乐播传媒 is welcoming a large group of new faculty this year. Seventeen tenured or tenure-track professors will join the college in the course of the 2025-2026 academic year. 乐播传媒 News is introducing them in groups over this semester.聽聽Last week’s installment was the first.

Sarah Conley, assistant professor of physics and astronomy

Focus of teaching and scholarship:

My research is on energy transport in the Sun-Earth system. In particular, I run high-performance computer simulations to study the exchange of energy between particles and electromagnetic fields in what’s called the solar wind: a very low-density, yet constant and dynamic flow of particles that come from the Sun and spread through the solar system.

Big-picture questions in this field include, “Why is the solar corona so much hotter than the surface of the Sun?”, “What causes particles in the solar wind to heat up?”, and “How does space weather 鈥� which is created by energetic events on the Sun like solar flares, or coronal mass ejections 鈥� impact the Earth?” I am excited to explore topics including the Sun, space weather, and space plasma physics in future classes

What are you most looking forward to in the coming year at 乐播传媒?

Getting to know the campus community, and attending concerts and performances at 乐播传媒.

What is your favorite part of teaching?

Watching students become confident in their understanding of topics that are new or challenging, and playing a role in facilitating that process.

Emma Ianni, assistant professor of classical and medieval studies

Focus of teaching and scholarship:

I am a scholar of ancient Greek literature and history. My research focuses on the relationship between tragedy and historiography in classical Athens, with an emphasis on the intersection of gender, democracy, and war. My interests also include reception and public humanities. In both my teaching and research, I explore the (dis)continuities between antiquity and modernity in order to propose inclusive and original engagements with the ancient world.

What are you most looking forward to in the coming year at 乐播传媒?

Seeing how becoming part of the 乐播传媒 community will allow me to take my teaching and scholarship in new, creative, and interdisciplinary directions. I admire the intellectual synergy and spirit of collaboration I’ve seen around me during the past few weeks, and I am excited to be part of such an environment.

What is your favorite part of teaching?

I love seeing students engage with new materials in their own personalized ways  鈥� when they are able to connect the class to their own interests and passions, they bring a contagious enthusiasm to the classroom. I teach ancient Greek and Latin, and I really enjoy facilitating new connections to such old languages; looking at the classical past through my students’ personal investments has helped me to think about it in original, inclusive, and exciting ways.

Cigole Thomas, assistant professor of mathematics

Focus of teaching and scholarship:

My research lies in a field of mathematics called algebraic geometry, where we use algebra to explore and understand geometric shapes. These shapes, known as varieties, are formed by points where a group of equations are all equal to zero simultaneously. I am especially interested in how numbers “move” when an action is applied to mix them. I study the patterns that emerge, called orbits. My research is motivated by the way different branches of mathematics come together, combining their tools to solve questions that would otherwise be difficult to address. 

Another aspect of my work involves exploring ways to improve how mathematics is taught and to better understand how students learn mathematical concepts. I look forward to sharing what I find beautiful in mathematics through teaching. 

What are you most looking forward to in the coming year at 乐播传媒?

Getting to know my students and colleagues and the journeys they have traveled. I look forward to being a small part of their journeys, if only for a while, hopefully to help make their journey at 乐播传媒 a little brighter, a little deeper, and all the more worthwhile.

What is your favorite part of teaching?

What I cherish most in teaching are the quiet transformations, those moments when something learned in class begins to ripple beyond the limits of a single semester. Sometimes you can see it in a moment of understanding, an 鈥渁ha鈥� that lights up a student鈥檚 face 鈥� other times, in a passing remark: 鈥淢ath isn鈥檛 as hard as I thought.鈥� It鈥檚 often these gentle reshapings of a student’s relationship with math that are the most rewarding moments of teaching for me. 

Each week for the next nine, we’ll be introducing new 乐播传媒 professors who have tenure-track positions on the faculty.

This year鈥檚 nine tenure appointments are in the disciplines of art and visual culture, classical and medieval studies, economics, English, environmental studies, dance, politics (two appointments), and psychology.

This week, we introduce Mark Tizzoni.

Name: Mark Tizzoni

Position: Assistant Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies 

Degrees from: University of Leeds, M.A., Ph.D., in medieval studies and history; University of Scranton, B.A., in history and Latin 

The spark: Classical and medieval studies is 鈥渘ot necessarily something that everyone just naturally goes into,鈥� Tizzoni says. 

Growing up, he had a cousin who was a history buff. 鈥淲hen he would visit, we would talk about history. And he was very interested in the medieval period.鈥� That rubbed off on Tizzoni. By high school he was deep into Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer.

From there, he was drawn to both classical studies and medieval studies. 鈥淗omer also had that same sort of influence on me that Beowulf did. That’s how I ended up with late antiquity 鈥� it’s that middle ground where the two things meet.鈥�

Seeking the unknown: “I’m a first-generation to college student. As a child, academia was this really strange, foreign thing to me, a world I had no knowledge of 鈥� whatsoever,” he says.

Still, he had, from an early age, “always wanted to be an educator. I wanted to really deal with material in-depth, in complexity, and in intricacies, and to work with students who want to do that. 

“That’s what set me on this path of the total unknown to become a college professor. And it worked. It doesn’t always!”

His work: 鈥淚 work on the transformation of the Roman world in the West, how it went from being Rome to the Middle Ages,鈥� Tizzoni says. 鈥淚 do this through the medium of poetry 鈥� how this transformation was affected and experienced by Iberians and North Africans. 

For a poet in the fifth century, North Africa was 鈥渙ne of the best places to be. Carthage had a really vibrant intellectual culture. It was where a considerable portion of people from the Roman world would go for their education.鈥�

And by the late fifth century in North Africa, the Vandals had taken power from the Roman Empire, and the poetry that follows reflects existential questions: 鈥淗ow would they exist in this world where Rome was no longer in charge? Who were they going to be? What does that mean?鈥�

Through their verse, which was performed more than read in an era when fewer people were literate, the poets 鈥渨ere building this essentially new and independent Vandal identity that set them apart from Rome, bringing the rest of the populace into this political project of the Vandals. There was great excitement as they were trying to forge these new identities.鈥� 

Much of the poetry that Tizzoni is looking at was written in the last decade of the Vandal Kingdom. 鈥淪o we don鈥檛 know what would have happened鈥� had Vandal identity in North Africa had more time to develop.

