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Justin Cammy, assistant professor
of Jewish studies and comparative literature, was recently named
a recipient of a fellowship from the American Council of Learned
Societies, a private, nonprofit federation of 68 scholarly associations—including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation—devoted to the advancement of humanistic studies. Cammy’s award will support his research project, Yung-Vilne: Yiddish Literature, Jewish Culture and National Politics in the Lost ‘Jerusalem of Lithuainia.’ Cammy joins 78 recipients of scholarships awarded by ACLS, representing 64 institutions in the United States and one in Canada.
The following Smith faculty members
were appointed to chaired professorships, effective July 1:
- Michael O. Albertson, L. Clark Seelye
Professor
- Michael E. Gorra, Mary Augusta Jordan
Professor
- Elizabeth W. Harries, Helen and Laura
Shedd Professor of Modern Languages
- Richard H. Millington, Sylvia Dlugasch
Bauman Professor in American Studies
- Gwendolyn R. Mink, Charles N.
Clark Chair
- Marilyn Schuster, Andrew W.
Mellon Professor in the Humanities
Chris Shelton, associate professor of exercise and sport studies and co-chair of the Project on Women and Social Change, will speak on two panels and chair a third at the Pre-Olympic Scientific Congress in Thessaloniki, Greece, from August 5 through 11. The 2004 Olympic Games will take place in Athens from August 13 through 29. Shelton will discuss gender, ethics and leadership in the context of a study she conducted about women elected to National Olympic Committees. The study, funded by the International Olympic Committee, was conducted in conjunction with scholars from England's Loughborough University.
A new feature film by Maureen Foley ’76, American Wake, was recently screened as part of the Democratic National Convention in Boston during a reception hosted by actor Alec Baldwin. The film, Foley’s second, depicts the story of two young men—a heroic fireman and a musician—who are learning to pursue their dreams in America. Starring Billy Smith and Sam Amidon, American Wake was shot in Cambridge, Brookline and other communities around Boston. Foley’s first film, Home Before Dark, won multiple awards and aired in more than 40 countries.
 Rick Fantasia, professor of sociology, recently won an award from the American Sociological Association’s Labor and Labor Movements section for Best Article on Labor published in 2001, 2002, and 2003. His winning piece, “Dictatorship Over the Proletariat: Deprivations of Work and Labor in the United States,” was published in the French journal ACTES de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales in June 2001. Fantasia has also recently been elected to the Sociological Research Association, a prestigious honor society that selects its membership from among the nation’s leading scholars in the field.
Carly Hamaguchi ’03 is
currently completing a legislative
fellowship in the office of Democratic
U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii. As a fellow, Hamaguchi
has worked directly with Inouye’s legislative director. Among the highlights of her fellowship was an opportunity to oversee the production of a foreign relations/peace resolution from the senator’s office. “I have gained significant knowledge of the legislative process by working for an amazing and accomplished member of Congress,” she says. “My fellowship has been a truly invaluable learning opportunity and an experience that has positively impacted my career path.” Hamaguchi plans to continue working in civil rights and social justice, she says. Her fellowship was provided by the Japanese American Citizens’ League.
Carol Zaleski, professor of religion, was recently named a
winner of the Award of Excellence
from the Associated Church Press
for her article, “When I Get to Heaven,” which
appeared in the April 5, 2003, edition of The Christian Century.
Her article, which took the highest
award in the category of theological reflection, long format, “is a combination of excellent scholarship, good and evocative stories, and sound theory,” according to the award announcement. “She provides readers with a good overview of a variety of perspectives, with a clear case made for her own perspective. The author’s use of language is creative, and the article flows well throughout.” The
category was judged by Debra
Farrington.
Claudine Solin, a student in the School for Social Work, recently
lent her input to a local city-wide recycling program that culminated
last week with the placement of five large recycling receptacles
along Main Street downtown Northampton. Solin served as an instructor
in the joint program among the City of Northampton; the Environmental
Politics class at the Florence Learning Center (FLC), a program affiliated
with Northampton High School; and the American Friends Service Committee,
located in Florence. Ten students in the FLC class conducted much
of the work involved in the program, which also seeks to educate
city residents on the importance of recycling. A ceremony on the
steps of Northampton City Hall preceded the placement of the recycling
receptacles on June 11 with comments from Mayor Mary Clare Higgins,
and other city officials.
