Novelist Colum McCann to Visit Campus Sept. 16

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Novelist Colum McCann leads off the 2010/11 Sophie Kerr lecture series at Washington College on Thursday, September 16 at 5 p.m. in Tawes Theater, the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts.

A native of Ireland who now teaches at Hunter College in New York, McCann is the author of five novels and has been published in 30 languages. His most recent book, Let the Great World Spin (Random House, 2009), was praised by the New York Times as “an emotional tour de force” and became one of the most talked about books of the decade. Set in New York City in the 1970s, it has been described as an allegory of the city's resilient post-9/11 self.

The novel begins in August 1974 as tightrope walker Philippe Petit makes his way through the dawn light across the World Trade Center towers, committing the “artistic crime of the century” and stunning thousands of watchers below. Using the true story of Petit as a pull-through metaphor, McCann crafts a portrait of the city and a people, weaving together seemingly disparate lives.

Let the Great World Spin won the National Book Award and was chosen as Amazon's top Book of the Year. It placed McCann—whose remarkable previous books include Zoli and Dancer—at the very top rank of contemporary novelists.

Born in Dublin in 1965, McCann was named Esquire's Writer of the Year in 2003 and was awarded a prestigious French Chevalier des arts et lettres in 2009. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The Irish Times.

Sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, McCann’s reading is free and open to the public. For more information on the author, visit www.colummccann.com. To learn about other literary events at Washington College, please visit www.washcoll.edu.

New E-book by Mitchell Reiss Explores When and How to Talk to Terrorists

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A new book by Washington College president Mitchell B. Reiss has answers for two of the most pressing questions facing America’s leaders today: Should we ever talk to terrorists? And if we do, how should we conduct the negotiations in order to achieve our goals?

In Negotiating with Evil: When to Talk to Terrorists,” to be released September 7 as an original e-book by Open Road Integrated Media, Reiss draws in part on his own experiences as a high-level negotiator in two diplomatic hot spots: Northern Ireland and North Korea. He also shares lessons from dozens of other major players in the realms of foreign policy and terrorism, including General David Petraeus, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, former leaders of the Basque terrorist group ETA, and the Director General of the British intelligence agency MI5.

“Over the past three years, I’ve traveled around the world interviewing prime ministers, generals, intelligence officers and former terrorists,” says Reiss, the scholar and diplomat who took office as President of Washington College on July 1 of this year. “My goal has been to explore why and when governments have decided to talk to terrorist groups, understand the mistakes they’ve made and reveal the victories they’ve achieved.”

In addition to adding insights on an especially timely topic, Reiss’s book is making news with its format. Negotiating with Evil will be the first “E-Riginal” issued by Open Road, a new digital publishing group founded by former HarperCollins executive Jane Friedman and movie producer Jeffrey Sharp (Boys Don’t Cry and You Can Count on Me). It will forge new ground as a book that will come out electronically, to be downloaded onto iPads, Kindles and other e-readers, and in print.

Reiss chose to publish with Open Road because of its trailblazing nature. “Digital publishing is the way of the future,” he says. “Working with Open Road brings three immediate advantages: the book gets out very quickly, it's far less expensive than a traditional book, and it’s a great way to reach a global audience.”

Negotiating with Evil looks at the complex political, military and ethical choices of five governments, gauges how they’ve fared and provides guidelines for the future. “These lessons are invaluable as America and other democracies will increasingly be confronted with similar choices: when to settle differences with terrorist groups by fighting or by talking,” says Reiss.

Senator John McCain praises Negotiating with Evil as “deeply relevant” and “required reading" for informed citizens and senior policymakers alike. "Peace is not made between friends,” says McCain. “It is made between enemies. How political leaders start talking with groups or governments that are fighting and killing their citizens, and ultimately agree to end their conflicts, is one of the most difficult, most important and least understood challenges facing nations across the world. Mitchell Reiss has done a great service by drawing out the lessons of past efforts by governments to make peace with their enemies—from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka to Al Anbar, Iraq.”

Journalist and historian Walter Isaacson also recommends the book. “The distinguished diplomat and scholar Mitchell Reiss takes on one of the most important questions of our messy international age, how to deal with terrorists, and he answers it through a series of fascinating case studies,” says Isaacson. “It’s both an important study and also a compelling set of historical narratives.”

Mitchell Reiss brought decades of experience in international affairs to the task of writing the book. He is internationally recognized for his negotiating skills during the Northern Ireland peace process and the North Korean nuclear crisis. Prior to assuming the presidency of Washington College, he was Diplomat-in-Residence at the College of William & Mary, where he also taught law and government and served as Vice Provost for International Affairs and Director of the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies.

