Nimbus 82 Spring 2018

#82 SPRING 2018

A publication of New College of Florida

COMING FULL CIRCLE Recent alums say New College prepared them for grad school—or wherever life took them

Claiming Their Space ‘Rebelde’ features all women-of-color cast

NCAA Communications Committee Jordan Clark - Communications Chair Hazel Bradford Carmela French Cindy Hill Steve Jacobson Henry Smyth Editorial Staff Ann Comer-Woods Director of Communications and Marketing David Gulliver News Services Manager Kim McDonald Creative Services Manager

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Kathleen McCoy Assistant Director of Alumnae/i Relations

Coming Full Circle

Linda Joffe Communications Specialist New College Foundation

Recent alums say New College prepared them for grad school—or wherever life took them

Publisher Office of Communications and Marketing New College of Florida 5800 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34243-2109 941.487.4153 communications@ncf.edu

20 Profiles

Gordon Bauer Mariana Sendova

16 Claiming Their Space ‘Rebelde’ features all women-of-color cast

Also inside this issue: On Campus > 1 Alumnae/i Focus > 14 Op Ed > 18 In the Community > 19 Class Notes > 24 Foundation Focus > 26 In Memoriam > 27

NCAA Board of Directors Executive Committee Chair – Cindy Hill ’89 Chair-Elect – Steve Jacobson ’71 Treasurer – Sarah Thompson ’06 Communications Chair – Jordan Clark ’04 Governance Chair – Chad Bickerton ’05 Immediate Past Chair – Frazier Carraway ’72 Lynne Allen ’72 Hazel Bradford ’75 Robert Freedman ’83 Carmela French ’06 Ginger Lyon ’70 Gera Peoples ’94 Leslie Reinherz ’70 Henry Smyth ’76 Norman Stein ’69 Jim Tietsworth ’84 Troy Winfrey ’87 Vernon Woodworth ’70 MaryAnne Young Vice President for Advancement Dr. Donal O’Shea President of New College For a full board listing, visit ncf.edu.

THEN & NOW

Campus Dining Five decades later, one thing definitely hasn’t changed: College students love to eat and socialize.

Know more about this photo?

Contact communications@ncf.edu.

CAMPUS NEWS

Black History Month Celebrates ‘Black Joy’ ew College’s Black History Month program brought the campus community an impressive slate of 22 events, centered on the theme of Black Joy, a celebration of the achievements and successes of black people globally despite facing forms of oppression.

The associated symposium, entitled “Climate Change, Environmental Justice and Activism” had two panels and two keynote addresses. “It was spectacular—no other word will do,” said President Don O’Shea.

The first panel examined the efforts to rebuild in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and featured Director of Research Programs Dr. Lee Ann Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Spanish Dr. Sonia Labrador-Rodriguez, Anthony RogersWright, and Greg Cruz.

The second focused on environmental violence, gender, and healing, featuring Ansley Joye, Dr. Julia Harper, Ansley Pope, and Sherry Price.

Dr. Richard Joseph, a political science professor at Northwestern University, gave the first keynote address, on the subject of climate change in Africa. Ansley Joye, hip-hop activist, scholar, and artist, rapped the second keynote address, focused on sexual assault, gender-based violence, and healing.

The month of programming began with “Conversation on Race and Ethnicity,” which focused on black women entrepreneurs. Dr. Tracy Collins, assistant professor of economics, and Dr. Cheryl Smith, director of the African American Cultural Resource Center, led an examination of the history of African American women entrepreneurs and black women in the field of economics.

Among the many events: A film festival brought several screenings to campus, including “They Are We,” “Pelo Malo,” “Nana Dijo” and “Stones in the Sun.”

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The annual “Open Mic Night” at Four Winds Café featured performers including Ansley Joye and Karim Manning, a local DJ and activist who works with the Youth Artist Network, offering spoken word, hip-hop freestyling, and other musical selections. The event was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Black Student Union at New College of Florida organized a screening of the movie “Black Panther” in downtown Sarasota, with a discussion afterward in the Hamilton Center. The New College Foundation sponsored the event.

Via the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, 40 people attended “Mountaintop,” performed by the West Coast Black Theater Troupe. The play, by Katori Hall, tells the fictionalized story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a Memphis hotel room on his last night.

Dr. Mshai Mwangola, Kenyan performance scholar, activist, and artist, was on campus for a residency at New College. Dr. Mwangola visited three classes and met with students at night to choose and practice some of the readings that the students presented at a Black Literature Read-In. She also gave a talk on her journey as a feminist, debates within African feminism, and her work using performance to train the next generation of leaders in Africa.

The Black History Month Committee was led by Assistant Professor of Sociology Queen Mecca Zabriskie, Assistant Professor of History Brendan Goff, and students Paul Loriston, Daje Austrie, Mary Robertson, Miles Iton, Cheikhou Kane, Briana Nieves, Giulia Heyward, Ariel Powell, Iyanu Corniel, Elizabeth Ramsamooj, Crishuana Williams, Kailah Santos, Sade Holmes, Ella Denham-Conroy and Lorraine Cruz.

www.ncf.edu

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ON CAMPUS FOUNDATION NEWS

Alumnae/i Fellows Teach on Campus During January ISPs n January, two New College graduates returned to campus as Alumnae/i Fellows to teach independent study projects.

The program enables former students to work with current students by teaching either an ISP, a full semester or halfsemester course for credit, or leading a not-for-credit offering.

Barry Kaminsky ‘05 taught a “Fungal Symbiosis Lab” that he designed as an introduction to symbiosis and to field collecting and molecular methods.

Students wrote a short scientific paper, completed field notes to develop good scientific habits, wrote a bullet list of processes/ideas to improve their future scientific inquiry, and presented an ‘elevator speech’ explaining basic and applied aspects of symbiosis. Kaminsky was a biology AOC who received his master’s degree from the University of Florida in 2016. He is the curatorial associate at the Fungal Herbarium/Florida Museum of Natural History managed by the University of Florida’s Department of Plant Pathology, and the lead researcher on an intensive fungal DNA barcoding project.

“The course went really well and I think the students learned a great deal about research on basic molecular techniques that can be applied to any type of organism,” Kaminsky said. “The students were super smart, just like when I was a student! We had in-depth conversations on some of the nitty-gritty aspects of molecular biology, and how to troubleshoot problems. The new wing of Heiser is a very

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pretty space for teaching, and I’m honored to have been the first person to teach in one of the labs.”

Adele Fournet ’05 taught an ISP entitled “Performance and Video: Multimedia Creation in Theory and Practice.” Her course explored how video is an integral part of performance practices like music, dance and theater, and how video acts as an artistic medium across live arts disciplines. Students analyzed the role of video in the dissemination and preservation of different live arts traditions, and the influence of internet video platforms on performance culture. Working in teams, participants also produced videos implementing ideas from the course.

Fournet, who studied music at New College, is now a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology at New York University, where she is writing about the intersections of gender, technology, labor, and aesthetic values in popular music production, as well as pursuing activist research methodologies in Critical Music Studies. She is also a musician, producer and videographer, and directs Bit Rosie, a web series about female music producers (bitrosie.com). Her films have been screened on PBS New York and at the NYC Independent Film Festival.

Applications are currently being taken for the 2019 ISP and Spring Semester. Alums can send proposals to ncalum@ncf.edu. For details about how you can help support the program, contact foundation@ncf.edu.

ALUMNI GIVING REALLY MATTERS. PLEASE MAKE YOUR GIFT BY JUNE 30!

The percentage of graduates who make a gift (of any amount) to New College is a reflection of the value alumni place on their education. It also really matters to the Florida Board of Governors, the organizations like U.S. News and World Report who count alumni giving as part of their rating systems, and foundations who look at alumni giving as a sign that a college’s graduates value the education they received.

“There’s no better way for alumni to show their belief in New College than through a gift to the New College Fund,” says Foundation Executive Director MaryAnne Young. “Every single gift makes a big difference, no matter the size.” [Young points out that reunion fees are not able to be counted as gifts.]

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As this issue of Nimbus goes to press, we are short of the goal of a minimum 15% participation rate for fiscal 2018 (last year it was 14.5%). If you have not yet made a gift to the New College Fund during this fiscal year (since July 1, 2017), please donate by June 30, 2018 to raise our rate of alumni giving. Use the envelope in this report or make a gift online at donate.ncf.edu. gift| matters New College ofEvery Florida nimbus– thank you!

ON CAMPUS CAMPUS NEWS

Two Members Named to New College Board of Trustees ew College of Florida welcomed two new members to its Board of Trustees at the board’s March 3 meeting.

Both were recently appointed by Gov. Rick Scott and were confirmed by the Florida Senate.

Felipe Colon, 36, of Sarasota, has been a financial advisor with Wells Fargo since 2007. He also is chair of Suncoast Community Capital, a Bradenton-based nonprofit that provides business coaching, workforce readiness training, tax preparation and microloan access to low-income people and communities.

Colon serves on the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, first appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist in 2010 and is a 2009 graduate of the “Leadership Sarasota” program of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. He received his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in 2004.

Colon succeeds Bradford Baker and is appointed for a term beginning February 20, 2018, and ending January 6, 2021.

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Mark Aesch, 51, of Spring Hill, is the chief executive officer of TransPro Consulting, a management advisory firm that specializes in working with the public sector, including government, education and transportation.

Aesch was formerly the CEO of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority, where he led a financial turnaround and improved services. He is the author of two books, Driving Excellence (Hyperion, 2011), drawn from his work at the RGRTA, and Saving America (Bibliomotion, 2016), on his plan for improving government efficiency. He is a frequent commentator on CBS, CNBC, Bloomberg Business News and Fox National News, and his work has been covered in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He received his bachelor’s degree from the College at Brockport, State University of New York.

Aesch is appointed to fill a vacant seat for a term beginning February 20, 2018, and ending January 6, 2020.

CAMPUS NEWS

Dickinson College President Margee Ensign, NCF ’73, Chosen as Commencement Speaker r. Margee M. Ensign, president of Dickinson College, and a member of New College’s 1973 cohort, will be this year’s Commencement Speaker and recipient of an honorary degree.

Ensign was appointed president of Dickinson in July 2017, after seven years as president of the American University of Nigeria.

