campus scene

Down and dirty, yet cosmic Prof. Kyle Nichols, landscape scientist
Art and design that jumps of the page Fox-Adler Lecturer Barry Moser
Teaching is a gift, in more ways than one David Porter takes new Tisch Professorship
Bringing the constitution into the classroom Prof. Beau Breslin wins teaching prize
Autumn greening North Woods and other eco-projects
Hispanic heritage Author Junot Diaz keynotes Raices observance
Tracing Darwinian disquietude Phi Beta Kappa talk on evolution in pop history  
Campus opens up for big weekend Celebration Weekend welcomes families and alumni    
Sportswrap Fall sports highlights

Hispanic heritage

Author Junot Díaz relaxes on campus before his public reading from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Cited by critics as “street-smart” and “fueled by adrenaline-powered prose,” the novel won a Pulitzer and a National Book Critics Circle Award. Díaz was the keynote speaker for Skidmore’s celebration of Latino Heritage Month, organized by the student club Raíces.

A Dominican native who grew up in the US, Díaz has said, “The entire universe can be found in the Dominican experience. If you want the ground zero where the Old World died and the New World began, it’s there … the modern world was given rise by what began in the Caribbean.” Along with giving the reading, he met informally with students and visited a fiction-writing class. Other Latino Heritage events, which have now become popular campus traditions, included a banquet and the Café con Leche talent show. —SR