From 2003 to 2005, Reiss served as Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, where he provided Secretary Colin L. Powell with independent strategic advice and policy recommendations. From December 2004 through February 2007, he was the President's Special Envoy for the Northern Ireland Peace Process with the rank of Ambassador. The historic progress made towards ending “the Troubles” earned him the State Department's Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service.

In 1999, prior to joining William & Mary, Reiss helped manage the start-up and operations of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), a multinational organization designed to deliver $6 billion of energy (500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil/year and two 1,000 MW nuclear power stations) to North Korea. He led KEDO's negotiations with the North Koreans and served as its first General Counsel.

Reiss was a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he started its nonproliferation and counter-proliferation programs. He also has practiced corporate and banking law at Covington & Burling and, in 1988-89, served as Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor while a White House Fellow. He holds a law degree from Columbia Law School, a D.Phil. from Oxford University, a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and a B.A. from Williams College. He has written two previous books on international security—Bridled Ambition: Why Countries Constrain Their Nuclear Capabilities, and Without the Bomb: The Politics of Nuclear Nonproliferation—contributed to 18 other books, and published more than 80 articles and reviews.

Beginning Tuesday, September 7, Negotiating with Evil can be ordered from www.openroadmedia.com.

Related links:
Washington College introduces Mitchell Reiss: http://www.washcoll.edu/mbr.php
Mitchell Reiss Author Page: http://www.openroadmedia.com/author_reiss.html
Negotiating with Evil fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Negotiating-With-Evil-When-to-Talk-to-Terrorists-by-Mitchell-Reiss/148456811850085?ref=ts

Washington College Fellow Marla Miller Creates Exhibition at Winterthur Museum

CHESTERTOWN, MD— "Betsy Ross: The Life Behind the Legend," a ground-breaking exhibition based on work supported by a fellowship at Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, will open at Winterthur Museum & Country Estate on October 2.

During her 2009-10 fellowship at the Starr Center, Marla R. Miller completed her book Betsy Ross and the Making of America (Henry Holt, 2010) and worked with Winterthur curators to plan the upcoming exhibition. The Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship offers a yearlong residency to authors doing innovative work on America's founding era and its legacy. Miller, who directs the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, spent the entire academic year at Washington College, where she also taught an undergraduate seminar in American Studies and Art History. The book on Ross – the first-ever in-depth work on the famous flag-maker – was published in April to critical acclaim.

The Wall Street Journal called the work “a deeply researched and cogently argued gem of a book that gives us Betsy Ross as a complete person, not just a colonial character with a one-sentence claim on our attention.” The Washington Post agreed in a special July 4th review, noting that, “Though she demolishes the legend of Ross as our national seamstress, Miller offers in return someone much more interesting.”

The companion exhibition, curated by Miller and Winterthur’s Linda Eaton and Katie Knowles, explores Ross’s personal life, her work in the upholstery trade and as a flag-maker, and how her legend grew into the story we know today. The curatorial team has gathered an eclectic mix of important Americana for display, including Ross’s snuff box, a pieced quilt made by her daughter Clarissa Claypoole Wilson, and an assortment of rare early American flags.

“We’re excited that some of the work that Marla completed at Washington College will soon be spotlighted at one of this country’s most important museums,” said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Starr Center. “One of the goals of the Patrick Henry Fellowship program is to draw a wide public audience into ongoing national conversations about America’s past and present. The Winterthur show will extend that conversation through a new medium.”

Winterthur Museum & Country Estate is known worldwide for its preeminent collection of American decorative arts, its naturalistic garden, and its research library on American art. The Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, operated in partnership with the University of Delaware, is one of the nation’s best graduate programs in decorative arts.

Betsy Ross: The Life Behind the Legend opens October 2, 2010 and will run through January 2, 2011. For more information, visit http://www.winterthur.org.

Washington College’s 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. It also serves as a portal onto a world of opportunities for Washington College students. Its guiding principle is that now more than ever, a wider understanding of our shared past is fundamental to the continuing success of America’s democratic experiment. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

Washington College Rises 19 Positions in Latest "U.S. News" Rankings of Best Colleges

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College rose 19 positions in the 2011 edition of the U.S. News & World Report annual Best Colleges rankings and was in the top ten of the nation’s “Up-and-Coming” liberal arts colleges.

A total of 1,472 colleges and universities were surveyed for the 2011 rankings. In the category of national liberal arts colleges, Washington College rose to #93, from a 2010 position of 112.

