As �ֲ���ý professors lined up for Convocation last week, we asked a few what they’re excited to teach this fall.

In sum, they told us about some things old, some things new, and some things renewed.

In his second year at �ֲ���ý, Assistant Professor of English José Villagrana is teaching a new course, “Milton and the English Civil War.”

John Milton, of course, is a canonical figure in literature. By looking at Milton’s writings through the lens of the English Civil War (1642–51), Villagrana’s students can make fresh connections to “timely discourses on revolution, armed conflict, and the role of free speech and censorship.”

In his second year at �ֲ���ý, Assistant Professor of English José Villagrana is teaching a new course, “Milton and the English Civil War.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Lecturer in Anthropology Kristen Barnett looks forward to teaching her two sections of “Introduction to Archaeology.” She began teaching the course three years ago and has completely overhauled it.

Now the course focuses more attention on concepts of social justice, ethics, and “tensions between Indigenous communities and the archaeological community,” she explains. The course will also delve into questions of how certain colonizing practices are “established and perpetuated through archaeology.”

A �ֲ���ý faculty member since 1991, Professor of Physics Hong Lin is trying something new this year: teaching one of the department’s upper-level courses, “Electrodynamics.”

“It will be my first time teaching this course, but I love the topic,” she says. Lin has taught a similar course, “Electricity and Magnetism,” which covers the material at a lower level. “It will be good to help students see the topic in more depth,” she says.

Lecturer in Anthropology Kristen Barnett has revamped the introductory archaeology course. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

In one of 39 First-Year Seminars, which are geared toward the college’s newest students, Professor of Anthropology Elizabeth Eames will teach “Disney Demystified: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Magic Kingdom.”

Popular culture being what it is, “we all have a bit of Disney in us,” Eames says. In other words, “Disney is a cultural text. And from that text, we can discern America’s beliefs and values. And we can unearth the cultural politics embedded in Disney productions.”

Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro is teaching “Community-Based Research Methods.” Offered in a variety of disciplines, methods courses give students a chance to exercise their emerging research skills.

This fall, Nigro says, her 18 students “are going to learn with a community partner, the .” The institute is working closely with the Lewiston School Department, which is seeking to infuse .

Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro is teaching a course that will support efforts to introduce restorative justice practices in Lewiston public schools. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“My students will look at data already collected from teachers, who are working to be more restorative in their practices,” Nigro says. Restorative justice tries to “replace the old-fashioned punitive disciplinary practices with practices that repair the harm.”

Raj Saha ’03, a lecturer in geology and physics, is eager to teach his First-Year Seminar, “The Living Planet,” and hopes his students are ready for a surprise.

Raj Saha ’03, a lecturer in geology and physics, is teaching a First-Year Seminar, “The Living Planet.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

In its examination of intricate connections among the Earth’s living systems, the course sits “at the intersection of math, science, environmental studies, and social justice,” he says.

It might surprise these new �ֲ���ý students, he says, “that there is scientific basis for concepts that we often label as moral or ethical, such as the need for diversity, what diversity does in an ecosystem, and how you can translate these qualities to society in general — what makes us more resilient.”

Su Langdon, a lecturer in psychology, is excited to have more time to teach “Principles of Psychology.”

Drawing from the tenets of problem-based learning, the course uses “consider scenarios,” in which students look at real-life situations from psychological perspectives. For example, how do gymnasts and other athletes accomplish complex motoric tasks? Why do we feel “all gooey inside” when we think about someone we’re attracted to?

Having taught the course a “gazillion times,” Langdon wanted the flexibility to add a few more scenarios, including ones her students suggested. To do so, “I needed to reclaim some time,” she said. “To be more creative, I needed about a week.”

Working with the Accessible Education and Student Support office — to ensure that the changes met the needs of all her students — Langdon moved the course’s traditional in-class exams to online exams, outside of class.

And presto: A whole week of new time!

