Andrew Kennedy, Gabrielle Chua ’18, and �ֲ���ý students

Molecule created by �ֲ���ý students could lead to more effective treatment for cancer and Alzheimer’s patients — Multiple outlets

A variety of news organizations reported the invention at �ֲ���ý of Bobcat339, a molecule created by students that could have implications for research and treatment of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Andrew Kennedy and seven students co-authored a paper describing the molecule, which inhibits the ability of a certain enzyme to regulate genes. This class of so-called TET inhibitors could one day limit the aggressiveness of cancers.

With their professor, Andrew Kennedy (right), three of the seven student coauthors of the scholarly article describing Bobcat339 posed last May in a Dana Chemistry lab: from left, Michael Bennett, Haoyu Sun, and Nathanael Kuzio, all ’19. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Gabrielle Chua ’18 was the student who ultimately structured the molecule.

“It’s big for the field of epigenetics, it’s big for cancer research, and it’s big for the field of memory,” Kennedy told local NBC affiliate WCSH-TV, whose segment on the molecule was shared on Facebook by “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”

Read the stories: 

• “,” WCSH-TV, Oct. 25, 2019 
• “,” Maine Public, Oct. 30, 2019

Holly Ewing

�ֲ���ý snags federal cash to help study Lake Auburn — Sun Journal

Steve Collins of the Sun Journal reported that the college will receive $842,000 of a $6 million National Science Foundation grant to figure out how to track and predict cyanobacterial blooms in lakes.

Holly Ewing, professor of environmental studies and the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, is key to the investigation, which is led by Alberto Quattrini Li of Dartmouth College.

Often important sources of drinking water, U.S. lakes are experiencing increases in cyanobacterial blooms, says Holly Ewing. The NSF project will allow better water-quality monitoring than ever before.

The multi-institution, multidisciplinary team will use boats and aerial drones to collect a wide variety of data on several lakes, including Lake Auburn. The project requires understanding communities’ relationships with their lakes, Ewing said.

“Understanding people’s values with respect to how we pay attention to lakes, how we interact with lakes — there’s definitely a cultural and place-based component to that,” she said. “And all of this is intimately related to the science.”

Read the story: 

• “,” Sun Journal, Oct. 25, 2019

Ryan Smith

Auburn’s Ryan Smith wins marathon, qualifies for U.S. Olympic Trials — Sun Journal

�ֲ���ý staff member Ryan Smith talked to the Lewiston Sun Journal’s Adam Robinson about his victory in the Hartford Marathon in October, which qualifies him for the U.S. Olympic Team marathon trials.

Smith, manager of purchasing, accounting, and licensing for �ֲ���ý Information and Library Services, ran the marathon in 2 hours and 18 minutes.

He’s now headed to Atlanta for the Feb. 29 trials, where he hopes to break the top 50 (the top three in each gender make the Olympic team).

“I’m certainly excited to see the full-time professionals, as always,” Smith said. “In terms of nerves, I think the pressure of trying to qualify is much more nerve-wracking than actually competing there. I’m just going to try and beat as many people as possible.

“That sounds more fun than nerve-wracking, especially because it’s a hilly course and I’m really good on hills.”

Read the story: 

• “,” Sun Journal, Oct. 18, 2019

Nolwazi Nosisa Ngwenyama ’16

UCT’s 2020 Mandela Rhodes scholars — University of Cape Town News

The University of Cape Town announced that Nolwazi Nosisa Ngwenyama ’16, a �ֲ���ý graduate and graduate student in gender studies, has won a prestigious Mandela-Rhodes scholarship.

Nolwazi Ngwenyama ’16 listens to a speaker at the Office of Intercultural Education at �ֲ���ý in 2014. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

The scholarships are awarded to African citizens with “exceptional leadership capacity” and provide funding for postgraduate study in South Africa.

Ngwenyama triple-majored in politics, anthropology, and women and gender studies at �ֲ���ý. A native of Eswatini, she volunteers with the United World Colleges Eswatini National Committee.

Read the story: 

• “,” University of Cape Town News, Nov. 7, 2019

Rebecca Herzig

For Millennial women, body hair presents a complicated choice — HuffPost

In the HuffPost, Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Rebecca Herzig helped guest writer Sofia Barrett-Ibarria round out her argument that while choosing not to remove body hair might be a “feminist” choice, body hair is more complicated than a “to shave or not to shave” binary.

