Kirk Read’s oral French course has long had a theatrical flair.

To teach lessons in vocabulary, grammar, and francophone culture, the professor of French and francophone studies conjured the fictitious Marie Malika d’Alger and created an episodic play, in French, about her life and adventures as a young Franco-Algerian woman.

For more than 20 years, Read gave the scripts to his students in hard copy. The students would learn the lines, create their own additions to the protagonist’s life and times, and take quizzes and tests that Read administered.

This year saw a change in the presentation of Read’s course. With support from the college’s Information and Library Services department, Read and a group of students spent last Short Term turning Marie Malika d’Alger into what’s known as an open educational resource (OER) — specifically, a website that anyone at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and beyond can use freely.

In April, students in Professor of French and Francophone Studies Kirk Read’s oral French course perform a scene from Read’s Marie Malika d’Alger plays. From left, Kaylah Johnson ’21, Kate Carrier ’22, Jamie Kelleher ’19, Jake Michael ’21, and Emma Vlahakis ’20. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Read and his students are perhaps the most, ahem, dramatic example of efforts at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to use advances in information technology to make course materials cheaper, more accessible, and more versatile.

Key to the college’s growing success in adopting OERs — or, more broadly, less-expensive course materials — is creating new partnerships across campus. To that end, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ librarians reach out to individual faculty members, and professors know that they can come to the library with their own ideas. Meanwhile, staff at the College Store review course materials and reach out to professors if there are cheaper options available.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ library monitors the cost of course materials and helps faculty secure less-expensive alternatives, says Pat Schoknecht, vice president for information and library services and college librarian.

“We’re actively looking for the courses where the textbooks are really expensive, or those courses that have a very high enrollment even if the textbook isn’t that expensive,� says Pat Schoknecht, vice president of Information and Library Services and college librarian. “When we find them, we will go in and actively talk to the faculty member� about alternatives.

That could mean using an open educational resource, or OER, strictly defined as a material whose components are in the public domain and are free and open for anyone to use. It could also mean using an ebook or journal that the library licenses, or simply a less expensive textbook.

Recently, the library received a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation to join the and provide mini-grants to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty who review, use, or implement open access materials.

Long an economic challenge for students, required course materials — whether a copy of the Norton Anthology of American Literature ($50.65, used) for an English course or much more expensive textbooks in STEM disciplines or foreign languages complete with a code for online assignments — can run into the hundreds of dollars, potentially shutting students out of certain courses and majors.

Students pack the Ladd Library during the week before finals in April 2018. Students have sometimes pushed the library and their professors to explore alternatives to traditional textbooks.Ìý (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

In response, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has tried to make those costly materials available through Ladd Library: Since 2013, the library has kept a copy of every required course material on reserve, one of the few such programs of its kind. In addition, other campus offices, including the Office of Intercultural Education, maintain collections of frequently needed course materials.

What’s different now is that technology and the availability of OERs have caught up to the need.

“The resources and platforms have been upgraded to a point where they’re actually really good,� says Krystie Wilfong, an associate college librarian who works to gather and share open access materials. “The content the faculty needs is there, because a faculty from a different institution has written something they can then adopt.�

In 2011, the price of a book that Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer uses for her differential equations course rose “precipitously,� she said.

“It really helped to make the point clear in a way that I couldn’t ignore, and students let me know that that was a problem.�

Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer works with students on Pi Day in 2018. Greer has used a variety of free or low-cost online textbooks for her math courses. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Greer found a cheaper textbook for that course, but the episode prompted her to try to minimize costs across all her classes. She took materials she had already created for graduate-level courses and adapted them for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ juniors, and she pored over listservs and online repositories for math assignments.

For her multivariable calculus courses, she used free online materials by MIT mathematician Gilbert Strang, and Calculus I and II courses across the department transitioned to an this year.

Along with Kirk Read and Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies Carrie Diaz Eaton, Greer shared her story at an April symposium on open educational resources, organized by ILS, supported by the Dean of the Faculty’s office and the Davis Educational Foundation, and attracting librarians, booksellers, and informational technologists from 22 institutions in New England.

After assigning Strang’s material for several semesters, Greer surveyed the students who had used the online textbook and presented her findings to the attendees. Using the website had its drawbacks — students had to get used to navigating sections online as opposed to turning the pages of a book and writing notes in the margins — but they enjoyed the low cost, versatility, and accessibility.