A British holography artist and a member of the �ֲ���ý College physics faculty offer lectures relating to the current �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art holography exhibition, The Body Holographic: Harriet Casdin-Silver, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, in Room 104, Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

The speakers are Pearl John, of London, whose talk is titled The Art of Holography; and Hong Lin, professor of physics, whose talk is titled The Physics Behind a Hologram. The event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6158.John uses large-format holography as a means of examining self-identity. She combines holographic images with text, video and photography to reach toward meanings that exist at the boundaries between words and images, and between artist and viewer. John’s holograms and installations have appeared in Japan, Europe and throughout the United States. She currently teaches laser technology in the United Kingdom.

Hong Lin has been at �ֲ���ý since 1991. Her research involves crystals that diffract light in different directions, and particularly potential mechanisms for stabilizing these diffractions, which can affect the operation of optical devices.

The Body Holographic, a collection of work by a pioneering figure in the art of holography, runs through March 19. The first American artist to develop a body of holographic work, Casdin-Silver began working in holograms — flat images that appear to represent objects three-dimensionally — in 1968. As the title indicates, The Body Holographic concentrates on the human form and its potential as a site of psychological, sexual and spiritual energy.

The exhibition is made possible by the Synergy Fund, a gift to the museum to explore ideas across disciplines through the arts. The gift is helping the museum and the college to look more creatively at how exhibitions are curated, experienced and communicated to museum audiences.

Showing simultaneously are Between Science and Art, comprising botanical X-ray photographs by contemporary Ohio artist Judith K. McMillan, and New Acquisitions: Local and Global Contemporary Photography, featuring artists from Maine, China and Africa.

A member of the Maine Art Museum Trail, the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art is open to the public at no charge. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. School groups and tours are welcome; please call 207-786-8302 to schedule.

More information is available at the museum’s Web site.

Political Scientist Mark A. Kessler has been promoted to the rank of full professor. A member of the �ֲ���ý faculty since 1983, Kessler co-authored The Play of Power: An Introduction to American Government (St. Martin’s Press: 1996), a textbook concerned with the integration of women and minorities into the U.S. government and political system. Kessler, who also wrote Legal Services for the Poor (Greenwood: 1987), received dual honors from the Northeast American Political Science Association for his paper, “Legal Mobilization for Social Reform: Power and the Politics of Agenda Setting.” It was judged the best paper presented at the organization’s 1991 meeting and best paper evaluated in the American government section panels.

Kessler, who specializes in American politics, received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Pennsylvania State University.

Aviva Chomsky, history, is the author of West Indian Workers and the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica, 1870-1940 (Louisiana State University Press, 1995). She received a Johns Hopkins University Cuban Studies Travel Grant in 1994 and spent four months in Cuba researching migrant workers in the sugar industry at the turn of the century. She teaches an on-site, month-long course on the origins of the Cuban revolution and is the author of Cuba: What the New York Times Won’t Tell You, published in The Dissident in 1995. Chomsky, who earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, joined the �ֲ���ý faculty in 1990.

Matthew J. Côté, chemistry, has been published in a number of professional journals. In 1992, he was awarded a $29,500 grant from The Research Corp. for a project titled, “Scanning tunnelling optical microscopy of transparent platinum cluster films.” His visiting postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, involved using electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy to study redox reactions of silver electrodes with atomic resolution. He received a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Côté began teaching at �ֲ���ý in 1991.

Hong Lin, physics, has researched nonlinear dynamics due to interaction among transverse modes of a laser and eliminating distortion in image transmission via four-wave mixing and phase conjugation. Her research has been published in “Optics Communications,” “Acta Optica Sinica,” and “Acta Physica Sinica.” She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China and a doctoral degree from Bryn Mawr College. Lin joined the �ֲ���ý faculty in 1991.

Shuhui Yang, Chinese, specializes in Chinese vernacular fiction. He has written a critical essay titled “The Fear of Moral Failure: Self-Parody in Lu Xun’s Fiction” and co-translated Selected Chinese Songs (Beijing: People’s Music, 1983). He has been a professor of English at Fudan University in China, and received the school’s Best Teacher Award in 1983. He is a member of the American Association of Chinese Comparative Literature and the Association for Asian Studies. Yang received a bachelor’s degree from Fudan University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Washington University. He joined the �ֲ���ý faculty in 1991.