For its list of “The 2011 Up-and-Comers,” the survey asked college administrators to nominate institutions that had “recently made the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus, or facilities.” Among liberal arts colleges, Washington College ranked 9th.

One of the oldest of a growing number of college rankings enterprises, the U.S. News list considers up to 16 factors, from acceptance and graduation rates to the percentage of faculty members who are full-time and the rate of alumni giving. It has been controversial in recent years because of the weight it gave its peer ratings—how presidents, provosts and deans of admission assess their peer institutions—in calculating a school’s academic reputation. For the 2011 rankings, the survey formula reduced the influence of those peer reviews and added the opinions of 1,787 college counselors at public high schools.

Mitchell B. Reiss, who became president of Washington College on July 1, is pleased to see the institution recognized for solid, ongoing improvements in opportunities for scholarly and creative engagement and in the physical plant. The College’s Chesapeake Semester, now in its second year, enables students to explore the history, ecology and sociology of the region in experiential settings both within the watershed and abroad. The Presidential Fellows program is a new co-curricular program offering special academic opportunities outside the classroom to high-ability students. In the past few years, the College has also invested some $70 million in campus improvements, including a new student center—the Hodson Hall Commons—and a renovated Gibson Center for the Arts.

“This college is building on a rich tradition of excellence,” says Dr. Reiss. “We have a dedicated faculty that gets to know the students as individuals, a beautiful and historic setting, and nationally known centers of excellence for the study of the literary arts, the environment and American history. The stage is set for us to surge ahead in many areas.”

The rankings are available online and will be published in the September issue of U.S. News & World Report.

Washington College a Partner in $950,000 Initiative on Teaching American History

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A federal grant worth $950,000 will fund a new professional development program for American History teachers in seven Maryland counties including Kent, Calvert, Caroline, Dorchester, Queen Anne's, St.Mary's and Talbot, thanks to the joint efforts of Sultana Projects, Kent County Public Schools, Washington College and the Calvert Marine Museum. Titled “Roots of a Nation – a Chesapeake Journey,” the local program is one of 124 “Teaching American History” grants awarded in 40 states. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the grants earlier this month.

The federal initiative requires grant recipients to partner with organizations that have broad knowledge of the nation’s history, such as libraries, museums, nonprofit historical or humanities organizations, and higher education institutions. As the organization spearheading the grant process, Sultana Projects worked under the auspices of the Kent County Public Schools to partner with the Calvert Marine Museum and two Washington College centers known for their hands-on and intensive study of Chesapeake Bay history—the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Center for Environment and Society.

The principal goals of the "Roots of a Nation” initiative are to increase teacher content knowledge, improve teaching practices, and measurably improve student achievement in American History. The program will provide 35 teachers with a rigorous three-year professional development program that emphasizes the use of primary documents, connects teachers to local resources, and examines innovative methods for delivering history content in the classroom. The participating teachers will be drawn from Kent, Calvert, Caroline, Dorchester, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s and Talbot Counties.

John Seidel, the director of the Center for Environment and Society at Washington College, says the objective is for these 35 teachers to become “master teachers” who take critical resources back to their schools and share their experience and knowledge with others. “We'll work with five teachers from each of the seven school districts,” he elaborates. “The program also will produce a wide range of very rich materials and resource guides that allow teachers to share lesson plans, student work samples, and effective teaching techniques across Maryland.

"The idea is to use this region itself as a microcosm for exploring American history," adds Adam Goodheart, the Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center, "everything from Native American cultures to the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. Along with intensive seminars, workshops, and research training, the participants will visit museums, battlefields, and archaeological digs, as well as sail aboard the Sultana."

U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin voiced strong support for the grant. “It will ensure that our Eastern Shore youngsters develop an appreciation of the unique history of the Chesapeake Bay region and the important role it has played in our nation's history,” he said.

Using the Chesapeake Bay as a unifying theme, "Roots of a Nation" will explore content and teaching goals related to four key periods in American History: 1) Native American History and European Settlement, 2) the Revolutionary War Period, 3) the War of 1812, and 4) Slavery and the Civil War.

"I am very excited about the awarding of this grant," said Kent County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Barbara Wheeler. “The professional development funds will provide teachers with strategies that will make history come alive for our young learners. Because multiple counties will participate in the grant, teachers will be able to network and learn from others in the same profession. This is a great opportunity for our children and teachers."

For additional information, please contact Sultana Projects at 410-778-5954 or email dmcmullen@sultanaprojects.org.

