Study
Noticing Language
Comparative literature professor Lama Nassif is examining how society influences the way we speak and how the way we speak influences society. How and why do languages change over time? How can language choices reflect a person’s identity? And how do the words we speak intersect with and communicate power relationships among and between individuals
Open to Interpretation
Critics have drawn connections between Barbara Takenaga’s abstract paintings and the Big Bang Theory, the night sky and psychedelic experience. But as viewers consider a new survey of her work curated by Debra Bricker Balken at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), Takenaga wants them to keep in mind: “I still see them as
Course Catalog
The Law has long been a concept in Jewish thought and practice, as was famously articulated in the early 20th century by Franz Kafka’s parable “Before the Law.” Kafka later included the parable in his novel The Trial, published posthumously in 1925. This semester, students in religion professor Jeffrey Israel’s course Judaism: Before the Law
Moving People and the Economy
Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi. By Kenda Mutongi. The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Kenda Mutongi was walking along a street in Nairobi, thinking about what she’d like to research for her second book, when she realized the answer was right in front of her. “Matatus are everywhere, but we don’t know
From the Eph’s Bookshelf
The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole. By Michelle Cuevas ’04. Dial Books, 2017. A girl’s friendship with a lonely black hole that follows her home from NASA helps her to face her own sadness. Rebel Power. By Peter Krause ’02. Cornell University Press, 2017. The balance of power
The Hibernation Equation
Medically induced hypothermia, also known as targeted temperature management, is becoming standard care to treat patients suffering from cardiac arrest, and it’s currently in clinical trials for stroke treatment. Cooling the body in this way reduces brain damage associated with cardiac arrest, perhaps by slowing metabolic demand of the brain. Currently, hypothermia in a clinical
The Meandering Housatonic
Assistant Professor of Geosciences José Constantine and geosciences major Emmett Blau ’18 are investigating whether a river’s natural movement across its floodplain, and the subsequent oxbow lakes it produces, are acting as natural filters of the river’s pollutants. Their case study is the Housatonic River, which cuts through Berkshire County and western Connecticut before releasing
