A friend of mine sitting next to me let out a little exhausted whimper, and I just stared at Chandra dubiously. I'd been up for most of the night re-reading and re-re-reading the many pages of Foucault we'd been assigned, and every time I thought I'd grasped what he was saying about power and discourse the threads fell apart again. The idea of wrangling with a brilliant yet egotistical French philosopher for two and half hours in our Contemporary Theory of Anthropology class teetered on the fine line of promising academic enlightenment or mental breakdown.

The class, after all, is one of those where it always feels like bits of my cerebral cortex are dribbling out of my ears when I leave. Apparently, in previous years the class discussions have actually led to people throwing books around the room in intellectual fits of passion. It's all monitored (heh, Foucault) by Chandra Bhimull, our professor, who's one of my very favorites at Colby but is also a woman who could probably kill us with her brainpower alone. Her weapon of choice is a particularly loaded question after we've made a comment in discussion - "Interesting," she'll say, her voice becoming softer, more reflective. "Say more." Cue us flailing around, sweating profusely, trying to come up with words and then realizing that our statement was grounded in a potentially fallacious life assumption. She does bring snacks regularly to class, though, which helps numb the mental throbbing.

I didn't finish my snack this week. I was too busy scribbling down notes, trying to follow and contribute to the train of thought. Midway through the class, everything picked up momentum, and we were getting closer and closer to the point, and finally, we reached it in this glorious moment of class bonding and relief - "Discipline!" we all sighed, as the facilitator circled the term on the board about fifteen times in red dry erase marker. We'd done it, kind of - we'd grasped Foucault, or at least the one hundred pages we'd read of him.

And Chandra's right - it does change how I see the world.

Not that Foucault's some end-all, be-all. It's more that I've finally mastered an intellectual language I hadn't known before. It was rather alarmingly dorky how quickly my hand shot up the following day in my anthropology senior seminar when our professor asked us about subjectivity. "Well-as-Foucault-would-describe-it," I started breathlessly, and tried to stop beaming like a small child.

And then, last night at the Angela Davis lecture (!!), Angela Davis herself started bandying about terms like "economy of punishment" and "technologies of power" and I just wanted to hit my hands against the balcony railing and shout, Yes, I understand now, I really understand you.

I didn't, of course. I've been disciplined not to. 

Back in the day, the work ended when pages were sent to the press. But the Echo is not just a newspaper anymore. Like most media outlets, it has adapted to our rapidly digitizing world.
Many talk of the death of print media, especially newspapers. Major newspapers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Christian Science Monitor have gone all digital, while others have gone out of business. During the first half of 2009, 105 newspapers were shut down nationwide, 10,000 newspaper jobs disappeared, and 23 of the top 25 newspapers nationwide saw circulation declines, according to the Newspaper Death Watch blog. It seems clear that the dissemination of news is moving online.

Here on the Hill, the editorial staff works to keep the Echo relevant, adding new elements to its news coverage. In addition to the weekly print newspaper that comes out Wednesdays when the school is in session, the Echo has a newly revamped website that now includes blogs and videos as part of a whole new multimedia section. “We're really trying to be progressive and use technology as best we can to produce what I think is excellent content,” said Elisabeth Ponsot '10.

Ponsot, who has risen through the editorial ranks of the Echo in her time here and became editor-in-chief for 2009-10, is leading the charge to make sure the Echo does not become obsolete. She's working with webmaster Julia Essenburg '11 and [insideColby writer] Nick Cunkelman '11, who holds the new position of digital media editor, to continue modernizing the paper and the website.

Now students not only can read the news, they can comment about it online and watch video coverage of events like a visit to the school from U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell and last November's referendum regarding same-sex marriage in Maine. “The new multimedia section is awesome-the video team has done a great job putting them together,” said Essenburg , who recreated the website earlier this year.

The modernization of the Echo did not happen overnight. For Ponsot the process began in the summer of 2009, shortly after she learned that she had been chosen by the staff as editor-in-chief. “The first goal I came up with was to reorganize to be more efficient,” she said. “My second goal was to redo the website. I really wanted to, but wasn't sure how. So I called the webmaster, and it turned out she also wanted to redo the website. We worked all summer on the new site, and during the first week of school she coded it from scratch.”

One goal was flexibility. The earlier Echo website was hosted through a service called College Publisher, which Essenberg felt limited design options. “I also wanted to do the actual coding, rather than rely on a program, so that the website could be tailored specifically for the Echo.”
Improving the Echo is a continuous process. “One of the things people don't realize when they look at a big undertaking like this is that it's never going to be perfect,” said Ponsot. The online newspaper will continue to evolve, she said-just like technology does.

Most mornings Sai Chavali '11 wakes up with a lengthy to-do list. But before heading off to breakfast or an economics lecture, the junior makes every effort to complete one important task: prayer. “It's a place to collect myself before I go about my day,” said Chavali. “It brings a lot of calmness and a lot of concentration. It keeps me grounded.” Chavali, a practicing Hindu from Bangalore, India, sits at his desk, places his palms together at chest height, closes his eyes, and begins his 10-minute prayer by invoking God's name. “I feel more awake after doing it,” he said. “The prayers help me think every day about doing things right.”

