Amherst College English Professor Judith Frank is Finalist for Lambda Literary Award

January 28, 2005
Director of Media Relations
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AMHERST, Mass.--- Judith Frank, author and professor of English at Amherst College, has been named a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for her new novel, Crybaby Butch (2004). The awards will be presented in New York City on Thursday, June 2, at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York.

Nominated in the Lesbian Debut Fiction category, Frank's first novel examines the surprising turns that issues of education, gender, class and racial identity can cause in people's lives, and explores the connection between two butches of different generations. One is a middle-class, 30-something adult literacy teacher-as Frank has been. The other is her older, working-class student.

The Lambda Literary Foundation is devoted to the promotion, preservation and publication of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature. The Lambda Literary Awards honor the best among thousands of nominations received from across the country. Five nominees are selected in each of 20 categories. A panel of 74 judges, chosen to represent the diversity of the LGBT literary community, selects the winners.
Frank has published stories in other voices and The Massachusetts Review, which published a chapter of Crybaby Butch for which Frank was awarded the fiction prize of the Astraea Foundation's Emerging Lesbian Writer's Fund in 2000.

Frank received a Ph.D. in English literature and an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Cornell University. Her published work includes the book Common Ground: Eighteenth Century English Satiric Fiction and the Poor. She is currently working on a second novel, titled Noah's Ark, about an American couple's death in a Jerusalem suicide bombing that compels the husband's gay brother, Daniel, to adopt the orphaned children and take them back to the U.S.

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Educational Advocate Uri Treisman To Speak at Amherst College Feb. 18

January 28, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-Uri Treisman, an advocate for equity and excellence in education for all children, will speak on "Higher Education's Role in Strengthening K-12 Education," on Friday, Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. in the Alumni House at Amherst College. Sponsored by the Mellon Project on Teaching and Learning, Treisman's talk is free and open to the public.|

A 1992 MacArthur Fellow for his work on nurturing minority student high achievement in mathematics, Treisman is a professor of mathematics and executive director of the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Black Issues In Higher Education has named Treisman an outstanding leader in higher education.

Treisman works with the National Research Council's efforts to develop a Strategic Education Research Partnership committed to finding and sharing the hard evidence that reformers will require to improve American educational achievement. A board member of the National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education, Treisman chairs the Chancellor's Advisory Board for Mathematics in New York City and the steering committee of the Urban Mathematics Leadership Network. He also serves as the chief juror for a Department of Defense-sponsored study of mobility in military families and its effects on their children's education.

Treisman is active in creating support structures for volunteer-based and community based organizations. He served as the vice-chair of the Governor's Commission for Volunteerism and Community Service under Texas governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush.

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Amherst College Dean Joe Paul Case Receives the John Monro Memorial Award

January 27, 2005
Director of Media Relations
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AMHERST, Mass.-Joe Paul Case, dean and director of financial aid at Amherst College, has been chosen as a first recipient of the John Monro Memorial Award. The award was created by the College Board in honor of this year's marking of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the College Scholarship Service (CSS). John Monro was one of the founders of CSS and this award recognizes education leaders who have contributed to the CSS and to the financial aid profession, particularly by recruiting talented, needy and underrepresented students for higher education by using need analysis to create access and equity.

At the same meeting, Case was one of 50 recipients of the CSS 50th Anniversary Hall of Fame Award of who made significant contributions to the financial aid profession, awarded to individuals who have, since the founding of CSS in 1954, "made significant contributions to the financial aid profession." Donald "Skip" Routh, Amherst '58 and a former dean of financial aid at the college, was also inducted into the hall of fame.

Case, who has been at Amherst since 1981, received a B.A. degree in religion and philosophy from Oklahoma City University and a Bachelor of Divinity from Yale University Divinity School. He started his career as director of financial aid at Oklahoma City University (1970-1975) and continued with the College Board as both CSS's associate director (1975-1979) and director of program administration (1979-1981). Case has written and spoken extensively on the importance of need-based aid and has written or contributed to the publishing of the CSS Theory and Computation Manual, The College Cost Book and The Handbook of Student Financial Aid.

