Wells College Announces Named Professorships

New Endowed Faculty Appointments Span Fine Arts to Physics

Wells College President Lisa Marsh Ryerson announces the appointment of five faculty members to named professorships. These five-year positions have been established to reward excellence in both teaching and scholarship. Endowed chairs and professorships at Wells are made possible by generous gifts from alumnae and friends of the college given specifically for that purpose. 

Wells’ excellent faculty are skilled teachers, dedicated to rigorous intellectual development and actively committed to pursuing new knowledge and learning strategies. Endowed professorships represent a commitment to faculty and to the academic core of the college, demonstrating the institution’s dedication to achievement in a given field. 
 
 

Professor of Physics Scott Heinekamp - Mary Perley Wakeman ’23 Professor
Professor Heinekamp is the coordinator of Wells’ engineering program and also teaches physics and engineering at Cornell University. He conducts research on liquid crystals, which, among other activities, led to his appointment as a visiting scientist at AT&T Bell Laboratories. His scholarly work has been published in Physics Review and the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Courses he teaches include Fundamentals of Physics, Modern Physics, Approaches to the Liberal Arts, Introduction to Astronomy, and Theoretical Mechanics. Professor Heinekamp has also been extensively involved in strategic planning for the college. Most recently, he served as chair of the Sustainable Wells Action Team. He earned his B.S. and M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Ph.D. from Brown University. This professorship was fully funded in 1996 in honor of Mary Perley Wakeman, Wells Class of 1923.  Mary’s son, Peter Storer, is president of the George B. Storer Foundation, which administers the fund. The professorship may be awarded to a faculty member in any discipline.
Professor of History Cynthia J. Koepp -  Frances Tarlton Farenthold Presidential Professor
Professor Koepp joined the Wells faculty in 1992. Last spring, she was promoted to full professor and selected to receive Wells’ 2003-04 Excellence in Advising Award. She teaches Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, Writing History: Theory and Practice, Introduction to the History of Science, and The Growth of Industrial Society. She co-edited (with Steven Laurence Kaplan) Work in France: Representations, Meaning, Organization and Practice, published by Cornell University Press. Her scholarly work, including translations, has been published in the Journal of Modern History, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, and Diacritics. She is also the recipient of several research grants that have enabled her to pursue her research interests in France. Professor Koepp earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Toledo and her Ph.D. from Cornell University.  This professorship is endowed to honor former Wells President Frances Tarlton Farenthold’s leadership (1976-80). The income is used for the support of a senior faculty position.
Professors of German Diane Koester and Kenneth E. Larson -  Ida Dorothea Atkinson Professors
Drs. Koester and Larson share a position as professors of German. Professor Koester is currently the college’s associate dean for academic and learning resources and director of academic advising, in addition to her teaching position. As part of her administrative work, she developed and maintains an online advising website for the college. She has taught German Women Writers, Gender and Language, Introduction to Women’s Studies, and 19th Century German Literature. Her scholarly writing has appeared in the German Quarterly and the Lessing Yearbook, and she has made many presentations and delivered lectures both on and off campus. She received her B.A. from Valparaiso University and M.A. and Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University.
Co-recipient Professor Larson has taught 18th Century German Literature, The Origins of Romanticism, and Issues in Contemporary German Society. Also manager of Wells’ computer and network operations, he has team-taught Internet Architecture and Programming, and Social and Cultural Implications of the Internet. His writing on the reception of Shakespeare in Germany has been published in Michigan Germanic Studies and German Quarterly. He received his A.B. from the University of Kansas and Ph.D. from Yale University.  The Ida Dorothea Atkinson Lectureship was established in 1994 by Ida M.G. Sharkey ’62 in memory of her mother. These endowed funds are designated to be used to enrich the interdisciplinary character of Wells’ academic program and augment the humanities curriculum.
Professor of Art William Roberts - John D. Wilson Presidential Professor
Professor Roberts has been teaching art at Wells College for more than 30 years. In addition to managing the String Room Gallery, he teaches Life Drawing, Oil Painting, and Basic Concepts of Advertising Design. In 2001, Wells hosted a retrospective show of Professor Robert’s paintings (1971-2001). Recently, he has been a media photographer for the Syracuse Post-Standard, covering Breeder’s Cup Thoroughbred Championship races in California and Illinois; that newspaper also published serially a collection of his race track drawings as a feature entitled “Saratoga Sketchbook.” His work continues to be exhibited widely in galleries, and he has provided illustrations for several publications of the Wells College Press. Professor Roberts earned his B.F.A. and M.A. from Kent State University. This professorship honors former Wells President John D. Wilson’s leadership (1969-75) and was originally established by alumnae and friends of the college. The income from the endowed fund is used to support a senior faculty position.

