WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 14, 2012 – Christopher Nugent, associate professor of Chinese at Williams College, has been awarded the 2012 Joseph Levenson Book Prize in the pre-1900 category for his 2010 book, Manifest in Words, Written on Paper: Producing and Circulating Poetry in Tang Dynasty China (Harvard University Asia Center). The prize, administered by the Association of Asian Studies, is awarded annually.

Manifest in Words, Written on Paper offers a sophisticated analysis of practices of composing, reading, reciting, and circulating poetry in the Tang era. By illustrating the material lives that poems led during the Tang, from words on paper to songs sung in taverns and even the imperial court, this study challenges a number of assumptions that underlie both traditional and contemporary critical approaches to these works.

Nugent’s book further explores the nature of memory and the role memory played in preserving and transmitting texts, the complex relationship between orality and text, the perception of spontaneity as a literary value, and the methods of textual collecting as a part of medieval Chinese literati culture.

Nugent has also published works in The University of Toronto Quarterly, T’oung Pao, and Asia Major. He received his B.A. from Brown University in 1991 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2004.

END

Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 14, 2012 – Darra Goldstein, Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Russian at Williams College, has been awarded the 2012 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award for Publication of the Year for the quarterly journal on food and culture, Gastronomica, of which she is the founding editor and editor-in-chief. The journal shared the prize with Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs’s Food 52.

The James Beard Foundation recognizes culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields. Beard was considered the dean of American cooking at the time of his death in 1985. A ceremony on May 4 honored Goldstein and other media award winners.

Gastronomica is published by the University of California Press, but from the first it has been produced at Williams. The awards committee cited the journal for “proving that food can be the catalyst for meaningful and serious discussions about culture, history, literature, art, and politics. Founding Editor Darra Goldstein has turned her enthusiasm for food into a substantive and intelligent publication that influences us all. In addition to editing Gastronomica, Darra is a Professor of Russian at Williams College. She is a quintessential example of the diverse and unexpected personalities you’ll find talking about food at Gastronomica, where poets, artists, professors, opinion makers, and pundits bring a stimulating breadth of perspectives to the table. In our digital age of fleet tweets, trendy headlines, and the battle to grab readers’ attention in an increasingly crowded space, Gastronomica reminds us that curiosity, hard thought, and great writing are award-worthy values.”

Gastronomica was named Best Food Magazine in the World at the 2011 Gourmand Awards in Paris. The journal also received the 2007 Utne Independent Press Award for Social/Cultural Coverage and the Prix d’Or at the Gourmet Voice World Media Festival in 2004.

Goldstein is the author of four cookbooks: A Taste of Russia, The Georgian Feast (winner of the 1993 IACP Julia Child Award for Cookbook of the Year), The Winter Vegetarian and Baking Boot Camp at the CIA. At Williams since 1983, Goldstein also has published numerous books and articles on Russian literature, art, and cuisine. She is currently food editor of Russian Life magazine and general editor of the book series California Studies in Food and Culture at University of California Press.

Goldstein received her B.A. from Vassar College in 1973 and her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1983.

END
Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 11, 2012—In his new book, Building the Judiciary: Law, Courts, and the Politics of Institutional Development (Princeton University Press, 2012), Justin Crowe ’03, Williams College assistant professor of political science, examines the reasons behind and consequences of the institutional development of the federal judiciary in the United States, including the Supreme Court, from the government’s commencement in 1789 through the end of the twentieth century.

“The book is an attempt to figure out how and why the federal judiciary in general and the Supreme Court in particular—weak and inconsequential at the founding—became governing institutions of American politics,” Crowe said. “Against the conventional view that courts and judges have become powerful because they have made decisions augmenting their own powers, I emphasize the role of elected politicians—representatives, senators, and presidents—in consistently and continuously empowering courts to do new things.” Crowe said that instead of viewing the history of the separation of powers as one of conflict, in his book he emphasizes cooperation, with politicians believing that courts could help them accomplish their various goals.