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"La Cage aux Folles" at Amherst College Jan. 27, 28 and 29

January 24, 2005
Director of Media Relations
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AMHERST, Mass.-The Amherst College Music Department will present the Broadway hit "La Cage aux Folles" on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, January 27, 28 and 29, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center. Tickets are free for those with an Amherst ID and $5 to the general public. Reservations are available at lacage@gmail.com.

Winner of the 1984 Tony Award for Best Musical and currently in revival on Broadway, "La Cage" is based on an original play by Jean Poiret, and features music and lyrics by Jerry Herman ("Hello, Dolly," "Mame") and book by Harvey Fierstein ("Torch Song Trilogy"). Direction and set design are by guest professional A. Scott Parry, choreography is by Smith College Artist-in-Residence Mark Allan Davis, lighting design is by Michael Baumgarten, costume design is by Emily Rosenberg '07 and musical direction and production coordination are by Mark Lane Swanson. The Amherst College Orchestra is "in the pit," and 40 Five College students are part of the cast and production team. "La Cage" was prepared entirely during interterm. It is funded by the Department of Music, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), the Office of the President, the Office of Student Activities, and the Gay Pride Alliance.

All tickets not claimed by 7:45 p.m. on the night of the performance will be released to persons on the waiting list.

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Photographer Jan Staller to Exhibit at Amherst College Jan. 24 until Feb. 12

January 24, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-Jan Staller, an artist "like a visitor from another planet who has landed on earth," according to The New York Times, a photographer of "an urban landscape that is eerily, often spectacularly alien," will exhibit his recent work in the Eli Marsh Gallery (Fayerweather Hall) at Amherst College from Monday, Jan. 24 until Saturday, Feb. 12. Staller will give a lecture on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 4:30 p.m. in the Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115). Sponsored by the Department of Fine Arts at Amherst College, the exhibit, the lecture and a reception to follow are free and open to the public.

Noted for color photographs that unexpectedly celebrate the industrial infrastructure, Staller received his B.A. from Maryland Institute and has had an active career in photography, film, publications and education over the years. He has exhibited in the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography in New York City, the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His works are in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. He is widely published and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1980) and the Polaroid Corporation (1978/1981).

The Eli Marsh Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The gallery will remain open for the reception on Jan. 27.

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Amherst College Celebrates 25 Years of Five College Dance Feb. 11 and 12

January 21, 2005
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AMHERST, Mass.-The Amherst College Department of Theater and Dance will present Dance in Dialogue, a festival of performances, panel discussions and workshops, as part of the 25th anniversary of the Five College Dance Department. Events will take place Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11 and 12, at Kirby Theater and in Webster Hall at the college.

A highlight of the festival will be a concert at Kirby Theater on Feb. 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. featuring new works by Five College alumni choreographers, directors and designers now working professionally throughout the U.S. and Europe. In this multi-media concert audiences will experience a rich variety of different worlds created on stage and in the lobby by an exciting mix of cutting-edge alumni artists.

New York choreographer Yanira Castro and Co. (Amherst College Class of '93 and recent recipient of the prestigious Rockefeller MAP award) will present the premiere of (fetus)twin, a movement installation for two dancers (Smith College alumnae Pam Vail and Nancy Ellis). Liam O'Rourke (Amherst '00) designed the costumes, and Julie Wyman (Amherst '93) created the film installation.

Mount Holyoke alumna Jelena Petrovic, a professional choreographer, writer and teacher living and working in Amsterdam, will premier Vestibule, a duet for man and woman. Professional Los Angeles film costume designer Dana Woods (Amherst '86) designed the costumes for Petrovic.

New York performance artist Lisa Biggs (Amherst '93) will perform excerpts from a new piece, titled Iona Flys Away, created in collaboration with Tanisha Christie. Costume design is by New York designer Anne Kenney (Amherst '95)

Cristina Septien (Amherst '01), artistic director of the Brooklyn-based South Pleasant Company (which originated during her Amherst undergraduate days), is the writer and director/choreographer of B.T.T.F, featuring performances by Matt Moses (Amherst '02), Emily Alpren (Amherst '02) and Marina Libel (Amherst '01).

