Hampshire College Non Satis Scire Summer 2012

Non Satis ScireSUMMER 2012

T H E H A M P S H I R E M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S

Educatingfor Change

“Make the circle diploma highly coveted.”

LEANNA JADE POHEVITZ 08F,

STUDENT COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

Non Satis ScireT O K N O W I S N O T E N O U G H

F E A T U R E S

6 Educating for ChangeFrom inception, the making of Hampshire College has been a shared enterprise, and an educational approach designed to meet the challenges of a world in flux. The inauguration of President Jonathan Lash reminds us that we can best honor that history by embracing our obligation to the future.

18 Between Languages: A New Role for Translation

In an increasingly interconnected world, the ability to move across languages is becoming vital. Humanities professors bring translation into their Hampshire classrooms, tackling artistic, political, ethical, and philosophical questions.

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3 View from the Orchard

5 Alumni News

22 Bookshelf

24 Alumni Events

25 Notes from Alums

D I V I S I O N I V P R O F I L E S

21 Yiddish on Stage: Debra Caplan 03F

26 Fostering Self-confidence and Educational Success: Maria Vallejo 72F

28 Climate Change Research—A Nobel Endeavor: David Schimel 73F

30 Hailing Tomorrow’s Taxi: David Klahr 92F

35 Stories Lead to Social Change: Seth Freed Wessler 03F

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Summer 2012

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SETH OLENICK

2 Summer 2012 Non Satis Scire

NSSEditor Elaine Thomas, director of communications

Coeditor Killara Burn, director of alumni andfamily relations

Designer Mary Zyskowski, director of design

Copy Editor Doris Troy

Contributors Joshua Murray, Matt Krefting 99F, Michael Medeiros, Jim Gipe, Gregory Cherin

On the Cover Students who enliven Hampshire today will live and work in a world turbulent with physical, social, and technological change,” says President Jonathan Lash in his inaugural address (page 8).

Shown on front is a microcontroller board in the hands of a student working on a technology project in Hampshire’s Lemelson Center. (Michael Medeiros photo)

Non Satis Scire is published two times per year by the Hampshire College office of Alumni and Family Relations. Diverse views are presented and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or the official policies of Hampshire College. Non Satis Scire is distributed to Hampshire alums, current students and their parents, and donors and friends of the College. Editorial correspondence may be directed to [email protected] or Non Satis Scire, Office of Communications, Hampshire College, 893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002. The office of Alumni and Family Relations can be reached at 413.559.6638 or [email protected].

Hampshire College is a founding member of Project Pericles, an association of colleges that actively pursue social awareness and responsible citizenship as core elements of their educational mission.

Non Satis Scire is printed on 10 percent post-consumer fiber paper using linseed oil-based inks. Vegetable based inks are made from renewable resources and low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Hampshire uses 100 percent digital photography to minimize use of chemicals. Please recycle your copy of this magazine.

From the Director of Alumni and Family Relations

THE INAUGURATION ISSUE! If you were here on April 27–28, you’re probably still reeling from the words, the original music, the student work on display, the amazing celebration of your college. In any case, I hope you’ve watched and listened online to Al Gore, Jonathan Lash, Zilong Wang 09F, Professor Djola Branner, Gary Hirshberg 72F, Maria Vallejo 72F, and others, and to the fabulous music—jazz composed and played by Professor Marty Ehrlich and his band, Cape Breton music played by Professor Becky Miller and hers, and shape note music sung by students, alums, and friends.

It was a wonderful celebration of our new president and our renewed College— a match, according to Al Gore and many others, that’s perfect. It’s been an exciting, intense, fast-paced year. Faculty, staff, and students have been working as hard as ever at our “day jobs” while taking deep dives into what we’re about: analyzing how we do things, reaching out for new ideas, and creating partnerships across the Hampshire community. There have been so many new things: reHamping the barn, the Creativity Center, TEDxHampshireCollege, Alumni Think Tanks, the Presidential and the Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series, the Women in Business program, and the Alumni Advisory Group. The 2012 Commencement speaker, Eugene Mirman 92F, and the common reading author, Jeff Sharlet 90F, are both Hampshire graduates. Alums are coming back more than ever—speaking in classes, giving “unlectures” and performances, and exhibiting and presenting on campus, including at Family, Alumni & Friends, and the Div IV. It has been a banner year for both applications and fund-raising.

If you haven’t been back in a while, we hope you’ll soon join us—there are so many reasons to visit Hampshire today. Come help continue the celebration of your College.

Killara Burn

Eugene Mirman 92F

Professor Becky Miller

ZilongWang 09F

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H A M P S H I R E N E W S C A M P U S A N D C O M M U N I T Y

OrchardView from the

3Summer 2012 To Know Is Not Enough

A favorite course Professor Rueschmann has taught?Traveling Identities: Immigrants, Exiles, and Sojourners in Film, Literature, and Culture

Why?The course was “in part inspired by some excellent, thought-provoking Div IIIs” and coincided with personal interests as the German native went through her own immigration process.

Eva Rueschmann Named VPAA and Dean of Faculty

Professor Eva Rueschmann has been named vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty. Her appointment is effective July 1. She is currently working with biological anthropology professor Alan Goodman, who has served as interim vice president and dean of faculty since 2009, to ensure a smooth transition.

A professor of cultural studies, Rueschmann has taught at Hampshire since 1994. She served from 2006 until 2011 as dean of the Center for Academic Support and Advising (CASA).

Among her scholarly interests are cinema, with a focus on Australian and New Zealand film, and world literature. She was recently elected vice president of the American Association of Australasian Literary Studies. Courses taught by her cover topics ranging from exile and migration in transnational literature and film to gender studies, film studies, and visual culture.

Rueschmann holds doctoral and master’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a bachelor’s degree from Heidelberg University, Germany. She is the author of Sisters on Screen: Siblings in Contemporary Cinema and edited Moving Pictures, Migrating Identities.

Grants Support Food, Sustainability Projects

The Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment, a program of the Henry Luce Foundation, awarded Hampshire a $50,000 grant to explore interdisciplinary connections around the theme of food, sustainability, and climate change in East Asia. The grant will assist Asian studies and natural science faculty in exploring research and teaching that can build stronger curricular bridges. The 16-month project is led by Kay Johnson, director of Hampshire’s China Exchange Program.

Hampshire also received two grants totaling $45,000 to incorporate dairy science into its microbiology and biochemistry course offerings. These awards, one from the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the other from Newman’s Own Foundation, will enable the College to build a cheese room at the Farm Center’s dairy barn and acquire small, state-of-the-art equipment. Students will learn scientific principles as they learn production techniques.

Three Hampshire Fulbrights

Nathan Bender 05F, Eamonn Gallagher 08F, and Jeremy Koelmel 07S have been notified that they will receive Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships for 2012. Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program fosters mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges.

Bender will work in China and will also receive a Fulbright language grant to study Chinese for three months prior to beginning his research. Koelmel will conduct research in India on the bioremediation of chromium. Gallagher plans to work with a professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca on a project exploring the complicated shared history of Romania and Moldova.

H A M P S H I R E N E W S C A M P U S A N D C O M M U N I T Y

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Hampshire Graduates Are ‘Like Batman’

You are all like Batman, training in the woods with scholars and monks,” Eugene Mirman 92F told the graduating class in a rollicking commencement speech that drew nonstop laughter. But even as he poked good-naturedly at the nontraditional approaches and stereotypes of the College, Mirman extolled the virtues of the Hampshire degree:

“I think Hampshire is an amazing example of American ingenuity,” he said. “It’s a place where self-reliance, self-motivation, and effort are rewarded.”

He assured parents of the 360 graduates that their children had been well prepared for success after Hampshire: “The difficulties they encountered figuring out how to navigate their own educations mimics the kinds of challenges they’ll actually face throughout their lives.”

Commencement videos and photographs are available online in the news and events section of the College website.

News

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Alumni

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Alumni Advisory Group

Members of the new AAG met for the first time in January. Chaired by Ellen Sturgis 77F, the group has now created subcommittees on communications, events, and fundraising. Already members have worked on alumni service days, strategized ways to get alum input into alum programming, and talked about how to help graduates as they leave Hampshire.

AAG members (see bios on the alumni website, under volunteering and services) represent Hampshire’s four-plus decades, major geographic regions, diverse identities, and a variety of interests. Please email [email protected] with your suggestions.

To Blog Is Not Enough

The new alumni blog is for alums to review one another’s works: books, films, art exhibitions, music, and so on. Please send your suggestions for new alum work to include and what you’d like to review. It is designed to fly the Hampshire flag and share the excellent work of Hampshire alums in a new way. We hope you will send in your best work.

Shelley Johnson Carey 72F (higher education); Reeve Thompson 93F, Noah Falstein 75F (technology and creativity); and approximately 400 other alums who posed questions and contributed ideas. President Lash commissioned a summary of the January think tanks, which you can read on the Hampshire alumni site, and has incorporated suggestions and quotes from them in drafting the Case for Hampshire.

When it was time to close those think tanks, you protested, so in mid-April we opened new ones—as both Facebook and online discussion groups. On the very Hampshiresque themes of social change and entrepreneurship, postings are contributing to the discussion at and after the Stonyfield Entrepreneurship Institute (SEI) and the Division IV on social change. Please send suggestions for new think-tank topics for the fall—the brain? business? ethics in the digital age? health? education? critical thinking?—to [email protected].

Alumni Think Tanks

The January 2012 alumni think tanks (Facebook groups with survey-form alternatives) generated great discussions. At Ray Coppinger’s suggestion, Jonathan Lash invited conveners to help launch and keep the conversations lively. Warm thanks to Dave Schimel 73F, Tom Stoner 78F (sustainability); Arielle Saiber 89F, Dudley Merchant 73F (arts and humanities); Angela Campbell 72F,

A Lot to OfferNon Satis Scire” was the theme of the 93rd annual meeting of the American EducationalResearch Association (AERA), held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in April. Representing Hampshire were Sousan Arafeh 79F, assistant professor at Southern Connecticut State University, and other members of the Hampshire panel she organized: Neal Abraham, executive director of Five Colleges, Inc.; former president Chuck Longsworth; professor emerita Merle Bruno.

“Hampshire has a lot to offer in its success connecting people with their potential as inquisitive beings who can make a difference,” says Arafeh. “This was one small opportunity to share it.”

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Educating for Change~ The Inauguration of Jonathan Lash ~

To know is not enough’ could not be more appropriate to this time we are now living in. I want to challenge you to breathe life into that phrase. We know about the injustice in the world and we know that it’s not enough to simply know about it.”

INAUGURATION KEYNOTE SPEAKER AL GORE

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THE PACE of change is accelerating. By one estimate, the amount of technical information doubles every two years. Seventy percent of today’s students will work at jobs not yet invented. They will struggle to solve problems we do not yet understand, collaborating on multiple continents through institutions not yet created.

Challenging? Yes. But for a college founded with “crazy idealism, commitment, and chutzpah” that has sent out into the world 10,000 alums “disproportionately good at adapting to and creating change,” those challenges can be embraced as opportunities to lead in exciting, visionary ways.