In the face of what can at times be an overwhelming whirlwind of classes, exams, papers, and social life, many Colby students find resolve in the form of faith. Some, like Chavali, practice alone, collecting themselves through prayer, self-reflection, or meditation outside of organized religion. For these students religion is primarily about personal discovery.

Others are drawn to the sense of community provided by Colby's religious groups. Whether due to a sense of heritage or the comfort and joy of practicing with others, students come together at Colby to share their own experiences in faith. In college, where the religious path can be difficult due to distance from home, others' perceptions of belief, and reconciling faith and school, a community eases concerns that might arise for students of faith. “One of the things I find about religion is that it's highly personal but at the same time highlighted and enhanced by communication with other people,” said Brendan Shea '11.

Shea is a member of the Newman Council, the student-run Catholic group on campus. Members help with Mass every Sunday afternoon in Lorimer Chapel before going to dinner with the Catholic chaplains, Father Daniel Baillargeon and Brother Rex Anthony Norris, affectionately known as Father Dan and Brother Rex. At these dinners members can talk about faith, schoolwork, or whatever is on their mind, but ultimately the meals provide a fresh starting point for the week. “It really puts things in perspective to step back and say, ‘Think of where we just came from in a worship service and church,'” said Shea.

Students make challah as part of Pugh Palooza, a multicultural celebration. Photo by Hannah Shapiro '12.

For Newman Council member Julianne Kowalski '11, who left a close group of religious friends at home, the council also provides diverse viewpoints on religious issues, which she says strengthen her friendships within the group as well as her own faith. “I enjoy it for those different personalities,” she said. “You can be surrounded by people who believe the same thing but don't act the same way. And they're not just religious friends, they're my friends.” In a recent poll 100 Colby students were asked what religion offers them. Most said “a sense of community.” That beat out philosophical questions about the origin of the world, the meaning of life, or the fate of the soul.

The Colby Muslim Group, Colby Christian Fellowship, C.I.R.C.L.E. (Collective for Insight, Refuge, and the Celebration of Life Experience), and Colby Hillel (the Jewish group) also provide forums where the benefits of a community founded on faith emerge. “We come together to share different backgrounds and learn from each other,” said Daniel Adams '08, the volunteer Protestant chaplain. “Sometimes we'll talk about things you might not have thought of yet.”

Through these groups students can engage with their nonreligious friends at Colby as well as the community beyond Mayflower Hill. Members of the Newman Council, for instance, teach CCD (Cofraternity of Christian Doctrine) to middle school children at St. Francis de Sales Church in Waterville and volunteer at the local food pantry. Colby Hillel hosts a Passover seder for Jewish students on campus, and the Colby Muslim Society puts on its annual Eid dinner at the end of Ramadan, an event that attracts students, staff, and faculty of different beliefs. “I look forward to that so much, because it's just kind of celebrating your religion,” said Aqsa Mahmood '11, president of the Muslim Society. “And having your non-Muslim friends there to celebrate with you means a lot.”

Amidst howling winds and a soggy mist ominously turning into rain, Peter Johansson '10 couldn't have been happier. “Nine-thirty!” Johansson shouted into the abyss as he stood on Baxter Peak at the summit of Mount Katahdin. “Nine-thirty in the morning!”

With Johansson, nine other Colby students sported granite-eating grins and high-fived at the top of Maine's tallest mountain. Soaked, but nonetheless stoked, the group-which took the boulder-filled Cathedral Trail to the summit in a mere three-and-a-half hours-reveled in the moment as part of the Colby Outing Club's annual trip to Katahdin.

More than 80 students headed to Baxter State Park, almost three hours north of Waterville, on this October weekend. After camping out Friday night and waking at 3:30 to make the 5 a.m. opening of the park, groups with names like “The Hunt for Red Katahdin,” “Mt. Katahdin: 5267 feet vs. your 2,” and “Katahdin: The Breakfast of Champions” spread out over the park's many trails, all taking different approaches to the pile of rocks on Baxter Peak, with its last pebble resting at exactly 5,280 feet.

Not all groups made it to the top-alas, high winds, rain, lots of wet rock, and low visibility don't mix quite like raisins, peanuts, and M&Ms-but all had an adventure. “We came, we saw, we conquered,” said Chris Scharff '11, resting post-hike in a lean-to at the Chimney Pond campground, about halfway up the mountain.

Still, the adventure wasn't quite over, for on the way down four members of Scharff's group posed as part of the Outing Club's “Naked in Nature” photography tradition, much to the amusement of other visitors to the park. “I don't see naked asses every day, so this is a real treat for me,” said passing hiker Doug Comstock. “You never know what you're going to see up here.”

At the third annual Colby Alumni Networking Weekend this fall, students of color and graduates in the Alumni of Color Network shared thoughts on being in the minority at Colby and established connections that could be helpful in the future.

The Career Center organized workshops, lectures, and panels and provided the opportunity for the groups to meet informally. One panel included 10 alumni of color and 10 ALANA (African-American, Latino/a, Native American, Asian-American) students who talked about the good and not-so-good of being a minority student at Colby.

While some students and alumni talked about challenges, alumni shared ways in which they were able to make the most of their Colby experience and were enthusiastic about what they got out of it. A Colby education provided alumni with limitless possibilities, taking them just about anywhere, they said.

