News & Events Amherst in the News

Miami’s Community News – “Former Miami Dolphins linebacker Doug Swift proved you don’t have to attend a big-time college football powerhouse to have a successful NFL career,” begins an article by Jay Rao. “Not only did Swift make the team, he became a starter as a rookie and was part of one of football’s all-time great defenses, appropriately named the ‘No-Name Defense.’”

The article describes how Swift arrived at Dolphins training camp in 1970 as “a complete unknown from tiny Amherst College, a school more known for producing doctors than football players.” By 1976, he had played “in 78 regular season games and started in 71 of them. He was a starter on 3 AFC championship teams, 2 Super Bowl championship teams and the NFL’s only undefeated team.”

Though he had an opportunity to sign with the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Swift chose medical school instead and “went on to a long career as an anesthesiologist in Philadelphia.”

The Nature of Things – Suzuki, a Canadian geneticist and environmental activist, has hosted the CBC documentary series for 43 years. In this letter, he reflects on his long career, the importance of science and the challenges of the Anthropocene. 

Suzuki describes his “post-secondary education at Amherst College and then the University of Chicago during the Cold War” and explains the cultural and political reasons why he chose to return to Canada in the 1960s rather than find a scientific job in the United States. “I was stunned to see how poorly Canada funded scientists,” he writes. “[Science] influences medicine, the military, industry and more, and its story was not being told.” He expresses gratitude to have hosted and learned from The Nature of Things, and confidence in the show’s future as he passes the torch to “another generation with a younger perspective.”

“This is the Anthropocene, a period in which we [humans] have become the major factor altering the physical, chemical and biological properties of the planet,” Suzuki writes. “It has all coalesced into crises created by our own species—climate change, massive species extinction and global toxic pollution—that threaten our well-being and existence. Time to act is running out.”

The legendary songwriter “left no instructions about what he wanted done with the house after his death. Now his longtime friends are putting the property up for sale—with a provision: It is being sold ‘as-is,’” writes Joyce Cohen in The New York Times. This includes “the gothic furniture, spooky artwork, wall-mounted records, grand piano, even closets full of clothing.”

The article, illustrated with numerous photos, details many of the items in the Ridgefield, Conn., house. Cohen notes, “The asking price is $5,555,569—the $69 is a tribute to Mr. Steinman’s beloved Amherst College, where he graduated with the class of 1969….” 

Several of Steinman’s friends and associates are quoted describing his homes, lifestyle and personality. In selling this house, they say they seek to honor the “vision and legacy” he has left behind after a long career of crafting hit songs with and for such artists as Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

The Afternoon Buzz – Glebov, Five College Professor of History—who teaches courses on Russian and Soviet history at both Smith and Amherst College—appears on a WHMP radio program, invited to give expert insight into the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. 

The Russian army “cannot control most of the territory of those regions that they annexed most recently,” Glebov says. “Putin’s regime has to present some kind of … action to account for all of the pressures that were put on society domestically ….” One such escalating action Russia has taken is to use long-range missiles to inflict enormous damage on Ukrainian infrastructure.

When asked about U.S. engagement in this conflict, Glebov says, “The real issue that is facing the U.S. right now is how to support Ukraine sufficiently without provoking what might be a direct conflict between NATO and the U.S. on the one side and Russia on the other.” 

Glebov also comments upon the absorption of millions of Ukrainian refugees into other European countries, the possibility of Ukraine’s admission to NATO, what a Russian victory or a Ukrainian victory might look like, and the effects of the conflict upon international oil markets.

The Conversation – As part of The Conversation’s Unusual Courses series, Stefan M. Bradley, the Charles Hamilton Houston ’15 Professor of Black Studies and History, answers questions about his course “Rap, Reagan and the 1980s.” 

The professor notes parallels between the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan and describes his realization that “just as today’s rappers are weighing in on politics, I could teach a course about how rap artists in the 1980s—and even afterward—dealt with the politicians from that era.” The Q&A mentions a few of the vintage and contemporary artists whose lyrics Bradley and his students analyze: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, N.W.A., Killer Mike, Kendrick Lamar and more.

The course “uses hip-hop as a tool to understand the sociopolitical, economic and cultural factors that affected the lives of Black youths during the 1980s—the era of ‘Reaganomics,’” Bradley continues. “The class prepares students to communicate their points of view to the public in creative and concise ways, much as rappers do in their songs.”

LGBTHistoryMonth.com – Merrill (1926–1995) is one of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender luminaries being honored throughout October by Equality Forum: “Celebrated for his poetry—including collections like Divine Comedies and the three volumes constituting his epic poem, The Changing Light at Sandover—his work earned every major American poetry award including the Pulitzer Prize.”

