Teach-in and alumni panel discuss solidarity and allyship for Asians and Asian Americans</h1> <article> <h1>Teach-in and alumni panel discuss solidarity and allyship for Asians and Asian Americans</h1> <p>swargo — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:10:15 +0000</p> <span>Teach-in and alumni panel discuss solidarity and allyship for Asians and Asian Americans</span> <span><span>swargo</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-03-25T09:10:15-04:00" title="Thursday, March 25, 2021 - 09:10">Thu, 03/25/2021 - 09:10</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Two upcoming events will provide an opportunity to learn about the work of solidarity and how to be an ally in addressing anti-Asian violence.</p> <p><strong>On Monday, March 29, at 7 p.m.</strong>, a teach-in sponsored by the Department of Comparative American Studies and the <a href="/about-oberlin/presidential-initiative-racial-equity-and-diversity" target="_blank">Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity</a> will provide a forum to educate participants on the hard work of solidarity. It is also an opportunity, as Shelley Lee, professor of history and chair of comparative American studies, noted in her recent op-ed in the <em>�鶹��Ƶ Review</em>, to recognize that while we live in ��attention- and resource-scarce times, when it feels like everything is at stake all at once, simply learning, valuing, and wanting to know about one another does seem both a hopelessly na?ve and insurmountably tall order. But this may also be our only way forward.�� Advance registration <strong>for the webinar is required</strong>. </p> <p><strong>On Wednesday, March 31 at 12 p.m.</strong>, the <a href="/mrc" target="_blank">Multicultural Resource Center</a> welcomes all students, staff, and faculty to a panel discussion featuring �鶹��Ƶ alumni working in various fields to discuss their efforts in supporting Asian and Asian-American communities and how their work has evolved during COVID-19. Moderator Shelley Lee will be in conversation with Anjan Chaudry ��09, director of dommunity empowerment, National Coalition for Asian Pacific Americans Community Development; Daniel Domaguin ��06, co-founder, NorCal Filipinx Wellness Collective, and Nancy D. Nguyen ��05, executive director of VietLead. Advance registration <strong>is required for the event</strong>.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-03-25T12:00:00Z">Thu, 03/25/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Office of Communications</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2763">Multicultural Resource Commons</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3490">Presidential Initiative</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25311">Comparative American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-american-studies" hreflang="und">Comparative American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jason Leung</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>This Week in Photos: March 11</h1> <p>ygay — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 21:17:23 +0000</p> <span>This Week in Photos: March 11</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-03-11T17:17:23-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 11, 2020 - 17:17">Wed, 03/11/2020 - 17:17</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>LaunchU, a venture incubator for �鶹��Ƶ College students and alumni entrepreneurs, holds a final pitch competition in the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space. Participants in this round <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLT5Ro5" target="_blank">pitch business ideas</a> to judges for a chance to win monetary prizes that can aid in the success of their ventures. Photo credit: Jack Lichtenstein ��23 </figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Alex Blumberg ��89 <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLPqPKQ" target="_blank">reflects on the</a> �鶹��Ƶ entrepreneurial spirit, his experience with storytelling and podcasting, and the recent acquisition of his company by Spotify for more than $200 million. Photo credit: Yvonne Gay</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <div class="obj-center"> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>The 100th anniversary of <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLUUyw7" target="_blank">women��s suffrage is recognized </a>in Hallock Auditorium. Panelists explore the history of the suffrage movement and divisions within it, the exclusion of African American suffragists from the broader movement, and the position of anti-suffragists who were critical of the movement to allow women to vote. Photo credit: Yvonne Gay</figcaption> </figure> </div> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>An exquisite electrophonics concert is held in Fairchild Chapel in conjunction with TIMARA��s 50th anniversary. The concert celebrated student works in diverse media, including electroacoustic composition, live electronics, video, sound art, and custom instruments for performance. Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>The 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven��s birth has inspired individuals and organizations worldwide to join in the celebration throughout 2020. �鶹��Ƶ <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLTWzma" target="_blank">student quartets performed </a>in Kulas Recital Hall. Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Students learn <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLU2tNX" target="_blank">hand-sewing techniques</a> on a Saturday afternoon. Photo credit: Lucie Maria Weismueller </figcaption> </figure> <p> </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-03-11T12:00:00Z">Wed, 03/11/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2379">Student Life</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2395">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3238">LaunchU</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">The �鶹��Ƶ College Arts and Sciences Orchestra performs in Finney Chapel under the direction of Tiffany Chang ��09.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yevhen Gulenko</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>This Week in Photos: March 4</h1> <p>ygay — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 18:30:48 +0000</p> <span>This Week in Photos: March 4</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-03-04T13:30:48-05:00" title="Wednesday, March 4, 2020 - 13:30">Wed, 03/04/2020 - 13:30</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>A plaque in honor of Shirley Graham Du Bois ��34, a composer, playwright, biographer, nation builder, activist, and one of the first black women to stage an opera in the United States, is unveiled in the conservatory library. Photo credit: Dale Preston '83</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>The Russian Renaissance quartet modernizes the sound of traditional folk instruments <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLJTnRw">in Finney Chapel</a>. Photo credit: Jack Lichtenstein '23</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>The Sonic Arts Winter Term group, led by TIMARA Lecturer and Technical Director Abby Aresty, holds a gratitude showers table at University Hospitals in Elyria, where staff members are invited to express words of thanksgiving. <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLM6gTP">Words are printed</a> and placed on umbrellas for an installation that will be displayed at the hospital in the spring. Photo credit: Mike Crupi</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Rani Molla ��08, senior data reporter at Recode, leads a data journalism workshop in the Adam Joseph Lewis Center. The session was part of the <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLDQEuX">�鶹��Ƶ College Student Journalism Symposium</a>��s weeklong schedule of events. Photo credit: Dale Preston '83</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>The Nots, a garage punk band from Memphis, Tennessee, round out <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLAJdk3">WOBIE Fest</a> in �鶹��Ƶ��s college nightclub. The three-day music festival was hosted by �鶹��Ƶ College and community radio station WOBC-FM in association with Student Union Programming Committee, �鶹��Ƶ Hip-Hop Collective, and F+ABB. Photo credit: Jack Lichtenstein '23</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-03-04T12:00:00Z">Wed, 03/04/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2496">�鶹��Ƶ History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3319">Community Engagement</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2368">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2379">Student Life</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2364">Artist Recital Series</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25331">Dance</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/abby-aresty" hreflang="und">Abby Aresty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/dance" hreflang="und">Dance</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Dance at �鶹��Ƶ presents Liminal Spaces: A Pedestrian's Guide directed by Georgie Johnson '20.