“King is eminently quotable—perhaps too quotable—and I wanted to push students to return to both the source and the historical moment.” Visiting lecturer Alec F. Hickmott on the course he developed on the life and times of Martin Luther King Jr.
Note: President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
“I found that economics was underlying a lot of things that I thought were wrong in the world.” Jakina Debnam, assistant professor of economics, studies the impact of economic policies and events on human thriving in this Amherst magazine Q&A.
“A-M-H-E-R-S-T. How many words can you make from these letters?” For a chance to win bragging rights and an Amherst t-shirt, enter Amherst magazine’s latest contest. NOTE: Other contests have been about <a href="/mm/547669">poetry</a>, psychology, the math in medicine and more.
“All my plots for the future seemed equally out of reach and equally possible.” Amelie Hastie, professor of English in film and media studies, writing in Amherst magazine about a movie that haunts her.
“I want to inspire people to be in awe of being alive—and to critically assess the direction of our generation.” Mohamed Ramy ’18 is a current Watson Fellow and future Schwarzman Scholar.
“There’s something really interesting about this asymmetrical connection you have with people.” David Chen, in “Screen Talk,” speaking about the relationship between the podcaster and the audience. Chen created the podcast “The Watchers” with Devindra Hardawar ’05, and a number of other podcasts including “A Cast of Kings,” about the TV series Game of Thrones.
“I expect you all to put these recommendations in a combined memo for the president.” Steven Simon, visiting professor of history. In Steven Simon's class, “National Security Decision Making,” students role-played as the secretary of defense or head of homeland security, creating strategies to handle national security disaster scenarios. Simon himself was a member of the National Security Council in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
“One of the arguments a lot of digital humanists make is: In x number of years, we won’t call it ‘the digital humanities.’ It will just be ‘the humanities.’” English professor Marisa Parham, in “Deconstructing the Game,” which explores her highly popular course, “Videogames and the Boundaries of Narrative.”
“I don't recall much that happened. We spent most of our time hanging onto Mother Earth.” 1st Lieutenant Wallace Minot Leonard Jr., Class of 1916, recalling how he and his men crawled 1,000 yards across a field in northern France, under merciless enemy fire, to reach and take out an enemy gun emplacement in World War I. For his heroism, Leonard was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre. He is one of 33 World War I servicemen honored on Amherst's War Memorial. The war ended 100 years ago this November 11th.
“Gregor. Charles. Nettie. Maud. Carl.” Caroline Goutte, biology professor.
NOTE: These are the names for the state-of-the-art freezers in Amherst’s new Science Center. They honor geneticist Gregor Mendel; naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin; Nettie Stevens, who discovered sex chromosomes; biochemist Maud Menten; and microbiologist Carl R. Woese ‘50.