In a message to campus announcing her selection, New College President Don O’Shea said: “Her successes at AUN were tremendous: Overseeing the development of a sustainable campus and the continent’s leading digital library, establishing a graduate school and a law school, and bringing international leaders to AUN’s board.

And just as significant were her achievements in the greater community.”

To respond to crises resulting from the Boko Haram insurgency, Ensign co-founded the Adamawa Peace Initiative in 2010. It brought together Muslim and Christian leaders, women’s groups, government and business groups. Together they employed education, empowerment and community development to maintain peace, while also feeding more than

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270,000 refugees who had fled the fighting.

Among her many awards are the African Leadership Award from the World Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, 2014; the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award, 2014; the African Leading University of the Year Award, 2012; and the African Business Leaders’ Distinguished Leadership Award for Excellence in Education, 2011.

In 2015, the Women of Jama’atu Nasril Islam in Nigeria recognized Ensign for her contributions to leadership, philanthropy and education of women and girls in northeast Nigeria.

Before joining AUN, Ensign was associate provost for international initiatives at University of the Pacific, and dean and professor at Pacific’s School of International Studies.

Previously, she was with Tulane University as associate professor and director of its Institute for International Development, and director of the USAID Development Studies Program.

Her professional career began at Columbia University, where she was an assistant professor in the School of International and Public Affairs, and director of the International Political Economy Program. She also served as senior staff member to U.S. Senator Alan Cranston during his time at Columbia.

www.ncf.edu

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ON CAMPUS CAMPUS NEWS

New College Hires 15 Faculty Members For First Phase of Growth Initiative ew College has hired faculty members for 15 new positions, which will allow the College to maintain its 10:1 student-faculty ratio as it expands enrollment under the state-funded growth plan.

The new positions are in interdisciplinary clusters.

“We chose to hire in certain areas—Arts, Environmental Sustainability, Global, and Human and Artificial Intelligence— that accentuated our strengths, capitalized on our location and were true to our ideas of a liberal arts education,” Provost Barbara Feldman said.

Hired in the Arts cluster are: • Diego Villada, assistant professor of theater and performance studies. Villada is a K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and Ph.D. candidate (expected 2018) at the University of Pittsburgh.

• Mark Dancigers, assistant professor of digital media and music. Dancigers, a composer of chamber, orchestral, film, and solo instrumental works, and electric guitarist for the new-chamber music group NOW Ensemble, has been a visiting assistant professor at New College since 2012. He has a doctorate in music from Princeton University.

• Hugo Viera-Vargas, assistant professor of ethnomusicology and Latin American studies, Universidad Metropolitana, Puerto Rico. He has a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University.

Hired in the Human and Artificial Intelligence group are: • Tania Roy, assistant professor of human-centered computing. Roy is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Human-Centered Computing division of the School of Computing at Clemson University.

• Kathleen V. Casto, assistant professor of psychology.

Casto is a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Oregon’s Social Psychoneuroendocrinology Lab. She has a Ph.D. in psychology, neuroscience and animal behavior from Emory University.

Hired for the Sustainability cluster are: • Mark Paul, assistant professor of economics. Paul is a postdoctoral associate at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, and a visiting fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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• Nicolas Delon, assistant professor of philosophy and environmental studies. Delon is a law and philosophy fellow at The University of Chicago Law School. From 2014-2017 he was assistant professor/faculty fellow in environmental studies and animal studies at New York University. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris.

• Gerardo Toro-Farmer, assistant professor of coastal and marine sciences. Toro-Farmer is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Sciences. He has a Ph.D. in ocean sciences from the University of Southern California.

Hired in the Global cluster are: • Nicholas L. Clarkson, assistant professor of gender studies. Clarkson is a postdoctoral associate in the Transgender Studies Program at Duke University. He has a Ph.D. in gender studies from Indiana University.

• Jessica Young, assistant professor of English. Young is a Ph.D. candidate (expected 2018) in English literature, with a graduate certificate in Holocaust, genocide, and memory studies, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

• Nassima Neggaz, assistant professor of religion and Islamic studies. Neggaz is the Jameel Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Cardiff University. She has a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies from Georgetown University.

• Ilaria Giglioli, assistant professor of geography and international studies. Giglioli is a Ph.D. candidate (expected 2018) in geography at the University of California Berkeley.

• Amanda Fidalgo, international political economy: assistant professor of political science. Fidalgo is a Ph.D. candidate (expected 2018) in the Department of Political Science at Penn State University.

Hired in the Natural Sciences: • Rebecca Black, assistant professor of chemistry. Black is a Ph.D. candidate (expected 2018) in inorganic chemistry at The University of Chicago.

• Erika Diaz-Almeyda, assistant professor of biology and environmental studies. Diaz-Almeyda is a postdoctoral fellow in research and science teaching at Emory University. She has a Ph.D. in qualitative systems biology from Pennsylvania State University.

THE NEW COLLEGE ADMISSIONS TEAM WANTS YOUR HELP! Nearly 100% of all admitted students are offered scholarships.

Refer a student or help spread the word about New College.

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New College of Florida | nimbus

941-487-5000 or admissions@ncf.edu

ON CAMPUS

What’s Happening CLAMBAKE

FRANKENFEST

The 2017 New College Clambake was a resounding success, demonstrating record support from the community for student scholarships. The 330 guests raised $250,000 for New College scholarships, nearly double last year’s $140,000 total. About 25 students and faculty joined in the picture-perfect evening to mingle with guests and share their stories. Next year is the 40th anniversary of this signature fundraising event, slated for November 1, 2018. Save the date!

EXPERIENCE NEW COLLEGE

Nancy Nassiff

The cast gathers for “It’s Alive! A Monstrous Circus on Frankenstein.” The New Music New College concert was a mash-up of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel and composer John Cage’s formula for crafting a musical performance from text. The show, performed on Library Plaza and using the ACE building, was part of “Frankenfest,” a series of special events celebrating the novel’s 200th anniversary.

More than 250 prospective students and their family members visited campus in February for “Experience New College,” a one-day showcase that included mini-classes on dolphin communication, sustainable development, and urban dance, as well as tours and presentations from students and staff on campus life, housing, financial aid, transfer applications, and more.

www.ncf.edu

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Gary Baker

(Economics AOC, Ph.D. student at University of Wisconsin–Madison) The biggest piece of advice I would give would be to apply to more schools. I would also recommend that anyone applying keep in mind what your job prospects are post-graduation.

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New College of Florida | nimbus

COMING FULL CIRCLE / COVER STORY

Coming Full Circle Recent alums say New College prepared them for grad school—or wherever life took them IN TE RV IEWS BY E R IC H B ARGA I N E R ‘10, JA ME S E S P O S I TO ‘14, A B I G A I L OA K E S ‘11 CO MP I LE D BY DAVI D GU LLI VE R

After New College, graduates have landed all over the globe on Fulbright scholarships, and in recent years three have won the new Frost Scholarships for a fully funded master’s degree at Oxford. But with more than 80 percent of New College graduates moving on to master’s degree and doctoral programs, those high-profile stories only capture a small slice of the experience. Nimbus spoke with 20 recent graduates about how New College prepared them, the path they took to graduate school and where they are now, or where they expect to be. We found that a New College education can take you almost anywhere, to Israel or Iceland, to the New Mexico desert or to the mountains of Peru. And it brings you back—in one case, literally—and you find out the value of what you learned is in how you choose to share it.

Laura Cunningham and Evan Giomi tell the quintessential New College stories.

“I was always a little over-ambitious with all my academic endeavors,” Cunningham says, laughing. She began with an interest in biology, but a class with Dr. Paul Scudder led her to an interest in chemistry and enzymology. But Dr. Suzanne Sherman’s bio-inorganic course piqued her interest in how biological systems use metals to perform chemical transformations. And on top of that, she loved math, so she took classes there, too.

She’s always had a holistic approach to academics, she said.

“That led me to want to take basically every Nat Sci course.”

And while Giomi’s academic interests were in natural sciences, like biology and geology, and in political science and history, in his first semester he took an anthropology course with Dr. Tony Andrews. That led to an ISP with Dr. Gabrielle Vail, and a spring course with Dr. Uzi Baram, and as he says: “I was hooked after my first year.”

Both graduated from New College in 2013. Cunningham is in a chemistry Ph.D. program at Boston University, while Giomi is at the University of Arizona, pursuing a doctorate in archaeology.

“Archaeology was interdisciplinary enough to satisfy these interests while being endlessly fascinating on its own,” he said.

“My graduate training and research up to now has been in collaboration with geologists, sociologists, and historians, and that’s been both highly valuable and stimulating.”

They say that interdisciplinary approach, and the College’s overall rigor, is all you can ask for in terms of preparation.

“One hundred percent, New College prepared me academically for grad school,” Cunningham said.

“New College was the best preparation for graduate coursework I could have hoped for,” Giomi said. “I essentially had no transition period in learning how to perform in graduate level classes, especially theory classes.”

www.ncf.edu

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COVER STORY / COMING FULL CIRCLE

Evan Giomi

(AOC Anthropology, Ph.D. student at University of Arizona) Two pieces of advice - First, figure out what kinds of research questions you are interested and what sort of theoretical perspectives you are interested in exploring.

Look at the kinds of academic sources and theoretical bents you most naturally gravitate towards, in papers and in your thinking more generally. Second, target your applications at schools that can satisfy those interests in terms of professors who specialize in those topics.

Professors want to take students with similar interests, even if those interests don’t perfectly overlap. You aren’t bound to do exactly what you said you would in your grad school application—my interests have certainly developed over the course of my program—but most professors want to see that you have at least some direction. If you cite someone a lot in your thesis, look up where they teach!

What New College Gives You

Graduates in a variety of academic disciplines echoed their feelings about how New College prepared them.

Adele Fournet graduated in 2009 with a music AOC and now is in a doctoral program at New York University. She found that having taken a variety of courses outside her AOC has made graduate school in some ways less challenging than expected.

“It’s just been easier because it wasn’t the first time I read Foucault or Judith Butler. I took classes with April Flakne and David Brain, and doing intense continental philosophy and after that, I could say ‘I know about aesthetics.’”

Ryan Simonelli excelled in philosophy at New College, and even wrote a book of dialogues, “Talking in Circles,” inspired by his studies. He graduated in 2014.

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New College of Florida | nimbus

He’s now getting his Ph.D. in philosophy at University of Chicago, and found himself more than ready for the challenging program. “There isn’t a great difficulty level change,” he said. “New College prepared me pretty well—I never had any real problems.”