The discussions were candid and honest. As students shared their experiences, alumni offered reflections and guidance. Mindy Pinto '02 said that, despite the ups and downs in her social experience at Colby, ultimately she had “good friendships with good people.”

The alumni panelists collectively expressed that they had struggled to feel a sense of belonging in the Colby community. This session, though, allowed current students to use the experiences of others to avoid some of the same challenges. “Use this opportunity as a way to get outside of your individual bubble,” said Jacquelyn Lindsey Wynn '75.

After all, that's what college is all about.

Students packed Foss dining hall for Harry Potter night, which was so popular that it is likely to become an annual event. Photo by Hannah Shapiro '12

Students seeking a little magical reprieve from their studies transformed one of the Colby dining halls into The Great Hall from the Harry Potter books and movies, resplendent with house colors, flickering cauldrons, suits of armor, and medieval paintings. Just days before Halloween, the dining hall was packed with more than 600 students-50 percent more than on an average night. Cameras flashed and students chattered excitedly-and got on the phone to gloat to friends from home.

Posters publicizing the dinner went up a week earlier, and by that night students were abuzz with anticipation. They weren't disappointed. After picking a house out of a hat at the entrance, students sat at their respective house tables and feasted on the likes of Gillyweed Soup, Hippogriff Pot Pie, and Steamed Forbidden Forest Tubers, followed by desserts including pumpkin bread and treacle tart. A newly formed Quidditch team circulated a sign-up sheet to recruit more members.
The magic was contagious-even the dining hall staff got into the spirit. Manager Terry Landry dressed up as Dumbledore and encouraged competition by offering a $25 gift certificate for the staff member with the most original costume.

“This should be a Colby tradition,” said Fiona Masland '12 as she finished her Hippogriff Pot Pie. There was general agreement from her friends.

It turns out Colby students have much to look forward to. “We just threw all the decorations in a box so we could pull them out next year,” said organizer Nick Cunkelman '11.

Butterbeer, anyone?

Hola Colby!

I am in sunny Spain enjoying the beautiful weather in Barcelona. The city is amazing, full of beautiful architecture and really cool sights. This is a picture of my favorite place in the city, Park Guell. Park Guell was designed by Antoni Gaudi, the most famous architect in Spain. As you can see, he used a lot of colors and mosaic tiling in his designs.

Besos,
Sarah Kirker '11

Why study disease? “The global death rate is still one-hundred percent,” he said.
Epidemiologists, he said, describe disease, investigate outbreaks, and design and implement interventions. Disease isn't randomly distributed across the population. Risk factors target more-susceptible groups. Therefore, treatment on a patient-by-patient basis is less efficient than intervention or a long-lasting treatment for the group as a whole. Epidemiology and public health should work together, Scott said.

Don't doctors do the same thing? No, Scott said. The goals of medicine and the goals of public health are different. Medicine assesses a patient's health and provides a one-time treatment regimen. Public health, on the other hand, with information provided by epidemiology, assesses disease across a population and how it can be prevented or managed in different groups. Policies are then developed to treat the entire population and to assure services that are available to everyone.

This spring Scott will offer a course titled Topics in Epidemiology. Students expressed interest not only in enrolling but in researching organizations he discussed in his talk-local and national disease surveillance initiatives and the World Health Organization-in hopes of learning about trends and recent disease outbreaks.

I apologize, once again, for having not written in quite some time. I have a good reason though.

For the past, well since January 14th, I have been co-chairing Colby's Haitian Relief effort with another freshman, named Lisa Kaplan. We are both members of the Student Advisory Board of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement. After Hurricane Katrina hit, the Goldfarb Center was asked to lead fundraising efforts, and they gladly accepted. Similarly, after the Haitian Earthquake, the college asked the Goldfarb Center to take the initiative on the college's relief efforts. Thus, an email was sent out to the Student Advisory Board asking for students to lead the effort. Lisa and I quickly responded, and the next day, we met to discuss our ideas. 

From there, it's been an amazing journey. Today, Friday the 26th, was the capstone of our fundraising efforts, the Colby for Haiti Benefit Dinner. This link, http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/goldfarb/haiti_relief.cfm, shows our progress.

This has really been a community effort. Almost every club on campus, including SPB, SGA, SOBHU, GQ, Community Advisors, and Powder and Wig has participated. We had over 100 student volunteers, including the baseball team and volleyball team as waitstaff and bust staff at the Benefit Dinner. We involved the local Waterville Community and local businesses, and they have been incredibly supportive. Colby faculty, staff, and administration have all been incredibly supportive of our efforts as well.

All said and done, through our numerous fundraising efforts, such as a silent auction with 67 goods with a total retail price of over $12,000, corporate sponsorships and ticket proceeds, t-shirt sales to students who donated $10 or more, a bake sale put on by Community Advisors, and numerous alumni, trustee, and parent support, we raised $70,338. 

I would like to repeat that in bold. $70,338. It is really amazing what a little college in the middle of Maine can do to help those in the greatest need thousands of miles away. 

If you'd like to see more about our efforts please visit the Goldfarb Homepage, at http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/goldfarb/.

It is only in such a nurturing and supportive community that I have found at Colby that two first-years could lead such a large effort.