Kevin McMahon of Trinity College called Crowe’s book “richly textured and nicely argued” and said, “Crowe is to be commended for so successfully analyzing the development of the judiciary, given the broad sweep of history covered. His book is a significant contribution to the study of law and courts and will cement the author’s reputation as one of the field’s brightest young stars.”

Sidney Milkis of the University of Virginia said the book is “a major contribution to understanding how judges have participated in institutional reforms that have forged a unique American state. “It is a must read for understanding the politics of judicial statecraft,” Milkis said.

Crowe said he was inspired to write the book, which was recently featured on the American Constitution Society’s BookTalk blog as well as the focus of a panel at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Political Science Association and which will be the subject of a “Critical Dialogue” in Perspectives on Politics next year, in part by his time as a student at Williams, both from constitutional law courses he took with Gary Jacobsohn and the dramatic circumstances surrounding the 2000 presidential election. “That all took place in my sophomore year, and I remember listening to the oral arguments in the case from my common room,” Crowe said. “I never could have known it then, but that moment became pretty important in my book, where I trace remarkable transformation of the Court and the judiciary from political irrelevance (the first meeting of the Court in 1790, where only four of six members show up and there are no cases to hear) to political centrality (Bush v. Gore – which effectively decided a presidential election).”

Crowe’s research interests include the Supreme Court, constitutional law and theory, American political and constitutional development, American political thought and culture, and American political institutions. He is currently working on articles about constitutional amendments as agents of political change and the Supreme Court’s review of morals and economic legislation during the Progressive Era, and he is starting a new book project about the lived experience of democracy in the United States. Crowe received his B.A. from Williams College in 2003 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2007.  Before returning to Williams in 2009, he taught for two years at Pomona College.

END

Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 8, 2012 – Williams College will award its annual George Olmsted, Jr., Class of 1924 Prize for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching to four outstanding high school teachers on Saturday, June 2, at Ivy Exercises.

The recipients are Michael D. Levin, who teaches English literature, composition, and theater at Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy in Flagstaff, Ariz.; Patrick R. O’Connor, a history teacher at Southwest High School in Minneapolis, Minn.; Anne L. Thomas, a math teacher at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Mark R. Vondracek, who teaches physics at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Ill.

Each year, Williams College seniors nominate high school teachers who played influential roles in their lives and their learning. A committee comprised of faculty, staff, and students chooses winners from among the nominees. Recipients of the award receive $3,000, and an additional $2,500 is given to each recipient’s school. The Olmsted Prize was established in 1976 with an endowment from the estates of George Olmsted Jr. and his wife, Frances.

Michael D. Levin, Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy, Flagstaff, Ariz.

“Mr. Levin consistently challenges his students, pushing us all to artistic and academic extremes,” Williams senior Molly Olguin said. “While Mr. Levin encouraged all of us to develop our own styles and forms, he pushed us to work as hard at our creative accomplishments as we did at our academics.”

Levin has been an instructor of numerous literature and theater classes at Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy, a small public charter high school with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum and an emphasis on fine and performing arts, since 1997. “Every class I had with Mr. Levin in high school was my favorite class,” Olguin said. “Four years later, I still have friends from high school who constantly bring up specific moments of realization and academic and artistic satisfaction that happened for us in Mr. Levin’s classes.”

Ari Wilder, dean of academy at Flagstaff and a Williams graduate (’99), said of Levin “Mike is incredibly devoted to reading, creating, performing, and appreciating literature, and his classes all have a sense of purpose and palpable intensity that is fueled by his enthusiasm and dedication. His classes unfold organically, with seamless insertions of relevant information and natural dialogue and discussions between the students and Mike, but he achieves this by being highly prepared and knowledgeable about the topic at hand.”

