Campus News

Grinnell College helped celebrate the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship’s 50th anniversary in 2018 by inviting Grinnell’s Watson alumni to campus. One part of the celebration included a “slam” event at Spencer Grill with alumni sharing their Watson journeys in brief presentations.

As of March 2018, 79 Grinnellians have been named Thomas J. Watson Fellows. Established by the Watson Foundation, the fellowship provides $30,000 for one year of postgraduate, “independent, purposeful exploration and travel — in international settings new to them — to enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and to foster their effective participation in the world community.”

Promoted to associate professor, with tenure

Michael Guenther, history

Peter Hanson, political science

Cori Jakubiak, education

Eliza Kempton, physics

Carolyn Herbst Lewis, history

Danielle Lussier, political science

Tony Perman, music

Hai-Dang Phan ’03, English

Joshua Sandquist, biology 

Promoted to full professor

Ross Haenfler, sociology

Elizabeth Prevost, history

Lee Running, art and art history

Elizabeth Trimmer, chemistry

Moving to senior faculty status*

David Arseneault, physical education 

George Barlow, English

Faculty becoming emeriti

Jack Mutti, economics

Catherine Rod, library 

Susan Strauber, art and art history

Chuck Sullivan, biology

*Senior faculty status recognizes those faculty members who are released from regular, full-time teaching obligations to pursue scholarly and professional activities associated with the College.

Mélanie Marcel, founder and CEO of SoScience, is the recipient of the 2018 Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize. In her work as a laboratory scientist, Marcel realized that researchers most often conduct projects for which they can secure corporate or government funding, rather than projects that address community or environmental needs. 

She founded SoScience to disrupt this system and create a new model for driving research. SoScience’s mission is to “engage scientists in solving societal challenges across the globe by creating collaborations with social entrepreneurs and advocating a research approach focused on social impact.” 

Through her passion for exploring the intersection of science and global impact, Marcel has become a national leader in France and a recognized expert on models for responsible research and innovation. In response to her lobbying efforts, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development reoriented its research development policy to strengthen societal impact. In addition, the European Commission has asked Marcel to evaluate its research policy. 

During Grinnell Prize Week, Oct. 1–4, 2018, students, faculty, staff, and local residents will interact with Marcel, learning how to facilitate collaboration, build partnerships, and spur systematic change. The award ceremony will be held Tuesday, Oct 2. at the College. 

The $100,000 Grinnell Prize, established in 2011, is the largest given by any U.S. college in recognition of social justice. The prize money will be divided between Marcel and SoScience.

Celina Karp Biniaz ’52, the youngest Jewish person rescued by Oskar Schindler, a Czech businessman, during the Holocaust, will be Grinnell College’s 2018 Commencement speaker. Alumni Chase Strangio ’04 and James Holbrook ’66 will receive honorary degrees as will Tracey Menten, a teacher from Omaha, on May 21

The east side of Alumni Recitation Hall (ARH, originally opened in 1916) and Carnegie Hall (opened in 1905 as the College library and used since the 1950s for classrooms and offices) are being enclosed by a new structure. In this photo from the front of the Noyce Science Center, the top of ARH can be seen next to the pillar supporting the crane. The completed complex consisting of the new construction and remodeled ARH and Carnegie will be known as the Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC).

Exterior of the upper levels of the two-story lecture hall inside ARH. 

North wing of the HSSC seen from inside what will become the glass atrium. 

See updates and project overviews on our Construction Central webpage. 

How do our readers think we’re doing with The Grinnell Magazine? That question was the main focus of a reader survey conducted by Grinnell’s Office of Analytic Support and Institutional Research for the Offices of Communications and Development and Alumni Relations in October and November 2017. Survey invitations were emailed to 15,313 people who receive the magazine; 1,862 people, 12.2 percent, responded. 

In spring 2015, the College conducted a reader survey to gather feedback and solicit ideas for a planned redesign of the magazine, which was implemented with the fall 2015 issue. Two years after the redesign, the magazine staff wanted to see what changes resonated with readers.

We listed 10 new or significantly modified sections of the magazine and asked readers whether they read them regularly, occasionally, or never. 

We also asked survey respondents which of our regular, unchanged departments they read regularly. Classnotes (35 percent), letters (26 percent), and the Iowa View photo on the back cover (22 percent) received the most responses.

To get a sense of whether we’re writing feature stories our readers want to read, we presented a list of six stories from the Spring or Summer 2017 issues and asked which ones people recalled reading, skimming, looking at the images, or skipping altogether. “Portrait of a Teacher: George Drake ’56,” a Summer 2017 cover story, was the runaway top vote-getter, with 57 percent of respondents saying they read it and 30 percent skimming it. The next top story, also from the summer issue, was “Excavating the Peace Rock,” with 39 percent saying they read it and 32 percent skimming it. The least read story of the six was “Studying Arabic for Fun” from the Spring 2017 issue. About half the respondents said they read or skimmed it but 35 percent said they skipped it.