The April 27 inauguration of Jonathan Lash formally installed Hampshire College’s

new president. It also set aside time and space to celebrate the narrative of Hampshire’s history, basking in pride at what has been accomplished and reflecting on our mission and the meaning of community. Most of all, it reflected a college

confidently looking forward with shared purpose and an enthusiastic endorsement of the wisdom of educating for change.

Educating for Change~ The Inauguration of Jonathan Lash ~


He is a natural born leader. Many of you have already discovered this. And you are very fortunate indeed, if you will allow me to say so, that you have Jonathan Lash about to be installed as your new president.”

KEYNOTE SPEAKER AL GORE

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‘Would you be willing to start a new college?’ and I gasped a little bit and then he said, ‘if you’ll start it, I’ll give you six million dollars.’ Plimpton recalls, “My mind went over in a corner and vomited for a little while. And I finally stomached my nausea and said, ‘all right, I’ll take it.’’’

So there it was, an idea, an agreement, and some money.

President Plimpton turned to Chuck Longsworth, who then worked for Amherst College, to begin to buy land for a campus and put together the foundations for the new college.

Local farmers who for years had been resisting offers to sell, protecting their land from encroaching development, saw the promise of the new school.

Howard Atkins, who sold some of the first land for the school, said when he heard rumors that Chuck was buying up land for a new school his reaction was “It just couldn’t be because it was just too big a thing to pull off. It was too good a thing to have happen.”

Even now, the whole thing seems a bit improbable, doesn’t it? Four colleges living side by side in a peaceful rural valley agree—on the suggestion of a group of professors and an idealistic millionaire—to launch a competitor, make it part of their consortium, and welcome its students to their classrooms.

Really?

Opened by Robert J. Garvey, High Sheriff of Hampshire County, the ceremony included a moment of silence, musical interludes, and words of welcome as well as the investiture and inaugural address of President Lash.

Educating for ChangeCRITICAL THINKING IN A CRITICAL TIME

~ From the Inaugural Address of President Jonathan Lash ~

H A m P S H I R E is a young school, the youngest by 100 years of the Five College consortium. Indeed, we are their progeny, the idea that emerged when a group of professors from Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and the University of Massachusetts was charged to explore paths for innovation in liberal arts education. Convinced that radical innovation would be possible only outside the boundaries and traditions of existing institutions, they wrote what they called the New College Plan, which recommended creation of a school whose goal would be to produce “lifelong learners.”

Their home institutions and presidents thought their plan . . . interesting . . . but had other priorities.

And there it might have ended but for a self-described “do-gooder,” Harold F. Johnson, who had, as he later recalled, been “floundering around wanting to do something with money I had gotten rather quickly . . . through the stock market.” He had seen the New College Plan and asked what had happened to it, thinking, he said, “that education could be lifted to a higher level and bring out more leaders.”

That led Johnson to meet with Calvin Plimpton, then president of his alma mater, Amherst College.

Plimpton says that at that meeting, Johnson “popped the question to me


Educating for Change

~ From the Inaugural Address of President Jonathan Lash ~


HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE was planned and opened in the years after World War II when the world was in a period of immense change. . . . Hampshire was created as an agent of change. . . . It was the belief of the founders that college-age young people are capable of much more independence and creativity if they are freed from the often stultifying routine of lectures, exams, grade point averages, and credit hours as the definition of education.”

JONATHAN’S innate curiosity, his analytic acumen, his temperament of passion infused with respectful listening, his own career of informed activism — all of these characteristics feed Jonathan’s optimism that educating the next generation of young people is what will ultimately change our world for the better . . . and secure a sustainable future.”

Charles R. LongsworthA FOUNDER AND SECOND PRESIDENT OF

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE

Sigmund J. Roos 73FCHAIR, HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE BOARDOF TRUSTEES

PRESIDENT LASH not only inspires us through his words, but also leads by example, setting a standard of respect and community engagement through open, transparent, and frequent communication on even the most seemingly mundane of matters.

And as we discovered during the October snowpocalypse, he’s pretty handy with a pair of work gloves, too.”

Chelvanaya GabrielWORDS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF

OF THE STAFF

learning organization, unafraid of the difficult, messy, unpredictable, sometimes contentious process of change. Change as a process of discovery, learning, and challenge. Change as a necessity and a moral obligation in a rapidly changing world.

The students who enliven Hampshire today will live and work in a world turbulent with physical, social, and technological change. It will be a world made smaller by connection as money, goods, knowledge, ideas, and images flow almost frictionlessly across borders, creating both acquaintance and conflict, opportunity and threat.

Social media shape cultures and enable revolutions. Global power and economic growth are shifting south and east, as competition for markets and resources replaces the Cold War confrontation between communism and capitalism.

Franklin Patterson, Hampshire’s first president, wrote that he saw the task of the college to be “to help students to acquire the tools to build lives and a society they consider worthy.”

The student speaker at Hampshire’s opening convocation, Lois Bailey, said coming to Hampshire she felt as if she had been “reunited with an old dream” that she had put aside as unrealistic, that “education could and should be a joyful experience—indeed a very condition of life, a never-ending series of discoveries . . . [that should] thrive” in every community.

I recount the story of Hampshire’s founding because it is our story, because it is a wonderful story and I want to honor those who lived it, and because it still has much to say to us today.

First, crazy idealism, commitment, and chutzpah can and do change the world. This story had an impact on liberal arts education throughout the country, and Hampshire’s 10,000 alumni are disproportionately good at adapting to and committed to creating change.

Second, it is worth thinking again about who had a part in creating the College: not just donors and presidents, [but also] faculty, staff, and students. The whole community. You made it a shared enterprise.

The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said, “The way to teach is to be.” That is something all of you Hampshire founders got right in a very important way.

Hampshire sought to shift the focus from teaching to learning, and, at its best, Hampshire has been — and will be — a

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AT HAMPSHIRE, nobody is merely a student: We are all learners and educators. At the same time, everybody is a student. One of our best students is Mr. Jonathan Lash. Jonathan always listens carefully and asks the best questions. In fact, Jonathan has accomplished so much in his Division I that I can’t wait to learn about his Div II proposal. Thanks to Jonathan’s leadership, I’m sure that Hampshire will be an even stronger force of good in the world, when my children come to Hampshire a few decades from now.”

I ASKED for a private meeting with the man [whose brightly colored socks are still an enigma], and I was delighted by his candor. He talked about working in the nonprofit sector and Washington, and confessed that he prefers working with empowered communities. He said he likes the fact that our faculty has a voice. [No, really.] And he repeated something I’d heard him say on several occasions; he said Hampshire faculty light up whenever we talk about our students.”

MY SON, Spencer, refused to apply anywhere other than Hampshire . . .

If we didn’t have Hampshire today, one of the most compelling reasons we would need to create the College would be to have the honor and privilege of working with and learning from such a passionate and dedicated leader as Jonathan Lash.”

Lynn PasquerellaHAMPSHIRE PARENT AND PRESIDENT OF MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE, WORDS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE FIVE COLLEGES

Professor Djola BrannerWORDS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTY

Zilong Wang 09FWORDS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE STUDENTS

And every year we get a new jolt of energy from a new group of students with new questions and new experiences.

What an extraordinary place where artists join historians and scientists join musicians to explore each person’s place in a changing world. Where as a community, whatever our study, we share a sense of obligation to social change because there is so much injustice.

The Daily Beast recently published its assessment of the 13 “most useless” college majors based on immediate employment and income prospects. Leading the list of the useless were history, government, the arts, film, music, literature . . . and journalism.

A different vision than ours, no? Their America will be artless, ill-governed, ill-informed, but salaried. Where will

More people with more wealth demand more goods and food, creating pressures on natural systems and increasingly disruptive changes in the world’s oceans, forests, and climate.

The pace of change is accelerating. New technologies affect our lives more and more quickly.

Technological and scientific discoveries confront us with new possibilities and new questions about human nature and our relationship with the natural world. Rapid shifts in technology and global markets are reshaping work, and the means and reach of higher education.

By one estimate, the amount of new technical information doubles every two years, and 70 percent of today’s students will end up in jobs not yet invented. They will struggle to solve problems we do not

yet understand, collaborating with people on multiple continents through institutions not yet created.

It is not the fact of change, but rather the accelerating pace of change—change in knowledge and understanding, change in technology, change in the earth’s climate, oceans, and biota—that challenges human capacity and institutions.

This world in flux is what Hampshire’s inquiry-based, learner-driven, discipline-integrating education is designed for. We honor the vision and values upon which Hampshire was built by embracing our obligation to the future, not fearful of risks but excited by opportunities, not content with success but driven by the world’s needs, not satisfied to acquire knowledge but determined to use it— non satis scire.


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Hampshire sought to shift the focus from teaching to learning, and, at its best, Hampshire has been—and will be—a learning organization.”

JONATHAN LASH

Sigmund Roos, Jonathan Lash, Al Gore, Eleanor Lash, Gary Hirshberg

the solutions to tomorrow’s problems come from?

We all know the answer: they will emerge from the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of those who ignore boundaries, ask questions, and ignite expertise with creativity.

As so many Hampshire alumni do.It is one of the duties, and has been

one of the pleasures, of a new college president to meet alumni and to learn how you translate the experience of being entrepreneurs of your own education at Hampshire into an entrepreneurial and creative engagement with life. You have taught me a lot over the last months.

Together with Hampshire’s board, our alumni will make this a record year for giving at Hampshire, in terms of both amount and number of donors. And by the way, it is a record year for our admissions team, with applications up nearly 20 percent.

That is a good start on our future.Before I end with some further thoughts

about that future, I want to say something about three beliefs that shape my own view of the world.

First, I believe leadership is not about the exercise of power, but the performance of service. One leads effectively by helping the community to understand its challenges and define and achieve meaningful goals. Success is shared or it is short-lived.

Second, and this is deeply personal—something taken for granted by my parents and evinced in all they did—I believe that beyond friends and family, the meaning of life is in making a difference for good.

Third, I am a passionate environmentalist. A card-carrying greenie. I think what we are doing to our earth is stupid, wrong, shortsighted, and completely unnecessary.

Humankind’s history spans less than 1/100th of 1 percent of the earth’s history, but clever and prolific, we have become a force of nature. Fifty thousand dams have altered the flows of the world’s rivers. In a few generations we have changed the chemistry of the atmosphere so much that we have altered the earth’s climate and the flows of the great ocean currents. We have changed not only the biology of the oceans but also their acidity. Human activities now shift about ten times as much material

on earth’s land surface as do all geologic processes combined.

This is the “Anthropocene Era.” It won’t be like the Holocene, the unusually gentle geologic era during which Homo sapiens evolved to dominance. The Anthropocene will be an era of instability that some scientists have begun to call the “great acceleration.”

A part of my role at Hampshire will be to be relentless and ambitious about what our community can do to live, and prepare our students to thrive, in the Anthropocene. How we can link our farm, food, curriculum, and operations; our understanding of culture and art; and our notion of humankind’s place on earth to make a difference in the course of events.