Kelly Duran ’04 was one of only 10 college students in
the United States selected recently
to serve as congressional interns
for the American Association of People with Disabilities, the nation’s largest cross-disability membership organization. Duran, who is hearing-impaired, was an award-winning skier on the Smith ski team and attended the World Deaf Winter Games in Sundsvall, Sweden, where she won silver and bronze medals. Duran has worked with deaf children as a volunteer, camp counselor and teacher’s
aid, and served as a theater
intern at Gallaudet University. The AAPD congressional internship
is a paid, eight-week summer position designed to give students with
disabilities opportunities to learn about legislative and political
processes. The interns will work in the AAPD offices in Washington,
D.C.
Elizabeth Carr, Catholic chaplain to the college, was recently
awarded the Via Veritatis Medal
from Elms College, a coeducational
Catholic liberal arts college in Chicopee, Massachusetts, which is
given to “a Catholic woman whose life and contribution to the church and society embody the mission of the College of Our Lady of the Elms and the charism of our founding sisters,” according to the Rev. Mark S. Stelzer, acting president of Elms College. “Your untiring ministry on behalf of the Smith College community and steadfast commitment to the exploration and widening of the Catholic intellectual tradition aptly qualify you for this honor.” Carr
accepted the award at the Elms
College commencement exercises, which took place on May 22 and 23.
Howard Nenner, Roe/Straut Professor in the Humanities, served
this year as associate editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
a collection of 50,000 biographies
of people who have influenced
British history and society. The 2004 edition will be published in
October. As associate editor, Nenner, a historian, was responsible
for a block of 160 biographies on lawyers, judges and other people
influential in law from the original dictionary. “The most time consuming and also the most interesting part of my job was to do enough research on all of these entries so that I could decide which ones needed to be wholly rewritten, which needed to be revised, and which could stand on their own,” explained Nenner. “As it happened, the vast majority had to be rewritten in light of a century’s worth of new scholarship.” Nenner wrote two articles for the tome, one on Orlando Bridgeman and one on “The
Regicides.” Frank Ellis, Mary Augusta Jordan Professor
Emeritus of English, also contributed to the dictionary with articles
on John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Robert Parsons, and Sir
Fleetwood Sheppard, courtier, wit and poet.
Ann Shanahan ’59, Chief Public Affairs officer, who will
end her years of service at Smith
in June, was awarded the John
M. Greene Award, which is bestowed upon individuals who have rendered
service to the college beyond the call of duty, and who personify
the Smith motto, “To virtue, knowledge,” in
their service and in their lives. The award, given since 1980, was
named for John Morton Greene, pastor and adviser to Sophia Smith.
Shanahan was presented the award by Mary
Patterson McPherson ’57, chair of the Board of Trustees,
at a reception in honor of her retirement, on May 7 at the College
Club. Read
the award citation…
Lauren Wolfe ’05 and Lenore Cho ’06 have
been elected to serve in senior
positions for College Democrats
of Massachusetts (CDM), the state branch of College Democrats of
America (CDA), the official student arm of the Democratic party.
Wolfe, who last year served as the organization’s communications director, was elected president of CDM. Wolfe is also the president of Smith Democrats. Cho, who serves as chair of the Women’s Leadership Forum of CDA, was elected to assume Wolfe’s
former post as communications
director for CDM. Cho recently served as vice president of Smith
Democrats. Wolfe and Cho join college democrats from Harvard College
and Boston College in leading the state group. As president, Wolfe
will represent the state organization at the CDA National Council.
Dasen Woitkowski ’04 was recently given the St. Ann’s Basketball Award, presented annually to a basketball player at a women’s college who excels in her sport. Woitkowski, a senior economics major, has played basketball for Smith for three years, and each year has been named the team’s
best offensive player and has
been elected to the Seven Sisters All-Tournament team. She also was
named twice to the NEWMAC Basketball All-Conference team. She has
twice served as Pioneers captain and finished her Smith career this
year with a total of 1,026 points.