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Anokha Venugopal ��23</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Winter Term in �鶹��Ƶ: 2020</h1> <p>ygay — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 15:35:06 +0000</p> <span>Winter Term in �鶹��Ƶ: 2020</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-02-24T10:35:06-05:00" title="Monday, February 24, 2020 - 10:35">Mon, 02/24/2020 - 10:35</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-02-24T12:00:00Z">Mon, 02/24/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a class="view-more" href="https://photo-stories.oberlin.edu/winter-term-in-oberlin/">Browse Winter Term in �鶹��Ƶ: 2020</a></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2413">Social Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2378">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33031">TIMARA</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25411">Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25326">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25456">Russian</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25276">Latin American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25331">Dance</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25376">Greek Language and Literature</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25436">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=35596">Voice</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25441">Theater</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25306">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25246">Biochemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=35911">Flute</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/abby-aresty" hreflang="und">Abby Aresty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/joshua-sperling" hreflang="und">Joshua Sperling</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/peter-naegele" hreflang="und">Peter Naegele</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/abe-reshad" hreflang="und">Abe Reshad</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jan-cooper" hreflang="und">Jan Cooper</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jason-stalnaker" hreflang="und">Jason Stalnaker</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/will-parsons" hreflang="und">William (Will) Parsons</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/chemistry-biochemistry" hreflang="und">Chemistry and Biochemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/theater" hreflang="und">Theater</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/strings" hreflang="und">Strings</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/winds-brass-and-percussion" hreflang="und">Winds, Brass, and Percussion</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/vocal-studies" hreflang="und">Vocal Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/dance" hreflang="und">Dance</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/russian" hreflang="und">Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing" hreflang="und">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/physics-and-astronomy" hreflang="und">Physics and Astronomy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/contemporary-music" hreflang="und">Contemporary Music</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/latin-american-studies" hreflang="und">Latin American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Students in the Practicum in Exhibit Design project work on a community-informed exhibit of Alaska Native cultural objects that will be displayed in the Mary Church Terrell Library in the spring.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Professor of History Renee Romano Selected for Cultural Exchange Residency in Japan</h1> <p>anagy — Mon, 27 May 2019 16:16:30 +0000</p> <span>Professor of History Renee Romano Selected for Cultural Exchange Residency in Japan</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-05-27T12:16:30-04:00" title="Monday, May 27, 2019 - 12:16">Mon, 05/27/2019 - 12:16</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Beginning in late May, Professor of History, Comparative American Studies, and Africana Studies <a href="/renee-romano">Renee Romano</a> will spend several weeks visiting academic institutions in Japan through a residency awarded by the Organization of American Historians (OAH).</p> <p>Romano is one of two U.S. historians selected by the OAH and the Japanese Association for American Studies to receive the 2019 residency on cultural history of the 20th century at Tohoku University. The residency was announced April 5 during the OAH annual meeting in Philadelphia. Her work is also supported by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission.</p> <p>Romano specializes in modern American history, with research interests in the racial politics of post-WWII United States, African American history, civil rights, and historical memory. In 2018, she codirected the traveling exhibit <em><a href="/news-and-events/special-events/courage-and-compassion">Courage and Compassion: Our Shared Story of the Japanese American World War II Experience.</a></em></p> <p>Romano will be in Japan May 29 through June 16. During her time there, she will give lectures on American history at the annual meeting of the Japanese American Studies Association in Tokyo, at Doshisha University in Kyoto, at Osaka University in Osaka, and at Tohoku University in Sendai.</p> <p>��This residency is a wonderful opportunity for me to meet and engage with Japanese scholars who study U.S. history,�� Romano says. ��I��m excited to share my work with students and scholars there and to gain a deeper perspective on how America and its history are viewed in Japan. I��m also thrilled to have the opportunity to give talks at several different universities in different areas of the country and to do some sightseeing along the way.��</p> <p>Romano is the author and coeditor of several books, including the 2018 anthology <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/historians-on-hamilton/9780813590318"><em>Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America��s Past.</em></a> She serves on the executive board of the OAH and is an OAH Distinguished Lecturer. Founded in 1907, OAH is the world��s largest professional association dedicated to American history scholarship.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-05-27T12:00:00Z">Mon, 05/27/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25311">Comparative American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=4821">Africana Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-american-studies" hreflang="und">Comparative American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/africana-studies" hreflang="und">Africana Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Renee Romano, professor of history, comparative American studies, and Africana studies </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jennifer Manna</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Faculty Members Receive Promotions</h1> <p>hhempste — Wed, 15 May 2019 18:22:03 +0000</p> <span>Faculty Members Receive Promotions</span> <span><span>hhempste</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-05-15T14:22:03-04:00" title="Wednesday, May 15, 2019 - 14:22">Wed, 05/15/2019 - 14:22</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><ul class="news-grid"> <li> <p>In celebration of the promotions, we asked each about their most memorable experience at �鶹��Ƶ and what they enjoy about being a professor. The following are grouped by rank and listed alphabetically.</p> <p> </p> <h2 class="vertical_line">Promoted to Associate Professor</h2> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Matthew Bahar, associate professor of history</strong></p> <p>��Lately, I��ve reflected a lot on my arrival at �鶹��Ƶ in fall 2012. One encounter that semester is still etched in my mind. While walking in front of Rice Hall on the first day of class, I was approached from across the street by a student who introduced himself, welcomed me to campus, and commented on my job interview talk from the previous February. The brief exchange surprised me and helped ease my first-day jitters. We still keep in touch and enjoy recalling the end of his �鶹��Ƶ career and the beginning of mine. He proved to be only the first of many cordial, earnest, and curious students I��ve encountered here.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Jennifer Manna</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Aaron Goldman, associate professor of biology</strong></p> <p>��My research and teaching interests lie in between several traditional disciplines. At �鶹��Ƶ, I��ve found a vibrant community of students and professors with the same enthusiasm for working across disciplinary boundaries. It��s a real privilege to work here.