For more information about these endowed professorships, please contact Dean of the College Ellen Hall at 315/364-3241. 

March, 2005

Wells College Hires New Men’s Soccer Coach

Michael Paolini joins athletics staff; recruits, trains athletes

Wells College Athletics Director Lyn LaBar is pleased to announce that Michael Paolini is the college’s new men’s soccer coach. In addition to coaching men’s soccer, Paolini will oversee event management of spring sport contests, assist with management of athletic and physical education facilities, and teach a course within the department of physical education. 

“I am very excited that Mike will serve as Wells’ first men’s soccer coach,” said LaBar.   “As we evaluate how we can best move forward with developing our overall inter-collegiate athletic program, it was crucial for us to secure an individual who has the energy, motivation and drive to begin from scratch our men’s program.  As an assistant coach at LeMoyne, Mike was involved extensively with recruiting, coaching and development of the total student-athlete. I am confident that our men’s soccer program and those young men associated with our program will benefit greatly from his leadership.”

Paolini comes to Wells from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, where he was the assistant soccer coach. He helped lead the Dolphins to playoff berths in each of his four seasons. Paolini played four years of soccer at Plattsburgh State, captaining the squad his junior and senior years. He was an All-American, graduating with a bachelor of science in Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management in May of 1999. Since graduation, he has served as the soccer director at the Central New York Family Sports Center in Baldwinsville, New York. He now serves as director of the Junior Salty Dogs Futbol Club, and is owner and director of Pao’s Soccer School of Excellence in Syracuse. Mike has played professionally with the New Hampshire Phantoms. 

“It is a real honor to be selected as the first men’s soccer coach at Wells College,” says Mike.  “This is a transition period for the college and it is a good one. I am happy to be a part of such a strong institution that really seems to be dedicated to the students.” A four-year starter at Plattsburgh, Paolini was named first team all-SUNYAC, all-region and team Most Valuable Player. 

Men’s soccer at Wells will play the 2005-06 season at the club level and will elevate to varsity in 2006-07. Starting out as a club program will allow Paolini time to develop a recruiting base upon which to build before elevating to varsity status in 2006.

“The main goal at first for me is to get the name of the college out to the parents and students in high schools,” says Paolini.  He plans to achieve this through intensive recruiting activity.  “I did recruiting when I was at LeMoyne College, and with all the national contacts I made playing professionally, I’ve got a broad range of future recruiting possibilities. Many of my days will be spent on the road, using the networks I have established to make sure that potential student athletes know what Wells College can offer them.  All I have to do is get recruits to Aurora, and I fully believe they will fall in love with the campus as I did!"

Athletics plays an important role in Wells College’s transition to coeducation. For more information, please contact Athletics Director Lyn LaBar at 315/364-3410.

March, 2005

Book Artist to Lecture at Wells College

Poet and visual artist Jen Bervin presents her work

The Wells College Visiting Writers Series and the Wells Book Arts Center will host poet and visual artist Jen Bervin at 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 31 in the Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall. Jen will read from her work, show slides of her artwork, and discuss her working process as a writer and visual artist. The presentation is free and open to the public. A reception will follow, giving guests an opportunity to meet the speaker. Refreshments will be served.

Jen Bervin is the author of A Non-Breaking Space (Ugly Duckling 2005), Nets (Ugly Duckling 2004), under what is not under (Potes & Poets 2001), and numerous artists’ books. Her work has been published in Aufgabe, Chain, Denver Quarterly, Fell Swoop, How2, Insurance, Poets & Poems (a collaboration with Alystyre Julian), and Web Conjunctions. 

In her book Nets, Jen Bervin strips Shakespeare’s sonnets “bare to the nets,” chiseling away at the familiar lines to reveal surprising new poems. Using visual compositional strategies as effectively as verbal ones, Bervin allows the unchosen text to remain on the page as a ghostly presence. A broadside of a poem from Nets will be published by the Wells College Press and will be for available for purchase at her reading.

Bervin received her B.F.A. in Studio Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her M.A. in Poetry from the University of Denver, and the Edward M. Lannan Prize from the Academy of American Poets. She teaches writing at New York University and Pratt Institute. While on campus from March 30 to April 1, Bervin will also participate in classes and conduct a poetry-writing workshop. 

For more information about Jen Bervin’s reading and visit, please contact Margot Ecke, Victor Hammer Fellow, at 315-364-3420, or Bruce Bennett, Professor of English, at 315-364-3228.

