Faculty Sabbaticals 2013
1
April 19, 2013 The Phillipian NEWS A7 Teachers on Sabbatical in the 2013-2014 School Years Suzanne Buckwalter, In- structor in Math, will take a step back from Andover life and teaching in order to delve into the history of Cal- culus and Precalculus and the mathematicians that de- veloped them. She plans to conduct her research in Indi- anapolis, IN, where her fam- ily lives, for the full 2013-2014 school year. “I want to see if there are any correlations between what students are going through now and what those famous mathematicians went through when they were young math students,” said Buckwalter. She will also do some programming during her sabbatical to write questions for the math department in a program called WebWork that allows students to com- plete homework online. While some classes already use the program, the math department hopes to expand it and write its own prob- lems, which Buckwalter will help with during her year away. Buckwalter hopes that her sabbatical will allow her to step away from the Ando- ver bubble to focus solely on math, something she hasn’t been able to do since grad school. She said that learning about the history of mathe- maticians will help her better understand the subject. “If I know why mathematicians asked the questions they did, the theorems make so much more sense to me.” L.HERRINGTON/ THE PHILLIPIAN Suzanne Buckwalter Marcelle Doheny, In- structor in History, will explore the Peabody Mu- seum and develop an ar- cheology elective during her one-term sabbatical in the winter. Doheny anticipates that the course will be based on the exhibits and collections available at the Peabody Museum. “It will be using the stories from the collections and it will be based on the sto- ries that the collections can tell us,” said Doheny. “This is a unique op- portunity to do an archae- ology or anthropology course at an institution that has a great collection and is important with the history of the discipline. It’s a great combination,” continued Doheny. Doheny said that she has always been inter- ested in archaeology be- cause of the real life ap- plications. She believes that physical evidence can bring a whole new level to understanding history. “I really enjoy trying to help students understand history through non-writ- ten sources,” said Doheny. She said that she is particularly thrilled to work with the Peabody, her favorite place on cam- pus. She plans to converse with the educators at the Peabody to coordinate her new elective with existing modules. Marcelle Doheny Martha Fenton, Head Coach of Girls Varsity Hock- ey and Assistant Coach of Girls Varsity Field Hockey and Lacrosse, plans to work with and learn from college coaches and study student athletes and the athletics pro- gram at Andover during her 2013-2014 sabbatical in hopes of improving her coaching methods. Fenton said that she will shadow college hockey coach- es and observe other pro- grams. In particular, Fenton hopes to watch the US Wom- en’s Hockey Team’s training programs. “I would love to have an opportunity to watch their process,” said Fenton. “This will be an opportunity for me to become a student of these sports.” In addition to studying coaching methods, Fenton said that she intends to ob- serve and review athletics at Andover. “I hope to do work with coaches and have con- versations with the both ad- missions office and college counseling office on how we attract and matriculate stu- dent athletes. How do we then help them as coaches to take the step to play in col- lege?” said Fenton. Fenton is on the Athletic Council, which discusses the role of athletics at Andover. “This will be a time of reflec- tion of what I’m doing and what I could be doing better,” she said. Fenton has worked and coached at Andover for 19 years. She will live on campus during the sabbatical. Martha Fenton Although Chris Gurry, Instructor in History, will remain on campus for the length of his sabbatical, he plans to further his own education by attending and participating in a year-long colloquium around the question “Is America over and can it be fixed?” The colloquium holds a series of meetings through- out the year in a variety of settings, in universities, business locales and others. Gurry will join the group during spring term. Gurry will work with renowned international re- lations analysts and com- mentators such as Fareed Zakaria, Faoud Ajami and Robert Kaplan. “I will be fortunate to have access to academics, business lead- ers and policy makers,” said Gurry. This will be Gurry’s last sabbatical. He has taken five terms of sabbatical to attend graduate school and to study at St. Andrews University in Scotland. “This will be the capstone of my career and I hope that it will give me new insights with interna- tional relations. It’s going to be on the cutting edge of what is being taught at the graduate school level.” Gurry has taught the International Relations his- tory elective since 1986. In- ternational Relations is an elective that focuses on per- spectives and controversies, particularly in the form of policy. “I’m going to