We’ve made a start. Here is some of what’s under way:

Climate action plan. At my request, the campus Environmental Committee has developed an ambitious draft climate action plan to make Hampshire’s operations climate neutral in ten years.

Greening the Robert Crown Center. With the support of the Crown family, Hampshire is moving forward with a major

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Leading Innovation in Food, Health,

and SustainabilityBY GARY HIRSHBERG 72F

project to green and upgrade its most prominent building. The multimillion-dollar project will result in major CO2 emissions reductions and hundreds of thousands of dollars of energy savings.

Food, Farm, and Sustainability summer program. This summer we will launch a six-week, multidisciplinary course that links farm experience, laboratory science, and analysis of global food and resource politics.

Transition Hampshire. Students and staff have established a branch of the Transition Towns movement, which seeks to make communities healthier, happier, and more sustainable from the bottom up. Next year will see a Transition mod and a course entitled Think Globally, Design Locally. I hope that they succeed in their ambition to make Hampshire the first Transition college.

Environmental project revolving fund. Using grant funds, Hampshire has set up a $75,000 revolving fund managed by the Environmental Committee for projects that improve the College’s environmental performance and have a financial payback.

Creativity Center. With Eileen Fisher’s generous help, we have created a trans-disciplinary mash-up of students, faculty, and staff seeking progress by looking at things from creative angles.

Comprehensive sustainability program. We are initiating a comprehensive program seeking transitions in the way Hampshire feeds itself, uses its farm, operates its campus, integrates sustainability in its curriculum, and defines its culture.

This is part of a vision of a school that thrives at the intersection of learning and life, that sees art, culture, science, and justice not as alternatives, but as interlinked parts of humanity.

At Hampshire’s opening convocation, the poet Archibald MacLeish said, “I feel a sense of excited hope. In a time like ours it is only the impossible commitments which are believable, for only the impossible commitments are now worth making.”

This is Hampshire’s time. Let us embrace it.

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HAMPSHIRE is where my formal climate change education began 40 years ago. I wandered into courses with Ray Coppinger and John Reid and with Ray Bradley at UMass and learned then what we now know: human activities are fundamentally and perhaps irreversibly changing the planet forever.

I learned that our climate problems are only symptoms of a deeper human and ecological crisis, that science explained only part of the problem.

I learned that our problems were:Philosophical. That the planet is not a subsidiary

of our economies. That we had it all backwards. All commerce has been made possible by a bountiful earth.

Economic. We had built an entire modern economic system on myths—waste, “away,” and externalities. Problems such as climate change, or a national obesity or cancer epidemic are direct consequences of our economic choices, and yet because they do not appear on our profit and loss statements or our balance sheets, in economic terms they do not exist.

Sociologic. Material value had become a higher priority than fairness, compassion, kindness, empathy.

In short, I received a classic Hampshire education—a multidisciplinary, integrated odyssey into the ecology of economics in which all aspects of our relationships to each other and our planet were of course interconnected.

Through my Division III, I learned something even more important—I learned how to learn and I learned that I actually had the capacity to delve into and take on complex problems.

With this hard-won confidence, I left Hampshire College to focus on climate solutions, to advance strategies that are now on the front burners of some of the world’s leading corporations.

With Samuel Kaymen, I formed Stonyfield to prove that reducing climate, water, and toxic footprints is in fact highly profitable.

In short, I brought the classic Hampshire College approach of asking “Why not?” and indeed discovered and proved an entirely new way of doing commerce. Stonyfield is a direct product of the Hampshire education

Speaking of doing things differently, I want to say a word about Jonathan Lash. He has, with the same sense of urgency he and I feel about the planetary crisis, put forward a classic Hampshire vision for a bold, unprecedented, multidisciplinary leap into the 21st century that will make Hampshire a leader in innovation in food, health, and sustainability.

Jonathan understands that we are not going to slow down and conserve our way to solving the global climate, water, and toxins crises, that we actually need to engage in the business of restoration.

My wife, Meg, and I are so impressed and convinced of the uniqueness of this vision, this man, and the capabilities of this College to rise once again to the challenges of focusing, not on the problems that led us here, but rather on the pathways for how we as a society can reverse our way out of this ecological cul-de-sac, that we are proud to make a $1 million lead gift to get this ball rolling.

What goes around comes around. My education here put me on a path that has been profitable for many, including me. And now I am proud to plow back some nutrients and fertility into Hampshire’s 21st-century soils.



I tend to think of this occasion as a part of the agricultural process – the breaking of the ground – the sowing of the seed – the cultivation of the crop – and the harvest. However, the harvest will not be the splendid buildings, which will rise from these foundations. Those will be but the stalks that bear the grain. The harvest will be the young people, who on this ground will grow in stature and mature into well-formed, well-rounded human beings. . . . I believe that the procession of young men and women, who are nurtured on this ground and who – year after year – move out from here into the stream of life – truly educated . . . young people with their faculties aroused and their imaginations touched – will be a beneficent influence on the life of this country and of the world.”

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Symbols of the Office

T W O S y m B O L S of the office of president were presented to Jonathan Lash during his investiture by board chair Sigmund Roos 73F, assisted by vice chairs Helen Cohen 77S and Ken Rosenthal.

First was the presidential mace, designed and made for the occasion by students and faculty in Hampshire’s Lemelson Center. It is made of applewood reclaimed from trees that were damaged in the snowstorm this past October, and bears the names of all of Hampshire’s presidents, including President Lash.

Second was a reproduction of two documents handwritten by Harold F. Johnson, whose founding financial support made the possibility and promise of Hampshire College a reality. Those documents were Johnson’s original pledge of $6 million to establish Hampshire, dated October 7, 1965, and remarks made by Johnson at the groundbreaking for the first academic building on campus on September 24, 1968 (shown at right).


Lemelson fabrication shop supervisor Glenn Armitage 81F, Martin Cain 10F, David Warshow 08F, Lemelson machine shop assistant Don Dupuis, Wiley Davis 11F, and Zoe Fuller 11F. The mace bears the College seal and the name of each Hampshire president.

E D u C A T I N G F O R C H A N G EE D u C A T I N G F O R C H A N G E



Tomatoes and Sunflowers

BY PROFESSOR POLINA BARSKOVA

~ Inaugural Poem ~

F I N A L L y , in the bright air the tomatoes have Reached their peak: the tomatoes and sunflowers. Soon they’ll be caned by September-schoolteacher And explode in tart juices across the grass. But for now it’s as though the God of Things Held his breath, and the rocking, the flaring won’t Quit, and the beginning of dying drags On and on — “it’s too soon to bury me.”

That invisible cusp where summertime Touches autumn, sweeter than anything. When you know it’s started, the dimming down, And the world will go motionless, monotone. But for now it’s tensed, and commingling Elements — scarlet, orange, emerald, Copper — go quiet, gasp on the verge of a Dead faint at this final resting place.

Brimming — branches, shadows, lineaments, Flavor and scent not quite stench, just exhaling. Grasses black, brown, blue, then down from the Sky, a gust — there’s a rush, shuddering. But as soon as the picture completes itself And perspective shrinks to zero, everything Collapses. You know what will stay with me? The spiderweb — its dire embroidery, The tomato — the crack that won’t close again, Half-minute foretaste of ashes, calamity — I was given it all, none of it promised me.


Professors Polina Barskova, Rachel Rubinstein, and Norm Holland


Professors Polina Barskova, Rachel Rubinstein, and Norm Holland

The Russian poet Polina Barskova, assistant professor of Russian literature, says she consults almost nightly

with the Amherst College professor who translates her poems into English. | It was discovering a set of Yiddish

translations of Native American chants that led to Associate Professor of American Literature and Jewish Studies

Rachel Rubinstein’s book, Members of the Tribe: Native America in the Jewish Imagination. | “It so happened that

my first ‘publications’ were actually translations of various essays,” says Norm Holland, associate professor of

Hispano literatures. | Baba Hillman, Five College associate professor of film and video, who makes most of her

films in France, writes her scripts in French then subtitles them in English.

the question. You turn it toward what interests you.”

When Hampshire received the grant, Barskova applied for funding to develop a course, Poetry and Translation, which would examine issues in the process of translating poetry, from the perhaps inevitable choice between sound and meaning to the politics of taking a poem out of its original language. Meanwhile, students spent the semester working on their own poetry translations.

“It was one of the most alive classes that I taught here,” Barskova says.

She attributes the class’s energy to the self-directed approach to language that translation allows. Although Barskova originally planned to admit only students with proficiency in a second language, she eventually dropped this requirement. Serendipitously, her monolingual students

demonstrated what Barskova considers an exciting alternative to traditional language learning.

“There is this way to study language: German I, German II, German III, German IV; nice, structured, ordered, civilized,” she says. “And there is this wild idea: ‘I will begin from level zero and move toward my purpose, which is to be able to translate this poem that in translation amazed me, changed my life.’ And then this translation of one poem emerges, and the person feels much stronger and goes on with this feeling of being empowered. This is a funny way but I think it makes a lot of sense.”

Rubinstein has also noted the empowering role of translation in language learning. In her Yiddish Literature and Culture class, also developed through the Mellon grant, and in an Elementary

B y m I C H A E L S A m u E L S 0 9 F

Between LanguagesA New Role for Translation

T R A N S L AT I O N plays major and diverse roles in the work of numerous other Hampshire professors.

Following an Andrew W. Mellon grant in 2009 to transform Hampshire into a “language learning community,” the College began integrating world languages into all areas of study. The goal is to prepare students for a more interconnected world, where the ability to move across languages is becoming vital. In the humanities, these professors have brought their interest in translation into the classroom, where it is a platform both for language learning and for tackling the artistic, political, and philosophical problems that arise between languages.

The opportunity, says Barskova, is “to open translation to different directions of inquiry. It is a specifically Hampshirean thing,” she explains: “You appropriate


F E A T U R E B E T W E E N L A N G U A G E S

Yiddish January term class, she says many of her students chose to translate texts or parts of texts as their final project. Usually “their Yiddish wasn’t actually good enough to write anything in Yiddish” after only one semester, she admits, but translation was also appealing because “they were contributing to an ongoing project of making Yiddish literature available.

“Only about one percent of Yiddish literature has been translated into English,” Rubinstein says, “so there is an urgent need for translation.” She notes that the nearby National Yiddish Book Center, which plays a large part in both classes, has taken on translation as its new mission.

In addition to the excitement of translating texts that were in Yiddish only, the current status of the literature fed discussions about more abstract issues of translation. The class often returned to the idea of making a literature accessible through translation, and deciding what texts most need to be translated.

Students kept these issues in mind when selecting their final projects. One student who had no previous knowledge of Yiddish “translated two poems by a very under-translated Yiddish woman modernist poet,” Rubinstein recalls, “and she could say there was a clear need for an intervention.”

Ethical, political, and philosophical questions about translation are at the center of another class, The Task of the Translator, co-taught by Holland and Professor of Literature and Critical Theory Mary Russo. Holland says the class came out of “multiple sources,” among them the changing role of translators in war and the effect on literary criticism of the recent proliferation of literature from all over the world and in hundreds of languages.

