Basketball (and family) history makes TV and newspaper news

During a 70-66 overtime win against the University of Southern Maine, Elsa Daulerio ’26 became the 22nd �ֲ���ý women’s basketball player to score 1,000 career points, and the  and all reported on the event. Her teammates swarmed the court after the game to celebrate Daulerio, who is the 2025–26 team captain.

The achievement has made Daulerio and her mother, �ֲ���ý Associate Director of Athletics Adrienne Shibles ’91, the second-documented mother-daughter duo in the country to both earn 1,000 career points at the same institution. 

“It means so much,” Daulerio told the Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel. “I love her so much. She’s been my idol since I was a little girl. I always looked up to her, and she’s been my No. 1 supporter, along with my family. It’s just so special and I’m honored to be up there with her. She’s the hardest worker I know.”

Like her daughter, Shibles was team captain at �ֲ���ý — twice. She ended her college career with 1,005 career points and went on to coach basketball at Swarthmore, Bowdoin, and Dartmouth before returning to �ֲ���ý.

A �ֲ���ý alum talks to national press after her reality show jackpot

In November, Perla Figuereo ’21 was featured in an after winning Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2, a competitive reality television show based on the fictional thriller Squid Game. Figuereo entered the game with her twin brother Jeffrey Figuereo and her “gameplay came down to being her ‘most authentic self’ and tapping into her emotions,” Marie Claire reported.

The prize for winning the show was $4.56 million, which Figuereo plans to split with her brother. As , Figuereo “was made to play against her brother Geoffrey [sic], putting them both in a difficult position. He decided not to take part, instead encouraging his sister to go on and win the game for the both of them. And she did just that.”

In an, Figuereo discussed her win and reminisced on her time in Lewiston, which she calls her “second home.”

“My strategy was just to be myself,” Figuereo told the Sun Journal. “I’m a very social person. Genuinely one of my passions in life is people, so my strategy was just to get to know people like I do in my everyday life.”

The show, , and , among other outlets, also covered the news.

Francesco Duina visits Maine Calling to talk about inequality

Francesco Duina, professor of sociology, was featured on Maine Public’s Maine Calling program on December 2.

Duina’s new book The Social Acceptance of Inequality: On the Logics of a More Unequal World analyzes the ways in which people think about economic inequality—and the reasoning that leads many to accept the disparities around us. Co-edited with Luca Storti, an associate professor of economic sociology at the University of Turin, Italy, Duina’s collection includes voices from across the globe contributing their perspectives on why we justify and accept economic inequality.

Maine Calling host Jennifer Rooks asked Duina why he chose to look at the logics, or justifications, people have for the great inequality in the world now. 

“The logics or the justifications, are drivers or these inequalities,” Duina responded. “So if we want to understand where they come from or why they are sustained, we want to understand why some people are okay with them. A surprisingly large number of — and diverse — number of people support, to varying degrees, inequalities. We are talking specifically about economic inequalities here. Inequalities of wealth or income.”

Rooks asked Duina about his process, including how he challenges his �ֲ���ý students to consider the topic. “I suspect that people, sometimes, if they are asked, outright, ‘Do you support income inequaity’ might have a different answer then the answer you get when you start to dig down,” Rooks said. 

Duina agreed. “Most people, I think, would probably say ‘No,’�ĝ he said. “T��dzܲ��� some people will say, ‘I’m perfectly comfortable,’ for whatever reasons. But it’s also true that, as I investigate with students, and I kind of challenge them, it’s also true that most people don’t want perfect equality either. So then the question is, at what point do people become uncomfortable, and at what point do people continue to accept economic inequalities?”

To listen to the full conversation, which included two guest panelists,
Marc Dixon, professor of sociology from Dartmouth College and Megan Tobias Neely, assistant professor of sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, visit �ֲ���ý News interviewed Duina about the topic in November.

�ֲ���ý football success featured in the Portland Press Herald

Head Football Coach Matt Coyne was featured in which ran in the Maine Trust for Local News publications, including the Portland Press Herald, in late October. Coyne noted that �ֲ���ý football is at a turning point this year. “We’ve played, you know, much better complementary football across the board, offensively and defensively,” Coyne said. “I think the biggest thing is in critical moments in some of those games against the top-half teams, we made the plays against Amherst and Tufts; then in some other games, we didn’t.” Coyne pointed to the team’s depth in both offense and defense calling out junior linebacker Ryan Rozich of Cromwell, Conn. leading the NESCAC with 89 tackles, and sophomore Carmel Crunk of Chatsworth, Calif. with 63 tackles.

In the Sun Journal, Darby Ray visualizes a community gathering spot

Lewiston community members are considering the future of The Red Shop at Simard-Payne Memorial Park. Built in 1938, the building was once a machine shop for the mill. Discussions about the possible uses for the building are underway. Darby Ray, who serves as director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and is the Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Professor of Civic Engagement, was interviewed in a , where she shared her ideas for the future of the building. Ray imagines people coming together at The Red Shop–for family reunions and other celebrations, saying “I think we need more spaces where folks can come together on a chilly winter day like today and maybe share ideas about something, have a forum or a conversation or a square dance. We need places to gather that are easily accessible and low barrier in terms of expense.”

Kamal Kariem in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

Kamal Kariem, assistant professor of anthropology who joined the faculty at �ֲ���ý this year, was . Kariem, a graduate of Connecticut College, earned his masters and PhD at Princeton University in anthropology. Kariem is noted as a scholar of global Indigeneities and “comparative imperial formations as these intersect with nature protection.” Kariem is currently teaching “Cultural Anthropology” and “Indigeneity Today.” He shared that he looks forward to working with students to consider their own engagement with Indigenous scholars, considering “convergences and divergences” that emerged in his own work studying Indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Russia.

Muncie’s Star Press features alum’s appointment at Ball State

Bette Smith ’87 was of Muncie, Ind. for her new appointment at Ball State University. Smith was named director of Ball State University’s Center for Innovation and Collaboration. Originally from New York, Smith was a Russian major at �ֲ���ý before earning a masters in sociology at University of Colorado, Denver. Smith has spent more than two decades working in higher education, and will use her experience to focus on organizational change and partnership development. In her new role, Smith will help shape the center’s initial organizational structure and expand Ball State University’s partnerships with the community and local industry. Smith has served as principal of Destra Consulting Group since 2013, supporting clients on transformation initiatives, stakeholder engagement, and leadership alignment.

In “Economic Sociology,” Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina presents students with a social and philosophical question. 

“I ask, ‘How many of you like a lot of inequality?’ Usually none of them raises their hands. But then I say, ‘How many of you would want perfect equality?’” He shakes his head. “Nobody raises their hand. They’ve never thought of that.” 

Duina brings questions like these to his classes, never revealing much about his beliefs because his focus is on helping students examine their own tendencies. 

“So, where are you and why? Why do you accept some degree of inequality?” he asks.

Students are thus encouraged to understand or at least see their own ways of justifying the world around them, including inequalities. His most recent book has a similar aim. 

The Social Acceptance of Inequality: On the Logics of a More Unequal World (Oxford 2025), a collection that Duina co-edited with Luca Storti, an associate professor of economic sociology at the University of Turin, Italy, dives in deep on why people across the world accept economic inequalities (understood to be those related to income and wealth). The question is all the more salient because over the past several decades economic inequalities have in most cases grown a great deal. In other words, the real issue is actually not why small inequalities are accepted, but why massive amounts of inequalities are in fact accepted, and even approved of, by significant amounts of people. 

Using four logics of acceptance as a framework for the vastly different contexts across the globe from which their 19 contributors write, the book makes visible to readers the assumptions, biases, and worldviews that people bring to their thinking about inequality. 

This interview with Duina has been lightly edited for clarity and space. 

Meredith McCarroll: You write, in the introduction, that while there is a range of feelings about increased economic inequalities, the aim of the book is to focus on “the logics by which these inequalities are accepted.” How did you and your co-editor come to determine the need for this volume? 

Francesco Duina: Inequalities have gone up in most cases, and so we chose this because there’s so much written about how bad these things are and why they’re bad and what we can do about it. And there isn’t a whole lot written about why people accept them when they do. We were very eager to understand that acceptance — it is, after all, a major factor that sustains those inequalities and something that we may want to grasp if we in fact want to do something about those inequalities.  

MM: So why an edited collection? 

FD: Because matters are so complicated. If you’re really interested in the question of why economic inequalities are accepted across the world by a wide variety of people, you need extensive knowledge and expertise. No single person can have that. Who am I to write about Southeast Asia and Latin America and Scandinavia and the United States and China? We figured that if we collect various perspectives and voices, and we get a much bigger umbrella and better coverage, then we can really figure things out a little bit.

Of course, we recognize that there are works in different disciplines, such as economics or psychology, that point to single logics of acceptance. Our goal was to identify and contrast and compare all the major logics, and to see what we can conclude by doing so.  

MM: You outline in the introduction four logics of acceptance: market/economic, moral, group, and cultural. Can you briefly describe those four logics? 

FD: Sure. In a shorter piece that we are publishing about the book, by the way, we are actually calling them “justifications” for the inequalities. The term might be a little easier to grasp than ‘“logics” of acceptance. 