Levin said that at Flagstaff, teachers are entrusted to design the curriculum and to select the books that best serves students. “This permits the course content to adapt to the desires and needs of the students,” Levin said. “So much of my position in the language and theater arts is about laying the foundation in the historical while staying current to the trends in academia and the world.”

Patrick R. O’Connor, Southwest High School, Minneapolis, Minn.

Williams senior Alison Pincus’ love of history was ignited in O’Connor’s History of the Americas course. “Mr. O’Connor was the only high school teacher I ever had who truly treated his students like adults,” Pincus said. “By this I do not simply mean that he acknowledged his students as mature, responsible individuals, but also that he created an environment in which the opinions of each student were genuinely valued and nurtured.”

A social studies teacher at Southwest High School since 1992, O’Connor has also taught courses in government, economics, and urban education. He was named Minneapolis Teacher of the Year in 2003-2004. “Mr. O’Connor practiced something I so rarely saw in my high school teachers: restraint,” Pincus said. “He saw the value in letting students share their opinions even before he chose to interject his own, and in doing so promoted an atmosphere of critical thinking that rivals what I see in my Williams courses today.”

Southwest High School Principal Bill Smith said of O’Connor, “Over the years, students have recognized him as one of the major positive influences in their lives. He is highly respected by his peers and students. Patrick is a professional, caring teacher.”

O’Connor said he feels it is an essential part of his job to make students feel welcomed in the classroom. “If students look forward to being in my class and I can interact with each student as an individual, my teaching will be much rewarded,” he said.

Anne L. Thomas, Community High School, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Williams senior Erik Levinsohn said his intellectual journey in college and his choice to major in mathematics could not have happened without Thomas. “She opened my eyes to a world in which functions could describe everything and calculus was just one tool among many that could be used to understand these functions,” Levinsohn said. “Math, in other words, was the language that elucidated the universe. When I earn a degree in June, it will be for both of us.”

Thomas has been a teacher of secondary mathematics at Community High School since 1996, teaching all levels of math classes. She is currently the chair of the school’s mathematics department. “Anne was electric in the classroom,” Levinsohn said. “[She] believed that it was her personal responsibility to ensure that not only did her students learn the material, but also that they achieved an appreciation for its importance. She devoted herself wholly to what she taught.”

John B. Boshoven, counselor for continuing education at Community High School, said Thomas is “a self non-promoter, a tireless and consummate teacher who loves kids and adores calculus. She is a wonderful human and teacher and would make the Olmsted Prize her own.”

Thomas’s teaching philosophy revolves around students having fun and succeeding at the lifelong process of learning. “It’s my job to make sure students are engaged, which requires building strong, positive relationships,” Thomas said. “I also believe that teaching is a powerful way to learn, which means students should have opportunities to teach, and teachers are always learning.”

Thomas uses unique approaches to learning, such as extensive group learning and “math aerobics,” in which students represent the curve of a graph of a given equation with their whole bodies. “I learn so much from my students and I get to have fun teaching every day,” she said.

Mark Vondracek, Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Ill.

“In thinking about what made Doc V [Mark Vondracek] such an incredible teacher, the first thing that comes to mind is the way that he listened to you,” said Williams senior Anders Schneider. “He always treats what you have to say with the utmost importance and sincerity.” Schneider also mentioned Vondracek’s great efforts to build individual relationships with each of his students and to offer unlimited support. “His passion for education was definitely contagious, and when I decided that I wanted to be a highschool physics teacher, he was the first person I called for advice and wisdom,” Schneider said.

Vondracek has been a physics teacher at Evanston Township High School since 1998. He serves not only as a physics teacher but also has a coach and advisor for students conducting science research and taking place in numerous science and math competitions. Additionally, he co-founded Project Excite, a program that serves to eliminate the academic achievement gap between white and minority students. “Doc V has shown me in various ways that he is truly committed to improving the American education system and eliminating inequality in education, in particular,” Schneider said.

Oscar Hawthorne, assistant superintendent and principal of Evanston Township High School, said Vondracek has brought a level of commitment and excellence to the school that he has rarely seen in over 20 years of service.

