Academic Festival: 11 years and going strong

The 2009 Academic Festival, the 11th such annual event to mark the end of the Skidmore?s spring semester, was by all accounts the best yet. If numbers are the tale, this year drew the strongest response: 321 students were involved in a record 55 sessions.

The theme, ?Celebrating Excellence,? provided a ?showcase for our students? most impressive work during this past academic year,? said David Vella, professor of mathematics and director of Honors Forum, which sponsors Academic Festival.

?I?ve heard nothing but good, positive feedback,? said Vella shortly after the April 30 event. ?Everywhere I went, I saw presenters who were enthusiastic, speaking to enthusiastic audiences.?

?We?ve hit a good, optimal size,? he added. ?If Academic Festival becomes much bigger, it could create scheduling issues,? such as conflicts, which could lead to a decline in audiences at each event. Attendance ranged from 10 to 90 people per session, with an average attendance around 25 per session. Audiences often included staff and outside guests from the community as well as students and faculty, reported Vella.

He said that Academic Festival gives him a chance to go outside his own specialty to see and hear students. This year he viewed a biology presentation by a student he knew, and was pleased to see ?how respected he was by other faculty. I saw colleagues from English and psychology, in addition to myself, at the student?s session.?

The quality of the students? presentations was strong, said Vella. ?I saw a number of very professional presentations. I think it?s because students are getting more experienced at this during the academic year, by attending and participating in conferences.?

He also was pleased to see a greater number of first-year students at the festival. ?It?s amazing to see how quickly they are picking up on the idea of Academic Festival and seeing it as a goal. People know about Academic Festival, they are ready and psyched for it,? he said.

A single story can?t do justice to an event as varied and rich as Academic Festival, but Scope Weekly has embraced this assignment with enthusiasm. Three writers?Barbara Melville and Sue Rosenberg, of the College?s Office of Communications, and intern Lauren Donovan ?10, visited a number of presentations and provided the dispatches that follow.

In addition, Mary Parliman, senior graphic designer, took video camera in hand and traveled the campus throughout the day to capture the essence of Academic Festival in a video report. Photographer Phil Scalia was responsible for the photos in the current Portfolio, and on this page.

Please read, view, and enjoy.

Skidmore ni Youkoso! Skidmore?s Connections to Japan: A Bilingual Production
For their project in the fourth-year Japanese language class taught by Masako Inamoto, seniors Erika Aimoto, Erin Cassidy, Nicolas Misani, and Uriel Salcedo starred in the video they made for Japanese students interested in studying at Skidmore. Most striking feature? Just about every word in their film was spoken in Japanese, immersing the audience in the language (and clueing them in with subtitles in both English and Japanese).

The point the four seniors wanted to make: ?The Skidmore-Japan connection is stronger every year,? with annual increases in the numbers of international students and faculty.
Their film featured interviews with current Skidmore students and teachers, combined with footage about student clubs and the surprisingly wide spectrum of academic courses focusing on Japan.

The film opened with a brief introduction to Skidmore?black-and-white archival photos of Lucy Skidmore Scribner, the Young Women?s Industrial Club, the old downtown campus, and a quick timeline. Then the video moved into the present with color photos and interviews. Among the students interviewed were artist Hisaya Ishii ?10, chemist Celena Toon ?11, and dancer Erisu Jo ?11, who noted that the College?s dance instructors are ?affectionate in the way they teach.?

Much of the video featured clips of student clubs in action, including the Asian Cultural Awareness Club, the Anime Club, the Martial Arts Club, and Skidaiko, the club for the learning and performance of taiko drumming. By the time the film ended?charmingly, with the cast?s outtakes and bloopers?Aimoto, Cassidy, Misani, and Salcedo had made their point.

Young scientists take membership in research community
Membership in the wider research community was perhaps the clearest link among the 50 or more students presenting scientific projects. Whether discussing molecules or math, hydrology or heat stress, they often began by placing their research in the context of recent related studies and often closed by calling for fellow-scholars after them to continue their work.

The importance of song in attracting female birds

Would-be ornithologist David Steinberger ?09 has amassed four years? worth of data on the summer-resident warblers known as common yellowthroats, including recording and analyzing the songs of males and then using DNA paternity tests to count their offspring. He has shown that males who best repeat the same rhythms and frequencies in their signature syllables ?witchity-witchity-witch? are more successful at attracting females. This year he studied the dynamics with rival males. Steinberger and faculty mentor Corey Freeman-Gallant expected that males would sing more consistently when more rivals were living nearby; but in fact, the more rivals, the more erratic and sloppier the song. Careful to note the limitations in his data set, Steinberg called for further research into these behaviors. Click here to learn more about his project.