In 2014, Rebecca Herzig heads to the lectern to deliver a talk. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

Herzig is the author of Plucked: A History of Hair Removal. In the HuffPost, she pointed out that while there is some mainstream acceptance of body hair on women, the stigma around body hair can have real, negative consequences, especially for women who are not “able-bodied, white, young, thin and toned, expensively dressed, etc. — in every other way,” she told Barrett-Ibarria.

Read the story: 

• “,” HuffPost, Nov. 5, 2019 

Peter Weyand ’83

Inside the six-figure project to solve the mystery of NBA flopping — The Guardian

It’s a phenomenon that baffles and frustrates basketball fans: flopping. And from a science perspective, Peter Weyand ’83, a professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University, knows more about it than almost anyone, writes The Guardian’s Patrick Hruby.

Funded by Houston Rockets owner Mark Cuban, Weyand and his team set out in 2014 to measure how much force it takes to knock someone over and what it looks like when a basketball player is genuinely set off balance, vs. embellishing a light hit or straight-up faking a foul — that is, flopping. They ran tests using first a dummy, then real people wearing heavy padding.

Turns out, it doesn’t take much force to knock someone over. “In many cases, if the defender just doesn’t move their feet, then down they go,” Weyand said. “I’ve been through thousands of charge-block collisions, and never realized how easy it was.”

A rather obvious indication of a flop, the SMU team found, is when players stick their arms straight up as they go down — that doesn’t happen naturally.

Read the story: 

• “,” The Guardian, Oct. 30, 2019

Renee Leduc ’98

Will 5G Affect Weather Forecasts? — BBC Click

The program quotes Renee Leduc ’98 on how a recent Federal Communications Commission action could harm meteorologists’ ability to forecast the weather, including dangerous hurricanes.

The issue has to do with an FCC decision to auction off specific wireless radio frequencies to commercial wireless providers for next-generation 5G networks.

The scientific community, including Leduc, opposes the move. They say that giving these frequencies to 5G networks will interfere with unique measurements from weather satellites that are very important to weather forecasting models, the two most well-known being the American model (GFS) and the European model (the ECMWF). The FCC says the interference is not a threat.

Renee Leduc is quoted in this BBC Click story about how turning over specific radio frequencies to wireless providers could harm weather forecasting.

Founder and principal of the consulting firm Narayan Strategy, Leduc is a member of the American Meteorological Society’s Board on Enterprise Economic Development and its International Affairs and Radio Frequency Allocation committees.

She told The Washington Post that it’s “crucial” that the question of interference is “decided in a way that is informed by atmospheric science since the measurements are so crucial to sound weather predictions.”

The issue is front and center at the World Radiocommunications Conference, which ends Nov. 22 and where “for the past month they have been working to coordinate the deployment of 5G technologies across the world,” Leduc tells �ֲ���ýNews.

Read the stories:

• “,” The Washington Post, March 8, 2019
• “” Nature, Nov. 22, 2019

Carrie Jones ’93

The unstoppable Carrie Jones; New thriller ‘In the Woods’ released — Mount Desert Islander

Down East arts journalist Nan Lincoln spoke with author Carrie Jones ’93 about her new young-adult thriller, In the Woods.

The novel, co-written with Steven E. Wedel, follows a teenage girl as she investigates possibly paranormal events. The two writers’ conversation, however, ventured into Jones’ other projects, from the children’s book festival she helped organize to her prolific books and blogs.

“I have to write — all the time,” Jones said. “If I don’t get my ideas onto the page they pile up. But I love seeing where my characters will take me. It’s always a new adventure.”

Read the story: 

• “,” Mount Desert Islander, Oct. 27, 2019 

Matt Moretti ’06

Pioneering mussel farmer buys rival, plans expansion — Portland Press Herald

The Portland Press Herald reported that Bangs Island Mussels, a Portland, Maine-based producer of rope-grown mussels, bought local competitor Calendar Island Mussel Co.

Bangs Island Mussels is owned by Matt Moretti ’06.