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Gunnar Kwakye, associate professor of neuroscience</strong></p> <p>��I��ve always been interested in teaching, conducting research with a diverse group of individuals, and giving back to the community. However, I never considered being a professor until retired Professor of Neuroscience Lynne Bianchi recruited me as a visiting assistant professor. I was very impressed with the overall quality, dedication, and enthusiasm of �鶹��Ƶ students, as well as the support and mentorship from faculty and staff. Thus, I decided to pursue a career as a professor at �鶹��Ƶ College. My overarching goals as a professor are to recruit, mentor, teach, conduct research, and inspire a diverse group of students who are the future leaders of the world.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Leslie Kwakye, associate professor of neuroscience</strong></p> <p>��The most enjoyable thing about being a professor is mentoring students in research. I love my research and doing my research, but I like it the most because I get to mentor students. I get to see them excited about research and develop their own scientific thinking and knowledge base ��then go out and succeed in their own right.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Paul Thibodeau, associate professor of psychology</strong></p> <p>��What I enjoy most about being a professor is having the opportunity to work with students. I love teaching and mentoring students in research. It��s incredibly rewarding to help students learn new skills and grow.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Lola Thompson, associate professor of mathematics</strong></p> <p>��I took a yearlong sabbatical during my fourth year at �鶹��Ƶ, splitting my time between the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Germany and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley. I was nowhere near �鶹��Ƶ, yet I kept running into �鶹��Ƶ students and faculty everywhere! I would see �鶹��Ƶ students in the audiences of my talks at conferences, where they would wait around to give me hugs and fill me in on what I was missing during my year away. While I was living in Germany, I had several colleagues reach out to me when they found themselves in nearby countries��I wound up exploring Vienna, Paris, and Berlin with other �鶹��Ƶ faculty members. When I started my position in Berkeley, I immediately received emails from various Bay Area �鶹��Ƶ alums, who wanted to meet up for coffee or offer me tours of the Googleplex. It was incredible to feel this strong sense of community, even when I was so far away from campus.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr style="height: 3px; color: #666;"></li> <li> <h2 class="vertical_line">Promoted to Professor</h2> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Margaret Kamitsuka, professor of religion</strong></p> <p>��An aspect of teaching at �鶹��Ƶ that has been gratifying for me is hearing from former students who reconnect and share how their religion department or gender studies courses helped launch their academic and career directions. Because teachers at �鶹��Ƶ are supported in their efforts to mentor students as a whole person, these kinds of teacher-student connections are fostered and prove to be meaningful in the future.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Jennifer Manna</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Tom Newlin, professor of Russian</strong></p> <p>��One of the really wonderful things about being a professor is that every year you have the chance to meet and get to know lots of interesting new people��your students!��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Maureen Peters, professor of biology</strong></p> <p>��It��s hard to define the mix of memorable moments that characterize life as an �鶹��Ƶ professor, but the ones that stand out in my mind usually involve gatherings of current students and alumni. These times make me realize how special it is to be a part of a community of curious, thoughtful, and caring people that extends through time and space. It��s wonderful to see how easily Obies meaningfully connect with one another, to witness their zest for life, and to hear about their journeys into professional careers and adulthood. Alumni often reflect on how their �鶹��Ƶ educations have impacted their lives and express their gratitude for their time at �鶹��Ƶ. These events make me proud to be a part of such a formative period for them.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Baron Pineda, professor of anthropology</strong></p> <p>��Although I enjoy being in �鶹��Ƶ, my most memorable work with students has been in London, working with students and doing my own research in the context of the Danenberg-in-London Program. I have done this twice (2010 and 2015), and it allowed me to combine and intensify things that I really enjoy: working closely with students, having great academic resources at my disposal, going to plays and concerts, and traveling.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Jennifer Manna</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> <li> <div class="grid-container"> <div> <p><strong>Drew Wilburn, professor of classics</strong></p> <p>��I��ve been teaching Magic and Mystery in the Ancient World since I arrived at �鶹��Ƶ, and I love introducing students to the religious and mystical practices of the Greeks and Romans. One of the most memorable��and enjoyable��moments of my career at �鶹��Ƶ built on this, and it expanded my own areas of interest. As one of the faculty on the Danenberg �鶹��Ƶ-in-London Program in spring 2017, I was able to offer the History of Medicine, cotaught with Maureen Peters, and Magic, Witchcraft and Religion from Stonehenge to Harry Potter. I worked closely with the 24 students in the program, and we visited an immense amount of sites and museums related to medicine and magic. With the assistance of alum Tracy Chevalier, we had a sneak preview of <em>Harry Potter and the History of Magic</em> at the British Library. Later, I was able to share my knowledge with alumni by leading a tour of the exhibition when it traveled to New York City this past January. The Danenberg �鶹��Ƶ-in-London program is a unique �鶹��Ƶ opportunity, and I was thrilled to take part in it with our fantastic students.��</p> </div> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Jennifer Manna</figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr></li> </ul> <style type="text/css">.grid-container figcaption { color: inherit; position: static; left: 0; bottom: 0; background: none; padding: 0; } ul.news-grid { list-style-type: none; padding: 0; } .grid-container { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr 150px; grid-column-gap: 25px; } @media only screen and (max-width: 768px) { .grid-container { grid-template-columns: 100%; grid-row-gap: 20px; } .grid-container img { object-fit: cover; object-position: 50% 0; width: 250px; height: 250px; } } .vertical_line { border-left: 4px solid #A6CE39; padding-left: 10px; } </style> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-05-15T12:00:00Z">Wed, 05/15/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Eleven faculty members have been promoted to the rank of professor or associate professor with continuous tenure for the academic year beginning July 1, 2019. </p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25251">Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=4861">Neuroscience</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25261">Classical Civilization</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25421">Religion</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=24656">Anthropology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25426">Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25401">Mathematics</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/baron-pineda" hreflang="und">Baron Pineda</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/maureen-peters" hreflang="und">Maureen Peters</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/gunnar-kwakye" hreflang="und">Gunnar Kwakye</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/leslie-kwakye" hreflang="und">Leslie Kwakye ��06</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/aaron-goldman" hreflang="und">Aaron Goldman</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/matthew-bahar" hreflang="und">Matthew Bahar</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/biology" hreflang="und">Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/neuroscience" hreflang="und">Neuroscience</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/psychology" hreflang="und">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/mathematics" hreflang="und">Mathematics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/religion" hreflang="und">Religion</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/anthropology" hreflang="und">Anthropology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Dale Preston ��83</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Elusive Equality: A Conversation with Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith</h1> <p>bdenneen — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 15:36:19 +0000</p> <span>Elusive Equality: A Conversation with Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith</span> <span><span>bdenneen</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-04-03T11:36:19-04:00" title="Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - 11:36">Wed, 04/03/2019 - 11:36</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Public historian Rebekkah Rubin ��13 talked to them about their findings. A condensed and edited version of this Q&A will be available in the spring 2019 issue of the <em>�鶹��Ƶ Alumni Magazine</em>.