Alyson Roux ’04 was recently named the winner of the
Dorothy Stickney Scholarship
for the Theatre Arts, given by
the New York club of Zonta International, a service organization
of executive women in business and the professions. The annual scholarship,
named after the renowned stage actress, is given to a female student
graduating from a four-year institution who intends to pursue a career
in the theatre, has a superior academic record and shows future potential
as demonstrated by the talent, work, professional attitude and spirit
shown in her undergraduate work. Lee Anne Hutcheson ’89 was
the last Smith student to have
won the Stickney Scholarship.
Lesley-Ann Giddings ’05, a chemistry major, received
the 2004 Gladys Anderson Emerson Scholarship for excellence in chemistry
or biochemistry, from Iota Sigma Pi, the national honor society for
women in chemistry. The highly competitive scholarship is one of
two national awards given annually by the society. Giddings will
receive a $2,000 stipend and a certificate as part of the award.
Last year, Giddings received the Undergraduate Scholarship from the
National Institutes of Health, an award given to members of underrepresented
groups who have outstanding academic records and are committed to
biomedical research. She pent last summer conducting research at
NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, and has been invited to return this summer.
Sarauna Moore ’06, Isabel Porras ’06, Ayoka Stewart ’06, Toccarra Thomas ’06 and Hassani
Turner ’06 have
recently been chosen as recipients
of Mellon Mays University Fellowships
(MMUF). The MMUF is designed to increase the number of underrepresented
minorities in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning.
Faculty/student mentoring relationships form the core of the program,
and each student is paired with a faculty member mentor with whom
she designs and carries out a program of research. Students also
receive support for applying to graduate programs, and stipends for
travel and research. Smith began its Mellon program five years ago.
These students join continuing MMUF recipients Anna Mercedes Lugo ’05, Irma Leon ’05, Agunda Okeyo ’05, Tiarra Danielle Kernan ’05 and Eundria Hill ’05.
Justin Daniel Cammy, assistant professor of Jewish studies
and comparative literature, recently
received an American Council
of Learned Societies Fellowship for 2004–05. This highly competitive
national grant will allow Cammy
to work on a new book tentatively titled Yung-Vilne: Yiddish Literature,
Jewish Culture, and National Politics in the Lost ‘Jerusalem
of Lithuania.’ In
late January, Cammy was asked
by the National Yiddish Book
Center—for which he serves on the Academic Advisory Board—to
go to Caracas, Venezuela, as
a faculty consultant to research the situation of Yiddish books there,
and to make recommendations for the community on how these books
might play a role in its identity. Cammy is also a member of the
editorial board of the New Yiddish Library, which translates classic
work of Yiddish fiction and poetry into English.
Crystal Lewis-Colman, a Mendenhall Fellow in the history department,
was selected by the Organization
of American Historians (OAH)
to receive the Huggins-Quarles Award for minority graduate students
at the dissertation research stage of their doctoral program. Lewis-Colman’s research, titled “Race, Ethnicity and Power: Black Southern Migrants, Caribbean Immigrants and the Making of Black Hartford,” examines the development of the black community from the 1890s through the 1960s in Hartford, Conn. OAH President Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and President-Elect James Oliver Horton presented the award in Boston on March 27 during the organization’s
97th annual meeting.
Margaret O. Pitkin ’04 presented her special studies
geological research “History of Glacial Lake Levels in the Black River Valley, Memphremagog Basin, Northern Vermont” at the joint meeting of the Northeastern and Southeastern Sections of the Geological Society of America in March. Pitkin’s
research in Vermont led her to
conclude that the glacial lakes in the Memphremagog and Mansfield
basins were joined throughout the greater part of their existence.
Pitkin plans to return to Vermont after graduation to work for a
small organic greens company, and to possibly attend a graduate program
in geology eventually.
