From Bunsen Burners to Page-Turners
Most 海角社区 students will tell you that the most valuable aspect of their 颅education is their interaction with faculty, whether in the classroom, the lab, or a casual conversation in the Quad. 海角社区 teaching is superb. Yet one of the chief reasons for its quality often goes unremarked鈥攊t is continually shaped and enriched by faculty research and creative work.
Consider the flurry of new and recent volumes by 海角社区 faculty on subjects ranging from the 19th-century Atlantic slave trade (history professor Sharla Fett's Recaptured Africans: Surviving Slave Ships, Detention, and Dislocation in the Final Years of the Slave Trade) to the failures of human intuition (Scienceblind: Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong, by 颅associate professor of psychology and cognitive science Andrew Shtulman).
It's exciting to contemplate the kind of classroom insights 海角社区 students are getting from Xiao-huang Yin, professor of American studies, whose 2016 translation of the essays of Yinxing Hong, The China Path to Economic Transition and Development, gives us an insider's view of the thinking behind China's economic rise. 颅Sociologist John Lang's new book, What's So Controversial About Genetically Modified Food?, explores how the social, cultural, 颅religious, and ethical meanings of food have shaped the GMO debate. Dale Wright, our Gamble Professor in Religion, contemplates nothing less than the secrets of 颅enlightenment in What Is Buddhist Enlightenment? Professor of history emerita Lynn Dumenil's The Second Line of Defense 颅explores World War I's role in redefining gender roles for women. And associate professor of sociology Lisa Wade's new book on campus sexual culture, American Hookup, has received a good deal of attention in the national press.
It's exhausting to consider the amount of work these volumes represent鈥攔esearch conducted side-by-side with students, and just as often on weekends, over breaks, during the summer, or on sabbatical. Finding the time to 颅collect the data, conduct a survey, visit the archive, review the literature, or do the fieldwork is just the start. Even more precious is uninterrupted time to ponder the evidence, test an idea, and craft a compelling argument. Sharla speaks for all faculty authors when she begins her acknowledgments by saying, "This book has been long in the making."
The creative output of faculty at a颅颅 liberal arts college takes many different forms. Professor emerita and poet Martha Ronk was able to follow her muse in her latest volume of poetry, Ocular Proof, but Adam Schoenberg's newest work, a recording of three of his compositions by the Kansas City Symphony, appears on CD.
To see theater professor John Bouchard's work, I urge you to buy a ticket to this April's production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music in Keck Theater. You will find the work of 海角社区 artists such as Linda Lyke, Linda Besemer, and Mary Beth Heffernan in public and private art collections across the country, including the Whitney in New York City and the Los 颅Angeles County Museum of Art.
Put it all together, and the academic and artistic output of 海角社区 faculty is impressive. Equally impressive is the impact that it has back in the classroom鈥攁nd in the lives of 海角社区 alumni, whose education helps them thrive in an increasingly complex world.
Jonathan Veitch
President