For example? 鈥淚 work on a collection called the Anthologia Latina, these really feisty, fiery, strange pieces. One poem is four lines, and the central piece is that there’s a monkey riding a dog. So weird stuff, but culturally relevant. That piece actually asserts a new cultural identity, a new ethnic identity, for the people of North Africa. There鈥檚 advanced stuff happening in these poems that don鈥檛 feel advanced.鈥�

Why it matters right now: 鈥淟ate antiquity and the Early Middle Ages are very important in discussions of identity, and it’s actually at the forefront of a lot of discussions today. White nationalists have especially grabbed onto these ideas, using it to try to prop up their worldviews. And this needs to be countered.

鈥淥ne way to fight this is not just to take down the Eurocentric stuff, but also to reassert the role Africans played in the Early Middle Ages. It鈥檚 also important, broadly, to understand the ways people make a conscious effort to construct and build identity. That鈥檚 happening in late antiquity, and that has wider implications today, as we construct what it means to be an American, or other such identities.

鈥淚dentity isn鈥檛 something that just exists in the world. We create it, from many different things, including poetry.鈥�

Why teach? 鈥淚 love bringing primary sources into class, especially things that I work on. It’s always a lot of fun to present the students with these strange little pieces of poetry and have them see how they’re historically significant and how you can actually break down pieces of import out of them, to understand the society that made them.鈥�

The inaugural induction ceremony for Eta Sigma Phi, a national honor society for classics students, involved everything you might expect of a community of Latin and Greek scholars: candles, olive branches, and recitations in the voices of Plato and Homer.

What it signified was something greater: a growing community of enthusiasts of antiquity.

The idea of creating a chapter of Eta Sigma Phi first arose when Isa Barrengos 鈥�19 and Caroline Barnes 鈥�19, both classical and medieval studies majors, were looking for ways to connect outside their classes with others who enjoyed聽Greek myths, Roman politics, or ancient literature.

Students in the CMS major are 鈥渧ery into it,鈥� Barrengos said. 鈥淲e found ourselves talking about liminality and Artemisian rituals, and we thought, we should make a club.鈥�

Eta Sigma Phi seemed like the perfect vehicle for creating such a community of classics students. The national organization suggests that a college should have a classics club before applying to create a chapter.

As it turned out, the 乐播传媒 Classics Club already existed, though its level of activity had 鈥渨axed and waned鈥� over the years, said Lisa Maurizio, professor of classical and medieval studies.

So in January, Barrengos and Barnes revived the club. Soon after, they successfully petitioned Eta Sigma Phi to create a chapter of the honor society, with Barnes as Hipparchus (chair), Barrengos as Chrysophlax (treasurer), and Maurizio as adviser.

Caroline Barnes ’19 of Sarasota Springs, N.Y. is inducted into Eta Sigma Phi, the national classics honor society, on Sept. 27 in the Muskie Archives. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Reviving the club, it turned out, extended the classics community still further. While the dozen students inducted into Eta Sigma Phi in the Muskie Archives on Sept. 27 had to have a B average in three Greek or Latin language courses, anyone 鈥� from a fluent reader of Plato鈥檚 Greek to a fan of the Percy Jackson series 鈥� can join the Classics Club.

The club has big plans for the year, including film screenings, a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a presentation by a local ancient coin collector.

CMS majors who do meet Eta Sigma Phi鈥檚 requirements have the added benefit of joining a national community of students and scholars of classics, with translation contests, scholarships, and a national conference.

鈥淚f you go into graduate school for classics or even if you鈥檙e just interviewing for a job, you can say, 鈥楴ot only was I a classics major, but I was a serious classics major. I was committed to it, and this is how I can show you,鈥欌�� Barrengos said.

Both the society and the classics club give students a way to connect with CMS majors outside class 鈥� to talk about literature, politics, culture, and myths of antiquity.

鈥淭he students are hungry for intellectual engagement,鈥� Maurizio said. 鈥淭hey are striving to create conversations about the way classics intersects with the modern world outside of classes as well as within classes. I see both the Classics Club and Eta Sigma Phi as fostering a community in which those conversations can take place.鈥�

A replica of the Agamemnon Death Mask hangs in the Pettengill Hall office of聽Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies Lisa Maurizio.

鈥淲hen I look at the mask,鈥� she says, 鈥淚 think of the way knowledge and beauty from thousands of years ago get passed on 鈥� through mistakes, imitations, and education; through teachers and students who remember the past and in doing so remember each other.鈥�

Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College

To that point, 鈥淎gamemnon Death Mask鈥� is a misnomer, Maurizio explains. Made of gold, the real mask was found in a Mycenaean grave in 1876 by the 鈥渘otorious鈥� archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who 鈥渃laimed it belonged to the legendary Greek king Agamemnon.鈥� The mask actually dates from around 1550鈥�1500 B.C.E., an earlier period than Agamemnon鈥檚, so it’s not his. 鈥淏ut the name stuck,鈥� she says.

The replica mask once belonged to Professor Emeritus of History John Cole, who, upon retiring and moving out of his Pettengill Hall office, gave it to then-student Andrew Carranco 鈥�14, taught by Cole and Maurizio as a double major in history and in classical and medieval studies.

In the spirit of his academic majors, Carranco decided that history is “something to be shared” and that the mask would “find a better home” with his major department, so he gave it to Maurizio.

An English soldier does battle with a Viking invader as the Battle of Maldon re-enactment on May 26 at the Keigwin Amphitheater begins. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

That famed Anglo-Saxon comedy troupe could’ve been talking the Anglo-Saxon battle re-enactment staged during Short Term: “And now for something completely different.”

Staged on May 26 at the Keigwin Amphitheater, of the Battle of Maldon was a 10th-century clash in Essex, England, between Anglo-Saxons and invading Vikings.

The well-attended event culminated a Short Term course taught by Sylvia Federico, professor of English and medieval studies scholar.

Economics major Will Barstow ’17 of Amherst, Mass., gave the class high marks. Where else, he said, could you “work in the classroom for an hour each day and then go out and battle for another hour. It was great.”

Here are 11 moments from the re-enactment, including a few speeches, which the students adapted from the

1. Norse landing, first-person style

From the perspective of doomed Norse warrior Beghel (Bella Miller ’18 of New York City), the Vikings travel the ocean (Lake Andrews) and land at Essex, England (Keigwin Amphitheater) to fight the English.