</p> <hr> <p><strong>Rebekkah Rubin:</strong> Did �鶹��Ƶ��s commitment to racial equality change over time, and if so, how? And did �鶹��Ƶ differ from the rest of the country in that regard?</p> <p><strong>Carol Lasser:</strong> Well, that��s the heart of the book, isn��t it? �鶹��Ƶ changes. The people who make up �鶹��Ƶ change, and their understanding of their relationship to racial equality changes. The interesting thing for us, I think, has been that in the beginning, �鶹��Ƶ is quite different from the rest of the country and utterly willing to stand up for the ways in which it is committed to radical racial egalitarianism, and I think part of that is the strength of the Christian belief. I think part of that is the strength of the abolitionist movement, which is gaining in intensity in the 1850s. After the Civil War, �鶹��Ƶ needs to reevaluate its raison d��tre, and it pulls back from that commitment to radical racial egalitarianism. Part of that may be a sense that emancipation has been achieved, so if the fight is against slavery, slavery has been eliminated. Over time, the people who have come to inhabit the town do not any longer see that the job of eliminating prejudice falls to them, so in that sense, they fall very much in line with other parts of the country and by the turn of the century you see segregationist practices, discriminatory practices, a color line having an impact even in �鶹��Ƶ. They do not resist the outside world as they had once resisted it.</p> <p><strong>Gary Kornblith:</strong> The three objects of the �鶹��Ƶ Anti-Slavery Society are ��the immediate emancipation of the whole colored race within the United States, the emancipation of the slave from the oppression of the master, the emancipation of the free colored man from the oppression of public sentiment, and the elevation of both to an intellectual moral and political equality with the white.�� I would just say two things: one is to recognize that there are really two foundings of �鶹��Ƶ and its communal or utopian vision. One is the first founding when the colony is created in 1833 and the settlers arrive and they sign the covenant. The second is the re-founding, if you will, in 1835 after the so-called Lane Rebels��these abolitionists who had been studying at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, but who have left that institution because it objects to their abolitionist activities��come to �鶹��Ƶ at [John] Shipherd��s urging and as part of a larger agreement. Initially, many of the existing settlers at the time and students are against the idea of admitting blacks, which is one of the conditions that the Lane Rebels establish. Shipherd is very much in favor of this, and it carries narrowly in the Board of Trustees meeting in February of 1835.</p> <p>By the time that Charles Grandison Finney arrives as the first professor of theology and Asa Mahan as the first president, the mood within �鶹��Ƶ has shifted. In the summer of 1835, there is a great antislavery revival, for lack of a better term��they don��t call it that��and the founding of the �鶹��Ƶ Anti-Slavery Society. At that time, the townspeople do testify that they embrace these egalitarian principles; racial equality as well as the elimination of chattel slavery become central to the town��s identities, not just the college��s. Much of our book is more about the town than the college, though of course they��re intertwined. As Carol said, there is no real debate between those two goals, although there��s always a debate over means leading up to the Civil War. After the Civil War, and more particularly after the achievement of supposedly race-blind suffrage, many �鶹��Ƶians believed that the goals that were originally set had been achieved but it��s also true that by 1870, only a small minority of the residents of the town actually can remember the original events or even the famous �鶹��Ƶ-Wellington Rescue.</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> There��s a kind of amnesia and a supplanting of the original vision.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> But the original vision also has its weaknesses and that becomes more clear��</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> That is that third plank: in a community committed to the elevation of black people to a white standard��that is not exactly how we would understand cultural diversity today. There are some presumptions of the superiority of whiteness that actually carry on and undermine racial equality in the later parts of the 19th and into the 20th century.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> Building on that, one of the key things to realize is there is no notion of culture in the 1830s. There is a notion of character, but not one of culture. What sets �鶹��Ƶ apart from the rest American society, North as well as South, is a firm belief in the natural equality of blacks and whites. Beyond that, the white notion of equality is finding your way into the Kingdom of Christ, and they expect that everyone, once they��ve been able to shed the manacles of oppression, will, as free agents, be able to do this. In the end, it turns out that not everyone has the same notion of what the Kingdom of Christ will be, and the unselfconscious assumption that the white standard is the highest standard��not because whites are naturally better, but because they are better educated and they found their way to Christ��all of that becomes more complicated. But even in the early 20th century, �鶹��Ƶ whites are not able to accept the notion of culture. They begin to see blacks as naturally different, so they��re more inclined to all of these things that today we would say are either white supremacists�� condescending stereotypes or the consequence of cultural diversity and that should be respected. </p> <p><strong>RR:</strong> You assert in the book that �鶹��Ƶians originally believed that the goal of abolishing slavery and eliminating prejudice could only happen through ��peaceful and lawful means,�� including ��approaching the minds of slaveholders with the truth, in the spirit of the Gospel�� and ��concentrating public sentiment against the system�� but then, in a space of a generation, you write they ��forsook their faith in the efficacy of peaceful methods and embraced the use of coercive force to end human bondage.�� What would you attribute this change to?</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> There are several things going on but what��s particular to �鶹��Ƶ is a mobilized black leadership group, many of whom have come recently from the American South, who have seen the violence of slavery perpetrated on slaves and who are themselves respected pillars of the community and are able to push their white neighbors to recognize, in a significant way, the ongoing violence of slavery. There is a radicalization in the larger abolitionist movement between 1850, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, and 1861, when war breaks out, but what is, again, unique to �鶹��Ƶ is the leadership of this group of mobilized black��and it is men��black men, who are able to in some ways reach their white neighbors about the need for action.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> But even in �鶹��Ƶ, you do have blacks elected to the city council on a regular basis from the 1870s ��til roughly 1912, although there is a break, and while [John Mercer] Langston himself had been elected too, as town clerk, it��s not until after the Civil War that you see blacks elected, but you see whites increasingly condescending in their attitude toward blacks.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> After the Civil War, there��s also no longer the migration to �鶹��Ƶ of whites motivated by abolitionism, and even motivated by a sense of the urgency of preparing for the Second Coming��that dynamic shifts��so the kinds of white people who are moving to �鶹��Ƶ is different after the Civil War. But there��s also one other aspect to all of this, in terms of the experience of living together in the Cuyahoga County Jail [following the �鶹��Ƶ-Wellington Rescue], for some of the white leaders is also, I think, important to their acceptance��</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> Radicalization.