As in Barskova’s class, Holland and Russo’s students work on their own translations throughout the course. “Part of it is so that it doesn’t remain totally theoretical,” Holland says. He and Russo also want students to discover that different languages have different freedoms and restrictions. “What we’re really excited

”

about in terms of the course itself is to force students to think about how language obliges us to say certain things without necessarily being aware of it,” says Holland, “or ways that language even prevents us from saying certain things.”

For example, “in English I can say ‘Last night I had dinner with a friend,’” he says. “I can get away with that without having to tell you if the friend is male or female, but in Spanish I would have to inform you what the gender of my friend is.”

Being able to focus on these subtleties is unique to the situation created by language integration at Hampshire, says Holland. “If we were in a language department elsewhere, we would be under immense pressure to think of language teaching as being faithful to the original,” he says. Instead, language learning in the humanities can recognize that literal exactness “has never been the case of the great translations.”

The purpose of the student translations isn’t so much to improve the students’ abilities in the languages of the original texts, but rather to expand their under-standing of language and literature. “We were really more interested in making them more sophisticated readers,” Holland says.

Meanwhile, Hillman uses translation to expand students’ understanding of the role of language in filmmaking. Although she has worked with translation and languages in her interdisciplinary film classes since she came to Hampshire a decade ago, she was able to develop new courses through the Mellon grant. These include Writing for Film: Text and Memory in Transnational Cinema. “This course attracts students across disciplines who are working with issues of displacement and transnationality, as well as students who are working with languages other than English or across multiple languages in their filmmaking,” she says.

“Working across languages in the course allows us to consider questions of translation in the context of both visual and spoken text for the screen. We consider questions

Translation, as I

see it, it’s not only

from Russian to French, but

of course it’s from

word to image,

from one medium to another. This

is very much a part

of what happens

here already.”

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of fluency and accent, dialect and slang, subtitling and placing of subtitles—how subtitles fall on and complicate the image.”

Students’ final films were in such languages as Portuguese, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese, all with English subtitles. “Students who don’t speak a language other than English have commented that exposure to their peers’ work in other languages has given them a deeper understanding of cultural contexts and histories,” Hillman says. “Even if a student doesn’t speak a particular language, exposure to the inflections and performance of that language can present an opportunity for new perception and insight.”

To Barskova, the presence of all of these languages in the humanities does more than improve perception: it diversifies.

“Diversity,” she says, “can mean a student who can think about German

history in German, French film in French, Russian poetry in Russian, or through Russian, and so on. We create a diversified brain.”

Barskova believes this form of language integration is especially fitting for Hampshire, where students regularly follow their interests through a variety of disciplines and forms.

“Translation, as I see it, it’s not only from Russian to French, but of course it’s from word to image, from one medium to another,” she says. “This is very much a part of what happens here already.

“This is what’s important for me, not to bring something that is strange and foreign and not Hampshirean, but saying ‘We have it, let’s grow it. Let’s bring some resources, let’s bring some time, let’s bring a bunch of inspired students who will bring new energy.’ This is why I think this is a good thing that inspires me.”

Student writer michael Samuels

is polishing his prodigious

language skills while studying

in Spain. He’s photographed

in El Espejo, which he writes

is “a beautiful little intensely

windowed café on the Paseo

de Recoletos.”

Oedipus Shmedipus: yiddish on Stage

“

Debra Caplan 03F is

a PhD candidate in

the yiddish studies

program at Harvard,

the assistant director

for Harvard’s mellon

School of Theater

and Performance

Research, and an

adjunct instructor of theater studies at

Emerson College. She also has a few

productions of never-before-translated

yiddish plays under her belt.

Caplan says Hampshire was “the perfect

place for me to explore my interests on my

own terms.”

The College’s close relationship with

the National yiddish Book Center played

a vital role in that exploration. So did

Associate Professor of American Literature

and Jewish Studies Rachel Rubinstein.

Rubinstein’s yiddish literature and

culture class and a work-study position

at the book center led Caplan to a new

passion. “I immediately fell in love with

yiddish literature,” she says, “first in

translation, then gradually in the original

as my language skills developed.”

That only about one percent of yiddish

writing has been translated also attracted

Caplan: “you’re always finding something

new and unexplored.

my interest in translation grew out of my second identity as a director,” she says. “It quickly became clear that if I wanted to stage these plays, I would need to learn the translator’s craft.”

The book center and Rubinstein and

other professors supported her efforts.

Her Division III project was capped by

a production of her translation of Itzik

manger’s Hotzmakh-shpil (The Magic

Mirror) at the book center.

Caplan’s forthcoming publications

include a chapter on yiddish adaptations

of ancient Greek dramas in the

Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy. The

chapter grew out of an article, “Oedipus

Shmedipus: Ancient Greek Drama on

the modern yiddish Stage,” in the journal

Comparative Drama.

Her dissertation explores the role of

the Vilna Troupe, a yiddish theater

company, in the “the establishment of

a global yiddish art theater movement.”

Although Caplan hasn’t taken up a large-

scale translation project in a while, there’s

no getting around “translating fragments,”

as she says, for her dissertation: fragments

that have never been translated before.

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Bookshelf

Kingdom Animalia by Aracelis Girmay. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2011. This collection of poems by Professor Girmay was inspired by Darwin’s Origin of the Species and selected as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources by Michael T. Klare. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2012. Professor Klare explores what may be the planet’s final “gold rush,” as governments and corporations seek to secure dwindling supplies of vital natural resources.

The Bully Society by Jessie Klein 83F. New York: New York University Press, 2012. Klein argues that the rise of school shootings in America, and childhood aggression in general, is a consequence of a society that promotes aggressive behavior.

Small Town Girl by Linda Cunningham 74S. Dallas: Omnific Publishing, 2011. When a well-to-do woman returns to the small Vermont town where she grew up, she is forced to reevaluate her focus and come face-to-face with her true self.

Sand Sea Sky: The Beaches of Sagaponack by Tria Giovan 78F. Bologna, Italy: Damiani editore, 2011. This collection of stunning photographs highlights the beauty of the beaches of the Hamptons in New York.

The Minefields by Steven C. Eisner 73F. Baltimore: When Words Count Press, 2012. A successful New Yorker must deal with rapid changes in his life as he returns home to help his ailing father run his business.

Little Gale Gumbo by Erika Marks 88F. New York: New American Library, 2011. Camille Bergeron, hoping for a fresh start, packs up and moves from New Orleans to Little Gale, Maine, where she opens up a café, falls in love, and ultimately gains a new perspective on family.


C A M P U S A N D C O M M U N I T Y RECENT RELEASES BY ALUM N I AN D FAC U LTY

If you would like your recently released book to be considered for the Bookshelf section of the next issue of Non Satis Scire, please send a copy to:

Office of Alumni Relationsc/o NSS Bookshelf Hampshire College 893 West Street Amherst, MA 01002

Please note: Non Satis Scire publishes every six months. Due to space limitations, books will not be included in Bookshelf if they are not recent publications or if they are self-published. All books can be posted in class notes online (go to http://alumni.hampshire.edu/alumni).

Moving the Piano by Faith Shearin 87S. Nacogdoches, TX: Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2011. This collection of poetry makes practical observations about life through the scope of adulthood.

Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies? by Jena Pincott 91F. New York: Free Press, 2011. Pregnant science writer Jena Pincott analyzes various questions of pregnancy and predicting the traits and behaviors of a child.

Fortune Is in the Follow-up: Five Power Strategies to Grow Your Business by Heidi BK Sloss 78F. San Francisco: Bush Street Press, 2011. Sloss shares critical tips, discussing marketing strategies and business plans, networking, and basics that build customer loyalty.

Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning by Gary Marcus 86F. New York: Penguin Press, 2012. On the eve of his 40th birthday, cognitive psychologist Marcus learns to play guitar and investigates how anyone, of any age, can become musical.

The Poetry of Kabbalah translated and annotated by Peter Cole 77F. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. Cole presents for the first time in English a substantial body of poetry that emerges directly from the world of Jewish mysticism.

Iowa? . . . It’s a State of Mind by Dan Hunter 73S. Boston: Hunter Higgs, 2011. Hunter meditates on the state of Iowa through the use of photographs, essays, interviews, and illustrations.

Opium Nation by Fariba Nawa 92F. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011. A veteran reporter returns home to Afghanistan and finds a fractured country transformed by a multibillion-dollar drug trade.


C A M P U S A N D C O M M U N I T Y ALUMNI EVENTS

July 26Oakland: new student send-off

August 3-5Hampshire campus: 60th birthday party for 1970 and friends

August 15Washington, D.C.: service day in a food bank, organized by Kathryn Wichmann 85F

September 21Hampshire campus: all-community barbecue in the Red Barn

October 12–14Hampshire campus: Family, Alumni & Friends

November TBDEvents in Amherst, Boston, and New York

December 6Miami: annual gathering around Art Basel, hosted by Luis Hernandez 70F

February TBD, 2013Events on the West Coast

June 7– 9, 2013Div IV 2013

The annual New York Alumni Reel event, at the Helen Mills Theater, was a reception for new president Jonathan Lash. Some 200 alums and friends took the occasion to meet the president and catch up with each other. Pictured here: Quin Corbett 00F and Amy Grumbling 00F

In February, President Lash met with alums, families, and friends at the home of alum and former trustee Pasha Dritt Thornton 85F and husband Laney Thornton. Pictured: Pasha, Jon Sands 70F, and trustee Stephan Jost 87F

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6F

EventsAlumni

For additions and updates, check the Hampshire alumni website:

alumnievents.hampshire.edu

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Service DaysEmily Ho 96F organized a Celebrate Earth Day event for Hampshire alums at the Garden School Foundationin Los Angeles. Here she works with Alumni Advisory Group member Sara Ahmed 04F. Alums in New York, where Pam Lippe 73F started Earth Day New York City, were invited to help with Earth Day events there.


Alumsto be chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The 9/11 Commission recommended the creation of the board, which advises the president and Congress to ensure that concerns about privacy and civil liberties are appropriately considered in the implementation of policies related to protecting the nation against terrorism.” (Bethesda)

Anne Salzmann writes, “Am in my second year as principal of an early college charter school located on the campus of Santa Fe Community College. What a joy this is and how our students are blooming in this environment!” 1972

Jonathan B. Orleans, a member of Pullman & Comley, LLC, was named the Stamford Best Lawyers Employment Law—Management Lawyer of the Year for 2012.

Malaga Baldi and Lucy Painter 73S, who met in 1973 in Saga, were married by Richard Sadowsky 73F, a Universal Life minister, in April. Lucy and Malaga thank their daughter Orian and her boyfriend for encouraging them to marry.