Jillian True, a biology/chemistry AOC who graduated in 2013, is now studying how plant hormones signal changes in plant cell morphology as a fifth-year Ph.D. student at Indiana University Bloomington. The transition from New College to grad school was “smooth,” she said, particularly in terms of writing and critical thinking. “Even when I had ‘imposter syndrome’ thoughts, I remembered conversations with my New College professors telling me that’s a common experience and was able to handle any challenges that came up.”

Kate Stevenson, an English AOC and 2010 graduate, said much the same for her doctorate in English at University of Texas at Austin: “I would say that academically, grad school was no more difficult than New College.”

Doctoral students even look back at their undergraduate work and find it still stands up, a testament to the academic preparation provided at New College. “The quality of my ideas and maturity of ideas—it’s a different take on things,” Fournet said. “But I look back on the work I did at New College and I think it’s great. It’s not amateurish.”

Melayna Schiff is getting a Ph.D. in philosophy at Georgetown University, and says sometimes people in her program talk disparagingly of the work they did as undergrads. She’s not one of them.

“Honestly, I’m so proud, not just of having done this stuff as an undergrad, but I love certain papers that I wrote as an undergrad, I love my thesis,” she said. “I mean I still work on exactly the sorts of things that I was thinking about in my thesis.”

It always comes back to the thesis, of course. While the depth of research does not compare to that of a doctoral dissertation, graduates say it teaches a number of skills and prepared them in ways they hadn’t anticipated.

Delaney Anderson, for example, isn’t writing a dissertation.

The religion AOC and 2012 graduate got her master’s degree in social work from FSU and now is working in a partnership with Dartmouth College to reduce gender-based violence.

“I do think my thesis prepared me for my work,” she said. In her first year at New College, she learned to use the library and access peer-reviewed journal. Surprisingly, that’s not universal—some of her graduate school classmates had never even been to their campus library before, she said.

Anderson, though, submitted an article for an academic journal during grad school, because her thesis prepared her for

“New College was such an important part of my growth as a scientist, and also as a good adult person. I learned a lot about science and process, but I also learned a lot about empathy and community. Hands down, New College was my best decision.”

–Kaija Goodman

the research and peer review submission processes. “I think New College taught me how to learn in a unique way,” she said. “It provided me with opportunities to be thoughtful about research and using that in practice.”

Cunningham says her lab at Boston University is doing research similar to what she did for her senior thesis—“so I could kind of hit the ground running, plus I felt like I wasn’t totally lost when talking to my advisor!” she said. And the skills she developed in Dr. Sherman’s lab proved important.

“I really had to become self sufficient and figure things out on my own—a skill so important in grad school.”

Giomi’s thesis also had value for his graduate work. “It gave me a core of ideas and interests to start working with and experimenting with in my graduate courses,” he said. “The core idea behind my New College thesis eventually blossomed into my dissertation topic through a lot of trial and error in classes and conversations.”

So the New College experience is more than discussions and papers and labs. It’s the ethos of the small, close-knit community, the discourse with classmates, the independent work in a field, and in the trust and partnership that develops between students and professors.

Kaija Goodman, a biology AOC and 2012 graduate, is getting her doctorate at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the botany department, but don’t ask her to identify plants.

“I’m not that kind of botanist!” she jokes; she’s studying aspects of membrane trafficking in Arabidopsis, a plant model organism. “I get to use some really cool and fancy microscopes,” she jokes, again.

But she’s more serious when discussing what her undergraduate experience means to her. “New College was such an important part of my growth as a scientist, and also as a good adult person,” she said. “I learned a lot about science and process, but I also learned a lot about empathy and community. Hands down, New College was my best decision.”

“I think the seeds were sown at NCF for me in understanding our human

biases and how they shape our understanding of science, and I think it’s incredibly important to take that with you when you leave.”

Naomi Campa, a classics AOC and 2006 graduate, has seen that as both a student and a faculty member. After completing a doctorate at University of Washington, she taught for a year at New College in 2014, and is now a visiting professor at Oberlin College. She’s also writing her first book: I Do What I Want: Freedom and Power in Classical Athens.

“Part of what New College did for me, I think, was it allowed me to be more comfortable with things like class discussion or independent work, which is part and parcel of graduate school. Everything is a seminar, you’re not going to have a lecture,” she said.

“And now that I’ve had the opportunity to teach at other institutions—including New College, which was super fun and the best year ever—that’s not usual.”

Joy Feagan, a history AOC who graduated in 2012, is now getting a master’s in public history at Temple University, and found she got that same boost from her classes. “New College especially taught me to perform well in seminars,” she said.

“I feel comfortable speaking in small classes full of brilliant people.”

But New College students also immerse themselves in work that prepares them for postgraduate education and the professional world.

Kaija Goodman

(AOC Biology, Ph.D. student University of Wisconsin–Madison) For the most part, not having a GPA was not a problem when I applied to grad school. In my field, it’s so important to contact the people you are going to potentially work with and it’s that relationship that gets you www.ncf.edu 9 into a grad program.

COVER STORY / COMING FULL CIRCLE

The Road After New College

Katie Chapman

(AOC Biological Psychology, Ph.D. Penn State) Don’t be afraid to take time off: If you stop going to school and never really get things going, and don’t end up back there then probably you weren’t necessarily a perfect fit or that wasn’t the right fit for you anyways. Because if you really, really, really want it you’re going to find a way to make it work if possible. Don’t just do grad school because you think it’s the only thing you think you’re emotionally prepared to do.

Make sure you’re passionate about it, and make sure you can sustain your own stamina because five or six years in a Ph.D. program—five or six years is a long time, and it’s stressful and exhausting and fun, but you have to be able to maintain your stamina. Luckily I think New College students tend to be really good at that because of the self-motivation required to succeed at New College.

Tanya Moore was an economics/math AOC who graduated in 2015 and now is working with Ankura, a Washington, D.C.-based litigation consulting firm. There, her projects have included analyzing multinational banks’ proprietary foreign exchange data, for a multibillion-dollar class action, and managing commodity order book data to aid a federal agency in identifying suspicious transactions.

Her graduate program at North Carolina State University focused heavily on project-oriented work. “So in that sense the academic environment was familiar,” she said. “I definitely think the hands-on nature of New College’s curriculum, and the sense of independence and initiative that it fosters, prepares students well for both graduate school and their careers.”

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That independence carries over into the path from New College to graduate school.

For example, after graduating in 2014, Melayna Schiff moved to New York, where she worked helping people in rural communities enroll in Medicaid. A car crash in the snow prompted her to move to Brooklyn, where she taught school, worked as a personal assistant and then rehabbed and sold vintage bicycles from her basement apartment.

Though she made “way too much money” on the bicycles, she found that wasn’t enough. “What I really missed was pursuing intellectual lines of inquiry that always fascinated me, and a school is where you do that”—in this case, Georgetown.

Katie Chapman graduated from New College in 2004 and took her biological psychology AOC some 30 miles east, to a job at the Lemur Conservation Foundation in nearby Myakka City, where she did her thesis research, and then briefly worked for an insurance brokerage. Like Schiff, she realized where she really wanted to be was back in the academic world, doing research.

She went looking for graduate psychology programs where people worked with animals, and chose Penn State. She found that her time at New College and in the workplace served her well.

“I was actually pretty well prepared from New College, and being in the working world for a couple of years, I was pretty well prepared to approach graduate school as a job, and not college 2.0,” she said. “So for me I was in some ways probably in a better position than some of my classmates who had come straight from undergrad.”

Michael Waas is pursuing a master’s degree in Israel at the University of Haifa, after graduating from New College in 2012. It hasn’t been easy; he’s had to master Hebrew, adjust to a drastically different culture, and find an advisor that would let him develop his thesis topic, a comparative study of the development of Jewish heritage sites in the former Ottoman Empire—Thessaloniki, Izmir and Fireh.

He’s also only a part-time student, because he’s also working in historic preservation and in education consulting, something that stems from work with former roommate Alex Santos.

“New College prepared me to be very adaptive,” Waas said.

His work is field archaeology, where he had little experience, but he was able to quickly grasp thanks in part to New College’s style of education.

“It prepared me well to independently deal with things.

That was one of the keys for me,” he said. “As with ISPs, being given the trust by the professor that I would be able not only

COMING FULL CIRCLE / COVER STORY

to accomplish my project but produce something new and interesting. That opened so many doors for me here to be that flexible and offer something.”

Kate Stevenson also had diversions and challenges along her path to University of Texas at Austin.

Stevenson wasn’t accepted into a graduate program on her first round of applications, so she moved to Austin with a friend and spent a year working in a bike shop while she reapplied—and was accepted by half the programs where she had applied.

When she did, she found that the skills that helped her succeed at New College were even more important. “You cannot succeed in graduate school if you’re not selfmotivated,” Stevenson said. “If you were very successful being self-directed at New College, you’ll probably do fine. But don’t expect anyone to jump to help you if you start to fall behind.

Select your friends and your mentors carefully, and you’ll have a great support system; don’t, and you will not.”

After an AOC of Medieval and Renaissance Studies/French Literature, a year in the French teaching assistantship program and another 18 months working for the state, Holly McArthur also discovered she wasn’t yet ready to end her studies.

The 2014 graduate ended up somewhere essentially the polar opposite of New College—the University of Iceland and a master’s degree in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies. “It kind of has a little bit of everything—archaeology, literature, history, and a big part of it is for the language, so one of my required courses is in learning Old Icelandic,” she said.

She has an unusual bit of advice for potential graduate students: “Honestly, follow the things you’re still spiteful about.”

In her case, that was frustration, three years later, over her thesis, and having to rely on a certain book.

“I think we’ve all read an article where something struck us as, ‘This was done incorrectly, I think I could do this better.’ So in my case, I was really mad about a translation I had to deal with,” she remembered. “There was a mistake in it that I, as a person who never saw the original text, who couldn’t read the language at the time, I could tell it was wrong. Contextually it made zero sense.” So the first footnote for her thesis was a paragraph-long explanation for a word choice because of her disagreement with the text.

“Well in order to fix that, I needed to learn how to read Old Norse, or Old Icelandic Norse actually, at that time period if we’re going to be technical about it,” she said. “And there weren’t that many programs that had an Old Norse language program, surprise, surprise.”