Vondracek’s goal for each student is to “truly learn and internalize the physics and the process of science to the point where he or she becomes a better problem solver – not just a person who can retain physics information long enough to pass a test,” he said. He also emphasized the willingness of high school students to explore their surroundings. “When given a chance to explore, students will,” Vondracek said. “They just need a comfortable setting where they feel it is all right to fail, then learn from mistakes, and then get it right.”

END

Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 8, 2012 – An annular solar eclipse will sweep across Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and the western United States on May 20.  Williams College astronomy professor Jay Pasachoff will observe it from New Mexico, joined by professional colleagues and by eight undergraduate students.  At an annular eclipse, a ring of everyday sunlight remains around the silhouette of the Moon, even at the eclipse’s peak.  Coordinated observations will be made with colleagues in charge of radio telescopes in California and of telescopes on spacecraft.

Pasachoff, Chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Solar Eclipses, will be observing his 55th eclipse of the Sun.  “Though the sky won’t get as dark as it does during a total solar eclipse, the Moon will cover just about the whole Sun at one time or another, so I arranged to observe it with the world’s largest and best array of radio telescopes,” said Pasachoff.  “Since we know the rate at which the Moon appears to move across the Sun, by taking data every second, we can get high resolution showing exactly where the Sun’s radio emission comes from, getting higher accuracy in viewing sunspot regions than is otherwise possible.  We can compare these positions with those that shine in x-rays or the extreme ultraviolet radiation being observed from satellites.  The results should help us understand how flares and other solar activity arise,” said Pasachoff.  “The currently approaching maximum of the sunspot cycle should provide us with several active regions on the solar disk that we can study.”

The scientific studies are sponsored by a grant to Williams College, with Pasachoff as Principal Investigator, from the National Science Foundation’s Solar Research Program of the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division.  The grant covers both the annular eclipse of May 20 and a total solar eclipse Pasachoff and his colleagues and students will observe from Australia on November 14.

For the annular eclipse, Pasachoff has recruited colleagues across the country to use the major solar facilities that are in or close to the band of annularity, which is a couple of hundred miles wide and thousands of miles long.  He will be observing at the Jansky Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, whose linked 27 antennas are located 60 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico.  Pasachoff will be joined there by eight of his students and by Dr. Bryce Babcock, also of Williams College’s Astronomy Department.  Pasachoff is working there with Dr. Dale Gary and Samuel Tun of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Dr. Timothy Bastian and Bryan Butler of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and Bin Chen of the University of Virginia, all experienced in using the JVLA for solar research.

The six Williams students involved are taking a course in solar physics from Pasachoff this semester; most are supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-funded project.  The Williams students are Allen Davis ’14 from North Stonington, Conn., Markus Gonzales ’13 from Lake Odessa, Mich., Muzhou Lu ’13 from Queens, N.Y., Shubhanga Pandey ’13 from Kathmandu, Nepal, Ben Oliva ’12 from Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Ben Seiler ’12 from New York, N.Y.  Auditor Ryan Barley of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, will join them.  Barley is from Westfield, Mass. Also participating will be Eric Edelman of Wesleyan University, a Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium Summer Fellow from Pleasanton, Calif., working with Pasachoff through an NSF grant in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

Coordinated measurements of the effects of the eclipse on the Earth’s atmosphere, through a perhaps 10°F drop in temperature and otherwise, will be carried out nearby by Michael Thomas Roman of Cornell University in coordination with Professor Marcos Peñaloza from the Universidad de los Andes in Merida, Venezuela, who is spending a Fulbright leave with Pasachoff at Williams, and by Naomi Pasachoff, whose measurements at the 2010 total solar eclipse in Easter Island are also being studied.

Robert Lucas of Sydney, Australia, Michael Kentrianakis of New York, Michael Doochin and Linda Kartoz of Nashville, Tenn., and Phyllis Babcock are among the experienced eclipse observers who will join the group at the JVLA site.