So, when it comes to market/economic logics, people accept inequalities because they believe that they are byproducts of a well-functioning economic system. Trying to eliminate inequalities would mean that wealth production overall would be reduced, investments would go to the wrong places, innovation would be discouraged, and philanthropy would suffer. Importantly, these sorts of logics do not see inequalities as desirable but as inevitable outcomes to be tolerated given what else is being promoted.

Next, we have moral logics, which are based on notions of fairness and justice. In this case, inequalities are seen as actually something that is desirable. There is something good in them. For instance, if you worked hard you deserve to have more. And of course they take different articulations, including inheritance, where one might say, “Well, it’s my grandfather’s.” If asked, what does it have to do with you, we hear, “Well, in the end, it is fair that it comes to me rather than to somebody else because I am of that lineage.” 

Group logics offer a third ground for acceptance. These are the hardest to see in practice … at least in their purest form. They are predicated on the idea that a group is, by virtue of who they are and not necessarily what they have done, entitled to more. The clearest example I can think of is the caste system in India. It’s preordained religiously. So the upper caste should have more — it doesn’t matter if they sit around and just do nothing — by virtue of who they are. You see articulations of this in Scandinavia. The Danes believe they are more entitled to the welfare system than immigrants. For instance, they resist giving those immigrants many years of unemployment benefits. Why? Well, some would say that it’s “because we’re Danes. They’re not.” Of course here many would quickly add that they have worked hard to contribute to that system — and in this regard their logic is also moral. 

Racial distinctions are also at work in group logics. Gender distinctions, age distinctions, and even class distinctions fit into this mindset. 

The fourth set of logics is cultural. In the case of the United States, for instance, the American Dream is a pervasive set of ideas that most people know about. Most of us grew up with it, and assume it is a fair description of what life in this society is like. You’re going to go from poor to rich if you do the right things. It is easy to see how someone who is born and raised in this cultural milieu might be quite likely to tolerate inequalities. Inequalities “make sense’” given what Americans know about their society and world. 

MM: What is new about your volume? What contributions do you see it making to the field or beyond?

FD: Multiple perspectives and an appreciation for the fact that income and wealth inequalities manifest themselves in different settings. And that the same inequality means different things in different places, comes from different places, is or is not problematic in different ways, and is sustained in similar or different ways. Sometimes we find the same logics at work across the world. Others can be more very peculiar to a place. The collection offers an ability to see how the logics themselves compare to, and differ from, each other.

MM: What role do you hope the book might play in terms of solutions to this problem of growing inequality? 

FD: There is already so much written on solutions. We knew that if we wanted to stay consistent with the message of the book, we needed to focus on the logics. We are therefore asking whether there are things in the logics themselves that someone interested in reducing inequalities could tackle. Are there unfounded biases in the logics? Are there faulty assumptions? If the logics themselves inherently have contradictions and or faulty elements, highlighting those things could dissuade some people at least from embracing them  

MM: Are there ways that this approach shows up in your teaching? Is part of your work making the invisible visible? Just allowing students to see that this is part of what’s shaping their core understanding of inequality or fairness? 

FD: Yes. I think my role is to shed light on things. Then students can draw their own conclusions, but the light helps to dissipate the cloudiness and the fog. That’s my goal.

This month’s selection of media coverage highlighting the insight, expertise and achievements of �ֲ���ý professors has a little bit of everything, from the presidential election to personal economics, news about a top literary award, and even, a major fish tale.

For a creative writing professor who is also a novelist, there’s nothing like being in the running for a major book award to spread the word about your novel in a wide variety of publications. That’s what happened to Lecturer in English Jessica Anthony ’96 this week when her novel The Most was longlisted for the National Book Award.

Meanwhile, economics professor Paul Shea weighed in on American personal savings rates for Marketplace and the newest issue of The Atlantic includes a deep dive by Tyler Austin Harper, assistant professor of environmental studies, into the secret world of extreme fishing. Wetsuit required. Read below to learn more and get links to coverage of other faculty members in the news.

Jessica Anthony ’96

National Book Foundation announces the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction — People

The fourth novel by Lecturer in English Jessica Anthony ’96, The Most, made the National Book Foundation’s longlist of 10 books for its 2024 Fiction prize. The news was featured in numerous outlets, including , and , along with .

Here’s what the had to say about Anthony’s book:

“This year’s Fiction Longlist features two titles that interrogate the role of gender in marriage, in sex, and in artmaking. On an unusually warm Sunday in November, housewife, mother, and former tennis champion Kathleen Beckett puts on her old, red bathing suit, enters her apartment complex’s semi-abandoned pool, and refuses to come out. Set over the course of eight hours, Jessica Anthony’s The Most paints an intimate portrait of marriage in the late 1950s — and the secrets, expectations, and lost loves that tells the story of one seemingly unremarkable couple and a larger cultural moment.”

The finalists will be announced Oct. 1.

For more on Anthony’s much-lauded novel, and her insights into her craft, see earlier coverage from �ֲ���ý News.

Paul Shea

Americans are spending a lot and not saving much. Economists aren’t too worried. Yet — Marketplace

Marketplace tapped into Dowling Family Professor of Economics Paul Shea’s expertise for a story about news from the Bureau of Economic Analysis . The savings rate in July was only 2.9 percent, while at the same time consumer spending increased.

“The spending part is a sign of a strong economy,” Marketplace‘s story read. “But the data shows we’re continuing to buy stuff while not putting money away. You can see the problem here.”

Paraphrasing Shea’s reassurances, Marketplace reporter Caleigh Wells wrote “it’s not that saving rates are frighteningly low, it’s just that they’re coming down from when they were��really high early in the pandemic, when people had money to spend and nothing to spend it on. Now things are different.”

Then she quoted Shea directly: “The average household is, in a way, normalizing. They’re starting to move towards more normal levels of debt.”

Francesco Duina

Who cares about inequality, and what should we do if we want less of it? —Researching Sociology

Writing for the blog Researching Sociology, Dana Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina and colleague Cary Wu . 

Historically in America, across party lines, the richer one was, the less worried they were about income inequality. “In 1987, for instance, poorer Democrats and Republicans [both] perceived income differentials to be too big,” the scholars write.

But now, party affiliation plays a huge role in how people view income inequality. Across all income levels, “those who identify as Democrats care a great deal about income inequality while those who identify themselves as Republicans…care a lot less.” But “concern [about income inequality] among poorer Republicans has actually dropped over time.”

For the blog post, the scholars drew from their recent article, , “Political Polarization and the Dynamics Between Actual Income and Perceived Income Inequality in the United States, 1987 to 2021.”

John Baughman

Maine political scholars see no precedent for divisive, unpredictable presidential race — Portland Press Herald

Published prior to President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, , associate professor of politics, and other Maine politics scholars about the fraught race.

Baughman spoke to comparisons to the 1968 election, when incumbent Lyndon Johnson declined to seek a second term. While comparisons to the 1968 election are valid, today’s political climate is driven more by negative partisanship than in the past, Baughman said.

“I don’t want to overplay how fraught politics are today in light of what was happening then with Vietnam and civil rights, but I think there is one thing different now that is important to consider, and that’s the role of negative partisanship in driving behavior of voters.”

Tyler Austin Harper

Inside the dangerous, secretive world of extreme fishing — The Atlantic

Tyler Austin Harper, an assistant professor of environmental studies who is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, writes about his penchant for . Eighty nights a year no less.

This despite some expert guidance he got when first getting into the sport of “wetsuiting” a few years ago: “The advice I received from another fisherman was simply: �ٴDz�’t.”

Wetsuiting is a form of saltwater fishing that involves wearing a wetsuit and wading or swimming out to offshore rocks — almost exclusively at night, often during storms — to access deeper water or faster currents than can be reached in traditional waders.

For Harper, the quarry is striped bass, a popular gamefish that migrates every spring, mostly from the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, to as far north as Maine, and back down again in the fall.

White Dudes for Harris’ was a missed opportunity — The Atlantic

Harper, who also has an interest in politics, wrote in another piece, in July, that , a group of voters supporting the Kamala Harris presidential campaign. Democrats have “peddled condescending, divisive, and often bizarre rhetoric in the name of ‘anti-racism.’”

“So imagine my shock when I found myself, slowly but surely, charmed by the White Dudes for Harris call.” 

Still, he writes, the “White Dudes” name “risks solidifying the public’s impression that the Democratic Party is for overeducated elites with laptop jobs and performative progressive politics. That is a shortsighted move “when the GOP is on its way to achieving a multiracial working-class coalition, cobbled together with increasing shares of Black and Hispanic voters driven by male defections from the Democratic coalition.”

Harper’s other recent writing for The Atlantic includes:

• ““
• ““
• ““

Paul Schofield

‘These people are looking back at us’ — Seattle Met

Paul Schofield, an associate professor of philosophy whose research focuses on moral and political philosophy, writes frequently on the issue of homelessness. Last month Schofield was quoted in a Seattle Met story about a retired history professor, J.M. Simpson, in Washington state. 