An analysis of yellowthroat fertility
Rebecca Schneider ?09, working in a line of research begun under a 2005 National Science Foundation grant co-led by Gallant, quantified the reproductive ramifications of the yellow bibs sported by female yellowthroats. She measured the size of the female?s bib and its brightness and saturation, and correlated those data to DNA-matched offspring. She found that larger-bibbed females laid more eggs per nest and more often raised a second clutch later in the summer. The bibs may signal good health: only a well-fed bird can divert nutrients to the creation of feather pigments. As Schneider said, ?If a female is likely to lay significantly more eggs, that would mean a lot more offspring to carry the male?s genes?he?s gotta want that kind of information!? Read more about Schneider?s work.

Mice provide key to study of schizophrenia
Neurobiology student Lisa Krug ?09 was itching to continue her mouse studies but admitted she?d have to leave it to others for now: after graduation she?s got a laboratory job using zebra fish. Guided by Prof. Bernie Possidente, her project explored the effects of dopamine on mice bred for a genetic defect related to schizophrenia. Those treated with timed-release capsules of L-dopa exhibited certain depressed or inhibited behaviors compared to the untreated cohort. Then, in brain-tissue studies using a recently developed DNA technique, Krug charted proteins in the neural circuits of the frontal cortex and hippocampus to determine how various dopamine receptors were reacting. Struck by the way behavioral deficits progressed over the lives of her subjects, Krug noted ?the exquisite plasticity of the nervous system? and hoped that work like hers will lead to better medications for schizophrenia. Click here for more information.

Wind energy on hold, for now
An environmental-studies project on wind energy successfully yielded a failure. Dan von Allmen ?09 analyzed the feasibility of mounting a wind turbine on Jonsson Tower to save on Skidmore?s electrical bills. His measurements of wind speed and direction, which informed his probability graphs, which contributed to his cost-benefit calculations, led to a projected payback period of? 85.7 years?nowhere near a feasible return on investment. Still, technology keeps progressing, and alternative mounting orientations have yet to be tested, so the grad-to-be invited students in the audience to pick up the project next fall.

Candace Carlucci Backus FYE Prize Presentations
Three members of the Class of 2012 received the Candace Carlucci Backus First-Year Experience Prize.

Sean D?Angelo took the first-year seminar, ?European Immigration? with J rg Bibow of the Economics Department. D?Angelo?s PowerPoint presentation was paired with an audio recording of his paper, ?Quale Europa? Italy in the EU: A History of Persuasion and Partisan Politics.? Using original research, including time spent in the country, D?Angelo discussed the country?s lack of national pride compared to the immense pride demonstrated within individual regions.

Jessica McQuillan shared her PowerPoint titled, ?Paper Mache Continent: The Layering Effect of Stereotyping in American Children?s Literature about Africa,? from her first-year seminar ?Africa in Stereotypes, Africa in American Education.? She discussed the oversimplification of the continent in children?s literature based on interviews with children and the analyses of 16 children?s books. McQuillian found that children had a one-dimensional perspective of Africa, often attributing characteristics of one region to the continent as a whole. She also noted that while children need complex issues simplified to understand them, the misconceptions are often not corrected as they continue their education.

Naomi Brown?s seminar with Catherine Golden of the English Department was titled ?Children?s Literature Revisited.? Brown?s final project was an original children?s book that she wrote and illustrated, and titled Octopus Tea. The story is about a child who visits the home of an octopus for tea and finds out that they aren?t so different after all. Brown called Roald Dahl as her favorite children?s author, describing his writing as ?never pretentious or patronizing, and with a wicked sense of humor.? Beau Breslin, the director of the First-Year Experience, said that when his committee was deciding on the Backus Prize, he took Brown?s story home to his 10-year-old daughter. ?She thought it was great!? he said. ?Then of course, I gave her Sean?s paper, and she was lost.?

?A Theatrical presentation of the Stonewall Riots?
At Falstaff?s, a large and dedicated cast did much more than cleverly restage the 1969 riots at Greenwich Village?s Stonewall Inn, passionate demonstrations that marked the birth of the gay pride movement. Making excellent use of Falstaff?s sprawling spaces, the 34 actors sang, danced, and delivered a fluid, fast-paced Living Newspaper-like presentation of the movement?s cultural and historical background, past and present.

?We didn?t have a script and we wanted to have multiple things happening at once,? explains director Rob Hill ?09. ?So starting with an idea of how I wanted the piece to go from scene to scene, I assigned groups to research topics and create scenes.? The result was ?an interactive collection of scenes that evaluate a number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) topics, and the riots? place in gay history.? Taped pop music ranging from ?Build Me Up, Buttercup? to the Beatles? ?Revolution? provided background and scene transitions.