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> Of the need for, not only civil disobedience, but potentially violence. For someone like Henry Peck, who is an avowed abolitionist when he first shows up in �鶹��Ƶ��he��s from the Rochester area��and he��s in that jail, and that matters to him, but he also is dead by 1865. </p> <p><strong>RR:</strong> You write that �鶹��Ƶ��s temperance crusade promoted the ��stigmatization of race��can you tell me a little bit more about that?</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> I think that the historians writing on the temperance movement today have been struggling with how to understand it as well. Again, Bill Bigglestone, more than three decades ago, recognized that after black emancipation, temperance was the movement that, in a sense, sucked up all the oxygen in �鶹��Ƶ. His notion, at that point, was that it replaced black equality as the cause. I think we go further than that in trying to talk about how it really changed an understanding of race. The basic formula that I think we suggest is that antislavery never blames the slave; it blames the trafficker in slavery and it blames the enslaver. Temperance sees the sin of intemperance as one which good characters will rise above and drink at all, it turns out, becomes a way in which people become less able to save themselves and it becomes a character flaw. Poor black people bear the brunt of the temperance movement. It is an intolerant movement; it is an absolutist movement that in some ways plays into the worst stigmatization of race that we could imagine. </p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> One has to recognize that much of the impulse that drove abolitionism is essentially the same absolutist, moralist, self-righteous impulse that drives temperance. Even though we would disagree with the equation of the sin of slavery and intemperance and, certainly, we would disagree with the idea that you blame the drunkard for his or her plight in the way that they did, they had initially said ��just say no�� to slavery and now they were saying ��just say no�� to drink. </p> <p><strong>RR:</strong> Let��s talk a little about the creation of the color line in �鶹��Ƶ, which I think most people would find a surprising reversal of �鶹��Ƶians�� earlier commitment to racial equality. How exactly would you say that the color line came about and how did it manifest itself?</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> First of all, you can define the color line in different ways. It��s a term that only comes into use in the late 19th century; you don��t find that term applied before the Civil War. There were already, say in housing and in church membership��you didn��t have a black church but you had much lower participation of blacks in the Congregational church, which was for 30 years the only church in �鶹��Ƶ among blacks and among whites��so there were already differences. There was some overconcentration of African Americans in the southeast quadrant but we established through statistical analysis that the extent of residential segregation��de facto now, not de jure��in �鶹��Ƶ was rather low in 1860, certainly by comparison to other communities in the United States, and it rises over the next half century rather significantly. The place is never perfect, but after the Civil War, the difference in experience and behavior grows. I would say, especially whereas the black poor had never been fully included in certain kinds of community activities, they were not seen as the black community, and increasingly whites see them as the black community by the late 19th century and want to have less to do with them. There were many fewer bridge figures in the community��there were still a couple, but no one of the kind of John Mercer Langston. Even in the public schools, which had been integrated from the start and are still integrated in the early 20th century, you see increasingly an assumption that only whites will go on to professional careers, only whites will go on to college; blacks should move into vocational training. Then you have, in 1912 or 1913, the Hollywood addition, in which it��s made explicit that people moving to this new area of town, that it will be whites only. The college, likewise, wants to segregate its housing and basically says it��s not our problem when black athletes traveling to other colleges are told that they can��t stay in the same hotels as the white players, the college says ��We didn��t do it.��</p> <p>You also end up with an all-white city council after decades of having an integrated city council. You have no closing of the wealth gap and you have the acceptance, if you will, of black poverty as a natural fact, nothing that we can do about it, and that is very different from the earlier attitude. It��s not that black poverty didn��t exist in �鶹��Ƶ, because it certainly did, but there was a sense, an expectation, that poverty would end when the prejudice rooted in slavery ended, but that prejudice didn��t end, it became worse, and �鶹��Ƶ whites essentially said, well, we��ve done our thing and moved on. The black �鶹��Ƶ leadership group tried different strategies to combat that, including inviting the Niagara movement [a civil rights organization founded by DuBois] to �鶹��Ƶ but it was unable to push back successfully. The college starts accepting fewer black students, starts making sure that they��re in separate dorms, and the public schools, the elementary schools, are neighborhood-based but the neighborhoods are now increasingly racially separate��so is the school experience. We don��t have a full-scale Jim Crow regime, the town doesn��t have white versus colored drinking fountains, we don��t have lynching in �鶹��Ƶ. Compared to some of what��s going on the United States, �鶹��Ƶ is still a relatively safe space but it definitely is no longer committed to racial egalitarianism in a dramatic way. There��s no celebration of the 100th anniversary of the �鶹��Ƶ-Wellington Rescue, but by the time you have the 150th, there��s a town celebration.</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> None of this would be surprising in another town in Ohio; it��s only surprising because it��s �鶹��Ƶ.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> It��s become Americanized.</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> And because we are used to hearing the celebratory narrative. By the time you get to 1930, if you will, casual segregation is the rule and not the exception in �鶹��Ƶ. By 1932-34, �鶹��Ƶ is a segregated town. No one thinks about it. So, the rediscovery of civil rights activism, the rediscovery of inequality, the rediscovery of a commitment to radical racial egalitarianism in the ��50s and ��60s, or the ��40s as we do in the epilogue��I mean, that��s the surprise, not that �鶹��Ƶ succumbed, right? And we need to remember it��s a discontinuous history, right? We can��t just say, oh we have always stood for. It��s a struggle, it��s always a struggle, it��s a continuous struggle.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> It��s a reiterative struggle.</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> Right, we can��t say, oh, solved that, done with that, racial equality achieved, checked that off my list��no.</p> <p><strong>RR:</strong> Even after the creation of the color line, you write about how, in 1919, the NAACP convention delegates came to �鶹��Ƶ from Cleveland as a sort of pilgrimage, and you write that �鶹��Ƶ still ��enjoyed a special place in the imagination of racial progressives.�� Do you think that �鶹��Ƶ continues to occupy a similar place today?</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> In the imaginary, yes. And hopefully, actually we continue to reflect on this and move forward in a way that becomes more racially inclusive, more cognizant of how our more recent heritage still makes for racial inequality in �鶹��Ƶ, and it becomes our responsibility, the responsibility of those of us here now to think about ways in which the 21st century will continue to struggle against the inequalities that we see around us.</p> <p><strong>RR:</strong> Has researching and writing this book changed your perceptions of the town and the college?</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> Wow, of course. Beyond that, of course.