Indeed, finding and using OERs benefits students in at least two ways: reduced cost and, in some cases, improved teaching.

In 2013, then a professor at Maine’s Unity College, Diaz Eaton was seeking resources to teach quantitative biology, an emerging and growing field that incorporates math and computer science. Colleges and universities were trying to develop new educational materials on the fly — but the experts from school to school weren’t necessarily talking to each other.

“People were reinventing the wheel at multiple institutions,� Diaz Eaton says.

Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies Carrie Diaz Eaton teaches a course on detecting misinformation in March. Diaz Eaton created QUBES, a hub for free biology course materials. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Now, at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Diaz Eaton is continuing her work with QUBES; this month she on making open access to biology education sustainable. She and her DCS colleagues are also working to incorporate open access into the structure of the nascent program. She makes sure to use free software to teach programming and involves students in designing her courses.

“We’re thinking about open access as being more than just digital access, but also access into DCS itself,â€� she says.

Kirk Read’s spring 2019 oral French course was the last to use traditional printouts or PDFs of the play Marie Malika d’Alger. The class now uses a dedicated website, which will be opened beyond the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community by next year. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students who helped Kirk Read redesign his oral French course last May felt similarly empowered. They were quick to grasp the benefits of OER, as well as some of its challenges, like how to compensate or reward scholars who invest time and talent to create the materials.

Now well into the first semester of the redesigned oral French course, Read and his students are liking the online version of Marie Malika d’Alger. Lessons and scripts are clearly organized, each image is licensed or copyright-free, and Read and his students thought through issues like how best to give assessments through the site and how to make the site accessible to users with disabilities.

And if a problem crops up during the course, Read can change the site on the fly. The course website is designed to be usable by anyone and everyone with some knowledge of French, and he plans to open it to outside users within the next year.

“The students get to own this text more than anything else,� Read says. “It’s online. I can upload a different PDF or talk about things they like better than what I propose. They’re not spending a dime for this, and it’s attractive and interactive. I’m totally happy with it.�

Learning a new language opens up career prospects, richer travel experiences, and opportunities to communicate with people.

It also helps you see your own culture from a different perspective.

“You won’t know your own culture or language until you learn another language or culture,� says Keiko Konoeda, a lecturer in Japanese whose research focuses on teaching languages.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ offers countless resources to learn a language, through courses, clubs, language tables, tutoring, and study-abroad opportunities.

“You can be immersed in the language,� Konoeda says. “There is a strong community for that.�

Lecturer in Japanese Keiko Konoeda teaches an introductory Japanese course. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

We asked foreign language faculty and student tutors about their best strategies for learning a new language, whether it’s French, Japanese, or ancient Greek. Here’s what they said.

1. Immerse yourself in any way you can.

Immersion is speaking, listening, and thinking in a new language as much as possible — but that doesn’t mean you have to go to a country where the language is spoken, says Michael Lombardi ’21, who tutors Japanese in the Academic Resource Commons.

Plenty of resources are available right on campus, such as “going to language table sessions, seeing your ARC Peer Tutor, and immersing yourself in the vibrant ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community,â€� he says.

Laurie O’Higgins,ÌýEuterpe B. Dukakis Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies, presides over an induction ceremony for the classics honor society in 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

2. Dedicate time each day.

Ancient Latin and Greek are somewhat different from modern languages, says Laurie O’Higgins, Euterpe B. Dukakis Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies — the learning focus is often on reading, rather than speaking and listening.

O’Higgins recommends setting aside quality time with the language. “Give 20 to 30 minutes, six days a week, to learning new forms and vocabulary. Those must be the best 20 to 30 minutes you can spare, when your brain is at its best. Have the environment as quiet as is possible. Focus exclusively on saying the words, reading them, and writing them too, if it’s Greek. Then stop.â€�

3. Do everything.

Communicating involves speaking, listening, reading, writing, and nonverbal expression. So does learning a new language.

“The best students practice writing by hand, read grammar explanations, listen to audio, practice speaking on their own, practice speaking with others, watch movies in the target language, and even practice acting out verbs or adjectives with their faces and bodies,� says Justine Wiesinger, assistant professor of Japanese.