The writer of the article had learned about Simpson’s work via in April, lauding the photographer and sharing some of his photographs. The thread has over 24,000 likes and three million views. In the story, the writer quotes extensively from Schofield’s response to Simpson’s work:

“It’s easy to imagine them having friends and having dreams and having things that they care about just as a result of sitting there with the photo for a few minutes,” noted Schofield, whose writing on homelessness had caught Simpson’s attention.

“It’s got to be something about him that brings this out,” Schofield concluded.

Anthony Fauci

Fauci recalls his visit to Maine 27 years ago — WMTW-TV

A Maine affiliate of ABC, television station WMTW covered a �ֲ���ý News story that recalled how, in 1993, Dr. Anthony Fauci received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from �ֲ���ý. Fauci, whose guidance through the coronavirus pandemic has caught national attention, received the �ֲ���ý honor for his work fighting a different virus: HIV.

Then as now, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was trying to use scientific principles to stop a virus that was devastating communities — the work was like being in a “pressure cooker,” he said in a �ֲ���ý News interview. 

The �ֲ���ý visit, in contrast, was “food for the soul,” Fauci said. Talking “with really smart and curious students reminded me of the great privilege of having a liberal arts education.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” WMTW-TV, May 7, 2020 

Francesco Duina

Free market ideology won’t help us during the COVID-19 crisis. Here’s what would — Los Angeles Times

In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina argued that government action, not the free market or private industry, is providing the strongest leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Duina pointed to the fact that large industries like airlines and small businesses alike are benefiting from emergency loans and tax cuts, while federal and state governments are coordinating public health responses. He said governments should partner with the private sector to respond to crises, and government offices themselves — like those handling unemployment claims — should expand their capacities. 

“We must all assume, even in good times, the fragility of markets,” Duina wrote. “This means that we must invest, ahead of time, in government structures, programs, and funding for challenges that will inevitably arise. And we must commit to them for the long term.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2020

Myron Beasley and Imti Hassan ’23

PMA Magazine, Portland Museum of Art 

PMA Magazine, a publication of the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, asked Mainers to write about pieces in the museum’s collection that resonated with them. �ֲ���ý was prominent as the respondents included Associate Professor of American Studies Myron Beasley and Imti Hassan ’23 of Portland. 

Beasley introduced Daniel Minter’s Malaga, a series of works that explore the story of a Maine island that was home to an interracial community before the state evicted its residents in 1912. 

Beasley has himself looked hard at the Malaga story: In 2018, he created “re:past,” a packed with history and symbolism. 

“Malaga is not unique in that it is a story of injustice, racism, and forced dislocation peculiar to African Americans,” Beasley wrote. “The particularities of the Malaga story, however, reveal a distinctive horror which Minter acknowledges and addresses.” 

Hassan wrote about “Mount Katahdin from Millinocket Camp,” an 1895 oil painting by Frederic Edwin Church that shows Maine’s highest peak in the brilliance of sunrise. Hassan worked at the museum as a Homer Fellow, a summer program for Maine high school students. 

“Church’s art is a reminder that nature and humans are constantly evolving,” Hassan wrote. “This work of art reminds me to live life to the fullest and remember that time is always going forward.”

Read the reflections: 

• “,” PMA Magazine
• “,” PMA Magazine

Allison Beaulieu ’13

Teamwork comes full circle for doctor from Swampscott — The Daily Item 

Steve Krause of the Lynn, Mass., Daily Item profiled Allison Beaulieu ’13, a local basketball champion who went on to become an award-winning emergency physician on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. 

After graduating from �ֲ���ý and then New York Medical College, Beaulieu became an emergency room resident at the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. This year, she won the Massachusetts American College of Emergency Physicians Resident of the Year award.

What’s hard during the COVID-19 crisis, Beaulieu said, is that her patients “are all alone. There’s no family allowed back in to see them. So what you have is family members on the other end of the telephone, and that’s how you communicate. It’s not being able to have personal interactions.”

Read the story: 

• “,” The Daily Item, May 6, 2020 

Erica Long ’12

Cony High School graduate, now chaplain at Boston hospital, offers comfort, hope to coronavirus, COVID-19 patients, families — News Center Maine��

Erica Long ’12, a Maine native now working as a chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told the Portland affiliate of NBC how her work — offering comfort and love to patients, staff, and families — has changed and intensified during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Long, a �ֲ���ý English major who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, has had to learn to minister to the hospital community, often at a distance, during a time of intense fear and suffering. She’s guided coronavirus patients and their families over the phone and developed new rituals of offering “Zen Dens” to staff and celebrating patients who come off ventilators. 

“My training has prepared me to draw on my faith, my beliefs, especially my belief in the transformative power of love,” Long told reporter Beth Brogan. “Then I get to see that love, both in how families care for patients, how nurses and doctors and the entire team care for our patients, and in the way that patients learn to care for themselves and love themselves.”

Jack Sapoch ’18

Croatian police accused of spray-painting heads of asylum seekers — The Guardian 

Jack Sapoch ’18, who works with an organization that distributes non-food items like clothes to migrants and monitors violence at the border between Bosnia and Croatia, spoke with The Guardian about an uptick in mistreatment by Croatian police.  

Croatia is in the European Union while Bosnia is not, so many migrants try to seek asylum in Croatia, only to be (illegally) returned to Bosnia. Lately, Sapoch’s organization has reported that Croatian police are spray-painting migrants’ heads as well as robbing and otherwise trying to humiliate them.

“Hearing reports of increased brutality during pushbacks is worrying due to the increased autonomy that state authorities have gained during these times of the [coronavirus] pandemic,” said Sapoch, who studied abroad in Bosnia and Serbia as a �ֲ���ý student and returned to Bosnia after graduation to work on human rights issues. 

“Now, more than ever, it is important for us to keep these forces accountable for their own actions.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” The Guardian, May 12, 2020 

See also:

• “,” Newsweek, May 13, 2020

Tad Baker ’80

On This Day in Maine’s History — Maine Public 

Maine Public’s May 18  On This Day in Maine’s History segment featured Emerson “Tad” Baker, an archaeologist and historian at Salem State University who is known for his work on Colonial witchcraft and excavation of historic sites in New England. May 18 is his birthday. 

“A recognized specialist in the history of 17th-century Maine, Baker has been featured as an expert consultant on the PBS miniseries Colonial House,” presenter Gale Parmelee said.��

Listen to the segment: 

• “,” Maine Public, May 18, 2020 

Peter Steenstra 

Into the Wild — Rowing News 

Jen Whiting of Rowing News profiled Peter Steenstra, who in his 12 years as head rowing coach has led �ֲ���ý to the top of its division, with four NCAA championships in the past five years and 13 All-American rowers. 

Steenstra credited his success to his rowers and staff, as well as his ability to create an atmosphere in which the rowers can develop a successful culture. “It’s moving. It’s organic. And it changes every year.” 

He said, “What I’ve learned is that you have to give them as much as you can, so you can then stand aside, in the shadows. You have to give them the ownership so they can go as far as possible. From that ownership, they get control. The athletes themselves are in control of the program.”

Read the story: 

• “,” Rowing News, May 6, 2020 

Clark Whelton ’59

Say Your Prayers and Take Your Chances — City Journal

Clark Whelton ’59 compared his recollections of the 1957–58 global influenza pandemic — which he experienced at �ֲ���ý firsthand — to what’s transpiring now. 

“Today, I look back and wonder if an oblivious America faced the 1957 plague with a kind of clueless folly,” writes Whelton, a former speechwriter for New York City mayors Edward Koch and Rudolph Giuliani.

“Why weren’t we more active in fighting this contagion? Could stricter quarantine procedures have reduced the rate of infection and lowered the death toll? In short, why weren’t we more afraid?”

Read the story:

• “” City Journal, March 13, 2020

Jenna Armstrong ’15

Duke medical student Jenna Armstrong named Gates-Cambridge scholar — Duke Today 

Duke University announced that Jenna Armstrong, �ֲ���ý ’15, won a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship, a prestigious award that funds the full cost of a degree at Cambridge University. 

Starting in October 2020, Armstrong will earn a doctorate in physiology, development, and neuroscience. She plans to study “human metabolic resilience in older individuals through the lens of mitochondrial function and malleability,” according to Duke — in other words, she’ll study aging, and how to ease its effects, at the cellular level. 

Armstrong majored in biological chemistry and mathematics at �ֲ���ý and was a rower all four years. 

Read the story:

• “,” Duke Today, Feb. 17, 2020

Mike Nelson ’06

Nelson eager to be another kid’s lighthouse — The Wanderer 

Southeastern Massachusetts’ The Wanderer reported that Mike Nelson ’06 was appointed superintendent of the Old Rochester Regional School District. When he takes the job on June 30, he will be the youngest superintendent in the state. 

Nelson, who studied politics at �ֲ���ý, always knew he wanted to work in public education, he told reporter Mick Colageo. He has served as director of student services and assistant superintendent in the same school district. 

“I really thought about ‘Why am I applying for this position?’” said Nelson, who is currently developing remote learning opportunities for the students who are staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his interview for the post, “I shared comments about the analogy that educators can be lighthouses for children.