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> I have become more deeply knowledgeable, and as a result, respectful of, how difficult it has been throughout the town��s history to be an �鶹��Ƶian of color. That the profession by �鶹��Ƶ whites of a kind of ethos of colorblindness actually, in certain ways, makes it harder, not easier when racist behavior arises because whites basically say, ��No that��s not really racist but,�� and the extent to which it��s a daily struggle��it��s not just these momentous occasions��which doesn��t mean that I��ve lived the experience of local African Americans. At the same time, �鶹��Ƶ was founded as a perfectionist experiment, and I, like many �鶹��Ƶ students, can be especially critical of its failure to achieve perfection, but we��ve discovered that we��re human. I think it is important that, at �鶹��Ƶ, we still worry about it��you can go to lots of towns that were founded to be better than your ordinary communities who don��t worry about it at all. We still worry about it, we still hold ourselves, at least some of the time, to this higher law, if you will, for better and occasionally for worse. That, I think, is important and that, I think, is still part of the local culture, town, and college. We can be cynical about the failures of this place but it has bequeathed to later generations a certain idealism, notwithstanding the fact that these remain ideals and not practices in many respects, and that, I think, is rather remarkable, and that gives me genuine hope.</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> I have this inchoate thought here which I��m going to try and put forward. Has it changed things? Yeah, also, all of what Gary said, I subscribe to that. Again, we are white people, we do not know the experience of people of color from the inside and I won��t pretend that we do, although we have a much greater appreciation for the meaning of that struggle on a day-to-day and on a generational basis. I��m just reflecting on the fact that we have our first president of color, living in a house on Forest Street, that real estate agent Louis Burgner would have had off-limits to her a hundred years ago.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> She doesn��t own it</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> This is true. [laughs] But there is a kind of interesting irony about how things change and we are capable of change. Not every change has the intended consequences��Gary always says the only law in history is the law of unintended consequences��but there is a kind of interesting irony there, and a notion of change, of coming back to a set of aspirations that I hope continue to inspire us.</p> <p><strong>GK:</strong> You know, again the subtitle: the struggle for racial equality.</p> <p><strong>CL:</strong> There��s no end to the struggle.</p> <hr> <p> </p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-05-09T12:00:00Z">Thu, 05/09/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Rebekkah Rubin ��13</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith, emeriti professors of history at �鶹��Ƶ, released in December their book, <em>Elusive Utopia: The Struggle for Racial Equality in �鶹��Ƶ, Ohio</em>, an account of �鶹��Ƶ��town and gown��and the rise and fall of an idealistic vision.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2496">�鶹��Ƶ History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones ��97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Former Ambassador Kathleen Stephens to Speak on U.S.-Korean Relations</h1> <p>anagy — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 19:36:31 +0000</p> <span>Former Ambassador Kathleen Stephens to Speak on U.S.-Korean Relations</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-02-15T14:36:31-05:00" title="Friday, February 15, 2019 - 14:36">Fri, 02/15/2019 - 14:36</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Kathleen Stephens, the former ambassador to South Korea from 2009-2011, will give a talk with crucial insights on the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit as part of her campus visit March 7-8 during the Global Issues Symposium.</p> <p>Stephens is part of a panel discussion on ��Militarizing East Asia�� that includes Sheila A. Smith, senior fellow for Japan studies with the Council of Foreign Relations, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, professor of history at University of California Irvine, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 7.</p> <p>The campus community will have an opportunity to hear more about Stephens�� career as a diplomat as well as her expertise on the relations between the United States and Northeast Asia in a separate guest event at 10 a.m. Friday, March 8, in Nancy Schrome Dye Lecture Hall. The talk will be moderated by Professor of East Asian studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager and Visiting Assistant Professor of History Jiyul Kim.</p> <p>Stephens�� visit is timely because it is scheduled one week after President Trump��s second summit with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un that will take place February 27-28 in Vietnam. In the talk moderated by Jager and Kim, Stephens will discuss the outcome of the summit and its implications for the future of peace Northeast Asia.</p> <p>Kim says he is thrilled to bring Stephens to �鶹��Ƶ because she is one of the foremost experts on the region, especially on the Koreas. Stephens has a long career in foreign service, beginning as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Korea in the 1970s. She has held positions at U.S. embassies and consulates in China, Trinidad and Tobago, Serbia, Croatia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and South Korea. She was ambassador to South Korea from 2009 to 2011.</p> <p>Following her ambassadorship, Stephens was a research fellow with Stanford University��s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. She is now president and CEO of the Korea Economic Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that focuses on U.S.-South Korean relations and the South Korean political economy. </p> <p>Kim says Stephens was highly regarded by the Korean people during her ambassadorship. ��She spoke the language and embraced the people and the culture, insisting on using the Korean name she adopted while in the Peace Corps. To this day, she is more familiar to South Koreans by her Korean name, Shim Eun-gyeong. We could not have asked for a more qualified person to talk about the Koreas. Her life and career will be inspirational to �鶹��Ƶ students.��</p> <p>The event is sponsored by the �鶹��Ƶ College dean��s office, International Studies, the East Asian studies, history, and politics departments, and the �鶹��Ƶ Korean Student Association.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-02-15T12:00:00Z">Fri, 02/15/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2390">Events</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25416">Politics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25336">East Asian Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jiyul-kim" hreflang="und">Jiyul Kim</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/sheila-miyoshi-jager" hreflang="und">Sheila Miyoshi Jager</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/politics" hreflang="und">Politics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/east-asian-studies" hreflang="und">East Asian Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Kathleen Stephens, former ambassador to South Korea</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of �鶹��Ƶ College</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>2016-2017 Excellence in Teaching Award Winners</h1> <p>hhempste — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:08:32 +0000</p> <span>2016-2017 Excellence in Teaching Award Winners</span> <span><span>hhempste</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-03-08T10:08:32-05:00" title="Thursday, March 8, 2018 - 10:08">Thu, 03/08/2018 - 10:08</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Six faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory of Music received an Excellence in Teaching Award for the 2016-2017 academic year. The recipients are David Bowlin, associate professor of violin; Alvin Chow, professor of piano; Hsiu-Chuang Deppman, professor of Chinese and cinema studies; Matthew Elrod, Robert and Eleanor Biggs Professor of natural science and professor of chemistry and biochemistry; Robert Shannon, professor of piano; Ellen Wurtzel, associate professor of history. The faculty members shared what this recognition means to them.</p> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>David Bowlin, Associate Professor of Violin</strong><br> Violinist David Bowlin has won widespread critical acclaim for his solo and chamber music performances from the <em>New York Times</em>, <em>Chicago Tribune</em>, the <em>Chicago Sun-Times</em>, and many others. His solo and chamber music performances of a wide-ranging repertoire have taken him throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Among them are dozens of premieres, including the Weill Carnegie Hall world premiere of Mahagoni, a violin concerto by Austrian composer Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin, and the 2016 world premiere of Marcos Balter��s Violin Concerto at Lincoln Center��s Mostly Mozart Festival. A passionate proponent of contemporary literature, Bowlin is a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, named Musical America��s 2014 Ensemble of the Year. Bowlin is also a former member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players. Bowlin is a graduate of the �鶹��Ƶ Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University.