At times, the audience (including faculty sponsor Lary Opitz) broke into small groups gathered around actors delivering dramatic monologues, with anecdotes and life stories drawn from Martin Duberman?s book Stonewall and other sources; at other times, audience and cast intermingled to watch skits like an acidly hilarious fake-MTV show called ?What Is It?? A contestant tries to guess the gender and sexual orientation of four panelists (lesbian, transgender, straight, or bisexual), seeking clues in questions like ?If you were a car, what kind would you be?? The contestant checks out telltale footwear (Birkenstocks!), and even, bizarrely, assesses muscle mass and knee reflexes?but gets them all wrong.

A series of short takes portrayed the medical establishment?s less-than-insightful treatment of gays. In an often-poignant group-therapy skit with cast members playing various combinations of family members and friends, a father insists he is supportive of his lesbian daughter, but can?t help asking her for weekly checkups in hopes of ?a change in her condition.? A sulky straight daughter resents her two moms, and an anguished mother asks her son ?How did you hide it? You showed no signs. You were good at sports, you had girlfriends.? Hopeful takeaway messages abounded: ?Stay together, keep talking about it, deal with it,? advises one actor playing a member of the therapy group. ?Just love me,? another begs his family.

Dead Serious
The first-year students from the interdisciplinary course, ?Dead Serious,? studied the music, philosophy, and art of the Grateful Dead. Under the teaching of Michael Arnush of the Classics Department and John Anzalone of the Foreign Languages Department, each student presented a final project based on experiences in the class, which included a recent trip to Albany to see the band live.

Alex Jarvis?12 presented his original song, written and composed over spring break with the help of a friend from home. While he specified that they weren?t aiming to sound exactly like the Grateful Dead, the pair was inspired by the band and incorporated many musical and lyrical elements into their song that are reminiscent of the band. Jarvis said the experience motivated he and his friend to take their music more seriously.

Eric Shapiro?12 read an original humorous essay describing his experiences listening to the Grateful Dead, and how the ?60s and ?70s held ?a certain mystique? for him. He described the class trip to Albany including the variety of fans, many of whom, Shapiro said, were ?aging hippies, with a few clusters of men in business suits, the few who had actually grown up and gotten real lives.?

Music and the North Woods
Music major Jonathan Drucker ?09 created Music and the North Woods ?as an homage to nature? for Michael Marx?s class, ?Literature and the Environment.? A classical and jazz pianist, Drucker had recently begun composing music of his own, and found himself interested in ?tying in elements of nature to my composition.?

For his 13-minute film, Drucker used footage shot in winter, spring, and fall along the trails and groves of the Skidmore woods, throwing in angular views of Wilson Chapel, some bright-painted graffiti on the woods? water tower, and darkly abstract images that might be night shots. Mostly the camera lingered over baby-green spring leaves and dead logs or shot up past autumn leaves to cold skies framed by bare branches, and recorded ice drops on twigs, snow on boulders, and sneaker prints in new snow. A little tinkering produced some unusual visual effects ?fallen leaves seemed to flitter into the air, shred, and recompose in mosaic fashion.

For musical accompaniment to the video?s spring and fall scenes, Drucker composed two pieces of chamber music. The first, Natural Selection, written for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello, was recorded by the ensemble ACJW during last fall?s Carnegie Hall Premieres residency. Says Drucker, the piece was inspired by a leaf?s tenuous hold on a branch, and its inevitable fall. The second piece, Le D fi des Trois Jours, was performed by Drucker and flutist Rebecca Rawling ?10.

Drucker also composed and performed?surprise!?the video?s hip-hop segment, which was set in the winter woods. ?As the seasons pass and change,? he rapped, dancing alone in the snowy black-and-white woods, ?We try to grasp the reasons/ Our lives are different books, certain pages interleaved/ To lead a deliberate life, if what has to be achieved.? Then the camera recorded him walking to the camera, picking it up, and segueing to a new season.

Student Poets: A Selection of Readings
Peg Boyers of the English Department introduced the students from the ?Poetry Workshop? and ?Advanced Projects in Poetry,? most of whom were seniors presenting their final capstone portfolios. Some people in the large audience, eager to hear the works, took to the floor when all seats were filled.

Many of the poems were free-verse pieces, although a few took on some rhyming or other formal elements. Riley Albair?09 read a sestina for her opening piece. When Ethan Weiss?09 was in the middle of his poem, Boyers?s cell phone began to ring. She apologized, quite flustered, while Weiss joked, ?Does this mean I don?t have to write that extra sestina for being late to class??