“I thought about how fortunate I was not only to have one lighthouse but many different lighthouses who were educators throughout my life. And I said, ‘That’s the reason why I believe I ended up interviewing for this position,’ because in some ways it helps me come full circle in terms of what people gave to me.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” The Wanderer, March 12, 2020

Katie Dobkowski 

Parasitic sushi worms have quietly been on the rise, study says — New York Post 

Hannah Frishberg of The New York Post covered a new study, co-authored by Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Katie Dobkowski, which found that the number of parasitic worms humans can ingest by eating raw or undercooked seafood is on the rise. 

Dobkowski worked on the paper, which studied the prevalence of Anisakis, or “herring worm,” as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Washington. 

While herring worms — which also infect other species — pose more of a danger for marine mammals, the parasites can cause symptoms of food poisoning for humans who eat contaminated sushi. 

People up and down the supply chain do their best to remove the worms before they make it to a diner’s plate, but the researchers recommend that, to be extra sure their roll doesn’t contain a little something extra, sushi lovers should inspect every bite for worms before chowing down. 

Read the story: 

• “,” New York Post, March 20, 2020

Rakey Drammeh ’14

‘Squash gave me the tools to pick and choose my way to exist in the world at large,’ says StreetSquash graduate Rakey — Squash Mad

Squash news site Squash Mad editor Alan Thatcher covered a dinner celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Squash and Education Alliance, a network that combines squash, academics, and college preparation for underresourced communities. 

During the event, Rakey Drammeh ’14 gave a “show-stopping speech” about her experience with the affiliated program StreetSquash. An environmental studies major, she was captain of the women’s squash team at �ֲ���ý and is now a software developer at Citibank. 

“SEA introduced me to a world that I never imagined knowing or being part of,” Drammeh said in her speech. “But more than that, it gave me the tools to pick and choose my way to exist in that world at large.”

Read the story: 

• “�Ę,” Squash Mad, Jan. 26, 2020

�ֲ���ý College

�ֲ���ý College breaks record for Fulbright award winners — Sun Journal 

The Lewiston Sun Journal shared the college’s February announcement of a historic year for the college’s Fulbright Student Award program.

With 24 young alumni receiving Fulbright-sponsored awards for teaching and research worldwide in 2019–20, �ֲ���ý is the No. 1 producer of Fulbright Student awards among U.S. liberal arts colleges. The college’s two dozen awards are the most ever going to a U.S. liberal arts college.

(Subsequent to this article, in March, the U.S. State Department due to the COVID-19 public health crisis.)

Read the story: 

• “,” Sun Journal, Feb. 10, 2020

Clifton Daggett Gray 

Insight: When Clarence Darrow came to Maine — Portland Press Herald 

For the Portland Press Herald, U.S. District Court Senior Judge D. Brock Hornby wrote about a curious episode for �ֲ���ý, Maine, and legal history: the time �ֲ���ý President Clifton Daggett Gray, after boasting that college debaters could best legendary attorney and orator Clarence Darrow, had to put his money where his mouth was. 

In 1927, Darrow, known as the fierce defense lawyer who litigated the “Scopes monkey trial,” came to Maine to debate Gray on the question, “What and why is man?” The debate would be a friendly clash of worldviews: Gray, who held a doctorate from the University of Chicago, was an ordained Baptist minister; Darrow was thoroughly agnostic. 

The two debated first in Boston and again two days later in Portland. Of the Boston contest, The New York Times wrote, “If the scholarly shield of Dr. Gray shone with a higher polish, the ironic lance of Mr. Darrow smote with a sharper point.”

And the Press Herald, on the debate in Portland: “The contest of wit and logic rested at the conclusion without decision.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” Portland Press Herald, Feb. 9, 2020

William Worthy ’42

William Worthy — a radical, intrepid journalist and activist — Amsterdam News 

Herb Boyd of Amsterdam News profiled William Worthy ’42, a journalist and activist whose dedication to his work led him to flout U.S. travel restrictions during the Cold War. 

Defying a U.S. ban on travel to China, Worthy made a reporting trip there in the late 1950s, after which the State Department declined to renew his passport. He later traveled to Cuba without a passport, was convicted for returning to the United States without one, and had the conviction overturned. His trip to Cuba was the subject of “The Ballad of William Worthy” by folksinger Phil Ochs. 

Boyd praised Worthy’s courage and ability to stand up against injustice no matter who perpetuated it, whether on the political right or left. “Worthy not only courageously lifted his voice for the oppressed, he did it no matter where he ventured — China, Cuba, Russia, or the four corners of the world,” he wrote. 

Read the story: 

• “,” Amsterdam News, Feb. 6, 2020

Francesco Duina 

Flyover 2020: What does patriotism mean? — MPR 

Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina joined Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild and Kerri Miller of Minnesota Public Radio for a discussion about what patriotism means and how it will affect voters’ decisions in the next presidential election. 

Duina’s 2017 book, Broke and Patriotic, explores why the poorest Americans are the most patriotic. The radio discussion turned to a meaty question: whether patriotism requires an uncritical, love-it-or-leave-it attitude, or if a self-defined patriot can still be critical of U.S. policies.

Duina said many Americans’ ideas of patriotism combine contribution to the nation, whether through military or another type of service, with a sense of hope for the future.

“Those are essential elements of American patriotism,” he said during the discussion, an entry in Miller’s call-in “Flyover” program. But “some people feel that the ability to live up to the notion of giving back with hope is vanishing because of a confluence of various long-term racial trends, economic trends, political trends.” 

“Some people feel that you can be patriotic — but you’re up against insurmountable challenges.” 

Listen to the interview:

• “” MPR, Feb. 5, 2020��

Nathan Tefft 

New study suggests raising taxes on e-cigarettes could encourage traditional smoking — Forbes 

Kelly Phillips Erb of Forbes reported on a new study, co-authored by Associate Professor of Economics Nathan Tefft and funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, that found raising taxes on e-cigarettes can lead to a corresponding rise in consumption of traditional tobacco products. 

That’s a problem — when it comes to so-called sin taxes, which prices are raised in a bid to discourage bad behavior, you don’t want people to swap one behavior for another. 

“Because smoking is known to have substantial negative health impacts,” Tefft said in an interview with �ֲ���ýNews, “policymakers should be aware of this potential tradeoff when contemplating e-cigarette control policies.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” Forbes, Feb. 10, 2020

Cameron Hamilton ’12

Lessons from ‘Love Is Blind’ for socially distanced daters — NPR

Cameron Hamilton ’12 and wife Lauren Speed — who met on the breakout Netflix hit Love is Blind — spoke with NPR’s Michel Martin about their unique perspective on social distancing. 

The premise of Love is Blind is that contestants date without ever seeing each other’s faces, at least until they become engaged. Fan favorites Hamilton and Speed have been married for more than a year. 

The pair spoke with Martin about their own relationship and how to date at a distance — but some of Hamilton’s advice can apply to relationships more broadly, romantic or not. 

“I think the power of communication is key here and truly listening to what the other person has to say,” he said. “I mean, it’s easy to hear them, but to really focus in and take a beat and try to process what they’re saying and respond to that.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” NPR, March 22, 2020

See also: 

• “,” Bangor Daily News, Feb. 26, 2020

Jessica Anthony ’96

Political satire Enter the Aardvark is wonderfully weird — Time 

For Time, Annabel Gutterman reviewed Enter the Aardvark, a new novel by Jessica Anthony ’96, a lecturer in English at �ֲ���ý.

The novel starts with Alexander Paine Wilson, a young Republican politician, receiving a taxidermied aardvark on his doorstep. The story follows the politician as well as two friends in 19th-century England, all of whom have to hide the fact that they are gay.  

“T��dzܲ��� Enter the Aardvark is certainly satire, Anthony’s depiction of Wilson’s repressed sexuality cuts beneath the surface,” Gutterman wrote. 

“Her dissection of Wilson’s political beliefs, particularly his anti-abortion stance, isn’t just sharp commentary on polarization, identity, and power in the U.S. It’s also a poignant examination of what happens when we deny ourselves the ability to love and be loved.” 

Read the review: 

• “,” Time, March 18, 2020

Amy Bradfield Douglass

Questions loom over the future of police lineups — Phys.org 

Australia’s Flinders University announced that a review of studies on eyewitness identification in criminal cases resulted in revised and new recommendations for setting up identifications, in the hope of avoiding false or faulty evidence. 

Professor of Psychology Amy Bradfield Douglass was part of the team that modified four existing recommendations and created five more, including recording lineups on video and having police put in writing the reasons behind suspecting someone of a crime. 

The review led one of the co-authors, Flinders’ Neil Brewer, to write a paper advocating for getting rid of traditional lineups altogether. 

Read the story:

• “,” Phys.org, Feb. 25, 2020

Emily Kane

How to raise feminist boys — The Week

For The Week, Claire Gillespie wrote about her own, often-difficult, efforts to raise her two boys to accept and promote gender equality. 

Gillespie wrote that she makes a wide variety of toys, colors, and opportunities available to her children; with her husband, tries to model equality — and worries that sexism and gender roles are so entrenched in the world around her that harmful patterns will prevail anyway. 

Professor of Sociology Emily Kane had some words of wisdom for Gillespie. “When parents enforce gendered expectations, it is often out of fear their children (especially their sons) will be teased, ostracized, or otherwise excluded if they don’t fall into line with those expectations,” she said. 