In 2016, Matt Moretti ’06 feeds mussels into a machine that works to break apart tissue connecting many of the clusters. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

The company produces mussels by growing them on ropes suspended from rafts, selling the product to Portland restaurants as well as wholesalers. The key to sustainable mussel farming, Moretti told PPH reporter Peter McGuire, is scale, and with the new acquisition Bangs Island Mussels can double its production and workforce.

“The economics of it are such that the faster you can add on volume to your production, the sooner your costs drop and profits go up,” he said.

Read the story: 

• “,” Portland Press Herald, Nov. 18, 2019  

Elizabeth Strout ’77

Oprah reveals Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout as new book club pick — CBS This Morning

With bestselling author Elizabeth Strout ’77 sitting next to her, Oprah Winfrey announced on CBS This Morning that Strout’s new novel, Olive, Again, is her new book club selection.

Olive, Again is the sequel to Strout’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Olive Kitteridge.

Winfrey said she admires Strout’s ability to take “the simplest of things and turn them into something that feels real to us.”

Oprah Winfrey talks with Elizabeth Strout ’77 on CBS This Morning.

Melissa Wong ’01

Women Of The C-Suite: “Fear is a liar; fear will tell you the craziest things” with Melissa Wong, CEO of Retail Zipline — Authority Magazine

Carly Martinetti of Authority Magazine, a publication on the platform Medium, interviewed Melissa Wong ’01, co-founder of Retail Zipline.

Building a company, Wong said, requires fearlessness — even when you think you should be afraid.

“Fear is a liar,” she said. “Fear will tell you the craziest things. When I first started, I legitimately feared our company would fail. … When you’re in the moment, don’t let feelings of fear lead your actions or choices.”

Working in communications for Old Navy showed Wong how hard it is for large retail brands to get their own stores to implement ideas. So she and a co-founder started Retail Zipline, which streamlines that kind of communication.

Read the story: 

• “,” Authority Magazine, Nov. 3, 2019 

At a small liberal arts institution like �ֲ���ý, says biochemist Lori Banks, “you get to interact with students differently than you would at a larger kind of school. There’s a different kind of connection, a different vested interest in the success of the students.”

That connection “seemed to be especially strong here,” a factor that attracted the new assistant professor of biology to �ֲ���ý.

The same is true of philosopher Paul Schofield. At a different kind of school, he says, there might not be the same opportunities to get to know students. “But because of the size of �ֲ���ý and the kinds of things that the students are looking for, you’re able to build intellectual community.”

Assistant professors Banks and Schofield are among the faculty appointed to tenure-track positions this year. Others are Stephanie Pridgeon, in Spanish; Ian Khara Ellasante, gender and sexuality studies; and Asha Tamirisa, music. Those five have found that their values, interests, and goals as teacher-scholars are reflected in the �ֲ���ý community.

Tamirisa was drawn to �ֲ���ý’ aspirations and initiatives toward equity and inclusion. “�ֲ���ý seemed to be a step ahead of a lot of other institutions in terms of not thinking the remedy would simply be changing the demographics, but also changing the way the college itself works. �ֲ���ý is willing to say, ‘This is what we could be doing better,’ and then take action.”

Ellasante agrees. In particular, the gender and sexuality studies mission statement spoke to them — “its commitments to anti-racist, decolonial, feminist, and trans work and histories,” they say, “and its focus on action and practice and reciprocal engagement.”

For Pridgeon, who like Schofield has been at �ֲ���ý for a few years as a visiting professor, an enduring appeal of �ֲ���ý is the campus community’s commitment to take on — and see through — the tough and complex kinds of discussion without which, often, nothing really meaningful gets done.

“We’re thinking about difficult, sometimes uncomfortable, problems and challenges on topics that I want to be challenged on, that I want to be forced to reckon with,” she says. “We’re having conversations I want to be having.”

That determination to challenge our understanding of the world while attending to community life is central to the value of the �ֲ���ý education, says Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty.

“Our latest tenure-track appointees bring expertise and a creative spirit to our talented academic community. We look forward to benefiting from their contributions in the years to come.”

Let’s meet Banks, Ellasante, Pridgeon, Schofield, and Tamirisa.