Susan M. Etheredge, assistant professor of education and child
study, was invited last fall
to join the board of directors
for the National Women’s History Project, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to recognizing the diverse and historic accomplishments of women. In March, Etheredge attended a celebration of National Women’s
History Month at Gracie Mansion,
hosted by Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, which honored
activists such as former Smith president Jill Ker Conway,
Marian Wright Edelman, Wilma Martinez, and Susan Love.
Becky Yi ’03 is spending her first year after college
in the far east of Russia as
a Fulbright scholar. Specifically,
she is conducting a sociological project among a Korean Russian community
there regarding the population’s identity and increasing ties with South Korea. Many Korean Russian women have begun traveling as migrant workers to South Korea in recent years, Yi notes. Yi, who was born in South Korea and became a U.S. citizen, attending high school and living in Flushing, New York, first visited the far eastern region of Russia as a rising senior at Smith, in summer 2002. As she honed her Russian language skills then, she happened upon the people she is now studying, who share her heritage. Now half way through her scholarship, she has a fondness for the land and the people there, she says. “My life in Russia has been a blast so far,” she says. “I have made so many great friends here and I don’t
know how I will part with them
when it is time for me to leave.”
Jennifer Guglielmo, assistant professor of history, recently
won the 2004 Lerner-Scott Dissertation
prize, awarded by the Organization
of American Historians (OAH) for the best doctoral dissertation on
U.S. women’s history. Guglielmo’s dissertation, “Negotiating Gender, Race, and Coalition: Italian Women and Working-Class Politics in New York City, 1880–1945,” documents Italian women’s activism within the multi-ethnic, transnational world of urban working-class political involvement in the first half of the 20th century, she says. It examines how their activism changed as they acquired national and racial identities as white Americans. The Lerner-Scott prize, which is named for Gerda Lerner and Anne Firor Scott, both pioneers in women’s
history, will be presented at
the annual OAH meeting in Boston on March 27.
Henri Cole, the Grace Hazard Conkling visiting poet at Smith,
recently received the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his
collection Middle Earth,
published last year. The prize
represents the largest prize
given for a single book of poetry, according to Claremont Graduate
University, which administers the Tufts Poetry Award. “Middle Earth is
a book of extraordinary grace
and power,” says Robert Wrigley, a previous Tufts Award winner and chair of the panel that chose Cole for the award from among some 360 entrants. “It’s very much a book about a personal voyage into selfhood. It’s a very brave book. He’s a craftsman of the highest order.” The
award will be presented at a
ceremony in San Marino, California, on April 17.
Meredith W. Michaels, a lecturer and research associate in
philosophy, along with Susan Douglas, professor of communication
studies at Brown University, recently published The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women,
a book that is raising attention
in the media for its destruction
of previously accepted ideals about motherhood. “If you’re like us—mothers with an attitude problem—you may be getting increasingly irritable about this chasm between the ridiculous, honey-hued ideals of perfect motherhood in the mass media and the reality of mother’s everyday lives,” they write in the book. “This book is about the rise in the media of what we are calling the ‘new momism’: the insistence that no woman is truly complete or fulfilled unless she has kids, that women remain the best primary caretakers of children, and that to be a remotely decent mother, a woman has to develte her entire physical, phsychological, emotional, and intellectual being, 24/7, to her children.” Michaels
recently appeared on local National
Public Radio affiliate WFCR in an interview with Susan Kaplan about The Mommy Myth. Before
joining Smith, Michaels taught at Mount Holyoke College and at Hampshire
College.
Kate Dempsey ’04 was recently awarded a Robert C. Vose
Jr. and Ann Peterson Vose Scholarship in American Art, for which
she will receive $1,500. Each year, some 40 New England colleges
and universities (Amherst, Dartmouth, Wellesley and Williams colleges
and Brown, Harvard and Yale universities among them) are invited
to nominate one undergraduate or graduate student studying American
art to receive the award. Dempsey is the first Smith student to receive
the scholarship, which has been granted annually since 1992.