Language-learning resources are particularly abundant in libraries, says Associate Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi. “All the major newspapers have an online presence, and Ladd Library has a good selection of print newspapers and magazines in several languages. There are international editions of all major fashion magazines and many more online resources.

“Have a favorite novel? It’s probably been translated into your new language, too. The resources are endless and often only a click away.â€�

4. Listen to music.

“People are wired to remember rhythms and rhymes — song lyrics in a new language can help build vocabulary and grammar. My advice is to find a band you love to listen to in your target language,â€� Michael Lombardi says. “You’d be surprised by how much variety there is out there!â€�

5. Put vocabulary in context.

Dennis Browne is an associate professor of Russian who’s been learning German for several years. Browne likes to rehearse personal stories — for example, learning car-related vocabulary in order to talk about a time his car broke down — and tell the stories to native speakers of German.

Associate Professor of Russian Dennis Browne serves sausage during â€�the Wurst day of the semester,â€� an open house for the Department of German and Russian Studies. An associate professor of Russian, Browne has studied German for years. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“You tell that story and find they don’t use those words in everyday German,â€� Browne says. “That’s useful because you realize that there are these technical terms, and then the terms people actually use.â€�

6. Tell stories.

Especially when a new language has a different writing system from English, it helps to associate feelings, images, and narratives with concepts you’re learning, says Wiesinger.

In kanji, one of the Japanese writing systems, characters represent things or ideas as opposed to sounds. Research has shown that narratives help with memorization — for example, Wiesinger encourages her students to think of the Japanese character for charcoal, 炭, as made up of symbols that look like a mountain, a cliff, and a fire.

“If you can imagine the shape of the mountains as you climb and the coolness you feel on your skin as you walk out onto a cliff, and then the smell of the charcoal fire you kindle, it will help retain the elements of this character in your mind and help distinguish it from similar characters, such as 岩,� which means rock, Wiesinger says.

Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies Baltasar Fra-Molinero teaches an intermediate Spanish course in Roger Williams Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

7. Talk to a lot of people

Language learning happens in community, says Professor of Spanish Baltasar Fra-Molinero. “You learn a language not speaking to another person but by speaking to two, three, four, five other people. That’s how the process of language acquisition happens.�

8. Use flash cards.

“I recommend note cards or notebooks and keeping them neat and up to date,â€� says O’Higgins. “It’s not high-tech, but it works.â€�

Katherine Ziegler ’19 of Katonah, N.Y., who tutors Latin in the ARC and minors in German, heightens the tech just a little. “I really like to use sites like Quizlet to learn new vocabulary,� she says. “Quizlet is a website that allows you to make your own flashcards and then quiz and test yourself in a variety of ways. This is particularly helpful for Latin, which involves a lot of memorization.�

9. Keep a language notebook.

“I like to have a little notebook to write down new vocabulary, grammar paradigms, writing exercises or diary entries in the target language,â€� Ziegler says. “It’s also a nice place to write down any poems or phrases that you like. This helps remind me why I’m learning the new language in the first place.â€�

10. Plagiarize.

Well, not really, says Kirk Read, professor of French and francophone studies. But he recommends copying native speakers’ words and forms as much as possible. “Imitating good syntax, playing with it, feeling it and how it guides your thoughts, is the way to go. It will get you away from word-by-word translation, which is silly, wrong, and ineffective, though often hilarious.�

11. Make mistakes.

“Stop thinking,� says Read. “Language learning the first time you do it is all about hearing, mimicking, reproducing. No child ever turned to their parent and said, ‘How do I conjugate that verb?’�

Mary Rice-DeFosse, also a professor of French and francophone studies, asks students to “give up total mastery� once they’re at the intermediate level.

“It’s important that students not look up every word and instead begin to get the gist of a reading based on what they think they understand,� she says. “My job is to provide a safety net as they develop that skill. Eventually, they start to think — and even dream — in French.�

Associate Professor of German Jakub Kazecki makes a point in his introductory German language and culture course in 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

12. Find what works for you.

“Put sticky notes with new vocabulary on furniture and your belongings in your room, listen to a lot of news and podcasts in the language, pick up a few lines from songs and sing them out loud, enjoy any silly language joke you can find,� says Associate Professor of German Jakub Kazecki.