William Null writes, “Our son, Evan Thaler-Null 08F, completed his Division III and his Hampshire College career in December 2011. Evan’s mother, Lauren E. Thaler 75S, and I joined him in ringing the Division III bell. It was a very sweet and meaningful moment celebrating Evan’s accomplishment and his wonderful experience at Hampshire. Evan’s leadership at the Hampshire Farm led to the construction of a four-season

Lucy Painter 73S, Richard Sadowsky 73F, Sheri Sussman 74F, and Malaga Baldi 72F

Class notes printed here reached us since the last issue of NSS. Alumni can post their own class notes on the Hampshire Alumni website, and can view each other’s posts there. Please go to alumni.hampshire.edu and then click on Making Connections. You will need to set up an account and, when it is authenticated, log in to view the notes already there and write your own. The deadline for submitting class notes for the next issue is September 1, 2012.

We are always working to improve and update the website. If you have any questions or difficulties, please email us at [email protected].

For the magazine, images should be at the largest size and best quality setting that your camera is able to produce. Please submit high resolution photos at 300 dpi. No cell phone photos please.

Jonathan B. Orleans 72F

Notes from

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Cathy Gorlin 71FLauren Thaler 75S, William Null 72F, and their son Evan Thaler-Null 08F

1970

Maria Miller writes, “I’m still designing and producing art books. One of my current projects is an ongoing catalogue raisonné on John Singer Sargent. In the upcoming months, I’ll have the good fortune to design a book on a recently authenticated Leonardo da Vinci painting. Never a dull moment.” (Cornwall on Hudson, N.Y.)

Batya Weinbaum had the cover of January Lesbian Connection this year with her painting Surprise in La Selva. She continues her column Opening Palms in the Santa Barbara Independent, and came out with two issues of Femspec last year; the most recent, on November 2, a special issue on Canadian science fiction writer Elisabeth Vonarburg. She also released a DVD, Utilizing Palmistry to Change Your Life, available now, and launched Femspec Books, a subsidiary of the journal. Her novel The Nightmares of Sasha Weitzwoman has been reviewed in the most recent issue of the Toronto online journal Women in Judaism. (Cleveland) 1971

Cathy Gorlin writes, “I’m a busy partner at Best & Flanagan LLP in Minneapolis, practicing family law. My children have already graduated from college; our daughter is married and working full time for Google in N.Y.C. and working on her MBA from NYU in the evening. Our son is working for Pacific Quest on the Big Island, at a residential wilderness treatment center for troubled kids in the jungles of Hawaii. All is well.”

David Medine writes, “I’ve been nominated by President Obama


greenhouse and the expansion of its farming program. We are proud of his contributions to the legacy of the College. The Division III bell did not exist when Lauren and I graduated Hampshire more than 30 years ago.” (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.) 1973

Amy Levi continues as clinical professor at University of California San Francisco. “I’m wondering if I’m the only Hampshire graduate who is

a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing; I was inducted in October 2011. I’m still thrilled to be living in the San Francisco Bay area, teaching midwifery, and doing research on nurses as abortion providers.”

Steve Nadis writes, “For most of the 35 years since my graduation, I’ve been unduly modest in these biannual communiqués, and I’ve come to realize that modesty can get boring. What people really want is the truth, so I’m going to let them have it. The start of the New

Year (2012, if you’re keeping track) prompted me to take stock of my situation, and I’m pleased to report that things are going amazingly well. I’m working out regularly at Bally’s Total Fitness, and for an overachiever like me, Bally’s Partial Fitness would not be enough. The last time I checked, my blog was being read by people in 10 countries. I even have a regular reader in Islamabad! I almost had an essay published in my local paper, until the editor concluded that its publication would probably result in my getting sued and the

paper getting sued and the paper eventually going out of business as a result. Accomplishing all that in just 800 words is pretty darn impressive. Speaking of impressive, my kids are pretty amazing too. They’re performing well above grade level at school, especially while climbing out of their classroom windows. That’s all I’m going to say for now, but rest assured that I couldn’t be doing better. My only complaint, if you could call it that—and I think it’s more of an observation—is that it’s true what people say: it really is lonely at the top.” (Cambridge, Mass.)

Roger Sherman writes, “Just published Ready, Steady, Shoot: The Guide to Great Home Video (Andrews McMeel). Major world events—catastrophic and joyful—are now most often revealed to the world on video. Wouldn’t it be great if those witnesses knew what they were doing? On a more practical note, tens of millions of people simply want to shoot their family vacations, their kids’ activities, a night out on the town, on any device. I wrote the book for them. It’s a friendly book about technique, not technology. (Yes, that’s an idea I got from Hampshire via Jerry Liebling and Elaine Mayes. Technique is what matters.) The first book of its kind, it took 10 years to get it published. Please check out the website www.ReadySteadyShoot.com to see tips, blogs, and examples of the easy learning system I invented, which is called ‘The 10 Shot Video.’ And now that social media rule, become a fan on Facebook—ReadySteadyShoot—and Twitter @GreatHomeVideo. Oh, yeah, tell your friends, please.” (New York City)

C L A S S N O T E S

Fostering Self-confidence and Educational Success

They want to learn and be exposed to other cultures. It’s a very exciting place to be.”

Vallejo returned to Hampshire as an academic delegate for President Lash’s inauguration. Although it was her first time returning to campus since graduating, Hampshire’s educational model continues to have an impact on her life. “One thing that Hampshire does for people, which not too many other institutions of higher education do, is to give us true confidence. It’s something we feel very deeply. . . . We know we can take on the world,” she says. “Any challenges are just that, challenges that we can turn into opportunities. That’s what we’ve been taught to do.”

Maria Vallejo 72F’s lifelong commitment to fostering students of color through the education system is tied to her Hampshire Division III.

IT WAS 1972, when the bilingual education act was passed,” she says. The law required bilingual education in public schools that exceeded a certain threshold of non-English-speaking students. The city of Holyoke was experiencing a surge of Puerto Rican migrants, creating a sizable population who did not speak English. For college work-study, Vallejo assisted in a public school guidance office and taught English classes to newly arrived students. The experience piqued her interest in their experiences in an unfamiliar educational system.

“I wanted to find out the adjustment process and how they felt about themselves [as students],” she says. “I did surveys, interviewed families, and gathered data. I found that the adjustment was easier when their language and culture were respected in some way.”

After Hampshire, Vallejo earned two master’s degrees from Columbia University and a doctorate from New York University. Her doctoral research was “almost like a follow-up” to her Hampshire studies, she says. “I did a psychological study of Latino youths coming into the university. I was looking at perception versus reality.” She found that academic success was dependent on self-confidence: “Those who felt they could achieve academically did well. It depended on how they felt about themselves and their environment.”

Today, as provost at Palm Beach State College, she continues to work with students of color. “l know that I’m contributing a lot to the institution, helping it become more diverse and reflective of the community we’re living in,” she says. “The students are itching to know about each other.

“


Sandy Wexler writes, “I’m giving walking tours about the financial crisis and Wall Street history for The Wall Street Experience, www.thewallstreetexperience.com.” (New York City)

1974

Polly Kornblith is the principal instructional designer at Kudos Concepts, in Westwood, Mass. “I’ve applied Hampshire’s ‘learn how to learn’ philosophy and self-directed focus to my career at the nexus of technology and education. For more than 10 years, I freelanced as a writer and editor of technical training materials. For the past decade, I have specialized in designing and developing online courses, workshops, and presentations for a wide variety of clients. Most recently I spent two years working at the United Nations to create three web-based courses on human resources management for use in field missions around the globe. I love the variety and challenge of my career—every project is unique.”

1975

James Schantz writes, “It has been great to hear from fellow Hampsters Carl D’Amato 75F, Nate Zinsser 74F, Cheryl Kaplan 74S, and Sabine von Glinski 74F, who have provided comfort, love and prayers for my family and me following the sudden death of our daughter Lexi.” (Sandy Springs, Ga)

1977

Ann Hackler writes, “The Institute for the Musical Arts, which I and my partner, June Millington, founded to support women and girls in the field of music and music business, has a double anniversary this year. It’s been 25 years since we got our nonprofit status and 10 years since we started our summer rock ’n’ roll programs for girls and young women. If you are in the area, you’re more than welcome

to visit. We’re just up the hill from Northampton in Goshen, Massachusetts (down the road from the DAR).”

Lindsey Lane writes, “My children’s book Snuggle Mountain (2003) is now available as an iTunes app.” (Austin)

(Susan) Lianne Lynch Schoenwiesner writes, “Life comes full circle. Researching colleges for my 17-year-old daughter. It used to be a lot simpler! I applied only to Hampshire, but now we’ve got ‘stretch’ schools and ‘safety’ schools. Ack! She doesn’t seem to be a Hampshire kid, but I’d welcome advice from anyone in the musical-theater world. PeopleTech Connections had a banner year in 2011 doing training design and curriculum development. Life is good (and maybe my 13-year-old will be Hampshire material).” (Montclair, N.J.)

Kjersti Sundt Sissener authored a chapter, “At Skabe Det Til Et Udetryk For Sig Selv,” in the book Gerhard Munthe: En Radikal Stilskaper. Her daughter Emilie 10S graduated in May.

Ellen Sturgis recently accepted a position at Wheelock College, in Boston, as adjunct instructor. “Busy, busy! Fufilled a Hampshire-inspired dream and went to Cuba in the fall; took the leap into teaching this spring, a graduate class in nonprofit budget and finance—great fun! And, most exciting, joined the newly established Hampshire Alumni Advisory Group: a great excuse to see more Hampshire folk.”

1978

Russ Bowman was recently promoted at South East Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), in Sitka, as medical director for Community Health Care Services. He writes, “I’ve been promoted to medical director for all of the field clinics that SEARHC operates. SEARHC is

C L A S S N O T E S

Amy Levi 73F

Ann Hackler 77F (top right) with staff, students, and alums from the Institute for the Musical Arts’ summer programs

(Susan) Lianne Lynch Schoenwiesner 77S

Snuggle Mountain (2003) by Lindsey Lane 77S

Kjersti Sundt Sissener 77F authored a chapter in Gerhard Munthe: En Radikal Stilskaper

a tribally owned nonprofit that provides health care to natives and nonnatives. We cover an area the size of California and have more than 31,000 visits annually with 10 facilities located in frontier settings in the southeast part of the state.”

Eva Dean Dance celebrated its 26th anniversary by mounting Beyond Silver: 1987–2011, a retrospective evening-length performance featuring a sampling of 24 years of Eva Dean’s choreography.


(Tomorrow’s Daydream and Pools of Light) and traveled in Europe. This year: looking forward to the Bay-to-Breakers, creating more music, and learning about web development. www.briankelly.com.” (Oakland)

Martha McDevitt-Pugh writes, “Lin and I will be celebrating 11 years of marriage this year. We

bought a house in a village outside Amsterdam in December and our first houseguests were Lisa Berger 78F and her wonderful son, Sushil, who joined us from Barcelona to ring in the New Year. As chair of Democrats Abroad Netherlands my challenge in 2012 is to reach out to all 30,000 U.S. citizens in the Netherlands and ensure that they get their ballots and vote in November. We’re one of 50 Democrats Abroad country committees around the world committed to Americans participating in the political process back home. It’s great fun to meet the American community around the country and empower US citizens to vote from abroad.” (Amsterdam)

1980

Frederic McKay writes, “My wife and I have opened Indigenous Arts (www.indigenousarts.net). We carry items by indigenous artisans—from native Mexican artists, Native Americans, and the First Nations of Canada.” (Las Vegas)

1981

Torin Alter writes, “I’ve co-written a few books over the last few years, including A Dialogue on Consciousness and The God Dialogues: A Philosophical Journey, both published by Oxford University Press.” (Alabama)

Alison Ernst writes, “Metro Detroit is an interesting place to live these days. It’s scrappy, as in the Clint Eastwood-narrated Super Bowl commercial (not that I actually watched the Super Bowl, but you might’ve.) After 30 years in western Massachusetts, it’s been an adjustment, but awfully good to actually live in the same place as my spouse. Daughter in college, successfully launched. Doing a lot of library consulting with the Roeper School, which I believe is one of those Hampshire-feeder secondary schools. All is well.”

