Community Peruses a Year of Published Work in One Room

On Tuesday, September 16, Wellesley community members were treated to an array of intellectual and artistic output that, while presented in an absolutely simple way, was dizzying in its depth, breadth, and variety.

It included journal articles, translations, musical recordings, sculpture, edited textbooks, original poetry, commentary, more articles, book reviews, and books published by Wellesley College faculty, faculty emeriti, and researchers. In all, 251 pieces were represented. Printed versions of the work were laid out on desks in the Clapp Library Reading Room (with a CD by Senior Music Performance Faculty in Vocal Jazz Kris Adams playing in the background) and arranged alphabetically by author's last name.

The alpha-ordering added a mind-opening aspect to viewing the materials, as one encountered neighbors such as "Understanding Media Markets in the Digital Age: Economics and Methodology" and "The Dreyfuss Affair as National Theater;" or "Imaginary Friends" and "Isherwood's Impersonality: Ascetic Self-Divestiture and Queer Rationality in A Single Man." Further down the alphabet, "Perceptual Assimiliation and Discrimination of Non-Native Vowel Contrasts" sat next to "Traveling Faiths and Migrant Religions," and "The Rise and Fall of Plankton: Long-Term Changes in the Vertical Distribution of Algae and Grazers in Lake Baikal, Siberia" hung out next to Rising Powers and the Future of Global Governance.*

This event had historically been held in May, but changed to September this year.  Dean of Faculty Affairs and Katharine Lee Bates & Sophie Chantal Hart Profesor of English Kathryn Lynch and Assistant to the Provost and Dean of the College Kathy Sanger, who organized the event, determined that the celebration worked better as an inspiring way to start the new academic year, instead of one of many events to squeeze in before dispersing for the summer.

By all appearances, that proved true, with many people dropping in, greeting familiar colleagues, meeting new ones, and talking over the projects on display.

* Fun pairs listed here are only a representative sample! Authors are listed below, in the order that the works appear above. For a full catalog of all the work presented, a PDF of the event program is online.

• Assistant Professor of Economics Brett Danaher (in NBER Economics of Digitization)
• Professor of French Venita Datta (in Revising Dreyfuss: Art and the Law)
• Professor of Psychology Tracy Gleason (in Parterre)
• Assistant Professor of English Octavio Gonzalez (in Modern Fiction Studies)
• Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of French and Linguistics Andrea Gayle Levitt (in Phonetica)
• Professor of Sociology Peggy Levitt (in Global Networks, Special Volume on Migration, Religion, and Globalization)
• Frost Professor in Environmental Science, Professor of Biological Sciences Marianne Moore (in PLoS ONE)
• M. Margaret Ball Professor of International Relations, Professor of Political Science Craig Murphy (book published by Routledge)