Peace and Love,

Danny Garin 

This means that the bulk of my time spent in the science buildings occured sophomore year when I was a tour guide. Weekly, I'd walk past Olin Library or the greenhouses and try really, really hard to sound convincing. Before tours I'd even brush up on our crazily intense technological devices (like the isothermal titration calorimeter, which sounds like it could kill me in my sleep), but there are some things even long bouts of memorization can't make stick. You try talking about a 500 MHz Fourier Transform/Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer while walking backwards.

Anyway, guilty confession: excluding tours, before today I had probably spent a total of fifteen minutes in Olin Library, and then it was mainly to admire the cool circular window seating area and the pretty wood finishing. It wasn't until this morning, when I was running in to grab a book on psychology for Professor Paliyenko in the French department, that I realized something:

Guys, Olin library has a basement. With extra books in it, for reading. 

I know all the science majors are rolling their eyes right now, but this literally blew my mind this morning. How have I gone four years without knowing this? I thought I'd mastered the basic architectural details of this college! Walking down that stairwell, it felt like I was in the Clue board game and I'd discovered a secret passageway to the conservatory. That analogy is particularly relevant because the basement is kind of creepy-looking and could easily pass as a setting for murder. 

Still. It's kind of nice to know that Colby's still surprising me four years in. (It's also a good reminder that I need to get my caboose out of Diamond now and again.) Any other secret hideaways I've been missing out on?

And if you have an iPhone, check out the new iC app, which makes photos, videos, and more available on your phone.

Hundreds turned out to hear him talk about his success in Northern Ireland and his current work in the Middle East, which at the time was under scrutiny. “There is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended,” he said. “They're created and conducted by human beings, and they can be ended by human beings. No matter how old the conflict, no matter how hateful or hurtful, peace can prevail.”

During his time in Northern Ireland, which ultimately led to the Good Friday peace agreement, Mitchell learned that peace can be achieved no matter the circumstances. “It can happen and it did happen in Northern Ireland… and it must happen in the Middle East,” he said.

While past talks have failed to create long-lasting consensus, Mitchell stressed that he is not going to give up on peacekeeping efforts between Israelis and Palestinians. “There has to be an endless supply of perseverance, determination, and patience, no matter how bleak the outlook,” he said. “The search for peace is too important not to continue.”

Although it may seem as if peace in the Middle East is impossible, Mitchell thinks otherwise. “The conflict has gone on for so long, has had such destructive effects, and has created such an atmosphere of mutual hostility and mistrust that many have come to regard it as inevitable and unchangeable,” he said. “But… the pursuit of peace is so important that it demands our maximum effort, no matter the difficulties, no matter the setbacks.”

The lecture was the fourth in the Senator George J. Mitchell International Lecture series, which was established by Mitchell's close friends and family in Waterville, where he was raised. His father worked as a janitor at Colby. Mitchell says he feels blessed to be in the position he is in and to be able to help people the way he does.

Celebrating MLK's Legacy
Monday, Jan. 18
Students recited passages from writings and speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. to mark the national holiday in his honor.

Fundraisers include T-shirt sales, Valentine's Day candy deliveries, and a dinner featuring Colby a cappella groups and speeches by two Colby students who were in Haiti when the earthquake struck. Everything, Garin said, has met with community support. “We had an outpouring of students who volunteered,” he said, adding that even President William D. “Bro” Adams has
been involved.

Altogether Garin and Kaplan hope to raise $25,000 for the Stand for Haiti campaign of Partners in Health. If the goal is met, anonymous alumni donors will match it, increasing the total to $50,000. “The first day, in less than six hours, we raised more than a thousand dollars,” said Kaplan.

Grassroots fundraisers like the one at Colby are taking place around the country. “I think people are at first reluctant to give because they think their five or ten dollars is not going to make a difference,” said Ian McCullough '10. “But we've been trying to get the message out there that every dollar helps.”

UPDATE: The student efforts raised more than $70,000 for Partners in Health.

7:30 a.m.    Colby Emergency Response officers meeting
8:30 a.m.    Practice cello in Bixler
9:30 a.m.    Study time
10 a.m.    German class
11 a.m.    Student center, check mail, chat with people
11:30 a.m.    Lunch in Dana
12:30 p.m.    Miller Library to study/nap
2:30 p.m.    English class
4:30 p.m.    German teaching assistant session
5:30 p.m.    Dinner at Bobs
7 p.m.    German conversation group
8 p.m.    Homework
12:30 a.m.    Sleeeeep

The flakes continue to be large, wet, and thick heading towards 4 a.m., and the plows haven't come yet. Earlier, when the flakes were timid and melting into the sidewalks, a parade of naked Outing Club members streaked around campus. Now, at 4 a.m., a flushed few survivors of snowball fights are barely awake in front of a dying fire in the Grossman common room. The wind is blowing and the snow swirls and swoops. Inside the air is warm, and an acoustic guitar entices sleep.  This fairytale world of snowmen and crackling fires, of screaming sled rides and late nights-this is Colby College. Who needs sleep when the snow is perfect for snowball ambushes?

Picking through garbage isn't exactly what most college students would choose to do on a Saturday afternoon. But at the Common Ground Country Fair this fall, Colby students were among the many volunteers wearing aprons caked with dirt and sifting through trash and compost looking for anything that wasn't biodegradable.

