Archives: Faculty

April 09, 2008

Podcast: College professors on the economy and hate crimes

Mahesha Subbaraman ‘06, co-host of the Loquitur Podcast, recently interviewed Professor Geoffrey Woglom and Professor Lawrence Douglas for the podcast. As Mahesha explains it,

Loquitur is an Internet podcast which features audio interviews with academic and professional experts on current National Forensics League (NFL) debate topics for the free educational benefit of all high school students competing in Lincoln-Douglas (LD) and Public Forum (PF) Debate.

To that end, my first interview was with Professor Geoffrey Woglom on whether the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 can mitigate economic slowdowns over the next year.

Listen to the interview with Professor Woglom here.

And my second interview was with Professor Lawrence Douglas on whether hate crimes enhancements are justifiable in the United States in light of foreign law on hate crimes, the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, and the pedagogical function of criminal trials.

Listen to the interview with Professor Douglas here.

Thanks to Mahesha for sending these our way.

Brian Meacham '97 at 07:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 12, 2008

"Stray Questions" for Prof. Stavans

The New York Times’ Paper Cuts blog puts its weekly “Stray Questions” to Professor Ilan Stavans this week, including this question: “How much time, if any, do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing?”

Professor Stavans’ answer:

The Web is an integral part of me - who I am, where I go, what I do. My dialogue with the outside world (is there one?) and with myself (is there an eye behind the “I”?) takes place though this monitor and keyboard. They are my extremities. A distraction? No more so that the business of being happy in life. Without it, the speed of my thoughts would be comparatively slooooooower.

Some readers may note that the photo of Prof. Stavans used in the piece was taken by our friend and frequent contributor Sam Masinter ‘04 - nice work, Sam.

Brian Meacham '97 at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 10, 2007

What Would Socrates Say?

From its origins on the Amherst website to its own domain at AskPhilosophers.org, Professor Alexander George’s gathering place for philosophical questions asked by real people all around the world has now become the basis for a new book, What Would Socrates Say?

The questions asked in the book are drawn from the archives of AskPhilosophers.org, and feature answers from “some of today’s most highly esteemed philosophers.”

Using their knowledge of the arguments laid down by the likes of Aristotle, Camus, Locke, and Socrates, and their own insightful interpretations, they break down tough issues in a digestible, personal, and even humorous style. Included are questions on today’s hot-button topics (war, euthanasia); timeless conundrums about religion and morality (how do we know God exists?); personal perplexities about adultery, child-rearing, and sex; and a few lighthearted topics like whether it’s right to let your kids believe in Santa.

Brian Meacham '97 at 03:59 PM | TrackBack

August 08, 2007

Prof. Hadley Arkes on Giuliani presidential run

I’m a little late getting to this short, week-old article from the New York Times in which longtime political science professor Hadley Arkes is quoted. The article (now behind a paywall) discusses the reactions of influential figures in the pro-life movement to the top contenders for the Republican party presidential nomination. While several candidates are mentioned, the article spends the most time on former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Professor Arkes shares a brief thought on the implications of a Giuliani nomination:

Hadley Arkes, a professor at Amherst College and a leading social conservative legal thinker, said he had recently gotten ”feelers” from some in the Giuliani camp. But Mr. Arkes, an opponent of abortion, said he could not fathom a way the party could nominate Mr. Giuliani and remain the same ”pro-life” party it has been for 25 years.

”You change the constituency of the party,” Mr. Arkes said—either by showing that anti-abortion voters are not necessary to win, or by showing that anti-abortion voters are willing to subsume their cause to other issues.

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 02:46 PM | TrackBack

February 01, 2007

President Plimpton and Professor Greene, in memoriam

Two Amherst graduates who returned to the school and had a major influence on the Amherst community have passed away. Former President Calvin Plimpton ‘39 passed away yesterday at his home in Westwood, Massachusetts, and history professor Theodore Greene ‘43 died earlier this month in Amherst.

