INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK
PRESIDENTIAL BLUE KEY SOCIETY INDUCTS INAUGURAL CLASS
Student Activities’ International & Diversity Initiatives hosted a weeklong series of events in November to celebrate and explore cultures from around the world. It was Colby- Sawyer’s sixth year participating in International Education Week, a joint initiative between the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to promote programs that prepare citizens for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn and exchange experiences in the United States. Campus events included a Diversity Dialogue Series discussion of Navajo history, culture and philosophy with Academic Administrative Assistant Harriette Yazzie-Whitcomb, as well as student-led workshops featuring international dance and language.
This fall, Colby-Sawyer revived the Key Club, an organization established for campus tour guides in the 1940s that was discontinued at the turn of the century. The decision to recreate the organization in a broader capacity as the Presidential Blue Key Society was made to empower student leaders to share their learning experiences with other students, as well as the internal and external community. Members embody and inspire the learning spirit of Colby- Sawyer and act as formal and informal ambassadors on campus and beyond. They serve on admissions panels, connect with alumni and offer their perspectives to the Board of Trustees. They are invited to participate in a monthly colloquium series led by campus leaders that provides them with a comprehensive understanding of higher education, and each member is matched with an alumni mentor.
FALL FACULTY COLLOQUIUM SERIES The Faculty Colloquium Series features monthly research presentations by Colby-Sawyer faculty.
The inaugural members, inducted during Alumni Fall Festival, are Asra Batool ’17, a business administration major from Islamabad, Pakistan; Kaitlyn Cahill ’16, a business administration major from Spencer, Mass.; Ashley Cooper ’16, a business administration major from Corpus Christi, Texas; Sonia Diaz ’17, a biology major from Scarborough, Maine; Morgan Forrest ’18, a business administration major from Brewer, Maine; Noorulhuda Ismael ’18, a health care management major from Concord, N.H.; Ben Maines ’18, a biology major from Abbot, Maine; Sharthak Neupane ’17, a business administration major from Sindhupalchowk, Nepal; Mai Nguyen ’17, a business administration major from Hanoi, Vietnam; and Hermella Tekle ’16, a history and political studies major from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In September, adjunct faculty member in the Humanities Department Elizabeth M.G. Krajewski, Ph.D., discussed the written accounts of the lives of saints. Examining the frequent misinterpretation of hagiographical narratives as historical biographies or fanciful folktales, Dr. Krajewski shared her research on early medieval Celtic saints and revealed how Biblical influence, combined with sophisticated storytelling, has created religious narratives of deep spiritual insight. In October, Associate Professor of Humanities Michael Jauchen presented his research on appropriative writing. He highlighted examples of artistic influence and distinguished them from contemporary examples of appropriative writing, which borrows heavily from other sources — often without attribution. Deliberate appropriative writing, he explained, allows authors to closely examine the language we use and challenge notions of literary and social authority.
– Kellie M. Spinney
November’s Colloquium featured Associate Professor of Social Sciences Lynn Garrioch presenting The Dreams and Nightmares of a Social Psychologist: A New Paradigm for Selecting the Perfect Juror. Read about how she rejects the common jury selection process used by trial consultants as biased and unjust, and her alternative, on page 16. – Jaclyn Goddette ’16 et al.
PHOTO: TARREN BAILEY ’06
Professor Jauchen concluded his presentation with an excerpt from his appropriative remix response to Sherlock Holmes. His “S/H” applies theories from Roland Barthes to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work to create a mystery composed of sentences that only raise more questions as the text progresses.
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