Martha Ackelsberg, professor of government, was recently awarded
a $400 “Raise Your Voice” campaign grant from Massachusetts
Campus Compact (MACC). The funds
will enable Ackelsberg to conduct outreach in connection with the
Kathleen Ridder Conference, an annual Smith event sponsored by the
Project on Women and Social Change, and this year held in collaboration
with the Kahn Institute, to take place February 19 through 22. Specifically,
the grant will support an event in which conference participants
from the National Congress of Neighborhood Women will reflect on
campus-community partnerships with women from Holyoke who are also
involved in community work in partnership with local colleges. MACC
is an organization of presidents of educational institutions in the
state that promotes service as an essential component of higher education.
The Raise Your Voice campaign is a national effort to engage students
in public life through support for student civic engagement and participation
in the democratic and community-building process. The Campus Compact
award is the first granted to Smith since the college joined the
group in 2002.
Elizabeth Stage ’72, a chemist, an educational leader,
and 1996 recipient of the Smith
College Medal, was recently named
as the new director of Lawrence Hall of Science, the University of
California-Berkeley’s public science education center. Stage, who is the president-elect of the National Center for Science Education, most recently directed the Mathematics Professional Development institutes at the University of California, and served as director of critique and consensus for the National Research Council’s National Committee on Science Education. Stage is the former director of the mathematics and computer education department at the Lawrence Hall of Science. “Lawrence Hall of Science played an important role in providing me with the wide range of experiences I have had and the array of skills I have developed,” she said upon her appointment. “I’ve
spent 30 years of my professional
life working on one goal: to increase opportunities to learn worthwhile
mathematics and science for all students.”
Peter I. Rose, Sophia Smith Professor Emeritus of Sociology
and Anthropology and a senior fellow with the Kahn Institute, was
recently appointed a Fulbright Senior Specialist and visiting professor
in the Department of Government and Comparative Social Science at
the University of Vienna, for the upcoming spring term. While in
Austria, he plans to deliver a serioes of lectures on U.S. immigration
and refugee policy, and will work with specialists in American studies,
while also advising the Council of Austrian Rectors on curricular
reform on its move to introduce a BA/MA system in that country.
The following Smith seniors have
been invited to become Junior Phi Beta Kappa members in the Zeta
of Massachusetts chapter for 2003-04: Rebecca Katherine Alexander,
an art major; Elizabeth Hamblen Anderson, French language
and literature; Jiwon Chang, psychology and music; Laura Alexandra Frye-Levine,
geology; Ariana S. Norgren, engineering; Melina Maureen Packer,
east Asian languages and cultures; Miriam Marcelle Quintal,
chemistry; Alyson J. Shaw, engineering; Lauma Skruzmane,
economics; Michelle Bernadette Snider, physics and mathematics; Alexis Lee Stoumbelis,
women’s studies; and Alicia Jean VandeVusse, economics.
Mary Patterson McPherson ’57, chair of the Smith College
Board of Trustees, was one of three distinguished academic leaders
recently named to the board of directors for the Teagle Foundation,
a private foundation established in 1944 by Walter C. Teagle with
a history of support of higher education. McPherson, the former president
of Bryn Mawr College, currently serves as vice president of The Andrew
W. Mellon foundation. She also serves on the boards of directors
for the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, JSTOR, The Philadelphia Contributionship,
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and Goldman Sachs
Asset Management, as well as belonging to The American Philosophical
Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. McPherson
was named along with Pauline Yu, president of the American Council
of Learned Societies, and Sol Gittleman, professor of German at Tufts
University since 1971. They join nine other directors on the board.
Jeannine Haas ’88, who last year starred in the Pulitzer
Prize-winning play Wit,
by Margaret Edson ’83 at West Springfield’s Majestic Theater,
appeared in a larger venue on
December 16 when she portrayed Emily Dickinson in the PBS production
of Loaded Gun: Life and Death and Dickinson.
The film, which aired nationally
at 10 p.m. eastern time, casts
Dickinson in a variety of unlikely roles, such as comedienne, seductress
and athlete, as it seeks to unravel the mystique of her life and
personality. The film’s title was borrowed from Dickinson’s poem “Loaded Gun.” Haas, who lives in Easthampton, plays one of the Dickinson roles. However, she laments, “the role I also had as the comedienne doing a stand-up about auditioning to play Emily Dickinson is now on the editing room floor.” For
more information about the production,
consult www.pbs.org.
Carol Krinsky ’57, a professor of fine arts at New York
University, recently served as
the role model for Julia Roberts’ character
in the Hollywood feature film Mona Lisa Smile. Roberts stars
in the film as Katherine Watson,
a controversial art history professor
at Wellesley College in 1953. Krinsky was asked to allow Roberts
to sit in on her history survey course at NYU to give the actress
a convincing example of an art history professor. Krinsky wrote many
of Roberts’ lines in the film and doctored the script’s accuracy in references to art history. Krinsky’s
name is included in the film
credits. Mona Lisa Smile, which co-stars Kirsten Dunst and
Julia Stiles, opened nationally on December 20.
A book by George Howe Colt, lecturer in American studies,
titled The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home, recently
became a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award. Award winners
were announced on Wednesday, November 19, from the 54th annual National
Book Awards ceremony in New York City. The Big House depicts
the story of a summer home on Cape Cod and of the family that owned
the house during its first 100 years. National Book Awards are given
each year from the National Book Foundation to
the authors of one book each
in the categories of fiction,
nonfiction, poetry and young people’s
literature.
Tanya Nesbitt ’05 was recently appointed for a two-year
term to the Student Athlete Advisory
Committee (SAAC) to the NCAA
Division III National Committee. Nesbitt, a government major and
member of the track and field team, was nominated for the committee
by the New England Women’s and Men’s
Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), to which Smith belongs. As a SAAC member,
Nesbitt will serve with 23 other members in assisting with the review
of NCAA-proposed legislation and representing student athletes in
the NCAA governance structure.
A book, Partners for Democracy: Crafting the New Japanese State
Under MacArthur,
by Donald L. Robinson, Charles N. Clark Professor of Government
and American Studies, and Ray
A. Moore, professor of history and Asian studies at Amherst College,
was recently selected as a CHOICE
Magazine Outstanding
Academic Title for 2004. CHOICE
is a periodical that produces reviews for academic libraries. Each
year it compiles a selection of top academic books. Partners for
Democracy,
which was published last year
by Oxford University Press, details
Japan’s transformation from
a defeated military power after
World War II into a thriving constitutional democracy.
 With his recently published book, Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom, Sam Intrator, assistant professor of education and child study, added to his collection of tomes on teaching. Last year, Intrator published Stories of the Courage to Teach: Honoring the Teacher's Heart, a collection edited by him of testimonials by school teachers and why they've chosen their profession. He also served as co-editor, with Megan Scribner, of Teaching with Fire: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Teach. In Tuned In and Fired Up, which was published by Yale University Press, Intrator "offers five detailed case study portraits," according to the publisher's notes, of "teachable moments" in the classroom, in which students are highly attuned to and engaged in learning. Intrator, a former high school teacher and the son of two New York City public school teachers, opens the book with a description of such a moment he experienced while once leading his Brooklyn high school students in a discussion of themes in Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. When the bell rang, "Nobody moved," he writes. "We kept at it because the students wanted to...What just happened in there?" he asked himself afterward, and how could he repeat it? His book addresses those questions.
Ann Sherlock ’05 was recently awarded an undergraduate fellowship from the Fund for Theological Education (FTE), designated to support students who are considering ministry as a career. She will receive $1,500 for educational expenses or a special project exploring ministry. Sherlock joins 70 other fellowship recipients (30 men and 40 women) from 57 North American colleges and universities and 21 religious denominations. Fellowships were awarded to students who demonstrate “gifts for leadership and strong Christian faith,” according to an FTE press release, and hold at least a 3.0 grade point average. Along with the other 2003 fellows, Sherlock attended last June the Summer Conference on Excellence in Ministry, “The Art of Ministry,” held at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The FTE, which was established in 1954, has awarded some 5,000 fellowships, some to today’s most prominent theological educators and religious leaders.