Both men were at Amherst during times of great change, and both played roles in Amherst’s transition to coeducation. Their obituaries in the Boston Globe describe Plimpton as being credited with “starting the process that led to the admission of women to the prestigious liberal arts school,” while Professor Greene was a “leading faculty advocate of transforming historically all-male Amherst into a coeducational institution. “

Plimpton graduated from Amherst in 1939, and returned in 1960 to lead Amherst as president for eleven years. Professor Greene, after graduating from the College in 1943, taught history from 1952 to 1989. Greene is quoted as coming to an understanding of Amherst by “spending twenty-seven years of my life at Amherst and by familiarity with the experience of two grandfathers, a father, a brother, four uncles, and four cousins, who together have known Amherst from 1878.”

Brian Meacham '97 at 12:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 12, 2007

Taking "bizarre" course lists seriously

Professor Pavel Machala’s Political Science course “Taking Marx Seriously” has made a list of “Bizarre College Courses” produced by Young America’s Foundation, an organization of conservatives (motto: “The Conservative Movement Starts Here”) who produce the “Dirty Dozen” list every year. We’d seen the story rolling around our Google Alerts for the past few days, and it seems to have finally made an appearance in the mainstream, in an opinion column in the Los Angeles Times titled “I got an A in Phallus 101.” Amherst, listed among “nationally recognized PC heavyweights” including Cornell, and “of course, Duke.”

As Professor Machala’s syllabus asks, “Has Marx’s credibility survived the global debacle of those regimes and movements which drew inspiration from his work, however poorly they understood it?” The article’s author Charlotte Allen, an editor at Beliefnet.com, doesn’t feel Marx is worth it: “With 100 million dead in various gulags and related charnel houses, I don’t think so.” Any alumni of the course out there care to comment?

Thanks to Audrey for the link.

Brian Meacham '97 at 01:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Professor Sarat on Hussein's execution

In an article titled “Pictures And Executions: The Real Scandal In The Hanging Of Saddam Hussein,” Professor Austin Sarat examines the Iraqi leader’s execution. “With so much attention being paid to the apparent recent scandal created by the surreptitiously produced video of that event, we should not lose sight of the real scandal of the execution it portrays,” Sarat writes.

Like the photography of the abuse at Abu Ghraib, it is not the filming of Saddam’s execution that is scandalous or criminal. If the images of his death are too gruesome, offensive, or unsettling to be seen, then perhaps the acts they purport to capture are too gruesome, offensive, or unsettling to be carried out on even someone as despicable as Saddam Hussein.

Brian Meacham '97 at 12:58 AM

July 18, 2006

Paging President Ward

After months of headlines about materials failures and substandard work in the tunnels of Boston’s Central Artery Project (aka The Big Dig,) this month’s collapse of a ceiling panel, which took the life of a passenger in a car beneath, has brought calls for “a new Ward commission.”

A quarter century ago, it was the Ward Commission—formally, the Special Commission Concerning State and County Buildings—that dragged Massachusetts public contracting out of the age of corruption and into the modern era. That commission came about after the new University of Massachusetts at Boston campus started to crumble, just one of a number of glaring problems with public buildings.

… that body shone a light on the seamy underside of the contracting and construction process, chronicling the bribery, kickbacks, and quid pro quo contributions that were commonplace.

The chairman who gave his name to the commission, of course, was the late John William Ward, who had just resigned as fourteenth president of the College when he became head of the commission. According to his Wikipedia biography,

For Ward, history was made when individuals put their ideals into action, and for this reason Ward spent much of his career exploring contradictions in ideology, especially emphasizing the contradiction between the individual’s freedom to act in socially responsible manner and the increasing bureaucratization of life that limited the possibility of such action.

Ward’s time at the College was controversial due to his protests of the Vietnam War through nonviolent civil disobedience at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, but it was his work on the Commission that infuriated local power. The Commission was sometimes accused of being a “witch hunt,” and its conclusion, that “corruption was a way of life in Massachusetts,” could not have pleased many.

While Ward’s emphasis on “putting ideals into action” is certainly shared by President Marx, it seems unlikely that he, like Ward, would be called on by the state. Among other reasons, Ward had been president for eight years before stepping down, while Marx has only been in office for three years. For another, Ward was a Harvard graduate and a Boston native. Ward’s idealism is still at work at his secondary school, Boston Latin, where the Ward Public Service Fellowship allows students to spend a summer working “in the office of an elected or appointed public servant in state government, municipal government, the judicial system, or even the major press.”

