News & Events Amherst in the News

The Glam Pad – In a Q&A illustrated with numerous photos of her work, Kapen talks about her career path and sources of inspiration. After years of practicing law and raising her children, she opened a design and antique shop, Amal Kapen Interiors & Decorations, in Huntington, N.Y., in 2018.

“Many of my interiors incorporate new and antique or vintage furnishings and are infused with cheerful color, art and natural elements to create a youthful and colorful twist,” Kapen says. “My current projects run the gamut from a French-style chateau and cottage on the North Shore of Long Island to a Regency-style home in Baltimore and a winter pied-a-terre in Florida.” She also answers questions about her favorite Instagram accounts, design books and ways to find antiques.

“Born in South Africa and raised in Garden City, New York, Amal attended Amherst College and Vanderbilt University School of Law,” notes the article. “Her firm’s work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, HGTV, NYC&G, Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, Hamptons Homes, Traditional Home, Coastal Living, Cottages and Bungalows Magazine, Newsday and numerous blogs.”

The Conversation – Sarat, Amherst’s William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, comments on a proposed bill in the Massachusetts legislature that calls for the state’s Department of Corrections to establish a program through which incarcerated people can donate bone marrow and organs to those in need.

Originally, the bill, put forth by representatives Judith Garcia and Carlos Gonzalez, would have incentivized donation by offering time off of donors’ prison sentences. Now the representatives “are planning to introduce a version without the promise of a sentence reduction. Still, the idea of giving sentence reductions in return for organ donation raises serious ethical issues. As someone who has studied punishment and imprisonment,” Sarat writes, he questions “whether prison inmates can ever consent freely to organ donation.” Prison is arguably an inherently coercive environment.

Sarat touches upon the history of organ donation, the current shortage of registered donors in the United States, and the particular difficulty of finding matching donors for racial and ethnic minorities. He describes some of the ethical guidelines for donation, as well as some efforts in other U.S. states to allow prison inmates to donate. 

The Jamaica Gleaner – “In both the U.S. and Jamaica, the most vulnerable girls and women of our society remain deprioritised in healthcare and social services,” Jolly-Grindley writes. “Now, as a professor of Black Studies and American Studies who teaches and researches Black women’s health and reproductive justice in Jamaica and the United States, I help combat health inequities through education and mentorship as well as mobilisation and community organising.”

Jolly-Grindley, a postdoctoral fellow and visiting assistant professor at Amherst, describes the experiences of relatives and friends who were neglected or mistreated by the health care systems in both countries. “Even as an ‘educated,’ middle-class woman with a Ph.D., I still experienced reproductive coercion and medical racism while giving birth in the United States,” she writes, “which confirms research findings that having a higher income does not protect American Black women from harm.”

However, the professor notes, the “generational impacts of health inequalities became stepping stones for legacies of health advocacy and activism” within her own family. She cites the labor-organizing work of her grandmother and mother, as well as her own experience in launching an initiative called JamHealth: Encouraging Holistic Health & Empowering Communities in her childhood home of Rae Town, Kingston, Jamaica.

History News Network – “Is it still appropriate to refer to our nation’s language as English?” asks Stavans, Amherst’s Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture. His volume The People’s Tongue: Americans and the English Language has just been published by Restless Books.

Stavans argues that American English should be called simply “American”: “Doing so doesn’t betray its ancestry, since it is common knowledge that America was a colony of England,” he writes. “Given the role the United States plays in science, technology, business, education, and the arts, by far the most important variety within English is American. Yet, more than four centuries since the Mayflower, the English language has undergone a metamorphosis in these shores.”

The professor gives examples of this metamorphosis and “verbal malleability,” perhaps intensified by the United States’ status as “a nation of immigrants.” He cites the practice of French translators: “[T]hey don’t say, in the cover of novels, in film subtitles, and so on, that it was translated from, for instance, Spanish or Arabic. Instead, they make clear the piece in question was rendered from Mexican, Tunisian, etc. … Similarly, when in France a book is translated from American English, they call it Américaine.” 

The Magazine Antiques – “I roamed the building and grounds for hours, looking at everything through the lens of Emily’s verses,” writes Eve M. Kahn about touring the museum. The Dickinson Homestead recently reopened after detailed restorations. “In every room, household objects allude to lines in her poems.”

Among other examples, she writes, “English porcelain cups used by Dickinsons, austere white with gold rims, are on display in the parlor near the family’s etched cranberry glass sherry set—placed as a nod to Emily’s comparison of her lustrous dark eyes to ‘the Sherry in the Glass, that the Guest leaves.’”

In “a multiyear restoration of the several buildings on the three-acre compound,” Kahn notes, “[t]he staff has re-created the Dickinsons’ lively palette based on archival wisps, architectural ghosts, and family heirlooms, incorporating Victorian furniture donated by the makers of Apple TV+’s Dickinson comedy series ….” Kahn reviews the Homestead’s history, including its purchase by Amherst College in 1965 and the opening of the museum (which also includes the neighboring Evergreens house) in 2003.