Around that time McArthur picked up a book she liked and

had used in her thesis, and saw the author taught at University of Iceland. For a moment, she saw it as a sign of what to do, but immediately doubt crept in. “I put the book aside and was like, ‘Well, that’s never going to happen.’ ” And then six months later, she ran into alumnus James Cross, who had attended the predecessor to the Iceland program. “I don’t run into a lot of people that know about Scandinavian Studies very often, and talking with him made me feel like it was maybe actually possible to go,” she said.

“And so I started looking into it, and it turns out this program was pretty much exactly what I needed. And so here I am.”

Adaptability, independence, perseverance and a bit of luck—all factors on the path to graduate school. From there, the next question is where it takes you.

Kate Stevenson

(AOC English, Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin) Begin telling your favorite professors that you want to attend graduate school as soon as possible. Get them on board to help you now, don’t wait until later. I would also recommend making contact with professors you want to work with at your target graduate programs. Do they mentor graduate students? Do they supervise M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations? Are they retiring or going on leave soon? Will they be looking for research assistants for an upcoming project?

www.ncf.edu

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COVER STORY / COMING FULL CIRCLE

Where it Takes You

Sometimes the answer is, someplace unexpected.

As Kate Stevenson was completing her English dissertation, she received a fellowship that allowed her to immerse herself in the papers of her subject, author Christopher Isherwood, and to meet his partner. It led to a discovery.

“I learned a lot about myself, including that I was not necessarily meant to become a professor,” she said. “I learned some invaluable lessons about personal happiness, professional success, and the power of self-knowledge. It was a transformative experience for me, and of course it made my dissertation unique, because I allowed the personal aspects of my research to come through in my writing. “ As a result, she went in a different direction, and is now a content manager for a software company. “Utah is a developing hub for tech startups, and I found it pretty easy to get started as a copywriter and then as a manager in software by leveraging my experience in rhetoric and writing.”

Her academic skills have translated well. “My job certainly utilizes my experience as a writer and researcher,” she said.

“I haven’t yet encountered a professional project half as daunting as my dissertation! Grad school gives you amazing training in time management and perseverance.”

Jillian True thought she might become a professor, but now sees her research taking her out of academia and possibly into patent law, consulting or science policy. “Advances in genetic engineering are going to be a game-changer in plant biology and agriculture, especially given the concerns over food security,” she said. “So I’m excited to potentially be in a position where I can steer decision-making to improve scientific understanding and our quality of life.”

Other times, their studies may lead them to a form of entrepreneurship, to master their studies and use them to create or shape a field.

After getting his doctorate at Chicago, Ryan Simonelli wants to continue writing pop philosophy for a lighter audience, in addition to pursuing an academic position.

“It’s interesting because when you tell people that you’re doing philosophy, most people don’t know it’s an active field [and] people are still working on philosophical problems,” he said. “The way I see philosophy, it’s not too drastically disassociated from science. The main thing that drives me is trying to understand the world and our place in it and there’s some real progress to be made to achieve that understanding.”

Adele Fournet has been an active composer at New York University, and her ambitious multimedia dissertation— building on ideas in her New College thesis, on women in the Tampa Bay music scene—is pointing her toward something innovative.

“I’m really drawn to the idea of having a space that I’m in control of, or collectively in control of, with similar values with music-making happening—a place for residencies and recording,” she said. “Where is that going to happen, how will that happen, maybe in New York, maybe in Peru, who knows?”

For others, their studies point them toward a form of advocacy. In Israel, Michael Waas sometimes assists people with genealogy—one of his many ventures—and finds it especially meaningful.

“In the end, for my professional work, it’s these stories and being able to tell them and share them with the world—being a voice for those who no longer have a voice. And hopefully to represent my own heritage,” he said.

Joy Feagan sees her public history studies leading her toward museum work, where she can continue to educate. “I am excited about the small institutions that are continuing to fight to produce historical narratives that challenge the public to think more critically about both the past and the present,” she said. “Especially in today’s political climate, history is one

Joy Feagan

(AOC History, master’s degree student at Temple University) During my time at New College I was led to believe that if I wanted to get any funding for my graduate education I would need to apply to Ph.D. programs…I didn’t expect to receive any funding but I was offered more than a full ride from half of the programs I applied to. So, my advice is don’t apply to Ph.D. programs if you’re not 100 percent sure it’s what you want.

Some M.A. programs may fund you.

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COMING FULL CIRCLE / COVER STORY

of our greatest weapons against hate.”

Perhaps it’s fitting that so many New College graduates— people who love knowledge and the practice of learning— come to love the idea of helping people to learn.

At Oberlin, Naomi Campa says she still loves research: “What drew me to classics is still what draws me to classics, which is, I love the languages, I love that challenge, I love the interdisciplinary nature of classics, that I can approach it from any angle—it can be political theory, it can be critical theory or literature studies, it can be history, it can be art history.”

But that’s not why she works in higher education. “I love teaching, and that’s really why I love academia, because I have the opportunity to work with young people all the time who are, for the first time, striking out into all these different disciplines,” she said.

In Arizona, Evan Giomi is looking forward to teaching full-time at the university level. “One of the joys of grad school so far has been teaching my own courses,” he said.

Like Feagan, he sees it as a chance to help people think critically about history and better understand their world. He hopes to add to work by other scholars that shows how the narrative of European conquerors driving colonialism in the Americans overlooks the significance of Native history—that of Puebloans, in his case.

“Popular history is dominated by a pretty small set of themes or narratives that we’ve inherited more or less directly from 19th century intellectuals, and I find a lot of joy and utility in challenging those narratives,” he said. “Actual history is rich and complex, but these narratives reduce that complexity and narrow our field of view, often in service of less than desirable social causes.”

After completing her Ph.D. at Boston University, Laura Cunningham will be looking for a post-doctoral fellowship, and—for now—hopes to have her own research group, possibly at a Department of Energy lab. She would be able to lead other researchers while also doing what she has always enjoyed: “I love the idea of just getting to think about interesting problems every day.”

Katie Chapman took her Penn State doctorate to University of Arkansas, the state’s flagship school, where she is now visiting assistant professor of psychological science. One of her current research projects is at a wildlife refuge, studying the behavior of captive tigers. The work encapsulates a philosophy she developed as an undergraduate.

“One of the things I learned both through New College and graduate school is that I really care about working with animals, and research and learning about them,” she said. “But also I care a lot about their welfare, I care a lot about basically making captive environments that are better for them, and

Andrew Kotick

(AOC History, Ph.D. student, City University of New York) I would say, trust your faculty. The faculty at New College foster closer relationships than you’re probably ever going to have again, or at least until you get to your Ph.D. Be mindful of what their workload is, but engage them. Don’t be afraid to develop a close working relationship with faculty. That’s a key thing New College does that really well—putting students and faculty into a more intimate working relationship.

making sure that these animals that are already in captivity are being prioritized and their wellness is being considered.”

But for Chapman, her happiness is not in the research itself, but in the opportunity to spin it back to students, to give them the experience she had at New College.

“I accidentally discovered during graduate school that I happen to love teaching, and I did not know that that was going to be the case—I call it a very happy accident,” she said.

“And it turns out for me that being able to talk with others and teach others about something that I am passionate about—like psychology, like animal cognition, animal behavior—it turns out that that is incredibly gratifying for me.”

Chapman’s interest in environmental enrichment research began with an independent study at New College, and now she involves her students in research in the way she experienced it then.

“That’s something I’ve kept with me, that’s one of the things that keeps me going, that I really care about what I do, and I love it and find it fun and interesting,” she said. “But I also love that I get to share it with students, so even if the days are long, and even if it takes a while to get things done, it’s a really fun process, and it’s something that I feel is an absolute privilege that this is what I get to do as my job.”

For New College graduates, it seems, the graduate school journey isn’t so much about arriving someplace new as it is about coming full circle.

www.ncf.edu

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ALUMNAE/I FOCUS

IT’S A WRAP! Reunion 2018 was “Seamless…Amazing…Beautiful!”

On a balmy February weekend in Sarasota, 404 alumni and family members turned out for a three-day Reunion that brought together many generations of Novo Collegians to celebrate their common legacy. Traveling from as far away as Scotland, France, Japan and China, they came to reconnect, to revisit favorite places and tour new buildings, to learn about the College’s progress and goals, to hear about the careers of their fellow alumni, and to be enthralled—once again—by some of their favorite professors.

There was plenty of time for fun and socialization, including three meals “al fresco,” live music performed by alumni, and a festive carnival on the Bayfront. In between there were poetry readings, a campus sustainability forum, a career panel, several affinity groups, yoga by the bay and a touching memorial and remembrance ceremony.

Alumni turned out in large numbers to hear a Towne Hall hosted by Foundation Executive Director MaryAnne Young,

Board of Trustees chair Felice Schulaner ’78, President Don O’Shea and Provost Barbara Feldman. O’Shea and Feldman spoke about the implementation of the College’s Growth Plan, which will result in 15 new faculty positions for the start of the 2018-19 academic year, hired in “clusters” (e.g., Global, Sustainability, Human & Computer Interaction) that cross Division lines. Ever curious—and always concerned about preserving New College’s historical mission—alumni peppered the provost with questions about the new positions. She and President O’Shea assured the attendees that no amount of growth in the student body or faculty would change the fundamentals of the College’s mission and unique approach to higher education (see Towne Hall sidebar).

The Foundation will be analyzing results from a survey to help plan for the next reunion, which will be in 2020—the 60th anniversary of New College!

