Faculty and Staff Achievements, April 28, 2008

Activity

Lisa Aronson, associate professor of art history, gave a lecture titled ?African Blues?
April 24 at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. Aronson was the latest guest lecturer in a series designed to explore the color blue in the textile arts, from the history of indigo dyeing to your favorite pair of jeans. Aronson?s talk explored the history of indigo and its use in West African textile production from its earliest archaeological evidence to the present. Combining her own work on Dyula indigo dyers in Ivory Coast with some of the major scholarship on indigo textiles, the lecture explored various dimensions of indigo cloth production (economic, social, technological, and aesthetic) in select regions of West Africa. The lecture supplemented an exhibition at the Textile Museum (April 4-Sept. 18, 2008) titled ?Blue,? which looks at the use of indigo in textile production worldwide, and with particular emphasis on contemporary artists? use of natural indigo dyes.

Aronson also presented the talk April 23 to a group of Washington-area alumni.

In the News

Sandy Baum, professor of economics and consultant with the College Board, was a source for a story titled ?The Low Cost of College? published in the April 20, 2008 Education Life supplement of The New York Times.