Acclaimed New York actor, dancer, choreographer and writer Peter Schmitz (Smith College MFA) will bring his zany and poignant senses of humor and pathos to Kirby Theatre with a solo created for (and in collaboration with) New York dancer Paul Matteson titled I Simply Live Now.

Karrine Keithley and Sara Smith will present a sound/image installation in the lobby of Kirby as part of the concert. Both Hampshire College alums now living in Brooklyn, these two artists will construct Cabinet, an installation of the artifacts of two dances: Works on Paper: A Report on Imaginary Architecture and Tenderenda.

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Amherst College To Celebrate the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King In February

January 21, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-Amherst College has scheduled three special programs of singing, speaking and preaching in February for the college's annual celebration of the life of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Free and open to the public, events include the Howard University Chorale on Saturday, Feb. 5, writer Ellis Cose on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and preachers Henry and Ella Mitchell on Sunday, Feb. 13.

The Howard University Chorale will perform on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College. Conducted by J. Weldon Norris since 1973, the Howard University Chorale is a traditional classically oriented ensemble that flexibly blends in the Afro-American repertoire, both historical and modern.

Ellis Cose will speak on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. in Johnson Chapel. The author of many books, including most recently Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation, and Revenge (2004), Cose is a columnist and contributing editor for Newsweek magazine and former editorial page editor of the New York Daily News. He began his journalism career as a weekly columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times-becoming, at the age of 19, the youngest editorial page columnist ever employed by a Chicago daily.

The featured speakers at the annual Interfaith Service in Johnson Chapel on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. will be Henry and Ella Mitchell, educators and authors of numerous books on preaching and the American religious experience. Henry Mitchell is the author of Black Preaching, The Recovery of Preaching and Celebration of Experience in Preaching. The founding director of the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies in Los Angeles, he was also dean and professor at the Proctor School of Theology (Virginia Union University). Ella Mitchell was a dean at Spelman College and professor at the Proctor School.

The Mitchells have taught together in the doctor of ministry program for United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, as well as for seminaries in Pennsylvania, California, England, Russia and the Congo. Married for 58 years, the Mitchells have led seminars on marriage and written an autobiography, Together for Good.

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Poet Rachel Hadas To Read at Amherst College Feb. 17

January 21, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-The poet Rachel Hadas will kick off the spring series of the Amherst College Creative Writing Center, with a reading from her work on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 8 p.m. in the Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115) at Amherst College. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The author of more than 15 books of poetry, essays and translations, including Indelible (2001), a translation of Euripides' Helen, and, most recently, the poetry collection Laws, Hadas has been praised for her singular-but extraordinarily diverse-vision. As J.D. McClatchy writes: "The world's story and the margins of our lives have rarely been so lovingly and clearly designed as they are in Hadas's poems." Grace Schulman, poetry editor of the Nation, evokes the poet's simultaneous preoccupations with the classical and the current: "The poems are urgent, contemplative, and finely wrought. In them, antiquity illuminates the present as Rachel Hadas finds in ordinary human acts 'what never was and what is eternal'."

Hadas's numerous awards include a Guggenheim fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Foundation grant and an award in literature from the American Academy-Institute of Arts and Letters. She is the Board of Governors Professor of English at the Newark campus of Rutgers University, where she has taught for more than two decades.

The Amherst College Creative Writing Center puts on a yearly reading series featuring both emerging and established authors. More information is available at the center's Website, www.amherst.edu/~cwc.

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Amherst College Students Consider Careers in January Interterm

January 14, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-This January, the Amherst College Career Center is offering students an alumni appraisal of the value of a liberal arts education and an opportunity to explore careers in business.

The Versatility of the Liberal Arts Experience, a program designed specifically for first-year and sophomore students, is now in its second year. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, its purpose is to enhance and complement academic advising for students who are faced with choosing a major. Toward achieving this aim, the Dean of Students Office, the Career Center, and the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs is sponsoring an interactive two-day conference on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 13 and 14, during Interterm. Current students engage alumni in conversations about the short-term dilemmas and long-term advantages of choosing liberal arts majors. The alumni are invited because they are willing to talk frankly about the perils and passions of deciding on a major, in addition to their postgraduate experiences.