“Because, you know, the German sausage is the Wurst.�

13. Be fearless.Ìý

â€�Learning a new language can be greatly intimidating or even feel embarrassing when you mispronounce or misuse a word, but the more you practice it out loud — whether that’s in class, with your roommate, or with a peer tutor — the easier and the more comfortable it begins to feel,â€� says Claudia Glickman ’19 of Houston, a student tutor of German.

On the fourth floor of Roger Williams Hall, Professor of French and Francophone Studies Kirk Read has a huge bottle of Perrier-Jouët champagne sitting on a shelf. But he won’t ever drink from the bottle. For one thing, it’s empty and always has been.

Read purchased the display bottle in 2005 after the closure of one of his favorite haunts, Austin’s Fine Wine and Foods on Main Street in Auburn. Located in a former bank, Austin’s offered sandwiches, cheeses, and meats, along with a wide selection of wines. Customers ate in cozy wood-paneled rooms; in the bank vault, owner Austin “Audie� Conrad stored champagne and more-expensive wines.

As proprietor, Conrad was “super friendly and a great local citizen,� says Read. So when Conrad sold his store memorabilia, Read grabbed the large bottle (a bottle size known as a “methuselah�) and a smaller bottle. “Something I could take away to remember him by,� he says. “A sentimental attachment.�

Oversized champagne bottles sit amidst family photographs and other memorabilia on a shelf in Kirk Read’s office.

Not that the bottles don’t serve a practical purpose. Combining Read’s interests in language, culture, and theater, his course in oral French asks students to act out the adventures of a fictional North African heroine. It’s a long-running set of skits developed with colleagues and students during Read’s 27-year career at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

The two bottles are humorous props for Read’s students,Ìýespecially sinceÌýseveral recurring characters have been known to display poor choices in alcohol consumption — they’reÌý“alcohol-dependent,â€� says Read. “So it can happen that we pull out the Audie champagne bottle just for a little local color.â€�

For a first-year ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student, the leap from high school to college-level writing can be a daunting one.

You tackle new genres, you look at evidence more critically. And you learn that at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, good writing and good thinking are inseparable.

“Colleges are places where knowledge gets created,â€� says Daniel Sanford, director of Writing At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and the Academic Resource Commons (ARC), programs that provide resources for every stage of the writing process, in any discipline.

“When you learn to write and think in that setting, you are figuring out how to participate in the creation of knowledge.�

Claire Sickinger ’19 of Simsbury, Conn., a Peer Writing and Speaking Assistant for Assistant Professor of Asian Studies Nathan Faries’ “Defining Difference: How China and the United States Think about Racial Diversity,” discusses an essay for the class with Zhao Li ’21 ofÌýGuangzhou, China, in ARC. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

It can be a steep learning curve, but ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ newest writers are supported along the way. Most students take a First-Year Seminar, where professors teach writing alongside subject matter. They walk students through each step of the writing process and offer intensive feedback.

As the fall semester enters its second half, and students look to their final seminar papers, we’ve asked ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professors and student tutors how new college writers can make their writing clear and compelling, and what common mistakes to avoid. Here is what they told us.

1. Before you start writing, know the assignment

One of the most avoidable mistakes Associate Professor of Politics Leslie Hill sees is not following directions. “Some students will write to the task they think they know, that may be familiar from high school — but the college professor may be asking for something different, in terms of content as well as the level of thinking.�

2. Know thy audience — and thyself

Don’t feel like you have to play the expert, says Professor of Religious Studies Cynthia Baker. “First-year college writers often seem to feel as though they need to present themselves as ‘experts’ in their essays instead of presenting themselves as well-informed and capable conversation partners,â€� she says.

Professor of Religious Studies Cynthia Baker teaches the First-Year Seminar “The Nature of Spirituality.” Here, in the 2015 iteration of the course, she shows her students a Rosh Hashanah tradition on Mount David. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

When students adopt the “expert� voice, Baker says, they sometimes feel that quoting heavily from sources means they’re not knowledgeable.

