Reflections on Academic Festival 2008

Academic Festival, held throughout the campus on April 30, "was a resounding success," according to Honors Forum Chair David Vella, associate professor of mathematics. The festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, is sponsored by the Honors Forum.

Photo gallery

A total of 250 student presenters-a record-participated this year. Vella was pleased at the level of participation, noting, "This tells us that not only does Skidmore continue to develop students who engage in high-quality research, scholarship, and performance, but also that more and more people want to go and see what work is being done outside their own academic niches." He added, "After 10 years, the event is still growing, so there is no question that Academic Festival has achieved acceptance throughout the campus."

Vella was happy to see strong audience numbers at many of the presentations. "Attendance at sessions ranged between 10 and 60 people, and the audience often included staff and outside guests, as well as students and faculty. It demonstrates that the entire campus?faculty, staff, administration, and students alike?are all integral parts of our community of learning."

Festival coordinators received a lot of positive feedback this year, which was gratifying, Vella said. "We appreciate all the feedback we've been receiving about grouping many of the sessions by topic rather than department, a trend we'd like to nurture as the Festival evolves. This worked well-both the presenters and the audience were able to make fruitful connections that would have been missed had we scheduled everyone in a session by department. Furthermore, more people were able to see and appreciate presentations in disciplines other than their own."

Following is a brief round up of presentations from Academic Festival 2008:

A crowded session in Bolton 282 proved the premise of its title, "Why Read Poetry Aloud?" when ten graduating senior poets and one sophomore poet (students of poet Carolyn Forch -Mattison of the English department) read from their works.

Each student read two or three poems, some with hands shaking hard enough to rattle their papers, to an utterly quiet room of peers and other poetry lovers, including faculty and staff. Surprisingly strong patters of applause followed each poem.

One poem described "the moan of every woman who has ever lost a son," another sketched a log worn with mold and damp and embedded with a colony of ants. A third described "a holiday in Pope-land" in caustic hip-hop rhymes that made the audience laugh.

Beyond verbal agility and a keen visual eye for detail, the students' poems packed power. Senior Renata Ament's poem "Socket," for instance, starts "If you offered me a new life, / I wouldn't take it. Just give/ me the cactus you've forgotten to water and I'll will it to live." But it ends with, literally, a shock.

Socket

If you offered me a new life,
I wouldn't take it. Just give
me the cactus you've forgotten
to water and I'll will it to live. I know
when to ask for too much.
Understand, I enjoy my suffering.
The colder you become
the more I grow: new layers
at first-my skin turns thick
as a wool sweater and my hair shoots up
so fast I have to singe
the ends off every morning
on the stovetop. Extra hearts
develop in my chest, like tumors,
like eggs that crack easy.
I cook to keep warm.
Oil bubbles and spits in the pan until
everything burns.
You hate that smell in my hair,
in my clothes?I know what I'm doing.
I've learned to ward off evil,
like that time I got down
on my knees, unplugged the lamp,
and licked the socket.

? Renata Ament '08

In Bernhard Theater, the seven-student company One Little Did presented a delicious 40-minute performance of A Silly Silverstein Show, which they originally developed in a spring 2007 workshop. On a largely bare stage, six black-clad singer/actors (with Marie Glotzbach of the theater department as faculty sponsor) presented highly dramatic readings and short puppet versions of Shel Silverstein poems strung wittily together with music performed by Luke Santy '09 on cello, guitar, and assorted noisemakers.

Taking turns with the pieces?by turns silly, scary, life-affirming, and poignant?were Rob L. Hill '09, Alex Frost '10, Jessica Lorence '08, Kate MacAllister '10, Emily Norton '09, and Sarah Whalen '09. High spots included a wickedly definitive rendition of "A Boy Named Sue" and a wonderful performance of the tale of one Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, who would not take the garbage out?complete with rummagings in a black plastic garbage bag among purported bacon rinds, sour cottage cheese, rancid roast, and yellow globs of Cream of Wheat. In the question-and-answer period following the performance, the troupe said that over the past year they've done the piece in many evolving mutations with casts both larger and smaller, that Silverstein is "ours, our generation's," and that frankly, "we're dorks?we love this stuff."

The seminar rooms at Palamountain Hall saw a steady flow of Academic Festival presentations during the day, including one titled Jane Austen in Bath, presented by students of English Professor Catherine Golden who accompanied her in early January on a 10-day travel seminar to Bath, England. The one-credit course focused on the life of Jane Austen, who lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806. Two of Austen's six novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were set in Bath, a seat of culture in 18th century England.