We also asked several open-ended questions soliciting readers’ views on the following: the “Campus News” section, a memorable article or topic from the last year, what readers like most and least about the magazine, and story ideas or suggestions. Respondents were generous with their answers, which totaled about 70,000 words, or the length of a novel.

Whether the feedback was positive or negative, we’re taking it all in and will use these results in a couple of ways. One, to help us make some modest changes to our content. For example, we’re trying a new “Campus Notable” profile in this issue; see Page 41. And two, to reflect on what we can improve on and what we’re doing fairly well, such as choosing topics and stories of interest to a wide range of our readers. 

Jackie Brown, professor of biology, and Lesley Wright, director of the Faulconer Gallery, have teamed up to curate an exhibition that explores the relationship between visual art and biology. On display at the Faulconer Gallery until June 10, Making Life Visible: Art, Biology, and Visualization takes its inspiration from Brown’s research with former student Idelle Cooper ’01 on Hawaiian damselfly color. Both the research and the exhibition are funded, in part, through a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant awarded to Brown and Cooper.

“Every NSF grant is evaluated in terms of both its intellectual impact and its broader impact,” says Brown. When he and Cooper applied for funding for their damselfly research, they thought carefully about how they could engage the community with their work. 

Cooper, who double-majored in art and biology at Grinnell, suggested that the grant could be the perfect opportunity to showcase how artistic practice and biological research intersect. Currently an assistant professor of biology at James Madison University, Cooper frequently uses her own art to visualize her research; drawings from her postdoctoral work on sticklebacks and previous research with Brown are included in the exhibition. Brown and Wright also saw a chance for the exhibition to build on their history of collaborative teaching about the history and potential of the art/science interface.  

When designing Making Life Visible, Wright and Brown wanted to ensure they represented a broad range of biological inquiry in various artistic mediums. To this end, they enlisted the help of Julia Shangguan ’18, a studio art and biology double major, to research potential artists for the exhibition. Shangguan also participated in Brown’s Hawaiian damselfly research (see “The Essence of Inquiry,” Spring 2016, Page 25). “It was exciting — and reassuring — to see that many individuals already recognize the beauty of an arts and sciences union,” Shangguan says. 

With the help of Rita Clark ’18, Wright and Brown settled on 16 contemporary artists and scientists, with pieces ranging from Dutch portrait-style photographs of insects to charcoal sketches of bones to neurons micro-etched in gold. The exhibition also includes works from naturalists of the 16th–19th centuries, putting the connection between art and science in its historical context. 

“In the past, artists were often trained in observation, and scientists were trained in drawing, because they had no other way to record what they saw,” says Wright. How naturalists chose to represent their subjects could influence how those subjects were perceived. 

Along with being a great opportunity for an alum, biology professor, art curator, and current students to work together on their shared interests across disciplines, Making Life Visible challenges gallery-goers to see something as humble as a honeycomb in a new light and question the divide between art and science that many take for granted. 

Artwork courtesy of the artist, Tara Shukla, Skull, 2016, charcoal on paper, 30 x 22 inches. 

Taylor Watts ’16, a French and anthropology major, recently received second prize in the 2015 France on Campus Award competition, sponsored by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. 

 “The France on Campus Award competition is open to all U.S. colleges and universities, so Watts’ second prize is proof of the strength and creativity of her proposal,” says David Harrison, professor of French. 

Applications for the France on Campus Award were evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Demonstrated interest in expanding the reach of France and French culture on campus.
• Originality and creativity of the project.
• Potential to reach a broad audience, including university students, professors, and other organizations on campus and beyond.

Watts’ proposal, “A Choreographic Exploration of the ‘commerce triangulaire,’”combines her study of dance with her study of French literature. The choreographic piece is inspired by, and set to, a series of texts in French that discuss the impact of slavery on the Caribbean. 

 “Subjects such as these need to be brought to light because they continue to affect the world today,” Watts says. “I believe knowledge and understanding are the only ways to move forward.”

To design and develop the choreography for her proposal, Watts is completing a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) under the direction of Celeste Miller, assistant professor of theatre and dance.

 “Taylor’s ‘Choreographic Exploration’ is a rich example of how dance, because of the undeniability of the body, can be a powerful and visceral use of the arts to examine complex and difficult topics,” Miller says. “It is a choreographed embodiment drawn from research into both her topic and the aesthetic of the art form of dance.”

Watts’ project draws from her off-campus study experience in Nantes, France, once one of the most important slave-trading ports in Western Europe. The methods she is using for her choreographic approach began with a summer MAP in Atlanta, also directed by Miller, working with theatre and dance companies whose work addresses social justice issues.

Watts studied Nantes’ role in the French slave trade, then took a seminar at Grinnell about French Caribbean literature from Gwenola Caradec, assistant professor of French. The works read in this seminar inspired Watts to transform the words into movement with a cast of Grinnell students.

Watts says she also was inspired by the campus visit of choreographer Olivier Tarpaga, hosted last winter by Miller. Tarpaga, from Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, incorporates historical speeches and other spoken words into his choreography to explore the history of decolonization in Africa.