Ward is also remembered by a named professorship at the College, and an exhibition room in the Frost Library.

Addendum, 24 July: The Sunday (July 23) Globe includes an editorial on the subject by Ward Fellowship chairman Mark Wolf.

Parker Morse '96 at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2006

Prof. Douglas on Milosevic

In an opinion piece in today’s Los Angeles Times titled “Justice denied at The Hague?” Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought Lawrence Douglas takes on the notion that with the death in prison of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, his trial has been a “colossal failure,” as some have said.

Douglas, whose book on Milosevic is to be published by Princeton University Press (and published today, if the Times article is correct), describes the shortcomings of the trial, but looks ahead to the larger impact the trial could have:

Still, it is too early to condemn the Milosevic trial as a failure. One of the great, if overlooked, achievements of the Nuremberg trials was the astonishing trove of documents and materials assembled by researchers and prosecutors and since mined by generations of historians. I suspect the Milosevic trial will provide similar rewards to future historians of the Balkan wars.

UPDATE: Professor Douglas was featured on KCRW’S “To the Point,” speaking about Milosevic. A link to the program info (though Douglas isn’t mentioned) and a direct link to the Real Audio file. Thanks to Audrey for the tip.

Brian Meacham '97 at 07:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 27, 2006

Prof. Arkes in The Nation

In a profile of Princeton jurisprudence professor Robert “Robby” George titled “Princeton Tilts Right,” writer Max Blumenthal refers to professor Hadley Arkes, one of a “rising cohort of right-wing Catholic political leaders” of which George is also a member. He describes George and Arkes, “who is reportedly Jewish, though he travels almost exclusively in Catholic right political and intellectual circles,” as men of a similar political temperment, both grounded in natural law, and opponents of abortion and gay marriage.

The article describes George’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, “an academic center he founded in 2000 ‘to sustain America’s experiment in ordered liberty’,” and talks about the reaction of the Princeton community to the arrival of this “outspoken social conservative.”

Thanks to Jennifer Brown ‘05 for the link.

Brian Meacham '97 at 09:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 25, 2006

Professor Taubman on...Khrushchev

In an editorial titled “How a Speech Won the Cold War” in today’s New York Times, Political Science professor William Taubman writes about Nikita Khrushchev, the subject of Taubman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Khrushchev’s infamous “secret speech” at the 20th Communist Party Congress.

Thanks to Isaiah Tanenbaum ‘05 for the link and for this synopsis of the piece: “In the speech, Khrushchev distanced himself from Stalin; Taubman argues that this eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, although of course Khrushchev’s intentions lay elsewhere.”

Brian Meacham '97 at 11:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 16, 2006

The president as radical

Alumni who haven’t been following the college closely over the past five years—or those put off by Amherst’s privileged atmosphere—shouldn’t miss the BusinessWeek article describing the ambitions president Tony Marx holds for the College.

Starting by describing Marx’s own “nothing to lose” pitch to the Board of Trustees—in which he remembers saying, “I’m not interested in being a custodian over a privileged place,”—the article describes Marx’s agenda as “a new affirmative action initiative, this time based on class rather than race.”

It also connects the dots with Dean of Admissions Tom Parker’s Christmas comments and the faculty report on admissions from a few years ago, and includes quotes from professors Barry O’Connell, Geoffrey Woglom, David A. Cox and Jan Dizard.

To Marx this isn’t a revolutionary goal; he sees it as a return to Amherst’s roots. The college, he notes, was founded in 1821 by Noah Webster, creator of the American Dictionary, whose portrait hangs in Marx’s office. “The object of this institution,” Webster wrote, is “educating young men in indigent circumstances, but of hopeful piety and promising talents.” The wording is antiquated, and women weren’t allowed back then. But there’s nothing dated about the sentiment.

Parker Morse '96 at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2005

Sunday news round-up

We’ve gathered together a number of stories about Amherst alumni, professors, and others in the news of the past few weeks:

The Chicago Sun-Times spends Sunday lunch with Scott Turow ‘70, to discuss his life and his latest book.

Harvard University Assistant Professor of Education Vanessa Fong ‘96 delivered a lecture at Amherst a few weeks ago, the The Daily Collegian reports.

Professor Austin Sarat is quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle story about California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and death row inmate Tookie WIlliams, co-founder of the Crips and now anti-gang crusader.

Amherst gets a passing mention in the first paragraph of a Baltimore Sun story on “McDonaldization.”

In a Boston Magazine interview , Boston University Chancellor Emeritus John Silber reflects on a conversation he had with the Boston Globe about the kind of places he wanted BU to imitate.

I think Williams College, Amherst College, Haverford College, Bryn Mawr College, Yale in directed studies - these are examples of really first-rate undergraduate teaching. And if I were going to emulate another institution, I would be looking for an emphasis on teaching like that.

Brian Meacham '97 at 12:32 PM

October 07, 2005

Ask philosophers

It’s not uncommon to see the work of Amherst’s humanities professors in the media—Professor Hadley Arkes, for example, appears regularly on the website of the National Review. We’ve heard rumblings, before, about Professor Alexander George’s project, Ask Philosophers, but only found it after reading an article in Inside Higher Education.

[P]hilosophy professors are reviewing … questions and providing answers. The intended audience is not fellow philosophers, but the general public.

“I just thought that the Web offered philosophers a chance to do public service of the kind that they haven’t always had,” says Alexander George, chair of philosophy at Amherst College and creator of the site. “Philosophy is ubiquitous in people’s lives, but there is an unfortunate disconnect between the interests of most people in philosophy and their access to information about philosophy and the great ideas and history of philosophy.”

One critic noted in the article “worries that the panel is ‘a Harvard-centric list, as run through Massachusetts liberal arts colleges.’” However, he qualifies that criticism: “Is that fatal to the project? Probably not.”

Parker Morse '96 at 03:49 PM

October 04, 2005

Benjamin DeMott, critic and writer, dies at 81

Benjamin DeMott, prefessor emeritus of English at the College and renowned social critic, died last week at the age of 81. DeMott taught at Amherst for forty years, from 1951 until his retirement in 1990.

DeMott was known for his wide-ranging interests and his uncommon skill as a teacher and writer. As Professor William Pritchard notes in the Boston Globe obituary, DeMott was “interested in popular culture before it became ‘cultural studies.’ ” DeMott’s best-known published works came in the form of essays for publications like the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and Esquire. He was the author of a triology of works of cultural criticism published over ten years beginning in 1990: The Imperial Middle: Why Americans Can’t Think Straight About Class (1990); The Trouble With Friendship: Why Americans Can’t Think Straight About Race (1995); and Killer Woman Blues: Why Americans Can’t Think Straight About Gender and Power (2000).

DeMott, who was also a talented pianist, graduated from George Washington University in 1949. He began teaching at Amherst in 1951, and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in English literature in 1953. Read his obituary in the New York Times, as well as a press release from the college about Professor DeMott.

Brian Meacham '97 at 08:27 AM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2005

Romer '52's work leads to memorial in Deerfield

In February we noted a lecture by Professor Emeritus of physics Bob Romer ‘52 about his work researching the lives of slaves in the pre-Abolition Pioneer Valley. According to a recent article in the Springfield Republican, Romer’s talks on the subject early in the year inspired “the Deerfield-based Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and […] its director, Timothy C. Neumann, who took the idea and ran with it.”

Romer [told] about the Rev. John Ashley, who was minister in Deerfield 1732-1780 and owned a slave named Jenny. Romer noticed that Jenny died within a month of Ashley’s widow Dorothy, but in the burial grounds there is a big stone to mark where Dorothy was laid to rest and nothing for Jenny.

Neumann said he was looking for something special to mark the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association’s 135th year of existence and 125th anniversary of its museum that now stands at the center of Historic Deerfield. When he heard of Romer’s remarks, he and his staff decided it was time to memorialize the African Americans who lived in Deerfield.

Parker Morse '96 at 08:52 PM

August 15, 2005

Monday roundup: professors, campus, and history

In a Boston Globe article on literary hoaxes, Professor of Japanese culture John Solt talks about a recent book of poetry about Hiroshima that was revealed to be a hoax: he “dismissed the poems’ scenery as ”Japanized crap” (even though Japanese readers praised the work).”

