New & Notable

Who's who? Maybe you--The 1997 Who's Who among Students in American Universities and Colleges will include forty-one MHC women. Those chosen for their academic achievement, service to the community, leadership in extracurricular activities, and potential for continued success are: Naveen Balkhi, Burcu Betni, Jen Brown, Yvonne Chadwick, Talita Choudhury, Kysa Christie, Margaret Clayton, Shanthi Divakaram, Chandra Dunn, Carrianna Field, Sarah Gamble, Cheryl Gittens, Melissa L. Griffin, Justi Grubor, Ana Hilton, Analisa Ivens, Maryse Jayasuriya, Amy Johnson, Tara Kirkpatrick, Nicole Kolhouse, Aurora Krause, Shannon LaDeau, Nicole Lavelle, Kristin McNamara, Laurie Mead, Zia Nariman, Elizabeth O'Donoghue, Lydia Okutoro, Cheri Ouellette, Rose Anna Pawlikowski, Sarah Principato, Ellie Rounds, Petra Scamborova, Diana Steeble, Tiffany Tang, Grace Taylor, Camille Townsend, Stephanie Trauner, Thao Mee Xiong, Simi Sanni, and Nu Lu.

Named to Kennan Chair--Professor of mathematics Donal O'Shea was recently named to the Elizabeth T. Kennan Chair, a rotating position named in honor of the former president. O'Shea has chaired and is one of the founding members of both the Valley Geometry Seminar and the Five College Applied Mathematics Group. He is also the officer of sponsored research at the College.

The one million dollar man's program--Since 1977, physics professor Howard Nicholson, Mount Holyoke students, and associate professor of physics Sean Sutton have received a little over $1 million in a continuing grant from the Department of Energy. Over the years, this money has supported a variety of projects for which Nicholson has served as the principal investigator. In the most recent renewal, Nicholson and Sutton reeled in $69,000 to work on research at Brookhaven Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator, and an underground experiment in France. This recent funding was one of a small number of grants in high-energy physics awarded to small liberal arts colleges.

A caring investment made--Local people in need will receive aid thanks to more than $22,000 in donations to the Community Campaign fund drive from students, faculty, and staff. According to campaign chair Phil Buchanan, faculty and staff gave to the United Way and Combined Health Appeal agencies, while students contributed to Womanshelter/Compañeras. The total bested last year's collection of $19,571.

All those words--MHC faculty are prolific writers, and a bookstore-sponsored reception on December 13 (in the library court) will honor the many books MHC authors have published during 1996. Look in the calendar section for details about the reception. Authors (with their department affiliations and book titles) include: Lee Bowie (philosophy, Twenty Questions in Philosophy); Daniel Brown (religion, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought); Carolyn Collette and Richard Johnson (English, Finding Common Ground); Joseph Ellis (history, American Sphinx); Judy Franklin (computer science, Recent Advances in Robot Learning); Leah Glasser (English, In a Closet Hidden); Jonathan Lipman (history/Asian studies, Remapping China); Mark McMenamin (geology, Carthaginian Cartography); Karen Remmler (German studies, Waking the Dead); Holger Teschke (theatre arts, Kalkfell); and Ken Tucker (sociology, French Revolutionary Syndicalism and the Public Sphere). All the books are for sale in the College bookstore.

Peripatetic Papers--Two documents from the College archives will soon become part of an international exhibition called Exiles and Emigrés: The Flight of European Artists from Hitler. Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the exhibition will be displayed there, and in Montreal and Berlin, over the next year. The MHC documents concern Entretiens de Pontigny, a conference of American and European intellectuals in exile held at Mount Holyoke in 1942-44, according to archives librarian Patricia Albright. Luminaries including André Maurois, painter Robert Motherwell, and Jean Wahl attended the conference.

All remarks lead to Rome--Wendy Watson, art museum curator, and John Varriano, art department chair, spoke at an Emory University symposium on "Views of Rome." Watson discussed "Picturing Rome: Photography in the Nineteenth Century," while Varriano's talk was titled "Sites and Sensibility: Myth and Imagination."

"Women of excellence" honored--At campus Kwanzaa celebrations last week, the Association of Pan-African Unity honored seven MHC "women of excellence." Heather Nicholson, associate director of admissions and head resident, was named "woman of the year." Others honored were: Teena Johnson-Smith, academic computing consultant; Anita Smith, director of admissions; ombudsperson Rochelle Calhoun; Ruth Bass Green, associate dean of studies for sophomores and multicultural affairs; Mary McHenry, professor of English; and Beverlyn Zebrowski '97.

What's new with you?--Send news for "New & Notable" to Emily Weir, Office of Communications, or email eweir@mtholyoke.edu.