March, 2005

Pulitzer Prize Nominee to Lecture at Wells College

Journalist Susan Jacoby looks at secularism, values, faith-based America

Renowned author Susan Jacoby will speak at Wells College on Tuesday, April 5. Jacoby’s talk, “The ‘Values Issue’ vs. Real Values: A Skeptical Look at Faith-Based America,” will begin at 4:45 pm in the Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall. The lecture is free and the public is invited to attend.

In May 2004, Bill Moyers of PBS radio’s NOW program interviewed Susan Jacoby on the separation of church and state in America today, and why she believes preserving the sanctity of American secularism is fundamental to democracy and to the benefit of both religion and government.

The public has heard a great deal about the religious right’s supposed stranglehold on the “values issue” in American public life. Susan Jacoby, the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, will challenge this view in her lecture. In Freethinkers, Ms. Jacoby details the contribution of secularists and freethinkers from the Age of Enlightenment through the 20th century civil rights and women’s movements. She believes there is a critical need today for secular thinkers and activists to stand up for humane and humanistic values. 

Susan Jacoby began her writing career as a reporter for The Washington Post. Awarded fellowships by the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, she has been a contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, TomPaine.com and the AARP Bulletin, among other publications. She is director of the Center for Inquiry-Metro New York, a rationalist research and advocacy organization, and lives in New York City. Jacoby is the author of seven books, including Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge, a Pulitzer Prize nominee. Her books will be available for sale and signing after her lecture.

Ms. Jacoby’s talk is sponsored by the Wells College Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the Dean of the College’s office, and a variety of majors in the sciences, social sciences and humanities divisions. For more information, please contact Professor of Religious Studies Joe Hoffmann at 315/364-3294.

March, 2005

Poetry Reading at Wells College

Linda Allardt of Rochester will read from her work

The Wells College Visiting Writer Series is pleased to welcome Linda Allardt to the Aurora campus. Allardt will read selected poems from her latest book Accused of Wisdom at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, March 16 in the Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall. The public is invited to attend this free reading.

Experienced poet and small-press editor Linda Allardt grew up in Ohio and the Southern Tier of New York, where many of her poems are set. She has published four books of poems, including River Effect (State Street Press, 1998) and the latest, Accused of Wisdom (FootHills Publishing, 2004). River Effect is described by the Comstock Review as “well-wrought lyrical free-verse, gentle and elegiac in tone.” Her poems have appeared in many magazines, including West Branch, Midwest Quarterly, White Pelican, and Sulphur River Review.

Linda teaches advanced poetry writing regularly at Writers & Books of Rochester, and she has taught poetry and creative writing at St. John Fisher College, the University of Rochester, and the Eastman School. Copies of her books will be available for purchase at the reading.

A broadside of Allardt’s poem “Ask Her” was hand-printed by the Wells College Press in honor of Allardt’s reading on the Wells campus in February 2000. Artwork was done by then-Victor Hammer Fellow Jocelyn Webb.

This reading and the Wells College Visiting Writer Series are made possible in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.  Poets and writers are invited to campus throughout the academic year to meet with students, present writing workshops, and read from their respective works.

For more information about Linda Allardt’s reading and the Visiting Writers Series at Wells College, please contact English professor Bruce Bennett at 315/364-3228.

March, 2005

Wells College Greens Partner with Sierra Club

Screening of “Oil On Ice” looks at fate of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The fight to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge comes to Aurora next weekend when the Wells College Campus Greens, in association with the local chapter of the Sierra Club, host a screening of the new award-winning documentary “Oil on Ice.” The public is invited to view this free film, presented at 7:00 pm on Sunday, March 13 in Cleveland Auditorium.

“Oil on Ice” is an intimate portrayal of the native Gwich’in Indians’ fight against powerful global energy interests to prevent invasive oil operations threatening the Arctic Refuge’s fragile caribou calving grounds, upon which the Native people’s subsistence has always depended. The screening is part of a larger discussion about proposals to drill in the Arctic Refuge. 

A Dale Djerassi/Bo Boudart Production in association with Lobitos Creek Ranch, this compelling and thought-provoking film presents the struggle over the sacred land that the Gwich’in call “the place where life begins.” It vividly brings home how our energy decisions - both individually and as a society - critically impact the future of our global economy, wildlife, and the environment as well as the survival of an extraordinary traditional culture.

The film is currently being shown across the country including screenings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the documentary, please visit www.oilonice.org. 

The goal of the Wells College Campus Greens is to increase environmental awareness on campus. The group is not politically affiliated.

For more information about “Oil on Ice” and the Wells College Greens, please contact environmental studies professor Niamh O’Leary at 315/364-3279.