2. Someone will pay

It’s August in the year A.D. 991, and the leader of the English warriors, Earl Byrhtnoth (Hannah Goldberg ’16 of Bronxville, N.Y.), states the Anglo-Saxon case: The Vikings have encroached too far onto English land and must pay with their lives.

(Who pays whom gets mixed up, to humorous effect.)

3. You cockeyed crabs!

The Vikings landed on a small island along the River Blackwater where, initially, three English soldiers blocked a few Vikings from crossing over a causeway to the mainland.

The English taunt the Vikings. “You cockeyed crabs!” yells an English soldier. “Do you fear we will cleave your codpiece?”

The Viking band is ordered to fall back.

4. The battle begins

After a parley, the English allow the Viking forces to cross so that a formal battle can occur. The Vikings show their trademark aggression; the English their defensive style.

5. Spear me the details

An English soldier kills a Viking foe with a knife, catches an incoming spear in mid-flight (a common medieval maneuver) and hands it off to a fellow fighter, who then kills a foe.

6. Gore alert!

An English soldier (Sally Ryerson ’16 of Vail, Colo.) suffers what might be a laceration of the femoral artery. If that’s not bad enough, the soldier gets run through by a Viking sword.

7. Mead goggles

An Anglo-Saxon soldier (Graham Leathers ’16 of Rochester, N.Y.) challenges his comrades: “Remember the noble speeches that we made in the mead hall as we drank the mead? Were you as brave as you said, or were drunk upon the mead? Glory and mead!”

8. Glory in battle

Invoking heaven as a reward for death in battle, an English soldier (Hugh Gorman ’19 of Hingham, Mass.) cries out: “Warriors, fear not death! For the kingdom of heaven is ours!”

9. Bringing a shield to a knife fight

As the fighting gets desperate, an English warrior throws his shield at his foe. Hand-to-hand combat ensues, and another Anglo-Saxon bites the Essex dust.

10. ‘Hewed and hacked’

Here’s another desperate speech by an English soldier (James Pardo ’18 of South Salem, N.Y.).

“Our companions have been hewed and hacked,” he yells, while others have retreated and still others have had their heads removed. Yet he is old, “so my death will bring you no doom!”

11. The victors’ cry: ‘None will resist!’

The Viking leader, Olaf Trigvason (Will Barstow ’17 of Amherst, Mass.), takes a trophy from a dead Anglo-Saxon, then decides to break the fourth wall and take out the narrator.

“No more to stand against us, now push forward to the village!” he cries. “Take what is ours by right, none will resist, none can stop us!鈥�

Then end!

Framed by a student’s arm and thermos, Associate Professor of English Sylvia Federico listens to Gerry Bigelow discuss archaeology during a March 2015 class session of Introduction to Classical and Medieval Studies. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

We’re looking at a map of Britain covered with black dots, projected on the big screen.

Historian Michael Jones, an expert on Roman Britain, explains to the class of first-years and sophomores that the dots mark where Roman colonists buried caches of coins for safekeeping. Some safekeeping: The coins weren’t unearthed again until long after their Roman owners were out of the picture.

“This is maybe the saddest map you’ll ever see,” Jones tells the students, who are in this Hathorn Hall classroom for a course called Introduction to Classical and Medieval Studies.

Professor of History Michael Jones describes what can be learned about Roman Britain from aerial photography during a March 2015 class in Introduction to Classical and Medieval Studies. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Jones is one of 13 faculty who taught the course this winter, including the English professor who designed it, Sylvia Federico. If that seems like an extreme approach to team-teaching, there’s a good reason for it: CMEN 103 is an introduction not just to topics in classical and medieval studies, but also to the scope of 乐播传媒’ program, in discipline and personality.

“Students get a sense of the field that’s much more comprehensive and dynamic than if it were just one teacher presuming to speak for the entire field,” says Federico. “It’s not just topics but methodology that’s on display. It presents material culture as well as literary culture.

“And I don’t think anybody else does that.”

On this Thursday in mid-March, Federico is at a desk among the students, listening to Jones present what he calls a “potted history” of the Romans’ four-century presence in Britain 鈥� a history, he explains, based largely on archaeological evidence. Sharing this class session is archaeologist Gerald Bigelow. (Jones works with Bigelow in an ongoing investigation into a vanished settlement in the Shetland Islands.)

Following Jones, Bigelow offers an overview of medieval archaeology that emphasizes what can be learned about commerce from, say, long-dead sheep parasites or the debris left behind when combs are manufactured from antlers.

Students in CMEN 103 listen as Lecturer in Archeology Gerry Bigelow discusses discoveries about medieval commerce. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

All of Federico’s colleagues in 乐播传媒’ interdisciplinary Program in Classical and Medieval Studies took at turn at the CMEN 103 lectern during the semester. Lisa Maurizio discussed the culture of anger in Homeric society. Margaret Imber explained the political value of Roman coins. Art historian Rebecca Corrie described how the Florentines of Dante’s day understood the classical world.

Laurie O’Higgins talked about women and humor, while Cynthia Baker, from religious studies, discussed desire and renunciation. Two guest lecturers shed light on interactions between medieval Western and Islamic cultures.

The course is intended in part as a recruiting device. “We want to introduce students from all across the college to the study of classical and medieval literature and culture,” says Federico. “We’re really trying to cast a wide net, and draw in people who might not necessarily thinking about majoring in it, or even pursuing it much beyond the 100 level.”

“The guest lectures allow students to meet the faculty and discover the range of interests and personalities that are drawn to the field,” adds Margaret Imber, “and hopefully find some sympatico profs they’d enjoy working with.”

But another objective of the course, Federico notes, is “establishing the idea that classical and medieval studies is integral to the liberal arts 鈥� that it’s part of our common mission and not a niche topic, but rather, relevant and important to modernity and to the future.”

For students, the “Ocean’s 11” approach to teaching demands some initiative in discerning connections between, for instance, medieval archaeology and the Old English poem describing the Battle of Maldon, circa 991, which the Anglo-Saxons lost to the invading Vikings. (A class re-enactment of the battle on Garcelon Field added a frisson of verisimilitude to the topic.)

The course has “taught me that there are so many different ways that you can approach a text,” says Hope French, a first-year student from London who, thanks to the course, is considering a CMS major. “You can explore its history and how that one text affected a culture years later.”

The course, in fact, is aimed at first-years and sophomores. That age group, Federico believes, is “really starting to come to terms with their own understanding of themselves as agents in the political world. One of the things that a class like this teaches is the ability to connect one’s own questioning about current affairs with timeless questions of the past.”

