Ramsey of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science coached the teams. The Wildcats consisted of sophomores Samuel Evans and Ben Kozlowski, and senior Lucas Gerber. The Wolves, playing with one member absent, consisted of senior Jeremy Alexander and freshman Timothy Gelner.

The contest, sponsored by the IBM Corporation and Google, is a five-hour marathon where teams of three persons are given a single computer and a set of 8 problems to solve. Solutions are submitted electronically and judged at a location in Virginia. Scoring is done by awarding points for the number of minutes taken until a correct solution is submitted. If a submitted solution is incorrect, the team is sent a cryptic message on the lines of "wrong output," and may resubmit with further penalties. At the end of the contest the team with the lowest total points and highest number of solved problems wins. The prize for solving a problem is a much-coveted, helium-filled, colored balloon. A sense of the difficulty of the problem-set is obtained by the sobering fact that only one team in the mid-Atlantic solved 5 problems, and thirty-six solved none. Washington College solved two, and that was good enough to be the leader among the ten teams at this site.

Washington College was one of nine sites that hosted the contest. Running a site is a carefully choreographed operation. The site-directors were Louise Amick and Austin Lobo who were assisted by Michael McLendon and Jennifer Whitehead. The contest was held in the Goldstein 100 classroom with top-of-the-line IBM laptop computers. Keeping the networks functioning, monitoring the flow of data, were engineers Cal Coursey and David DeMarsi. The laptops were connected to a central computing server named Albert, after a respected former professor, which in turn linked up with the contest server in Virginia. Responsible for all the underlying software was the Systems Administrator, Ted Knab. Hardware and software rested on the computing infrastructure set up by CIO Billie Dodge. Under site-judge Martin Suydam, the contest started at noon and ran smoothly to completion.

The success of the teams and the site stems from a long-term commitment to computing science and technology by the College's administration. Washington College has offered a minor in computer science for nearly four decades. The computer science major was established in 2000 within the Department of Mathematics, with two graduates emerging in 2001. The first person to receive the degree was a woman.

Computer Science at Washington College stays true to the sprit of a liberal education. Students are put through a rigorous curriculum balanced between theory and practice that prepares them for careers and graduate school. Many take second majors in areas like mathematics, art, philosophy, and biology.

Computer programming is taught under the Windows and Linux operating systems and the students learn industry-standard programming techniques in the C++ and Java languages. Beyond the core courses, the students study the theory of computation and algorithm design, databases and networks, and round off their training with a capstone course in software engineering that emphasizes teamwork and the management of large programming projects.

Students have learning opportunities outside the class, such as in the Computing Club. They also do internships, independent study, and guided research projects. In the summer of 2006, Kozlowski worked on a challenging problem in computer graphics under Ramsey, and Evans implemented a major component of a code-breaking algorithm under Lobo. Three past leaders of the programming teams have become PhD candidates, with one already finished and the other two in progress. A fourth went on to do biomedical engineering and now designs prostheses.

Four team members will return next year, supplemented by promising first-year students. A proposal is in the works to host an NSF sponsored conference in computer science, and next year there will be a new computer server nicknamed Sampson for its power and in honor of a former president of the college.

Ships Ahoy! C.V. Starr Center Lectures Scheduled for Chestertown's Downrigging Weekend, November 5

Chestertown, MD, October 27, 2006— Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents "History on the High Seas," in conjunction with Sultana Projects, Inc.'s Sixth Annual Downrigging Weekend, Sunday, November 5. The event is free and open to the public. Join us in a heated tent behind the Custom House for two hearty maritime lectures, with free hot beverages supplied courtesy of Washington College. On Saturday, November 4, the college will provide water for visitors to the waterfront, where eleven tall ships includingKalmar Nyckel and Pride of Baltimore II will be moored for the entire weekend.

At 1:30 p.m., John Donoghue, a recent Ph.D. graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, will present "Pirates in the Court of King Death: Three Tales of Justice Under the Jolly Roger." Donoghue will discuss pirates and their alternative society, which featured a unique code of justice that was radically democratic for its time. Then, at 2:30 p.m., Kees de Mooy, Program Manager at the C.V. Starr Center, will present "Following in Schooner Sultana's Wake: Uncovering the History of an 18th Century Naval Vessel." While a student at Washington College, Kees de Mooy researched the history of the Schooner Sultana, a Royal Navy vessel that was used to patrol for smugglers along the American coastline prior to the Revolution.

"History on the High Seas" is sponsored by Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. Established in 2000 with a grant from the New York-based Starr Foundation, the Starr Center draws on the special historical strengths of Washington College and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Through educational programs, scholarship, and public outreach, the Starr Center explores the early republic, the rise of democracy, and the manifold ways in which the founding era continues to shape American culture. In partnership with other institutions and with leading scholars and writers, the Center works to promote innovative approaches to the study of history, and to bridge the gaps between historians, contemporary policymakers, and the general public.

For more information about the C.V. Starr Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu/ , and for details on Downrigging Weekend, November 3-5, visithttp://www.sultanaprojects.org/downrigging.htm.

An Abbess and Her Garden of Delight: Medieval Historian Investigates Gender and Spirituality, November 9

Chestertown, MD, October 27, 2006 — Washington College's Conrad M. Wingate Lecture in History presents "Garden of Delights: A Twelfth Century Abbess and Her Book," a talk by Dr. Fiona Griffiths, Assistant Professor of History, New York University, on Thursday, November 9, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Casey Academic Center Forum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Dr. Fiona Griffiths is a medieval historian whose work focuses on the intersection of gender and spirituality. Her book, The 'Garden of Delights': Reform and Renaissance for Women in the Twelfth Century (The University of Pennsylvania Press, November 2006) explores the involvement of monastic women in the spiritual and intellectual developments of twelfth-century Europe, overturning the assumption that women were largely excluded from the "renaissance" and "reform" of this period. Focusing on the 'Hortus deliciarum' (Garden of Delights), a magnificently illuminated manuscript of theology, biblical history, and canon law written both by and explicitly for women at the end of the twelfth century, Griffiths offers a persuasive new reading of female monastic culture, arguing for women's engagement with the spiritual and intellectual vitality of the period on a level previously thought unimaginable.

Griffiths has taught at New York University and Smith College. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Medieval History, Viator, and such collections as Listen, Daughter: The Speculum Virginum and the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages, Medieval Memories: Men, Women and the Past, 700-1300 and Women Writing in Latin. She is currently writing a book on pastoral care in the monastic relationships between nuns and their priests, that is, pastoral care, within the contexts of medieval reform movements.

The Conrad M. Wingate Memorial Lecture in History is held in honor of the late Conrad Meade Wingate '23, brother of late Washington College Visitor Emeritus Phillip J. Wingate '33 and the late Carolyn Wingate Todd. He was principal of Henderson (MD) High School at the time of his death from cerebrospinal meningitis at age 27. At Washington College, he was president of the Dramatic Association, president of the Adelphia Literary Society, and vice president of the Student Council in 1922-23.