Professor of Sociology Jerome Himmelstein comments on why the number of professors from top 10 graduate programs might be the same in small liberal arts colleges as in larger universities in some departments. His answer? “In sociology and English, you just need a computer and a desk.” Indeed.

Former Professor of Biology Paul Ewald gets a mention in a lengthy Globe piece called “What Makes People Gay?” Writer Neil Swidey mentions Ewald’s controversial argument that “homosexuality might be caused by a virus - a pathogen most likely working in utero.”

Nalini Jones ‘93, programmer for the Newport Folk Festival, describes listening to the Pixies’ seminal album Come On Pilgrim while at Amherst in a Globe article about this year’s festival; the newly-reunited Pixies played an acoustic set that was a highlight of the long-running festival.

In the Wichita Eagle, Beccy Tanner writes about an Amherst alumnus, John Brown Dunbar of the class of 1864, a Civil War lieutenant and linguist who, along with his father, was the inspiration for the character played by Kevin Costner in the film Dances with Wolves.

And finally, in campus news, The Springfield Republican reports on campus changes in the Five College area:

Amherst College is continuing its third phase of safety improvements at crosswalks around campus. Two new residence halls will be completed for the fall semester and will house 85 students. And both the M. Pratt and Morrow dorms are being renovated. The college is also building a new home for the department of geology and the Museum of Natural History.

Brian Meacham '97 at 11:31 PM | Comments (1)

June 22, 2005

Stavans reviews Allende

Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five-College 40th Anniversary Professor (!) Ilan Stavans, oft-cited and oft-published, has reviewed Isabel Allende’s new novel, Zorro. In a tasty bit of description, Stavans’ review in the Boston Globe describes the dialogue as “more syrupy than a Vermont maple tree in season,” and concludes that “every age has the superheroes it deserves.”

Brian Meacham '97 at 11:26 AM

May 26, 2005

Pouncey interviewed

Past president Peter Pouncey was interviewed in the Wednesday, May 25 Daily Hampshire Gazette (paid subscription required) about his new novel, Rules for Old Men Waiting.

Pouncey’s book has received many positive, and some glowing, reviews. Writing in the Boston Globe, Gail Caldwell called it “an exquisite, realized homage to narrative itself…” Susan Balee of the Philadelphia Inquirer pronounced it “a masterwork” that “can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with any novel about war written in the last century.”

A few reviewers have taken Pouncey to task, among them Peter Parker of the London Sunday Times who deemed the novel ”overly self-conscious” and ”seriously flawed.”

Pouncey, who will be reading from the book at the Jeffery Amherst Bookshop on Saturday, May 28 at 5 PM (during Alumni Weekend,) recently finished a two-week cross-country book tour.

“It was very useful and rather moving to me, to see who came to hear—an extraordinary variety of older people. And the taking of the message that the man works to the end, to the last tick of his life was moving to them. That he held himself together, that he had a discipline as he approached the moment of dying, after almost being about to lose it.

“I was sort of rendered speechless a couple of times. One man said, ‘I bought it a week ago, I’ve read it twice since, and I wanted to see what kind of person wrote it.’”

Parker Morse '96 at 01:31 PM

May 06, 2005

Dunbar '44 dies

The College website has a brief “In Memoriam” posted for Professor Emeritus Henry Dunbar ‘44, who died yesterday (May 5th). If I’m making the right connection, this is “Hank” Dunbar, coach of the swim team through his retirement in 1993. Dunbar was also once coach of the crew, and that team has had at least one boat named in his honor.

The current sparse page on the College website indicates that it will be expanded if more information is made available to them.

Parker Morse '96 at 03:25 PM | Comments (1)

April 24, 2005

President Pouncey's first novel

Rules for Old Men Waiting, the debut novel by President Emeritus Peter Pouncey, has been published by Random House this month. The novel, described by the publisher as “a brief, lyrical novel with a powerful emotional charge,” centers on Robert MacIver, a Scottish historian, and a tale of World War One. The novel has received praise from such luminaries as Frank McCourt (“a deeply sensual, moving, thrilling novel”) and Norman Mailer (“Mr. Pouncey writes with enough style and elegance to bring envy into the heart of many a good novelist”). Pouncey is going on a book tour to promote the book in May and June.