“While attending Amherst College, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served for eight months at the end of World War II. He graduated from Amherst summa cum laude in 1947,” notes Merrill’s biography on the website. He went on to write 19 books and two plays. In addition to the 1977 Pulitzer, his work won two National Book Awards and a National Book Critics Circle Award. 

After the death of his father, Charles E. Merrill, 1908 Amherst graduate and founding partner of Merrill Lynch Investment Group, James “used a portion of his vast inheritance to start the Ingram Merrill Foundation. Over the next 40 years, the institution awarded millions of dollars in grants to writers, artists and musicians.”

Some of Merrill’s “later work reflected his interest in mysticism and the occult.” His final collections addressed the AIDS crisis, of which he became a casualty in 1995.

Inside Story – Picq, Amherst’s Karl Loewenstein Senior Lecturer in Political Science and a professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, appears on an Al Jazeera program alongside two other experts to discuss what she calls “the longest Indigenous uprise that I have seen in 25 years in Ecuador.”

“We are coming out of a major crisis because of COVID. There has been no governmental support,” says Picq, video-calling into the show from Cuenca, Ecuador. “There is an anger that is growing and blossoming among society.” Among other points, she says the medical and education systems are failing, unemployment and migration out of the country are high, and the government is violating Ecuador’s constitutional “rights of nature” by expanding oil production and mining without consent of the land’s Indigenous inhabitants.  

Panelists Adrian Perez Salazar and Danny Shaw offer differing analyses of the conflict, which has lasted more than two weeks and resulted in deaths and injuries to protestors. Presenter Sohail Rahman ends the program by asking Picq where she thinks negotiations are headed. “We’re seeing very little progress in the official dialogue that started last night,” she says. “I foresee many more confrontations before we see a solution.” 

Americas Quarterly Podcast – Cuba, already in the midst of “a deep economic contraction and a severe migration crisis,” was recently devastated by Hurricane Ian. Corrales, the Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science, appears on an Oct. 13 podcast episode, giving his assessment of the island nation’s current problems and protests and of what might happen next. 

“The son of Cubans who lived in exile in Puerto Rico,” says host Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, “Javier teaches a course about the island and has been writing about its politics for more than 20 years.” Corrales is also a member of the Americas Quarterly editorial board.

The host and professor talk about Cuba’s extensive hurricane-induced power outage, and the resulting water and food crisis. They discuss the pivotal protests of July 11, 2021, and the “slow simmer” of current protests. “Citizens have no way of escaping the economic model in place, which is absolutely bankrupt,” says Corrales. Other angles considered during the episode include U.S.-Cuba relations, the new “pink tide” of left-leaning governments across Latin America, property rights and family rights under Cuba’s new constitution, foreign investments, and the possibility of regime change.

The New Yorker – An article about the “chaotic” life and works of Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck (1886–1957) mentions a 1970s Amherst College student organization called the Othmar Schoeck Memorial Society for the Preservation of Unusual and Disgusting Music. “The group is best remembered for having precipitated the meeting of the illusionists Penn and Teller [’69],” writes Alex Ross.

“The work that prompted the formation of the Society was Schoeck’s orchestral song cycle ‘Lebendig Begraben,’ or ‘Buried Alive,’” Ross continues. Wier Chrisemer ’72, “the Society’s founder, came across a recording of it and found it to have ‘no redeeming merit.’” (The article misspells Chrisemer’s first name as “Weir.”)

The recent article links to a 1989 New Yorker piece by Calvin Trillin, which in turn describes in greater detail the concerts put on by the Amherst student society and the meeting of Penn (Jillette) and Teller at those concerts.

UMTerps.com – The university profiles Giammattei, who has continued playing soccer there, while working toward a master’s degree in product management, after his unprecedented successes on the Amherst men’s soccer team from 2018 to his graduation in May 2022.

Reporter Alyssa Muir highlights Giammattei’s Latino identity and his early life in Florida: “his dad, also named German Giammatttei, is originally from El Salvador and his mom, Alejandra Urrea, from Mexico. When the couple had their son in Miami, it was only right they would pass their love of the game down to him.” He played soccer at Ransom Everglades School and then enrolled at Amherst, joining the team coached by Justin Serpone.

At Amherst, “he turned himself into not only one of the best players in program history, but also one of the best to ever grace Division III men’s soccer,” writes Muir. “Giammattei became the only D-III player to ever win consecutive USC National Player of the Year honors and just the second to win it twice overall. Additionally, he helped the Mammoths to consecutive national championship game appearances and was a two-time first-team All-American.”