“Alums are our legacy: the tangible measure of the College’s mission as a truly unique liberal arts institution. You validate New College in the outside world. You are our source of pride and our affirmation that we are doing something very right here.” –President Don O’Shea

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From Heritage to Efflorescence: Excerpts from the Towne Hall with President O’Shea “…I see the College in three phases: from its founding in 1960 to 1975, when we were a private college; from 1975 to 2001, when we became part of the University of South Florida (which frankly saved the College) and the smallest institution in the State University System; and from 2001 to the present time, as an independent member of the SUS system—a period in which the College has grown, but its essence has remained the same. We endured through tough times and much of this is due to gifts from alumni and the local community…

“We take pride in being the biggest per capita producers of Fulbright Scholars in the country; the third in the nation to produce graduates who go on to the sciences, and graduating a significantly large number of physicians, entrepreneurs and lawyers, especially environmental lawyers. In this past decade we built new dorms and opened an Academic Center, and now a much-needed new wing for the Heiser Natural Sciences Complex…

“Our Master’s in Data Science, which we launched in 2016, is already considered the best in the country…and we’re now experiencing an efflorescence in Humanities, with a Mellon grant that links the Humanities and Arts in our community. It has created a lot of projects on campus and in collaboration with our partners in the Cross College Alliance…

“Looking ahead as we grow the faculty and the student body, we will also focus on increasing our graduation rate. It’s improved, but not where it needs to be.”

www.ncf.edu

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CLAIMING THEIR SPACE / FEATURE

Claiming Their Space ‘Rebelde’ features all women-of-color cast

BY AN YA MA R Í A CO N T R E R A S - G A RCÍ A A V E R SIO N O F TH IS STO RY WA S P R EVI O U S LY P U B LI S H E D I N T H E CATA LY S T

THESIS STUDENT KAILAH SANTOS MADE NEW COLLEGE HISTORY

with the opening of her thesis play “Rebelde: Confessions from Your Dead Abuela,” believed to be the first Black Box Theater production to feature an all women-of-color cast. The play, which opened November 9, adapted three stories by female Puerto Rican writers into an exploration of race, gender and identity between abuelas y nietas.

Santos began writing “Rebelde” in response to feeling alienated from white-dominated theater culture.

“It was hard claiming this space,” said Santos. “I’ve never felt welcomed in the theater in this school. Women of color get typecast and exotified a lot, so I couldn’t just keep acting. I realized I had to make my own production. I wrote this play out of frustration with that my second year for my ISP.” Santos’ academic advisor, Associate Professor of Spanish Sonia Labrador-Rodriguez, pushed her to read works by Puerto Rican female writers to inform her independent study project. From those works, Santos ended up creating a theatrical adaptation of her own. “[Professor Labrador-Rodriguez] really liked what I came up with and she kept pushing me to do something with it, so I decided to incorporate it as part of my thesis,” Santos said. “I wanted to do it because I had the opportunity to maybe start something where women of color can feel more welcome in these creative spaces.”

Santos’ adaptation weaved together the themes from the original works—“Pollito Chicken” by Ana Lydia Vega, “Herba Rota” by Mayra Santos and “Una Semana de Siete Dias” by Magali Garcia Ramis – with contemporary characters to discuss how issues of racism, colorism and gender have been reproduced and passed down through generations of Puerto Rican women.

“These issues are affecting us today which is why I wanted to create a modern context through the granddaughters in the show,” said Santos. “People need to realize that what your family went through shapes who you are. It’s important to

revisit that past in order to understand yourself and heal.”

Not only did the “Rebelde” shows serve as a time for audience members to reflect on the characters stories, but it was also an important process for the all women-of-color cast to process the painful themes in the play that they related to personally.

“It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my entire life,” said third-year Paola Baez, who played a character in the play. “Every night after this I have to sit in my room for two hours and just think about it. Everything about this play for all of us here is too real. But in the end, this is something that we did for us to heal. That was the most important part for me. I feel like that comes across in the production and that’s what makes it so special and impactful.”

The production centered Puerto Rican narratives at a time when the island nation’s deep suffering has never been more visible in the media. More than six weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated the Caribbean, borinqueños were still burdened by lack of federal aid.

“Hopefully seeing peoples’ stories helps them empathize more and see the humanity in people that are different from them,” Santos said. “I want them to care more about the people than the cause.”

Donations were collected after every show to go towards disaster relief efforts for Puerto Rico, grounding “Rebelde” in its purpose to empower and heal from within the greater diasporic community.

As for the New College community, “Rebelde” paved the way for other women of color in creative spaces on campus and centered narratives that are too often left out of artistic conversations.

“It’s empowering for us, but also younger generations,” said third-year Ximena Pedroza, who also played a character in the play. “I hope it shows others that they can take up this space, they don’t have to just be typecast or be the comedic relief.

They can make their own content, too.”

www.ncf.edu

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OP ED

Mellon Grant Gives Us New Perspective

BY M ELLO N GR ANT CO O R D IN ATO R S N OVA M YH ILL , P RO F E S S O R O F E N GLI S H, AND KIM A NDE RSON, ASSO C IATE PRO F E SSO R O F A RT

IN OCTOBER 2016, NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA received a $750,000 grant from

the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to promote the arts and humanities both at New College and in the region as a whole. The five-year “Connecting the Arts and Humanities on Florida’s Creative Coast” grant recognizes the extraordinary richness of the Sarasota/ Bradenton area in both cultural and academic institutions, and serves as a catalyst for collaboration and to develop relationships between area colleges and arts organizations that will continue beyond the duration of the grant.

The grant is particularly appropriate to New College in that it recognizes the college’s potential to work with a wide range of partners in visual and performing arts and literary and cultural studies. And it is helping faculty in many disciplines, who have been working so hard to provide the best education we can with only what New College has to offer, to look outward to find the resources we need to strengthen our programs and provide new opportunities for our students.

One of the most significant of these opportunities is the potential to share courses and faculty expertise between the institutions in the Cross College Alliance: New College; the John and Mable Ringling Museum; Ringling College of Art and Design; State College of Florida, and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. A system for

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cross registration was established in 2016, but for this system to truly benefit individual students and academic programs, faculty need to learn one another’s strengths and goals for their programs. After successfully piloting a faculty seminar in Gender Studies in its first year, the grant supported three seminars involving faculty and staff from all members of the Cross College Alliance, aimed at building connection between faculty in art, art history, and oral history.

In the Art seminar, faculty and staff from Ringling College of Art and Design, Art Center of Sarasota, and New College of Florida focused on improving the coordination of their curricular and exhibition programing. Initiatives that grew out of these discussions include ways to coordinate visiting artist programing, coordination of student and member exhibitions, and to develop new activities with local arts organizations. The group has created a proposal entitled artSPACE (Sustainable Practices in Art, Community and Education), with the goal of building sustainable arts programing around larger community centered themes.

Their proposal includes hosting noteworthy artists who would be invited to facilitate programing designed to promote our region’s unique environmental resources, histories and culture, while bridging disciplinary connections within the arts, sciences and humanities. Some of their efforts have already materialized in the improved coordination of visiting artists. This year, notable artists, including Danica Phelps and Will Cotton, expanded Ringling College campus visits to include New College, exposing more of our region’s students to important figures within the arts.

Sharing speakers among institutions has also been important to NCF’s new

program in East Asian Studies, which partnered with the Elling Eide Center and the Ringling Museum on a Film and Talk series that benefits all three institutions as they develop new programming to support their commitments to Asian art and culture.

The grant supports well-established programming, including New Music New College and Black History Month, allowing for increasingly ambitious plans and increasing connections with the public. It also supports programs such as this year’s Frankenfest, a series of events celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s novel and showcasing how humanistic and other liberal arts and science disciplines engage each other. This series of 12 talks and performances, hosted at New College and Ringling College, aimed to build community through events that promote fresh ways of thinking about seemingly familiar material through engaged and sustained conversation across town-gown constituencies.

In the past two years, New College and our partners have made a lot of progress in building relationships that seem likely to survive beyond the grant.

One of the most important realizations faculty have come to is how much can be accomplished simply by making a serious effort to work with another institution. The grant recognizes that collaboration is difficult, that it takes time and involves risk, that it’s easier to stay in familiar surroundings. But in incentivizing collaboration, the grant is encouraging faculty and staff at multiple institutions to look outward for resources, material and human, and to work together to imagine and to realize the possibilities of these collaborations.

The most significant contribution the grant can make to New College and to our community is to help us develop this habit of looking outwards.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Discover SRQ Takes Students Into Sarasota and Manatee Enclaves

BY ANGEL A DUDA ‘ 15 WHAT COULD GET 20 FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS from New College to roam as far as Spanish Point and Snead Island, and into the historic cemeteries and neighborhoods of Sarasota’s Newtown?

The answer: a first-ever course called Discover SRQ, that takes students far from campus and into contact with historians, activists, politicians and everyday people of Sarasota and Manatee counties.

The course, taught by Professor of Anthropology Uzi Baram and then Assistant Director for Community Engagement Andrea Knies, applied traditional academic approaches and field work in the community surrounding New College.

The ideas behind Discover SRQ come from a class taught at De Paul University in Chicago.

Many New College students were unaware of this area’s rich history prior to joining the program.

“Sarasota on the surface may look boring, but once you dig underneath, there’s a whole lot of things to find,” Baram said.

While he labored over which of the many areas of heritage to explore this semester, Knies handled the logistics, coordinating with leaders of the community in order to make each trip possible. The sites they visited included the Native American mounds on Snead Island, nature preserves, the late 1800s Whitaker Cemetery, the South Florida Museum, and Spanish Point, the sites of ancient villages. The Historic Spanish Point Museum is now currently seeking an intern from New College after students visited.

In one of the final trips, the class took a trolley to Newtown, which housed early and large populations of African Americans in the Sarasota area from the 1900s and onward.

Newtown remained segregated into the 1960s and Sarasota did not see an African American on the City Commission until 1985, when a federal lawsuit filed by the NAACP forced a change to the city’s election methods.

Today, Newtown contends with gentrification, placing pressure on the neighborhood to match the white, upper-middle class profile of the rest of central Sarasota.

As the trolley drove through Newtown, students passed several murals and local street art, but also passed countless construction zones and flawlessly painted buildings, where it would not be hard to imagine art once stood. “In four more years, this area will look entirely different,” Baram said.

Vickie Oldham, the Newtown Conservation Historic District consultant, led the tour. She took students to the Rosemary Cemetery, the burial place for many founding members of Newtown, as well as the locations of old local businesses and family houses more than 100 years old.

Along the way, Oldham incorporated a personal touch to the tour—picking up a resident who lived in Newtown for several decades, since he was a child, and knocking on the door of another and asking them to tell students their family history. Every road the tour took seemed to house one Newtown enthusiast or another that Oldham knew.

Baram spoke extensively about the intersection of social justice and heritage, particularly in the case of Newtown. “I hope a sense of activism is what students get out of exploring the area,” he said. “To just go out and do it. We’re living in an age of heritage: identity is an especially important aspect today and contributes to the sense of self.”

According to students, that’s exactly what they’ve learned.