Skidmore students in Bath, England

Using Bath as a living classroom, students were encouraged to explore, analyze, and write about locations there that were central to Austen's work. Before leaving the U.S., they read a biography of Austen and the two novels set in Bath. Their on-site assignments included field trips, group projects, and an analytic booklet by each student, focusing on Austen's life in Bath and her development of the novels.

In an Academic Festival presentation that was illuminating, candid, and funny, students provided an overview of their experience while abroad. One assignment required students to imagine what certain locales would be like based on Austen's books, and compare their pre-trip assessments to the actual location. Junior Jessada Mahatthananchai told the audience, "Milson Street was exactly as I had imagined, but the Westgate Buildings were entirely different. It was much improved from Austen's time." He also shared a humorous anecdote about an irresistible leather jacket that he purchased for a good price, only to return it the next day when the zipper broke.

Ashley Grossman '08, said, "Unlike other authors, Austen doesn't give descriptions of her locations. Her stories are about human nature and relationships. People in her time knew what she was writing about. Being on location provided a completely different perspective for contemporary readers."

Prior to the public presentation, David Steinberger '09 shared impressions of the trip in an interview. He said his appreciation for Austen's work was greatly enhanced as a result of the visit. "She barely describes the environment," he said. "I had vague images of streets and carriages. Going and seeing it brought everything to life, and emphasized the differences?like seeing an old building and a Starbuck's nearby. My imagery was based on what I knew and saw here (upstate New York); it was a definite surprise to see it in person."

A biology major/studio art minor, Steinberger hails from Clifton Park, N.Y., and has known Golden and her family "all my life." During his first year at Skidmore, he took her "Victorian Illustrated Book" course and said, "I loved it and her teaching style." The Austen seminar was his first trip abroad, made possible because the class took place prior to the semester's start. "As a biology major, it's hard to schedule study-abroad time," he explained.

In his analytic booklet, Steinberger looked at each location that Austen used in her work and considered how these sites have changed over time. He noted, "During her time, Bath wasn't quite as appealing a location as it is today. The city now uses Austen as a tourist attraction." The municipal marketing, coupled with the recent PBS screenings of films based on Austen's books, have introduced the author to large audiences and made Bath a popular destination, he said.

Steinberger called the analytic booklet "an enjoyable and insightful method" of learning. "It allowed me to put down fresh notes daily and made each day significant. I was much more of an academic tourist, as a result." The best thing about the travel seminar? According to Steinberger: "Being on location and experiencing English culture firsthand. It gave me insight into Austen's context that I would not have had any other way."

	Sieglinde Mueller and students from St. Mary's School turns a plastic tablecloth into a model of a watershed.

Community outreach was a key aspect of a group of research presentations presented by Environmental Studies students.

One project detailed how science students at St. Mary's School in Ballston Spa and at the Saratoga Independent School created a simple model of the Saratoga Lake watershed, thanks to a guide of key concepts and learning activities developed by two Skidmore students to educate children about the watershed.

The Skidmore students, Sieglinde Mueller and Lauren Fletcher, developed the curriculum as their capstone senior project. Working with fifth-grade science students at both schools, they tested three of 60 hands-on lesson plans they've developed. Students created the watershed model by placing a plastic tablecloth over an assortment of large rocks and pots and pans, and adding water, first clean, then "polluted." They then engaged students in discussions about environmental conservation and land-use planning.

Their project was conducted as part of the Water Resources Initiative, which Skidmore launched three years ago to better immerse environmental science students in real-world problems. It was one of nine reported by environmental studies majors as capstone projects at the Academic Festival. Other graduating seniors reported on projects that examined the following:

• the impact of a drought on Saratoga's water supply;
• the impact septic systems on the Saratoga Lake watershed;
• the impact of 40 years of using copper sulfate as an algaecide in Loughberry Lake;
• the amount of phosphorus entering and exiting the Saratoga Lake watershed;
• the impact of land-use on storm water runoff in the Kayaderosseras watershed.

Courtney Mattison '08, a self-determined major, combined her knowledge of marine biology and ceramic sculpture for her senior project, titled "Fragile Beauty: An Artistic Exploration of Our Endangered Coral Reef Ecosystems," an exhibition on display in the Dana Science Atrium. Vella called the exhibition "a wonderful blending of art and science ... her project really exemplifies all the best things about disciplinary work, and is a very successful statement about the self-determined major program, and obviously a labor of love."

Read an interview with Courtney here. View the exhibit here.