“It is far more often the case that professors are looking for students to demonstrate a firm grasp of the course materials and concepts by showing that they can synthesize ideas from a range of course readings and apply them to a particular problem,â€� she says. “This calls for positioning oneself in an essay as a well-informed conversation partner who thoughtfully and capably draws on a wide variety of others’ insights through extensive quotes and citations, rather than as a solo expert.â€� Ìý

3. Pay attention to genre

Biochemistry major Kenyata Venson ’18 of Memphis meets with Bridget Fullerton, assistant director of writing at Writing at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, to discuss her senior thesis on comparing synthesized drugs to herbal remedies for the treatment of glaucoma. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“Technical writing is very different from expository writing in that there’s no fluff — readers just want what you did in the study,� says Technical Writing Assistant Ruth van Kampen ’19 of Brunswick. “That’s new to a lot of students.�

As a TWA, van Kampen helps biology students, often sophomores, with their writing.

4. Don’t lose the argument

Claudia Krasnow ’18 of Bedford, N.Y., works with Madelyn Heart ’18 of Winchester, Mass., on a paper for a Spanish class. Writing Tutors work among other student tutors in the Academic Resource Commons (ARC) in the Ladd Library. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Writing Tutor Mariam Hayrapetyan ’19 of Valley Village, Calif. recommends this exercise: “Write out the prompt in your own words and when you write, make sure that each paragraph somehow contributes to the prompt.�

Take it to the sentence level, too. “Something that can improve clarity is ensuring that everything in each paragraph relates back to the topic sentence, and each topic sentence relates back to the thesis,� says Writing Tutor Kiyona Mizuno ’18 of San Francisco. “This will help keep the writing focused and organized. I find that outlining can be a useful strategy.�

5. Keep it simple

Zeke Smith ’19 of Weybridge, U.K., a Peer Writing and Speaking Assistant for Associate Professor of Russian Dennis Browne’s course on contemporary European film, works with Henri Emmet ’21 of New York. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Don’t try to sound impressive, advises Mizuno. “A common trend I’ve noticed is sentences that are repetitive, are too long, or try to combine too many ideas. I would encourage students to try not to beat around the bush and to avoid forming long, complicated sentences to fulfill the word count — ideas can get jumbled and confusing fast if sentences get too wordy.�

Zeke Smith ’19 of Weybridge, U.K., who as a Peer Writing and Speaking Assistant helps First-Year Seminar students craft and correct their papers, often takes students through this revising exercise: “I have them reread their draft with a focus on which words can be cut out, and which sentences can be written more concisely. Sometimes finding the exact right adjective or verb can replace an entire description.�

6. Skip jargon

Chinese major Olivia Stockly ’18 of Cumberland Center, Maine, and biochemistry major Ken Hale ’19 of Cleveland, Ohio, prepare for a physics lab in the Academic Resource Commons. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“It is very easy to use a lot of insider lingo, and writers should be conscious of this while they are trying to articulate their points,� says TWA Jackie Welch ’18 of Falmouth, Maine. “They should write as though the reader is familiar with their field but not necessarily with their particular discipline within that field.�

7. Cut the clichés

“Few people use ‘plethora’ right, and when they do, it’s a little precious,â€� if not downright pretentious, says Professor of French and Francophone Studies Kirk Read. “I would say we experience a plethora of plethoras in my world — that is to say, an excessive usage of this word!”

Adds Hill, “Nothing that comes after the phrase ‘throughout history’ is true.�

8. Revise, revise, revise

Associate Professor of Politics Leslie Hill speaks during a 2016 panel on the recent presidential election. This year, she is teaching a First-Year Seminar called “Race, Justice, and American Policy in the Twenty-First Century.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“I have often advised students to use an after-the-fact outline or simply go through a draft and highlight their topic sentences,� Hill says. “That will tell you what exists on paper, and you can decide whether that is what you wanted to say or not.�

9. Don’t make the last least.

Bestselling author and syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson discusses her work and tells students how to tell their own stories during a session of “Family Stories,” Kirk Read’s First-Year Seminar, on Oct. 27. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“Leave something for the end of your paper,� Read says. “Conclude without summarizing. Save something for the end, so that we appreciate what your point is and that you have proven it in some way.�

10. Record your paper, then listen to it

Reading a draft of a paper out loud can help you catch mistakes — and get around a fixation on grammar. “I try to tell students not to overworry about the grammar and mechanics of everything, but I am conflicted about that,� Read says. “I do want clean writers — so read your writing aloud. Record it and play it back to yourself to see if it makes any sense.�

11. Read!

Wenjing “Wen” Zheng ’21 of Wuhan, China gets her copy of “Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things” signed by the book’s author, Amy Dickinson, during a First-Year Seminar class on Oct. 27. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College).