The Common Ground Fair, in the nearby town of Unity, is a popular autumn destination for Colby students. It includes lectures about sustainable living, organic food vendors, local art and crafts, animal demonstrations, and more.

More than 51,000 people trekked to the fair this year, and once again some Colby students signed up to assist the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Fair organizers again aimed for a zero-waste goal, which this year included requiring all vendors to use biodegradable utensils and containers. “I was surprised by how many things were compostable,” said volunteer Lindsey Hunterwolf '12. “What looked like an ordinary plastic fork was actually biodegradable.”

Many Colby students also stopped by with their parents, since the fair coincided with Family Homecoming Weekend. Common Ground is known for its organic, local food selection, and parents and students were excited to find everything from maple sugar candy to Maine root beer to shank of lamb. “I spent way too much money,” said Amelia Swinton '10, “but it was totally worth it.”

Dancing has been a major part of my life since I learned to walk. I remember dancing at every opportunity-in dance class, at home, in the street, while riding the New York City subways, and at every family get-together. When it was time for high school, my decision to audition and attend the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts-the “Fame” school-in New York City to pursue a dance major did not come as a shock to my family.

During my senior year, however, I debated pursuing a professional career in a ballet company or attending college. With deep dreams of becoming a medical doctor and doing good in the world, I chose college. Naturally I could not get dancing out of my system, so during my first semester at Colby I began choreographing for Colby Dancers and decided to minor in theater and dance.

Never did I dream, though, that at Colby I would do anything in the world of dance that I had not done before. To my surprise it happened during my junior year. I was given the opportunity to dance in an onstage swimming pool.

The production of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, included a collection of eight myths. I was cast as Eurydice from the story “Orpheus and Eurydice.” The story begins with Eurydice stepping on a snake on her wedding day and dying suddenly. Orpheus, the bridegroom, travels to the underworld to ask the gods of the underworld to release Eurydice back to the upper world. The gods agree and allow him to have Eurydice back as long as he follows their command to not turn around and look back at her while on their journey out of the underworld. Orpheus, having no trust in the gods, turns around, consequently losing Eurydice, who then has to go back and spend the rest of her days without him.

This role posed for me many new and unique challenges as a performer. Not only was I required to dance, but I had to act, too-all while I was in the water. This production required a whole new level of concentration for me as a dancer. I had to learn to dance to the music and to the lines that were narrating my movement. I also had to learn how to project my lines over the sound of the music and splashing.

For this production I got to work with a professional choreographer and explore another dimension of dancing while learning new acting skills. I had to overcome the challenge of dancing in a very wet and subsequently heavy dress. At first I got very frustrated because I felt that the wet dress was limiting my movements. However the director and the choreographer helped me get through that struggle and inspired me to use the feeling of the heavy wet dress as a part of my character. Once I figured out how to master this struggle, the essence of my character became clearer to me.

The challenges I dealt with in this production have helped me to become a better dancer and a better person. I've realized that learning is a lifetime journey, and, although I am no longer pursuing a professional career in ballet, I have discovered that there will always be opportunities to grow as an artist. All I have to do is follow my heart and continue to enjoy the love I will always have for dancing

You're a professor of international studies and anthropology. Can Colby, in Waterville, Maine, call itself an international school?

Given [the] geographic factors, a lot of international stuff has to be on campus. I've been pleasantly surprised that there are a lot more international students than I would expect at a school like this. I don't think there are any classes I teach that don't have an international student. Especially teaching on the kind of issues that I teach on, to have other cultural experiences that you can draw on in the classroom is huge, and I find it really useful.

You have been deeply involved in political activism in other places. What part of that work did you bring to Colby?

I've been teaching a lot about the issues like migrant rights and labor issues now, which I haven't done in the past, so I find that I'm bringing that experience with activism and using it in my classroom. And I'm trying to do it with some of the guests I'm bringing to campus like the Yes Men and filmmaker Alex Rivera, who's coming in the spring. I've just come back from three weeks in Slovenia. I was meeting with activists there and doing research. And I've been working over the past two or three years finishing up my new film, Bastards of Utopia, that's about activism.

And Bastards of Utopia isn't your first documentary. How did you choose film as your medium?

A couple of reasons. Initially I think I was just seduced by the technology. … I was assigned a five-minute video that ended up turning in to something much larger-on a student group that was planning to occupy the president's office. It [became] a feature length documentary with Ben Affleck narrating and this huge production that took me away from my studies as a graduate student at Harvard for six months touring with the film.

Wow. That's pretty big.

Part of it was a matter of circumstances with that. But then I began to really reflect on some of the things I was able to do and able to represent in film that I really couldn't in text. One of the things I like is just how accessible film is. So many more people can watch what you've put into film, and so many more people just feel that they can critique what you've done in film. It isn't sort of isolated from public discussion the way that scholarly texts are.

Do students use film in the classes that you teach?

I teach Media, Culture, and the Political Imagination, a senior seminar. It's not primarily a production class, but I have students do a couple of exercises. I find that [when] students have to film a process or do a portrait of an individual, they subsequently have an eye for watching … that they didn't have before. I think it's crucial to actually work with the media a little bit in order to get students really thinking in a different way.