The American Studies Association, a 50-year-old organization with 5,000 members, recently honored eight of its members, including Daniel Horowitz, Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of American Studies, at its annual meeting in Hartford earlier this month. Horowitz received the 2003 Mary C. Turpie Prize, which is given annually to members who have demonstrated outstanding abilities and achievement in American studies teaching, advising and program development.
Ginetta Candelario, assistant professor of sociology and Latin American studies, contributed recently to an article to be published in the Miami Times Online, about discrimination of White Hispanics of Black Hispanics, particularly in Latin American countries, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, as well as in south Florida, which has a large Hispanic population. Candelario, who spent six months in the Dominican Republic last spring as a Fulbright Scholar, says in the article that access to jobs and social organizations is determined by skin color in many Latin American countries—more advantages are afforded to those with lighter skin. And that problem has migrated to the United States, she says, where “Black Hispanics are more likely to be unemployed than White Hispanics.” Miami Times Online is the self-proclaimed largest weekly Black community newspaper in South Florida. The article, which was written by Luis M. Gomez, will appear at http://www.miamitimesonline.com/
Alexander Woronzoff-Dashkoff, professor of Russian, has been invited to serve as a consultant to an exhibit organized by the American Philosophical Society, an international scholarly organization with more than 800 members that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities. The co-executive officers of the APS are Mary Maples Dunn, president of Smith College from 1985 to 1995, and her husband Richard Dunn. The exhibit for which Woronzoff-Dashkoff will consult will honor the society’s first woman member, E. R. Dashkova, who was elected in 1789. The exhibit, tentatively titled Benjamin Franklin and Ekaterina Dashkova: A Meeting of the Minds, is scheduled to take place in 2006 in Philadelphia, home of the society’s offices.
Nicholas J. Horton, assistant professor of mathematics, recently co-wrote an article, “Cigarette Smoking in Relations to Depression: Historical Trends From the Stirling County Study,” for the September issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, that studies the frequency of depression in cigarette smokers over a 40-year period. “The associations between smoking and depression were small and nonsignificant in 1952 and 1970,” says the article abstract. “In 1992, however, the odds that a smoker would be depressed were three times the odds that a nonsmoker would be depressed.” The article concludes that the later increased incidence of depression in cigarette smokers was attributable in part to an increase in nicotine in cigarettes. Horton shared credit for the article with five other authors. The article is available at http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/160/9/1663.
Lisa Evans ’82 recently participated in “In Search of Origins: Quilts and Quilting from the Old World 1400–1800,” an international quilt symposium that took place in Historic Deerfield earlier this month. Invited to participate in the symposium as an independent scholar, Evans led a workshop on “Medieval Quilting Techniques” from the late 14th century for linen and silk quilting. At Smith, Evans completed a major in English language and literature with a minor in history. She completed her master’s in congregational studies in 2002 at the Hartford Seminary.
Donald Wheelock, Irwin and Pauline Alper Glass Professor of Music, recently received an ASCAP Award, granted each year by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers based on “the unique prestige value of each writer’s catalog of original compositions,” according to an ASCAP press release.
Elliot Offner, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and sculptor, has been named the 2003 Master Wildlife Artist by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. The award honors artists who have “demonstrated outstanding achievement in using bird imagery in their artwork,” according to the museum Web site. Offner received the award during a preview event of the museum’s exhibition, Birds in Art, on September 5. Twelve of his sculptures were included in the exhibition. “Elliot Offner is a sculptor of enormous talent who is recognized widely for his graceful and elegant birds and animals,” said Kathy Kelsey Foley, director of the Woodson Museum. “Offner’s sensitivity to the natural world is revealed through the poignant lyricism evident in his work.”Offner’s sculptures have been featured in many solo exhibitions and are included in such public collections as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Brooklyn Museum and the Detroit Institute of Art. His Great Blue Heron in the Botanic Garden, and his Johnson Memorial Horse are familiar sites on the Smith campus.