The Pre-Business Groups's 2005 Pre-Business Seminar, from Jan. 18 to 21, is bringing together liberal arts students from the Five College area and beyond to learn from and interact with top alumni and executives from a variety of business fields and industries. This seminar includes lectures and discussions on diverse topics, and participants take part in a networking and interviewing workshop. Admissions directors from well-known MBA programs are at the seminar, and students can try an actual case study led by a professor from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. A career fair concludes the seminar, at which participants will meet recruiters from a variety of firms.

Bernard Voyer, a globally renowned adventurer, explorer, and corporate leadership speaker, will deliver a keynote address on "Leadership: Top-Down or Bottom-Up" on Friday, Jan. 21, at 10:30 a.m. in the Stirn Auditorium. Voyer's talk is free and open to the public; the other seminar events are open only to paid participants.

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Amherst LJST Professor Austin Sarat Edits Dissent in Dangerous Times

January 14, 2005
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AMHERST, Mass.-Austin Sarat, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College, is the editor of Dissent in Dangerous Times ($60, cloth, $22.95, paper, 192 pp., University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2005), a collection of essays by six distinguished scholars who provide their own distinctive takes on the interplay of loyalty, patriotism and dissent. In addition to Sarat, the other contributors are Wendy Brown of the University of California, Berkeley; Lauren Berlant from the University of Chicago; Hugh Gusterson of MIT; David Cole of the Georgetown Law Center and Nancy L. Rosenblum from Harvard University.

Dissent in Dangerous Times, according to the publisher, "examines the role of political opposition in our times, the nature of political repression in liberal societies, the political and legal implications of fear, and how past generations responded to similar situations. It is also a reminder of the fragility and enduring power of freedom, and will inspire readers to think about, and beyond, September 11."

Sarat, who has taught at Amherst since 1974, has written many books. Most recently he was the co-author with Stuart Scheingold of Something to Believe In: Politics, Professionalism and Cause Lawyering (2004). His next book, Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution, will be published in 2005 by Princeton University Press. Sarat has served as president of the Law and Society Association and of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities.

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"Town and Country: Modern Life in America" at Mead Art Museum at Amherst College Jan. 18 to May 29

January 14, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College will re-open on Tuesday, Jan. 18, with "Town and Country: Modern Life in America" in the Fairchild Gallery until Sunday, May 29. Selected from the rich holdings of the Mead's American collection, "Town and Country" offers images by 43 artists who recorded life in America between 1900 and 1950.

During this first half of the 20th century, there were dramatic political, industrial and philosophical movements afoot. With the Machine Age, the Jazz Age, the 19th Amendment that allowed women the right to vote and two world wars, sociological taboos and cultural patterns were shattered. American artists were watching and reacting to these events. Some relied on the foundations of realism to reinforce an identity that asserted the growing maturity, independence and authority of their still relatively young and thriving nation. While the aesthetic tradition of realism was still the norm in America, groundbreaking innovations were taking place in Europe and elsewhere: in their desire to keep pace with their colleagues, some artists absorbed these new tenets, emerging from a parochial perspective while embracing the potentials offered by the modern world. All of this work reflected the rhythm and character of both city and countryside and chronicled the everyday experience of mainstream America.

Organized by Trinkett Clark, the curator of American art at the Mead, "Town and Country" includes paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints, photographs and sculpture; together, the works demonstrate that even while the nation was immersed in two world wars and the general population was suffering from harrowing economic conditions, a sense of steadfast optimism and integrity prevailed. Among the artists included in the exhibition are Berenice Abbott, George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benton, Ilse Bing, William Glackens, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Dorothea Lange, Blanche Lazzell, George Luks, John Marin, Reginald Marsh, Maurice Prendergast, Aaron Siskind, Edward Steichen, Marion Post Wolcott and Grant Wood.

Related programming includes gallery talks by Carol Clark, professor of fine arts and American studies at Amherst; Betsey Garand, visiting assistant professor of fine arts; and Trinkett Clark as part of the Noon at the Mead series. In addition, the Mead is sponsoring a film series of black and white classic movies produced during the era. There will be a lecture by Kathleen Spies, assistant professor of art history at Birmingham-Southern College, on Thursday, March 3, at 4:30 p.m. in Stirn Auditorium. This event is made possible by the generous assistance of the Department of Fine Arts. A reception will follow at the Mead Art Museum.

Two students, Carolina Dallal '05, of Scarsdale, N.Y., and Nadia Marx '05, of Cambridge Mass., helped with exhibition labels and related programming for "Town and Country."

"In Equal Measure: The Frost-Lankes Connection," a complementary show in the Archives and Special Collections of the Robert Frost Library, examines the relationship between the poet Robert Frost and the artist Julius John Lankes, whose prints grace many volumes of Frost's work and were produced during the same era as the material in "Town and Country." Daria D'Arienzo, head of archives and special collections at the college, organized "In Equal Measure."

For more information about the exhibition and related events, please call the Mead Art Museum at 413/542-2235 or visit its Website www.amherst.edu/mead. The exhibition and special programs are free and open to the public. The Mead will re-open on Jan. 18 and be open from 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. until Jan. 30. After Feb. 1 regular hours resume: Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday until 9 p.m.

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Wihan String Quartet To Present Music at Amherst Jan. 30

January 14, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-In the latest installment of the 2004-05 Music at Amherst Series, the Wihan String Quartet will offer a program that features Schubert's Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden" and Shostakovich's Quartet in A-flat Major, No. 10, Op. 118 on Sunday, Jan. 30, at 4 p.m., in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College.

Founded in 1985 while its members were studying at the Prague Academy, the Wihan Quartet has played in major venues throughout Europe, including the Opera de Bastille, Wigmore Hall, and Concertgebouw, claiming numerous first prizes at music competitions and recording 14 discs, including an ongoing Beethoven cycle.

The New York Times has praised the way the Wihan String Quartet work together. "The sound these Czech musicians make-beautifully balanced, centered in warm, dark regions of tone color, musical in every part-is deeply pleasurable and also deeply traditional. Nobody leads. The music leads."

The latest information can be obtained from the Amherst College Concert Website at www.amherst.edu/~concerts. Admission to the concert is $22; senior citizens and Amherst College employees $19; and students $5. For more information and brochures call the Concert Office at 413/542-2195, or e-mail concert manager Michael Baumgarten at mhbaumgarten@amherst.edu.

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Amherst College English Professor Judith Frank is Author of New Novel

January 6, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-Judith Frank, author and professor of English at Amherst College, is the author of Crybaby Butch ($14.95, 416 pp., Firebrand Books, Ann Arbor, 2002), a new novel that examines, with warmth and wit, the surprising turns that issues of education, gender, class and racial identity can cause in people's lives.

Frank's first novel, Crybaby Butch explores the connection between two butches of different generations. One is a middle-class, thirty-something adult literacy teacher-as Frank has been. The other is her older, working-class student.

"Fearless and unflinching, Crybaby Butch rigorously explores butch/femme dynamics over two generations," says Claire Messud. "Judy Frank's debut novel is searing and memorable." "With Crybaby Butch, Judith Frank creates a deeply human, bravely unsentimental story while at the same time investigating the meaning of butch identity as it reinvents itself from one generation to the next," says Carol Anshaw.

Frank has published stories in other voices and The Massachusetts Review, which published a chapter of Crybaby Butch for which Frank was awarded the fiction prize of the Astraea Foundation's Emerging Lesbian Writer's Fund in 2000.

Frank received a Ph.D. in English literature and an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Cornell University. Her published work includes the book Common Ground: Eighteenth Century English Satiric Fiction and the Poor. She is currently working on a second novel, titled Noah's Ark, about an American couple's death in a Jerusalem suicide bombing that compels the husband's gay brother, Daniel, to adopt the orphaned children and take them back to the U.S.

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