</p> <p>��It is a huge honor to be granted this award by my colleagues, and I am truly grateful. My eleven years working with the students at �鶹��Ƶ have been profoundly rewarding, so it is wonderful to feel appreciated in return through this award.��</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Lisa Kohler</figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Alvin Chow, Professor of Piano</strong><br> Alvin Chow has appeared throughout North America and in Asia as an orchestral soloist and recitalist. He has also performed extensively in duo-piano recitals with his wife, Angela Cheng, and his twin brother, Alan. Chow has performed in concert halls including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Orchestra Hall in Chicago; Weill and Steinway Halls in New York City; and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He has presented as recitalist in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Detroit, and Miami, and has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Pan-Asia Symphony in Hong Kong, and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, among others. Chow is a graduate of the University of Maryland and earned a Master of Music at the Juilliard School before beginning doctoral studies at Indiana University.</p> <p>��I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a teacher, and to be at a place like �鶹��Ƶ is really the fulfillment of that dream. Being surrounded by wonderful, accomplished colleagues and talented students has been inspiring. I feel that I have been a continual student myself because of these interactions, and that has certainly energized me in becoming a better teacher.��</p> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Jennifer Manna</figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Hsiu-Chuang Deppman, Professor of Chinese and Cinema Studies</strong><br> Hsiu-Chuang Deppman received a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She teaches modern Chinese literature in translation, Chinese cinemas, East Asian cinemas, Chinese literature and film, and intermediate Chinese language. Her research focuses on the art of adaptation, history of film, and modern Chinese fiction. She is the author of <em>Adapted for the Screen: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Film and Literature</em> and has published on a wide range of Chinese writers and directors in peer-reviewed journals and anthologies.<br> <br> ��I receive this award gratefully, as an amazing and unexpected honor. Having grown up as a rice farmer in the poorest area of rural Taiwan, I have come a long way to join an intellectual community at �鶹��Ƶ that takes pride in an educational mission ��that knows no class distinction�� (you jiao wu lei �н��). Simply walking into a classroom in Peters makes me happy, because my students reciprocate my passion for learning. They are responsive, engaged, and care about how their studies relate to the world they live in. It is a privilege to teach at �鶹��Ƶ.��</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Jennifer Manna</figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Matthew Elrod, Robert and Eleanor Biggs Professor of Natural Science and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry</strong><br> Matthew J. Elrod graduated with honors with a bachelor��s degree in chemistry from Grinnell College and obtained a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. After a postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a faculty appointment at Hope College, he joined the �鶹��Ƶ College faculty in 2001. Elrod��s research is focused on air pollution and climate change, particularly the chemical transformations of both natural and human emitted organic compounds. Since 1997, his lab has received continuous grant support from the National Science Foundation, and he has mentored 52 undergraduate research students, of whom 39 are coauthors on scientific journal articles.<br> <br> ��I truly have the whole �鶹��Ƶ community of scholars to thank for this award. It's been a great privilege to have been given the responsibility to teach in such an intellectually vibrant community. My faculty colleagues have always set a high bar that I have aspired to meet, and they have also served as tremendously supportive mentors and peers. However, it's the continual inspiration of bright �鶹��Ƶ students coming through my classrooms and labs that has supplied me with the considerable energy required for effective teaching. As I enter the second half of my teaching career, I remember the sage advice of my undergraduate advisor at the end of his 42-year teaching career: ��Even though you will inevitably get older and older, your students will never age, and if you play your cards right, you can ride with them in a seemingly new intellectual journey each semester.�� I intend to keep riding for some time to come.��</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Robert Shannon, Professor of Piano</strong><br> Robert Shannon has traveled across the world performing and teaching a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach to John Adams. A double-degree alumnus of �鶹��Ƶ, Shannon earned a Master of Music at the Juilliard School. In recent seasons, Shannon has appeared in Beijing, London, Hamburg, New York, San Francisco, and Caracas. His numerous performances and recordings on the Bridge label of 20th- and 21st-century composers such as George Crumb, Carla Bley, and John Harbison have been meet with critical praise, particularly his penetrating interpretations of such American composers as Charles Ives. He appears regularly at the Grand Teton, Tibor Varga, and Sacramento American Music festivals; as a guest artist with the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players; and in duo recitals with his wife, Haewon Song, who also is a piano professor at �鶹��Ƶ Conservatory.</p> <p>"I am very honored to receive this award. It seems like just yesterday that I started teaching here. I am fortunate to have worked with many very gifted and responsive students in �鶹��Ƶ��s unique environment."</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Photo credit: Jennifer Manna</figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Ellen Wurtzel, Associate Professor of History</strong><br> Ellen Wurtzel began her education at Duke University before earning master��s degrees at Bank Street College and Columbia University. She later returned to Columbia University where she earned a PhD. Wurtzel��s research interests lie in medieval and early modern European history and are particularly focused on the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) and France. Wurtzel��s current research concerns medieval bathhouses and their place in the francophone world from the 12th to 16th centuries. In the classroom, she is most interested in teaching about the subjects of cities and states; science and medicine; gender; Jewish, Christian, and Muslim relations; property and possession.</p> <p>��This award means a great deal to me because it speaks to the real value of working here��learning with and for students. I feel incredibly lucky to be working with students as bright, challenging, and curious as ours at �鶹��Ƶ College, and I work hard both to convey the passion I feel about history and to find ways of encouraging students�� own paths to the past. �鶹��Ƶ is a place where good teaching matters, and from seeing and reading about what colleagues do across the college and the Conservatory of Music, I am even more honored to be among their number.��</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2018-03-08T12:00:00Z">Thu, 03/08/2018 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2576">Excellence in Teaching Award</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=29541">Piano</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=35116">Violin</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25246">Biochemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25306">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25256">Cinema and Media</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/hsiu-chuang-deppman" hreflang="und">Hsiu-Chuang Deppman</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/ellen-wurtzel" hreflang="und">Ellen Wurtzel</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/robert-shannon-72" hreflang="und">Robert Shannon</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/matt-elrod" hreflang="und">Matthew (Matt) Elrod</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/alvin-chow" hreflang="und">Alvin Chow</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/cinema-studies" hreflang="und">Cinema and Media</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/chemistry-biochemistry" hreflang="und">Chemistry and Biochemistry</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Recipients of the 2016-2017 Excellence in Teaching Award stand in President Carmen Twillie Ambar��s house during a