C L A S S N O T E S

Stephen Lohman writes, “Opened a gallery in New Orleans. Big Bunny Fine Art, at 332 Exchange Place in the French Quarter. Stop by the next time you’re in town.”

1979

Adam Cohen writes, “Amy and I are about to send our last daughter off to college and then it’s party time.” (Oakland)

Brian Kelly writes, “Enjoying married life. Last year: published two solo piano songbooks of my music

Climate Change Research—A Nobel Endeavor

that have shaped governmental climate change policy and earned Schimel, former vice president Al Gore, and dozens of other IPCC scientists the 2007 Nobel Prize.

He took on as his main research focus the interaction of the carbon cycle with the climate system. “The IPCC completely transformed my professional life,” Schimel says, “and getting the Nobel Prize was kind of cool.”

With his generation of scientists having worked to pinpoint some of the world’s crucial environmental problems, Schimel says he’s delighted to see current students able to focus on solutions.

“Students now can put their energy into trying to solve issues like climate change, biodiversity, and habitat destruction rather than do the basic research,” he says. “My own work is going that way, too.”

The conceptual and mathematical tools I learned at Hampshire, the deep knowledge of statistics and math, are still the tools I use every day. But the ways I implement that knowledge have changed remarkably,” says biogeochemist David Schimel 73F.

“

SCHIMEL, CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER and principal investigator at the National Ecological Observatory Network and a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, looks back on his early research in the 1970s and recalls poring through hundreds and even thousands of pieces of raw data for a project. Today, a similar study would require analysis of tens of millions of observations.

“How do you think incisively about the problem and go from masses of data to a clear understanding?” he asks. “The size and complexity of the problem has changed, but the tools I learned have enabled me to keep at the cutting edge of research for three decades.”

With much of his work divided between ecology and core climate science, Schimel finds himself constantly bridging scientific fields in order to investigate some of the most important environmental issues of the day. He says he thrives when pushing those traditional academic boundaries, as he knows it often presents the greatest opportunity for groundbreaking research.

“Most people don’t learn collaborative skills, even in graduate school,” he says. “Knowing how to collaborate, and to take advantage of different people’s expertise, is really valuable. It’s a reason why I was able to be a leader earlier in my career than most of my colleagues.”

Schimel shifted from an initial interest in linguistics during his first year at Hampshire to combine a passion for mathematics and biology. This eventually led him to the Climate and Global Dynamics division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in the 1980s, and in 1994 he was invited to work on the second Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That resulted in influential research and publications


C L A S S N O T E S

Judith Herrell (née Udes) writes, “Has anyone heard from Queta Hubers 79F? She was studying animal behavior in the early 1980s. We’ve lost touch and I was wondering how she is. Stephan and I are fine and well. Our kids are doing great in Boston and New York respectively and we are looking for a new house so we can work from home in comfort. Hi to all Hampshire folks! The Hampshire College a cappella group the Gin & Tonics performed a Valentine’s Day concert at Herrell’s Ice Cream on February 12. Here’s a photo, and they were fantastic!” (Northampton, Mass.)

1985

Daniel Sroka writes, “For the second year I exhibited my abstract nature art at Artexpo New York in March.” (Morristown, NJ) 1986

Susan Beard (née Lottridge) writes, “As my boys have started asking questions about my high school and college years, I’m grateful to Hampshire for the unique preparation for life and work. A huge note of thanks to Michael John Carley 83F, whose GRASP organization and book Asperger’s from the Inside Out has helped tremendously in our home with my Asperger’s teen.” (Jensen Beach, Fla.)

1987

Marcie Bronstein writes, “My newest book, Fotoplay, was published in March. With photographs, fragments of photographs, and quirky prompts, the book gives children of all ages a unique place to draw, design, think outside of any box, and color beyond any lines. www.inthisplayground.com.” (Belfast, Maine)

Can Candan writes, “Shooting my third documentary feature: My Child, in which Parents of LGBTs in Turkey speak out. www.listagfilm.com” (Istanbul, Turkey)

Robert Rivest hosts a free laughter class every week at Heartsong Yoga Center in East Longmeadow, Mass.

James Winter writes, “I’m a philosophy professor in the Denver area, where I recently became involved with a very worthwhile organization called CARE. I would like to publicly express my deepest gratitude to the late Lester Mazor, whom I am very fortunate to have had as both mentor and friend.”

Sandy Wolofsky has hosted Hampshire college students in her parents’ country house in St. Agathe, Quebec for many years. John Maunders 86S graduated years ago from Hampshire and was very involved in OPRA during his time as a student (as was Sandy). He is now a doctor in Quebec serving as an emergency physician at the Mont Tremblant ski area and teaching at the medical school at McGill University, in Montreal. He hosted an OPRA group by guiding a snowshoe trek up Mont Tremblant.

1988

Christina Bell writes, “I continue to bring the ideas in my Div III and term as student trustee to fruition in the corporate world—namely, creating organizational structures and culture that enable employee input, participation, ownership, and enjoyment. Currently doing that for one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the world. I also continue to contribute to the professional field of organization development—currently serve on the social media committee of the Organization Development Network as a way of exploring creating community in virtual space and the impact on professional organizations’ strategy and structure. Loved seeing so many people at the last reunion. The fun time rocked!” (Dallas)

Hampshire a capella group The Gin & Tonics performing at Herrell’s Ice Cream in Northampton, MA

Production still from Can Candan 87F’s documentary My Child

Sandy Wolofsky 87F and John Maunders 86S

Fotoplay by Marcie Bronstein 87F

Brian Kelly 79F


Richard Brown writes, “My short story ‘I Can Jump’ was recently published in Sucker Literary Magazine.” (Providence)

Peter Honig writes, “Peter Honig and Jill McLennan 92F are among 20 Bay Area artists who have formed a collective gallery in Oakland that promotes monthly exhibitions as part of that city’s

ArtMurmur festival. During the month of September, Jill is showing new work depicting her urban Jingletown community. Peter is exhibiting large-scale still-life photographs of assembled debris. We invite Bay Area alums and friends to check out the gallery. See www.mercurytwenty.com.”

Keith Nelson writes, “I headlined the International Sword Swallowing Day festivities at Ripley’s on February 25.” (New York City)

1989

Michelle Marroquin received her MFA in performance and choreography from Smith College and teaches gyrotonic

and gyrokinesis at Studio Helix. (Northampton, Mass.)

Patrick Ranahan writes, “Gearing up for my first paid guitar gig at the end of September. Rewriting my first book, a memoir called Paper or Plastic. Volunteering for the American Cancer Society and at a local church.” (Roseville, Calif.)

1990

Sara Smith is the editor of Kinebago, a new printed journal of writing about dance and movement-based performance in New England. Summer 2011 was its inaugural issue. (Montague, Mass.)

1991

Pele Bauch was part of the Joyce SoHo Artists-in-Residence APAP Showcase January 2011 in New York City. Pele is currently focused on establishing her practice in dance dramaturgy. In March 2012, she also moderated part of the program Dance Conversations@The Flea, which features dance films and live works by filmmakers and choreographers, followed by an open discussion between the artists and the audience moderated by special guest choreographers.

Freyja Gallagher (née Balmer) writes, “In July, I went back to work full time as vice president of product at SocialFlow, a New York-based start-up that optimizes social-media content to ensure maximum audience engagement on Twitter and Facebook. My husband, John, our son Arran (3) and I are also now excitedly anticipating a second child in midsummer, as well as our move to South Orange, N.J., where Alex Torpey 05F is the village president. Hugs and kisses to Mods 81, 101, and 98.”

Jena Pincott writes, “Recently gave birth to a baby girl and wrote a book on the very weird science of it: Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies? The Surprising Science of Pregnancy.” (New York City)

C L A S S N O T E S

Hailing Tomorrow’s Taxi

Klahr worked at a variety of jobs after graduation, but he has found his involvement in New York City government to be the most engaging yet. Looking back on his Hampshire years, he says he can see that his work at the College helped him build a solid base for that career and managing the Taxi of Tomorrow project.

“It’s something that hasn’t been done before, so we’re trying hard to set a precedent here. It’s the kind of precedent Hampshire prepared me very well for,” says Klahr. “You’ve got to convince people to come with you on this journey, find the different players and pieces, and put them together.”

A taxi isn’t something most people think a lot about, except when they’re paying their fare or trying to hail one. David Klahr 92F, project manager for New York City’s Taxi of Tomorrow project, spends most of his workdays focused on little else.

KLAHR MANAGES THE PROJECT as part of his job as executive director of financial planning and analysis for the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. In 2007, New York announced plans to collaborate with automakers for the first time to develop a taxi specifically made for the rigors of city usage as opposed to retrofitting other vehicles, such as the Ford Crown Victoria or the Ford Escape hybrid, to do the job.

“The city felt that nothing on the shelf now is really designed as a taxi. The overarching concept is that the taxi is a public space, shared by everybody. If you design it for all the stakeholders, what would it look like?” he asks.

Since 2009, Klahr has been helping to facilitate the work of varied parties trying to answer that question, from taxi drivers and passengers to politicians to the companies seeking the contract for the new taxi. Much of his responsibility, he says, is simply to “keep everything flowing” and moving on the official timetable. So far it’s gone well, with Nissan chosen in spring 2011 to create a taxi based on its NV200 light commercial vehicle. The first are expected to hit the streets in fall 2013, and Nissan will have an exclusive contract to supply the city’s taxis for ten years.

Being at the center of the project has been exciting for Klahr. While at Hampshire, he had no plans to get involved in government. His focus on American studies allowed him to pursue a variety of interests. For his Division III project, he studied the American space program, analyzing from cultural and political perspectives why missions to the moon were stopped.


C L A S S N O T E S

1992 Peter Bingen and Monique Wentzel welcomed their baby boy, Silver Justice Bingen, to the world on November 13, 2011.

Karinne Keithley, along with dancer/choreographer Chris Yon, is working on raising money for their co-founded studio in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Norah Zuniga Shaw, assistant professor and director of Dance and Technology at Ohio State University, is working with William Forsythe and the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design to create an interactive score for One Flat Thing, Reproduced. She was recently published in Performance Research Journal and was the assistant editor for the book and DVD Envisioning Dance on Film and Video, eds. Judy Mitoma and Elizabeth Zimmer.