use the time to attend the differ- ent seminars and be able to bring that back to apply it to the classroom,” said Gurry. T.JOHST/ THE PHILLIPIAN Chris Gurry Traveling to Germany and New York City, Tasha Haw- thorne, Instructor in English, will take the 2013-2014 school year off to complete and pub- lish her dissertation, entitled “Foxes, Players, and Vixens: Reading Black Pulp Fiction,” after nine years of research. Hawthorne will spend six months in southern Germany with her husband Geoffrey Tanner, Instructor in Chem- istry and Biology, who will take a leave of absence for the year, and their children. Hawthorne’s dissertation fo- cuses on African-American popular fiction during the Cold War, particularly on the work of three 20th century African-American authors: Ann Petry, Robert Beck and Donald Goines. “These writers are inter- ested in thinking about ma- teriality and the life chances of individuals during the 40s, 50s, and 60s. We’re talk- ing about the kind of blight- ing that happened in urban centers, where mostly lower working class African-Ameri- cans were living, where there was massive exodus and what that does to people left be- hind,” said Hawthorne. Hawthorne said that she studied both the ‘outlaw’ sta- tus of the texts and the place in culture and the popularity behind each book. “African-American litera- ture is born out of the need to articulate someone’s human- ity and that is so very impor- tant to me,” said Hawthorne. Hawthorne plans to re- ceive her Ph.D. from the Department of English at Northwestern University. She began working at Andover in 2008. Tasha Hawthorne Following up on her one-term sabbatical in 2008 when she worked in a neuroscience lab at Boston University, Carol Israel, Associate Director of Counseling, will spend the 2013-2014 school year continuing her studies in a neuroscience lab. She has not yet decided on a lab. She plans to use her experience to revamp her interdisciplinary se- nior elective—which she teaches with Jeremiah Hagler, Instructor in Bi- ology—called “The Brain and You.” In this class, students study the brain from both a psychologist’s and a biologist’s perspec- tive, dividing the brain into portions, such as reli- gion, music and love. She also plans to take neuroscience classes dur- ing her time away from school. Israel said that in order to teach the elective, it is important for her to stay up to date on the world of neuroscience. Since the field is constantly advanc- ing, she said, most neuro- science classes use recent scientific articles instead of a textbook. “I want to take the year off because what’s hap- pening in neuroscience now is completely new,” said Israel. “I want to be in the lab so I can watch these new discoveries take place.” While on sabbatical, Israel will continue to be involved in planning the New Wellness Center with Dr. Patel. Carol Israel C.BERRY./ THE PHILLIPIAN S. MORELAND/ THE PHILLIPIAN E.AAVAKUMOVA/ THE PHILLIPIAN S. MORELAND/ THE PHILLIPIAN Marc Koolen, Instruc- tor in Biology, will take next Fall Term off to research the life and works of John James Audubon and write and re- hearse a one-man play based on his story. This will be his second one-man play, as he per- formed as Darwin in 2008. Audubon was a French- American ornithologist and painter who is particularly famous for his life-sized paintings of birds, bound to- gether in a book called “Birds of America.” Audubon spent more than 12 years creating the paintings. The Addison Gallery of American Art at Andover owns a set, valued at 12 to 15 million dollars, ac- cording to a previous article in The Phillipian. Koolen will put together a PowerPoint slideshow for vis- itors to the Addison Gallery of American Art as an introduc- tion to the particular set that the Addison owns, which is bound into a double elephant folio. Koolen developed an in- terest in Audubon’s story through teaching an ornithol- ogy science elective. “To me his life is a really interesting story. He was a guy who struggled a lot with debt and lived under terrible conditions. He was separated from his wife for years at a time in order to go out and look for birds. It’s a phenom- enal story to see where it end- ed up, where these things are worth millions,” said Koolen. Koolen will travel to plac- es where Audubon studied, such as Louisiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and New York. Koolen will perform the play in winter or spring term next year. S. MORELAND/ THE PHILLIPIAN Marc Koolen Bill Leahy, Director of Admission, will take a sab- batical from July to Janu- ary. He will spend the time completing his Masters de- gree in Educational Admin- istration, Policy & Planning at Boston University. Leahy will remain with his family on campus for the length of his sabbatical, commuting daily to Bos- ton for his course work. On campus, Leahy will contin- ue to serve as an academic advisor and house counsel- or in Flagg House in Abbot. Leahy said that he en- joys the classroom environ- ment and intends to take a wide range of courses that will focus on issues facing both public and private in- stitutions. “My early course