Professor Wins Bancroft Prize
Lisa Brooks is one of two winners of this year’s prize—considered one of the most prestigious honors in the field of American history. She received the award for her book Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. The other recipient is David W. Blight, a Yale historian who taught at Amherst for 13 years.
Senior Named Watson Fellow
Patrick Frenett ’19 joins a 50-year tradition of young Amherst fellowship winners going off to see the world. Read about what this triple major will be doing in Estonia, Germany, Belgium, Kenya, Uganda, India and Japan.
L.A. Times Interviews Admission Dean
The Los Angeles Times interviewed Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Matt McGann this week for an article on the college admission scandal. “It’s disheartening,” McGann said. “No one in admissions likes to see this kind of gaming. It erodes the public trust in the work we do.”
’88 Alumna Named Wade Fellow
Neuroradiologist Nadia Biassou ’88 will return to Amherst to share her career experiences with current students. The Wade Fellowship is named for Harold Wade Jr. ’68, the subject of a 2018 Amherst magazine cover story.
Students Acquire 35 Works for Mead Art Museum
“She would have loved that students are being exposed to one of the truly hands-on and most satisfying aspects of museum work,” says Nick Clark in a new Q&A about the student acquisition fund he created in 2008 in memory of his wife, a Mead curator.
Student Tapped for State Task Force
In response to anti-Semitic incidents, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker revived a state task force to address hate crimes. Deborah “D.J.” Williams ’20 was picked to join the fight. “I heard people saying, ‘I’m the district attorney of this place,’ ‘I’m a lawyer at this organization,’ ‘I’m the head of law enforcement in this city,’” she says. “Here I am, an Amherst sophomore, in the same room.”
Tutorial Inspires Death Penalty Book
“The course is designed to enable students to work with me, not for me,” says Professor Austin Sarat. “That’s an important distinction: they are not my research assistants. They’re my collaborators.” Two of those students get co-author credit in his forthcoming book on the death penalty.