1993

Cheryl Brous is attending graduate school in education. She is also dancing and teaching with a local tribal belly dance troupe. (Portland, Ore.)

Danielle Friedland writes, “I needed to capture this moment. At Whole Foods in Montclair, N.J. with my little feminist, Asher. He’s 28 months old.”

Jane Jerardi recently relocated to Chicago to pursue her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In December, she presented two exhibitions featuring video installations and a performance project.

1994

Alyssa Bennett received a master’s degree in behavioral neuroendocrinology from Smith College in May 2009 and recently accepted a position at Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department as a wildlife technician. “I made a career

change from domestic animal behavior back to working with wildlife and I couldn’t be happier,” she writes. “I’m working to help the small number of Vermont’s cave bats that remain after recent devastation from white-nose syndrome. I enjoy the research, fieldwork, and public education that make up my new job, and hope to continue in this field for many years.”

Will Graves recently accepted a position at Rutgers University as assistant professor of psychology. “Finally got a tenure-track job, so my wife Kathryn, our son Graham, and I will be relocating to the north Jersey/New York City area in the fall. I’d love to hear from anyone who wants to catch up.”

1995

Tyler Carey writes, “In January, I was promoted from director of sales to vice president of sales and internet development at Harris Connect LLC. My career here has spanned seven years, with some time spent at a competitor beforehand, and my new role allows me to build on my history of selling and servicing our products with new responsibilities to help shape product direction. I’m working in the field with clients to better understand how they want to engage with their constituents in the realm of social media and mobile marketing, and feeding that back to our developers to shape our offering of communications and fund-raising tools. This is a really rewarding step in my career, and I’m grateful for the interdisciplinary foundation that Hampshire College provided.”

Ilana Krechmer (née Berman) is working as an actress and Pilates trainer. (Los Angeles)

Benjamin Messer writes, “I live in Phoenix now, with my brother and near my parents. I teach electronic music courses at Phoenix College, lead a basketball pep band at Grand

Canyon University, and lead a New Orleans-style brass band called Bad Cactus Brass Band, which played more than 150 gigs in 2011. I’m active in the local RC/co-counseling community. I’ve considered moving to L.A. and getting involved with the film and television music industry, but my life is going well here in Arizona.”

1997 Sarah Eley, a recent graduate of the Smith College School for Social Work, has danced with Krisen Day in the Hawley Martin Dance Company and in the Blaze

Dance Group. With Blaze she performed in the LiveArts Festival in the Philadelphia Fringe Fest; at First Night, Northampton; and at Thornes, A.P.E., also in Northampton. Sarah collaborated with drummer Katie Koti to create a percussive dance performed at the PaperMill Studio in Holyoke, Mass.

Ariele Foster writes, “I’m deeply honored to be one of 20 Athleta-sponsored athletes this year. Between practicing full-time physical therapy and teaching yoga, life is very full, but I’m loving every minute.” (Washington, D.C.)

Ariele Foster 97F

Danielle Friedland 93F and son Asher

Keith Nelson 88F at the International Sword Swallowing Day festivities at Ripley’s


C L A S S N O T E S

Kyra Fries and Tim Fries 95F (né Anderson) were married in Ann Arbor on August 14, 2010. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Rebecca Anderson 94F, and Maya Machin 98F was there to celebrate. Kyra and Tim are the joyful parents of Hazel Calliope, born on December 22, 2011.

Melisa Kjellander and her husband, Michael Kjellander (né Abrahamsen), joyfully welcomed their first child, Milo Alden Kjellander, on June 2, 2011. They live on campus at the Cambridge School of Weston (CSW) as dorm parents, which means Milo has 28 teenage sisters! Michael is a software engineer in Boston; Melisa works in admissions and college counseling at CSW.

Alex Kreit writes, “Last year I returned to Hampshire for Lester Mazor’s memorial service. It was a very sad time, though comforting to spend it among friends remembering Lester’s life. I’ve been living in San Diego for the past five years, teaching at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. My first book, Controlled Substances: Crime, Regulation and Policy, will be released later this year and I’ll be teaching a three-week summer course in China for the second time, beginning in late May.”

Marc Moorash writes, “Happy to announce that our little publishing house, Seraphemera Books & Music, has passed twenty active titles with the release in December 2011 of the short-story chapbook More to Follow and of the graphic novel Tad Caldwell and the Monster Kid in January 2012. Also, we’re now accepting submissions for our new literary journal Garbanzo www.seraphemera.org.”

Paul Rodriguez was awarded a JD from Yale Law School in May 2011 and recently accepted a position at NYU School of Law as Law & Social Enterprise Fellow.

1998

Amanda Jones writes, “I’ve settled near family and in the thick of creative culture in Austin. My fiancé and I recently celebrated six years of companionship, and we share our lives with an awesome schnauzer. I’ve been working various part-time jobs and making art—community and performance—in the free hours. Lately my occupation has been carpentry. I’m also a volunteer on the board of the Austin Time Exchange Network, which allows members to build community and give and receive help through the use of an alternative currency.”

Christine Luby writes, “I moved to Sydney after living in rainy London for 10 years. I gave up my contemporary dance career about five years ago to work in film production, and am an assistant director. I recently worked on the upcoming Australian feature Short Beach as well as television commercials for Disney, Panasonic, Sony, and Toyota and on a TV pilot featuring Lady Gaga. I’m living 100 meters from Bondi Beach and enjoying the warm weather and good beer! Really happy to connect with other alums living in Australia, especially those in film, and will be at the Cannes Film Festival this year if any alums want to meet up. [email protected].”

1999 Kimberly Brandt and Walsh Hansen had a showing of their video 50 MPH at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance.

Ariana Friedlander writes, “In 2011 I started my own business, Rosabella Consulting, LLC, and I consider it like my Div IV (more so than graduate school was). I love helping small businesses thrive by empowering owners and employees to invest in sustainable growth. To do that, I provide services in strategic planning, coaching, meeting facilitation,

Alex Kreit 97F

Marc Moorash 97F edits the Garbanzo literary journal.

Maya Machin 98F, Kyra Fries 97F, Tim Fries 95F, and Rev. Rebecca Anderson 94F

Milo Alden Kjellander


C L A S S N O T E S

and community-engagement campaigns. It’s exciting to feel the confidence in my experiences and skills to break out on my own and live out a longtime dream!” (Fort Collins, Colo.)

Becca Gardner dances with Ballet Ariel in Denver. They performed at the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art, followed by The Nutcracker and The Spring Show. She has also been dancing with and teaching master classes regularly for the Denver Independent Choreographers Project.

Julia Skloot danced for the Crispin Spaeth Dance Group in Seattle, taught dance at the Creative Dance Center (which she helped to start), and was a member of the Left Field Dance Collective, which performs throughout Seattle in theaters, warehouses, and public spaces. She studied for an MFA in choreography at Sarah Lawrence College. (Brooklyn, N.Y.)

2000

Morgan Bernal is the proud parent of Aiden Cole Bernal, born on January 26, 2008.

Paul Bogosian writes, “I’m a blurry person sitting behind the anchor on the CBS Evening News, Weekend Edition. In addition to sitting, I’m writing, editing, shooting, researching, and generally leaning weird-faced into the wind tunnel of life. If you have any good feature-story ideas for the news, please drop me a line.” (New York City)

Nicole Caldwell writes, “I moved in 2009 from NewYork City to a little town on the New York-Canada border to start a sustainability education center and artists retreat facility called Better Farm (www.betterfarm.org). Through educational workshops, internships, artist residencies, gallery showings and events, and an ongoing commitment to sustainable living and community outreach, we’re working with people from all

over the world to realize a more sustainable and creative living experience. Now entering our third season of activity, Better Farm boasts a 1,400-square-foot, solar-powered art barn, organic gardens, several alternative structures built by the people staying here, a few rescued chickens and dogs, and big ideas for the future. Our most recent initiative has been betterArts, a 501(c)3 subsidiary of Better Farm offering low-cost and free music and art instruction for all ages as a way to make the arts accessible to all.” (Redwood, N.Y.)

Katharine Callard joined eight others to bicycle from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to raise money for social-justice organizations across the country. The riders—lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, straight, and allied cyclists—rode to raise awareness about forms of oppression in queer communities while meeting with other marginalized communities, such as Native American reservations, small farmers, homestead ranchers, mining towns, and low-income neighborhoods.

CJ Holm presented her new work, The Salad of the Bad Cafe, co-created with Tiana Hemlock, in January 2011 at Gowanus Arts in New York City. She also presented new work at Judson Church in New York in November.

Hannah Margulis-Kessel was accepted into the master’s program in the School of Education at the University of California Berkeley.

Eileen Meyer writes, “I’m a producer and freelance film editor working in New York, Los Angeles, and Memphis. My work has screened at numerous festivals over the past few years, including Outfest 2011 (Woman’s Picture) and Sundance 2012 (The Thing). I’m editing two feature films this year, along with a number of shorts, both documentary and narrative. See eileeneditor.com.

Christine Luby 98F

Paul Rodriguez 97F Amanda Jones 98F and partner Chad Hopper

Morgan Bernal 00F and son Aiden Paul Bogosian 00F

BEN

Aq

UA


C L A S S N O T E S

can imagine. Also, Tyler has been publishing a magazine entitled Gypsé Eyes, which is now in its fourth issue. Not sure if any other alumni would be interested in this, but I’m super proud of him. Also, he may be seeking interns for the summer.”

Brianna Sloane writes, “Happily back in the Pioneer Valley with my husband of three years, Andrew Roberts, and having a great time in my first year of MFA study in the UMass Amherst theater department. I had a devised piece premier on April 5, 2012, as part of the Beyond the Horizon theater festival (addressing evolving human relationships with the natural world) and will be directing two mainstage shows at UMass next year.” (Sunderland, Mass.)

Chris Westhoff writes, “I live in a very rural county of Ohio (Logan) and manage a small 501(c)3 repertory theater company called Mad River Theater Works. As manager, I’m responsible for writing and implementing our grants and corporate/foundation sponsorships. These include generous funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Columbus Foundation, Honda of America Mfg., and, most recently, PNC ArtsAlive. Together with smaller foundation grants, these account for roughly 50 percent of our annual budget. The other 50 percent comes from touring. Each year we perform approximately 125 shows in schools and theaters. New work is brought directly in to local schools (mostly elementary and middle), and existing work, represented by a Philadelphia-based arts management company called Baylin Artists, tours to theaters and colleges nationally. I handle the booking of the shows, facilitate with contracts, and act as a road manager for the touring company. Additionally, as a musician and performer, I often find myself cast in the productions. All told, it’s a very busy and fulfilling job. It pulls together so many of my interests

that it must, in some ways, qualify as a dream job. I wouldn’t be prepared to do half of it without my Hampshire education.”