work will focus on strategic planning, non-profit man- agement, and issues related to equity in education. I believe this program will be incredibly important in my work in admissions, espe- cially as the school begins its own strategic planning efforts. “ Leahy will be back in time to participate in the review of applications for the entering class of 2014 in January. Bill Leahy During her Fall 2013 sabbatical, Catherine Tousignant, Instructor in English, hopes to read a wider variety of litera- ture, discover new books and further develop her curricula and teaching methods. “During my time away from teaching, I hope to read a good deal, work through some big ques- tions of course develop- ment and pedagogy, prac- tice mindful reflection and enjoy the pleasures of discovery,” said Tousig- nant. Tousignant will attend classes and workshops in the Boston area, explor- ing new teaching meth- ods of engaging students in a more meaningful way as well. She also hopes to discover new material to incorporate into her class- es. She does not, however, have a strict plan for the year. “I’m not sure what to anticipate. I will let my reading and studies un- fold and shape my think- ing in an organic way,” said Tousignant. In particular, Tousig- nant will focus on her Media Studies elective. Media Studies is a one- or two-term English elective that looks at the produc- tion and consumption of news, branding, advertis- ing, consumer culture, en- tertainment and celebrity culture. Tousignant said that an update is in order after teaching Media Studies for five years. She hopes to take time to study the scholarship and use of im- agery in the media. Catherine Tousignant L.XUAN/ THE PHILLIPIAN Temba Maqubela, Dean of Faculty, and John Rogers, Dean of Studies granted four full-year sabbaticals, four term-long sabbaticals and one half-year sabbatical for the 2013-2014 school year. Suzanne Buckwalter, Martha Fenton, Carol Israel and Tasha Hawthorne will take full-year sabbaticals. Catherine Tousignant and Marc Koolen will take sabbaticals in fall term. Mar- celle Doheny will take a sabbatical in winter term and Christopher Gurry in the spring. Bill Leahy will take a six-month sabbatical from July to January. By PHOEBE GOULD
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April 19, 2013 T h e P h i l l i p i a n NEWS A7
Teachers on Sabbatical in the 2013-2014 School Years
Suzanne Buckwalter, In-structor in Math, will take a step back from Andover life and teaching in order to delve into the history of Cal-culus and Precalculus and the mathematicians that de-veloped them. She plans to conduct her research in Indi-anapolis, IN, where her fam-ily lives, for the full 2013-2014 school year.
“I want to see if there are any correlations between what students are going through now and what those
famous mathematicians went through when they were young math students,” said Buckwalter.
She will also do some programming during her sabbatical to write questions for the math department in a program called WebWork that allows students to com-plete homework online. While some classes already use the program, the math department hopes to expand it and write its own prob-lems, which Buckwalter will help with during her year away.
Buckwalter hopes that her sabbatical will allow her to step away from the Ando-ver bubble to focus solely on math, something she hasn’t been able to do since grad school. She said that learning about the history of mathe-maticians will help her better understand the subject. “If I know why mathematicians asked the questions they did, the theorems make so much more sense to me.”
L.HERRINGTON/ THE PHILLIPIAN
Suzanne Buckwalter
Marcelle Doheny, In-structor in History, will explore the Peabody Mu-seum and develop an ar-cheology elective during her one-term sabbatical in the winter.
Doheny anticipates that the course will be based on the exhibits and collections available at the Peabody Museum. “It will be using the stories from the collections and it will be based on the sto-ries that the collections
can tell us,” said Doheny.“This is a unique op-
portunity to do an archae-ology or anthropology course at an institution that has a great collection and is important with the history of the discipline. It’s a great combination,” continued Doheny.
Doheny said that she has always been inter-ested in archaeology be-cause of the real life ap-plications. She believes that physical evidence can bring a whole new level to understanding history.
“I really enjoy trying to help students understand history through non-writ-ten sources,” said Doheny.
She said that she is particularly thrilled to work with the Peabody, her favorite place on cam-pus. She plans to converse with the educators at the Peabody to coordinate her new elective with existing modules.
Marcelle Doheny
Martha Fenton, Head Coach of Girls Varsity Hock-ey and Assistant Coach of Girls Varsity Field Hockey and Lacrosse, plans to work with and learn from college coaches and study student athletes and the athletics pro-gram at Andover during her 2013-2014 sabbatical in hopes of improving her coaching methods.