“Read a lot of good writing — and read it as a writer,â€� says Cynthia Baker. “That is, think of yourself as a writer and study what the pros do. When you find course readings compelling, pay attention to how the writers make their content clear and compelling. What strategies do they use? How do they formulate their arguments and ideas? Give labels to those strategies, experiment with them yourself, and put them in your writer’s toolbox to pull out and use in your own writing.â€�

12. And write!

Paige Rabb ’20 of Stamford, Conn., takes notes during a meeting of her 2016 First-Year Seminar, “The Natural History of Maine’s Neighborhoods and Woods.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“It might be helpful to think of writing in any form — journaling, noting, ruminating, fine-tuning —as a daily practice,â€� says Read. “Something that you turn to regularly and happily. Something that might even center you or help sort you out, like yoga, working out, meditation. For many successful writers, it’s a regular practice — and a joy.”

As we’ve done in recent years, we asked a few ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professors, as they gathered for the academic procession for Convocation on Sept. 8, to share what they’re excited to teach this fall.

Featured are Kirk Read (French and francophone studies), Jason Castro (neuroscience), Carol Dilley (dance), Ke Ren (history), Jamil Drake (religious studies), Margaret Imber (classical and medieval studies), Jim Parakilas (music), and Joe Hall (history).

Promoted to full professor in May 2011, Kirk Read is professor of French and chair of the Division of Humanities. A specialist in early modern French literature, he concentrates on pre-Revolutionary France and Francophone North Africa. Released in April by Ashgate Publishing, his Birthing Bodies in Early Modern France: Stories of Gender and Reproduction investigates gender, sex and sexuality in medical discourse and across various literary genres building on an acute knowledge of early modern gender and culture as well as contemporary gender theory.

In collaboration with colleagues and students at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Read has developed a multimedia course in oral French that follows the adventures of a fictional North African heroine, Marie Malika d’Alger — an endeavor that combines his interests in language, culture and theater. Read has served as chair of French in 2011 and also chairs the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative, a campus-wide initiative promoting and advancing the arts at the college.

Read received his doctorate and master’s in French literature at Princeton, and a bachelor’s degree in French at Dartmouth. Prior to arriving at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1990, he taught at Princeton and Dartmouth. He is also an
exhibiting photographer, and has written and recorded
nearly 20 audio commentaries for Maine Public Radio.

Four students gyrated in slow motion around Chase Lounge watched by an audience of 20 or so. Sometimes in pairs, sometimes a foursome, sometimes a trio with an odd woman out, they stayed in constant motion — but also in constant contact with one another. Arms around, shoulders rolling against shoulders and hips against hips.

Called “contact improvisation,” this practice is basic to modern dance training, explained Rachel Boggia, acting director of dance at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. It helps dancers learn what they’re capable of. It makes them more aware of what others around them are doing. And it inspires new ideas for their work.

Like contact improvisation, there’s no telling what new inspirations will come from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ first-ever Arts Crawl, held Jan. 28. This Friday evening smorgasbord of the arts at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, performing and literary and visual, empowered the art makers and showed the campus the breadth and depth of creative work that happens here.

The Crawl told campus, “We’re here! We’re everywhere!” says Kirk Read, associate professor of French and chair of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative, the group that mustered up the event.

He adds, “Seeing all of these students involved in such marvelous, often impromptu arts events was invigorating and affirming of the arts on campus.” Despite other events worthy of attention that evening, including men’s and women’s basketball wins over Wesleyan and the Asia Night variety show, “I thought the overall engagement on campus was fantastic.”

The Crawl comprised simultaneous presentations and performances, mostly by students, from Olin Arts Center to Chase Hall. Equipped with a large, colorful and timetable, crawlers could:

• sample the book exhibition and talk to student artists in their studios at Olin;
• catch music, from gamelan to folk fiddling, in Perry Atrium;
• hear poetry at Coram and see dance and theater at Chase.

Not to mention surprises awaiting along the way, such as strolling a cappella singers, snow sculptures on the Quad and soft colors emanating from glow sticks buried in snowbanks.