Electric Literature – Nkrumah, whose debut novel, Wade in the Water, was published by HarperCollins in January, points readers toward “diverse fiction novels that tackle the impact of racial and class injustice, told from a female perspective.”

Nkrumah’s recommendations include The Henna Artist, by Alka Joshi; Libertie, by Kaitlyn Greenidge; Yellow Wife, by Sadeqa Johnson; The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich; The Secrets Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar; Memphis, by Tara M. Stringfellow; and The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd. 

In addition to describing each of these books, Nkrumah writes about her own: “Set in 1980s Mississippi, my novel, Wade in the Water, examines the generational legacy of racism in two different families, one black and one white, within the story of an unlikely friendship that develops between a mistreated and precocious eleven-year-old girl, Ella, and Katherine St. James, a mysterious white graduate research student from Princeton.”

Born in Boston and raised in Ghana and Zimbabwe, Nkrumah majored in biology and Black studies at Amherst and went on to earn a master’s degree at the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from Cornell.

Daily Hampshire Gazette – A local newspaper touts the friendship and athletic accomplishments of Stott and Reynolds, who played hockey together at Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Mass., before becoming “part of a freshman class that has lifted Amherst into the upper echelon of college hockey this winter.”

As of the article’s Jan. 25 publication, the Mammoths were “ranked No. 3 in the country, winning all but one of their 17 games this season,” wrote reporter Hannah Bevis. “Stott has secured the starting spot in net as a first-year, recording seven shutouts so far, while Reynolds is tied for the top spot in scoring with nine goals and eight assists ….”

Bevis describes the two hockey players’ personalities and their impressive performances in high school matches, as well as their initial visit to Amherst and their announcements, last year, of their decisions to matriculate at the College and play under the direction of women’s ice hockey head coach Jeff Matthews. In addition to quoting Stott and Reynolds themselves, the article includes extensive commentary from Williston girls’ ice hockey head coach Christa Talbot Syfu.

The Mayo Clinic News Network and Discover are among a number of media platforms paying tribute this February to Drew (1904–1950), a Black American surgeon and medical researcher known as the “father of blood banking.”

“Dr. Drew was a top student and athletic child who was accepted to Amherst College on an athletic scholarship,” the Mayo Clinic article notes, but “a football injury and his sisterʼs death during a city-wide influenza epidemic fostered his interest in medicine.” Dr. Jeffrey Winters goes on to describe “Dr. Drew’s critical research into optimizing and standardizing blood collections, creating large scale collection centers that provided blood products to the military, and the creation of mobile blood drives.”

Drew also makes Discover’s list of “8 Amazing Black Scientists and How They Changed History,” compiled by Monica Cull. His entry on the list outlines his education and career, pointing out that he was “the first Black man to earn a doctorate from Columbia University” and that he “became the first director of the American Red Cross but left the position after two years, outraged at the racial segregation of the blood they collected.”

Today, Drew is the namesake of Amherst College’s Black cultural theme house.

The Jewish News of Northern California – “Benioff Friedman’s paintings,” writes Laura Paull, “range in style from the figurative to the nearly abstract. With muted colors and gentle gestures, they express the underlying tenderness of the subject.” That subject is chevra kadisha, Jewish burial societies who prepare bodies for interment and comfort the families of the deceased.

The article contrasts Benioff Friedman’s chevra kadisha paintings with those created in 18th-century Prague, and advertises an upcoming exhibition of her work, Feb. 5 through March 18, at Sinai Memorial Chapel in San Francisco. It includes commentary from two of the chapel’s leaders, and more information about Jewish burial practices and the principles behind them.

“Benioff Friedman trained in sculpture and drawing at Amherst College and the Boston Museum School,” Paull writes. These paintings are inspired by “her participation, since about 2001, in a chevra kadisha group at her Berkeley synagogue, Congregation Netivot Shalom ….”

“It seemed a really rich subject to tackle,” the artist says. “It’s about the body. But it’s also about the emotions we feel when doing this work of caring for the dead. There is no end to how many aspects of this practice I could imagine painting. This work could last decades.”

Medium – Richards, a blogger and contributor to publications such as Condé Nast Traveler and Teen Vogue, answers questions from Maria Angelova about her life as a world traveler and creative professional. “Putting a face to my bylines let BIPOC people know I went into these spaces and you can too. We belong here,” she says. “I deeply believe that travel bridges gaps and misunderstandings. We are ambassadors.”

Raised in New York City in a family of Jamaican immigrants, Richards majored in women’s and gender studies and studied abroad in Milan as an undergraduate. Today she lives between NYC and Northern Italy. In the interview, she notes the importance of travel to her family and to her grandmother in particular. She describes experiences of racism in Paris and Southeast Asia, but also points out how travel can foster decision-making skills, personal confidence and new friendships.

Richards cites resonant quotes from James Baldwin and the screenplay for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. She also gives advice, encouraging readers to keep journals, listen to world news, savor small pleasures, and practice compassion and empathy. “Do one thing each day,” she says, “that takes you out of your comfort zone.”