Fenton said that she will shadow college hockey coach-es and observe other pro-grams. In particular, Fenton
hopes to watch the US Wom-en’s Hockey Team’s training programs. “I would love to have an opportunity to watch their process,” said Fenton. “This will be an opportunity for me to become a student of these sports.”
In addition to studying coaching methods, Fenton said that she intends to ob-serve and review athletics at Andover. “I hope to do work with coaches and have con-versations with the both ad-missions office and college counseling office on how we attract and matriculate stu-dent athletes. How do we then help them as coaches to take the step to play in col-lege?” said Fenton.
Fenton is on the Athletic Council, which discusses the role of athletics at Andover. “This will be a time of reflec-tion of what I’m doing and what I could be doing better,” she said.
Fenton has worked and coached at Andover for 19 years. She will live on campus during the sabbatical.
Martha Fenton
Although Chris Gurry, Instructor in History, will remain on campus for the length of his sabbatical, he plans to further his own education by attending and participating in a year-long colloquium around the question “Is America over and can it be fixed?”
The colloquium holds a series of meetings through-out the year in a variety of settings, in universities, business locales and others. Gurry will join the group during spring term.
Gurry will work with renowned international re-lations analysts and com-mentators such as Fareed Zakaria, Faoud Ajami and Robert Kaplan. “I will be fortunate to have access to academics, business lead-ers and policy makers,” said Gurry.
This will be Gurry’s last sabbatical. He has taken five terms of sabbatical to attend graduate school and to study at St. Andrews University in Scotland. “This will be the capstone of my career and I hope that it will give me
new insights with interna-tional relations. It’s going to be on the cutting edge of what is being taught at the graduate school level.”
Gurry has taught the International Relations his-tory elective since 1986. In-ternational Relations is an elective that focuses on per-spectives and controversies, particularly in the form of policy.
“I’m going to use the time to attend the differ-ent seminars and be able to bring that back to apply it to the classroom,” said Gurry.
T.JOHST/ THE PHILLIPIAN
Chris GurryTraveling to Germany and
New York City, Tasha Haw-thorne, Instructor in English, will take the 2013-2014 school year off to complete and pub-lish her dissertation, entitled “Foxes, Players, and Vixens: Reading Black Pulp Fiction,” after nine years of research.
Hawthorne will spend six months in southern Germany with her husband Geoffrey Tanner, Instructor in Chem-istry and Biology, who will take a leave of absence for the year, and their children. Hawthorne’s dissertation fo-cuses on African-American popular fiction during the Cold War, particularly on the work of three 20th century African-American authors: Ann Petry, Robert Beck and Donald Goines.
“These writers are inter-ested in thinking about ma-teriality and the life chances of individuals during the 40s, 50s, and 60s. We’re talk-ing about the kind of blight-ing that happened in urban centers, where mostly lower working class African-Ameri-cans were living, where there was massive exodus and what
that does to people left be-hind,” said Hawthorne.
Hawthorne said that she studied both the ‘outlaw’ sta-tus of the texts and the place in culture and the popularity behind each book.
“African-American litera-ture is born out of the need to articulate someone’s human-ity and that is so very impor-tant to me,” said Hawthorne.
Hawthorne plans to re-ceive her Ph.D. from the Department of English at Northwestern University. She began working at Andover in 2008.
Tasha HawthorneFollowing up on her
one-term sabbatical in 2008 when she worked in a neuroscience lab at Boston University, Carol Israel, Associate Director of Counseling, will spend the 2013-2014 school year continuing her studies in a neuroscience lab. She has not yet decided on a lab.
She plans to use her experience to revamp her interdisciplinary se-nior elective—which she teaches with Jeremiah Hagler, Instructor in Bi-ology—called “The Brain and You.” In this class, students study the brain from both a psychologist’s and a biologist’s perspec-tive, dividing the brain into portions, such as reli-gion, music and love.
She also plans to take neuroscience classes dur-ing her time away from school.
Israel said that in order to teach the elective, it is important for her to stay up to date on the world of neuroscience. Since the field is constantly advanc-
ing, she said, most neuro-science classes use recent scientific articles instead of a textbook.
“I want to take the year off because what’s hap-pening in neuroscience now is completely new,” said Israel. “I want to be in the lab so I can watch these new discoveries take place.”
While on sabbatical, Israel will continue to be involved in planning the New Wellness Center with Dr. Patel.
Carol Israel
C.BERRY./ THE PHILLIPIAN S. MORELAND/ THE PHILLIPIAN
E.AAVAKUMOVA/ THE PHILLIPIAN S. MORELAND/ THE PHILLIPIAN
Marc Koolen, Instruc-tor in Biology, will take next Fall Term off to research the life and works of John James Audubon and write and re-hearse a one-man play based on his story.
This will be his second one-man play, as he per-formed as Darwin in 2008.
Audubon was a French-American ornithologist and painter who is particularly famous for his life-sized paintings of birds, bound to-gether in a book called “Birds of America.” Audubon spent more than 12 years creating the paintings. The Addison
Gallery of American Art at Andover owns a set, valued at 12 to 15 million dollars, ac-cording to a previous article in The Phillipian.
Koolen will put together a PowerPoint slideshow for vis-itors to the Addison Gallery of American Art as an introduc-tion to the particular set that the Addison owns, which is bound into a double elephant folio.
Koolen developed an in-terest in Audubon’s story through teaching an ornithol-ogy science elective.
“To me his life is a really interesting story. He was a guy who struggled a lot with debt and lived under terrible conditions. He was separated from his wife for years at a time in order to go out and look for birds. It’s a phenom-enal story to see where it end-ed up, where these things are worth millions,” said Koolen.
Koolen will travel to plac-es where Audubon studied, such as Louisiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Koolen will perform the play in winter or spring term next year.
S. MORELAND/ THE PHILLIPIAN
Marc Koolen
Bill Leahy, Director of Admission, will take a sab-batical from July to Janu-ary. He will spend the time completing his Masters de-gree in Educational Admin-istration, Policy & Planning at Boston University.
Leahy will remain with his family on campus for the length of his sabbatical,
commuting daily to Bos-ton for his course work. On campus, Leahy will contin-ue to serve as an academic advisor and house counsel-or in Flagg House in Abbot.
Leahy said that he en-joys the classroom environ-ment and intends to take a wide range of courses that will focus on issues facing both public and private in-stitutions. “My early course work will focus on strategic planning, non-profit man-agement, and issues related to equity in education. I believe this program will be incredibly important in my work in admissions, espe-cially as the school begins its own strategic planning efforts. “
Leahy will be back in time to participate in the review of applications for the entering class of 2014 in January.
Bill LeahyDuring her Fall 2013
sabbatical, Catherine Tousignant, Instructor in English, hopes to read a wider variety of litera-ture, discover new books and further develop her curricula and teaching methods.
“During my time away from teaching, I hope to read a good deal, work through some big ques-tions of course develop-ment and pedagogy, prac-tice mindful reflection and enjoy the pleasures of discovery,” said Tousig-nant.
Tousignant will attend classes and workshops in the Boston area, explor-ing new teaching meth-ods of engaging students in a more meaningful way as well. She also hopes to discover new material to incorporate into her class-
es. She does not, however,
have a strict plan for the year. “I’m not sure what to anticipate. I will let my reading and studies un-fold and shape my think-ing in an organic way,” said Tousignant.
In particular, Tousig-nant will focus on her Media Studies elective. Media Studies is a one- or two-term English elective that looks at the produc-tion and consumption of news, branding, advertis-ing, consumer culture, en-tertainment and celebrity culture.
Tousignant said that an update is in order after teaching Media Studies for five years. She hopes to take time to study the scholarship and use of im-agery in the media.
Catherine Tousignant
L.XUAN/ THE PHILLIPIAN
Temba Maqubela, Dean of Faculty, and John Rogers, Dean of Studies granted four full-year sabbaticals, four term-long sabbaticals and one half-year sabbatical for the 2013-2014 school year. Suzanne Buckwalter, Martha Fenton, Carol Israel and Tasha Hawthorne will take full-year sabbaticals. Catherine Tousignant and Marc Koolen will take sabbaticals in fall term. Mar-celle Doheny will take a sabbatical in winter term and Christopher Gurry in the spring. Bill Leahy will take a six-month sabbatical from July to January.
By PHOEBE GOULD