The 乐播传媒 course is loosely modeled on Columbia University’s Literature Humanities program, an example of the “Great Books” courses that were a 20th-century staple. But, like Lit Hum and the 30 or so other descendants of the Great Books tradition, 乐播传媒’ CMEN 103 dusts off the hoary old gallery of dead white men and rehabilitates it for today’s broadened sensibilities.

Sylvia Federico and Michael Jones. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

For instance, still on the reading list is Virgil’s Aeneid, which functions in part as a tribute to Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. (Imber’s concurrent presentation looked at Roman coins as symbols of political power.) But, says Federico, “We’re reading Virgil with a critical eye that’s been informed by all those cultural conversations from the 1980s and ’90s that don’t just accept power on its own terms.

“We’re constantly interrogating issues of gender and politics, and how power is produced and held by certain groups over different periods of time and in different cultures. And how literature is quite often in the service of those forms of power.” Federico wants her students to ask, “What’s at stake, and what are the real-life consequences for the people on the ground?”

As American troops abroad continue to wage what Americans citizens at home increasingly perceive as “endless war,” in author James Risen’s words, Federico believes that in this sense, at least, the Great Books are only gaining relevance. Her students, she says, “are experiencing a time of war and questioning the meaning of war 鈥� as are these texts.

“I tell them, you know, when you go off to be advisers to a president or members of a think tank, these are the kind of questions you will need to ask about the causes of war, about gender and society, about power dynamics.

“This isn’t your grandfather’s Great Books class. This is something that’s really much more dynamic and engaging for modern students.”

While men may have dominated public life in ancient Greece and Rome, women nevertheless played active roles in religious rituals.

In ancient times, says 乐播传媒 classicist Lisa Maurizio, “women were significant actors in funerary practices. We know women composed and chanted songs for those rites. Many scholars argue that through their laments they influenced the tradition of epic poetry,” such as the works of Homer.

Women鈥檚 lament is one of the topics that international scholars will take up at 乐播传媒 next week as the college hosts the conference Women’s Ritual Competence in the Ancient Mediterranean April 25鈥�27.

The conference looks at a variety of women’s ritual activities, such as lamentation, prophecy, magical incantation, prayer, weaving and sacrifice.

“Competence” in the conference title, she adds, refers to the fact that the women in question were “participants in and constructors of the divine — how the divine was understood, imagined and worshipped.鈥�

The conference will bring together classicists in a variety of disciplines: archaeology; art history; philology, the study of literary language; and epigraphy, the study of ancient inscriptions, especially on stone.

Maurizio’s co-organizers are Esther Eidinow, a historian of ancient Greece at the University of Nottingham in England, and Matthew Dillon, a professor of the humanities at the University of New England — not the UNE in Maine, but the school in Armidale, Australia, northwest of Sydney.

乐播传媒 presenters at the conference are:

Rhetoric professor Stephanie Kelley-Romano, with “Symbolic Ritualization of Reproduction/Reproductive Anxieties in Alien Abduction Narratives”; Maurizio herself, whose talk is titled “Delphic Oracles: Occasional Verse and Ritual Competence”; and a colleague in classical and medieval studies, Laurie O’Higgins, who will discuss the ritual and symbolic dimensions of Penelope’s “web” — the robe Odysseus’ wife wove by day and unraveled at night .

Presenters at the 乐播传媒 event include experts in ancient textiles, writings on stone and statuettes from Italy.

Lisa Maurizio.

“We’re interested in a range of types of ancient evidence, not just literary texts,” Maurizio says. “We look at how these objects were used in the social world — how they indicated status, how they moved from person to person.

“For example, women in antiquity often gave soft gifts, like textiles, and dedicated them to gods and goddesses. Men often exchanged hard objects, such as metal weaponry.

“If you begin to look at these items beyond their immediate use, they give you insight into much broader social processes and structures.”

For more information about the conference, please contact Lisa Maurizio at lmaurizi@bates.edu. The conference is made possible by support from The Costas and Mary Maliotis Charitable Foundation.

Ali Humayun Akhtar, assistant professor of religious studies and of classical and medieval studies.

The lecture series Byzantium and Islam: Art, Poetry and Sound at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea聽 resumes with an exploration of Sicily’s evolution through Byzantine to Islamic to Christian cultures by Russell J. Hopley of Bowdoin College at noon Thursday, Nov. 14, in Room 201, Commons, 136 Central Ave.

Presented by the Department of Religious Studies and the Program in Classical and Medieval Studies, lectures in the series are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-8204.

The series concludes with a talk by 乐播传媒’ own Ali Humayun Akhtar, who discusses “rembetiko,” a musical genre developed by Greeks living in Turkey, at noon Wednesday, Nov. 20, in Room 221-222, Commons.

Hopley teaches Arabic language and literature at Bowdoin. His talk, Sicily: A Mediterranean Island at the Crossroads of Byzantium and Islam, will explore the dynamics of politics, religion and literature on the island of Sicily as it transitioned from its role in the Greek-speaking Byzantine world to the Arabic-speaking world before finally being absorbed into Latin Christendom.

Akhtar is an assistant professor in the religious studies department and the classical and medieval studies program. His talk, Byzantium in Ottoman Clothing: Greeks of Istanbul and the Music of Rembetiko, will look at questions of cultural blending in early modern Istanbul, where a significant Greek Orthodox population straddled the worlds of Greek-language and Turkish-language music and taste — aesthetically bridging the legacies of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires through musical traditions like the “Greek blues,” rembetiko.

Food historian Sandra Oliver.

Food historian and popular Bangor Daily News聽 columnist Sandra Oliver offers a talk titled George Washington’s Breakfast聽 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, in Pettengill Hall’s Keck Classroom (G52), 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Admission is open to the public at no cost. The talk is sponsored by the divisions of humanities and of interdisciplinary programs, and the classical and medieval studies program. For more information, call 207-786-8296.

Oliver is the founder, editor and publisher of , an online source for North American food history that began as a print publication in 1989. The website includes responses to common food misperceptions in “The Debunk-House” as well as an archive of past articles and event listings. It also offers historical recipes common in earlier eras across New England.

Oliver first became interested in food history in 1971 while working at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Conn. She developed a program where she taught fireplace cooking in an 1830s kitchen. Exploring period recipes and methods to learn about what people hundreds of years ago were tasting “grabbed my interest and never let go,” says Oliver.