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, in partnership with Kickstarter and OrgSync, have established the France on Campus Award, under the patronage of film director Wes Anderson, to discover, celebrate, and support initiatives that explore France in new and creative ways. 

Watts will perform her work at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, in Flanagan Studio Theatre in the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts. As part of her award, she also will receive mentoring from the French Embassy and from Kickstarter to raise funds that will enable her to perform the work on other U.S. college campuses. 

In the midst of the national outcry about student safety on college campuses, concern about alcohol, drugs, and sexual assault is central to many conversations surrounding student well-being. While it’s clear that students on every campus are facing these issues, it can be difficult, from the outside, to see what steps are being taken to increase student safety. What is Grinnell doing to address these problems? One of the most promising answers, according to Jen Jacobsen ’95, wellness director, lies in the College’s active bystander training.

“Active bystanderism is an opportunity to empower people to interrupt a situation that looks like it might be harmful, to find out if they can change the direction of that situation,” says Jacobsen.

This intervention can be as simple as offering to walk someone home from a party if they seem like they’ve had too much to drink. But direct intervention isn’t the only thing active bystander training encourages. Students learn about campus resources they can turn to in case they feel uncomfortable addressing a situation themselves. For example, a student with a roommate who hasn’t been to class all week may not know how to start a conversation directly but can alert the on-call residence life coordinator (RLC). 

The most compelling and unique part of Grinnell’s active bystander program is the intense amount of student involvement. Training sessions are often run by student mentors, and the students receiving the training have input into what scenarios they learn about. 

Students talk in groups about situations they’ve encountered where they wished they’d known how to help — for instance, how to talk to a friend who’s obsessing over a final paper about taking it easy and making time for wellness. Another common concern is how to act when seeing someone who is drunk leaving a party to “hook up” if it seems like he or she might not be safe or able to give consent. Understanding that students are dealing with these kinds of situations and are unsure of how to navigate them helps Jacobsen tap into what really matters to students.

“The greatest learning comes from that discussion where the students talk among themselves about what scenarios they’ve encountered, what they have seen, what they think someone should do,” Jacobsen says. “It also gives me a good pulse on what’s actually relevant and happening on campus.”

Grinnell students are eager to learn how they can be active bystanders in their community, likely due to the self-governance ethic of campus culture. When asked whether they would like information on how to help others in distress on campus, 83 percent of Grinnell students responded that they would, compared to only 56 percent of the national undergraduate population. Furthermore, 96.7 percent of Grinnell students see active bystanderism as important to the success of self-governance.

Colton Silvia ’17 has been so involved in active bystander training on campus that he presented alongside Jacobsen at the Heartland Safety Summit last November. His knowledge and confidence impressed many of the student affairs and violence prevention professionals from other schools who attended the conference, and Silvia walked away with some important takeaways as well.

“The thing that really struck me was the importance of being intentional about how you reach certain communities, because it’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing,” Silvia says. “The experience spurred me to keep pushing to revive the group Real Men, because men teaching men about gender-based violence has proved to be really effective.” 

Student organizations like Real Men target specific groups on campus to provide them with training and role models that will most effectively teach and inspire them to participate in harm reduction on campus. Jacobsen, who is also assistant track and field coach, has developed training sessions that provide targeted examples to athletic teams, who have been campus leaders in engaging in active bystander workshops, faculty, and other groups on campus to make sure that the training has the biggest possible impact. 

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded individual creative writing fellowships of $25,000 each to 37 fiction and creative nonfiction writers, including Dean Bakopoulos, writer-in-residence at Grinnell College. 

The NEA selected Bakopoulos from among 1,763 eligible applicants evaluated by 23 readers and panelists. This is his second NEA fellowship, a rare accomplishment. Fellows must wait 10 years before applying for a second fellowship. Bakopoulos won an award for fiction in 2006; the 2016 award is for creative nonfiction.

“I’m so grateful to the NEA for recognizing my work for a second time,” Bakopoulos says. “This is an important boost for me on many levels, not just financially, but also emotionally. I’m finishing a difficult and somewhat perplexing book, and this fellowship has given me the courage to keep working, to finish the manuscript I was very close to throwing away.

“The nonfiction manuscript, titled Undoings, is a book-length meditation on the way things fall apart, and how we, as individuals, as families, as artists, often become undone by our own obsessions and our own pasts. I wrestle with many demons and blessings in that book: marriage, divorce, and parenthood; my own family’s history as war refugees and the long shadows cast by war trauma; as well as everything from country music to fast food to the role of religion in clinical depression. Right now, it’s a mess of a book, and this fellowship gives me the time to give it the focus it needs.” 

Bakopoulos, who teaches fiction and creative nonfiction courses at Grinnell, is the author of three novels — Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon, My American Unhappiness, and Summerlong. The film version of his first novel, co-written by Bakopoulos, wrapped shooting in January and stars James Franco, Rashida Jones, and Jeffrey Wahlberg. The film version of Summerlong, also adapted by Bakopoulos, is in the works. In addition to his two NEA awards, Bakopoulos is the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship.