Rebranding the Republican Right swarthmore swarthmore college bulletin | january 2012 campus view Dusk falls silently on the Ville. The new town clock marks time as the Michael’s sign on the half-timbered tower whispers stories to Swarthmoreans. Another year is upon us. PHOTOGRAPH BY ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS departments 24 5: COLLECTION • Strategic plan approved • TEDx to come to Swarthmore • Quaker revival for the College? • Occupy movement reaches campus • A new face at the Bulletin • Garnet sports news 37: CONNECTIONS • • • • Alumni Council hard at work Lax Conference—save the date Sign up for Lifelong Learning Souvenirs of Garnet Weekend 42: CLASS NOTES The world according to Swarthmore 47: IN MEMORIAM Farewell to cherished friends 52: IN MY LIFE It Was in Another Lifetime. A letter from Afghanistan By Gregg Davis ’80 62: BOOKS + ARTS Stephen Tignor ’92, High Strung: Björn Borg, John McEnroe, and the Untold Story of Tennis’s Fiercest Rivalry, Harper 2011 Reviewed by Michael Mullan 72: Q+A: Why is Bob Barr So Deeply Affected? There’s a new scholarship in his name. By Jeffrey Lott profiles 56: The Thrill of the Hunt Edward Frost ’73 knows exactly where to look to uncover the juiciest facts. By Andrea Juncos ’01 68: She’s Got the Beats Ashley Brandt ’07 moves through the worlds of music and medicine to her own rhythm. By Audree Penner 16 in this issue features 16: Homage to the Past, Invitation to the Present Craig Williamson creates a bridge across centuries with a new translation of Beowulf. By Carol Brévart-Demm 20: Fashion’s Darling Joseph Altuzarra ’05 has emerged as a hot New York designer. By Elizabeth Redden ’05 32 24: What Is Africa To Me? Forty years after serving in the Peace Corps in Gambia, Clinton Etheridge took his family on a pilgrimage to Africa. By Clinton Etheridge ’69 32: Rebranding the Right The Tea Party and its sympathizers are virtually one and the same as another highly visible political movement with low approval ratings: the Christian Right. By Tom Krattenmaker 20 JIM GRAHAM Left: During Fashion Week in New York, designer Joseph Altuzarra ’05 presented his Spring 2012 line. His models—even this blue-eyed blond— sported painted-on dark eyebrows. To see some of the clothes, turn to page 20. On the cover: The Republican Party has taken a big gulp of tea this year, but will the Tea Party boat stay afloat through November? Illustration by Nancy Harrison. Story on page 32. parlor talk After more than 21 years working on this magazine, I’m handing it over to a new editor, Sherri Kimmel, this month (see p. 13). This is my 85th and final issue of the Swarthmore College Bulletin. It’s with mixed emotions that I relinquish this job—even though it was my choice to do so. After all these years, there’s still a thrill in cracking open the carton and pulling out each new issue, all shiny and smelling like the printing plant. When this edition arrives, I’ll savor that moment with full attention. I’ll miss working with the great team in the Communications Office and the many fine writers—including numerous alumni, a few of whom I mentored as students— whose work has appeared in these pages. My interactions with our creative designers, photographers, and illustrators have also STUART WATSON on the web Listen: Political scientist Keith Reeves ’88 says the magnitude of the black prison population is a crisis that has profound consequences for the social fabric of urban families and neighborhoods. http:// media.swarthmore.edu/faculty_lectures/    been exciting and rewarding. Together, we have brought you the stories of Swarthmore. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not leaving the College. I don’t have to hand in my I.D. card just yet; I’m just moving across the lawn to a desk in the Friends Historical Library, where I will write and edit a new book about Swarthmore. Look for it as we begin our sesquicentennial celebration in 2014. Editing the Bulletin has been the source of countless interactions with Swarthmore faculty and staff members, with students, but particularly with alumni. You have not only been our readers, you are also contributors, critics, and friends—and in all of these roles, you have enriched this magazine and the life of the College. I don’t think I will miss the quarterly deadlines, but I will surely miss serving you, the readers. Thanks for everything. —Jeffrey Lott Listen: Biologist David Page ’78 discusses how recent genomic studies have revealed the Y chromosome’s architectural beauty, evolutionary dynamism, and critical role in male fertility.   http://media.swarthmore.edu/featured_events/ Listen: Classicist Grace Ledbetter examines how George Ballenchine’s ballet Apollo, with a score by Igor Stravinsky, provided a new foundation for ballet in the 20th century by transforming the Greek myth of Apollo and merging ballet with Greco-Roman classicism. http://media. swarthmore.edu/faculty_lectures/ contributors Clinton Etheridge ’69 was a central figure in the early days of SASS, the AfricanAmerican student group. His 2005 Bulletin article “The Crucible of Character” described the black student occupation of the Admissions Office in January 1969. He recently retired from a career in banking and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is planning to write a longer memoir about his African experiences. Andrea Juncos ’01 is the editor and director of communications at New York Law School in Manhattan. She is also the vice chair of the board at Girls Write Now, a writing-based mentoring program for high school girls, where she had the privilege of serving as a mentor for seven years. She lives in Brooklyn and participates in a local writers group regularly. swarthmore college bulletin editor Jeffrey Lott associate editor Carol Brévart-Demm class notes editor Susan Cousins Breen art director Phillip Stern ’84 staff photographer Eleftherios Kostans desktop publishing Audree Penner publications intern Maki Somosot ’12 administrative assistant Janice Merrill-Rossi editor emerita Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 contacting swarthmore college college operator (610) 328-8000 www.swarthmore.edu admissions (610) 328-8300 admissions@swarthmore. edu alumni relations (610) 328-8402 alumni@swarthmore.edu publications (610) 328-8568 bulletin@swarthmore.edu registrar (610) 328-8297 registrar@swarthmore.edu world wide web www.swarthmore.edu changes of address Send address label along with new address to: Alumni Records Office Swarthmore College 500 College Avenue Swarthmore PA 19081-1390 Phone: (610) 328-8435 Or e-mail: alumnirecords@swarthmore.edu. The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is volume CVIX, number 3, is published in August, October, January, April, and July by Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. Periodicals postage paid at Swarthmore PA and additional mailing offices. Permit No. 0530620. Postmaster: Send address changes to Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. ©2011 Swarthmore College. Printed in U.S.A. Tom Krattenmaker is a regular contributor to USAToday’s “On Religion” commentary page, where he writes about religion and public life. His work has also appeared in recent years in Salon, the Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, The Huffington Post, Beliefnet, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His book about the influence of evangelical Christianity in professional sports, Onward Christian Athletes, was published in 2009. From 1995 until 2006, Krattenmaker was director of news and information at Swarthmore. 4 swarthmore college bulletin collection MAKING ART Watch a time-lapse video of the installation at http://bit.ly/eakinsredux. january 2012 ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS Early December visitors to the Old Tarble art studio were startled to find a looming three-dimensional rendering of the Thomas Eakins painting The Gross Clinic—created by students in Assistant Professor of Studio Arts Logan Grider’s first-year seminar Making Art. The students reclaimed a week’s worth of cast-off cardboard from campus Dumpsters, then used utility knives, hot glue, and black and white paint to build the 16-foot-high interpretation of the painting. In preparation for the assignment, one student had studied Eakins’ painting in Scheuer Family Professor of Humanities Michael Cothren’s firstyear seminar Making Art History. Then the class viewed the actual work on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and visited the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, near Washington, D.C., to observe and sketch a double-bypass surgery. To create the images appearing in the painting, students made photocopies of their own faces, which they fashioned into three-dimensional figures for the piece. Both sections of the course worked on the sculpture, which resulted in some students’ work being altered or even taken apart by members of a later class. Taking about two weeks to complete, the result was aweinspiring and decidedly sinister— dominated by the huge figure of Dr. Samuel Gross, who seemed to step out of the work brandishing a huge scalpel like a weapon. By mid-December, with glue beginning to loosen its hold, the ephemeral work was ready to be taken down—“otherwise, it will come down by itself,” Grider said—and returned to the Dumpsters whence it came. —Carol Brévart-Demm 5 collection PHILLIP ST ERN ’84 STARTING FROM STRENGTH BOARD APPROVES STRATEGIC PLAN At its December meeting, the Board of Managers approved a comprehensive set of strategic directions that builds on the College’s acknowledged strengths and emphasizes its core values. The strategic plan’s six major recommendations encourage curricular innovation while preserving intellectual rigor; envision Swarthmore as a model residential community for the 21st century; support faculty excellence in teaching, scholarship, and artistic production; affirm the College’s commitments to admit and support a diverse student body; urge the creation of an Institute for Liberal Arts to strengthen liberal arts education at the College and in the world beyond; and seek to engage alumni throughout their lives—especially through greater alumni-student involvement. Adoption of the plan follows more than 18 months of research and self-study that drew faculty, staff, students, and alumni into hundreds of conversations about the College’s position in American higher education, its sources of strength, and the uncertain economic and higher education environment that Swarthmore faces today and in the future. “Scores of faculty, staff, students, and Board members invested untold hours in our strategic planning process,” said Gil Kemp ’72, chair of the Strategic Planning Council. “Why? Because we believe that doing so will make Swarthmore an even stronger institution as it embraces the challenges and opportunities of the next decade.” All of the major recommendations are underpinned by more specific suggestions that will be explored in an implementation phase beginning in the first half of 2012. Some, such as a mandate to create 6 a comprehensive diversity plan, will be undertaken forthwith; others will be studied to determine their feasibility and cost. It is expected that a major fundraising campaign will be mounted in the near future to finance and implement the plan. “We must be vigilant about our finances, grateful for the support of our alumni, and realistic about our plans,” the document states. “So as we move forward, two principles will guide implementation of this plan: 1) pay as we go, and 2) start small, evaluate progress, and slowly grow any programs or initiatives that require significant resources only when we can afford to do so.” Swarthmore’s values were central to the creation of the plan, and every aspect of the process was designed to keep these in the forefront of the discussion. The final planning document describes these values as having been “derived from our Quaker founders.” They are: “respect for the individual, decision-making by consensus, simple living, social responsibility and justice, generous giving, and the peaceful settlement of disputes.” The College’s key strengths as an educational institution are listed as: • Our singular commitment to academic rigor and creativity • Our desire to provide access and opportunity for all students, regardless of their financial circumstances • Our diverse and vibrant community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni • Our conviction that applied knowledge should be used to improve the world “I’ve been involved in other strategic planning efforts but never have I seen such a consensus of opinion about an institution’s core values,” said President Rebecca Chopp. “It was remarkably affirming to go through this exercise together and emerge with a clear set of guiding principles and values to help shape our future direction.” As the plan was developed during 2010 and 2011, the current financial and educational environment weighed heavily on the minds of members of the planning council. The council comprised more than 25 members of the Board, faculty, staff, and the alumni and student bodies. It oversaw the work of four working groups, each of which included members of the planning council and other members drawn from the College community who brought special interest or expertise to the area being studied. In all, more than 80 persons served on one or more of these committees. It is estimated that well over 1,000 people participated in a face-to-face conversation about the College’s strategic direction. Hundreds more submitted comments and questions online. The plan acknowledges several “significant issues that Swarthmore must address.” These include not only the uncertain financial environment, which requires additional financial aid for many families but also changing demographics and differences in preparation for college, the demands of environmental sustainability, and “domestic critiques of the liberal arts, even as international interest grows.” swarthmore college bulletin To support liberal arts education at Swarthmore and strengthen it both in the United States and abroad, the plan proposes the creation of an Institute for the Future of the Liberal Arts at the College. It states that “higher education on the whole has done very little generative thinking about its future. At Swarthmore, we are committed to encouraging and taking part in this important work.... As a leader in liberal arts education, we must be vigilant in analyzing the pressures and opportunities for liberal arts education.” The recommendations conclude with an acknowledgement of the critical role that alumni play in “the College’s future and its place in higher education. Our ability to provide an outstanding academic experience for our students, to maintain and enhance our position of leadership in liberal arts education, to promote our reputation and identity worldwide, and to raise money to support these objectives necessarily depend on alumni engagement and concomitant philanthropy.” The definition of “alumni engagement” is considerably broadened in the plan—and although financial support of the College remains key, there is also a commitment to offer alumni “deeper, more generative relationships with the College and each other; more enriching academic experiences; and more active connections with current students, thus enhancing the intimacy and excellence that defines Swarthmore.” The plan is said to be “an organic document that can adjust both to additional community input and new challenges or opportunities as they arise.” In the months ahead, existing committees such as the Council on Educational Policy and the Sustainability Committee, as well as the Alumni Council will begin to act on relevant recommendations, articulating each project’s goals, providing “maps for implementation activities,” and establishing ways to measure progress. At the same time, in addition to the diversity and inclusivity plan, a campus facilities master plan, a financial plan, and a capital campaign plan will be developed additional other working groups. —Jeffrey Lott january 2012 Recommendation 1: Through structures and incentives that encourage innovation, Swarthmore should foster a curriculum of intellectual rigor and creativity that combines disciplinary strength and flexibility. • Support teaching, learning, and research initiatives to cultivate traditional and new competencies and to support students who come to Swarthmore with a range of preparations. • Provide high-impact learning experiences. • Strengthen the infrastructure and mechanisms for helping students navigate the curriculum, discover opportunities, and manage their choices. • Support curricular innovation, especially interdisciplinary teaching and programs, with helpful structures and additional faculty positions. • Address facilities needs for academic programs. Recommendation 2: Swarthmore should draw on its traditions and strengths as a community to serve as a model for purposeful communities in the 21st century. • Develop a comprehensive diversity, inclusivity, and engagement plan that will transform the College into a model workplace and residential learning community in an increasingly complex global world. • Support the common good and civil discourse. • Invest in sustainable environmental practices, including minimizing greenhouse gas emissions from the College’s own operation and preserving the Crum Woods. • Create a comprehensive approach to leadership development including a Center for Innovation and Leadership for students. • Support athletics, including recreational, varsity, and club sports, and continue to address associated facilities needs. • Develop a comprehensive wellness program for students and other members of the College community. • Continue to recruit and support staff members whose contributions and devotion to the Swarthmore community makes a profound impact on our students and others. • Protect and create common spaces to support our objectives for the community. Recommendation 3: Swarthmore should continue to encourage and support faculty excellence, embracing exceptional teaching, active scholarship, and artistic production throughout an individual’s career. • Recognize and support the traditional and new ways that faculty members teach. • Recognize the value of faculty research and artistic production and support it vigorously. • Renew efforts to increase the diversity of the faculty, especially in tenure-track appointments. Recommendation 4: Swarthmore should recruit, admit, and support a varied and dynamic student body through its admissions and financial aid policies. • Raise funds specifically for financial aid to secure restricted endowment support for the existing program, increase funds for future growth in aid, and expand aid for international students. • Expand the number of international students and the percentage of international students who have access to aid. • Promote liberal arts education locally, nationally, and internationally with renewed vigor, affirming that Swarthmore’s commitment to access for all qualified students is essential for the best liberal arts experience. • Establish a Board of Managers Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid to review and monitor admissions practices, policies, and guidelines. Recommendation 5: Swarthmore should create an Institute for Liberal Arts to study and expand liberal arts education at Swarthmore, in the United States, and around the world. • Foster exploration and curricular innovation. • Enhance support for intellectual rigor and creativity, signal our identification with those values, and lead in strengthening the liberal arts in today’s global community. • Facilitate conversations between liberal arts institutions and those who live “liberal arts lives,” especially between Swarthmore faculty, students, staff, and alumni on topics related to the future of liberal arts. Recommendation 6: Swarthmore should nurture lifelong relationships with alumni and foster greater alumni-student engagement. • Create more opportunities to engage alumni as volunteers. • Build bridges to bring students and alumni together in ways that are rewarding for all. • Introduce new programs that reach across a broad spectrum of interests. • The College should produce high quality, provocative Swarthmore talks for the Web— similar to the popular TED series—designed to showcase the talents, knowledge, and expertise of faculty and alumni. Similarly, an online experts bureau would allow knowledgeable faculty and alumni to share expertise and serve as resources for the College and the broader public. • Implement a social media strategy to promote more effective communications and build community. 7 FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY collection 150 150 YEARS AGO: MARTHA ELLICOTT TYSON PROPOSES A NEW SCHOOL Martha Ellicott Tyson (1795–1893) had a long-standing concern for Quaker education. It was at her home in Baltimore, Md., in 1860, that a group of Quakers decided it was time to begin the campaign that would lead to the creation of Swarthmore College. Tyson was a remarkable woman. As a young girl, she came to know an elderly African-American named Benjamin Banneker, who often attended the local Quaker meeting. This was the same Banneker who, in his late 50s, taught himself the mathematics of predicting eclipses with the help of books loaned to him by Martha’s father, George Ellicott, and then went on to calculate and publish almanacs, correspond with Thomas Jefferson, and help lay out Washington, D.C. After he died, the Ellicott family preserved his papers, and, later, Tyson prepared Banneker’s first biography. She wrote on local history and Quaker work with Native Americans as well as articles on the need for Swarthmore College. She was named an elder in the Society of Friends and was later acknowledged as a minister, serving as clerk of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Women Friends. When she wrote for the Friends Intelligencer about the need for a new school, she rhetorically asked how many Friends, who might have been “bright and shining lights,” had passed their days “so obscured by ignorance” that their talents were lost to the world. Perhaps she thought of her old neighbor Benjamin Banneker, who, with help of a few books, transformed himself from a farmer into a scientist. She may even have thought a bit about herself, a woman with no more than a common school education who wrote books and ultimately would create a college. —Christopher Densmore Curator, Friends Historical Library With a lifelong concern for Quaker education, Martha Ellicott Tyson was a driving force in the campaign to create Swarthmore College. Professor Emerita of Physical Education Eleanor Kay “Pete” Hess, died on Dec. 14 at age 87. A fierce advocate for women’s athletics at a time when women were not provided the same opportunities as men in collegiate sports, Hess changed the lives of countless female studentathletes at Swarthmore during her 33 years as a coach and administrator. As a coach, Hess guided four different sports at Swarthmore: field hockey, women’s lacrosse, badminton, and tennis. She coached the field hockey team from 1957 to 1984, leading the Garnet to 140 victories, the most by any coach in program history. She is also all-time leader in badminton, with 286 victories during two stints as head coach. As an administrator, Hess chaired the Department of 8 Physical Education and Athletics for Women from 1965 to 1979, then served as the associate chair for the combined department of physical education and athletics from 1979 to 1990. Her hard work and determination played an integral role in the growth of women’s lacrosse and field hockey at the college level across the nation. Inducted into the Pennsylvania Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2000 and the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2002, Pete was a lacrosse umpire for more than 30 years (she umpired games well into her 80s) and served in a variety of leadership roles, including president and treasurer of the Philadelphia Women’s Lacrosse Association. Current women’s lacrosse coach and former field hockey coach Karen Borbee acknowledges Hess’s influence in FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY FAREWELL TO AN ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN’S ATHLETICS—”PETE” HESS As coach of four College sports, “Pete” Hess set all-time records in women’s field hockey and badminton. women’s athletics and in her own personal coaching philosophy. “Pete was an authentic pioneer for women in athletics. She showed me the right way to edu- cate women through sport. She was an icon in the field hockey and lacrosse worlds and everyone knew and loved her for her kind words and friendly smile. It wasn’t long ago that you would see Pete out on the field hockey field, officiating youth programs. Those girls had no idea that the reason they were able to play was because the older woman who was officiating their game had paved their way. Pete was happy to stay in the background and enjoy being a catalyst for the women and girls who followed.” Hess retired from the College in 1990. In her honor, the Eleanor Kay Hess Award is given to the sophomore woman who demonstrates a love of athletics, leadership, hard work, fairness, and objectivity. —Mark Anskis swarthmore college bulletin YOU’RE INVITED— TO TEDxSWARTHMORE Only those individuals recognized as the world’s greatest thinkers receive an invitation to speak at the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, Calif. The four-day gathering, whose name is an acronym for technology, entertainment, and design, draws intellectuals, CEOs, entrepreneurs, designers, and scientists from around the world to present ideas they believe can change the world. They speak to an audience, whose members currently pay $6,000 a year to be able to attend and receive mailings, networking tools, and conference DVDs. Since 2006, the talks have also been accessible for free on the TED, YouTube, and iTunes websites. By June 2011, the talks had more than 500 million online views. It stands to reason that a conference populated by brainiacs would sooner or later attract the attention of the Swarthmore student community, especially when one of their own—Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action and Professor of Psychology Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice—is a threetime TED speaker. So, move over, Long Beach, because here comes TEDxSwarthmore. In the interest of ideas worth spreading, TED created TEDx, a program operated under license from TED of local, independently organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At TEDxSwarthmore, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection. On Saturday, March 31, as the result of a student group initiative, the Lang Performing Arts Center will provide the venue for a group of 12 speakers—comprising faculty members, alumni, one parent, and one student—who will engage an audience of staff, faculty, students, and guests in a discussion of “What Makes a Good Society?” Schwartz is serving as faculty adviser for the group. For more information, visit www.tedxswarthmore.com. “GIVE YOUR PARENTS GRAY HAIRS”—KRISTOF “In some past life I’m pretty sure I was a Swattie,” said Nicholas Kristof, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist, who says he is a huge fan of Swarthmore. Referencing Swarthmore student initiatives, including those sponsored by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, Kristof stressed that traveling abroad—daring to step out into an unfamiliar environment—plays a transformational role in students’ ability and motivation to become involved in “the world’s fight.” “It’s important to get out of your comfort zone. And if you’re having a wonderful time, then that’s not exactly right. You want to be in over your head. You want to give your parents gray hairs.” Kristof ’s interest in human rights has been driven by personal encounters, he said. He was galvanized to report on human trafficking when he heard the story of two girls in Cambodia, tricked and kidnapped on their way to school by an old woman who wanted to sell them to a brothel. He went on to emphasize that, although the human trafficking situation in the United States is better than the situation in Cambodia, there is still much to do here at home. In addition to emphasizing local activism, Kristof underscored the importance of choosing a cause that has personal meaning and relevance. “Students ask me, ‘There are so many issues, what should I get involved in?’ And the answer to that will depend on where you’ve traveled, what issues speak to you the most, what resonates with you.” He noted that, in reference to social entrepreneurship, he has “become increasingly sympathetic to the notion of starting something particular.” “When my generation was active, we tended to protest against things, we tended to seek systemic global change, and, often, the fojanuary 2012 Columnist and activist Nicholas Kristof (left) spoke to a packed house in November. cus of our protests was kind of symbolic. My generation would have protested for some kind of global covenant to get every kid in the world in school. Your generation is much more likely to start a particular school somewhere. It may not solve the global problem, but for kids in that particular school, it is completely transformational.” —Kat Clark ’12, adapted from the Daily Gazette. Nov. 17, 2011 Watch Kristof’s talk at http://media.swarthmore.edu/video. 9 collection Should the College Revive its Quaker Roots? Yes, Students Say, but Via Grassroots Junior Ben Goossen enrolled at In a shining example of civil discourse on campus, two students engaged last fall in a four-week exchange of op-eds in The Phoenix, producing a series of reflective articles on Quakerism that began in disagreement and ended in consensus—or close to it. Junior Ben Goossen enrolled at Swarthmore in large part because of the College’s Quaker heritage. “I was interested in attending a school with an affiliation to a historic peace church,” he says, “and I loved the combination of academic rigor and the College’s ties to the Society of Friends with its connection to both religious and secular activism.” Goossen was further drawn by current manifestations of Quakerism on campus such as the Friends Historical Library, the Peace Collection, and the Quaker Meetinghouse. Since his arrival on campus, although still excited about the potential for growth of Quakerism on campus, he is disappointed by what he believes is a waning role for the religion. In late October, Goossen—who identifies with the Mennonite peace faith—published an op-ed in The Phoenix, in the form of a letter to President Rebecca Chopp, proposing that, despite some positive steps, such as visiting speakers on Quaker activism; the Global Nonviolent Action Database; and the founding of a Young Quakers Group (of which he is a cofounder)—campus of the College’s Quaker heritage. STUDENTS FIND VOICE IN OCCUPY-STYLE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 10 Quakerism should be more actively promoted. For example, he would welcome increased faculty and student activism and stronger commitment to Quakerism by the College administration; a full-time Quakerin-residence position, similar to one that already exists at Haverford College; closer ties between the College and the Quaker Center at Pendle Hill; the reinstatement of Collection; moving the Peace Collection from its “undignified location in McCabe basement” to a more prominent location; and print and electronic publications clarifying the College’s relationship to Quakerism. A week after releasing Goossen’s column, The Phoenix published a response by sophomore Sam Zhang, who wrote of his own discomfort at the state of Quakerism on campus. In the article “Why Quakerism at Swarthmore is Counterproductive,” Zhang described situations in which he had experienced the phrase “Quaker values” being applied cynically and inappropriately to describe simple acts of generosity or used in a “culture-cleansing” capacity, wherein fear to offend eliminates passion or excitement. Zhang cited the problems inherent in an enhanced role for Quakerism in a multicultural campus society: “Having moved from the fringe of white Christian society to the center of multiculturalism, Quakers have subtly redefined themselves as the border guards That night, shortly after dinner in Sharples Dining Hall, Swarthmore students held their first “General Assembly (GA).” It may seem surprising that Occupy “I was interested in attending a school that had an affiliation to a historic peace church,” he says. between the Christian and multicultural worlds. With an impeccable record of diversity, Quakerism is the most legitimate heir to this position…. It views itself as a negotiator who works on behalf of minority groups to lower the cost of cultural entry into mainstream Christian society. “The assumption that minority students want to assimilate is patronizing in its own right, let alone that we should be grateful for their assimilation….” Goossen responded by highlighting the vibrancy of the Swarthmore culture, suggesting that any “lack of spontaneity and excitement” is due to students being engrossed in their schoolwork and further that Quakerism’s origins do not prevent its being compatible with non-Quakers. “It is no accident that contemporary Quakerism is a global religion, represented on every continent in any number of culture groups,” he wrote. In a later conversation with the Bulletin, Zhang described a Tri-College diversity came so late to the College. Yet numerous students and alumni were participating in the Philadelphia and New York protests. Plus, one of the architects of the Wall Street ZEIN NAKHODA ’12 In the early hours of Thursday, Nov. 17, New York City police cleared Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, suspending, at least for a time, the first phase of a movement that by November, had launched dozens of Occupy protests and encampments around the country. Some had been dispersed, sometimes violently, by police; some lingered passively into the late fall. Swarthmore in large part because The first General Assembly in Sharples Dining Hall as the Occupy movement came home to Swarthmore. An alumnus has been a force in Occupy Wall Street. protest was Micah White ’04, who worked with Adbusters founding editor Kalle Lasn and other activists to propose the Occupy strategy in a series of emails last spring. A self-described “mystical anarchist,” White was interviewed in a Nov. 28 New Yorker article on Occupy Wall Street written by Mattathias Schwartz ’01, who reported that “After earning a B.A. at Swarthmore, [White] wrote a letter to Lasn, whom he had never met, saying that he would be arriving in Vancouver in a matter of weeks and wanted to be put to work.” swarthmore college bulletin workshop he’d attended as a freshman. “It was sterile,” he said. “We were all very politically correct, as if we were afraid of our own potential to offend. The workshop ended in a gathering, which, we were assured, was not a Quaker Collection, but it really was…. We had to stand in silence until someone was moved to speak. That even the ceremony of Quakerism would be used for a political agenda takes away from what Quakerism is all about and makes me apprehensive about what Ben is endorsing without certain checks to ensure that this doesn’t happen.” At the end of the four-week exchange, Zhang conceded that it was his Tri-Co experience—“more like the initiation of a political ideology of inoffensiveness rather than an exploration of spirit”—that had impacted his feelings toward Quakerism. By ultimately acknowledging that the Tri-Co experience was not a truly Quaker one, he was able to find common ground with Goossen, say- ing that the faith should be encouraged on campus—albeit through grassroots rather than institutional methods. He suggested the creation of publications that clarify and challenge the College’s relationship to Quakerism. Goossen and Zhang are not in complete agreement on how the creation of a Quaker movement on campus should proceed, but they are, for sure, in favor of exchanging ideas and working on them—together. Swarthmore College Weekend Celebrate the Arts! Back in Sharples, tables were pushed back and chairs rearranged in the “big room,” as dozens of students began a collective conversation using the “human microphone” method pioneered at the Zuccotti encampment. Predictably, the students’ targeted the established order at Swarthmore—“the administration.” Like the Occupy movement itself, Swarthmore’s GA did not put forward a specific set of demands. The Daily Gazette reported that students voiced frustration with what they saw as “a behind-closed- january 2012 doors attitude” on matters such as College’s budget and investment practices. Finger twinkles—described in the Gazette as “a wiggly-fingered hand gesture the audience adopted to communicate excitement and solidarity”—greeted several speakers as they put forward such complaints. Also garnering “a significant amount of attention” was last fall’s proposal by a group of women students to reinstate campus sororities and the “ensuing brouhaha” it caused among other students. IAN BRADSHAW Arts Weekend offers the entire College community—alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends—the chance to enjoy an exciting, three-day program of arts offerings including music, dance, studio and visual arts, and more. Please mark your calendar for Friday, April 13 through Sunday, April 15, 2012 and look for upcoming announcements about Arts Weekend events. More information will be available soon on our Arts Weekend website: www.swarthmore.edu/artsweekend April 13–15, 2012 “Though no one went so far as to suggest banning Greek life on campus,” the Gazette reported, “a handful of speakers called [sororities] an essentially genderdiscriminatory institution. Others expressed support of the sorority idea.” The first Swarthmore GA ended with mutual agreement to hold another gathering soon, and the debate went on—as campus debates often do—in the comments section of the Gazette. Whether or not to continue using the “human microphone” was a big question, and when the General Assembly reconvened on Dec. 1, with about 75 students in attendance, the conversation started with: “Should we use…” “should we use!” “the human mic…” “the human mic” “or an electric mic?” “or an electric mic!” Use of the human mic was reaffirmed by a show of hands and the students’ experiment in “direct democracy” continued. —Jeffrey Lott 11 collection Love of Learning Reaffirmed for Mid-Career Teachers Long after the usual start of their workteaches fourth grade at Nether Providence day, 15 teachers drawn from schools in the Elementary School, and Eleanor Salgado Wallingford-Swarthmore School District ’03, chair of the Strath Haven Middle School gathered last October in Bond Memorial English Department, the location was a faHall. Fortified by coffee and pastries, they miliar one. Salgado said, “It’s great to be able settled into a space that was illuminated by to have this break to think as a student, time soft light through leaded-glass windows and to think and talk as an adult,” a sentiment furnished with a grandfather clock, cushechoed by all the teachers. ioned armchairs, and round tables. Lines White led the discussion but encouraged from Emerson carved over the large fireplace interaction with the teachers, who had rewelcomed the group: “All things through ceived suggested readings in advance. “This thee take nobler form and look beyond the is the quintessential ‘global’ topic,” she said. earth.” But on this day, and again two weeks “There’s something for everyone.” With the later, the teachers would look at the earth, world population reportedly surging past in the seminar Global Demographics, led seven billion, the subject was timely. “As by Swarthmore Professor much as people talk today of Political Science Tyrene about overpopulation, White. they are really just asking The seminar was the The courses are “an variations of questions first to occur at the College that were being asked 150 under the auspices of the opportunity for the years ago,” White said. Teachers As Scholars (TAS) She showed that today, program, funded for two teachers to learn despite lower birth rates years by the Woodrow in developed countries, Wilson National Fellowship something new and the biggest concern for Foundation in partnership policymakers is how to with the College and the wonderful and rich, but support vastly increased school district. Established aging populations. She at more than 25 universities also to re-ignite their also discussed global nationwide, the program migration, the HIV epiwas suggested by District passion for learning—to demic, and sustainability. Superintendent Richard Teachers contributed a nourish their minds again.” constant stream of obNoonan to encourage professional development for servations and questions teachers in collaboration based on their own classwith local colleges. TAS allows teachers of room studies as well as their personal readany grade level and subject to participate in ing and travel experiences. discussions of scholarly issues during several Sixth grade social studies teacher Claudia full-length school days that include lunch. In Carlsson said: “These opportunities energize addition to White’s seminar, the Swarthmore you. I wrote to Dr. Noonan, ‘I haven’t experiprogram will offer the class Natural History enced anything like this in 24 years.’ It’s really in the Crum Woods by Professor of English a treat.” She anticipates reviving a Population Literature Betsy Bolton in spring. Next year, Day event using materials from the course. four seminars are planned, with teachers But the response to TAS doesn’t always from multiple school districts. translate into classroom action—nor is it “The course was designed as an opportumeant to. “It’s important for teachers to be nity for teachers to learn something new and educated beyond their area of teaching,” wonderful and rich, but also to re-ignite their said middle-school German teacher Valerie passion for learning—to nourish their minds Rouse. again,” says TAS coordinator Catherine In this program of scholarly fellowship, Dunn ’93, who taught English in the with its informal setting and easy exchange Wallingford-Swarthmore school district for between teacher-scholars and professor, the 14 years. For Kelly Hines Yiadom ’01, who teachers found their love of learning reaf12 Grant Wood’s American Gothic may be the most widely recognized, reproduced—and parodied—work of American art. A search of Google Images reveals thousands of takeoffs on the 1930 painting, many hilariously funny. So when Mike Kappeler, Web content coordinator for Information Technology Services, was asked to make a poster for November’s Academic Technology Fair, he turned to Wood’s iconic Iowa farmers for inspiration—then used his considerable Adobe skills to create this notquite-Gothic image. (Parrish Hall’s dome actually quotes the French Empire style.) The annual one-day fair shows off the latest software, hardware, and other digital tools that are— or may soon be—available in the College’s classrooms, labs, and offices. This year’s hit was a three-dimensional printer on loan to the College that was turning out little scale models of Parrish Hall that it had created in white gypsum. Engineering students, of course, could see practical applications, while artists’ minds reeled with other possibilities. —Jeffrey Lott firmed. Middle School social studies teacher Bernadette Smith explained it this way: “You have been introduced to an expert in her field. You have time to be thoughtful—which you don’t have during the school day. You have a chance to converse with other professionals about how to incorporate [new ideas] in your curriculum. It broadens your world view.” —Elizabeth Vogdes swarthmore college bulletin Five new Managers were appointed to fouryear terms at the May 2011 meeting of the Board of Managers; their terms began in September. They are: • Sohail Bengali ’79, managing director of Stone & Youngberg in San Francisco and a founding member of the Swarthmore College Bay Area Alumni in Business group • Nathaniel Erskine ’10, a candidate for medical and doctoral degrees at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and, most recently, a medicinal chemist with GlaxoSmithKline R&D in the Singapore Research Center in China • Thomas Hartnett ’94, managing director and head of rates for North America at Deutsche Bank in New York City • Lucinda Lewis ’70, consultant and senior adviser under the auspices of The Brattle Group in Washington, D.C., and economic consultant for Competition Economies Inc. in Weston, Mass. • James Lovelace ’79, a member of the board of directors of The Capital Group Companies (CGC), senior vice president of Capital Research and Management (CRMC) Company (a subsidiary of CGC) in Los Angeles, Calif., and principal executive officer and vice chair of the boards of two mutual funds managed by CRMC. —Susan Cousins Breen NEW FACE AT THE BULLETIN Of her new assignment, Kimmel says, “It’s a great honor to be moving into the editor’s seat After a national search at this exceptional liberal-arts coland selection process lastlege. I’m looking forward to geting several months, the ting out on the road and around College appointed Sherri campus to meet the Bulletin Kimmel, former direcreaders—those alumni, parents, tor of editorial services students and community members at Dickinson College, to who are passionately and intelthe position of director lectually engaged in issues of the of editorial and creative Bulletin editor Sherri Kimmel day, particularly as they pertain services and editor of the to Swarthmore. I’m eager to hear Swarthmore College Bulletin. their insights about this college that they love Kimmel assumed the position this month, and about the magazine, whose mission it is succeeding Jeffrey Lott, former director of to tell the Swarthmore story as it has evolved College publications and Bulletin editor for for nearly 150 years.” the past 21 years. —Carol Brévart-Demm As senior editor of Dickinson’s award-winning alumni magazine for 12 years, Kimmel led two major magazine redesigns, including WEINSTEIN’S FAULKNER STUDY a conversion from tabloid to magazine format; RECEIVES “BEST BOOK” AWARD researched and implemented a more sustainThe Society for the Study of Southern able publishing program; and introduced mul- Literature (SSSL) has chosen Becoming timedia features on the magazine website. Faulkner by Philip Weinstein, the Alexander In 2004, she was promoted to director of Griswold Cummins Professor of English all the college’s external publications. Literature, as the best book on Southern Preceding her tenure at Dickinson, Kimmel literature written in 2010. He will receive the served with the Pennsylvania Bar association Hugh Holman Award from SSSL in March. “It as editor of The Pennsylvania Lawyer; as asso- was shockingly good news,” Weinstein says. ciate director of public information at Western “Totally unexpected and totally appreciated.” Maryland College; and as a feature writer, The book was published by Oxford University photographer, and page designer for the daily Press. Evening Leader, in St. Mary’s, Ohio. —Jeffrey Lott CARL SOCOLOW FIVE JOIN BOARD OF MANAGERS ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS The Department of Theater and Senior Company 2012 chose an unusual yet appropriate mise-enscène for their production of playwright Maria Irene Forbes’ Obie Award–winning Fefu and Her Friends about a group of eight old college friends who get together to rehearse a theater education project but simultaneously reveal their various fears, unhappiness, idealism as well as affection and humor. The play ends with the death of one of the characters. The students staged the play off campus, in a Swarthmore home whose interior was in keeping with the 1930s, the time in which the play is set. The audience, small due to space constraints, moved from room to room as the action progressed. Student actresses (the cast was all-female, except for Fefu’s husband, who remains invisible and silent throughout the action) included Ryane Disken Cahill ’12, Michelle Fennell ’12, Lori Barkin ’12, Katie Goldman ’14, Maddie Charne ’14, Elliana Bisgaard-Church ’13, Hannah Kosman ’14, and Jessica Cannizzaro ’12. Assistant Professor of Theater Laila Swanson was responsible for sets and costumes, and the faculty adviser for the production was Assistant Professor of Theater Elizabeth Stevens. —Carol Brévart-Demm january 2012 13 collection Men’s Cross-Country (3rd CC) Jacob Phillips ’13 became the first Swarthmore men’s cross-country runner since Marc Jeuland ’01 to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championship Meet, highlighting an outstanding season for the men’s team. Thanks to Phillips and a deep squad of talented runners, the team finished third at the Centennial Conference (CC) Championship Meet and seventh at the NCAA Mideast Regional Meet. Phillips led the way for the Garnet in both races, earning 10th overall with a time of 27:34.90 at the snowy CC meet—Swarthmore’s best individual finish since 2003—and seventh at the NCAA Regional meet with a time of 25:43 to earn automatic qualification to the national championship meet. At nationals in Wisconsin, Phillips finished 114th out of 279 runners with a time of 25:23.68. Several other runners had outstanding seasons. Aidan DuMont-McCaffrey ’13 finished 20th at the CC meet (28:13.3) and 38th at the Mideast Regional (26:45), just missing All-Region status. Robert Fain ’14 was the Garnet’s third-place finisher in both the CC and Mideast Regional, and Jonas Oppenheimer ’15 earned a spot on the Mideast Region All-Freshman team (68th/27:24). Jacob Phillips ’13 helped the Garnet cross-country team to a third-place finish at the CC championship meet. 14 Womens’ Cross-Country (6th CC) The women’s cross-country team finished sixth at the CC championship and 13th at the NCAA Mideast Regional, with Melissa Frick ’12 pacing the team in each event. At the CC meet, Frick finished 22nd in 25:38.90. Stephanie Beebe ’12 was the Garnet’s next finisher, crossing the line in 26:07.10, good for 35th. Rounding out the scoring runners for the team were Katie Gonzalez ’12 (40th/26:28.1), Margret Lenfest ’12 (51st/26:47.6), and Emma Saarel ’14 (52nd/26:49.7). At the Mideast Regional Meet, Frick put up her best performance of the year, finishing 17th in 23:39, earning her All-Region honors and missing qualification for the NCAA Championship Meet by just two seconds. At the Seven Sisters Meet in October, Swarthmore finished third, with Jen Johnson ’12 placing seventh in the 5K with a fast 19:45.21. Field Hockey (8-10, 6th CC) The field hockey team took a turn for the better during the 2011 season, barely missing the CC playoffs in the final game of the year. The steadily improving squad notched as many CC wins in 2011 as it had in 2008, 2009, and 2010 combined. Highlights from the regular season included wins over NCAA-participant Eastern College, ECAC-participant McDaniel, and Johns Hopkins. A 3-1 loss to Haverford on the season’s final day ended the Garnet’s playoff hopes, but the team, which graduates no seniors, has much to look forward to next year. Nia Jones ’14 and Beth Johnson ’15 tied for the team lead in points, with 21. Jones led the team with nine goals, ranking 10th in the CC in both goals and goals per game. Johnson and Anne Rosenblatt ’14 tied for the second-highest assist total in the CC, with seven. Goalie Gabriella Capone ’14 turned in a breakout season as well, notching 119 saves (6th in CC) and a 2.49 GAA (7th in CC) in her first season as a starter. Jones and captain midfielder Sophia Agathis ’13 also earned spots on the All-CC Second Team. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT Rewarding season for Swarthmore athletes Field hockey player Nia Jones ’14 co-led the team in points, with 21. With a nine-goal tally, she ranked 10th in the CC in total goals and goals per game. Women’s Soccer (12-7, 3rd CC ) A perfect mix of young stars and experienced older players made for a breakout season, with the Garnet women returning to the CC playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons and reaching the semifinals. Road wins over Scranton and Cabrini highlighted the early part of the season, which included a five-match winning streak through September. That streak ended at the hands of CC champion Johns Hopkins, but not before the Garnet gave the unbeaten Blue Jays its best test of the regular season, falling 3-2 in the final two minutes of play. The team rebounded from the loss to Hopkins with another long winning streak, taking five of its last six games to close out the regular season. The playoff clincher came on the final day of the regular season against rival Haverford, as Emma Sindelar ’15 headed home the game-winner in the 86th minute of play to give the women a 2-1 win. The victory propelled the team to the CC semifinals, where it fell to Gettysburg 1-0. The Garnet’s 12-win season earned it the No. 3 seed in the ECAC South Region Tournament, but it succumbed in the opening round to Albright, 1-0. swarthmore college bulletin Much of the credit for the Garnet’s turnaround season goes to Sindelar. The first-year forward from Salt Lake City recorded one of the best offensive seasons in program history, scoring 11 goals, dishing three assists, and tallying 25 points. For her play, Sindelar was named to the All-CC First Team, becoming just the 22nd freshman to earn first-team honors. She was joined on the first team by midfielder Alexa Ross ’13, who was named All-Centennial for the third time in her career. Rounding out the team’s All-Centennial selections with an honorable mention was defender Ari Spiegel ’13. Men’s Soccer (13-6-1, 6th CC) The team began the season poised to repeat as CC champions and reach its fourthconsecutive NCAA Tournament, but an unexpected late-season slide caused the squad to miss the CC playoffs. Despite this disappointment, the team rallied during the ECAC Tournament, defeating Frostburg State, Alvernia, and Medaille to win first place. By capturing the ECAC South Region championship with a 1-0 (2OT) victory over Medaille College, the men’s soccer seniors wrapped up one of the most successful four-year runs in program history. Fittingly, senior captain Micah Rose scored the game-winning goal, as his curving ball off a free kick in the104th minute hit the far post and went into the back of the net. With the win, the nine seniors finished their Garnet career with two CC championships (2008, 2010), three NCAA playoff appearances (2008, 2009, 2010), an ECAC South Region Championship (2011), and 62 victories. Two seniors in particular—Rose and goalkeeper january 2012 David D’Annunzio ’12—left their mark with spectacular final seasons. Rose became the first player in program history to make the All-CC First Team three times in a career. D’Annunzio, an All-CC Second Team selection, finished his career with a program-record 29 shutouts, surpassing the previous record of 25 clean sheets—set by Andrew Cavenagh ’92—with a shutout of Manhattanville. Rose and D’Annunzio were also honored for their performance off the field as each was named to the Capital One/CoSida Academic All-District IV First Team. Rounding out All-CC selections for the team were David Sterngold ’12 (second team), Noah Sterngold ’14 (second team), Fabian Castro ’12 (second team) and Kieran Reichert ’13 (honorable mention). Volleyball (24-8, 4th CC) It was a season of milestones for the volleyball team, which reached the CC and ECAC playoffs for a thirdconsecutive season and tied the program record for wins in a season. The season began with the Garnet dominating the field at the annual Garnet Classic, dropping just a single set in four matches to three-peat as champions. Following strong showings at non-CC tournaments at York College and Moravian, the team opened CC play with heartbreaking five-set losses to playoff-bound teams Johns Hopkins, Franklin & Marshall, and Gettysburg but bounced back to win its final nine matches to close out the regular season. The ninematch winning streak earned the team its first NCAA Mid- Women’s soccer player Emma Sindelar ’15 recorded one of the best offensive seasons in the history of Swarthmore women’s soccer, securing 11 goals and three assists for a total 25 points. Atlantic regional ranking in program history. Unfortunately, the winning streak ended in the first round of the CC playoffs, when rival Haverford upset the team 3-1. Still, the team’s fantastic regular season earned them a spot in the ECAC South Region playoffs, where they reached the semifinals for the secondconsecutive season. Just as the volleyball team saw success in 2011, individuals on the squad broke records and finished illustrious careers. Genny Pezzola ’12 completed the greatest four-year career in Swarthmore volleyball history. She finished as the program’s alltime leader in career kills (1,372) and second all-time in career digs (1,542), breaking the kills mark previously set by Jennifer Wang ’08 (1,171) in a win over Centenary on Sept. 23. The outside hitter also became the first Swarthmore volleyball player named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s All-Region Team (honorable mention) and first Swarthmore player named to the AllCentennial Conference First Team three times (2009, 2010, 2011). The team’s other two seniors—Hillary Santana and Lisa Shang—also reached milestones during the season, both joining the exclusive 1,000 dig club in the same match against Ursinus. Pezzola and junior Allie Coleman were also honored for their performance in the classroom, as each was named to the Capital One/ CoSida Academic All-District IV First Team. —Mark Anskis Senior Genny Pezzola—record holder in career kills and career digs—completed the greatest four-year career in Swarthmore women’s volleyball history. 15 H omage to the Past © BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD CRM:00743705 16 swarthmore college bulletin Invitation to the Present CRAIG WILLIAMSON CREATES A BRIDGE ACROSS CENTURIES WITH A NEW TRANSLATION OF BEOWULF. By Carol Brévart-Demm Professor of English Literature Craig Williamson was encouraged by members of a Lifelong Learning class to complete the translation of Beowulf that he had started years earlier. A fragment of the poem from the British Library is shown behind Williamson as he reads to students in his Chaucer and Medieval Literature seminar. C raig Williamson compares the act of translation to a kind of dance with a partner from a different world. Each partner’s rhythms and expectations are different, yet they share a sense of rhythm. Both possess a brain and legs, enabling them to process music, rhythm, and movement. And each dances a different dance, driven by common mental and physical impulses—a shared movement back and forth across a bridge between their worlds. In August, Williamson published an acclaimed new translation of a work from a very different world—the Anglo-Saxon classic Beowulf and Other Old English Poems, released by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Williamson loves language—his own and others. He writes poetry and is interested in the poetry of others. Now the Alfred H. and Peggi Bloom Professor of English Literature, he has taught at the College for 40 years. In the mid-1960s, as a graduate student at Harvard, Williamson believed that modern English literature was his calling. Almost half a century later, he is a well-known scholar of medieval literature who regularly and happily transports himself back more than 1,000 years to Anglo-Saxon England, reading, teaching, translating, and even bringing to life in song and chants the works of Old English poets. S o what steered Williamson from modern to medieval? The answer is actually easier than most solutions to the AngloSaxon riddles on which he spends much of his time: Drafted in 1966 to fight in the Vietnam War, Williamson, a conscientious objector, went instead to Tanzania and performed alternate service with the American Friends Service Committee. There, he became fascinated by African literary traditions—the stories, proverbs, and riddles that were then just beginning to transition from oral to written forms—in Swahili and English in East Africa, and French in the West. Williamson returned from Africa with a new research interest: the bridge between oral and written literature in his own language. “This meant I had to go back to the Anglo-Saxons and the language they wrote in. It was my first contact with Old English,” he says, later amending this statement by adding that his introduction to Old English style and themes had actually occurred years earlier, when he read the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Not merely a novelist but a scholar and teacher of Anglo-Saxon literature, Tolkien opened the door to Old English literature for Williamson, weaving into his Middle Earth novels numerous riddles whose intricacies resemble those of Old English riddle poems—and characters that smack of those in Beowulf. “Back in the 1930s,” Williamson says, “Tolkien wrote one of the most important articles about Beowulf, revealing it as a valuable literary january 2012 “Moving back and forth between my own English and the English of about 750 CE was like an intimate conversation between two poets, two languages, two cultures, carried on in a space that one critic calls ‘great time.’” 17 work—a combination of epic and elegiac poem— rather than a mere linguistic exercise.” Williamson dedicated his new edition of Beowulf to Tolkien, among others. W An eighth-century drawing of David composing the Psalms (right) shows a lyre similar to what would have been played by minstrels performing Beowulf. The lyre below, which resembles the one in the drawing as well as another found in an Anglo-Saxon grave, was reconstructed for modern players by Messrs. Dolmetsch. VEN STE ETT UNK J. PL 18 hen Williamson began to translate Beowulf from Old English in 2006, he found the degree of difficulty so time-consuming that he almost abandoned the project after the first 200 lines. Fortunately for Anglo-Saxon scholarship, he didn’t—although he did leave it untouched for a while. Not that Williamson wasn’t already an accomplished scholar and translator of Old English, the language spoken in England between ca. 500 and 1000 CE. After returning from Africa in the late 1960s, he again took up graduate research, this time at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked on some of the Anglo-Saxon riddlepoems—riddles in the form of poems—preserved in a manuscript housed in Exeter Cathedral Library. This resulted in the 1977 publication of what is today considered the definitive edition of The Old English Riddles of ‘The Exeter Book.’ In 1982, Williamson’s translation and scholarly edition of all 90 extant Exeter riddles was published. Titled A Feast of Creatures: AngloSaxon Riddle-Songs, it was re-issued this year by the CREATIVE COMMONS University of Pennsylvania Press. But Beowulf—a book-length medieval poem of heroism, monsters, fratricide, power, treasure, and revenge—presented a more complex challenge. Estimated to have been written in the eighth century CE, Anglo-Saxon England’s best-known literary achievement challenges the translator with its complicated sentence structure, highly alliterative language, and densely packed imagery. “Those first 200 lines took me almost a year, and since there are 3,182 lines in the poem, I reckoned it would take me about 15 years to finish it. So I kind of gave up on it,” Williamson says. It took Swarthmore parent Thomas Koellhoffer (father of Jayne Koellhoffer ’07), who participated in Williamson’s 2007 Lifelong Learning course on the literature of J.R.R. Tolkien, to change the medievalist’s mind. An earlier Beowulf translation was one of several assigned readings for the course. Koellhoffer says he found Williamson’s command of Old English and Norse mythology impressive, particularly his animated and entertaining renderings of the poem in the original Old English. But, Koellhoffer adds, the accompanying translation was “somewhat ponderous and not so entertaining.” So when Williamson offered to read some passages from his own translation of the first 200 lines, Koellhoffer and his classmates were all ears. “The entire class was awestruck by what we heard that night. When Craig finished his first reading, we erupted into spontaneous applause. His translation was accessible, engaging, and entertaining; it flowed beautifully and created pictures in the mind the way a good story is supposed to,” Koellhoffer says. When the reading ended, he flung the assigned Beowulf translation to the floor as a dramatic homage to Williamson’s prowess, the poetry of his words, and his infectious enthusiasm for his subject. The entire class encouraged their teacher to push on with his translation. Williamson recalls: “The class members said to me, ‘You ask us to read a number of pages. Now, we ask you to read us a number of lines at each class.’ Although a little startled by the suggestion, he thought, ‘We have another five weeks in the course. I could give it a try.’” By the end of the five weeks, Williamson had completed another 200 lines, and he just kept going. “I’m really grateful to Tom and this class for urging me on,” he says. The Beowulf translation took him five years. After completing all 3,182 lines, Williamson decided to include a number of additional poems in his new book—some related to Beowulf, others demonstrating different types of poetry, and some that he had wanted to read as an undergraduate. swarthmore college bulletin He introduces each poem with a brief essay. To ensure that the level and tone are appropriate for undergraduate and general readers, he also sought his students’ help. “If there was something they didn’t understand, they asked me, and I made changes accordingly. Thanks are due to all my classes— young and old—for helping me find the right level for readers,” he says. As for Koelhoffer, he remained a driving force: “My classmates and I continued to communicate with Craig about his progress long after the class ended,” he says. “And I bought a copy of the book as soon as it became available.” T he translator must know the language well enough to comprehend superficial and deeper meanings, “like the waters beneath the surface,” Williamson says, and combine both into a modern English that will reflect similar levels of meaning. “That’s difficult,” he says. “The more you’re able to read Old English and understand it without necessarily having to translate it in the life of your own mind, the closer you’re getting to going back in time and putting on the cloak of the Anglo-Saxon scop (poet or singer), to being there in the mead hall when the songs are being sung, to being a listener, possibly a singer in that fashion. Sometimes, it seemed as if I were channeling the voice of the Anglo-Saxon poet. Moving back and forth between my own English and the English of about 750 CE was like an intimate conversation between two poets, two languages, two cultures, carried on in a space that one critic calls ‘great time.’” Williamson calls the translation an homage to the past and an invitation to the present. His students read Beowulf through the lens he has created, traveling back over the bridge of time that he has built. “It’s a thrill to see them reading the poem,” he says. “At the end of the poem, Beowulf ’s body—his ‘bone-house’—lives on. The story has survived the passage of time and the transformations of telling for more than a thousand years. It will probably be recounted in some unimaginably beautiful and terrifying form after another thousand. I am pleased to be part of that endless retelling.” K oellhoffer and his classmates may have been Williamson’s first and possibly most motivating reviewers, without whose encouragement the book might never have come to fruition, but they are by no means his only fans. Senior Katharine Clark, an English literature january 2012 and studio art major who read Beowulf as an assigned work for Williamson’s Senior Majors Colloquium, says: “Professor Williamson presents Beowulf in the context of other Anglo-Saxon poems, and his introductions make the English more accessible. His love for both the story and the language comes through, and that makes the poem come alive.” And Benjamin Bagby, a performer of Beowulf and director of the medieval music ensemble Sequentia, who came to the College last year and delighted the campus community with a performance of Old English chanting, reviewed Williamson’s work: “These are renderings with bite and muscle, full of chewy sounds to delight any ear or voice, entering the mute reader’s eye and resounding within, at times filling a raucous hall, at times gently whispering into an interior fold of woe, of memory. In those resonant spaces, we hear again the scop’s voice.” With the release of Beowulf, Williamson can lay claim to having translated and published a total of 6,000 lines of Anglo-Saxon verse. “I was kind of bereft when I was done,” he says. “I really didn’t want to be done.” So he got to thinking: “There are 30,000 lines extant of Old English poetry. Nobody has ever thought to translate them all, either into prose or poetry during the 150 years that this field of scholarship has existed. I’ve already translated 24,000 of them. It’s a fantastic project—making available every poem that every Anglo-Saxon poet ever wrote that we still have from beginning to end.” It will be about 1,500 pages, in several volumes. Williamson is scheduled for a sabbatical next year. There’s little doubt as to how he’ll spend it. Watch Craig Williamson sing in Old English from Beowulf to his students at http://bit.ly/ singBeowulf. Moor stalker, wasteland walker, Demon of the fens, he dwelled in marshes, In monstrous lairs, unhappy, unhoused.... A stalking mouth, he quickly seized Thirty thanes, hauled them home, His precious plunder, his proud slaughter... -A description of Grendel, as translated by Williamson Fanciful monsters battle and bite in this ninth-century English frieze. One reviewer says of Williamson’s translation: “These are renderings with bite and muscle, full of chewy sounds to delight any ear or voice….” Fashion’s Darling JOSEPH ALTUZARRA ’05 HAS EMERGED AS A HOT NEW YORK DESIGNER. By Elizabeth Redden ’05 Photographs by Jim Graham A fashion show is a fast thing, experienced in impressions. A tight black dress of perforated leather. Long, light, white jackets, silky and sheer or sleeveless. A puckered white belted dress with a black plastic buckle and black leather panels padding the shoulders. A pop of color: A tropical bird print, parrots and parakeets. Chunky canary and moss knits. A brief excursion into cream and rust red, quilted motorcycle jackets and skirts with racing stripes. Black and white again for the finish—hard leathery looks comingling with soft ones, a white dress with a flouncing hem. When the designer, Joseph Altuzarra ’05, comes out for his customary wave, he, too, wears black and white, and jeans. Altuzarra describes his spring 2012 collection as sport and utility wear melded with a kitschy, tropical vibe. At the show, held at the Chelsea Art Gallery during New York Fashion Week, models with thickly painted eyebrows walk against a backdrop of greenery to a pulsing techno beat. “I wanted to create this weird tension between something that’s hyper-urban and something that’s almost exaggeratedly natural,” Altuzarra says. The 28-year-old Altuzarra has emerged as a major figure in the fashion industry, his designs in the pages of Vogue and on Jennifer Aniston on the cover of Marie Claire. Mary J. Blige, Kim Kardashian, and Emma Watson have worn his clothing. A maple coat of coyote fur from his fall 2011 collection sells at Barneys for $21,375. Compare this to seven years ago when Altuzarra was 20 swarthmore college bulletin Seven years ago, Altuzarra was showing his designs in the Tarble All-Campus Space and the Lang Performing Arts Center— and the pieces were on sale for prices that started at $50. A coat from his fall 2011 collection now sells at Barney’s for more than $20,000. Altuzarra (above and right) presented his spring 2012 designs during New York Fashion Week in September. He says he was going to major in art history at Swarthmore but switched to studio art and decided to teach himself fashion design. january 2012 I think fashion gets a bad rap, for being a showing his designs in Tarble All-Campus Space and Lang Performing Arts Center (LPAC). A Phoenix very superficial industry article on his third and final Swarthmore show during his senior year ends by noting that the collection and for being very cut would be on sale, his pieces starting at $50. “I came to fashion design through the back off from reality ... but door of art history at Swarthmore,” Altuzarra says. “A lot of my papers centered on advertising—how it’s a multimillion fashion advertising was drawing on very classical art-historical iconography.” dollar industry that “As I went forward at Swarthmore, it became more and more apparent that fashion supports a lot of craft. was something that I really was interested in. I was going to be an art history major, and I switched to art and decided to just teach myself fashion design.” He did it through the costume workshop in the Theater Department, taught by Susan Smythe. “He just appeared in the costume shop like Athena out of the head of Zeus,” says Smythe, who was managing director of LPAC and costume shop manager from 1994 until 2006. (She is now Swarthmore’s Americans with Disabilities Act program manager). “He had a really strong eye and a natural ability, but he had no idea how to sew.” He learned quickly. “He was very self-motivated and driven,” Smythe recalls. “You so rarely see someone going after what they want to do so clearly.” His senior year, Altuzarra left Swarthmore a week before graduation to begin an internship at Marc Jacobs in New York, later moving to Paris, his hometown, to work as a design assistant for Givenchy. In 2008, he returned to New York to launch his own line and was immediately, in the words of The New York Times, “lionized, and scrutinized” by celebrities and editors “all eager to embrace him as fashion’s Next New Thing.” As early as January 2009, Style.com called Altuzarra “fashion’s new one to know” and described his designs as “a reason to look forward to Fashion Week.” “When I first saw his clothes, I was pretty much flattened by them,” says Cindi Leive ’88, the editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine. “There’s a confidence about his clothes,” she explains. “There’s an over-styled, over-girlyness about a lot of fashion right now, but his clothes have a very simple, strong quality about them. They don’t need to be tricked up with a million things or over-styled. They speak for themselves.” In November, Altuzarra (left) won the Council of Fashion Designers/ Vogue Fashion Fund award, which honors promise among emerging designers. The prize, which comes with $300,000 and mentoring, was announced at a dinner that featured Calvin Klein, Diane Von Furstenburg, Anna Wintour, and other industry luminaries. 22 swarthmore college bulletin In speaking of his design aesthetic, Altuzarra says: “I wanted to dress women of different ages. A big part of the market today is geared toward making 20-yearolds look really sexy, and ultimately there are not that many 20-somethings who have the cash to buy those clothes. Women who are 40 and 50 and 60 today also want to feel seductive and sexy. “There is something really womanly about the clothes—very, very feminine, but really, really interesting.” To rewind a few seasons, his spring 2011 collection defined and delineated the female body, “almost abstracting it” with pointy conical bras, Altuzarra says. Inspired by the disjunction of the Internet, the proliferation of images, of random referents, the collection combined primal python with futuristic metallics and traditional couture fabrics, like duchess satin. For fall 2011, Altuzarra’s inspiration was the 1990s, Kate Moss, Oasis-mania: fur-lined parkas over silk slip dresses. His most recent collection, for spring 2012, with its focus on outerwear, utility, sport, and print, represented the first time, he says, “that we’re really evolving our language from one season to the next, as opposed to revolutionizing it.” Altuzarra describes his design process as primarily two-dimensional. “I’m much more about drawing than I am about constructing something on a form.” During the weeks he is drawing, he works from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., barely emerging from his apartment except to walk his schnauzer, Bean (who, incidentally, sported her own version of an Altuzarra fox fur-lined parka last fall in a Bergdorf Goodman fashion show for dogs). “I think fashion gets a bad rap, for being a very superficial industry and for being very cut off from reality—because the clothes are so expensive, and we’re trying to sell things to people they don’t really need,” Altuzarra says. “But I think fashion is very important, because it’s a multimillion dollar industry that supports a lot of craft, ultimately. In France and Italy, there are communities that specialize in very specific crafts, and fashion is really the only industry that is supporting them, that is allowing them to still thrive and live on.” Elizabeth Redden is an instructor of composition and a freelance writer. Her articles and essays have appeared in a variety of publications including Gastronomica, Inside Higher Ed, and Orion. january 2012 23 What is Africa to Me? FORTY YEARS AFTER SERVING IN THE PEACE CORPS IN GAMBIA, CLINTON ETHERIDGE TOOK HIS FAMILY ON A PILGRIMAGE TO AFRICA. By Clinton Etheridge Jr. ’69 24 swarthmore college bulletin JEFF PFLUEGER What is Africa to me; Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang? One three centuries removed From the scenes his fathers loved, Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, What is Africa to me? —from “Heritage” by Countee Cullen (1903–1946), Harlem Renaissance poet In summer 1971, my girlfriend Deidria Martin visited me in Gambia, West Africa, where I was teaching math as a Peace Corps volunteer. Because of our relatively light brown skin, Gambians thought Deidria and I looked like members of the Fulani tribe and affectionately gave us Fulani names. I was Lamin Jallow and she was Cumba Jallow. After Deidria and I married in 1974 and started a family, we often talked about going back to Gambia with our children—but Deidria ran out of time. She died of a stroke in August 2008 at age 59. About a year later, I proposed to my three adult children—Neil, Clinton III (or “CAE”), and Lauren—that we travel to Africa as a family in summer 2011, taking my 4-year-old granddaughter Brianna with us. Ostensibly, the trip would fulfill the dream Deidria and I had for our family of returning to explore our roots and links to Africa as black Americans. But at a deeper emotional level, the real purpose would be to strengthen our family bonds now that our wife, mother, and grandmother had passed away. 25 In Gambia, I could show my family Latrikunda School, where I taught from 1970 to 1972. I could show them the African compound in Mintehkunda in Bakau, where I lived as a Peace Corps volunteer and where Deidria stayed when she visited in 1971. And like many black Americans before us, we could visit two sacred shrines of slavery: Goree Island in the harbor of neighboring Dakar, Senegal, and Juffureh Village in Gambia, to which Roots author Alex Haley had traced his African ancestor, Kunta Kinteh. I was overjoyed and excited about going back to Africa after 40 years. I trusted that Gambians would be the same warm, friendly, hospitable people I knew decades earlier—even though development in the ensuing years would have produced a busier, more populous country. I expected that my adult children would experience a heady mixture of culture shock and wonderment. But it was harder to know what Brianna would be thinking and feeling. After all, she was only 4 years old. I first went to Africa at 23; compared to me, my granddaughter was a tabula rasa on which her African experience could be written with virtually no preconceived notions. We made that trip last July, and it was very much a pilgrimage—in the sense of a journey of great moral or spiritual significance. every baby and play with every child she encountered in Africa. Unfortunately, it seems this capacity erodes as children mature and learn to be influenced by things like race, religion, language, dress, and country of origin. I wonder whether Brianna will mature differently because she visited Africa at age four? LESSONS LEARNED Returning to Africa made me realize that I learned several important lessons there as a young man—commonsense universal truths that an intense personal experience first taught me. 26 © CLINTON ETHERIDGE Lesson one: People are more alike than they are different. When I scratched the surface and got to know Gambians and Senegalese as friends, I found the Africans had the same dreams and hopes and fears for themselves and their children as Americans. I shared this common humanity with my African friends, even though I was born and raised in one of the world’s richest countries—a land of relative opportunity that offered many more “life chances.” By contrast, my African friends were born and raised in countries of extreme poverty and limited opportunity. Yet last July, I saw the pride with which my Gambian and Senegalese friends spoke about their sons and daughters, who were bettering WHEN GRANDDADDY themselves by studying or working in COMES the United States, England, France, When my daughter Lauren Sweden, or Denmark. first told Brianna about going Etheridge (left) made friends with Hayib Sosseh, a fellow teacher at I was reminded of Shylock in Shaketo Africa, she showed my the Latrikunda School, who invited the Peace Corps volunteer to spend speare’s Merchant of Venice. In Act granddaughter an Internet time at his family compound. There, he met Hayib’s cousin, Ousman Njie III, Scene 1, the Jewish moneylender picture of the Sheraton Gambia (right). “They welcomed me into their African world,” Etheridge says. He taught math for two years at the school, where he was photographed declares: beachfront hotel at which “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath (opposite) in 1971. we would be staying. All my not a Jew hands, organs … senses, immediate family members— affections, passions; fed with the same both sons, daughter, and food, hurt with the same weapons, granddaughter—now live in landlocked Huntsville, Ala., about subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means … as a halfway between Nashville and Birmingham. Brianna had only Christian is? seen a beach on TV or in a book—never in person. Lauren helped “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not conceptualize the trip for her by saying, “When Granddaddy comes, laugh?” he is going to take us to the beach.” For days afterwards, Brianna put on her little bathing suit and Lesson two: Respect for Islam wandered around the house asking yearningly, “When is Granddaddy By living in predominantly Muslim Gambia for two years, I learned coming to take us to the beach?” Lauren told me she even found that Islam is one of the world’s great religions. Besides seeing devout Brianna sleeping in her bathing suit one night. Muslim friends pray five times a day, I twice experienced Ramadan— Of course, we won’t really know what Brianna thought of the the high holy month of fasting, during which Muslims refrain from family pilgrimage to Africa until she is much older. (We took plenty eating, drinking, and smoking during daylight hours in order to of pictures to refresh her memory.) But I observed a child who was practice patience, spirituality, humility, and submission to Allah. seeing and experiencing so many new and interesting people, places, Christianity is a positive force in the world and in the lives of most and things—like the bemused Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, who tells Christians. Islam is also a positive force in the world and in the lives her dog: “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.” of most Muslims. After 9/11, I was surprised and disappointed to I believe children have some innate democratic capacity to engage see Islam portrayed as a “terrorist religion” in some quarters of the with other children—and, with a child’s heart, Brianna tried to hug United States. Because of Peace Corps Gambia, I knew better. swarthmore college bulletin january 2012 27 © CLINTON ETHERIDGE ER JEFF PFLEUG Dié Sylla, the wife of Sambou Toure, sewed African garments for Etheridge family members. Clinton received an elegant netti abdou—a three-piece outfit. “People say I look regal in the garment Dié Sylla tailored for me,” Etheridge says, “almost like an African prince.” America by storm. In many respects, Alex Haley put Gambia on the map and made Juffureh Village a worldwide tourist attraction. Yet Alex Haley and I are both African-American tubaabs. But we’re also both beloved by the Gambians—he in a big way and I in a smaller one—because we came to Gambia, “three centuries removed” in the words of Countee Cullen, to give back and to serve. The unusual geography of Gambia—it is bordered only by Senegal—stems from the colonial era, when the British occupied the river valley and the French colonized the surrounding countryside. Language differences persist among educated Gambians and Senegalese, whose common language is Wolof. Lesson three: I am a tubaab—but a beloved African-American tubaab like Alex Haley. In the 1960s, many young African-Americans were “black and proud”—and fascinated with Africa. We sought to identify with Africa by wearing our hair in afros and dressing in dashikis. It was a heady, intoxicating time. This was the world view that led me to Peace Corps Gambia in 1970; I was grappling with the burning question posed by Countee Cullen: “What is Africa to me?” As a black Peace Corps volunteer 40 years ago, I fell in love with Africa. But I didn’t know quite how American I was until I went there. With anguished disappointment, I learned that too much time and space had separated me and my African-American ancestors from Africa. Although my heart and spirit wanted to be African, my American upbringing said otherwise. When I walked around the Gambian capital Banjul with my Peace Corps friends, children in the streets would say to us: “Tubaab, tubaab, may ma buréy.” Tubaab, tubaab, give me a penny. In the Wolof language of Gambia and Senegal, the word tubaab is frequently translated as “white man.” But it is better defined as “nonAfrican,” which is what the white European colonialists were—the British in Gambia and the French in Senegal. In Gambia, I happened to meet Alex Haley in 1972, while he was researching Roots, the book and TV-miniseries that later took 28 Lesson four: Judge people as individuals rather than as members of the group you believe they represent. I taught math at Latrikunda School five days a week for the ninemonth school year. Although I believe I was a conscientious and effective teacher, I had a lot of time to read and to think about my life—and about the United States and Africa. In general, the Peace Corps tends to be a reflective, introspective time for volunteers. One of the books I read during my Peace Corps days was about the founding of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)—I cannot remember the title of the book after 40 years. I learned the NAACP was founded in 1909 as an anti-lynching organization. I remember reading a gruesome litany of lynchings one Sunday evening, with graphic descriptions of the hideous nature of these crimes—including burning at the stake, dismemberment, and castration. One particularly egregious lynching in 1892 stands out in my memory: Three black men (Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart) were lynched in Memphis, Tenn., because they opened People’s Grocery, a store that competed too effectively with the white-owned grocery across the street. One night, a group of armed white men attacked People’s Grocery. Moss, McDowell, and Stewart—who defended their property and shot some of the white attackers—were arrested by the authorities. A lynch mob broke into the Memphis jail, dragged them away from town, and brutally killed them. None of the white lynchers was ever brought to justice. I got sick to my stomach that Sunday evening, unable to read any more from that book. My blood was boiling about the lynching of those black people. I had a hard time sleeping that night. swarthmore college bulletin The next day, a Monday, I was subdued as I taught math to the schoolboys at Latrikunda. After school, I took a taxi into Banjul and went by the Peace Corps office to check for mail. In those days, everybody else in Peace Corps Gambia was white. I probably shouldn’t have gone to the office that day, for my blood was still boiling. Then Vince Ferlini, who taught math at a secondary school in Banjul, walked into the office. Vince grew up in an Italian-American family in Hartford, Conn., and had gone to Notre Dame before joining the Peace Corps. We were both members of the Peace Corps Gambia basketball team. During our two years there, Vince became my best friend in the Peace Corps. But at the office in Banjul that afternoon, I tried to avoid speaking to Vince, until he plaintively looked me in the eye. I realized then that Vince knew nothing about the lynchings of Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart. Vince had no connection to the gruesome litany of lynchings I had read the night before. He was just my friend and fellow Peace Corps volunteer. After leaving Gambia, I didn’t see Vince for nearly 40 years—until we met at the Gambia Mission to the United Nations in New York—where my family obtained our visas the day before we flew to Africa. Vince and I arranged our reunion through emails and phone calls. When we first saw each other, we smiled and hugged affectionately; we were like two long-lost brothers. The “Dark Continent” image of Africa has been programmed into the Western psyche. Through Peace Corps Gambia, I learned that the “darkest” thing about Africa is our ignorance of it. at the airport in Dakar, Senegal, in August 1970, I was surprised that the porters were speaking French—a mark of sophistication in the United States. I was also surprised to find tall buildings in Africa, albeit just 10 stories. I was forced to confront my own stereotypes about Africa and to wonder why those stereotypes die hard. Malcolm X provided his viewpoint on this question in a 1965 Detroit speech: “Having complete control over Africa, the colonial powers of Europe had projected the image of Africa negatively … jungle savages, cannibals, nothing civilized.” This is the “Dark Continent” image of Africa that has been programmed into the Western psyche, for example, by Tarzan movies and novels like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Through Peace Corps Gambia, however, I learned that the “darkest” thing about Africa is our ignorance of it. To be sure, Africa suffers from poverty, famine, disease, war, and genocide—stark realities that are part of Africa today. But these are not the whole story. There is a more complex reality to Africa that is frequently obscured or eclipsed by the stereotypes and the clichés. For example, many Americans would be surprised to learn that Ghana, in West Africa, has enjoyed one of the world’s highest economic growth rates over the last few years: 8.4 percent in 2008, 4.7 percent in 2009, and 5.7 percent in 2010—according to the CIA’s World Factbook. Since there is no substitute for experience, and because stereotypes about Africa die hard, I believe every black American should go to Africa at least once—if only for a little while. Only by doing so can a black American get a reality check on the burning question posed by Countee Cullen: “What is Africa to me?” MY GAMBIAN FRIEND HAYIB SOSSEH Hayib Sosseh and I met as fellow teachers at Latrikunda School, where we formed a ready bond that has lasted a lifetime. He is a thoughtful, elegant gentleman and a gifted teacher, perhaps because he descended from the griot class within the Wolof tribe—the storytellers and the keepers of the oral tradition. The Etheridge family’s pilgrimage to Africa included a visit to Gorrée Island off Dakar, Senegal, where enslaved Africans were put aboard ships for the Middle Passage to the Americas. january 2012 © CLINTON ETHERIDGE Lesson five: Stereotypes about Africa die hard. My Peace Corps training provided me with a very good cultural introduction to Africa. Wolof instructors taught us the basics of the language. We saw pictures of Gambia and Senegal and heard tapes and records of traditional African music played on the kora—a stringed instrument sometimes called an “African guitar.” Moreover, the previous summer (1969), I had worked with a Gambian college student and a Frenchspeaking Senegalese student. But there is no substitute for experience. When I landed 29 Hayib welcomed me into his African world—as did his Gambian friends and relatives. I spent long hours and weekends at Hayib’s compound in the Half Die section of Banjul—sleeping overnight, eating communally, drinking ataya (an African tea that men drink as they sit around the compound and talk), and generally imbibing Gambian culture. Peace Corps Gambia encouraged volunteers to “live at the level of the people” and avoid the expatriate enclaves for which the British colonialists were noted. But because of Hayib, I was able to experience Gambian society at a deeper, richer level than most of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers. I was in Gambia less than six months when Hayib took me to neighboring Dakar, Senegal, for Christmas 1970 to visit his Senegalese cousins, the brothers Sambou Toure and Ndary Toure. Hayib and his cousins, like many Senegalese and Gambians, speak Wolof, a major language of the region, and have friends and relatives on both sides of the border. But because of colonial history, educated Senegalese tend to speak French and educated Gambians tend to speak English. In 1970, Sambou was a premed student at the University of Dakar and his brother Ndary was a high-school student at a lycée in Dakar. Some 40 years later, my family and I met the Toure brothers in Dakar. Sambou is now a Senegalese politician—the president of the regional assembly in Kaolack, one of Senegal’s larger cities. As a regional politician in a predominantly Muslim country, Sambou Toure now wears khaftans and marakiis— pointy Moroccan-style slipper shoes. Ndary Toure serves as deputy chief justice of the Senegalese Cour Supreme (Supreme Court) and wears Western-style clothes, like most cosmopolitan Senegalese. In Dakar, both brothers showered my family with African hospitality. Sambou hosted us for dinner at his compound in Dakar with a sumptuous feast of Senegalese benachin, domodaa, and chicken yaasa prepared by Sambou’s wife, Dié Sylla. Neither my French nor my Wolof is any good, but thankfully Sambou and Ndary now speak English well enough to communicate with the African-American 30 As a black Peace Corps volunteer 40 years ago, I fell in love with Africa. But with anguished disappointment, I learned that too much time and space had separated me and my African-American ancestors from Africa. tubaabs in the Etheridge family. We visited Ndary at the Cour Supreme, where I reminded him how we first met in 1970 when he was a student at the lycée. Using an American colloquialism, I then told Ndary: “I knew you when you were kneehigh to a grasshopper, and now your name is up there in lights.” He laughed when I told him he had become a “big boss, a patron.” A TRIBUTE TO “TEACHA” My three adult children have known me all their lives. I was in the delivery room to witness each of them come into the world. Over the years, as a father, I tried to love and nurture each as best I could. But when Deidria, my wife of 34 years, died tragically of a stroke at age 59 in 2008, I was thrown into a life crisis. Suddenly, I became a widower living alone in the Oakland house in which our children grew up and from which they left the nest. I realized I needed my children and their love as much as they needed me. I solemnly told myself, “I’m the only parent they have now!” I was determined to spend as much quality time with them as possible. Some 40 years ago, someone took a photo of me teaching the Gambian schoolboys at Latrikunda. Several months before our family pilgrimage to Africa, my daughter Lauren was looking at a copy of the picture and called me “Teacha.” (“Teacha” or “Teacher” was the respectful form of address with which the Gambian schoolboys spoke to their teachers back then.) On the last day of our trip, as I was bedding down in the hotel in Dakar before our 8 a.m. flight to New York, my three children knocked on my door. To my surprise, they entered and presented me with a large oil painting of that classic classroom picture. Lauren told me the “Teacha” painting— which they commissioned from a Dakar street artist—was a token of their appreciation for me and the pilgrimage. In two weeks in Africa, she said they learned how the formative experience of Peace Corps Gambia—about which they had heard for much of their lives—had helped shape me into the man they knew. This tribute to “Teacha” was one the greatest experiences of my life. I knew then our family pilgrimage had been a success; my children had bonded more deeply with their single-parent father, and my children had come to appreciate my links and ties to Africa—and their own too. My children had grappled with and found their own tentative and preliminary answers to the burning question “What is Africa to me?” After they left, I stared at the painting in silence, basking in Etheridge family love. I cried. “CLINTON, DOO FI ÑÓWATI WAAY?” In addition to 200,000 ordinary visitors a year from around the world, dignitaries such as Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, President Bill Clinton, and President George W. Bush have visited Gorrée Island in Dakar and its infamous Slave House. At the center of the Slave House is the “Door of No Return,” a coffin-sized portal that looks onto the Atlantic Ocean at the closest point on the African continent to the Americas. According to legend, the “Door of No Return” was the last foothold captured Africans had on the Motherland before embarking on the Middle Passage. Like Kunta Kinteh of Roots, my chained African ancestors symbolically passed through their own “Door of No Return” into slavery on an American plantation. As I was leaving Gambia in summer 1972, after two years there in the Peace Corps, many Gambian friends were saying in Wolof, “Clinton, doo fi ñówati waay.” “Clinton, you won’t be coming back here anymore, will you?” But last July, standing in the “Door of No Return” at the Slave House in Dakar harbor (with family nearby, overcome with emotion and close to tears) I gave a resounding “yes” to “Clinton, doo fi ñówati waay?” Yes, I have come back! I have come back! swarthmore college bulletin PHOTOGRAPHS © CLINTON ETHERIDGE Top: Etheridge’s granddaughter Brianna Erskine made friends easily with Gambian children—exhibiting “an innate democratic capacity.” Above and right: Etheridge’s three children—Neil, Lauren, and Clinton III— commissioned a painting of Etheridge based on one of two extant photos showing him teaching math to Gambian boys as a Peace Corps volunteer. (The other photo appears on page 27.) JEFF PFLEUGER january 2012 31 32 swarthmore college bulletin Re-branding the Right THE TEA PARTY AND ITS SYMPATHIZERS ARE VIRTUALLY ONE AND THE SAME AS ANOTHER HIGHLY VISIBLE POLITICAL MOVEMENT WITH LOW APPROVAL RATINGS: THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT. By Tom Krattenmaker Illustrations by Nancy Harrison The name and the story evoke a stirring chapter from the country’s past. Good, patriotic Americans become fed up with a distant, out-of-touch, over-reaching tyrannical government. From a wellspring of discontent arises something wholly new and spontaneous, a broad-based popular uprising determined to throw the rascals out of power, like so much tea into Boston Harbor. This portrayal of today’s Tea Party and its genesis has proven irresistible to the media and popular understanding—as well as one of the nation’s two predominant political january 2012 parties, which in the run-up to the 2012 national elections seems ever more in the Tea Party’s sway. One problem: The story is largely false. Leave it to Robert Putnam ’63 to spoil the party. In view of Putnam’s career—his unique penchant for cutting through political fog and academic inscrutability to describe America—it hardly seems a surprise that this high-profile Harvard professor and best-selling author would play a major role in debunking the Tea Party myth, and, in so doing, contribute to a deeper public understanding of what’s happening in the body politic approaching the next big election. “In most respects the evidence from our research tells a very, very different story about the Tea Party’s origins than what the Tea Party says about itself,” says Putnam, the Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. “People—including the mainstream media—have been too much taken in by this story, which in almost every respect is flawed. Given what we have found, the notion that the Tea Party should be seen as a driving force in this election year is, frankly, nuts.” Putnam and his collaborator and coauthor, David Campbell, laid out their eye-popping conclusions in a New York Times op-ed in August, the summer’s debtceiling drama still fresh in the public’s mind. “Crashing the Tea Party,” read the headline. Crash the party it did, declaring, “The Tea Party is increasingly swimming against the tide of public opinion: among most Americans, even before the furor over the debt limit, its brand was becoming toxic.” The Times piece previewed a more lengthy 33 Those who ended up becoming Tea Party supporters were overwhelmingly white Republicans with a predilection against immigrants, a coolness toward blacks and other minorities, and, most significantly, a conviction that religion—Christianity, to be exact— should infuse politics. analysis that appears in the paperback edition, released in January, of Putnam’s and Campbell’s award-winning 2010 book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. (Putnam gave a talk by the same name on campus last semester.) Not only did the Times piece point out the surprisingly low approval ratings of the Tea Party—20 percent, according to their surveys, as against 40 percent who disapprove—but it cited new evidence that the Tea Party is anything but the grassroots uprising many thought. Mining a database comprising some 3,000 interviews conducted for American Grace, Putnam and Campbell controlled for various factors—attitudes on immigration, racial minorities, the role of religion in politics, and so on—and gleaned an important insight. The Tea Party and its sympathizers are virtually one and the same as another highly visible political movement with very low approval ratings: the Christian Right. A myth and a re-branding strategy—exposed and debunked, with important implications for voters’ decisions and both political parties’ strategies in a presidential election year. Not a bad day’s work for a political scientist. And not the kind of outcome one could have foreseen for an aspiring mathematics and physics major named Robert Putnam who arrived on the Swarthmore campus in 1959. “Swarthmore was the most important thing that ever happened 34 to me, period,” Putnam says. “Swarthmore is where I met my wife, where I became intellectually open and alive, and where I became involved politically and socially. That intense interest in public service and public affairs is an extremely powerful part of the Swarthmore culture, and I drank that in.” Putnam met his future wife, Rosemary Werner ’62, in a political science class. On their first date, she took him to a Kennedy-forPresident rally. On their second date, Putnam, whose politics then ran in a Republican direction, returned the favor and took her to witness a Nixon motorcade working its way along Chester Road at the foot of the Swarthmore campus. It was only fitting that they would make a train ride to Washington, D.C., that following January to attend the Kennedy inauguration. “We heard it with our own ears when Kennedy said those famous words, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,’” Putnam recalls. “I know it sounds awfully trite, but at the time, and even right now, that was an enormously important moment for me. The hair on the back of my neck stands up when I think about it. I don’t want to say that moment alone changed my life, but being at Swarthmore in those years did change my life. I moved from physics and mathematics to taking courses in political science and history, to majoring in psychology. I became more and more convinced that it was my duty to apply what skills and talents I had to studying things that would be relevant to public life.” Today, if you ask close observers of American culture and politics about Robert Putnam and his impact on the culture’s understanding of itself, you will often hear echoes of this comment by pollster and religion analyst Robert Jones, who has also done groundbreaking work on the overlap between the Tea Party and Christian Right. “It’s one of Putnam’s gifts,” says Jones, CEO of the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute, “that he can write books with really rigorous methodologies that can stand up in any academic circle but that have memorable phrases that are immediately understandable to wider audiences and encapsulate a whole complex set of sociological findings. That’s the mark of someone who’s a real public intellectual.” Bowling Alone. That was one eminently memorable and telling phrase coined by Putnam, and also the title of his 1995 best-selling book. Putnam struck a chord with his chronicling of the dissipation of face-to-face social interactions (such as those that take place in bowling leagues), and the measureable correlations with declining levels of civic participation. Through its use of that haunting term “bowling alone,” the book, in retrospect, seems to foreshadow the rise of the hyper-individualism that has found its political expression more recently in political phenomena like the Tea Party. Also near the top of any list of classic Robert Putnam phrases must come “The Aunt Susan Principle.” Used to great effect in his and Campbell’s American Grace, the term does a great deal to explain the apparent paradox posed in the book’s subtitle: “How Religion Divides and Unites Us.” Think of it this way: Aunt Susan is the person in your life who might have vastly different religious ideas but whose simple decency and kindness make it impossible for you to demonize her and that “other” group of which she is part. “All of us have an Aunt swarthmore college bulletin Smart GOP game-planners, Putnam says, will realize that the attributes that give the Tea Party clout in the nomination process— money, intensity, high levels of commitment—do not carry over well to a general election. Susan in our lives,” Putnam explains, “someone who is just wonderful, but who happens to be of a different religion from mine.” Imagine that you are an evangelical Christian and your “Aunt Susan” is an agnostic. Even though the orthodoxy in your religion tells you she is in the dark and barred from heaven—perhaps even someone who should be kept at arm’s length lest she exert a bad influence on you—your experience and your heart tell you something quite different. And you come to realize that you do not believe she is bad or destined for hell. Putnam and Campbell, through their exhaustive interviews and analyses for American Grace, discovered that this is how America has become increasingly tolerant on matters of religion even in the midst of a highly visible culture war. “The more Aunt Susans you have in your life,” Putnam explains, “the more tolerant you become of all religions. These ties, which have grown a lot in the past 50 years, have produced this remarkable level of religious tolerance in America despite religion, in some other respects, becoming more polarizing.” His knack for ultra-revealing phrases like the Aunt Susan Principle is not something Putnam traces back to an aunt, but to his motherin-law. “Zelda, who is no longer alive, sadly, was smart but not particularly well educated,” Putnam says. “She had an extremely low tolerance for social science. Thirty years ago, I vowed I was going to write as much as I could in language that Zelda would understand. So, quite consciously, I spend a lot of time thinking, ‘How can I explain my research to Zelda, my mother-in-law?’” Richard Valelly ’75, Claude C. Smith 1914 Professor of Political Science, calls Putnam the rare political scientist who is interested in, and able to capture, the non-political contexts that affect politics. “Most of us who study American politics study conflict, political parties, public opinion, the evolution of the filibuster and its implications for policy-making, and the like,” Valelly says. “That stuff is fascinating and important. But the broad societal context is often missing—and Putnam has pioneered ways to understand that context and to analyze its evolution and meaning for the quality of life in America. He is interested in how seemingly nonjanuary 2012 political phenomena—the linkages between social capital and trust, the religiosity of Americans and its connection to tolerance of differences—create the background context for a fundamental concern, namely, American greatness.” Were someone looking for a homespun phrase to explain the implications of Putnam’s latest research, he or she might well end up with “the tail that wagged the dog.” Judging solely from the media fascination with the Tea Party and the large amount of coverage devoted to it, and considering the way the Republican presidential contenders spent fall 2011 catering to it, one might conclude that support for this movement was broad and deep—a true force to be reckoned with. And, as revealed by Putnam and his political science collaborator from Notre Dame, one reaching this conclusion would be deeply mistaken. It’s putting it mildly to say the Tea Party is unpopular; as Putnam and Campbell find, its approval ratings turn out to be lower than Muslims and atheists—two social groups that appeared to have staked permanent claim to the bottom rungs of the ladder in American public opinion. As the research pair pointed out in their New York Times op-ed, it was telling that the Christian Right also emerged as one of the lowest-scoring cohorts when they asked people to evaluate such groups as blacks, Hispanics, Democrats, Republicans, etc.—telling, because it turns out that the Tea Party and Christian Right are closer to being one and the same than researchers and journalists had previously realized. To explore the complex dynamics of the Tea Party and its true origins and motivations, Putnam and Campbell returned to the people they surveyed in 2006 and 2007 for American Grace, probing this time for their views of the Tea Party. By controlling for various factors, the researchers found that the most significant predictors of Tea Party affinity were not stuff of Tea Party myth, not some new disgust with big government, national debt, and a reeling economy. Rather, they were the same factors that predicted Christian Right affiliation before there even was a Tea Party or a Barack Obama in our national politics. Those who ended up becoming Tea Party supporters were, back in 2006 and 2007, overwhelmingly white 35 Republicans with a predilection against immigrants, a coolness toward blacks and other minorities, and, most significantly, a conviction that religion—Christianity, to be exact—should infuse politics. “The religious right has been around in Republican politics for a long time,” Putnam says. “The Tea Party turns out to be, by and large, the same folks. Frankly, it’s a different label for the same old group.” A different label, to be sure. But another important difference is the political context. Now, unlike in 2006 or 2007, the country is gripped by a tenacious economic downtown and, moreover, the White House is occupied by a Democrat who has become a focal point for otherwise inchoate anger about the dysfunctions of the federal government. William Saletan ’87, a longtime politics writer for Slate, points out that the Tea Party, as often happens with political movements, can partly attribute its sudden rise to being in the right place at the right time. If not for the economic downtown, Saletan says, the Tea Party would have nowhere near the media visibility and political clout it now enjoys. “The Tea Party is the angry movement that happened to be standing there as the recession deepened,” Saletan said in an interview. “Were it not for the recession, people would be relatively happy with the U.S. government. The troops are coming home from the unpopular wars. Foreign policy is not going badly; people are feeling more secure. There’s not a big outrage about social issues. If the economy were OK, there would not be this great anger at the government. And the Tea Party would make no sense.” Putnam believes his and Campbell’s findings are highly relevant to Republican strategies for 2012—and well beyond. Smart GOP game-planners, he says, will realize that the Tea Party has far narrower appeal than surface appearances might suggest, and that the attributes that give it clout in the GOP presidential nomination process—money, intensity, high levels of commitment—do not carry over well to a general election. “Although candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are perfect for the Republican nominating constituency,” Putnam says, “they are perfectly awful for the general election.” But the implications extend well beyond 36 this next big election. Putnam points out that the signal markers of the Tea Party, in terms of its supporters’ demographic profile and their attitudes on issues and social trends, are on the wrong side of the shifting historical tides. The country is becoming more racially and religiously diverse. Younger members of the majority are themselves becoming more appreciative of tolerance and pluralism. Those who identify strongly with the Tea Party, Putnam notes, tend to be significantly older. While that helps account for the outsize sway they currently exert— older citizens tend to out-hustle younger Americans in the political arena, both in their donating and voting—it also suggests that the movement probably lacks staying power. “We can see from the data,” Putnam says, “that the views that distinguish the Tea Party are on their way out.” Even if it pays off in the 2012 election, if the Republicans allow themselves to be defined by the Tea Party they could experience a fate similar to that which befell Democrats following the 1972 presidential contest, Putnam warns. He sees a parallel between the Republicans’ relationship with the Tea Party today and the relationship the Democratic party had with the antiVietnam War movement in the early 1970s—a relationship that was cemented by George McGovern’s nomination. While it brought energy to the party, it also alienated larger numbers of moderates and left the Democrats vulnerable to damaging characterizations that Republicans used to great advantage over subsequent years and decades. “If Republicans allow the Tea Party’s views to define their image,” Putnam warns, “they risk smearing their party’s brand for a very, very long time.” swarthmore college bulletin connections A BUSY WEEKEND FOR ALUMNI COUNCIL Members of the Alumni Council worked nonstop at their recent fall meeting. As always, much of the weekend was focused on engagement with students. The Council sponsored receptions with students and faculty members in three academic areas: biology and medicine; classics, English literature, and modern languages and literature; and economics. Students also met with alumni composers both in a master class and at a networking reception after the Alumni and Student Composers Concert on Saturday evening (see Alumni Events, below). Council members recorded video answers to career questions, in a project co-sponsored by the Career Services office, which will be launched later this winter online. And, according to longtime members, Saturday’s career networking dinner with students was the most successful in recent memory. The other important focus of the weekend was the College’s strategic plan (see p. 6). Members arrived on campus, having read the draft and other supporting materials. Over the weekend, several guest speakers— President Rebecca Chopp, Provost Tom january 2012 Stephenson, Professor of Economics Stephen O’Connell, and Vice President for College and Community Relations and Executive Assistant to the President Maurice Eldridge— provided perspectives on the plan. By the end of the weekend, the Council had formed several ad hoc task forces, in addition to their standing working groups, to support implementation of aspects of the plan. These task forces will focus on the Institute for Liberal Arts, the Center for Leadership and Innovation, admissions, career services, and communications. —Lisa Lee ’81 Director of Alumni Relations RECONNECT! With your Swarthmore connections, you already know that Swarthmore is a wonderful place. Reconnect to the wonder! The campus bookstore sells T-shirts and sweatshirts online to allow you to get your Garnet on without trekking all the way back to campus. Check in with current student activities by adding the Daily Gazette or The Phoenix to your RSS feed, or become a student again by listening to one of the many streaming lectures available on Swarthmore’s On the clear, blue Sunday morning of Garnet Homecoming and Family Weekend, about 20 stalwart souls participated in a Fun Run. Starting and finishing at Parrish portal, runners navigated a winding three-mile course through the campus, designed by cross-country team member Zachary Gershenson ’12. website. Come to a Connection event, or start a Swarthmore book group in your town. Chat virtually with other alumni about current issues facing the College and the world on the Swarthmore discussion boards. Share the wonder, and someday, you’ll have a great conversation in a grocery store parking lot thanks to that Swarthmore bumper sticker on your car. ALUMNI EVENTS Boston and Seattle Philip Weinstein, Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Literature, discussed “Dark Twins: Faulkner and Race” as part of the Faculty on the Road program. The talk was based on his most recent book Becoming Faulkner, which was just chosen by the Society for the Study of Southern Literature as the best book on Southern literature written in 2010. Continued on next page. 37 Boston The Boston Connection hosted a Broadway sing-along, featuring pianist George Lakey, former Visiting Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Lang Center for current Civic and Social Responsibility Research Fellow. Lakey hosts similar singalongs regularly on campus, including during Alumni Weekend. Organized by Sue Turner ’60, the event was held at the home of Doug Spence ’93—many thanks to both. Washington, D.C. The event in San Francisco coincided with an Evening with the President reception. These events provide an occasion for students to network with local alumni and offer an opportunity to recognize the alumni extern sponsors and hosts who make the program such a success. We thank James Gregory ’85, Donald McMinn ’86, Peter ’60 and Barbara Hopf Offenhartz ’58, and Marc Sonnenfeld ’68 for hosting these events. Philadelphia The Philadelphia Connection participated in a tour of the Brandywine River Museum with Mary Woolson Cronin ’83, the museum’s supervisor of education. NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR ARABELLA CARTER AWARD Swarthmore The second annual Swarthmore Student and Alumni Composers Concert drew a solid audience despite the October snowfall. Organized by Deborah How ’89, the program featured compositions by Mark Alburger ’79, David Barnes ’88, Elizabeth Mountford Corson ’92 and Gabrielle Daniello ’92, Myles Louis Dakan ’10, Roxanna Glass ’91 (arranged by Lisa Wildman ’84), Elizabeth Hoffman ’85, Lacy James ’84, Ben Kapilow ’13, Leland Kusmer ’11, James Matheson ’92, Peter Schickele ’57, Alejandro Sills ’13, Sophia Uddin ’11 and Gabriel Riccio ’11, Niels Verosky ’14, Lisa Wildman ’84, and Becky Wright ’11. Tucson The Tucson Connection has instituted a salon, where members can see and discuss documentary videos, the first of which was poet David Whyte’s The Three Marriages: Work, Self, and Others. Extern Week 2012 As part of Extern Week, the second week in January, events for alumni and students were held in Boston, New York, Philadephia, San Francisco, and 38 Do you know of a classmate or another Swarthmore alumnus/a who goes above and beyond the call of duty in his or her volunteer work? Honor them with a nomination for the Arabella Carter Award. Arabella Carter was one of the great unsung heroes who worked for peace and social justice in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in the early 1900s. She never sought publicity or recognition for her work and was largely forgotten by all but Friends Historical Library archivists, who saw her hand in Quaker peace and social justice work over three decades. She appears to have received no monetary compensation for all these services, living simply on family money. The award, established in 1997 by the Alumni Council and presented each year at reunion, honors alumni who have made significant contributions as volunteers in their own communities or on a regional or national level. The Council hopes to honor alumni whose volunteer service is relatively unknown. If you know such a person— especially if his or her class is having a reunion this year—please contact the Alumni Office at (610) 328-8402 for a nomination form or visit www.swarthmore.edu/alumni/ arabella_form.htm. DANUBE RIVER AND THE HABSBURG EMPIRE WITH PROFESSOR PIETER JUDSON ’78 June 14–28, 2012 There is still time to join this exciting exploration of Eastern Europe. Travel in the company of Professor Pieter Judson, alumni and friends on a unique journey that combines a seven-night cruise on the Danube River with three nights in each of the historic cities of Prague (below) and Kraków. Come explore the medieval spires, honeycolored cathedrals, and cultural treasures of the former Habsburg Empire—one of the most prolific in all of European history—as we are introduced to six Central European countries and visit seven UNESCO World Heritage sites. Discover the spectacular legacy of art, music, and culture of the Habsburgs that thrived for over six centuries and explore Prague and Kraków, whose medieval architecture was spared destruction during World War II. Habsburg Empire gems include Prague’s Old City Square and Melk Stift, an Austrian Benedictine abbey with a magnificent library . IMAGES COURTESY OF GOHAGAN TRAVEL COMPANY Mark Your Calendar Now for the 2012 Jonathan R. Lax ’71 Conference on Entrepreneurship Sunday, March 18th Swarthmore College Science Center Keynote Speaker David Gelber ’63 Co-Founder of Roaring Fork Films, Co-Creator and Co-Managing Director of Years of Living Dangerously, an innovative multiplatform, multimedia project on climate change, and former long-time producer for CBS’s 60 Minutes swarthmore college bulletin LIFELONG LEARNING SPRING 2012 Offered at Swarthmore Deciding, Designing, Predicting: Mathematics in Everyday Life Deb Bergstrand, professor of mathematics and statistics Meets Mondays, 7–9:30 p.m. Feb. 6 to April 2 (but not March 5) How surprised should we be by amazing coincidences? Can we always determine the true winner of an election? How safe is air travel? How can we fairly divide desirable goods, like cake or land? Can we tile the bathroom floor so there is no repeated pattern? Is there a difference between insurance and gambling in Atlantic City? Mathematics helps us answer questions both serious and frivolous and even gives us tools to determine when a question has no exact answer. january 2012 Renaissance and Baroque in European Art Michael Cothren, Scheuer Family Professor of the Humanities Meets Wednesdays, 7–9:30 p.m. Feb. 8 to April 4 (but not March 7) struggled to understand and reveal the deep split in the Russian personality and to discover its causes. Authors will include: Aleksandr Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Andrei Bely, Nikolay Gogol, and Anna Akhmatova. This course surveys major works of European art from the 14th through the 17th centuries, concentrating on the artists who pioneered, established, and developed the cultural movements we refer to as Renaissance and Baroque. Offered in New York City at the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, 305 Seventh Avenue James Joyce’s Ulysses Philip Weinstein, Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of Literature Meets Thursdays, 6:45–to 9:15 March 15 to May 3 Arguably the supreme novel written in English in the 20th century, Ulysses delights even as it daunts. Our aim is to grasp, increasingly, how it “moves,” what it is about, and why it matters. Murder, Madness, Insurrection: Tragic Schism in Russian Society Thompson Bradley, Professor Emeritus of Russian Meets Thursdays, 7–9:30 p.m. Feb. 9 to April 5 (but not March 8) This course will explore how the Russian writers of the 19th and 20th centuries 39 GARNET From top to bottom: Cheers from an excited crowd echoed around the town on Saturday evening during the men’s soccer game, in which Johns Hopkins edged the Garnet, 2–1. Chemistry major Neil Palmer ’12 was one of several science students who presented their summer research projects to enthusiastic visitors. An evening pep rally (left) drew a large crowd of athletics supporters, including the mysterious Garnet Man. Right: The Garnet women’s soccer team took on City College of New York ’s women for a 9–1 victory. 40 Watch some highlights from Garnet Weekend at http://media.swarthmore.video. swarthmore college bulletin Weekend HOMECOMING AND FAMILY Clockwise from top left: Young visitors hung out with Phineas Phoenix. Assistant Surgeon General Anne Schuchat ’80 delivered a riveting McCabe Lecture to a packed house, sharing her reflections on more than two decades at the Centers for Disease Control. Quitterie Gounot ’13 and her parents Françoise and Denys Gounot chatted with President Rebecca Chopp at the 1864 Society reception. And, beneath splendid fall foliage, friends caught up with each other, parents enjoyed their children, and new friendships were forged. Watch Anne Schuchat’slecture at http://media.swarthmore.video. january 2012 41 class notes El efth erios K ost ans Students make their way along the Metsequoia Allée—the walkway between the Lang Performing Arts Center and Kohlberg Hall—following a 2009 snowstorm. 42 swarthmore college bulletin class notes Nancy Grace Roman ’46 ­ ­ Olin Mills has been honored by NASA for her contributions to the creation of the Hubble Space Telescope with the establishment of a fellowship in her name. The Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship in Astrophysics encourages the use of innovative technology in the scientific exploration of the universe’s origins and planets outside the solar system. It will also help recipients develop leadership skills in astrophysics projects and investigations and support astronomical instrument builders in the early stages of their careers. Roman became NASA’s first chief of astronomy in 1959, setting up a committee of astronomers and NASA engineers who would eventually design the Hubble. “The mother of the Hubble” lobbied Congress to secure funding for the telescope’s planning and structure. Since retiring from NASA in 1979, Roman has spent her time consulting, teaching, and lecturing across the country as an advocate for science and to interest girls in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. 44 swarthmore college bulletin IN MEMORIAM Alumni death notices received by the College from Sept. 01 to Nov. 15, 2011 1933 1934 1936 1937 1940 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1951 1954 1957 1960 1962 1966 1981 january 2012 Mary Vlachos Barden Grace Snyder Stuart Esther Pierson Wagner Walter Hickman Charlotte Jones Newman John Sinclair Joan Kelley Fowler Marian Edwards Mukerji Phyllis Tait Dunham Thomas Ford David Curtin Emily Glossbrenner Diamond Rena Levander Van Nuys Robert Young Tomomi Murakami Ralph Sonnenschein Bernhard Bang Audrey Kemp Bowyer John Kelly Milan Cerstvik Russell Christie William Hollinger Grisella Hall Kerr Helena Jourdan Boutillier Ernst Epstein Robert Sadacca Walter Miller Robert Myers Jr. David Trout Sheila Mills Richter Ellanor Peiser White Davida Young Teller I. Omogi Calleb Peter Hendley Kevin Wilson Oct. 29, 2011 Oct. 9, 2011 Oct. 19, 2011 Aug. 22, 2011 Nov. 5, 2011 Sept. 16, 2011 Sept. 19, 2011 Nov. 1, 2011 July 18, 2011 July 30, 2011 July 31, 2011 Sept. 16, 2011 Oct. 2, 2011 Oct. 1, 2011 Sept. 7, 2011 Aug. 5, 2011 Aug. 1, 2009 July 30, 2011 Oct. 1, 2011 Oct. 2, 2011 Oct. 23, 2011 May 14, 2010 Sept. 2, 2011 Aug. 20, 2011 Jan. 7, 2011 Oct. 6, 2011 Oct. 22, 2011 Aug. 30, 2011 Aug. 31, 2011 Oct. 11, 2011 Oct. 13, 2011 Oct.12, 2011 Jan. 1, 2000 Aug. 30, 2011 Sept. 24, 2011 47 class notes J. Parker Hall III ’55, PUBLICATIONS OFFICE ARCHIVES a member of the Swarthmore College Board of Managers from 1984 to 1987, died on Sept. 22 at age 78. Parker was president of Lincoln Capital Management Company for nearly 30 years, overseeing the growth of the firm’s assets from less than $50 million to more than $80 billion. He also wrote and published extensively on finance and investment in the Financial Analysts Journal. In 2000, Parker’s professional accomplishments earned him the first-ever Hortense Friedman Award from the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago. His service to the wider community included chairing the investment committees of Swarthmore College, the University of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival, and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. He was also a trustee of the Nature Conservancy of Illinois, a board member of the La Salle Street Fund, and an adviser to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Parker and his wife, Julie Lange Hall ’55, were honored for service and philanthropy, together receiving the University of Chicago’s Medal of Honor, the ACLU’s Roger Baldwin Award and the North Shore Country Day School’s Foster Hannaford Recognition. Parker enjoyed tennis, jazz piano, the great outdoors, and color photography. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three children and eight grandchildren. 48 swarthmore college bulletin class notes John Cratsley ’63 COURTESY OF JOHN CRATSLEY was recently awarded the Judicial Excellence Award by the Massachusetts Judges Conference and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Frank J. Murray Inn of the Court for 34 years of judicial service in the District and Supreme courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While on the Superior Court, he served as regional administrative judge in Norfolk and Suffolk counties and as chair of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. Cratsley recently reached the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70 but continues to teach at both Boston College and Harvard Law School. He also plans to work with Harvard Law School’s student clinics and to join JAMS, an international company specializing in the mediation and arbitration of complex disputes. Cratsley’s son, Kelo, graduated from Swarthmore in 1994, and his father, Edward Cratsley, was the College’s vice president for administration from 1950 to 1978, receiving an honorary degree in 1978. 50 swarthmore college bulletin Russell Fernald ’63 LINDA CICERO, STANFORD UNIVERSITY has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science. The Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology and professor of biology at Stanford, Fernald’s research is focused on how social interactions among individuals produce specific changes in the brain. His research asks how social interactions are transduced into specific cellular and molecular mechanisms in the brain using cutting-edge techniques from behavioral observation to molecular probes. He received a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the NIH for investigators who have a distinguished record of substantial contribution in neurological science. In 2004, Fernald received the prestigious Rank Prize for work that he did with collaborators on understanding how vertebrate lenses function. He has done research at the University of Oregon, the Medical Research Council for Cell Biophysics in London and the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Germany. He has been recognized for his contributions to innovative undergraduate teaching, education, and mentoring. january 2012 51 in my life It Was in Another Lifetime A LETTER FROM AFGHANISTAN By Gregg Davis ’80 52 Gregg Davis (left) has spent 16 years in the Naval Reserve and currently serves as a a senior analyst and cultural adviser in the AfghanistanPakistan Hands Program. He has been deployed to the Middle East three times— most recently to Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The desolate desert landscape that surrounds his base is seen from the loading ramp of a Marine V-22 Osprey (above). Davis is scheduled to end his current tour this month. COURTESY OF GREGG DAVIS It’s been a long time since I sat with some of you waiting to receive our diplomas in the Scott Amphitheater—a lifetime ago, you might say. Parts of that day are clear as I look back: the ping-pong balls we handed to President Dorie Friend, the raucous trumpets when Peter Schickele ’57 received his honorary degree and sang his address. Other things fade, but never the lessons of thought, consideration, and value that I honed through so many experiences shared with so many of you. Shared too with some who are no longer with us—Judy, Fred, Drew, and too many others. You are sorely missed. So here I am three decades later in a role I couldn’t have imagined during those days we shared so long ago. Somehow, being in Afghanistan in 2011 makes Swarthmore sense in a James Michener kind of way, although it’s perhaps far stranger for some of you to see that I am here in uniform. Yes, the military. I’ve spent 16 years in the Navy Reserve, a chief petty officer; I was at the Pentagon on September 11. Since then, I’ve been part of three mobilizations, with two years in Bahrain and—by the time this is published—a year in Afghanistan. Yes, a far cry from the person you may remember from that lifetime ago. What am I doing here? In April 2010, I was accepted into the AfghanistanPakistan Hands Program—AfPak Hands for short, known also as Afghan Hands here in Afghanistan. The idea is to train a cadre of experts on this region who can then advise the Department of Defense and other branches of government. Before deploying here, we were given extensive language training in addition to cultural and counterinsurgency training. I work as a senior analyst and cultural adviser for the Stability Operations Information Center, part of Regional Command Southwest (RC-SW) at Camp Leatherneck. At RC-SW, we are concerned with just two provinces—Helmand and Nimroz. Although Afghanistan has many spectacular mountains, here at Camp Leatherneck we have desert—and when the dust clears, occasional views of craggy hills reminiscent of the Mojave. I divide my time between work on base and trips to Nimroz, where my Dari (such as it is) is much more useful. I find that the small amount of the language that I speak opens communication much more than my basic Dari conversational skills should logically accomplish. I’ve seen this before; it seems to be a common reaction to someone’s making an honest effort to understand something about another culture. swarthmore college bulletin Many foreigners coming here believe that the statement “Afghanistan is a Muslim country” explains everything they need to know—which might be closer to the truth if they understood Islam in the first place. Of course, language is just a beginning—a fact lost on many in the AfPak Hands program, unfortunately. Many of our problems in this war come—as Mike Scheuer, former CIA Al Qaeda analyst, and author of Imperial Hubris and Through Our Enemies’ Eyes commented early on— from a failure to study and understand the fundamentals of Afghan culture. Many foreigners coming here believe that the statement “Afghanistan is a Muslim country” explains everything they need to know— which might be closer to the truth if they understood Islam in the first place. However, to most Americans, all Islam and all Muslims are the same. They fail to understand that Islam has three major divisions—Sunni, Shia, and Sufi—and there’s a great deal of debate about what Sufism is. There are many subsects within those divisions. Indonesia, Turkey, Iraq, Tunisia, and Mali are all Muslim nations—and that means something different in each one. The Afghans I have met (and this has held true for all the major ethnic groups—Tajiks, Pashtuns, Hazaras, and Baluch) interact differently from our norm. First, there is the value attached to “small talk,” which is really quite common outside our American culture. Beyond that is a subtle way of discussing, where disagreement is not voiced as such and correction is offered in analogy and story. Expressions of belief are neither direct nor straightforward, but at the same time, beliefs are firmly rooted and deeply held. january 2012 It’s all very confounding to our Western way of conversing, and especially our intellectual traditions. It’s almost as if our Western tradition is a boxing match where discussants are seeking to knock out the opposing argument. In stark contrast, the Afghan sees the disagreements as a dance— with differences to be harmonized so that the two (or more) can move where they want together. It’s very Sufi, an influence I see everywhere, and seems as natural as breathing for the Afghans. Afghans also believe that they know far more about being Muslim than anyone else. Boston University anthropologist Thomas Barfield says in his history of Afghanistan: Few peoples in the world, particularly the Islamic world, have maintained such a strong and unproblematic sense of themselves, their culture, and their superiority as the Afghans. In abstract terms all foreigners, especially nonMuslims, are viewed as inferior to Afghans. Although the great powers might have been militarily, technologically, and economically stronger, because they were nonbelievers, or infidels, their values and way of life were naturally suspect. Afghanistan’s Muslim neighbors, however, fared only slightly better in (Sunni) Afghan eyes. The Uzbeks must have been asleep to allow the Russians to occupy Central Asia for over a century; Pakistan is a suspect land of recent Muslim converts from Hinduism (Pashtuns and Baluch excepted) that should never have become a nation; and Iran is a nest of Shiite heretics who speak Persian with a ludicrous accent. Convinced they are natural-born Muslims, Afghans cede precedence to no one in matters of religion. They refused to take doctrinal advice from foreign Salafis, who claimed they had a superior vision of Islam, coming as they did from Islam’s Arabian heartland. Instead, even under the Taliban, Afghans continued to bedeck graves commemorating martyrs with poles and flags, made pilgrimages to the shrines of saints reputed to cure illnesses or help women conceive, and placed magical charms on their children and valuable domestic animals to ward off the evil eye. Afghans responded to any criticism of these practices by arguing that since there are no purer or stronger believers in Islam than themselves, their customs must be consistent with Islam. Otherwise they would not practice them. Islamic Sufi orders (Naqshbandiya and Chisti particularly) are also well established in the country and give a mystic turn to what sometimes appears to be an austere faith.* I am learning more about this country, its people, and myself every day that I am here. Being away from friends and family for a year at a time is difficult—more than I could possibly describe. But the friends one makes on deployments are deep—in many ways like some of the friendships forged so long ago along the banks of Crum Creek. As at Swarthmore, intensity, sleep deprivation, and being far from home combine for an experience that produces relationships that may not be a constant part of your life, but revive instantly on contact. Humor is part of it for us as well, but the humor is dark and, in any other circumstance, I would call it sick. Here, especially for doctors treating trauma, the horrific becomes commonplace. One can either make bizarre jokes or go completely (and dangerously) insane. Think of it like M*A*S*H*, but without the whisky still or so much wild behavior. We too joke about body parts—but not medical jokes. Instead our jokes are about subjects so grim I really can’t explain them without making us sound like ghouls. A (mild and inadequate) explanation comes from the way that suicide bombers end up, quite literally, all over the landscape— frequently only their heads are intact. People make comments like, “Let’s give failed suicide bombers a hand.” See what I mean? Reading about the grotesque things humans inflict on each other changes you. Counterintuitively, we use the grim humor to keep ourselves from becoming ghouls. It really does seem that Robert Hunter said it best: “What a long strange trip it’s been.” Since graduating, Gregg Davis has worked in bookstores, banks, and as a high school social studies teacher. In 1995, he joined the Naval Reserves as a way to give back to the country he loves and that has given him so much. “Once I was in the intelligence program, I realized I had found my niche,” Davis says. * Barfield, Thomas, Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, Princeton University Press, 2010, page 42. 53 Randy Holland ’69 credit COURTESY OF DELAWARE SUPREME COURT recently received the Seventh Annual Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence, which honors one state trial or appellate judge for years of distinguished judicial service. He was the youngest person to serve on the Delaware Supreme Court when he was first appointed at age 39 and is the first Justice in Delaware history to be appointed to a third 12year term. According to Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard, chair of the selection panel, Holland is “an icon among American lawyers and judges and the nation is a more decent place because of his commitment to the cause of justice.” Holland’s leadership roles at the national level include serving as president of the American Inn of Court Foundation from 2000 to 2004, chairing the American Bar Association Committee on Lawyer Regulation, and chairing the AJS Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee. He is the author of numerous appellate decisions that are landmark precedents and has authored or edited seven books, including three related to the Delaware court system. january 2012 55 j ay frederick class notes The Thrill of the Hunt Edward Frost ’73 knows exactly where to look to uncover the juiciest facts. 56 Most of us know how to dig up a few facts about someone online. But for corporate private investigator Edward Frost ’73, Google is a gold mine—and just one of the many tools he uses to track down information needed to crack a case. Frost is a senior director with Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), a global professional services firm headquartered in Manhattan. A self-described “sucker for startups,” he joined the firm in June 2011 to build its new business intelligence services group, bringing more than 30 years of experience as a private investigator (PI) and a legal journalist. His assignments include fraud investigations; witness development; asset searches; and background checks of executives and companies before mergers, acquisitions, or financing deals. One of his recent projects involved an earlystage company whose owners had hired a team of brokers they found online to help them raise $50 million. Many months and broken promises later—and after the company owners had advanced $1 million of earnest money— they turned to A&M to check the brokers out. The company gave Frost the names of several people from around the world involved in the loss—people it thought might have the money. But court files and public records told a different story: two were in foreclosure, another had just filed for bankruptcy, and documents tied others to financing scams and criminal convictions— including running a drug ring. “It was unbelievable that this group of bad people could all get involved in the same deal by coincidence,” Frost says. “I remember sitting at my computer and coming up with that federal drug indictment and conviction and . . . my jaw literally dropped open, and I thought, ‘What?! Are you kidding me?’” Needless to say, his report to the European firm concluded that it would not be likely to recover any funds from these suspects. But Frost’s eureka moments don’t always happen in front of his computer. He ran his own PI firm before joining A&M, and in one case, he and two ex-NYPD cops were staked out in front of a New York City pharmacy. He was trying to determine if the store was connected to another pharmacy that had closed shop and disappeared without paying a supplier several million dollars swarthmore college bulletin class notes David Johnson ’73 COURTESY OF PENN RELAYS has recently been inducted into the Delaware County Athletic Hall of Fame for his many contributions to the local sports community, which includes his long-established relationship with the media. In addition to serving as the Frank Dolson Director of the Penn Relays for 15 years, Johnson has been a journalist or public address production coordinator in most summer Olympic Games and all summer World Championship track meets since 1983. He has served in similar roles at all U.S. National Championships, Olympic Trials, and NCAA championships for more than 30 years. Johnson is chairman of the steering committee for the National Track & Field Hall of Fame, executive vice president of the U.S. Track Meet Directors Association, and chair of the men’s subcommittee for the Bowerman Award, which is comparable to the Heisman Trophy. Previously, he was the statistical editor of Track & Field News and a consulting statistician to the International Association of Athletics Federations. Johnson is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including membership in the Pennsylvania State High School Track and Field Hall of Fame and Strath Haven [Pa.] High School’s Wall of Honor. 58 swarthmore college bulletin books + arts Physical Grace, Rare Deeds, Creative Genius To reflect upon a work about untold tennis stories, I had only to turn to the weathered photographs on the cinder-block walls of my tennis office at Swarthmore, and there he is: All-American Stephen “Tigs” Tignor, on the Ed Faulkner Courts, May 1990, leading his team to an NCAA National Team Championship in Division III. With long hair flowing, well-worn blue baseball cap turned irreverently backwards, tossing arm gracefully and perfectly extended, he stands, racket poised to strike his biting lefty serve. I recall saying to him before that crucial semi-final against Kalamazoo College: “Tigs, let’s play it safe, get the ball in play and look for a secure opening before attacking”—a style that had always worked for him. Tigs ignored my advice and hit for the lines, taking huge risks by advancing forward to net, winning in straight sets, and shyly exiting the court almost before his teammates had finished their warm-ups. That was Tigs on the court—creative, unpredictable, eschewing obvious norms in favor of riskier alternatives. In his new book, we see something of this athlete as artist, the discipline behind the craft, the writer’s eye for detail and skill at invoking image, the respect for journalistic accuracy, and the scholar’s reliance on historical and social research. Tignor’s approach in High Strung is reminiscent of Norman Mailer’s literary journalism, such as his epic psychological analysis of Muhammad Ali in The Fight (1975). In the hands of Mailer, Ali becomes a figure of immense intellectual gifts. So do Tignor’s subjects—McEnroe, Connors, and Borg—all come to assume an interior life of complex motives and drives; a world of intentions, doubts, and emotions; a psychic framework of immense complexity sketched in and revealed by the observations and soaring imagination of the author. Often, admired athletes live their lives of physical grace and rare deeds without ever giving expression to the creative genius inside, leaving it to outsiders and sideline admirers to supply the voice that explains the 62 BETTMAN/CORBIS/AP IMAGES Stephen Tignor ’92, High Strung: Björn Borg, John McEnroe, and the Untold Story of Tennis’s Fiercest Rivalry, Harper, 2011 John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors shake hands after McEnroe wins the men’s singles at Wimbledon 1984. self. Tignor, a writer who has experienced the emotional void of real competitive tennis, has taken the novelist’s risk of linking action with insight, athletic brilliance with personal fears, biography with public excellence. Many sport books portray stars and their singular lives. High Strung pays its debt to a reading public thirsting for the superficial reality of stardom, but it also becomes a starting place for broader discovery—that of historical and social analysis. We encounter a somewhat crude, reductionist pairing of social class and tennis to explain complex personalities: Thus, Jimmy Connors is labeled “brash” because he is from working class East St. Louis, Ill., where the Victorian gentleman’s code of sportsmanship was unknown. Sport historians see a break in the ethos of modern sport occurring somewhere in the 1880s, when the working class expropriates modern sport, displacing Victorian manners with a new partisan ethos that was aggressive, commercial, and loud—sport as open conflict. The history of tennis as socially exclusive —with its roots in British aristocracy, extended worldwide through the empire— explains the isolation of a sport that, according to Tignor, did not enjoy mass consumption until the 1970s and 1980s. Connors, McEnroe, and Borg became emblems of this new image—more media stars and commercial icons than sport warriors parading a leveling democratic message. These glimpses into the social history of sport and tennis—asides to the drama of the center court—inform and educate the reader, elevating this work above simple sport histories or biographies. It took many decades before the new ethic fully penetrated the Ivy walls of the tennis establishment—an historical journey Tignor describes in his narrative. Jimmy Connors was the first player to shatter the amateur façade of “gentility, of class, of gentlemanly diffidence,” replacing it with tennis as psychic combat in a public arena. John McEnroe was at first shy and prone to self-doubt but soon learned to apply an appallingly boorish style, borrowing on the security of his background of privilege and nouveau elite roots. Borg developed a singular, baseline tactical approach to tennis derived from his childhood socialization into the sport, the lonely hours of hitting ball after ball against his garage door in his workingclass neighborhood in Sweden. These individual differences are interesting, but their connection to sociology as explanation is less compelling. Yet, the descriptive historical narrative of on-court actors Borg and McEnroe, supplemented by forays into the players’ mental states, seems completely appropriate. We also learn much about tennis—the contrasting playing styles of the serve-andvolleyer and the baseliner; the equipment; court surfaces; and codes of ethics, on and off court, of the players. This rich blend of so many factors adds to our understanding and appreciation of the sport, its actors, and the location of the institution in our society. Just as Tigs broke the rules to win a championship back in the 1990s, Tignor seems to have shattered a few literary norms with this dense, complex book, an historical journey into the psychic dimensions of the exposed, singular athlete, chasing individual achievement while courting failure. His admiring old coach would like to reveal that he knew Tigs would eventually find his voice—a discovery of which all of us are beneficiaries. —Michael Mullan, Professor of physical education and sociology and men’s tennis coach swarthmore college bulletin Leo Braudy ’63, The Hollywood Sign, Yale University Press, 2011. Erected in 1923 as an advertisement to tout the real estate development of Hollywoodland, the gigantic sign of white blocks set into a steep hillside evolved into an emblem of the movie mecca, international symbol of glamour and star power, and icon of American culture. As he traces the history of the sign, Braudy also offers a fascinating look at the rise of the movie industry from the silent-movie era through the development of the studio system that helped define modern Hollywood. BOOKS Michael Casher and Joshua Bess ’00, Manual of Inpatient Psychiatry, Cambridge University Press, 2010. This compact clinical manual is convenient for use on the psychiatric ward. With chapters organized around the diagnoses found in psychiatric units, it addresses the common questions and issue that clinicians face in day-to-day psychiatric work with inpatients. Ken Hechler ’35, Soldier of the Union, Pictorial Histories, 2011. Civil War letters from George and John Hechler, ancestors of the author and soldiers in the 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, describe the tribulations of the war, from camp life at Parkersburg and Summersville, january 2012 Robin Chapman ’64, The Eelgrass Meadow, Tebot Bach, 2011. Poet and scientist Chapman offers a collection of beautiful and moving poems, in which, according to Jesse Lee Kercheval, “her tone glides between elegy and rallying cry, delight at discovery and sorrow at what is to come. This book will inform and transform your vision of our shared world.” to the brutal battlefields of Lewisburg, Antietam, Chickamauga, and others. The Ohioans’ letters described the valiant efforts of the regiment as well as the people and places in what would become the State of West Virginia. The Fight for Coal Mine Health and Safety, Pictorial Histories, 2011. In November 1968, Congressman Hechler willingly set aside his own personal safety and jeopardized his political career by standing up for the coal miners in his district and throughout the nation who faced danger and death in the workplace. Hechler pushed through Congress the most farreaching occupational health and safety legislation ever enacted. Stephen Henighan ’84 (translator), The Accident, by Mihail Sebastian, Biblioasis, 2011. This translation of one of the most celebrated modern Pamela Haag ’88, Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses and Rebel Couples Who are Rewriting the Rules, HarperCollins, 2011. Haag writes about the untold side of marriage—the semihappy ambivalence that lurks below the surface of most marriages and the truth that one or both partners may feel as if something very important is missing. With in-depth research and doses of humor, the author tells firsthand accounts as well as stories of contemporary marriages where spouses seem more like friends than lovers and where romance and passion are assailed from all sides. European authors tells a story of love and emotional devastation, beginning when a young woman is rescued from an accident by a troubled young man and she decides to rescue him back. Ambassador James Hormel ’55 and Erin Martin, Fit to Serve: Reflections on a Secret Life, Private Struggle, and Public Battle to Become the First Openly Gay U.S. Ambassador, Skyhorse Publishing, 2011. In this thoughtful narrative, the author describes his journey from lost boy to openly gay man—his daily struggle with life in the closet, of being a professional with a wife and children, and of his despair Helen Schneider ’91, Keeping the Nation’s House: Domestic Management and the Making of Modern China, UBC Press, 2011. Rattling the assumption that home economics training lies far from the seats of power, this book reveals how Chinese women helped to build modern China one family at a time. Focusing on the vision and aspirations of the women who shaped a discipline, Schneider offers a gendered perspective on the past and reveals how women intellectuals dealt with the transition from Nationalist to Communist eras. and that of his loved ones, then the freedom of finally coming out, becoming an antiwar activist, battling homophobia, losing friends to AIDS, and becoming an ambassador during the Clinton administration. Caitlin Murdock ’94, Changing Places: Society, Culture, and Territory in the Saxon-Bohemia Borderlands, 1870–1946, The University of Michigan Press, 2010. This transnational history depicts the birth, life, and death of a modern borderland—the cross-border region between Germany and Habsburg Austria and, after 1918 between German and Czechoslovakia—and of frontier people’s changing relationships to nations, states, and territorial belonging. 63 class notes Kuzman Ganchev ’03 d aniela nik ol tchev a has been awarded the John Atanassoff Award by the President of Bulgaria for his work in machine learning and natural language processing. Ganchev has 22 publications in the field of computational linguistics and machine learning. His research focuses on machine learning with side information—encoding knowledge related to the problem in the model or learning procedure. Ganchev began working for Google Research in 2010 after completing a Ph.D. in computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously worked for StreamSage, Inc., a D.C.-based research and development company that analyzes, searches, and indexes audiovisual content. The company was founded by Seth Murray ’98, Michael Morton ’97, and Sibley Verbeck ’98. 66 swarthmore college bulletin eleftherios k ost ans class notes She’s Got the Beats Ashley Brandt ’07 moves through the worlds of music and medicine to her own rhythm. 68 A bass beat pulses through the floor and up into the bodies of nightclub guests. The powerful pounding rhythm brings them to the dance floor. On this night at Sisters Nightclub in Philadelphia, [Kathryn] Ashley Brandt ’07 (aka DJ K.ASH) is the disc jockey responsible for providing a music mix that resonates with club guests. “It’s all about the beats,” says Brandt, who pulls her music from multiple servers and has an estimated 20,000 mp3s in her playlist that includes everything from hip hop and rap to Top 40, reggaeton, and electronica. Brandt plays music through a complicated, computerized, and visually mesmerizing virtual DJ program called Serato on her laptop, which is connected to a mixer and turntables comprising a multitude of knobs and channel sliders for mixing beats, adding effects, and adjusting the syncopation and volume. Her arms cross and uncross as she quickly manipulates the dials and buttons to get the sound mix exactly right. She tilts her head to the left holding the headphone between her shoulder and ear to cue the next song, all the while conversing with guests and checking her Blackberry for text messages. Her computer monitor emits a colorful lightshow of audio waves, amplitude scales, and virtual spinning discs. Two real turntables with diamond-head needle tone arms are used for mixing and to create the scratching sounds. Brandt, recently nominated for Best DJ in 2011 by the Philadelphia Gay News—she was the only female out of six nominees—prides herself on her ability to mix music. Mixing is the ability to blend two songs seamlessly and simultaneously. Then as one of those songs is about to end, the next mp3 is streamed in so that guests don’t experience an interruption to their dancing. “When people in the club hear the baseline they should not be able to tell they are hearing two songs,” she says. Although Sisters is her main DJ residency (an ongoing gig) in addition to two other circuit parties at Stimulus Philly and the Scene, swarthmore college bulletin Although Sisters Nightclub is her main DJ residency, Brandt will soon have another—as a third-year medical student at the Pennsylvania College of Osteopathic Medicine. Brandt will soon have another—as a third-year medical student at the Pennsylvania College of Osteopathic Medicine. Brandt feels fortunate to have found a residency program that combines the two specialties in which she has an interest: emergency medicine and women’s health. She appreciates the quick pace of an emergency room. “However, I really am very invested in women’s health and also in having long-term relationships with patients, which is something you don’t get in the ER,” she says. “I always like to joke that medicine and DJing have three things in common,” she says. “Your skill set is worthless without a residency, both provide equal access to drugs, and you’re up until the early hours of the morning.” Although Brandt understands her club DJing may have to slow down to accommodate the long january 2012 days and nights of a medical internship, she does not think it needs to stop. “I believe it’s possible that I can DJ one or two nights a month for major events. I was told prior to starting medical school that it would be impossible to DJ and do well in school, which is something that I’m proud to have disproved,” says Brandt, who maintains an A average. “I can get home at 2:30 in the morning and be up for an 8 a.m. class.” At some point, though, she’d also like to have children, leave the club DJ scene, and produce music from a home-based recording studio. “It’s something my family could also participate in, if my kids enjoy music and want to learn. And at the very least, I’d be at home with them instead of out at a club into the late hours of the night.” But for now, the DJing is lucrative. “Let’s put it this way,” says Brandt, her eyes opening wide and a smile appearing on her lips. “I didn’t need to take out a Grad PLUS loan for med school.” Brandt, who is a primarily self-taught DJ, began doing gigs on campus at Paces. Shortly after she was accepted into medical school, she won Best Female DJ in the first competition she entered in Philadelphia in 2009. In addition to Sisters, Brandt has DJed at other clubs along the Northeast Corridor and was also asked to DJ at Club Haute in Los Angeles for an episode of the television show The Real L-Word while it was filming there. “DJing is very much a game that always changes, where I’m forced to react to what people want to listen to or are responding to. It’s also a challenge each time—trying new techniques and attempting to blend all different genres,” Brandt says. “At the end of a long day in a hospital, it’s nice to have this kind of break, where I get the chance to be creative. It keeps me very balanced in the long run.” —Audree Penner 69 class notes Erin Heaney ’09 cour tesy of erin heaney was recognized by the Huffington Post as the “Greatest Person of the Day” on Sept. 6, 2011 and was named to Buffalo’s 20th annual Business First “40 Under Forty” list for her leadership of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, which is based in Buffalo. The area ranks among the highest in New York State for air pollution because of the concentration of 53 industrial plants. As executive director, Heaney oversees the coalition’s operations, builds coalitions with external stakeholders, and provides strategic guidance to campaigns that advance environmental justice and public health. In 2009, Heaney led a full-scale protest at Tonawanda Coke, a foundry coke plant whose emissions were contributing to benzene levels that were 75 times higher than the New York State guideline. The pressure generated by the coalition has resulted in 20 federal criminal indictments and an EPA-mandated cleanup at the plant. The successful campaign was recently featured on NPR’s investigation Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities. 70 swarthmore college bulletin q+a Why is Bob Barr so deeply affected? I sat down with Bob Barr ’56 in November at the small but comfortable cottage at Foulkeways at Gwynedd—a retirement community north of Philadelphia— that he shares with his wife, Nony Moore Barr. Bob, whom I have known for two decades, has always looked younger than his years. At 77, he still exhibits the open, boyish air that has always made it easy for him to connect with young people. Then again, when he returned to Swarthmore a year after graduation to work with Gilmore Stott in the newly formed Admissions Office, he was, at 23, barely an adult. Barr, who majored in political science, later served Swarthmore as dean of men from 1962 to 1970. He remembers President Courtney Smith telling him, “Bob, I’m just giving you the job of holding the student community together. We’re in for some difficult years.” Following Smith’s death in office in early 1969, Barr seriously considered being a college president himself. He explored this idea during three years as assistant to the president of Chatham College in Pittsburgh, eventually deciding that he “didn’t want to be a president, even if someone wanted me to be. There were just too many constituencies to please—too much emphasis on development. I missed the contact that I’d always had with students.” In 1977, after a stint as dean of students at Dickinson College, Barr returned to Swarthmore, this time to stay. “The admissions operation had fallen on difficult times,” he says. “We had to expand our travel to secondary schools, upgrade our publications, and improve the morale of the staff, which needed more contact with the faculty and the rest of the community. I was in a good posi72 ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS Interview conducted and edited by Jeffrey Lott tion to build those bridges.” Barr served as dean of admissions until 1994, when he moved to a position in development. He retired in 1996—“one of the most difficult decisions I ever made,” he says. “But the morning after it was accomplished, I wondered why in heaven’s name I hadn’t done it 10 years earlier.” Former Dean of Men and Dean Emeritus of Admissions Bob Barr ’56 has been honored by an endowed scholarship in his name. swarthmore college bulletin In retirement, Barr remains busy. For about a decade before moving to Foulkeways, he and Nony lived on Cape Cod and in Swarthmore. They travel and work on various volunteer causes. He is on the boards of both Germantown Friends School and Foulkeways, and they spend as much time as possible with their two sons and four grandchildren. Recently, three alumni spearheaded an effort to raise more than $100,000 to endow a new Robert A. Barr Jr. Scholarship. Jeffrey Krieger ’86, Steven Sell ’89, and Vivek Varma ’88 described the scholarship as “a fitting way to honor a man who gave much of his life to Swarthmore.” Although fundraising continues in order to increase the size of the award, the scholarship was announced in October and will be awarded for the first time this month to a student “with strong academic credentials who also shows promise of making substantial contributions to the co-curricular life of the campus.” For its many donors—including members of the Barr family—the scholarship makes manifest what’s been the singular focus of Bob Barr’s life: helping young people achieve their highest potential. Who were your mentors at Swarthmore? [Richter Professor Emeritus of Political Science] Roland Pennock [’27] was stern, but once he thought he saw something worth encouraging in a student, he was indefatigable. In fact, sometimes his standard for me wore me out. I never played tennis more than just recreationally, but I got to know [tennis coach] Ed Faulkner, and we spent a lot of time together. What I learned from Ed was patience—that things worth working for seldom come quickly or easily. And [President] Courtney Smith, a mentor and friend for many years, got me started in college administration, supported and encouraged me every day, and challenged me to reach farther and higher than, at times, I thought was possible. I don’t know what my life would have been like without his influence, but I can’t believe it would have been as satisfying and—I hope—useful. What have you wanted to excel at in your life? Helping people grow out of whatever limitations they were facing. Finally, Everett turned to my father and said, “Can we now let the young man answer some questions for himself?” And I thought, “This is where I’m going. He’s the first person who ever stood up to my father that way.” What quality do you have that helps you be successful at this—at least sometimes? Successful sometimes, you’re right. I’m a good listener. I’m not judgmental. But also, I’m pretty good at knowing when to move from passive to active. What do you mean by that? Listening and gathering information is the passive side of counseling someone, but once you’ve defined the problems, you need to figure out strategies and tactics to overcome them. I’m pretty good at finding the right moment to ask, ‘What have we learned, and what are we going to do about it?’” Do you remember your Swarthmore admissions interview? I interviewed with Gil Stott the summer before my senior year in high school. I guess he thought it had gone well, because he took me in to meet [Dean] Everett Hunt. In those days, your parents would accompany you, and my father—who was a great salesman and pretty self-confident—went in with me. Everett asked me half a dozen questions, most of which my father answered before I could open my mouth. Finally, Everett turned to him and said, “Can we now let the young man answer some questions for himself?” And I thought, “This is where I’m going. He’s the first person who ever stood up to my father that way.” How did college admissions change from the 1970s to the 1990s? When I first started, students would apply to three or four colleges. Secondary schools didn’t put so much emphasis on college guidance and researching choices. It was much more anecdotal—kids would show up for an interview because an uncle had mentioned Swarthmore over Thanksgiving dinner. The process was not irrelevant, but it was pretty easy to get through it. It became much more competitive—with more choices and more pressure. One of these pressures is the notion that “there must be one college out there that’s the right match for me.” A lot of my job was saying: “That’s bull. There are any number of colleges that would fit your needs and interests.” Assuming comparable academic qualifications, is it fair to give preference to certain students on the basis of athletic ability? I think it’s fair to give preference to kids whose interests and accomplishments—such as music, athletics, community service, or leadership in student government—would enrich our community. Speaking of preferences, the new Barr Scholarship states that “when appropriate, preference will be given to sons and daughters of alumni.” I think this is an honorable thing because such legacies are about our future, about having a core of interested and committed Swarthmore people among us—and about the importance of the past. Fill in the blank: “For students, the college admissions process is … … daunting. Mysterious. Painful.” “To me, Swarthmore College is … … a magical place.” “I wish I had been able to … … spend more time with my family. I don’t want my kids to read this and think they were gypped. I hope this is something I feel, not something they feel, but it was a career that took almost every minute. Or would have, had I let it.” Do you have a guilty pleasure? Right now, it has to do with the scholarship. It’s involved me so much emotionally—summing up so much of what I tried to do in my personal and professional life—that I feel a little guilty about it. I’m worried that people might say, “That Barr, he must have an enormous ego.” And, you know, there may be some truth to that. The recognition feels terrific, and I’m deeply affected by it. you are their future. In libraries and laboratories, classrooms and playing fields, Swarthmore College offers its students a transformative experience distinguished for its academic rigor and commitment to social responsibility. Each generation of Swarthmore students depends upon our alumni, parents, and friends for support. Thanks to your contributions, today’s students can enjoy the singular benefits of a Swarthmore education. To support Swarthmore students, call (800) 660-9714 or go to www.gifts.swarthmore.edu.