Oliver often talks about food to Maine audiences and is called on to answer questions about the contents of historical figures’ plates, such as a 2010 interview with where she discussed George Washington’s diet. She resides in a 19th-century farmhouse on Islesboro, an island in Penobscot Bay near Lincolnville, where she practices what she teaches: gardening, preserving, cooking and teaching sustainable food and living practices.

Oliver’s books include Maine Home Cooking: 175 Recipes From Downeast Kitchens (Down East Books, 2012) and Food in Colonial and Federal America (Greenwood Press, 2005). With Kathleen Curtin and others, she co-authored Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie (Clarkson Potter, 2005).

Her weekly column “” has appeared weekly in the Bangor Daily News since 2006 and offers recipes that can be made from seasonal produce grown locally around Maine.

At the final faculty meeting of the academic year, each retiring professor is honored by a colleague who prepares and delivers a spoken tribute.

On May 6, tributes were offered to Pam Baker 鈥�69, the Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences and, from 2011 to 2013, dean of the faculty; Tom Hayward, lecturer in classical and medieval studies and humanities reference librarian; Paul Kuritz, professor of theater; Bonnie Shulman, professor of mathematics; and Bob Thomas, professor of biology.

Tribute to Pam Baker by Don Dearborn, professor of biology

Pam Baker is an institutional thinker, a kind and smart person, and someone who loves this college with her entire being.

Pam Baker hugs a student during a reception for Baker’s retirement on May 17. (Mike Bradley/乐播传媒 College)

She came to 乐播传媒 in 1965. Not as a faculty member, of course, but as a first-year student. Consistent with the wanderlust that would fuel her later travels, she left 乐播传媒 prematurely, taking a B.Sc. in zoology at the University of Wales at Swansea before coming back here to finish her 乐播传媒 degree in 1970. She went on to do graduate work at SUNY鈥揃uffalo, with a master’s degree in microbiology and later a Ph.D. in oral biology and immunology.

Along the way, she and Dave were graced with their daughter, Kate, whom they soon learned was deaf. I mention this because Pam wanted to learn sign language with Kate but couldn鈥檛 find a book that a parent could share with a young child. In typical Pam fashion, she took the bull by the horns and wrote and published such a book herself while in graduate school.

Pam came back to 乐播传媒 in 1989, hired with Lee Abrahamsen to share a tenure-track position.聽 When I interviewed here just a few years ago, Pam and Lee were still sharing both a faculty line and an office. (As an aside, I鈥檒l say that somehow I misread the situation, and my interest in 乐播传媒 was heightened by the notion that the college was making joint hires of same-sex couples 20 years ago.)

My confusion notwithstanding, Pam and Lee were a formidable team in the classroom. They co-taught Cell Hell in Short Term for something like 18 years, and they were the first faculty from anywhere to teach a research-based course at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, a first-rate research institution focused on regenerative medicine, environmental health sciences, and cellular and molecular physiology.

This partnership between 乐播传媒 and MDIBL has thrived under Pam鈥檚 guidance and remains important to both our institutions.

For non-science folks, this next point may be a hard one to appreciate, so let me preface it by saying that it鈥檚 a big deal.

Pam鈥檚 own research combines the study of bacteria, the immune system and the dynamics of infectious disease, along with her an interest in non-Western medicine. Pam has co-authored (with Eli Minkoff) a pedagogically innovative biology textbook that was well ahead of its time, and she has published more than 40 research articles that have been cited by more than 800 peer-reviewed publications.

For non-science folks, this next point may be a hard one to appreciate, so let me preface it by saying that it鈥檚 a big deal. She developed an animal system for studying a human disease 鈥� specifically, finding a way to use mice to study periodontal disease.

This enabled important findings such as the discovery that the bone loss that goes along with severe gum disease is caused not by the bacterial infection itself but by the patient鈥檚 immune response to the infection 鈥� this has huge implications for how you would develop clinical treatments.

Beyond her role in biology, Pam of course has been central to the leadership of 乐播传媒, as division chair, as associate dean, as dean of the faculty and in countless other formal and informal roles.

She was instrumental in starting the first interdisciplinary program at 乐播传媒, and she spearheaded large institutional grants from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, the Beckman Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Science Foundation and the INBRE program of the National Institutes of Health.These grants enable us to do a better job of the all the important things that make 乐播传媒 what it is.

Along those lines, one of Pam鈥檚 tireless and effective campaigns has been to increase the money available for student research. And, in fact, student research is so important to her that she has continued to supervise thesis students while serving as dean of the faculty.

As Pam gets ready to transition to a more sane lifestyle, she and Dave are looking forward to a bit of traveling this summer 鈥� delayed, of course, by a shift in retirement timeline caused by her willingness to serve as our dean of the faculty.

Pam loves to travel and has been all over the place in North and South America…in Europe…in India…China…Mongolia. The list is long, Pam, but of course it does not approach the list of the ways that you have given of yourself to 乐播传媒, and for that we all say a heartfelt “Thank you.”

Tribute to Tom Hayward by Margaret Imber, associate professor of classical and medieval studies

First, the res gestae聽鈥� from the egg to the apples as the Romans would say. Tom came to 乐播传媒 in 1976 as the humanities librarian. Before joining the college, he completed a classics degree, magna cum laude, at Harvard University and received a master’s in library science from Rutgers and served in the U.S. Air Force for four years.

While beginning his career at 乐播传媒, he pursued and completed a master’s in comparative literature at the University of Maine. He鈥檚 published articles of note in The Maine Classicist, Victorian Poetry, Classical World and the New England Classical Newsletter.

Second, an acknowledgement in the pleasure we all take in Tom as a contubernalis.

He began teaching Latin to students before there was any program in classics here. As in baseball, so in Latin: If you build it, they will come.

In addition to his wonderful work in Ladd, as a builder of collections, teacher of students, and resource in research for students and faculty alike, Tom has been a stalwart of the Program in Classical and Medieval Studies at 乐播传媒.

Indeed, we could properly call Tom the auctor venerabilis of our program. He began teaching Latin to students before there was any program in classics here. As in baseball, so in Latin: If you build it, they will come. Soon there were hires, then a program. Such was the enthusiasm that Tom fostered with 茅lan, a liberal dose of collegiality, offered amore ac studio.