Domenico Grasso, R.B. Hewlett ’40 Professor of Engineering, was recently appointed to chair the Committee on Valuing the Protection of Ecological Systems and Services, an ad hoc division of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board. The committee will conduct a two-year endeavor to develop advice for the EPA on its plan to devise a “Strategic Plan for Ecological Benefits,”as well as providing scientific advice to people involved in ecological protection issues and policies. Grasso, who was appointed during the summer, has recently met with senior leadership at the EPA, as well as the chair of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Policy at the Office of Management and Budget for their input into ways his committee can be effective. The 27-member committee will have its first meeting and workshop this fall.
Ada Comstock Scholar Eileen Marum recently completed a two-week tour at sea aboard the Albatross IV, a 187-foot trawler and registered research vessel in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. From August 4 through 15, Marum conducted research on scallops from aboard the boat through her internship with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Gloucester. Marum took part in the organization’s Scallop Survey-one of several research projects being conducted by NOAA-which seeks to determine the distribution and abundance of scallops in the north Atlantic off the New England coast. Marum, a former nurse anesthetist and master steamfitter (the first such female in Connecticut) is “very interesting in the environment,” says Sid Dalby, associate director of the Ada Comstock Scholars Program. “In fact, she ran for mayor of New Bedford in 1992 on an environmental platform.”
Lindsay Smith ’05 and Shannon Hunt ’04 were selected this summer from among nearly 400 applicants to be 2003 Summer Fellows at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. They joined a group of 14 fellows assigned to different offices within the NEH, an independent grant-making agency of the U.S. government, dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities. Hunt, of Medfield, Massachusetts, worked in the Office of Publications on editing, researching and writing for Humanities magazine. Smith, of Red Lodge, Montana, was employed in the Office of Public Affairs, where she updated and created databases, researched and drafted pieces for the agency newsletter and assisted in news, media and event planning. Hunt, an English major with a history minor, spent the spring semester in Galway, Ireland and hopes to pursue a career in publishing after graduating from Smith. Smith, a Latin American studies major, will take part in the Smithsonian Internship Program in the fall before heading to Bolivia in the spring.
Betse Curtis, supervisor of catering in Residence and Dining Services, and her catering staff recently won third place in the Catering Special Event category of prizes presented by the National Association of College and University Foodservice (NACUFS) organization, of which Smith is a member. Curtis and her staff won the award for the menu prepared for a dinner served on campus last October for the inauguration of President Carol Christ. The menu included grilled rack of lamb; garden lettuce, baked goat cheese and herb vinaigrette; white beans with fresh rosemary and Sherry; fresh steamed broccoli; roasted fennel; and a dessert of Tarte Tatin with Calvados Crème Fraiche. The entry was rated on menu selection, merchandising/presentation, marketing and over all impression. The award was announced at the NACUFS annual conference in July.
The Smith College Democrats, an active and historic group on campus, met last week with Tammy Baldwin ’84, a U.S. congresswoman from Wisconsin and a past member of Smith Democrats. “Sitting at a table with a dozen Smithies, Congresswoman Baldwin talked about how her time at Smith changed her life,” says Lauren Wolfe ’05, the group’s president, who organized the meeting. “She was part of the Picker Program and was continuously active in Smith’s student politics. Congresswoman Baldwin is an inspiring role model for the Smith Democrats and we were honored to have breakfast with her in the halls of Congress.” Meanwhile, the campus group has recently broadened its representation within the state’s college democrat organizations. Wolfe was elected communications director for the College Democrats of Massachusetts and represents the state to national college democrat groups. Danielle Lee ’06, who serves as the group’s Webmaster, was appointed campaigns director of the College Democrats of Massachusetts. Lenore Cho ’06, the group vice president, chaired the College Democrats Women’s Leadership Forum, which took place in May. And group member Amelia Kagan ’05 was recently appointed to the Legislative Action Caucus of the College Democrats of America. The Smith College Democrats, which hopes this fall to triple its membership, says Wolfe, boasts a notable list of alumnae, including Betty Friedan ’42, Gloria Steinem ’56, Molly Ivins ’66, and Celinda Lake ’75, to name a few.
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