Professor Richard Striner's New Book Explores Presidential Power at its Bipartisan Best

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College professor Richard Striner’s latest book, Lincoln’s Way: How Six Great Presidents Created American Power, explores the power of the U.S. presidency to create sweeping and positive changes throughout the nation. Published by Rowman & Littlefield, it is available online and will be in stores by late September. The book has earned critical praise for the way it combines scholarship and depth of knowledge with an engaging and clear style of writing. Blending intellectual history and presidential biography, the forceful narrative creates a valuable lens for viewing the present.

In the book, Dr. Striner explains how Abraham Lincoln set the stage for America’s global superpower status by using his federal authority in shrewd and inspired ways, borrowing from both ends of the political spectrum. It was a legacy and a way of leading adopted by five subsequent presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. These six presidents—three from each party—helped America fulfill its great potential. Lincoln’s Way illustrates how their leadership spanned the huge gulf that exists between our ideological cultures: they drew from both conservative and liberal ideas, thus consolidating powerful centrist governance.

Dr. Striner’s argument strongly contradicts the philosophy of the current Tea Party movement, that “the government that governs best, governs least.” The presidents he admires for their leadership denounced the idea that government was “always the answer” but did believe it was “sometimes the answer” when it came to necessities. “They believed in the value of coordinated national life—in teamwork,” he writes in his introduction.

Lincoln’s Way earned advance praise from two well-known fellow historians and authors, James MacGregor Burns and James M. McPherson. Burns called Lincoln’s Way “an unforgettable book” and “must reading for lovers of American History—a fresh and spirited presentation of some of our greatest leaders, with special emphasis on key ideas, presented in a broad intellectual framework.”

Noting Dr. Striner’s “remarkable range of knowledge,” McPherson wrote: “Drawing on a lifetime of scholarship, the author writes with great clarity for a general audience beyond the academy, while at the same time offering original insights that deepen and broaden our understanding of how the government promoted greater justice and equity in the American socioeconomic order during the century from the 1860s to the 1960s.”

Dr. Striner’s earlier book, Father Abraham: Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle to End Slavery, was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press. A professor of history at Washington College, he is an interdisciplinary scholar whose fields of study include economics, architecture, historic preservation, English literature and film. He also is a senior writer for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Committee.

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will sponsor a public reading from Lincoln’s Way on Thursday, September 23. Dr. Striner’s reading will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room, Miller Library, and will be followed by a reception and book signing. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Dr. Reiss Announces Exclusive NATO Internship

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A Washington College student with an impressive resume and a passion for foreign affairs may spend next summer in Belgium working with NATO, thanks to a new internship announced recently by College president Mitchell Reiss. Based at the U.S Mission to NATO in Brussels, the Washington College intern would work with one of four mission offices: the Office of Public Affairs, the Armament Cooperation Division, the Office of the Political Advisor, or the Office of the U.S./EU Defense Advisor.

Washington College becomes one of only a few U.S. colleges to offer the exclusive NATO summer experience. The number of interns accepted each year depends on the amount of meaningful work available and how many offices are willing to supervise interns.

NATO, a defense alliance created in 1949 as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, now includes 26 European countries, the United States and Canada. Dr. Reiss describes the NATO internship as an “extraordinary opportunity to do valuable work in one of the most interesting places in the world. This internship offers exposure to military affairs, diplomacy, European politics, trans-Atlantic relations, and the stature of the U.S. in Europe.” The students are given high levels of responsibility, from monitoring press wires to compiling research to writing briefs for the ambassador and other senior officials.

To qualify for the eight-week experience, a student must be a U.S. citizen, obtain a security clearance and meet stringent academic and character qualifications. “We’ll be looking for a student with a deep interest in international relations, a high caliber of academic performance, proven maturity and a commitment to public service,” says Dr. Reiss. “Language skills are certainly a benefit as well.”

Washington College’s Assistant Dean for Academic Resources, Kathy Sack, is coordinating the application process for the new internship along with the Career Development Center. Because of the extra time needed for security clearance, applications for the summer of 2011 are due September 15. An information session on this opportunity and new U.S. State Department internships, both domestic and abroad, will be held on Wednesday, September 1 at 3:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum Room. For more information on the U.S. Mission to NATO, visit http://nato.usmission.gov. For information on this new internship, please contact Dr. Sack (ksack2@washcoll.edu, phone 410-778-7213) or the Career Center (410-778-7890). You also can learn more from the College website: http://internships.washcoll.edu/natointernship.php.