At his retirement reception on April 24, Tom Hayward wears a librarian-themed T-shirt given to him by classics students. The Latin “Scimus quae lemis, et non dicimuc” means “We know what you read and we don’t tell.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Throughout his tenure in CMS, Tom has been an active and stalwart colleague. He has supervised numerous student theses and offered numerous independent studies. He has organized meetings of the Maine Classical Conference on campus.

He has taught all levels of Latin and offering courses on a range of topics in translation. He has piloted and pioneered in our curriculum. It was Tom who introduced the idea of tweeting in Latin 鈥� mirabile, as they say, dictu.

Tom鈥檚 students recall his classes with appreciation and affection. When we posted about Tom鈥檚 retirement on the CMS Facebook page, a number of alumni wrote to us.

Annie Barton ’08, now an assistant principal at Strive Prep in West Denver and then a great scholar-athlete at 乐播传媒 wrote, 鈥淚 remember Tom cheering me on from the bleachers at my swim meets. It meant so much to me that he cared to support so many different aspects of my life, and that’s what I remember when I think of him.鈥�

Erin Faulder ’08 is now a student in library school (and, oh yes, that trend in classicist librarians that everyone鈥檚 talking about: You know whom to thank!).

A wonderful student and a ballroom dance enthusiast, Erin wrote that she remembered most fondly “spending hours at his dining room table with a cup of tea and some cookies while working on thesis and later reciting and translating Seneca’s Troades鈥� and 鈥済oing to Thorncrag with Tom and his wife one night to listen to the birds singing to each other at dusk. Then, once night had truly fallen, we searched for a certain kind of newt that was just coming out of hibernation.鈥�

Erin Crowley ’12, whose archeological work we鈥檒l all be reading about one day, recalled how Tom offered to meet with her outside of scheduled class time to resolve a scheduling conflict.

鈥淧rofessor Hayward went above and beyond his duty as a professor to offer me the opportunity to continue with my Latin study, and for that I will be forever grateful. I wasn鈥檛 the first student that he had done this for, either, and that shows a dedication to the subject and to his students which made the classical and medieval studies program my absolute favorite.鈥�

Tom embodies Cicero鈥檚 observation that a man who has a library and a garden has everything. To Cicero鈥檚 library and garden, Tom has added a love of jazz, a talent for watercolors, a delight in birds and a feared ruthlessness on the racquetball courts. He is also a pater familias 鈥� the loving husband of Susan, proud father of Abby and Jamie, and, recently, a grandfather.

We are going to miss Tom, and the only balm to our sorrow is the hope that when he鈥檚 indulged this foolishness with retirement, had his Italian education, spotted his birds and painted his canvases, he will come to his senses and return to visit.

But for now, we must echo Plautus: Acta est fabula 乐播传媒iana; plaudite!

Tribute to Paul Kuritz by Michael Reidy, senior lecturer and managing director of theater and dance

Paul Thomas Kuritz retires from the Department of Theater after 34 years of teaching and scholarship. While completing a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1978, Paul Kuritz joined the faculty as an assistant professor of theater and rhetoric. He taught acting, directing and theater history as well as directing one or two productions annually. Paul was department chair from 1995 to 2000.

Since his professional debut in 1966, he has directed more than 100 productions across the U.S., serving as guest director at the Maine Acting Company in Lewiston, 1986鈥�88, and founding, in 1980, the 乐播传媒 Festival Theatre.

Paul Kuritz served as professor of theater from 1978 to 2013.

The 乐播传媒 Festival Theater was a professional theater company in residence on the 乐播传媒 campus that ran for four years in the summer, bringing professional theater to the Lewiston-Auburn audience long before there was a Public Theater in downtown.

In 1992 Paul was chair of the Mayor’s Fine Arts Commission, charged with developing a plan for increasing the cultural production in the area. The ramifications of that work are still felt today, and the topic is still in active debate.

Paul was a visiting professor at Indiana University in 1985 while on leave from 乐播传媒.

He was the first American academic to be invited to teach acting and to direct at the National Theater School in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Paul wrote four books on theater while at 乐播传媒: Playing: An Introduction to Acting (1982); The Making of Theatre History (1987); Fundamental Acting: A Practical Guide (1997); and The Fiery Serpent: A Christian Theory of Film and Drama (2006).

Gertrude Stein鈥檚 Mother of Us All and Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights were described as 鈥渋rradiant, avant-garde聽鈥� energetic聽鈥� spectacular鈥� by colleagues.

笔补耻濒鈥檚 adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman鈥檚 The Yellow Wallpaper was in included in the anthology The Best American Short Plays 2001鈥�2002.

Paul will be well-remembered for several productions he directed for 乐播传媒 theater over the years.聽 A production of Brecht鈥檚 Galileo that he directed and played lead in was remembered for its spectacular, and expensive, staging and for 笔补耻濒鈥檚 passionate performance.

Gertrude Stein鈥檚 Mother of Us All and Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights were described as 鈥渋rradiant, avant-garde聽鈥� energetic聽鈥� spectacular鈥� by colleagues.

笔补耻濒鈥檚 Peer Gynt, a massive play by any standard with 70 roles, was cleverly re-imagined to be performed by a small ensemble of 17 student actors.

He was twice a project scholar for the Portland Stage Company and Maine Humanities Council, in 1984鈥�85 and 1988鈥�89.

In a November 1997 issue of the Lewiston Sun Journal, Paul shared the secret to perfect no-fat Rocky Road brownies: It鈥檚 half cup of apple sauce and 2 teaspoons of instant coffee.

As a collaborator, Paul was very generous in his inclusion of the artistic team and bringing order to a range of design and production schemes.

In the last decade, Paul turned his attention to filmmaking. He attended Maine Media Workshop and directed two short films while here, A New Life and Amy鈥檚 Wish, which have been selected for screening at multiple film festivals around the country.

Paul will also be know for his propensity to resist popular opinion of the day and claim the ground of the contrarian. Like a salmon swimming upstream, Paul enjoyed challenging people to think differently. Hence, he was a lifelong Yankees fan in the heart of Red Sox Nation. Hence, he arrived in Maine as an outspoken political progressive at a time when Maine was considered a conservative state, and leaves a conservative as our community trends toward being more progressive points of view.

He and his wife, Kathleen, live happily in Lakewood, Ohio.

Tribute to Bonnie Shulman by Meredith Greer, associate professor of mathematics

Bonnie Shulman鈥檚 route to 乐播传媒 was not a typical one. Most of her peers went to college after high school; Bonnie left school.