2002 Joey Carey writes, “I started Sundial Pictures in 2008 with my producing partners, Stefan Nowicki and Ben Weber, to release the documentary Guest of Cindy Sherman. Since then we’ve worked on a variety of films including Dee Rees’s Pariah, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Focus Features, and David Gelb’s documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was released in theaters by Magnolia Pictures in March 2012. We just premiered Matt Ross’s feature film 28 Hotel Rooms at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. We are in postproduction on Web, a documentary about the One Laptop per Child Program, and a feature-length thriller set in London called Liars All. We’re currently working with Caliber Media and Preferred Content on a feature film in production on Long Island called Dark Was the Night. www.sundial-pictures.com.”

Lily Henderson writes, “I was a cinematographer on the feature film Welcome to Pine Hill, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance Film Festival this year. The film was made in collaboration with the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, which I’ve been part of for five years. Since January, the film has shown at numerous film festivals, including the Boston Independent Film Festival, the Nashville Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival. Traveling from the backyards of Brooklyn crack houses to the lush Catskill Mountains, the film is a meditative journey about how we choose to live our lives. Visit: www.welcometopinehill.com “I started ThinPlace Pictures in 2009 and went on to direct Lessons for the Living, a feature documentary and web series about why certain people choose to spend their free time with dying strangers. It was recently endorsed by the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and has screened at many film festivals. It had its New York premiere at Anthology Film Archives as part of the WIPNYC programming. www.lessonsforthelivingfilm.com.”

2001Rhys Ernst writes, “I received my MFA in film/ video from Cal Arts in 2011, and my 15-minute thesis film, The Thing, premiered at Sundance in 2012. In The Thing, a woman, a transgendered man, and their cat travel toward a mysterious roadside attraction known as “The Thing”. Eileen Meyer 00F was the editor, adding to the editing work of fellow Hampshire alums Josh Lee 03F and Jeff Striker 06F. I’m working on two more short films and developing two features. I’m currently a Film Independent Project: Involve Fellow, and I work as a freelance producer/director. See rhysernst.com.” (Los Angeles)

Elisabeth Gambino spent the month of July in Marnay-sur-Seine, France, completing a residency in animation and puppetry at CAMAC, a center for the arts, with support from the Fondation Ténot. She is currently exhibiting work in a group show at the Walters Art Museum (Baltimore) and in Nashville. This year Elisabeth is teaching workshops at the National Gallery of Art, Belmont University, Baltimore City Schools, Arts Everyday, and MAEA. She has been Career High School Art Teacher of the Year for Baltimore City Public Schools, and loves teaching yoga. Check out her site on donorschoose.org if you’re interested in supporting her inner-city classroom: “We need books,” she writes.

Kathryn (Schiff) Good-Schiff recently accepted a position as communications associate at Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) at Hampshire.

Sara Maria Salamone writes, “Tyler Lafreniere 02F and I had a beautiful baby girl. Zuzu Danger Lafreniere was born at 11:25 on March 12, 2011, in Brooklyn. She was born healthy, weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces, at home. We’re so happy! Potential F29 student? We’ve been meaning to forward this information along, but we’ve just been so busy, as I’m sure you

Joey Carey 02F, Rhys Ernst 01S, Eileen Meyer 00F, and Lily Henderson 02F at the Sundance Film Festival


C L A S S N O T E S

2003 Jenny Arch received a master’s degree in library and information science from the Graduate School of Library and Information at Simmons College, in Boston, on January 20, 2012.

Dallas Chandler Foster and Elizabeth Kee Porter Hood were married at Helen Hills Hills Chapel at Smith College. The Rev. Nancy Talbot, a Presbyterian minister, performed the ceremony.

Wesley Flash Wollet earned a master’s degree in media studies and LGBT/queer studies from New York University in September 2011. He has presented graduate work about transgender YouTube support communities at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and NYU, and as part of a TEDx local talk series in New York City. Wesley also creates and performs with avant garde performance troupe www.BabySkinGlove.com.

2004

Rebecca Buckleystein writes, “I recently started working as the philanthropy coordinator for a wonderful nonprofit that serves Chicago’s most vulnerable and at-risk youth. It has been a joy exploring a new city, and stepping up into a nonprofit administrative position as communications associate—not to mention that the food really is amazing here.”

Sarah Grossman now runs her own business in Toronto, inspiring people to love being healthy, specifically by working with nutrition and food. www.livingkitchenwellness.com

Olive McKeon completed a master’s in arts politics at NYU and is a PhD candidate in culture and performance at UCLA.

Christopher-Rasheem McMillan presented his research at “Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance,”

a conference hosted by the Congress on Research in Dance, in February 2012. He received his MFA in dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. (London)

2005 Noelle Serafino received a master’s in performance studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a concentration in heritage tourism, material culture, museum interventions, and American identity. On May 20, 2011, she married her longtime boyfriend,

Nick Clover-Brown 04F, in New York City. They recently relocated back to the Pioneer Valley.

2006 Adam Lipsky returned to the Hampshire campus on February 29, 2012 to perform with his new

Stories Lead to Social Change

the College, he took an internship at the Applied Research Center, the racial justice think tank that runs Colorlines. He spent seven months there involved in public policy research, and was hired after graduation. For the past five years, much of his investigative reporting and research has dealt with immigration issues—particularly the shape and impact of immigration enforcement—the fallout of the economic crisis, and national security.

Surprisingly, Wessler never took a journalism course. He focused on political theory and photography, and believes that the qualitative research skills and ability to work independently he developed as a student have been essential to his journalistic success.

“I had some amazing professors at Hampshire,” says Wessler. “In terms of my political thinking and analytical orientation, Hampshire faculty were vitally important.”

Seth Freed Wessler 03F and his colleagues at Colorlines.com, a website dedicated to reporting on racial justice issues, were regularly hearing rumors of children being separated from their undocumented immigrant families after their parents’ detainment or deportation. They suspected it to be an all-too-frequent occurrence, and Wessler set out to uncover the facts.

“DESPITE HEARING OF THESE STORIES, there wasn’t any clear sense of the scale of the problem. [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] would say it wasn’t a big issue. We had a sense it was a systemic problem, but we didn’t know for certain,” he says. “I spent most of last year on this project, traveling around the country, and found that it’s disturbingly common for parents who’ve been detained to lose custody of their children. It’s a devastating story.”

Wessler was awarded the 2012 Hillman Prize for Web Journalism for his investigative reporting on this issue. His work showed that at least 5,100 children were stuck in foster care due to the deportation or detainment of their parents, and drew the attention of major media outlets nationwide and even President Barack Obama. Most important, Wessler says, state legislators and community advocates around the country started to devote their energy to addressing the problem. The chance to spur results like that is what led him to his career.

“The thing I think I do best, and like doing most, is using stories as tools to explain, explore, and uncover larger questions and social problems,” he says. His recent work has included tracking the Supreme Court hearings on Arizona Senate Bill 1070, also known as the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act. “Those hearings are incredibly important,” he says. “They relate to the lives of communities and of real people.”

Wessler has been involved with Colorlines since graduating from Hampshire. In his third year at


In Memoriam

ensemble Hee Hawk and to speak with current students about music and life after Hampshire.

Yash Patankar writes, “Graduate student at Dartmouth Medical School. Pursuing research on inflammatory response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.” (Hanover, N.H.)

Mariana Valencia launched Rhinoceros Event, issue 1, “Clean Dream,” in January 2012. Rhinoceros Event is a quarterly paper featuring writing by Mariana and images and writing by fellow artists.

2007 Prateek Rajbhandari and Kate Rajbhandari are happy to announce their commitment, made on January 21, 2012, in Stowe, Vt.

Allison Smartt writes, “After working the summer after graduation (summer 2011) as the associate sound engineer for

Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, I returned to Hampshire to work as the dance program intern. During this time, I also freelanced, working as a sound engineer with Williams College, the Majestic Theatre, the Oberon Theatre, the Pioneer Valley Ballet, and Pearl Street Nightclub. I sound-designed for several local projects and Hartford Children’s Theatre. When this academic year ends, I’ll be heading to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival to be its associate production manager.”

Deanna Snow was recently accepted to Northeastern University’s new hybrid program, which has online classes and on-campus labs with clinical sites in the Boston area.

Alie B. Trainor (née Wickham) changed jobs and got married. She’s now working with a new program called the Area Health Education Center at the University of Florida. As the primary leader for the upcoming student initiatives, she is still very involved with the arts and health field.

C L A S S N O T E S

“Our alumni are an incredibly diverse and incredibly dynamic group of leaders throughout the country and abroad.”

MARiA VALLEjO 72F, inauguratiOn wOrds OfwelcOme On behalf Of the alumni

Since the last issue of NSS, we have been saddened to learn of the deaths of the members of the Hampshire community listed below. To report the death of an alum, or if you would like more information about any of those listed here, please contact us at [email protected]. We may be able to provide an obituary or put you in touch with family or friends of the deceased.

irene Bell Brody 73F

Carolyn Sue Projansky 74F

jennifer Gunn Connelly 79F

Mary Elizabeth “Maiz” Downing 85F

Cathy-jo Anne Magri 86F

Vernon Anthony “Vern” Alper 86S

Gia Virginia McGinley 90F

jessica Ann “jessie” Pripstein 90F

jessica Laura-Louise “jessie” King-Young 07F

Tyler Chapin Rowland 08F


Soaring spiritsAmong celebratory events during inauguration weekend

was a kite fly on the front lawn, an activity that matched

the buoyant mood on campus.

THANK YOU to contributors whose support helped

make inauguration weekend such a success: Atkins

Farms Country Market, Berkshire Design Group,

Bowditch and Dewey, Creedon and Co., EDM –

Architects – Engineers, Follett Higher Education

Group, Hess Corporation, Kuhn Riddle Architects,

Lexington Group, National Grid, Sodexo Inc., Strategic

Building Solutions, Thayer Street Associates, Upton

Tea Imports, W.D. Cowls Inc., and Wright Builders.

INAUGURAT ION PLANNING COMMITTEE

Beth Ward (chair), Sarah Hart Agudelo, Larry Archey,

Mary Fahey, Yaniris Fernandez, Salman Hameed,

Andrew Hart, Whitney Wilder Klare 10F, Ray LaBarre,

Lindsay Oliver-Rowe, Julie Richardson, Ken Rosenthal,

Joan Shulman 77F, Bob Smith, Elaine Thomas, Pam

Tinto, Michele Tourangeau, and Jeffrey Wolfman.

Nonprofit Org.U.S. PostagePAIDHampshireCollege

Office of Alumni and Family Relations893 West StreetAmherst, MA 01002-3359

Div III 2012Eye-catching and thought-provoking projects by students appeared on campus:

(Top left and right) Anastasia Keck 08F explored layers of identity and reality in Concealing and Revealing with Shadows, Projections, Printmaking, Mark, and Movement.

(Bottom left) In Spacious Thoughts, Zachary Clemente 08F suspended a stunning modular installation over the walkway between Longsworth Arts Village and the center of campus.

(Bottom right) Nicole Markowitz 08F exhibited sculpture and drawings, plus instructions for creating optical illusions and imaginary machines, in Assembly Required. She is shown with a sphere made of 500 feet of electrical wire and 800 cable zip ties.

Hampshire College Non Satis Scire Summer 2012

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Transcript of Hampshire College Non Satis Scire Summer 2012