First-year Helen Deberri, who discovered the program by chance and immediately fell in love with it, explained what Discover SRQ meant to her: “One of the many things I have learned in this class is that the seemingly impossible is never really impossible. I have learned to never underestimate people. They have been and will continue to be capable of miraculous things.”

www.ncf.edu

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PROFILE / MARIANA SENDOVA

Transforming the Future Light meets matter in Dr. Mariana Sendova’s Optical Spectroscopy and Nano-Materials Lab

BY K ARE N BOOTH IN DR. MARIANA SENDOVA’S PHYSICS LAB AT NEW COLLEGE, second-year student Tyler Parke uses a laser to facilitate the non-equilibrium dehydration of alpha iron-hydroxide, commonly called goethite.

Parke is interested in the intersection of physics and chemistry, and in particular solid-state physics, the study of how the large-scale properties of solids result from their properties on the atomic scale.

“I came to Dr. Sendova because she’s known for her work in solid-state physics and asked if there was a project I could do for my independent study,” he said. She led him to the study of goethite, which is perhaps best known as a pigment dating to prehistory—it’s found on the famed cave walls of Lascaux, in France.

There’s also a legend, Parke explains, that King Midas’ father had a cape coated in goethite, which may explain the myth of the Golden Touch.

And so maybe it’s particularly fitting to find that mineral in Sendova’s lab. Six years ago, this space on the second floor of the Heiser Natural Sciences Complex was empty. But Sendova had a vision, realized today as New College’s Optical Spectroscopy and Nano-Materials Lab, a first-class research laboratory.

Sendova has become known nationally and internationally for her work on the properties of nanoparticles and for offering solutions to challenges in different areas of applied physics, spectroscopy, nanotechnology, biophysics, and even art and archaeometry. And funding from such prestigious entities as the National Science Foundation, American Academy of Sciences, Department of Education, and, in 2009, a $2 million grant from the Army Research Laboratory made it possible to acquire the most up-to-date, sophisticated equipment.

For students focused on a career in physics, it doesn’t get much better—a state-of-the-art lab at their fingertips complete with a gifted mentor who is highly proficient and well known in her field, and willing to share her expertise.

Many have co-published papers with Sendova, presented at national and international science research conferences and won prestigious awards in their own right.

Dr. Sendova encourages her students to conduct research relevant to real-world challenges. She teaches them how to use the equipment, apply and analyze data and write about their findings. She mentors them every step of the way. Her students, in turn, welcome the challenge, as evidenced by the quality of their research. As a result of their in-depth research,

Dr. Sendova works with second-year student Tyler Parke in her lab.

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MARIANA SENDOVA / PROFILE

Students Tali Zacks and James Blood pursue research in the Optical Spectroscopy and Nano-Materials Lab.

many students are accepted as doctoral candidates in physics and engineering at elite institutions.

So, what is optical spectroscopy and nanomaterials? At the risk of grossly oversimplifying, optical spectroscopy measures how light is altered when it interacts with matter.

“We use visible, ultraviolet or infrared light to study the structure and composition of matter,” said Dr. Sendova.

“Beyond that, we are able to probe spectroscopically the process of re-arranging the atoms while this is happening (in-situ). Understanding the light’s characteristic fingerprint (wavelength and intensity) for various phenomena provides a direct window to the microscopic fabric of any material.

Moreover, the researcher can observe the atomic fabric as it changes under heat or electric forces. Changes can even be triggered by the same light used to study the process in the first place. The scientist can then observe and measure such changes, in real time—just like watching a movie.”

Nanoparticles are tiny chunks of any material—and by tiny, we mean tiny. Think 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The most amazing transformations of the properties of any material happen when size is reduced to such a great extent. For example, when applying the process, gold is no longer golden, silver no longer silvery. The nanoworld has other dimensions, completely unknown to the world of large objects.

“Using spectroscopy methods that we developed in our New College lab, we are able to watch nanoparticles grow or shrink and dissolve into atoms and grow again,” she said. “This is a valuable contribution to nanoscience, allowing scientists to better understand and manipulate their optical and electronic

properties.” The goal is to improve solar cells, optical communications, lasers, nuclear waste encapsulation, and more.

But it’s the “why” of all this, rather than the “how” that’s fascinating to the nonscientist. Granted, it’s a long, hard road from research to manufacture, but future applications of the research happening in the New College lab have the potential to positively impact our lives and the environment in which we live.

Take nuclear waste. Disposing of radioactive material is a monumental problem. By researching how light passes through a material and observing how atoms shift and change and, importantly, how nanoparticles grow, it is conceivable that a new material might be developed to diminish or even mitigate the lifespan of radiative materials.

Optical communication is another area where spectroscopy and nanoparticles play a significant role in process improvement. Take the cable to your television set. As the optical signal travels long distance, it weakens. To amplify the signal, the optical cable must be converted to an electrical signal, enhanced, and then converted back to its original optical signal. Very inefficient at best.

“There’s a big push to maintain the optical signal from the beginning, without converting to electrical,” said Dr. Sendova.

“Nanoparticles embedded in glass is the main theme in finding ways to convert our optical communications to all-optical switching devices.” And while this may be a behind-the-scenes effort of which we, the consumers, are unaware, it is the way of the future, taking shape in a lab at New College.

www.ncf.edu

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PROFILE / GORDON BAUER

Talking Sense Emeritus Professor of Psychology Gordon Bauer reflects on his years at New College researching animal cognition, behavior, and sensory processing

BY B ETH LUBE RECKI

GORDON BAUER HAD NEVER EVEN HEARD OF NEW COLLEGE

when he met a roommate in graduate school who’d gone there. “I said, ‘No, seriously, where did you go?’” he recalled.

But some 20 years later, he found himself interviewing for a job at the place he’d never heard of. A donor had provided funding for a dolphin researcher, a visiting post that had potential to turn into a full-time position.

It did, and then some. Now, 26 years later, the emeritus professor of psychology is looking back on a teaching career during which he led students in research focused on cognition, learning, and sensory processing in honeybees, manatees, and other animals.

“These projects illustrate the integration of teaching and research,” he says. “And it’s been very rewarding teaching students at New College. They are curious and hard-working and show initiative.”

His path to New College started with connections he’d made in the U.S. Navy while at the University of Hawaii.

During his interview visit, he stayed at the home of David Smillie, who was then a professor of psychology at the College.

When Bauer woke up early, he went outside to walk around.

He heard a noise and looked out on the water. “And there’s a dolphin,” he says. “I thought, ‘This is fortuitous.’”

Bauer began teaching here during the 1991-92 academic year and quickly found that New College’s location provided him with plenty of research opportunities. During his first three years at the college he did research at Epcot’s Living Seas area.

But for some 20 years, most of his research took place down the road at Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium.

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He was steered in that direction by Debborah Luke. She was working full-time as the manatee care coordinator at Mote when she became a student at New College in 1998. She talked with Bauer about how challenging it was to get blood samples and other medical information from the aquarium’s resident manatees Hugh and Buffett, who at that time needed to be dry docked and then held down for the vets to perform these kinds of tasks. She wondered if there was a better way.

“I said there was no reason why we couldn’t train the animals for this,” says Bauer. That became a class project, where students learned how to train the manatees to allow staff to do things like take voluntary blood draws and urine samples and use ultrasound procedures to assess their weight.

It was a project that came with its fair share of challenges, Luke recalls. Because manatees were protected by the Endangered Species Act, federal permits were needed to train them for husbandry and research behaviors. Attempts by others to obtain such permits had proven unsuccessful.

“I was told by several leading marine mammal experts that my vision was unrealistic,” says Luke. “Gordon never wavered in his support of my goals and stood by my side through the entire—successful—permitting process.”

That project led Bauer to dig deeper into manatee cognition. He found it was an unexplored topic, so he set out to understand manatees’ sensory processing systems.

“I started studying manatees not because they had been a longtime interest of mine,” he says. “My major interests had been with dolphins and humpback whales. I started this as a teaching mechanism, but it turned out that manatees have some very special characteristics.”

Bauer and his students conducted research at Mote to determine just how sensitive the sensory hairs that cover manatees’ entire bodies are. They found that when it comes to active touch, manatees can discriminate about 2.05 mm in thickness from 2 mm in thickness. When it comes to passive touch—like feeling the water moving around them—they learned that manatees can detect particle movement at low frequencies of under a micron of particle displacement, and at some frequencies they can detect close to a nanometer of particle displacement.

“This is a phenomenal characteristic,” Bauer says. “Manatees are the only mammal that we know of that has exclusively [sensory] sinus hairs all over its body. And their passive touch

capabilities are some of the most sensitive among animals.”

This research has had far-reaching impacts in a number of ways. “I don’t think anyone has done as much work with sensory systems in manatees as Gordon has,” says Heidi E. Harley, director of environmental studies and a professor of psychology at New College. “His work with Hugh and Buffett has been really important to our ability to get enough information about manatees to know how to better help conserve them.”

For Bauer, the impact it has had on students has been just as great. “Out of this project not only have we generated the most comprehensive study of manatee sensory processing, but we’ve also provided opportunities for student theses and research,” he says.

“And that led to quite a number of students going on from this to get their own Ph.D.s and continue in animal work of some kind.”

That includes Luke, who earned a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of South Florida and is now the executive director of the Society for Conservation Biology.

“Gordon became one of the most influential mentors that I’ve ever had,” she says. “Studying with him at New College challenged me to think strategically about—and take on— opportunities that were outside of my typical comfort zone.

He helped me realize that there is always more than one way to solve a problem, and that philosophy is probably the most influential factor of how I’ve achieved my research, educational, and professional accomplishments throughout my career.”

Bauer has worked with students on other kinds of research as well. He oversaw research looking into honeybee learning and memory, a project started by former student Sabrina Burmeister.

“I taught tutorials so students could get a background in the literature on the subject, while Sabrina taught them the basic lab techniques,” he says. “What was nice about this was that after Sabrina graduated, we had this program set up where students taught students. And I always supported that with the seminars where we would discuss research in the field.”

Bauer’s golden retrievers Oscar and Sam also participated in research projects and lab exercises at New College. “His dogs have been a great asset to the whole New College community,” says Harley. “They’ve actually been subjects in some of our cognitive experiments, so he’s beloved for that.”