“We can all help by avoiding judgment, and those small, everyday assumptions about what a kid will enjoy or be good at based on their gender.”

Read the story:

• “,” The Week, Feb. 27, 2020

Mary Wheelwright Mitchell, Class of 1869

The ‘unconquerable’ Mary Wheelwright Mitchell — Sun Journal 

Steve Collins of the Sun Journal profiled Mary Wheelwright Mitchell, �ֲ���ý’ first female graduate, whose refusal to leave the college helped keep it true to its founding commitment to coeducation. 

�ֲ���ý was the first Northeastern college to admit women, and for that reason surrounding colleges looked down on it. This kind of pressure and others caused the first female �ֲ���ý students to withdraw without degrees. Mitchell was the first to stay the course. 

�ֲ���ý founder and president Oren Cheney secured Mitchell a scholarship from the state of Maine to help her through her studies. Reflecting both her independent spirit and, perhaps, how dramatically a college education’s price point has changed in the ensuing 150 years, Mitchell famously refused to take the help. 

“I cannot take that, Mr. Cheney,” Mitchell said. “Give it to the brethren. I can take care of myself.”

Read the story: 

• “,” Sun Journal, March 1, 2020

Matt Charest ’20

After thousands of miles in the same pool, this Maine swimmer is moving on — 207, WCSH-TV

News Center Maine’s show 207 featured the uplifting story of Matt Charest ’20 of Lewiston, Maine, whose entire swimming career has been based in �ֲ���ý’ Tarbell pool. 

Head swim coach Peter Casares started giving Charest private lessons when Charest was 8 years old, and when he was old enough, he started attending swim camps at Tarbell. When it came time to go to college, it was only natural for Charest to keep swimming, and to swim for �ֲ���ý. 

“While no one keeps track of such things, it’s possible that in his 13 years of swimming in Lewiston he has spent more time in the college pool than any other human being,” reporter Rob Caldwell pointed out. 

“It’s definitely a home,” Charest told the news program. “I feel at home when I’m in the water.”

Read the story: 

• “,” 207, March 5, 2020

Rebecca Herzig 

Why women feel pressured to shave — CNN 

Rebecca Herzig, professor of gender and sexuality studies, talked to CNN style reporter Marianna Cerini for an in-depth piece about how hairlessness in women came to be a beauty ideal in the United States, and how society’s views of body hair vary by time period and geography. 

Herzig said that an early example of the United States’ current ideal of hairlessness is none other than Charles Darwin’s Descent of Man, which associates body hair with primitivity and regards hairlessness as “more evolved.” 

Now, American culture considers body hair, at least for women, “abject,” or worthy of disgust and shame. “It’s worth noting that those are ideas about cleanliness, contingent social norms, rather than about actually removing ‘dirt,’�ĝ Herzig told CNN. “Most hair removal practices tend to introduce new opportunities for abrasion and infection.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” CNN, March 3, 2020

Krista Aronson

�ֲ���ý College program encourages diverse picture books for children — Sun Journal

Steve Collins of the Lewiston Sun Journal spoke with Professor of Psychology Krista Aronson, the creator of the Diverse BookFinder.

Now in its third year, DBF’s online database and physical picture-book collection makes diverse children’s books more accessible, Aronson told Collins. Since its launch, the physical collection has grown, and the DBF has helped dozens of libraries analyze diversity in their own collections.

Associate Professor of Psychology Krista Aronson reads in Ladd Library with her daughter Hope in 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Aronson also spoke with Meghan Mangrum of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, who wrote about teachers in the Tennessee city who are trying to diversify their own book collections.

“We live right now in segregated societies, and we think of school or work as places where we come in contact with people who are different from ourselves,” Aronson said. “That’s going to be increasingly common, and we need to prepare our children to be successful in those environments.”

Read the stories:��

• “,” Sun Journal, Dec. 12, 2019��
• “,” Chatanooga Times Free Press, Nov. 23, 2019��

Matt Tavares ’97

Children’s book about Santa’s reindeer lands �ֲ���ý grad on bestseller list — Multiple outlets

Portland Press Herald reporter Ray Routhier interviewed Matt Tavares ’97, a noted children’s book author and illustrator whose latest picture book, Dasher, made The New York Times bestseller list, as well as numerous online lists of holiday-themed children’s books.

Dasher, Matt Tavares’ latest children’s book, is his first to hit The New York Times bestseller list. (Courtesy of Matt Tavares)

Tavares wrote and illustrated his first picture book for his senior thesis at �ֲ���ý, under Robert Feintuch. Dasher, his 20th book and the first to make the bestseller list, is a kind of origin story for Santa’s reindeer.

Tavares lives with his family in Ogunquit, Maine, where, as he told Routhier, the beautiful Maine winters are inspiring.

“I do a lot of my writing during the winter,” he said. “I find winter in Maine is a good time to clear your mind and really focus on your story.”

Read the stories:��

• “,” Sun Journal, Nov. 28, 2019
• “,” Portland Press Herald, Dec. 15, 2019��
• “,” Today, Nov. 21, 2019��
• “,” The Washington Post, Dec. 2, 2019

Francesco Duina

Why are poor Americans more patriotic than their wealthier counterparts? — The Guardian

Writing for The Guardian, Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina pointed out that the poorest Americans are the ones who love their country the most. One hundred percent of the lowest-income Americans are proud of their country — more than Americans with higher incomes, and certainly more than citizens of other nations love their countries.

Most of the financially disadvantaged people that Francesco Duina interviewed for Broke and Patriotic, he says, “take ownership of their life histories.” They don’t blame the system. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Duina is the author of the book Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country. By interviewing residents of Montana and Alabama, Duina learned that some of those with the lowest incomes saw the United States as a place of dignity, abundance, and freedom.

“As long as they remain deeply patriotic, America’s poor won’t rise up,” Duina wrote. “Indeed, they’ll continue to fill the ranks of the military, strive and sacrifice to help America assert itself in the world, and even feed into and support the slogans and successes of the country’s political leaders.”

Read the story:��

• “” The Guardian, Nov. 20, 2019��

Katherine Frank ’94

New chancellor named for UW–Stout — Wisconsin Public Radio

Rich Kramer of Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Katherine Frank ’94, who will be the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Stout, the state’s polytechnic university. She will take the post in March.

Katherine Frank ’94 is the new chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Stout. (UW-Stout Communications)

Frank studied English at �ֲ���ý and holds a doctorate in English from the University of Washington. She has held a range of administrative positions, most recently as vice president of academic innovation and professor of English at Central Washington University.

Frank told �ֲ���ýNews that Professor of English Steven Dillon and Professor Emerita of English Carole Anne Taylor, who died in 2015, were instrumental during her time at �ֲ���ý. “They are/were remarkable scholars, teachers, and mentors, and I feel very lucky to have worked with them and many others in the English department at �ֲ���ý.”

Read the story:��

• “,” Wisconsin Public Radio, Nov. 26, 2019

Amy Bass ’92

Mike McGraw has been ‘everyone’s father figure, brother, friend and mentor’ — Sun Journal

When Mike McGraw announced his retirement, historian and author Amy Bass ’92 wrote a heartfelt tribute to the longtime Lewiston High School boys soccer coach.

Bass is the author of One Goal: A Coach, a Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together, which chronicles how the soccer team, largely made up of African immigrants and reflecting the changing demographics of Lewiston, won its first state championship in decades in 2015.

Amy Bass ’92 (right) poses with Mike McGraw (center) and Kim Wettlaufer ’80 during a reception at the Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services offices in Lewiston during her visit to the city and �ֲ���ý to promote her book One Goal in March 2018. (H. Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

Bass got to know McGraw, the rest of the coaching staff, and current and former players deeply. Quoting many of those players, she wrote that Lewiston was better for McGraw’s leadership.

“Whether on the soccer pitch, in a classroom, or at a local watering hole, that is who Mike McGraw is — someone who can talk to anyone from the moment he looks at them with his twinkling blue eyes,” Bass wrote.

Read the story:��

• “,’�ĝ Sun Journal, Dec. 3, 2019��

Ben Cline ’94

One year on Capitol Hill, Republican Rep. Ben Cline has been effective even while in the minority — The Roanoke Times

U.S. Rep. Ben Cline ’94 was recently the subject of a lengthy profile in The Roanoke Times. A first-term Republican representing Virginia’s 6th District, he’s aligned himself with the GOP and President Trump, while simultaneously reaching across the aisle, wrote reporter Amy Friedenberger.

U.S. Rep. Ben Cline ’94. left, poses with Rep. Jared Golden ’11 during a summer 2019 �ֲ���ý Magazine��photo shoot in Washington, D.C. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Cline succeeded longtime Rep. Bob Goodlatte ’74, who retired in 2019.��Now a member of the Judiciary Committee, Cline is part of important decision-making around issues like gun control and immigration — all overshadowed, of course, by the fall’s impeachment hearings.

On Dec. 13, Cline voted “no” on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, though the Judiciary Committee as a whole voted to send the articles to the full House for a vote.

Still, in one of the most partisan environments imaginable, Cline tries to work with Democrats. “You need to understand where the other person is coming from in their position and recognize that they come at it from a position of morality as well,” Cline told Friedenberger.