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review – “Perhaps one of the most pernicious misconceptions about Buddhism is that it requires practitioners to reject and eliminate emotions,” writes Sarah Fleming. Heim, Amherst’s George Lyman Crosby 1896 & Stanley Warfield Crosby Professor in Religion, is challenging this stereotype. “In Words for the Heart: A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India, she presents 177 terms for emotions drawn from three classical Indian languages: Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit.”

“Each term in Heim’s emotional storehouse is conveyed using illustrative passages and anecdotes from a great variety of genres and traditions,” Fleming continues in her review of the book, published by Princeton University Press. “Heim takes what she calls an ecological approach. Just as a tree exists within a vast ecology of other species, emotions are deeply embedded in—and produced by—their specific contexts and environments.”

The terms explored in the book range from the Sanskrit manyu (“simmering wrath”), to the Pali appaccaya (a “petulant, surly sulk”), to the Sanskrit hasa (“smiles and laughter of mirth”). Writes Fleming, “Words for the Heart offers the reader 177 entry points to wonder. By mining its depths, we may be able to draw closer to the everyday marvel of sharpening our awareness of our own emotional landscape and, in the process, expand our capacity to feel.”

The Conversation – In a widely shared article, Barba, an assistant professor of religion at Amherst, describes the history and beliefs of an often overlooked population that plays “an increasingly important role in national politics: Pentecostals, evangelicals’ theological cousins.”

“Though Pentecostals are diverse, all share an emphasis on the Holy Spirit, or God’s presence in their lives,” writes Barba. “Yet this also leads to disagreement within the movement about what they believe the Holy Spirit empowers them to do in the real world, especially in activism and politics.”

The professor traces the history of the Pentecostal movement (which takes its name from an event in the Bible’s Book of Acts) back to Los Angeles in the early 1900s, and cites statistics suggesting that, today, “about 4.5% of U.S. adults are members of Pentecostal denominations.” 

“African American and Latino Pentecostals have a long history of grassroots political mobilization on issues like labor and immigration,” Barba writes, but “[s]ince the 1980s, white Pentecostals and evangelicals have played a key role in carrying the religious right’s agenda forward.”

Press-Republican — An article highlights Brammer’s experience as a double major in English and art at Amherst, and their recent solo exhibition at the Upper Jay Art Center in their hometown of Upper Jay, N.Y.

“It was exciting to be there because of the relationships I was able to form with professors because of the small class size. The community was small enough that it had a real community feel,” Brammer says of their time at Amherst. “I ended up working with wet medium most of the time, watercolor and ink. But I had the opportunity to take classes in a bunch of different disciplines, so I took printmaking and sculpture.” A photo shows Brammer at work on their Spring 2022 senior thesis show.

The article, written by Robin Caudell, mentions Brammer’s linocut series Preserve, included in the recent UJAC show, and an earlier acrylic self-portrait the artist painted and displayed at the center. “Next,” writes Caudell, “Brammer embarks on a long road trip out west to be present in nature, write, read and create.”

TheCinemaholic.com provides an update on the career of Scott, a fashion model, actor, computer programmer and advocate who appears in the new Hulu documentary series Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons. 

The article touches upon Scott’s young life in New Jersey, her early interests in programming and the entertainment industry, and her “dual degree” (in theater and dance and computer science) from Amherst College. “[S]he only pursued modeling upon graduating college,” writes Kriti Mehrotra. “She eventually became the first Black woman to sign a Calvin Klein exclusive contract, propelling her into fame and prestigious jobs, just for her experience with Victoria’s Secret to be much different.” Mehrotra quotes Scott’s comments from the Hulu docuseries about how Victoria’s Secret, as a company, was “not racially diverse” and not empowering to women.

The article lists highlights from Scott’s work in modeling, software development, and acting in TV and film, noting that she has also written a screenplay and spoken publicly about the importance of diversity in tech fields.

Scott made headlines, and was profiled in Amherst magazine, in late 2013 and 2014 for succeeding in both computer science and the beauty industry—thereby defying stereotypes about coders and models alike.

24HTech.Asia shares facts about Lee, who recently ranked sixth on Forbes’ list of “America’s Richest Self-Made Women”: “The 64-year-old businesswoman is the president and CEO of SHI International, an IT provider that focuses on designing cloud, data centre and end-user computing strategies—which earned a record US$12.3 billion in revenue in 2021 alone.”

The 24HTech article draws heavily from a Winter 2016 Amherst magazine feature about Lee, written by Rand Richards Cooper ’80. It notes her double major in biology and economics, as well as her 2014 honorary Amherst doctorate and her status as a life trustee of the College. Lee was also the first Korean woman to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School.

The article explores how Lee’s family and her Buddhist faith have contributed to her success. It quotes her description of her father, internationally influential economist Daniel Kie-Hong Lee ’50 (Amherst’s first Korean graduate), as “a man of the world who believed in the power of education.”