What is your favorite subject to teach?

I now have a pretty consistent group of classes, and I really enjoy them because they're very diverse. I teach on human rights, social movements, nationalism, and documentary film, and well as intro to anthropology. That seems very disparate but really sews together the interests that come together in my primary research and in the kind of fieldwork that I've been doing.
You teach a Jan Plan class working with the Oak fellowship program, which brings a front-line human rights activist to Colby for a semester.

This class right now is called Human Rights and Social Struggles in Global Perspective and it's IN211. I've taught it as a Jan Plan the last few years because the timing allows us to look at the new candidates for the Oak fellowship, which is really great. First there's an introduction to human rights, and the second half is a chance for students to really get their hands dirty doing research and understanding the issues in each country. It's really fun. We look at the top cut of the candidates, and then students look at the organizations they work for and do research and build a research file.

The Oak fellowship is one of the neatest things that happens at Colby. It's really remarkable to bring a front-line human rights activist to campus and have those really direct interactions with students. That's pretty incredible.

Is the Oak fellowship program unique to Colby?

I haven't seen it anywhere else. And the emphasis is on a front-line human rights activist rather than someone who is an administrator or who is now primarily working on the international level. It has to be people who are really directly engaged in these issues and at some personal risk to themselves.

You have studied and worked all over the place. How did you choose Eastern Europe and then Waterville, Maine?

I grew up in Maine and [as a child] had sort of planned, and been saving money from my paper route for a long time, to be an exchange student somewhere. I wasn't really sure where I would go, and the year I was a junior in high school an exchange student from Yugoslavia was staying in Bath [Maine]. … He talked me into coming to Yugoslavia as an exchange student. I didn't really know what I was getting into-I learned my first phrases on the plane from Frankfurt to Belgrade. Then the country fell apart that year while I was there. So a lot of my work since then has been trying to make sense of what happened in that year and what the right kind of response should be to that kind of crisis-from both scholars as well as people living there. I've just gone back there over and over. It became my obsession.

Bizarre. I was born in Buenos Aires, and I lived in Geneva, and I lived in Manhattan before coming here, and I love it [here].  But that's the bizarre thing. … I would have never thought I would end up in the countryside, in an old house. It's completely different than an urban kind of life but I love it.

How do you satisfy your love of art while living in a place that lacks a prominent art culture?

There's art in my house. I'm afflicted with a very bad case of what we call in French collectionnite, collection-itis, inflammation of the collecting drive, so there's art at home. … I'm looking at art all the time with my students, I go to Europe at least once a year, there's the museum. … I don't feel that I'm in some kind of cultural void.

You seem to have a really diverse background.

I've been a little all over the place. If I'm in America I feel European but if I'm in Europe they think I'm American, which God knows I'm not. … When I was growing up in Argentina as a kid I couldn't roll my R's, I spoke French at home, so people thought I had this thick French accent. I had to study Russian in high school to learn how to roll R's.

When did you realize you were interested in art?

I was always quite creative. I used to do pottery when I was five or six. I loved to create costumes from stuff around the house. I loved to have disguises. Then I really got into ballet. … In Switzerland the end of the obligatory school is when you turn 16, or around that time, so I stopped and went to do ballet full time and within three or four months I started having big problems with my feet. So I went back to school. … to a special section in high school in Geneva that had lots of painting and art history and sculpture. So that's when I started becoming really, really into art history. And then when I started university in Geneva I did both literature and art. I was quite interested in literature, [but] I love art history.

Do the two come together?

Literature and art?  Oh yeah.  If you start thinking about it there's a lot, from comic books to art criticism-because it's people writing on art and on visual stuff, paintings that have some words in them, text that refers to pictures, and you have a whole ancient tradition of describing works of art that didn't even exist or that might have been lost. Somehow I managed to reconcile those two things. As a matter of fact, I'm the president of the International Association of Word and Image Studies. 

What does that mean?

It's an international association of scholars who are in all kinds of different fields. You have art historians, literary types. You have linguists, anthropologists. You have some creative types, and any person who is interested in works that combine verbal and visual expressions.

Why did you choose images over words?

I knew that the main thing I was interested in was art history because I love pictures. I also think it's because I'm lazy, because I love looking at pictures rather than reading books. And I spent my entire childhood reading TinTin. I know it by heart. And that too, is words and pictures. But especially pictures, beautiful pictures.

What have you been researching lately?

I am finishing a book-it's [on] a very bizarre subject–but I'm working on graffiti that were made on frescos. I'm working on a particular chapel in Northern Italy which has 15th century frescos. Some of the frescos had inscriptions scratched on them. There are around 150 inscriptions, they start in the 16th century and go all the way to the 19th century. First they're in Latin, then they switch to Italian. But they're all events that happened in the history of the village. Each time something important would happen someone would go into that chapel and write that down on the paintings. And when you see it you first think vandalism, but it's something else. I'm really thinking about it as a devotional act, because they're on [paintings of] saints. I think about what it means to write history, to record history.

Do you have a favorite piece of art? A single one?

That's tough. That would be, for what [purpose]? Sometimes I'm thinking I would love to have several houses [for different kinds of art], so I could have a very modern one, because I do like very contemporary art. But I have an early 19th century house here, so [the art] has to go with the house. So, no. Don't ask that to an art historian.