Read the story:��

• “,” The Roanoke Times, Nov. 30, 2019��

Rebecca Herzig

When deadly X-rays were used for hair removal — OZY

At the turn of the 20th century, using X-ray treatments to remove body hair came into vogue, wrote Virat Markandeya of the digital magazine OZY. Doctors and scientists didn’t know how dangerous high doses of X-rays were, and deadly cancers later afflicted many women who had undergone the treatments.

Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Rebecca Herzig works with a student in 2016. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

To explain the appeal of X-ray hair removal, Markandeya turned to Rebecca Herzig, a professor of gender and sexuality studies at �ֲ���ý and an expert on the politics of body hair.

Some women turned to X-rays because they “bypassed the inescapable physicality of all other hair-removal technologies” like shaving and waxing, Herzig wrote in a 1999 article in the journal Technology and Culture.

Read the story:��

• “,” OZY, Nov. 26, 2019��

�ֲ���ý Museum of Art

Art exhibits ‘Abound’ on campus — Portland Press Herald

In the space of a week, the Portland Press Herald covered both of the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art’s current exhibitions, placing them at the forefront of a strong showing of art at Maine colleges.

�ֲ���ý Museum of Art attendant Louise Ouillette and Tony Leavitt, a science teacher at Tripp Middle School, take a closer look at Vanessa German’s artwork. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Bob Keyes reviewed Vanessa German’s Miracles and Glory Abound, which explores the stories societies tell themselves and who gets left out of those stories. One piece reimagines Emanuel Leutze’s famous 1851 painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware.”

“German aims to add depth to those stories by fleshing them out and starting a conversation about public memory,” Keyes wrote.

Elsewhere in the museum, Daniel Kany took a look at Stages for Being, an exhibition of photography by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who took surreal photos featuring his family, and props like masks and dolls, in abandoned places.

Additionally, the museum collaborated with the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts on another photography exhibition, Jack Montgomery & Ralph Gibson: Appearances, at the University of Southern Maine.

Read the stories:����

• “,” Portland Press Herald, Dec. 2, 2019
• “,’�ĝ Portland Press Herald, Dec. 8, 2019
• “,” Maine Arts Scene, Nov. 30, 2019��

Commons

�ֲ���ý College offers high-end cuisine to students and public — Sun Journal

Lindsay Tice of the Lewiston Sun Journal grabbed lunch at the �ֲ���ý dining hall, interviewing President Clayton Spencer, Assistant Vice President for Dining, Conferences and Campus Events Christine Schwartz, and several students about what makes a Commons lunch so good.

Commons, as seen from the second floor balcony. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Tice marveled at the cereal wall, the thinly cut French fries, and especially at the beef panang curry on offer, which, she said, made her a “curry fan” for the first time.

“So why does the �ֲ���ý dining hall win so many awards?” she wrote. “Part of it is the sheer amount of choice. Part of it is the focus on sustainability. And part of it is that the food is really that good.”

Read the story:��

• “,” Sun Journal, Nov. 24, 2019��

Jeffrey Lynn ’30

Remember Jeffrey Lynn? — ClassicMovieChat.com

The blog , which shares photos and stories from the Golden Age of Hollywood, posted about Jeffrey Lynn ’30, an actor who made a name for himself in film during the 1940s.

Jeffrey Lynn ’30 (right) sits with Grosvenor Robinson, professor of elocution at �ֲ���ý, in 1941.

Lynn’s notable roles include My Love Came Back, opposite Olivia De Havilland, and A Letter to Three Wives, with Kirk Douglas and Jeanne Crain. He also famously screen-tested for the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. (The part ultimately went to British actor Leslie Howard.)

“The blandly handsome actor was most often cast as a young husband, a young recruit, or an interesting boyfriend,” wrote Joe Morella and Frank Segers.

Lynn also fought in World War II, for which he received a Bronze Star, and later worked as a film and theater producer.

Read the story:��

• “” ClassicMovieChat.com, Nov. 21, 2019��

Netflix options ‘Friday Night Lights’-like soccer story ‘One Goal’ — The Hollywood Reporter

and the reported that Netflix has bought the rights to One Goal by Amy Bass ’92.

The book, whose publication in February gained national attention, tells the story of the Lewiston High School boys soccer team, comprising mostly immigrants from Somalia and other African countries, that won the 2015 Maine state championship.

During a visit to Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services in Lewiston in March, Amy Bass ’92 talks to Shobow Saban, a Lewiston High School graduate and key figure in her book,��One Goal.�� (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

Bass cautioned that a book’s optioning does not necessarily mean it will be produced — but she said the story of the LHS soccer team is an important one to tell.

“It’s very much about Lewiston being a microcosm of bigger things happening right now,” she told the Press Herald. “Communities that come together don’t always stay together. It takes a lot of work.”

Baxter State Park, home of Mount Katahdin, gets new director — Portland Press Herald

The , the , and reported that Eben Sypitkowski ’05 will become the newest director of Baxter State Park, which contains Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak.

An environmental studies major at �ֲ���ý who studied coastal bloodworm digging for his honors thesis, Sypitkowski is currently the park’s resource manager, and he told WABI that he hopes to continue the vision of Gov. Percival P. Baxter, who donated the land for the park in the early 1930s. ��

“This is a place to turn off your cellphone and let your relationship with nature be contemplative and not structured by commercial interests,” he said. “This is a place to step out of our connected world, and reconnect with yourself and nature.”

Large study finds colleges that go test-optional become more diverse and maintain academic quality — Inside Higher Ed

and other news media reported the findings of a major study of optional SAT policies co-authored by Bill Hiss ’66 and Valerie Franks ’98.

One of the study’s major conclusions is that SAT-optional policies can lead to an increase in underrepresented students in both the applicant pool and the first-year class.

The study also finds that, once in college, students who did not submit test scores posted lower grades initially, “but they ended up highly successful, graduating at equivalent rates or — ��at some institutions — ��slightly higher rates than did those who submitted test scores,” according to Inside Higher Ed. “This, the report says, is ‘the ultimate proof of success.’”

As dean of admissions from 1978 to 2000, Bill Hiss ’66 spearheaded the college’s test-optional policy. Since then, he’s tracked the policy’s effect at �ֲ���ý and nationally. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

The study is the second major SAT-outcome study for which Hiss and Franks have been key players.

Hiss, who was �ֲ���ý’ dean of admissions from 1978 to 2000, spearheaded the college’s move to test-optionality in the 1980s. He and Franks have studied the issue extensively as more and more schools — most recently and notably the — drop the requirement to submit SAT or ACT scores.

Working: Building a brand — Sun Journal

The Lewiston caught up with Robert Little ’12, a local filmmaker whose latest projects include shooting for DIY Network’s reality series Maine Cabin Masters.

Little’s company, Sublime House Media, works on “filmmaking that could have a positive impact,” writes Kathryn Skelton. He’s parlayed experience filming in Indonesia and for National Geographic into making videos that help immigrants, and working with kids on filmmaking.

For Maine Cabin Masters, Little is following a crew of builders who fix up cabins in the woods. “Every profession has a wealth of knowledge, and I feel like people forget that about the trades,” Little told Skelton. “Video in a lot of ways is a trade. You’re making a product, and there’s lots of tools involved.”

Researchers to study history and impact of increased rain in the Arctic — The Boston Globe

What happens when, because of climate change, rain replaces snow in the Arctic?

Professor of Geology Mike Retelle and a colleague at UMass Amherst have won a $760,430 grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the phenomenon, reported.

Professor of Geology Mike Retelle poses with Allie Balter ’14 and Greg de Wet ’11 at a field site in Svalbard, Norway, in 2013. (Courtesy of Greg de Wet)

Increased rainfall could have devastating effects on communities like Svalbard, Norway, which could suffer landslides and flash flooding.

According to a , Retelle and Bradley will study lake sediments in Svalbard in order to reconstruct a long climatic history. “This will provide a unique perspective on the nature of recent sedimentary changes and provide insight into the effects of contemporary changes in climate on the hydrological regime of this region,” Retelle said.

At �ֲ���ý College, new focus on ‘Purposeful Work’ — WGBH-FM

Boston public radio station WGBH-FM profiled, a signature �ֲ���ý program that helps students discover work that aligns with their interests and values.

The station talked to Callie Reynolds ’18, who completed a Purposeful Work internship in her Connecticut hometown in 2015; she also completed the “Life Architecture” course that teaches students how to approach the twin life goals of professional and personal fulfillment.

In 2017, Gerald Nelson ’18 interned at Sports Illustrated Kids as part of the Purposeful Work Internship Program. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Purposeful Work, she says, “is all about figuring out what I want to do with my life.” She’s now heading to Stockholm to work for the nonprofit study-abroad foundation DIS.

Reporter Kirk Carapezza also interviewed Peter Bysshe ‘93, who was on campus during Short Term to teach a course on brand culture building, part of the Purposeful Work program that offers practitioner-taught courses on practical and applied areas of study.

“When I work with designers, I love watching them get from a stuck place to an unstuck place,” Bysshe told Carapezza. “We recognize that liberal arts students can do anything. We have them do real things so they can feel what it’s like, so it’s not just rhetoric anymore.”