Further, Pasachoff, Gary, Bastian, and Chun are working with Stephen White of Kirtland Air Force Base in observations made with an array of radio telescopes known as CARMA (The Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy), which is located in the Inyo Mountains above the Owens Valley near Big Pine, California. CARMA will observe at shorter radio wavelengths than the JVLA, allowing views of a different level of the Sun’s atmosphere.

In addition, Pasachoff has recruited Dr. Thomas Kuiper of Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA-funded facility, to use their 34-m (100-foot) radio antenna near Goldstone, Calif., to observe the Moon cover and uncover the Sun, allowing observations at still different frequencies.  Pasachoff and Kuiper had worked together 40 years ago on radio observations of the Sun.

Space observations will be made with the same facilities as will be used for coordinated observations of the June 5 transit of Venus, about two weeks after the eclipse in an unusually astronomically busy spring.  They include NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and two U.S. telescopes, Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) and X-ray Telescope (XRT) on the Japanese Hinode spacecraft, as well as measurements of dimming solar flux from NASA’s ACRIMsat, with its Active Cavity Radio Irradiance Measurement 3 device run by Richard Willson out of JPL and NASA’s SORCE, with its Total Irradiance Measurement experiment run by Greg Kopp of the University of Colorado.

Pasachoff will also be coordinating observations of the Baily’s beads that mark the beginning and the end of totality with William Ryan and Eileen Ryan of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) in Socorro.  A NASA-funded Williams College POETS (Portable Occultation, Eclipse, and Transit System) camera is on long-term loan there, largely for the studies of the sizes and atmospheres of Pluto and other objects in the outer solar system, the subject of recently regranted support to Pasachoff from NASA’s Planetary Astronomy Program.  It will be used on the 12-inch telescope that guides the observatory’s 95-inch telescope to monitor the Baily’s beads, bits of sunlight that shine through valleys on the lunar edge just as the Moon begins or ends its central passage over the solar disk.  Francis Baily, in his 1836 paper reporting on the phenomena now named after him that he observed at the annular eclipse of that year, describes some aspects that may be similar to the black-drop effect that Pasachoff and colleagues will study at the June 5 transit of Venus.  The Pasachoff faculty, staff, and student team will visit the Magdalena Ridge Observatory on eclipse day, before they watch the eclipse from the Jansky Very Large Array’s telescopes.  The event will be Pasachoff’s 14th annular eclipse.

references:

http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/eclipse

http://www.eclipses.info

http://www.eclipse-maps.com

END

For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 7, 2012 – On Thursday, May 10, at 5 p.m., Williams College will host a screening of the documentary, Precious Knowledge, at Images Cinema in Williamstown. The event is free and open to the public.

The film interweaves the stories of students in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School. Although 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of high school, Tucson High School’s Mexican American Studies Program has become a national model for success. On average, 93 percent of the school’s Mexican American students graduate from high school and 85 percent go on to attend college. The makers of the film spent a year in the classroom filming this documentary, which shows the school’s innovative social justice curriculum and documents its impact on students.

Precious Knowledge is timely given Arizona’s wave of anti-immigration legislation.  Arizona lawmakers recently passed a bill that gives unilateral power to the state superintendent to get rid of ethnic studies classes.

The event will be followed by a Q-and-A with producer Eren McGinnis, who is the co-founder of the feminist filmmaking company Café Sister Productions and has produced 19 movies.

The event is sponsored by the Latina/o studies program, Multicultural Center, VISTA, College Council, Minority Coalition, dean’s office and vice president for strategic planning & institutional diversity.

END

For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 4, 2012 – Following the recommendation of the Committee on Appointments and Promotions, the Williams College Board of Trustees voted in April to promote Sara Dubow ’91, assistant professor of history, to the position of associate professor with tenure. The promotion will take effect July 1, 2012.