Live from the Homesick Jamboree has just been published by Wesleyan University Press. What's the story behind it?

It traces homesickness from the American South. When I came to Colby, I came to teach and I knew that I was coming to a new place and that I wouldn't understand it. They say Southern writers write from the American South and can't really write about anything but the American South, so there's this weird displacement and question of place in the book. Part of the book is about where I am in the world, where I found myself to be in the world. And then motherhood is another big topic. There are a lot of poems about the experience of motherhood.

You have renowned writers in the Creative Writing Program. How do you think this has shaped the program?

I think a lot of the prestige of a creative writing program is traditionally thought to be the faculty, and so the faculty is part of that. But I think the most amazing thing about Colby is how good the students are.

What do you like most about your Colby students?

They are very smart. My students are self-selected, so most people don't take the class unless they want to. It's not like an intro math class where you have people that really don't like math but have to take it. Many of them actually do what I say. They work at it, and they try it, and they get really good fast. It does not cease to amaze me how good they can get.

Given how much you like writing, how did you decide to go into teaching?

I like to write. I wanted to go live on my grandmother's farm and have children and… then the truth of the economy of the world stepped down and I had to figure out how to make a living. And someone offered for me to teach one project class at this one college and I thought, I'll try. This was twenty years ago. And I found that I liked it. It's funny because my father is a college professor and it's the last thing I wanted to do. But I liked it, and I didn't want to be bored. So I ended up teaching and it was a surprise I loved it very much.

Did you always know you would write poetry?

I started out as a fiction writer. I have a really hard time writing stories… I feel like I'm lying. It took me longer than other people to realize I should be writing poetry. So the most amazing thing is I couldn't tell a story in prose but I could in poetry, and I don't know why.

Should writers write only when they feel inspiration or is inspiration a myth?

I think that both things are true. When we are young, we often need a trigger, something that inspires the writing, for instance, emotions. As you grow older, the triggers can be a bit more complicated than that. They come from different sources. Rather than just being an emotional trigger, they can be intellectual triggers, like you read a poem. They can be sensual triggers, like something you see in the world. I think the triggers could get more complicated. If you wait for inspiration you're probably doomed.

Run by Tufts University School of Medicine and Maine Medical Center, the program aims to combat the shortage of medical doctors in Maine. A competitive group of college students from the University of Maine system as well as Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin apply towards the end of their sophomore year.

Admission to the program is contingent upon having taken a prescribed curriculum of biology, physics, chemistry and math classes, and maintaining a grade point average (G.P.A) of 3.5 or better in all coursework. Out of the 60 or so applicants each year, about a dozen gain admission. The program offers discounted tuition because Maine does not have an in-state medical school. Though it does not require it, the program encourages students to practice medicine in Maine after the program.

“Basically, it's trying to put a rural twist to your education so that you know if practicing in a rural situation in Maine is what you want to do,” Baier said. “Often, doctors will come in to Maine and they will get out as quickly as they can because it's not what they are prepared to do and it's not what they want to do.”

For the first two years of the program, students spend most of their time taking classes at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. For the last two years, students have the opportunity to participate in clinical rotations in Portland and other cities in Maine.

A major factor in the appeal of the Early Assurance Program is the fact that candidates can major in a wide range of disciplines and pursue other interests besides the traditional premed curriculum.

Baier expressed joy and relief at his admission to the Early Assurance Program. “It ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be, because it wasn't something I was driving towards all the time. Basically I was going about what I wanted to do here, my music major and doing premed on the side,” he explained. “It's a really nice feeling. I've always dreamed of being a doctor, and now I know that it's actually going to happen.”

In any case, there are a couple sections that I come back to again and again, and one of them is Jewish studies. (In case you’re interested: third floor west, go through the door and turn right. Oh, and try to think ofthe flickering lightbulb as a part of the atmosphere—it’s like you’re in the old city of Jerusalem reading by candlelight. If you listen to “Hava Nagila” on your iPod at the same time, it’s even more convincing.) I’ve always been fascinated by religions—what people believe and why, and the parallels between them—and actually thought hard about being a Religious/Jewish studies major before I saw the light that is Environmental Policy. Anyway, normally I look for the books with pretty covers and/or pictures, but this time I went for the old fabric-covered texts on the bottom row, the ones with more Hebrew than English in the titles. And without knowing why, I picked up the Talmud.

(In retrospect, I think one reason is that I really, really like the word “Talmudic.”)

As I understand it, the Talmud is a series of arguments, in which scholars make assertions and then tell each other why they're wrong. It's oral law that's been written down, and absolutely fascinating, not least for the glimpse it gives into an ancient culture. Also, parts of it are quite funny--I still haven't decided whether the humor is intentional or not.

A few quotes:

Why are the heads ofthe Babylonians round? You have asked a great question, my son, answered Hillel. Because the midwives of the Babylonians are not very experienced.

Said Rab to his son, Hiya: Drink not medicines. Leap not over streams. Do not have teeth extracted, and provoke not a serpent nor a Syrian woman.

Rabbi Simon ben Eleazer said: One may keep village dogs, cats, monkeys, and porcupines, because they help to keep the house clean.