Why are poor people in America so patriotic? One man went on an odyssey to find out — Salon

Chauncy Devega of Salon talked to Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina, author of Broke and Patriotic, about why the poorest Americans .

Asked why Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Duina said Trump tapped a backlash against ideas such as political correctness.

Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina teaches a course in political sociology. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

For Trump, political correctness amounts to collective demands for unconditional equality. For him, “this is a way of saying that these collective identities — whether it’s blacks, gays, women, etc. — demand things from the government as a matter of right,” Duina said.

Yet to Trump and his supporters, such demands are a “non-American thing,” he added, that go “against the tradition of individualism: You have certain basic rights as an individual, not as a group.

“I think the people who voted for Trump by and large could be characterized as more individualistic-oriented. They lack interest in the government providing things for them and are more interested in the government getting out of their way. His voters and other supporters also feel that the government is corrupt and catering to all sorts of people instead of them.”

Can tech save the humanities? — The Boston Globe

The incorporation of technology into subjects like English and philosophy could breathe new life into the humanities, . Moreover, the increasing prevalence of technology in our society makes the humanities more necessary than ever.

Joshua Macht ’91 talks about entrepreneurship with Shaina Lam ’17 of Portland, Maine, in 2014. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

Humanities and technology can intersect in promising ways, such as creating a game based on Henry Thoreau’s life or, as students in �ֲ���ý’ Digital and Computational Studies program did this year, helping dancers compose music with their bodies.

“If the humanities are ever to enjoy a true resurgence, it will come as a result of a reinvention that embraces a fresh new take on old disciplines,” Macht writes.

Studying art, philosophy, or literature could also guide the development of technology. “We’ll need to develop not just the technical skills to build better tech, but also the moral and ethical reasoning to guide how society deploys them,” he writes.

Art review: Prints with a purpose – and power — Maine Sunday Telegram

In curating an exhibition of prints and posters in Portland, Maine, Myron Beasley debunked the myth that good art is “pure in itself and free from any ideological or utilitarian purpose,” the Maine Sunday Telegram’s Daniel Kany.

Beasley, an associate professor of African American and American cultural studies, curated “Print, Protest, Power,” exhibited at Able Baker Contemporary from May 18 to June 22. The prints and posters in the exhibition, created mainly by black artists during and after the civil rights movement, had clear messages of political action and fighting for justice.

“The works make a compelling case not only that there is much to be done, but that such efforts can and will be successful,” Kany writes. “The art builds on successes of the past as well as current topics of change politics, so when it looks to the future, it does so not desperately, but confidently.”

The quest to make super-cold quantum blobs in space — Wired

reported on Associate Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad’s work with the Cold Atom Laboratory, the first-ever environment that is both cold enough and free enough of gravity to create a Bose-Einstein condensate.

In 2014, Associate Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad works with summer student researcher Ben Lovitz ’15 of Portland, Ore., in Lundblad’s ultra-cold atomic physics lab. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

The Cold Atom Lab was launched to the International Space Station in May. The “blobs” the lab creates “should yield new insights about how atoms organize themselves,” writes Sophia Chen.

Working remotely, Lundblad will study this entirely new state of matter. “Imagine you were in a culture where you’d never seen ice,” Lundblad said. “You find out that when you cool water past 32 degrees Fahrenheit, this amazing form of H2O appears that is crystalline and regular.”

A camp for Jewish connections — The Jewish Week

The Jewish Week named Carine Warsawski ’07 one of its . Warsawski is the founder of Trybal Gatherings, which creates camp-like retreats for young Jewish adults.

Though she traveled to see family frequently growing up, Warsawski told the magazine that she first felt truly connected to Judaism during a camp, and during college and afterwards she worked at camps and for student tour companies. “It became important to lead experiences that helped people connect to their Jewish culture, no matter the geography,” she said.

“Summer camps are one of the Jewish community’s greatest assets,” she added. “Trybal is an opportunity to take my own transformative experiences from camp and offer [that] to others.”

Implicit Bias: Understanding our own beliefs — Maine Public

Weeks after a Starbucks employee called the police on two black men sitting in the store and Starbucks implemented an afternoon of anti-bias training for its employees, Lecturer in Neuroscience Laura Ligouri on implicit bias.

Ligouri, the founder of a nonprofit that applies psychology and neuroscience to human rights issues, said implicit bias is an unconscious process that influences people’s preconceived ideas about others and can lead to prejudice against groups different from one’s own.

Laura Ligouri, teaches “Neuroscience, Ethics, and Society” in May. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Ensuring that implicit biases don’t lead to discrimination takes more work than a few hours of training, Ligouri said — to understand and confront their biases, people must slow down and be willing to have uncomfortable conversations on an ongoing basis. ��

“To create change, it has to be a commitment to a program that becomes a practice,” she said. ����

Diet may influence the spread of a deadly type of breast cancer, study finds — ScienceDaily

Researchers including Charles Perou ’87 have found that blocking an amino acid found in certain foods might stop the spread of a particular type of breast cancer, the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center .

The team discovered that limiting asparagine — found in “dairy, whey, beef, poultry, eggs, fish, seafood, asparagus, potatoes, legumes, nuts, seeds, soy and whole grains,” according to the press release — in mice prevents the spread of triple-negative breast cancer.

The next steps are to test the effects of asparagine in healthy humans and then in cancer patients.

Perou is a leading researcher into variations of breast cancer and precision medicine. In October, the AACI Distinguished Scientist Award for his work in those fields.

The bottom line for impoverished Americans is, of course, that they have less money than their fellow citizens.

Which leads to other things they likely have less of: nutritious food, personal safety, health benefits, vacation time, career opportunities, child care, retirement funds, peace of mind. And the list goes on.

Still, there’s one thing the poorest Americans do possess a lot of: patriotism. It’s a fact: By many measures, the Americans who have the least nevertheless love their country the most, despite ample cause for feeling the opposite.

Paradoxical, no? It struck Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina that way, too. But, as he learned in researching his latest book, it isn’t really a paradox after all.

From his research, Francesco Duina offers three possible reasons why the poorest Americans love their country the most.

New from Stanford University Press, Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country lets economically disadvantaged people explain their devotion to the United States. It’s a collection of views that may move readers to think again about America’s poorest citizens — whose patriotism, as Duina suggests, fueled the White House aspirations of both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

+An excerpt from Broke and Patriotic

Visiting four municipalities in Alabama and Montana, Duina interviewed more than 60 subjects who had poverty in common but were otherwise quite diverse. The book is his third study of American culture, after Winning: Reflections on an American Obsession, from 2011, and 2014’s Life Transitions in America.

Duina notes that while social scientists have studied the patriotism of many groups, this is the first research to look specifically at the patriotism of low-income Americans.

What led you to write Broke and Patriotic?

I could understand why those Americans who were well-off would be patriotic. But I wanted to understand why low-income Americans are so patriotic when there are reasons to think that they would have issues with their country or its underlying social contract, considering their personal circumstances.

As you point out, worse-off folks in places like Sweden and France typically enjoy greater public benefits than America’s poor. And yet poor Americans are more patriotic than their counterparts in other wealthy countries.

What I thought to be a puzzle is, for them, not a puzzle at all. First, they don’t attribute their situation to their country — they don’t say, “I’m in this situation because of the society I live in.” They take ownership of their life histories. And so why would they be resentful toward their country?

Also — and this is one of the most moving things that I discovered — if anything, the idea of the greatness of America actually gives them something to hang onto, despite everything. “Everything else has gone poorly for me. �ٴDz�’t take my being an American away from me, because it’s the one thing that I can still hang onto with pride.”

I would push them by saying, “Well, what about rich people? Do you think it’s unfair that they have what they have?” They’d say, “No, they’ve earned everything they’ve made.”

Francesco Duina leads his political sociology class in Hedge Hall in September. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

You describe three common elements, broadly speaking, within your respondents’ love of country. They feel that America represents an exceptional promise of hope, and also that the U.S. is both wealthy and generous — the land of milk and honey. But what hit home for me was how they explained America’s greatness in terms of American freedoms.

One of the interviewees that really struck me was Marshall, in Montana, who chose to be homeless, in a way. He said, “Look, I am so free. I can be homeless, and they don’t force me to go anywhere. I live on the prairie, I’m working on an app right now, and I’m taking a sabbatical from life. What other country would allow me to just do my thing?”

That is really a trait of American society in many ways: “We’re all equal and therefore this equality guarantees me some sense of freedom. I may have nothing, but I have that freedom. I can come and go, do whatever I want, and say whatever I want. This country guarantees that.” And the fact that they would recognize and hold onto that was really moving. What I heard satisfied my curiosity.

Culturally, the United States is very free — freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of saying and doing whatever you want to do. And they’re accurately describing that. There’s certainly more conformity in many countries, a lot more pressure to do things in certain ways.

Many of Duina’s interviewees felt that that social equality helps to guarantee their freedom. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

A respondent that you call Eddie said the U.S. is “the last best hope of man on earth.” That’s quite a sentiment.

Great guy, very talented. Many of the people I spoke with perceive the country to be a special project designed to give deliverance, to free humanity from problems that have plagued people throughout history. The hope that the U.S. represents for humanity is what gives them hope and dignity as well, and what makes them continue, despite the odds.

Many of them were very optimistic as a result. Something I heard a lot was, “Tomorrow something is going to change. I’m poised for a change.”

And then there’s the American Dream, the U.S. as the land of milk and honey.

Yeah, despite all of the data that suggests that, in fact, there’s less social mobility nowadays in the United States than in many other advanced countries, and your personal financial success is tied to contextual and structural things, not personal qualities — there’s clearly a sense that this is a place of enormous wealth, and that the American Dream is still alive.

I would say, “But you know, you don’t get as much as other people in other countries.” And they would say, “Well, I don’t know what other people get, but I get a lot. I’m not going to go hungry tonight. There will be kitchens and shelters that I can go to and churches that will help me. So the wealth will reach me. And if I have a problem, it’s my problem, not the system’s problem.”

How is this book relevant to our current politics?

Most of the financially disadvantaged people that Francesco Duina interviewed for Broke and Patriotic, he says, “take ownership of their life histories.” They don’t blame the system. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

I think this discourse of American greatness is something that Trump tapped into very, very much. To the extent that one wonders why “Make America great again” resonated so well, you have elements of the answer in this book, whether with low-income people or middle-class people. I would think that Bernie Sanders also tapped into it a bit, but in a very different way.

Who is the book written for?

People who are interested in understanding the United States, how it functions, what keeps it together — what is at the heart of its social contract, its national identity. My respondents have a genuine attachment to the idea of America, and I think that’s because, in the end, what one discovers is that America is for the people and the people own it.

We should all try and understand their patriotism. Much depends on it. They contribute heavily to the military — their investment in the country, in a way, contributes to stability and social peace. As long as they believe in the American Dream and in the United States as a country they are unlikely to demand fundamental changes of society. And so, if we want to understand why the United States is a stable country, we have to understand why people latch on so tightly to it, even though they appear to be suffering and getting a lot less than the poor elsewhere.

Each year when I ask faculty what they’re excited to teach, there’s a shared vibe — optimism for a new academic year and new students — in their different answers. But this year, I heard something new: urgency.

Associate Professor of History Joe Hall, for example, feels the force of current events as he launches his course on .

Hall says that following “horrible misreadings” of U.S. history by President Trump and following the violence in Charlottesville, his course “offers a wonderful opportunity” to set the record straight.

Current events, he says, offer the chance to talk “not just about understanding why history matters, which is frankly true of any history course, but to talk about the origins of slavery, which are at the center of this country, and later the founding of the Confederacy and race relations that still make our lives so complicated.”

Ian Shin, a lecturer in history and C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, is bringing a new course to the college, .

As noted in the Catalog, the course will suggest that the “contemporary discourse of Asian Americans as the ‘model minority’ obscures a long history of struggles for equality and glosses over the community’s rich diversity.”

Ian Shin, a lecturer in history and C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, brings a new course to the college, “Making Asian America: Citizenship, Identity, Belonging.” (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

“To my understanding, this is the first time this topic has been taught at �ֲ���ý,” Shin says. “So there are a lot of stories that haven’t been told and a hunger among students of Asian descent to hear these stories.”

Moreover, he says, the course “offers a new way to think about U.S. history” by setting aside the usual narratives of American history, ones that often focus on transatlantic immigrants, to take a new perspective, looking at those who came “over the Pacific from Asia and Southeast Asia” to America.

Jane Costlow, the Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies, says she’s been “inspired by where we are right now” to shake up her environmental humanities course, ““

So while students will still read canonical writers like Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Edward Abbey, she’s been introducing new and more diverse voices, such as those in “” essays edited by cultural geographer and writer Carolyn Finney and published in Orion magazine in 2016.

Costlow says that her love of writers like Thoreau, Muir, and Abbey includes “fighting with them sometimes”; for example, dealing with Abbey’s misogyny. But then “there are his moments of insight into the world, where his orneriness is directed against things that drive me nuts, too, such as materialism and superficiality.”

“I tell students that I hope they will discover writers who resonate with them who are, at some level very different from they are.”

Assistant Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque is keen to teach his own new course, “.”

Rocque says his course will go beyond the criminal justice system to look at the “philosophy and social reasons of why we need to control and sometimes correct behavior.”

A criminologist, Rocque has correctional-system experience, including a stint as director of research for the Maine Department of Corrections. “I plan to use some of my connections, on both the inmate and staff sides, to show students an inside perspective on that whole world.”

Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina is the author of the forthcoming book, Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country. (H. Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

Rocque’s colleague Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina, author of the forthcoming book (Stanford University Press), says it’s a great time to teach his course on . “Very timely,” he says. “Given the current political climate, I think students will feel interested in topics such as national identity and populism.”

Rebecca Corrie, the Phillips Professor of Art and Visual Culture, is excited to teach her long-running First-Year Seminar “.”

The course looks beyond the familiar public face of museums to the complex world of collecting: “the art market, art law, and their sinister underside, art crime.”

Rebecca Corrie, the Phillips Professor of Art and Visual Culture, teaches the First-Year Seminar “Fakers, Forgers, Looters, Thieves.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

It’s a “topic that keeps on giving,” she says, referencing two recent news stories, one about the on the suspicion that it was looted from Italy in the 1970s and the other about an of 13 priceless pieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Like all �ֲ���ý geologists, Professor of Geology Mike Retelle is happiest when he’s out in the field, which is why he’s jazzed to teach his course on .

“It’s an intensive field laboratory course that gets students working like geologists,” he says. The class will visit what Retelle calls his “classic sites in Maine,” on the coast, rivers, and lakes. “They get a chance to get their hands dirty, literally.”

Assistant Professor of Physics Aleks Diamond-Stanic looks forward to his newly created First-Year Seminar on .

“We’re doing readings on stereotype threat, on , and how to be successful in sciences, and we’ll have discussions to help students contextualize various current events.”

Marcus Bruce ’77, the Benjamin E. Mays Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, took a broader perspective than his colleagues.

He’s teaching courses on from 1550 to 1840 and , plus a for majors in religious studies.

Professor Emeritus of Sociology Sawyer Sylvester talks with Professor of Religious Studies Marcus Bruce ’77 after Convocation on Sept. 5, 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

For Bruce, excitement comes from “teaching a new group of students. It’s always interesting to see what they bring to the classroom.”

As he engages his students in dialogue, “something happens in that moment when you exchange ideas,” Bruce says. “You tell them a little bit about America’s religious history, and they bring their insights and perspectives. And that keeps it fresh.”

Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina. (Morris Freeman)

Known for a 2010 study of the American focus on winning, �ֲ���ý sociologist Francesco Duina views the emotional landscape from a different perspective in his new book, Life Transitions in America (Polity Press).

The book is a thorough exploration of how transitions as central to our lives as going to college, marrying and dying are tied together in American culture — and Duina contrasts American perceptions of transition with those of other nations.

Rather than focusing on a single type of transition, such as childbirth or post-military life, the book examines eight: starting college, getting married, the first child, losing a job, surviving a life-threatening disease, divorce, parents’ death and retirement.

While such shifts have been the object of much study, typically they have been examined as individual occurrences, not as interlinked aspects running throughout an entire culture.

“As does any other society, Americans share certain basic interpretations about how to make sense of transitional moments,” Duina said in an interview. “Yet no one that I could find has investigated what those interpretations, those voices, are. I wanted to shed light on them.”

In addition to calling upon traditional scientific studies, Duina makes use of unorthodox methods and sources — for instance, he compares the categorization and amount of self-help and life-guide books stocked by American, British, Italian, French and Spanish booksellers, and the content of Hallmark cards.

Duina also looks at religious texts, politicians, business leaders, athletes, popular media, government law, college statements, hospital policies and advertisements.

He acknowledges that his approach is novel and that it raises as many questions as it answers. He invites readers to question his conclusions and develop their own interpretations of the subject matter. He acknowledges variations in how these transitions are perceived, and that they are not universal but vary by demographic and life circumstances. And he often compares and contrasts the American perspective with those of other countries.

“Americans are unusually preoccupied with and focused on life transitions,” explains Duina, author of Winning: Reflections on an American Obsession (Princeton University Press, 2010).

“They talk about them in often very optimistic, individualistic and perhaps aggressive fashion — even potentially very painful transitions, like losing one’s parents, are cast in that light,” he says.

“We’re told that many transitions present us with wonderful opportunities for new beginnings, for creating something new — but this is not the whole story. There is also a strand that focuses on our connections with others, the cycle of life and inevitability. All this makes for a very intriguing and unique combination of views.”

The inevitability of change is one thing that doesn’t change, and whether one’s interest is piqued by their own cultural observations or their own lives, Life Transitions in America offers an opportunity to understand these passages in more depth.

Duina has authored four other books: In addition to Winning, they are Institutions and the Economy (Polity Press, 2011), an examination of role of institutions in shaping economic behavior; The Social Construction of Free Trade (Princeton University Press, 2006), an analysis of legal and social change across the world; and Harmonizing Europe (SUNY Press, 1999), focused on political exchanges within the European Union.

Learn more at .