As Stephanie Higgins ’08 wrote in a student essay about Bonnie that won a national contest, Bonnie felt at that time that math was inaccessible to women and that science was corrupted by the arms race. For several years, Bonnie wrote poetry, lived on a commune and had her daughter. At age 30 she decided to go back to college, then earned a Ph.D. in mathematical physics. She then came to 乐播传媒 and the mathematics department.

“She surely shook up the department on a number of levels and very beneficially for many students.”

Just three years later, Bonnie won the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching. One of the students who nominated her, Rachel Hampe ’94, shared some memories of Bonnie with me.

Professor of Mathematics Bonnie Shulman, who retired in June, accepts salutations en masse from math students during the annual Mount David Summit on March 29. (Chip Ross photo)

She recalls that 鈥渉er arrival in the department was generally very important, but for women who needed a role model to encourage them to continue their studies, it was particularly important.聽 Rarely wearing shoes and almost always carrying coffee into class, she surely shook up the department on a number of levels and very beneficially for many students like myself.鈥�

Rachel went on to say that Bonnie was a “dynamic teacher who appreciated that everyone had different methods of learning. In one class, I remember (now about 20 years ago!) her discussing how some people understood concepts visually, seeing diagrams, while others learned concepts through equations. She deliberately taught the concepts from both perspectives to be inclusive and to deepen our understanding.”

One more quote from Rachel: 鈥淚 know that after I graduated she incorporated writing and research requirements into her classes. Later, other professors started doing the same.鈥�

Rachel’s quotes show many of the long-term driving forces within Bonnie: helping women break down barriers, supporting all students in learning and valuing writing within mathematics.

During Bonnie鈥檚 time at 乐播传媒, she has received over a dozen grants in areas including K鈥�12 education and mentoring women in math and science. She chaired Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, from 1993 to 2010. She wrote journal articles that include discussions of feminism as it relates to math and science; reflections on war, peace and mathematics; and mathematics education.

She was very involved with the Program in Women and Gender Studies for several years. And she was one of the leaders of the move toward the current Gen Ed. Our curriculum now has increased opportunity for interdisciplinarity, enhanced writing requirements and emphasis on scientific and quantitative literacy. These were voted in by the faculty as a whole, yet they echo the focus areas Bonnie has always had for educating students.

There are many more things for which Bonnie has made herself known over the years. Here are just a few of them.

She could be defined by her refusal to be constrained. Whenever she, or her whole department, or the entire college, takes on a new goal, Bonnie constantly reminds us to think big: Don鈥檛 start out by thinking about restrictions or limitations! Think instead about what we would like to accomplish if we could do anything we wanted. (Then, of course, she is both dogged and ingenious about figuring out how we can accomplish what many would have thought impossible!)

Bonnie is known for bringing students to conferences. And when I say 鈥渋s known for,鈥� I don鈥檛 mean just at 乐播传媒. At national conferences, I have several times had someone read 鈥溊植ゴ� College,鈥� on my name tag and say, 鈥淥h, you must know Bonnie!鈥� One particular mathematician went on in detail, telling me how she had admired Bonnie for many years, especially for the way Bonnie would just load up a vehicle with students and drive them to a regional conference. (I can add to that: Bonnie has a special talent for piecing together funding to support her students and colleagues.)

Social justice has always been a driving force for Bonnie. A culmination of Bonnie鈥檚 experiences and talents came with her Math 112 course, “Mathematics for a Just World.” From the course description: 鈥淭his course teaches quantitative literacy, critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a socially relevant context. Students use mathematics as a powerful analytic framework for understanding and developing realistic solutions to issues of social, political and economic injustice.鈥�

But this is just part of the story. Some students let it be known that they鈥檙e taking Math 112 鈥渏ust to get their [Q] out of the way鈥�; others admit to major math phobia. During the course, students write about math, present math and tutor local children at Tree Street Youth Center. In this class, students keep journals. Many reflect that this is the first time they ever realized that math had a purpose or could be helpful to people. Some, early in the semester, express hesitancy or discomfort about tutoring; some of those same students end the semester saying that tutoring was the most important and powerful thing they did all semester.

Last one 鈥� for now. Bonnie is a thoughtful and intentional mentor. She began mentoring me when I interviewed for this job: Though she was on sabbatical at the time, she came to my job talk, introduced herself as the only tenured woman in the mathematics department and warmly invited me to contact her if I had any questions about coming to 乐播传媒. When I first arrived here, she purposefully introduced me to many people all around campus. Throughout the years, we have talked about teaching, research, tenure, life and much more.

But enough about me! What about with students, or when Bonnie was new here herself?

One of her first thesis students, Toby White ’94, says that 鈥渕eeting Bonnie was a watershed moment in my academic career. She took me under her wing, helped me find a path. [She] took me to my first conference (my first three conferences, actually), helped me…write an honors thesis, guided me toward graduate school and a master’s degree…became a collaborator when I returned to Maine to teach high school math, and then again gave critical counsel when several years later I decided to go…for a Ph.D. in education.

“I really can’t imagine how I would have found my way or come nearly so far as a scholar without so much help and support from her at the start, and along the way. She remains a dear friend, a model for the ways I advise my doctoral students, and my fiercest, most regular and favorite mobile Scrabble opponent.鈥�

There is much, much more that I and others could say about Bonnie 鈥� her sense of humor, her athleticism, her activism 鈥� but for now I end simply. Congratulations, Bonnie. You are tremendously appreciated.

Tribute to Bob Thomas by Sharon Kinsman, associate professor of biology

Professor Robert Thomas 鈥� sage of seaweeds and lover of liverworts 鈥� is the consummate botanist. But he almost wasn鈥檛.

He headed to the University of Michigan to become a history teacher but discovered a greater passion when he chose introductory botany for his science requirement. And the rest, as Bob might pun, is his-tory. Soon he TA鈥檇 the course, took field courses, joined the professor鈥檚 lab and co-authored two papers with her.

Professor of Biology Robert Thomas, photographed at the McLaughlin Garden in South Paris, Maine, while teaching his Short Term course on nature photography in 2008. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Straight on to graduate study at the University of California鈥揝anta Cruz (a far cry from the North Woods of Michigan), Bob studied with world-famous bryologists and plant physiologists. He mastered several modern research techniques to study liverwort development and physiology.

乐播传媒 snapped him up even before his defense.