The Crawl culminated ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Week. Manifesting the renewed emphasis on creative work mandated by the Choices for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ strategic planning process, the week began with an that brought three experts in community-based arts to campus for a Monday panel discussion, an evening performance by spoken-word poet and hip hop dancer Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and class visits by the visitors.

Mosaic of the arts

Wrapping up Arts Week on a cool starry evening ideal for strolling, the Crawl was by design a show of shows, a big-picture mosaic composed of short impressions.

Leaving the contact improvisers in Chase, an observer stopped next at the Imaging Center, in Coram Library, where large poetry excerpts hanging in the windows advertised the happenings inside: students in Eden Osucha’s poetry course reading their own and others’ verses.

One student read a favorite poem suitable to the weather, Billy Collins’ “Shoveling Snow With Buddha.” Another, presenting her own work in public for the first time, hung her heart on her sleeve with a piece about her parents’ divorce.

Perry Atrium and the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra offered an oasis of tranquility. Spare, cyclical, the pure timbres of the metal pot-like and gong-like instruments seemed to emanate from the very bones of Pettengill Hall. Listeners sat still, feeling the sound in their own bones, and the players didn’t move much either, striking their instruments with intense deliberation.

Student artwork in the Olin lobby was charmingly irreverent. A set of line drawings traced the metamorphosis of the farmer from “American Gothic” into a chimp. Sets of paper dolls and their outfits included “Devout Women from Around the World,” posing in their underwear adjacent to habits, niqabs and the full prairie-style dresses favored by women in certain American cults.

If the lobby display (and adjacent Dining Services buffet) was a popular draw, the art studios down the corridor were jammed with visitors — and the energy level rose still more with the arrival of a group of college trustees and faculty, led by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen.

Pouring it out

A cappella was a dominant flavor of the Crawl, with three ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ singing ensembles turning up around campus in scheduled appearances and at large. Heading alongside the frozen Puddle, an observer encountered the Deansmen singing Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” the flat bright light from a pole fixture subbing for Morrison’s autumn moon.

Leaving Commons and campus after a driving display of dance by the Dynasty Step Club, an observer could hear the Merimanders all the way from the Coram terrace, fresh voices pouring it out into the night.

A dance solo in Chase Lounge, a work in progress by senior Lindsay Reuter, was the last stop for a number of spectators. “It was a perfect ending,” says Read. “Lindsay asked our indulgence and reactions. It really warmed the hearts of trustees and faculty who know the value of rehearsal, critique and generous input that happens in a place like ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.”

Will this crawl be the first of many, or the one and only? “I know that students are energized about sustaining this higher visibility,” says Read. “The idea of a moonlight stroll through a campus that’s on fire with the arts in winter is something that has legs.”

Three ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College faculty members who share a passion for photography have mounted their images in an exhibit titled “After Image” in Chase Hall Gallery, 56 Campus Ave. Open to the public at no charge from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, the exhibition continues through May 15.

The faculty photographers are Associate Professor of Spanish Claudia Aburto Guzmán, Associate Professor of French Kirk Read and Michael Reidy, technical director and lecturer in theater.

Aburto Guzmán suggested the idea of an exhibit to Read as a way of talking about their shared interest in photography and working on a project together that would encourage them to displayÌýtheir work in a public space. Read knew that Reidy was a photographer and invited him to take part. Other faculty members have since indicated interest in the conversation. “The theme seems to be photography as more than a hobby, but at this point, less than a profession,” says Read. “I really enjoyed the process of sharing ideas, reactions and sensibilities.”

Aburto Guzmán displays a series of black and white still lifes. Working withÌý Polaroid prints, Reidy presents a series of individual photographs that are combined in various ways, he writes, to “discover new, unplanned images.”

Using a macro lens, Read creates a series of portraits of plastic figurines that, depending on their environments, Read writes, appear “melancholy, inquisitive, naïve, rebellious, triumphant and desperate.”

The display is sponsored by the departments of Romance Languages and Literatures and Theater.

In addition to classical works, the ensemble will play the “Dialogue for Two Trumpets” by the contemporary composer Eugene Bozza. The piece will feature trumpeters Josh Clark and Meredith Haviland, both ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students.

Also members of the quintet are student Benjamin Kloda, French horn; James Richter, associate professor of political science, trombone; and Kirk Read, assistant professor of French, tuba.