Notice
Drag Culture
LaWhore Vagistan, alter ego of Tufts professor (and former Williams queer life coordinator) Kareem Khubchandani, discussed the dangers of performing in drag, pop culture influence—and why he keeps his body hair—during “Drag Me! Ethics, Performance and the Politics of Drag,” part of a yearlong series on performative ethics, presented by the Program in Women’s, Gender
In Memoriam
William “Bill” T. Fox ’54, the Edward Brust Professor of Geology and Minerology, died on Feb. 12. He was 86. Fox spent 35 years at Williams, serving as chair of the geology department and helping to plan and develop Bronfman Science Center, one of the most innovative scientific facilities of any college when it opened
Science, Supported
Microscopic fossils, artificial intelligence and solar eclipses are the research areas of three professors who received more than $481,000 combined in National Science Foundation grants. Geosciences professor Phoebe Cohen and her research partners are measuring organic carbon isotopes of microscopic fossils, a window into the evolution of life before the rise of animals. Computer science
WCMA’s Summer Home
The Williams College Museum of Art (WCM) is taking it to the streets while Lawrence Hall closes temporarily for renovations. The Summer Space at 76 Spring St., open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sept. 2, features the WCMA shop and an exhibition from the WALLS Collection. The weekly summer Ologies series continues
Trustee Update
On July 1, Williams welcomed Michele Y. Johnson Rogers ’79 and Nathan K. Sleeper ’95 to its Board of Trustees. Rogers, who was elected by the Society of Alumni and appointed by the trustees, is director of partnerships with Chicago organizations and a clinical assistant professor with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Music Makers
At the Williams College Department of Music’s I/O fest in January, the student group Axxea String Quartet performed a suite by Sato Matsui ’14 as well as a new piece by composer and visual artist Tristan Perich. Violinist Jeffrey Pearson ’20 says it was “a rare and exciting experience to work with living composers and
Learned Faculty
Two Williams professors have received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies. Gregory Mitchell, associate professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies, was named a Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellow. The fellowship provides a $95,000 stipend and a $7,500 research budget and will allow Mitchell to spend the upcoming academic year at Princeton University to
Recently Published
The work of top scholars to understand how state structures—rather than moments of crisis or partisan realignment—shape political history informs the collection Shaped by the State: Toward a New Political History of the Twentieth Century (The University of Chicago Press, 2018), edited by Mason B. Williams, leadership studies and political science professor, et. al. Religion
Vértiz Wins Pen Award
In late 2018, Vickie Vértiz ’98 was awarded a PEN America Literary Award-Los Angeles for her poetry collection Palm Frond With Its Throat Cut (University of Arizona Press, 2017). The collection is a series of portraits of cities—including Los Angeles, Mexico City and Paris—and of rivers, freeways and people. The Los Angeles Review of Books
Fresh Fellows
Spring is national fellowships and scholarships season, and Williams students and alumni earned more than their fair share this year. With Rhodes, Mitchell and Schwarzman scholarships already announced in the spring issue of Williams Magazine, we reached out to several of the newest winners to learn more about their scholarly and career interests and how