Over his years at New College, Bauer has served as advisor for some 80 thesis projects. “That was certainly one of the most rewarding parts of teaching here,” he says. “You would start off with students at the early stages who lacked professional competence, as expected. And as they moved along through their program they would learn things, but you did not appreciate how much they had acquired until the

Dr. Bauer working with students at Mote Marine Laboratory.

thesis process. Some really good students didn’t surprise you when they did a good thesis. But for the students who were just kind of doing OK, it would be a very pleasant surprise when they started investing in their own project how well they did and how knowledgeable and competent they were.”

Bauer would give his students the nudges they needed to reach their potential. “I think I looked on the thesis as a more independent project than some,” he says. “Some people invested in more direct rewrites. I would be more inclined to identify things that needed to be worked on and then say bring me another draft.”

“He’s always been open to helping not only good students, but also students who needed more support to become good or find the right path for them,” says Harley. “And he’s maintained that kind of relationship with his students all along. He keeps finding cool opportunities for them throughout their careers at New College and even beyond New College.”

Bauer has known Harley since his time in Hawaii, and he’s benefitted from the fact that she also wound up at New College and studies marine mammals like he does. “One of the disadvantages of being at a school with a small number of faculty is that every faculty member is usually doing something different,” he says. “But with Heidi, there’s overlap.

I have someone I can talk to about research. We’ve collaborated on a few papers, and we read each other’s manuscripts before publication. So that’s been a plus.”

“Gordon’s been a great mentor to many professors at New College, and he’s certainly been a wonderful mentor for me through the decades,” says Harley. “He’s a good listener and is interested in helping other people try to do what they need to do.”

“I consider myself so fortunate to have had Gordon serve as my advisor, mentor, and friend,” says Luke. “And I can honestly say that I do not know how my career path would have shifted if it were not for his support.”

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CLASS NOTES

1960s Jerry Neugarten ’65 has spearheaded an effort that has brought free chess to thousands of students in Chicago. An article about the program and his role in it appeared in the Chicago Tribune in March. To read this story, visit: http://trib.in/2FEfGWu

She is now working on a new volume on the war in Afghanistan. Keppley also continues to provide expert testimony in asylum cases, to teach, and to be as politically active as she can in these difficult times.

Jud Harvey ’74 was recently elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, an honor awarded to one tenth of one percent of AGU’s 60,000 members. A John Morrill student and environmental studies major while at New College, Harvey is presently a senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, where he investigates chemical interactions between groundwater and surface water affecting aquatic systems throughout the world.

Since the mid 1970s, Don Gervich ’67 has lived in Boston. First came graduate school; then for eight years he owned a little resume business; then for 12 years he “suffered & evolved” in medical software.

He is now in his 13th year as a writing professor at Curry College. Each term he describes New College to his students— and tries to infuse his classes with its innovations: creativity, debate, and exploration. Along the way he taught computer skills to homeless people— and has led adult writing courses in Cambridge for two or three centuries.

In 1993, Gervich was fortunate to meet a lovely/lively nurse practitioner (and Buddhist). They find closeness in their books and movies, walking and cooking.

Their main splurge is travel. Best foreign adventures were in Thailand, Prague, Japan, Spain, Guatemala, Italy, Cuba, and Oaxaca (Mexico). He is also a writing coach...you can investigate his secret life at editorboston.com.

Fall 2017 marked 50 years (!) since he began at New College. It continues to give him an education.

John Connelly ‘76 received his 20-year service award from Keiser University in February at the institution’s 40th Anniversary Celebration. Connelly earned his master’s in education there in 2011.

1970s

1990s

Mary Claire Hill Wise ’72 has four children and three grandchildren so far and is loving being a grandma.

Writing under the pen name Ellison Cooper, Jennifer Dornan-Fish ’91’s debut novel is coming out July 10, 2018 from St. Martins Press.

Caged is a crime thriller, the first in a three-book deal.

David Disend ’72 has been appointed to the national board of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners.

Cynthia Keppley ’73 just published a new book, Resisting Occupation in Kashmir (U Pennsylvania Press, 2018).

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Kelly Rains ’91 completed a second master’s degree (this time in business analytics) and started a new job with the University of Rochester, Advancement Data Analytics group. Kelly is living in Rochester with Adam Rains ‘94 and their son, Max (aged 3).

As a student above the traditional age, Doug Messineo ’94 outpaced most of his peers by retiring in October 2017.

He rented his house and started a crosscountry tent camping trip in January 2018 and will complete this thoroughly enjoyable journey by the end of August.

He loved his work and job, but retirement is liberating and fun. He’s heading to India in September for a ninemonth ramble through the country.

Wolff Bowden ’95 has been singing and foot-drumming in Seattle as half of the alt-folk/Americana duo, The Winterlings (Winterlings.com) and painting iridescent lions as “The Painted Poet” (ThePaintedPoet.com). The Winterlings will release their fifth Studio Album, “The Ghost of Leonard Cohen” in September 2018. The duo has written a song about a transgender civil war soldier (“Jennie Hodgers”), a friend who survived a double lung transplant (“Run, Run”)

CLASS NOTES/CHAPTER NEWS

CHICAGO, IL September 7, 2017 -- New College alumnae/i met in downtown Chicago at LYFE Kitchen for dinner and networking. They were joined by Foundation Director of Philanthropy Gayatri Bhatt, who provided campus updates.

From left to right in photo: Tristan Zucker ’09, Margaret Swerdloff ’14, Brian Cody ’02, Steve Jacobson ’71, Chair-Elect of the NCAA Board and Ali Tafti ‘94. Also in attendance was Jordan Martin ‘08.

and a housefly (“Be Kind To The Housefly”). True to his Nat-Sci degree, Wolff infuses his songs with chemists, stingrays and owls. The Winterlings recently toured in Mexico to benefit a recycling program and opened for cowbell-loving Blue Oyster Cult. They would love to tour your town. Reach out!

Kati Baruja (nee Griess) ’96 reports that “life keeps moving us everywhere!”

Baruja, her wife Esther, and son Tekove had returned to her hometown of Cleveland for a few years while Esther was pastoring at a United Church of Christ there. While there, Baruja earned her Ohio Supreme Court Interpreter Certification and was enjoying life as a court interpreter. As of August 2017, she was accepted as a Consular Fellow in the Foreign Service. The family lived in the D.C. area for three months during training, and on November 1 moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina for their first tour. Come visit while they’re still there!

After two years they’ll be shipped on to the next assignment.

After spending 15 years as a wardrobe stylist and costume designer in New York, working with clients from Matthew Barney to Barneys, Anna Maria Wolf ’97 started pursuing a different direction. She got into competitive cycling and launched Pretty Damned

Fast, one of the largest women’s cycling websites. Along the way she worked with Levis Commuter to launch their women’s commuter collection. She was awarded a scholarship to attend United Bicycle Institute in Ashland OR, and in 2016 she opened a bike shop/coffee shop called Sun And Air in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

She still works occasionally on fashion sets, but can be found at the shop most days serving coffee and fixing flats. If you’re a Novo Collegian in the area, please stop by and say hello! Also, her last name changed from Diaz-Balart to Wolf!

Brittany Wilkins ’99 reports that over nine months, seven committees/ administrators reviewed her applications for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Social Work at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. On June 9th, the ETSU Board of Trustees accepted the institution’s recommendation for both—the final step!

2000s Hilary Sperry (formerly Woodcum) ’04 married Nick Sperry in May 2017. They eloped and enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon in the Greek Isles. They currently live in Sarasota.

HAVE YOU JOINED THE ONLINE DIRECTORY? In early January, the New College Alumnae/i Association launched an online directory for New College alumni. This private, secure site is a great way for alums to connect with each other and to ensure that the College has up-to-date information on its graduates. Over 500 alums have already registered—but there are thousands of you out there!

We invite you to sign up for the directory at: ncf.edu/alumni-directory.

Once registered, you can update your information at any time, find friends, alums in your area, or alums in similar fields.

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FOUNDATION FOCUS

01 03 02

02

02 Investing in Our Future The Foundation would like to acknowledge some of the recent donors whose generosity allows the College to thrive:

01

Vir Sondhi, a prominent leader in the fields of international banking, business and education and a founding board member of the Sarasota World Affairs Council, has established a new endowed scholarship in memory of his wife, Genella, for undergraduate students who are first generation to attend college. The New College’s Center for Engagement and Opportunity’s community area in the Cook Library has been named the Sondhi CEO lounge in his honor.

Foundation board member Karin Gustafson held an annual estate and art sale in January, the proceeds from which benefitted the New College Foundation, along with the Animal Rescue Coalition and the Women’s Resource Center. This year’s “Karin’s Causes” resulted in a $3,000 gift to the Foundation to benefit student scholarships.

A new endowed scholarship, the John Jakes Writing Scholarship, has been established.

John Jakes is a Sarasota resident and the renowned author of historical fiction, including the bestselling “North and South” trilogy. An anonymous match was offered when the initial $100,000 was raised, which we achieved. Our deepest gratitude to Don Bruns, also an author, who led this effort and inspired wonderful gifts from the Sarasota Rotary Foundation and many of its members.

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03

Pique Nique Returns to Sarasota After a one-year hiatus, Pique Nique Sur La Baie returned to Sarasota this spring as a new partnership between the New College Foundation and Florida Winefest & Auction, with the majority of proceeds benefitting Suncoast Charities for Children. In accordance with the agreement, New College—previously the event’s sole presenter—was the beneficiary of a $10,000 scholarship donation. This collaboration allows the Foundation to focus its resources on hosting one major fundraiser per year [Clambake], while continuing to benefit from one of the more popular events on the Sarasota social scene. The luncheon was held on April 6, 2018 on the south lawn of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center— and once again, the hats did not disappoint.

02

President’s Dinners Raise Awareness A series of small Sarasota dinner gatherings with President Don O’Shea was launched in November at the home of Foundation Board members Kathy Coffey and Patrick Hennigan. Board of Trustees chair Felice Schulaner ’78 hosted another lively dinner in January. In attendance were community partners and philanthropists, both current and prospective donors. “Our objective is to develop an ever-widening base of support and knowledge of New College within the Sarasota-Bradenton area,” says MaryAnne Young, executive director of the Foundation. “There is explosive growth in our community right now, and many cultured, highly-educated people are moving here. We want to introduce them to our great liberal arts college, and Don is a terrific emissary for that.”