Most of the passages debate the same issues that people struggle with today—namely, what it means to live a good life—and some of the wording is just beautiful—it reads like poetry. There are also bits of advice, like how to tell if a person is lying. The next time you suspect someone of pulling your leg, I suggest you try the following test:

Once a man came before Rabbi and said to him: “Your wife belongs to me and your children they are mine.” “Would you like to drink a glass of wine?” The man drank and burst. This proved that the man lied.

I’ll end with a useful tip for those of you who, like me, are trying to figure out what you want to do with your lives, and what to study at Colby in order to become successful:

Bar Kappra discoursed: Always teach your son an honest and clean trade. What is it? Rabbi Yehuda replied: “Needlepoint embroidery!”

Thank goodness: There’s a whole shelf in Miller devoted to just that.

After finishing her Colby studies in January, Emily Colin '10J had plans to coach alpine skiing at a high school in Vermont, study arctic watersheds in Alaska, and bicycle from Ecuador to Argentina teaching young people about the environment.

Colin's plans seem to take her all over the place, and this isn't the first time she has carved her own nontraditional path.

In January Colin graduated at the age of 24. She had arrived as a 21-year-old freshman, and she was one of only three students on Mayflower Hill over age 22 last fall. She shrugged when asked about being in college with students six years younger. “I like to do things different than everyone else, so I guess it's fitting.”

Age isn't the only thing that set Colin apart. Unlike most Colby students, she didn't start college straight out of high school. Colin had other plans before her love of learning drew her to Waterville, where she thrived academically and beyond.

Colin arrived at Colby ready to pursue a geology major and was immediately inspired by her structural geology class. “It's so freaking rad,” she said, eyes illuminating. During her four years Colin embraced experiences outside of the classroom as well, skiing for Colby's Division I alpine ski team (finishing as high as seventh in the NCAA Eastern Championships in her final season) and exploring Maine on her bicycle.

Colin's untraditional path began when, after high school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, she trained for three years-moving around the country in hopes of making the U.S. Ski Team. During this time she recovered from frustrating knee injuries and at times worked four jobs to pay for rent, groceries, and ski equipment. As always, Colin was open to any opportunity-even after her knee kept her from fulfilling her alpine dreams. Her injuries led her to Pilates for recovery and then to her winter job as a Pilates instructor. Before college Colin learned to be economically self-sufficient and resourceful.

Moving into a Colby dorm room with students right out of high school was a little strange after living in an apartment and paying rent, Colin said-but not a worry. “I was excited to be in school again, and I didn't even think about it.”

The transition was hard at times, but Colin ended up living off campus with five 21-year-old classmates she considers best friends. At their Waterville apartment, which is decorated with stickers that say Geology Rocks!, they host potluck dinners for the organic gardening club.
But Colin's main passion at Colby was in the Mudd Science Building. Not ready to end her formal education with her Colby degree, she has applied to graduate school for environmental geochemistry. Her passion for learning about how the Earth works goes hand in hand with her love for keeping the Earth working this way. Colin said she hopes to “inspire others to love what they see and respect it.”

Before starting graduate school, Colin intends to teach others how to respect the Earth, continuing her unusual path towards education out of the classroom-and south of the border. This September Colin will travel the length of South America with a high school friend, educating young people about environmental issues in their own countries.

At her off-campus apartment, Colin relaxes in her hammock

What inspired a college graduate with big plans to take time away from school to bike 3,600 miles through a foreign continent? That same lust for learning that brought Colin to Colby-and a desire to make a difference. “First of all,” she said, “biking is a great way to see things a lot better than when you're driving in a car.” Colin said she learned how to “tread lightly, live greenly, and leave no trace” during high school, and that launched her into a path of environmental activism.

Colin plans to provide her own basic knowledge about climate change to as many people as possible through environmental education on her journey from Quito, Ecuador, through Peru and Bolivia to Cholila, Argentina.

Then what? Colin received a three-year research position at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, studying arctic watersheds near Lake Toolik. It's an offer that will combine her love of science and the outdoors and give her a straight shot into grad school. “I can't pass it up,” she said, putting her hands up and shrugging. She smiled widely: “It's rare you come across something in the Arctic Circle.”

An indirect path to graduate school, but, if past experience is any indication, it will work out just fine.

Kris - you all know Kris, right? If you don't you must hightail it to his blog - graduated last year, and had this to say in response to one of my 'BEING A SENIOR IS TERRIFYING' moments on Facebook:

"I'm not sure if this is actually how it happened or just how I'd like to remember it, but I think I tried to immerse myself even further into everything I did. I wanted to milk the final stretch for as much as possible...If you must leave Mayflower Hill, do it kicking and screaming, and start the kicking and screaming early."

Wise words, no? (Seriously, if you haven't, read his blog.) I started this process last semester, taking time to attend random lectures and events on campus, joining BMR (best decision ever), and doubling my caffeine intake. But I don't think I'm as Turbo!Annelise as I could be. There's an inner kicking and screaming ninja just waiting to be released.

So here is my solemn pledge, put down on this sacred insideColby space: I promise to savor my senior spring. There. Done. I also promise, for the sake of all those around me, not to exceed three cups of coffee per day (I get twitchy). 

It's going to be epic.