Brian Meacham '97 at 08:39 PM

April 20, 2005

Three professors receive Guggenheim fellowships

Three Amherst professors were among the 186 people nationwide named Guggenheim Fellows for 2005. Visiting Lecturer of Fine Arts David Gloman, Associate Professor of Fine Arts Natasha Staller, and Assistant Professor of Religion Maria Heim received the grants, which average around $37,000 and can be used for any purpose the recipient chooses. The Student reports on the professors’ plans.

Brian Meacham '97 at 08:45 PM

April 07, 2005

Prof. Spratlan in St. Louis

Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor of Music Lewis Spratlan will be in St. Louis to attend the second-ever performance of his piece “The Manatees at Blue Springs” April 16. The piece will be performed by the Concert Choir of Washington University as part of an animal-themed concert, according to a WUSTL University News article.

Brian Meacham '97 at 05:20 PM

April 06, 2005

Cobham-Sander not bound for Hampshire

We noted in February that Professor of English and Black Studies and Special Assistant to the President for Diversity, Rhonda Cobham-Sander, was a finalist for the presidency of Hampshire College, a quick PVTA ride down route 116. Yesterday Hampshire welcomed their next president, and it’s not Cobham-Sander. Hampshire chose Ralph J. Hexter, a dean from Cal Berkeley, instead.

The key quotes from the Springfield Daily Republican explaining the small college’s selection of Hexter came from the chair of their board of trustees:

“He is a perfect fit,” said Jerry Nunnally … “It is a major coup for the college to have attracted him. He has been where we want the college to be.”

Nunnally said Hexter is a recognized scholar, an experienced administrator and a consummate fund raiser. Those fund-raising skills will come in handy. The college is in the midst of a $125 million capital campaign.

One wonders if he found those quotes in press releases from the selection of Tom Gerety as Amherst’s president in 1994, as Gerety was described in much the same way.

Parker Morse '96 at 03:38 PM

March 18, 2005

Stavans on Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer

Professor of Spanish Ilan Stavans is the author of a review of You Are My Witness: The Living Words of Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer in the Forward (requires registration, use BugMeNot if you’d like). Rabbi Marshall, who died in 1993, was an American who moved to Argentina in 1959 and founded the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano, now named for him, the institution responsible for “ordaining rabbis for most of the Americas.”

Previously, we noted Stavans’s Spanglish translation of Don Quixote.

Brian Meacham '97 at 10:41 AM

March 06, 2005

President Marx on financial aid in Bloomberg

In a Bloomberg.com report entitled “Yale University Follows Harvard’s Lead to Lure Poorer Students,” President Anthony Marx talks about problems facing poorer students who might not apply to a place like Amherst, and what Amherst and other colleges and universities can do about it.

Brian Meacham '97 at 01:46 PM

Martha "successful at spin," says Sarat

LJST Professor and media darling Austin Sarat is quoted in today’s New York Times about the recent release on probation of Martha Stewart, discussing the spin that has been put on her prison stay from the beginning. Read “Crime and Punishment, the Celebrity Version.

Brian Meacham '97 at 01:28 PM

February 28, 2005

Stavans's Spanglish "Don Quixote" cited

In an article discussing non-native speakers of English and their impact on the English language in the United States, the work of Professor of Spanish Ilan Stavans is cited. His recent translation of “Don Quixote” is mentioned as an example of a literary use of Spanglish, “the English-Spanish hybrid spoken in the United States and Mexico.”

Brian Meacham '97 at 12:27 AM

February 24, 2005

Romer '52 researches slavery in the Pioneer Valley

An article in the February 23rd Daily Hampshire Gazette (paid subscription required, unfortunately) recounted a talk given at the Amherst History Museum’s Strong House (next to the Jones Library on Amity Street) by Professor Emeritus of Physics Robert Romer ‘52.

Romer retired from the faculty and his editorship of the American Journal of Physics (where I worked as an editorial assistant in the summer of 1995) in 2001, and began studying the history of the Pioneer Valley as a volunteer house-tour guide in Old Deerfield.