reception and dinner in their honor on February 27. First row, l-r: Ellen Wurtzel, Hsiu-Chuang Deppman, Alvin Chow. Second row, l-r: Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Timothy Elgren, Dean of the Conservatory of Music Andrea Kalyn, Robert Shannon, Matthew Elrod, and President Carmen Twillie Ambar. Not pictured: David Bowlin. <br> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Dale Preston</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Strengthening Community Ties Through Local History</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:20:22 +0000</p> <span>Strengthening Community Ties Through Local History</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:20:22-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:20">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:20</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>How an �鶹��Ƶ College student perceives �鶹��Ƶ history often differs from a community member��s view. This is one of many lessons students learn in the course �鶹��Ƶ History as American History, taught by Carol Lasser, professor of history and director of the Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies Department. Lasser created the course in 1997 as she and a team known as the <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/">Electronic �鶹��Ƶ Group</a> were working to publish local history online.</p> <p>��We started to get resources on the web, and we were interested in how these would work in classes, both at the college and in the high school,�� Lasser says. ��Over the years, getting �鶹��Ƶ history online began to take a second seat to getting college students to do local history projects partnered with high school students.��</p> <p>In the early days of the course, Lasser��s students worked with elementary, middle, and high school students in �鶹��Ƶ schools, but ��that became really unwieldy,�� Lasser says. So when �鶹��Ƶ High School teacher Kurt Russell proved highly enthusiastic about the projects, Lasser jumped at the opportunity to establish a long-term partnership. ��We had such a fabulous set of experiences working together that we��ve just kept it going,�� she says. ��We have worked together for a very long time.��</p> <p>Last semester, Lasser��s students were partnered with high school juniors in Russell��s International Baccalaureate History of the Americas class. Local history research topics aligned with the themes Russell was teaching in the class, including ��wars in the 20th century, peacemaking and peacekeeping 1918-1939, and the Cold War,�� according to Lasser. With the help of �鶹��Ƶ College Archivist Ken Grossi, Lasser and Russell developed topics teams could research that fit with these themes and were tied to ample resources at the <a href="https://libraries.oberlin.edu/archives">college archives</a>.</p> <p>Each time the course is taught, and before assigning research topics, Russell will create pairs of his students, and Lasser will meet with her students to learn more about their work styles and strengths and weaknesses. Then, the two educators form complementary teams of high school and college students. ��Making this work involves a lot of matching: matching students up, and then matching them up with topics,�� she says.</p> <p>In the beginning of a semester, Lasser gives her students an ��intensive introduction to �鶹��Ƶ history�� as well as a crash course in using the college archives. ��As a historian, I want students to know there��s more out there than what you can find on the Internet,�� Lasser says. ��There��s something really thrilling about holding old paper. We hope to give students some of that excitement by giving them the chance to play with primary documents.��</p> <p>For the first time in fall 2014, �鶹��Ƶ History as American History students received guidance and coaching from writing associate Lara Griffin. A senior history and gender, sexuality, and feminist studies double major, Griffin was a student in Lasser��s First Wave American Feminisms course her sophomore year. Since then, she has tutored high school and middle school students through the <a href="http://new.oberlin.edu/office/bonner-center/cbl-programs/ninde-program/index.dot">Ninde Scholars Program</a>, which provides academic support and college access services to first- generation college applicants in grades 7-12. She also served as a student teacher in Russell��s Race, Gender, and Oppression class.</p> <p>In addition to putting together a <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/oberlin.edu/oberlin_originals/">website with �鶹��Ƶ history documents</a>, Griffin gave presentations to Lasser��s students. ��I was working with college students about how to work with high school students on their writing,�� Griffin says. ��High school students often have really structured writing assignments��assignments they don��t often have a lot of agency in. The college students had to learn how to give them structure while still giving them agency to write about what they want.��</p> <p>Lasser and Russell require each high school student to write a five-page paper and each team to share their research findings in a 10-minute presentation given at the end of the semester. Lasser��s students assist the high school students by ��pre-searching�� documents for them to use, explaining historical context related to the topic they are researching, and helping frame their papers by writing an introduction and conclusion as well as ��connective tissue�� to tie it all together.</p> <p>��I require the high school students to have four primary sources, I require them all to analyze a visual, and every team has to do an oral history or an interview,�� Lasser says. Carol Ganzel, retired American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) leader and �鶹��Ƶ College employee; John Elder ��53, pastor of the First Church in �鶹��Ƶ 1973-1991; and Tim Scholl, professor of Russian and comparative literature, are just a few examples of people interviewed by students in the past.</p> <p>It��s by way of these interviews students often realize how greatly perspectives can differ between groups. ��History looks different if you��re situated out of the college than it does if you��re a member of the college community,�� Lasser says. ��It��s not right or wrong, it is that you can have multiple perspectives. Sometimes those perspectives come together, and sometimes they don��t.��</p> <p>As one team related during its presentation, <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/DAddarioHonors/DAddarioHonors-ch5.htm">the October 26, 1967, protest</a> in which 53 �鶹��Ƶ College students surrounded the car of a Navy recruiter as he was driving toward the college, perspectives can vary greatly. There were some college students, the team said, who disagreed with the protestors�� methods surrounding this event and other anti-war protests happening around the same time, for example.</p> <p>��This is not �鶹��Ƶ history as a shiny penny,�� Lasser says. ��I want the students to understand the different perspectives people can have on the same set of events. That it looks differently, that you relate to it differently, that it holds a different level of importance.��</p> <p>According to Lasser, there are many reasons �鶹��Ƶ College students are interested in taking this course. ��Some of my students are exploring whether they want to become teachers, some students will tell me it was important for them to explore what��s going on in high school classes other than the ones they were in, and some take it to feel more connected to the town,�� she says.</p> <p>After the fall 2014 semester, however, having Lasser as a professor is not a reason to enroll in �鶹��Ƶ History as American History. That��s because Lasser is retiring in a year and a half, making the most recent class her last. ��It��s my secret hope that I could find a way to teach it at least once more,�� Lasser says. ��I can��t believe it��s the last time.��</p> <p>Whether she teaches another round or a different professor takes the reigns, Lasser says she hopes the course will continue because the students find it worthwhile. Griffin concurs: ��I think a lot of students have ambitious ideas about how they want to engage with the high school, but they don��t really have an understanding of how it works or even what high school students�� lives are like,�� she says. ��[This course] is a great way for college students to learn about the community and build reciprocal relationships. I wish I had taken it.��</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2015-01-12T12:00:00Z">Mon, 01/12/2015 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lisa Gulasy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Students in Professor Carol Lasser��s �鶹��Ƶ History as American History and students in �鶹��Ƶ High School teacher Kurt Russell��s International Baccalaureate History of the Americas class search primary documents in the �鶹��Ƶ College Archives. Photo courtesy of Carol Lasser.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>