So in 1975 Bob returned to the North Woods, bringing a deep knowledge of plants; a passion for teaching; modern expertise in tissue culture, autoradiographic techniques and electron microscopy; and a determination to help the department steadily acquire modern research equipment.

Bob said 鈥淵es!鈥� to students with diverse interests, from natural plant dyes to lichens as environmental teaching tools to soil quality in urban agriculture.

Mosses and their relatives were model organisms for a multitude of research questions. External grants helped support Bob鈥檚 and his students鈥� year round research on plant development, hormones, and physiology. By the time Bob was promoted to full professor a little over a decade after his arrival, student co-authors featured on nearly all of his many 乐播传媒 research publications.聽 But you didn鈥檛 have to study mosses or their tiny aphids to do research with Bob. Bob said 鈥淵es!鈥� to students with diverse interests, from natural plant dyes to lichens as environmental teaching tools to soil quality in urban agriculture.

And it was an adventure-filled lab to join. Summers began with the annual jaunt down Sabattus Street for opening day at Val鈥檚 Drive-In and root beer stand. Field trips took the gang聽 to nearby forests, mountains and bogs. But it was the cross-country camping trips to attend professional meetings that his students likely won鈥檛 forget. Funds were few, but that didn鈥檛 stop Bob. He just loaded up the infamous Morse Mountain van with students and Outing Club gear, and drove long distances 鈥� to Montreal, to Virginia and once all the way across the continent to Vancouver 鈥� camping all the way.

Bob鈥檚 courses offered adventures as well. His expertise led to an array of engaging traditional and applied courses, from microbiology and numerous plant biology topics to electron microscopy, to this year鈥檚 first-year seminar on GMOs.

Legendary were course field trips: to find seaweeds at the coast, to sample phytoplankton in the open ocean, to press flowering plants, to work with foresters and horticulturalists and florists, and to talk with algologists, ethnobotanists, organic gardeners and plant chemists. Graduation weekends saw packed audiences for the breathtaking slide shows from his popular Short Term course in nature photography.

And yes, Bob co-taught a course in ballroom dancing.

But I think in Carnegie we would agree it was the famous economic botany course that will live on in memory. Certainly it engaged non-science majors, but it made Carnegie lively for all of us. From the paper-making lab with its odd smells and strewn plant debris to the 鈥渟eed-popping鈥� lab that destroyed more hot plates than we can remember, we saw hands-on education at work. New faculty, not yet in the know, might get a whiff of fermentation but be a little reluctant to ask…just what was fermenting?! Yes, root beer and even real beer, complete with 鈥渓ittle accidents鈥� of corks popping…and the occasional muffled explosion as beer bottles burst.

The Carnegie basement brewery is gone, and other changes have come. When Bob arrived, most department chairs were 鈥渇orever.鈥� Departments used one phone line for everyone, mimeograph machines for handouts and typewriters for writing. Ladd Library was brand new, and Carnegie Science was about half its current size. The number of women faculty could be counted on two hands. Tenure procedures were, well, more relaxed. In fact, it was Bob who asked senior colleagues if he should provide some names of outside evaluators. They responded: 鈥淥K, why not?鈥�

In the department, Bob has seen whole new subdisciplines of biology arrive, along with more student majors and more assistants in instruction. Six classical majors鈥� core courses have become three, electives have multiplied and our crowded 鈥渙ld Carnegie鈥� is now an equally crowded 鈥渘ew Carnegie.鈥�

Much of the department鈥檚 development was facilitated by Bob. Upon tenure, Bob agreed to a 鈥渢emporary鈥� two-year stint as chair. The two years became 10, as Bob oversaw new faculty lines, a core curriculum revision, a building addition and the installation of the first of two electron microscopes. Bob then continued to support the work of the department in ways too numerous to name. Early work for the college included six years on the Student Conduct Committee, an insightful report on athletics, and work on long-range planning and development of audio visual support.聽 Service on many college committees followed.

But many of us know Bob best as our own colleague and friend. From procuring our research equipment through national grants, to supportive listening to junior colleagues鈥� concerns, to adding a voice of experience to countless searches, to modeling patience and compromise in departmental matters, to advising on grant proposals and tenure dossiers, Bob has made an enormous positive difference for many new colleagues. Arriving at 乐播传媒, we immediately find in Bob a modest, moderate, mild-mannered, and mannerly colleague who is reliable, kind and supportive. At length we are blessed to discover that wry, dry sense of humor complete with dead-pan delivery.

And many 乐播传媒 students have known Bob best as their 乐播传媒 Outing Club adviser. Firmly committed to student leadership of the club, Bob provided steady support over decades and over maintenance of 40 miles of the Appalachian Trail. A colleague recalls how the “Outing Clubbers of the late ’70s warmly remember evenings at Bob鈥檚 house on Nichols Street, the livingroom ringing with folk songs, the floors pounding with dance steps.鈥�

These evenings of potluck dinners, music, laughter and dance were long a part of the heart of southern Maine鈥檚 traditional music and dance scene. A wonderful musician and dancer, Bob sings and plays mountain dulcimer and concertina and helped found the 乐播传媒 Free Will Folk Society.

Bob鈥檚 music now graces community events, often as part of his devoted family life. With two sons now in their teens, Bob and Carol generously offer their skills and support to a variety of local educational and non-profit institutions, including Sandcastle Clinical & Educational Services, with its focus on inclusive education, and St. Joseph鈥檚 Special Religious Education.

In thanks to Bob, a few student voices:

鈥淎 very big thank you is due to my adviser, Bob Thomas, for all of his patience, encouragement, guidance, and generosity over the last three years.He continually challenged me and advised me in such a way that made research and the thesis experience lots of fun.鈥�

鈥淭he lectures were pure gold!鈥�

鈥淎 very fun and interesting course.鈥�

鈥淚 felt very included and the professor was very kind and respectful.鈥�

鈥�…a great FYS professor…I had a really good time in the class.鈥�

The department won鈥檛 be the same without the nature photography shows; Bob鈥檚 supportive, moderate, and kind demeanor; and his well-timed puns and amazing recall of departmental history.聽 As one colleague notes: 鈥淲oe unto us when he鈥檚 gone on that front.鈥� But he鈥檚 not going far: just over to Taylor Pond. So, Bob, if someone asks, 鈥淲ould you Lycopodium?鈥� it鈥檚 OK to decline, but we will miss you.

With thanks to Bob for providing materials, and to Greg Anderson, Judy Marden ’66, and Nancy Kleckner for contributions.