Romer said he had no idea that there had been slaves in the Pioneer Valley until he discovered a minister in the area had owned three.

“It was not an original discovery, but it was news to me,” said Romer. His curiosity aroused, he began to dig into tax lists, church records, wills, letters and inventories. Romer soon discovered that any minister in the Valley who could afford it had two or three slaves.

“I began to collect slave-owning ministers in the Valley. I’ve got about 20,” he said.

More quotes from the article are found in the extended entry. Romer’s website at Amherst includes more material on slavery in the Pioneer Valley.

Most residents do not associate the Pioneer Valley with slavery, says a local historian, but they have also never heard of Jenny.

For 70 years Jenny was a slave in the household of a prominent area family.

Listed along with household furniture in a family will, Jenny was never mentioned in letters. When she died in 1808, she was buried in an unmarked grave.

If not for Robert Romer, Jenny might have remained forgotten.

…

Before a crowd of 30 at the Amherst History Museum’s Strong House on Amity Street, Romer began with the observation that the museum building may have once housed slaves. Simeon Strong, the former owner of the Strong House, was probably not a slave owner, said Romer, but the 1790 census listed a former slave or a “free person of color” living in the Strong house, he said.

…

Romer had a sheaf of handouts for his audience, including a residential map that he had compiled of the Main Street in Deerfield. Calling it his “1752 snapshot of slavery,” the map showed there had been roughly 21 slaves owned by 12 different families on Main Street alone.

Romer said every time he drives along Main Street in Deerfield, the information would run through his mind. He urged his audience to think about the implications of his survey.

“Keep it, make copies for friends, study it,” said Romer of the map. “Take it with you when you visit Deerfield. As a tourist they’re not going to give you anything like this, not yet.”

…

Over the course of his research, Romer found that area residents had several misconceptions about slavery in the Pioneer Valley, including the idea that slavery had not been an important part of the local history. The fact that ministers were among the people with the most slaves, suggested that being a slave owner was an important status symbol and was acceptable to settlers in the area, he said.

Another misconception was that Massachusetts slaves had been treated like friends of the family or as beloved servants, he said. Documents in which black people were listed as possessions along with furniture and livestock suggested otherwise.

Parker Morse '96 at 12:50 PM

February 15, 2005

Cobham-Sander finalist in Hampshire search

Professor of English and Black Studies and Special Assistant to the President for Diversity Rhonda Cobham-Sander is one of four finalists in the running to become the next President of Hampshire College. Current president Gregory S. Prince Jr. will retire June 30 after 16 years at the head of the college.

Brian Meacham '97 at 03:38 PM

February 07, 2005

Frank's novel noted

Today’s Daily Hampshire Gazette (subscription, unfortunately, required) noted that Assistant Professor of English Judith Frank’s novel Crybaby Butch has been named a finalist for the Lambda Literary award.

Frank’s first novel was nominated in the Lesbian Debut Fiction category. It examines education, class and racial identity issues as they affect people’s lives.

There’s an excerpt from the novel at the pages of the Creative Writing Center.

Parker Morse '96 at 07:08 PM

January 21, 2005

Sarat on Schwarzenegger

Austin Sarat, William Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, is quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle article on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to deny clemency to death row inmate Donald Beardslee. Schwarzenegger refused to grant Beardslee clemency, saying “he knew what he was doing — and he knew it was wrong.” Sarat, who writes and lectures on the death penalty, responded by saying Schwarzenegger is “acting as if he were a court. What Schwarzenegger seems to be saying is, ‘I’m satisfied that this man deserves his punishment.’ (But) mercy is not something that can be deserved. It’s an exercise in compassion.”

Brian Meacham '97 at 10:49 PM

January 11, 2005

Reck performs veena recital in India

Dr. David B. Reck, Professor of Music and Asian Languages and Civilizations (and my ILS professor for “Worlds of Music”), performed a veena concert at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Information Centre in Tirupati, a town in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The recital, on December 30, 2004, received praise today in a review by S Srinivasan published in the Chennai Online Music section. The reviewer described Reck as “a fast learner and an avid student,” and reported that “Reck’s ‘fanatic’ dedication and many hours of focussed practice serve him very well.”