Giammattei is quoted as saying, “Being at Amherst really taught me just the importance of working hard and also trusting your teammates and coaches."

Above the Law – Wan gives an interview about the 23-year-long “thrilling roller coaster ride” from writing her novel, to getting it published in 2013, to seeing it adapted as a new streaming series. The Partner Track follows a young Asian American lawyer as she competes to rise through the ranks at a New York law firm. 

Speaking with columnist Renwei Chung, Wan praises the Netflix adaptation of her novel as “smart, sexy, savvy” and “a fairly successful combination of ‘Hollywood entertainment’ and verisimilitude.” The author talks about drawing inspiration from the 1988 film Working Girl and from the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, whose life story Wan compares to that of her own mother.  

The interview also addresses the representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the media, and how to support the telling of more AAPI-centered stories. “If you really love something, and you believe it’s a story worth telling, and you wish there were more stories like it out there,” says Wan, “then you gotta put your money where your mouth is. Watch the show. Buy the book. Go see the play or movie. And tell all your friends and neighbors!”

Daily Hampshire Gazette – “A sense of community is really important to me,” says Shah, who will assume leadership of the Mead on Nov. 15. A local newspaper article focuses on the previous places where Shah has lived and worked, and on his impending arrival at Amherst.

The article, written by Steve Pfarrer, notes that Shah’s parents are Indian immigrants to the United States and that he has “has lived, worked and traveled in a wide range of places over the years: Chicago, Baltimore and San Francisco; New York and London; India, France and Belgium; and most recently, New England.” Since 2018, Shah has worked at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.

“Shah said part of the appeal of coming to Amherst stems from the significant effort the college has made in the past two decades to bring students of color, and especially students of lesser economic means, to campus,” Pfarrer writes. “As he sees it, the challenge is to use the Mead’s collection to ‘create conversations’ with students on how those objects may relate to their own lives, or how they shed light on histories, cultures and experiences completely different than their own.”

Native America Calling – Holleman, associate professor of sociology and environmental studies, was interviewed as part of a Sept. 21 podcast episode focusing on the Dust Bowl, a period of destructive dust storms in the North American prairies during the 1930s. 

“What I’ve shown in my research is that what was happening in the Southern Plains region here was also happening in many parts of the world where colonial expansion undermined or supplanted Indigenous land use and agricultural practices,” says Holleman during the interview (which begins just after the 26-minute mark of the episode). She describes how, in the United States, certain federal policies contributed to this colonial expansion and the resulting damage and displacement. 

The professor, author of the 2018 book Dust Bowls of Empire: Imperialism, Environmental Politics, and the Injustice of “Green” Capitalism, points out how capitalistic and technological adjustments failed to adequately resolve the problems of the Dust Bowl, and draws parallels to the current climate crisis. She notes how Indigenous and Black communities did not have equitable “access to the same federal resources that were brought to bear on white farmers’ troubles.”

The New York Times – The Met announced in mid-September that Breslin would become its curator in charge of modern and contemporary art. He will play a major role in opening a long-awaited new $500 million, 80,000-square-foot wing of the Manhattan museum.

“Breslin, who currently serves as the director of curatorial initiatives at the Whitney Museum of American Art and was co-curator of the 2022 Whitney Biennial, is expected to start at the Met later this fall,” writes NYT culture reporter Robin Pogrebin. “Before joining that museum in 2016, he worked at the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston and at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. … Breslin earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Amherst College, a master’s in art history from Williams College and a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University.”

Quoted from a phone interview, Breslin lists the questions he will consider as a Met curator: “What are the compelling narratives, what are the new stories that need to be told, how do we build on the work that’s happened at the museum?”

Boston.com — An article about the state’s black bear population, which is rapidly growing and expanding eastward, includes comments from Thea Kristensen, biology laboratory coordinator at Amherst College and principal investigator on the MassBears project, as well as from student researcher Elizabeth Zhang ’24.

Reporter Ross Cristantiello explains some reasons for the ursine population surge in recent decades, and describes MassBears, “a project led by researchers affiliated with MassWildlife, Amherst College, UMass Amherst, and the United States Geological Survey [that] aims to survey black bears using hair snares and molecular science.” The project is an example of “citizen science,” as it is informed by reports of bear sightings from the general public.

“Increasingly, what we’re seeing and suspecting is that these bears in the east, in areas that have a higher human density, are more likely to approach human homes,” Zhang says.

But Kristensen reassures readers, “It’s actually extremely rare to have negative interactions with black bears… they’re not interested in eating people at all.” She says of the research project, “Bears are a really dynamic species and people are always excited about them, or nervous about them, so getting the public thinking about this and talking to us about it is a really positive step towards coexisting.”