Lori Banks, Assistant Professor of Biology

An early inspiration for professor Lori Banks was the “Magic School Bus” television series. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Name: Lori Banks

Position: Assistant Professor of Biology

Degrees from: Baylor College of Medicine, Ph.D., Molecular Virology and Microbiology; Prairie View A&M University, B.S., Biology

Before �ֲ���ý: Postdoctoral researcher in molecular virology and microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine

Her work: A protein biochemist engaged in preclinical drug development, Banks studies ways that microbial pathogens sense their host environments. She has studied gene expression in the anthrax bacterium and is currently exploring approaches to more effectively treat rotavirus.

Tell us more: “A horrible downstream effect of rotavirus, especially in small kids, is that repeat infections can be associated with cognitive delays,” Banks explains.

A rotavirus vaccine exists, “but in the parts of the world where it’s most endemic, the vaccine doesn’t work very well. So we have to attack the public health problem from a different perspective, that of treating people once they’re infected.” Banks calls her search for an off-switch for the virus “very low-tech” — but notes that it could eventually “inform drug discovery work that affects millions.”

A sense of purpose: Banks was headed to an anatomy class at Prairie View when she saw a newscast of the second World Trade Center tower going down. The Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent anthrax mailings galvanized her interest in biology research. It was a feeling she likens to the call that her grandparents’ generation felt to mobilize for World War II. “I remember thinking that I had this skill set or gift for thinking about biological and chemical questions,” she says. “For me it was just like, ‘We’re the people that are going to be out there saving lives, designing medicine.’”

Sample lesson: “One of my favorite things to discuss with students is being aware of what your own personality is telling you, what skill sets you’re developing, what things you’re drawn to — and how you might be able to best serve the world, the community, your school, whatever, just by being you.”

Ian Khara Ellasante, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Ian Khara Ellasante, new to the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, is a poet as well as a scholar and teacher. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Name: Ian Khara Ellasante

Position: Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Degrees from: University of Arizona, Ph.D. and M.A., American Indian Studies; University of Memphis, B.A., Sociology and English.

Before �ֲ���ý: Visiting scholar in residence, Washington & Jefferson College

Their work: “There are global similarities in the ways that indigenousness, embodied blackness, and marginalized gender identities are targeted and defined,” says Ellasante, a cultural studies scholar. “I am trans, nonbinary, queer, and a person of color. I work to translate the lived experiences at that type of nexus into scholarship that is broadly and compellingly legible.”

Ellasante’s recent work has involved the “peoplehood matrix,” a theoretical construct developed by Indigenous scholars. In this concept, an Indigenous people’s relationship to four elements — land, language, ceremonial cycle, and sacred history — can help delineate their cultural identity. “I argue that when a people align around these four elements, they’re able to persist despite settler colonialism and enforced assimilation.”

Finding their path: Ellasante is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults, focusing on housing instability and bullying in schools. As a researcher at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women, “I got a lot of experience in community-based participatory research.

“In that work, I saw a pathway: I could merge being an advocate, working within communities, with being a researcher and scholar. I have pursued it, and �ֲ���ý feels like a good place for me to continue that path,” thanks to the robust community-engaged programming of the college’s Harward Center.

A sample lesson: “Early in the semester, I like to have students simultaneously write brief definitions of gender on the board. Then we can see that even in a small classroom, there can be many definitions of gender. Students can better understand its nuances, and the idea that gender is a social construct becomes very clear.”

Stephanie Pridgeon, Assistant Professor of Spanish

Stories are central to the work of Spanish professor Stephanie Pridgeon. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Name: Stephanie Pridgeon

Position: Assistant Professor of Spanish

Degrees from: Emory University, Ph.D., Spanish; University of Virginia, M.A., Spanish Language and Literature; College of Charleston, Honors College, B.A., Hispanic Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Before �ֲ���ý: Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies, The Catholic University of America. Pridgeon joined �ֲ���ý as a visiting professor in 2016.

Her work: Pridgeon studies intersections of ethnicity, gender, religion, and politics as depicted in Latin American film and literature. She’s drawn to characters “who don’t do what they’d necessarily be expected to do based on a category with which they identify,” she says.

For instance, in Revolting Jews on Screen, a book manuscript under publisher review, she uses a variety of films to explore the contradictory effects of Jewish political involvement in Latin America. “I became fascinated with all these retrospective stories about how fraught it was to identify simultaneously as Jewish and revolutionary.”

Why teach? “I love hearing other people’s stories,” says Pridgeon, “and I love sharing stories with students and giving them an appreciation for the stories about, effectively, what it means to be human — the messiness of it, the nuances, and the challenges of everyday life.”

Pridgeon values interactions with students that spark different directions for a course. Ditto for current events that change her teaching: for instance, the #MeToo movement gave her a new perspective on Argentinian novelist Claudia Piñeiro’s Tuya, about a woman who finds out her husband is cheating on her. “Those moments where our students can see that I’m learning with them and thinking about things in new ways with them are really productive.”

Why the liberal arts? For Pridgeon, “the core of a liberal arts education has to do with understanding what it means to be human in a variety of cases and contexts. I’m teaching the ability to gain knowledge and critical language skills in order to relate to somebody else’s story, to relate to something that’s a part of human experience.”

Paul Schofield, Assistant Professor of Philosophy

A teaching objective of Paul Schofield is introducing students to overlooked philosophical works by women. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Name: Paul Schofield

Position: Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Degrees from: Harvard University, Ph.D., Philosophy; University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, M.A., Philosophy; University of Notre Dame, B.A., Liberal Studies

Before �ֲ���ý: After completing doctoral studies, Schofield came to �ֲ���ý in 2013 as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and has since served as a lecturer and visiting assistant professor.

His work: Two themes stand out among Schofield’s research. One, he says, is the question of “whether you can owe moral duties to yourself.” He explains that where contemporary moral philosophy tends to examine our interactions with others, “I argue that the relationship that you have to yourself is morally inflected — that you owe certain actions or behaviors to your own self.” His book on the topic is scheduled for publication in 2020 from Oxford University Press.

Schofield also studies philosophy and film, focusing on the medium’s strengths and weaknesses as a form of philosophical text. For example, he has written about the ballet film The Red Shoes as a distinctively deep representation of agency over one’s movement of one’s body.

Why teach? “I’ve always been intellectually curious,” says Schofield, who was reading philosophy and competing in debate in his teens. “I’ve always liked sharing that with others. Even when I did high school debate as a junior or a senior, I liked to teach the first-years what I knew, which was a lot less back then.”

The liberal arts: “There are philosophers interested in the philosophy of science, philosophy of mind and psychology, political philosophy, aesthetics and the arts.” And because such philosophers are “attempting to answer the fundamental questions about other disciplines,” Schofield situates philosophy at the very center of the liberal arts education.

�ֲ���ý students: “They’re willing to challenge themselves to take on difficult projects, to be told that there’s more work to do. I find the �ֲ���ý students to be the most intellectually curious group of young people I’ve ever been around.”

Asha Tamirisa, Assistant Professor of Music

Asha Tamirisa has taught sound and video production to middle- and high-school students. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Name: Asha Tamirisa

Position: Assistant Professor of Music

Degrees from: Brown University: Ph.D., Computer Music and Multimedia; M.A., Modern Culture and Media; M.A., Computer Music and Multimedia; Oberlin College, B.A., Musical Studies

Before �ֲ���ý: While doing her postgraduate work, Tamirisa taught courses on multimedia art and electronic music at Brown and in community workshops in Rhode Island.

Her work: Harnessing a variety of technologies in performance and installations, Tamirisa describes herself as a sound and media artist. “The research that I do really informs the creative work that I make,” she says.

“I’m interested in fields like feminist science and technology studies and media archeology, which look critically at the stories behind our machines and can inform technological use and design.” For instance, motivated by the interrelated histories of textiles and digital technologies, Tamirisa is currently working on converting a small loom into an interface for audiovisual performance.

Tell us more: “I see teaching as an opportunity to rethink epistemologies of technology, music, and sound,” Tamirisa says. “How do gender and race fit into the histories of the technologies that we’re dealing with now? How does that shift our engagement or our understanding with them now?

“Understanding how gender and race have been imbricated in the histories and practices of these fields have shifted my engagement with these fields as an instructor as much as they have as a practitioner.”

Sample lesson: In the music theory course that she’s teaching this semester, Tamirisa’s students will select a piece of music and, throughout the semester, “apply the techniques that we’re learning in class to that piece. This is a way for me to get to know the students and their musical tastes and to demonstrate how the course material connects to music across genres and styles.”

She says, “I love the push and pull of starting a class with an idea of where it’s going to go, and then hearing from the students about where they want to go and where that takes us collectively.”