Dubow’s research and teaching interests look at the intersections of gender, law, and politics in the United States during the 20th century. Her book, Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America, published in 2011 by Oxford University Press, won the 2011 Bancroft Prize from Columbia University.

Since her arrival at Williams in 2007, Dubow has taught classes in the department of history and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies departments. During the 2011-12 academic year, she served on the Faculty Steering Committee and on the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Advisory Committee.

Before arriving at Williams, Dubow taught at the Brearley School, Hunter College High School, and Hunter College. Dubow received her B.A. from Williams College in 1991 and her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2003.

END

Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 3, 2012 – Williams College has announced its 2012 local Bicentennial Olmsted Awards for Faculty Development to McCann Technical School, Mt. Greylock Regional School, and Williamstown Elementary School. Three $4,300 awards will fund professional and curricular development projects. A ceremony will take place on Thursday, May 24, on the Williams College campus.

For McCann, the award was granted to Sarah Hadley and Erin Mucci, who submitted a proposal to offer AP biology and AP literature and composition at the school. The grant money will be used for Hadley and Mucci to attend the AP Summer Institute, which prepares teachers of AP courses, and for classroom materials, which include books and other AP test prep materials.

At Mt. Greylock, the award will be used to send four faculty members and one administrator to this summer’s 20th Annual Model Schools Conference, sponsored by the International Center for Leadership in Education. Those attending the conference are Christopher Barnes, assistant principal; Pat Blackman, middle school social studies; Lynne Jordan, wellness department; Amy Kirby, Spanish department; and Bob Thistle, high school math department.

The projects that will be funded at Williamstown Elementary School are “Flipping the Social Studies Classroom – Less Lecture and More Collaborative Learning Time,” “WES Data Team,” and “Curriculum Team.” The first project, proposed by Rebecca Leonard, fifth grade teacher, will employ the method of video lecture infused with footage to create history lessons. The data team project will expand the number of participants to better synthesize a macro/micro approach for data analysis and instructional interventions. Finally, members of the curriculum team will serve as leaders during the transition to the Common Core State Frameworks and will collaborate with the principal to plan professional development for teachers and monitor the progress of revising the school’s curriculum.

An endowment from the estates of George Olmsted, Jr. ’24 and his wife, Frances, fund the local Olmsted Awards. The awards were established during the 1993 Williams Bicentennial Celebration as an extension of the national Olmsted Prizes, which are given each year to secondary school teachers from across the nation, nominated by members of the Williams College senior class. Olmsted, a lifelong advocate of superior teaching, was the president and chairman of the board of the S.D. Warren (Paper) Company.

END

Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 2, 2012 – The Williams College Office of Fellowships has awarded Hubbard Hutchinson Fellowships to five graduating seniors pursuing careers in the arts: art major Carlos Diaz-Sullivan, art major Kyle Martin, theatre and political science major Noah Schechter, English major Inez Tan, and music major Laone Thekiso.

The Hubbard Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship is a cash award established in 1940 that is granted to a member or members of the graduating class to support their continued work in the creative and performing arts.  Prizes of $18,000 are awarded in the categories of writing, art, dance, theater, and music.

Carlos Diaz-Sullivan, of Hyannis, Mass., plans to use his Hutchinson Fellowship to make videos and films. Diaz-Sullivan is drawn to video because of its time-based nature and narrative potential.

“A lot of what is important in life to me appears to be dictated by double binds,” he said. “There is a feeling in me that all people are interconnected, yet at the same time, we seem to exist as separate individuals. In a quite general sense, my videos and paintings are usually an attempt to combat the loneliness produced by this conflict.”

Diaz-Sullivan’s artwork often deals with language on both theoretical and personal levels. “When I show people my work, I don’t think I care as much that they recognize what I am trying to do theoretically so much that they have an emotional reaction,” he said. “And if they recognize that their emotional reaction has something to do with the concept and structure, well then that is just a beautiful thing.”

Kyle Martin, of Madison, Conn., plans to use his Hutchinson Fellowship to enroll in a full-time intensive program at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City.  Martin developed an interest in dance as a choreographer for his high school’s show choir.  At Williams, he split his time between the Sankofa step team and the wrestling team.

“I saw no difference between training for sport and dance,” he said. “I consider wrestling to be a form of dance itself – you’re trying to ‘out dance’ your opponent. The mat was my stage.”

Last summer, Kyle took classes at the Broadway Dance Center and was part of the professional step company SoulSteps.  As a senior, Kyle has devoted his time to various types of creative work, including cinematography, acting with Cap & Bells, and singing with the a cappella group Good Question.  He is determined that art-making and performing will always be an integral part of his life, though he’s unsure of where his interests will take him.

Noah Schechter, of Baltimore, Md., will use his Hutchinson Fellowship to collaborate with the Brooklyn-based Theater of the Emerging American Moment (TEAM) on four recently commissioned plays.  Schechter has written, directed, and performed theater at Williams since his freshman year.  He performs with Combo Za Improv Comedy and DHS Sketch Comedy, works as a teacher’s assistant for the theater department and as a shop crew member for the ’62 Center, and served as artistic director of Cap & Bells Student Theater for its 2011-2012 season.

Last fall, Schechter completed two significant independent projects: A Project 406, a one-act farce about assassination and bureaucracy, and M@cB#!H, a senior thesis project that fused clown performance with Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.

“One of my ultimate goals is to create and lead a theater company of my own, and my work with the TEAM is the first step in that direction,” he said.

Inez Tan, of New York, N.Y., had no formal training in creative writing before coming to Williams.  During her four years, she became involved with various campus publications, including The Telos, of which she currently serves as editor-in-chief.  She has produced a number of poems and an honors thesis portfolio of short stories, which was advised by Professor Jim Shepard. After graduation, she’ll move to New York and apply to MFA programs in fiction writing, to begin in the fall of 2013.

“Looking back, my work has been very interested in exploring female friendship, as well as the ways it shades into betrayal, sexual aggression and rivalry, and the need for forgiveness,” she said. “Having attended an all-girls school until college, friendships with other women were and still are among my most formative relationships.”

Laone Thekiso of Gaborone, Botswana, plans to use his Hutchinson Fellowship to teach music for a year before he applies to graduate school in piano and composition.  Thekiso began composing during the fall of his sophomore year at Williams and recently completed a senior thesis in composition.

“I do not know exactly what the future holds for me, but fellowships like this are the kind of boon that gives creative artists the opportunity to accomplish feats that can really make a difference in other peoples’ lives,” he said.

Thekiso impressed fellow seniors with a solo piano performance at this year’s Convocation and will perform during Commencement’s Ivy Exercises as the elected Class Musician.

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Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 30, 2012 – Hopkins Memorial Forest will host a spring wildflower and botany walk on Saturday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The walk will begin outside the Rosenburg Center, near the entrance to Hopkins Forest and continue along some forested trails. The event is free and open to the public. Good footwear and outdoor gear are recommended.

The program will be led by Williams College Professor of Biology Joan Edwards. Edwards has been studying the flora of the forest and surrounding landscapes for more than two decades.

Early May is an especially good time to explore the botanical attractions of the Northern Berkshires because during this period, many “spring ephemeral” wildflowers are in bloom. These species, which include trillium, trout, lily, violets, and toothwort, bloom early in order to take advantage of the abundant sunlight that reaches the forest floor before the trees leaf out. By June, many of these flowers and their foliage will have faded from view. The program will also give participants an opportunity to learn more about some of the forest’s perennial plants, including trees and shrubs.

Hopkins Forest, owned and operated by Williams College, is located at the junction of Bulkley Street and Northwest Hill Road in Williamstown.

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For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu Williams College can also be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/williamscollege and Twitter: twitter.com/williamscollege