03

04 Foundation Welcomes New Members to Board of Directors Christine Jennings and Francine Blum have been named to the New College Foundation Board of Directors.

04

A former real estate investor, member of several stock exchanges and author of a guide to finances for women, Blum was a senior advisor at Caldwell Asset Management. She has been active with AJC/ West Coast Florida Region, Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation and the Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota County.

Jennings returns to the Foundation board after a four-year hiatus. She spent five years as CEO of the Westcoast Black Theatre and was president and CEO of Sarasota Bank. She is a former board member of the Florida State University Foundation, former chair of the Ringling Museum Board of Trustees, former president of the Sarasota Ballet Association, and former president of the International Women’s Forum.

“New College to me is one of the most important assets in this area, because we are educating the brightest of the bright, and those students who want to go out and benefit the world,” Jennings said.

“New College is such a community treasure,” Blum stated. “It’s also gratifying to see so many out-of-state students getting to know Sarasota while getting a great education. So many bright young people—what an inspiration to our entire community!”

IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

Dr. Glenn R. Cuomo, professor of German studies, passed away suddenly on October 25, 2017, after a valiant four-year battle with an extremely rare and hard-to-cure cancer. Professor Cuomo was a beloved teacher of German literature, film, and culture, ranging widely from Goethe to Gŭnther Grass. He was known for his popular Weimar film course, his generosity with tutorials, and his impassioned love of the German language. He taught up until October of this year, and relished his engagement with students.

Professor Cuomo was an active and brilliant intellect, a scholar, and a dedicated teacher who also provided great service to the College. Professor Cuomo chaired the Division of Humanities twice, for a total of five years, from 2000-04 and from 2006-07.

He was co-director of the College’s accreditation efforts from 2006 to 2016, and served as Campus Fulbright Program Advisor from 1995 until his death.

Dr. Cuomo came to New College in 1982. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University., M.A. from the University of Georgia, and B.A. from the State University of New York at New Paltz. From 1972 to 1973, he spent one year as a student at the Universität Wurzburg, and from 1978 to 1980, he was both a student and research assistant at the Universität Augsburg.

He received tenure at New College in 1988, and was promoted to full

professor in 1996-97. Over the years, he spent many summers conducting research at German archives.

In addition to teaching all levels of German language, Dr. Cuomo offered courses, seminars, and tutorials on a variety of topics in German literature, film, and cultural studies, and was always ready to entertain students’ concepts for specialized studies. He taught his German language courses with the same passion and dedication as his advanced seminars on topics like “Mann, Kafka, Schnitzler & Musil and Crisis of Identity in Early 20th Century Central Europe,” “The Theater of Bertolt Brecht,” “The Age of Goethe,” and many others. From the Middle Ages on, there was no genre or epoch that he did not enjoy covering.

His research interests focused on German literature and cultural history since 1890 to the present, with particular emphasis on the Third Reich and the arts of the period. He authored Career at the Cost of Compromise: Gŭnther Eich’s Life and Work in the Years 1933–1945 (1992), edited a collection entitled National Socialist Cultural Policy (1995), and published more than a dozen essays in both English and German. In addition to many translations for his classes, he translated key essays on theater policy and literary policy of the Third Reich for his edited collection.

He served his profession, holding the office of Secretary-Treasurer of the international German Studies Association from 1996-99, moderating panels at the annual meetings and for many years, reviewed manuscripts and grant proposal for this organization, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and others. He published many book reviews, presented a vast array of scholarly papers at conferences, and received numerous grants and awards from such sources as NEH, IREX, DAAD (German Academic

Exchange Service), the Fulbright Program, and New College of Florida Faculty Development Fund.

During his service as Campus Fulbright Advisor and Chair of the Campus Fulbright Committee, New College graduates received 137 Fulbright grants, with 35 of these awarded to students for study in Germany and Austria.

Survived by his wife, Claudia, and by his mother, Gloria Avalon, three sisters, two brothers, and numerous nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and grandnephews, Professor Cuomo has touched many students’ lives over the years with his caring, endless patience and will be long remembered by community members.

Dr. Mary Elmendorf, the wife of the second president of New College, an honorary alumna of the College and an acclaimed sociologist, died September 15, 2017.

New College held a celebration of life for Dr. Elmendorf on November 4, 2017, in the Music Room of College Hall. A message from the Office of the Provost recounted her achievements: She was born 100 years ago, on April 13, 1917, in an era when married women stayed home and had babies. Indeed, she did get married and raised a son and daughter, but she also spent her life helping others, while redefining women’s roles.

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IN MEMORIAM Anthropologist and author, she is best known for her studies of Mayan women in the village of Chan Kom, Mexico, and for her work as a consulting anthropologist in the application of appropriate technology for community participation and involvement. Dr. Elmendorf received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the Union Institute in 1972.

In her early career, Dr. Elmendorf held various positions in the United States and abroad, working in the rural south and the slums of Boston and New Haven in the late 1930s, and at the Putney School in Vermont and Mexico in the early 1940s.

She performed volunteer work with the American Friends Service Committee in Europe from 1944-1946, working in the prisons and with displaced people and later serving as Director of the Spanish Refugee Program. In 1947 the American and British Friends were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work during and after World War II, and Dr. Elmendorf considered this to be one of her greatest honors.

Her career as an educator included various projects at Brown University, New College, as visiting professor at Hampshire College, Goddard College, World Campus Afloat, and adjunct professor at the University of Florida.

She participated in all of the United Nations Conferences on Women: Mexico (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995).

Dr. Elmendorf moved to Sarasota with her husband, John, in 1965, when he became president of New College.

Her papers are now held at the University of Florida Smathers Libraries.

Dr. Mary Elmendorf is survived by one son, Calvin Lindsay Elmendorf and a daughter, Susan (Jeff) Roberts; grandchildren Duncan (Kathryn) Roberts, Stirling (Kumi) Elmendorf, Lucy (Tom) Henry, Byron (Miranda) Elmendorf, Sally (Nelson) Dupere, Mary (John) Dempsey, Kathryn Roberts, John Roberts, and William Roberts; and 6 great-grandchildren Bjorn, Adelle, Ellis, Calvin, Vivienne and Susanna.

The Elmendorf family requested that gifts in her memory be made to The

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John and Mary Elmendorf Palm Court Endowed Scholarship Fund through the New College Foundation; contact the Foundation for assistance.

Plans are underway for an academic conference in honor of Dr. Elmendorf to be held in fall 2018 at New College.

William “Bill” Davis Caldwell ‘64, age 72, of Folly Beach, SC and formerly of Naples, FL, husband of Christine Griffin Caldwell, died on Monday, October 23, 2017. He attended New College before completing his B.A. in history and B.A. in social sciences at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. He then attended the University of Florida Law School before accepting a one-year assignment as a VISTA volunteer, where he taught reading in Snowhill, AL. In October 1970, Caldwell was honorably discharged from the Army and moved to Naples, where he became a leader and community advocate. In January 1971, he began working at First National Bank and Trust and retired as senior vice president of indirect lending in 2004. He moved to South Carolina in 2014 to be closer to his family.

Robert Glazier ’76, a lifelong Floridian, passed away on February 17, 2018, from pancreatic cancer at the age of 59. He attended Nova Law School, where he was executive editor of the Law Review and published two law review notes. After clerking for two respected judges of the Third District Court of Appeal, he began a distinguished and successful career as an appellate lawyer. Glazier handled many notable cases. Early in his career, he handled the legal issues in State v.

Fijnje, a noted child abuse case. He argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in Krupski v. Costa Crociere. He was particularly proud of his representation of victims of the tobacco industry’s fifty-year conspiracy to mislead smokers about their products.

The love of Glazier’s life was his husband, Alan Mason. They met in 1998, and were legally married in 2010. They shared a wonderful life together, traveling, raising dogs, and enjoying the passage of time. They shared a love of

Jewish music. Mason worked with Glazier to create the Winter Jewish Music Concert, which became one of the leading Jewish music concerts in the country.

Their life together was changed in June 2013 by Glazier’s diagnosis with pancreatic cancer. During these years, Glazier wrote a widely-read blog, which appeared at CaringBridge.org. He was able to use his knowledge of medical issues and the medical profession to help others. Glazier also created a group for pancreatic cancer survivors in South Florida, the first such group in Florida.

In recent years, he and Mason created the Mason-Glazier Fund for Jewish Identity, which supports Jewish programs in Miami-Dade County, and the Mason-Glazier Charitable Fund at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

They were instrumental in creating Base Miami, a pluralistic center for Jewish young adults. They donated the Mason-Glazier Music Room, in Honor of HaZamir Miami to the new Cultural Arts Building at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center, and donated the Bliss Hebert and Allen Charles Klein Stonewall Loft & Lounge at Pridelines.

Glazier served as President of Temple Israel of Greater Miami from 2005 to 2007. Among his accomplishments at the temple was helping to create Ru’ach, a havurah for the LGBT community. He was also a long-time member of the board of the temple’s foundation, the Joseph R. Narot Endowment Fund.

Robert G. Miller, Jr. ‘71 age 65, of Sarasota passed away December 16, 2017. He was born September 28, 1952 in Paterson, New Jersey and retired from the MBTA in Boston, where he worked in the real estate department. He loved to collect art work and was devoted to his dogs and cats. He was predeceased in death by his father Robert Miller, Sr. and sister, Patricia Duncan.

PICTURE PERFECT

The Koski Bell Tower glows in the sunset during Orientation Weekend. The tower, on Library Plaza, received the American Institute of Architects’ Florida and Caribbean chapter Object Honor in 2015 for its “level of invention, creativity and craftsmanship beyond the constraints of space or cost restrictions, as well as excellence in design.” It was designed by Renker Eich Parks Architects and STABIL Precast Concrete and built by Willis A. Smith Construction. The Koski Tower’s four bells were custom-cast by the Christoph Paccard Bell Foundry of Charleston, S.C.

NEW COLLEGE ALUMNAE/I ASSOCIATION NEW COLLEGE FOUNDATION, INC. THE KEATING CENTER 5800 BAY SHORE ROAD SARASOTA, FL 34243-2109

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CAMPUS EVENTS

2018 Fun & Fitness Expo

The seventh annual Fun & Fitness Expo connected students with critters real and mechanical, as well as a climbing wall, yoga, free medical testing, haircuts and lots of food.