March, 2005

Wells College Students Present Spring Drama Production

Stories Told features fairy tales in the improv style

The Wells College Theatre Department proudly presents Stories Told as this spring’s student drama production. The performance will be featured on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Phipps Auditorium, Macmillan Hall on the Aurora campus. There will also be a Sunday, March 13 matinee at 2:00 pm. Prices are $3 for students and children, $5 for senior citizens and the Wells College community, and $7 for the general public. Tickets are available from the box office the week preceding the show, and at the door the night of the performance. Please call 315/364-3456 to reserve seats.

Stories Told is an enchanting collection of classic and modern folk tales adapted for the stage by renowned author and director Paul Sills, with help from Wells junior Lynne Sánchez-Fries, class of ’06. Under the direction of Siouxsie Grady, visiting assistant professor of theatre, the student actors bring these stories to life; each presents multiple roles ranging from farmers to dancing caterpillars. The actors perform without the use of props or costumes of any kind, instead relying solely on their bodies to create the reality of the stories. The show features highlights such as original music composed by Jessica Kreutter ’05 and original choreography by Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Jeff Rebudal. Joe DeForest, Wells’ technical director, combines a traditional raked stage with fairy tale symbols to create the magical world of the stories. Rachel Lloyd ’08 compiled slides of classical folk images to accompany the tales, and Rebecca Miles-Steiner ’07 and Rachel Crosbie ’07 make up the stage management team.

Stories Told is directed by visiting assistant theatre professor Siouxsie Grady of Ithaca. Grady works as audience services manager in Cornell’s Theatre, Film and Dance Department. She received her Master of Theatre Education in Drama from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a B.A. in Speech and Theatre from the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Siouxsie has taught theatre workshops and classes across the country and most recently at Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre Company and the Hangar Theatre.  Scenery and lights are designed and presented by technical director Joe DeForest. 

Paul Sills is an established author, director, teacher and performer. He was the original director of The Second City (1959-65) and creator of Story Theatre (1971), both of which played on and off Broadway. He is co-founder of Compass, The Game Theater, Sills & Co., and the New Actors Workshop. Sills’ mother is the late Viola Spolin, acclaimed teacher and writer whose ground-breaking work in theatre improvisation was Sills’ life inspiration. Paul Sills currently directs the Wisconsin Theatre Game Center in Door County, Wisconsin. His show is produced at Wells by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

For more information about Stories Told, please contact theatre professor and director Siouxsie Grady at 315/364-3232.

March, 2005

Wells College Displays Syracuse Artist’s Work

“The Spaces of My Childhood” exhibit opens March 9

The Wells College Art Department is pleased to announce the opening of its latest exhibition. A selection of photographs by Syracuse artist Lori Brown will be on display in the String Room Gallery from March 9 - April 7, 2005. The exhibit is free and the public is cordially invited. An opening reception to be held on Wednesday, March 9 from 7:00-9:00 pm offers an opportunity to meet the artist; refreshments will be served.

Lori Brown’s most recent installation, “The Spaces of My Childhood,” examines issues of domestic space and their construction through gender.  This project begins with an interest in the female space within the domestic sphere.  In Brown’s experience, “The kitchen is the female space, the center of our household, my mother’s domain. She would spend most of her time there: cooking, talking on the phone, or spending time with my brother and me. This changed once my mother passed away. With time, I eventually realized the feminine spaces and associations of my childhood home had been reclaimed, distorted, even erased.”

Her exhibit at Wells College contrasts old photos from the family album with a new reality, one without the feminine influence.

“A series of recent photographs of my childhood home are exhibited against others selected from my family archive,” says Brown. “I am interested in revealing the passage of time and its effect on the spatial hierarchy of the house - specifically, the loss of the feminine.  I believe that this loss, once captured, can be reclaimed.”

Lori Brown has been an assistant professor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture since 2001. She received a Masters of Architecture degree from Princeton University in 1994 and a Bachelor of Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991, where she spent her final year studying at the Ecole d'Architecture in Paris.

Brown’s professional experience includes design work on several projects for award- winning New York City firms. She is also the founder of ArtStart, a program teaching art to elementary and high school students through the nonprofit organization New York Cares. 

During the past year, Brown was an architect/artist in residence at the MacDowell Colony (New Hampshire), Jentel Artist Program (Wyoming), and Caldera Artist Residency Program (Oregon).  Her work has appeared in 306090 and Women and Environments international magazine; she has several exhibitions scheduled for 2005.

Wells art professor and String Room Gallery director William Roberts coordinates the installation of the show.

The String Room Gallery is located in Main Building. Hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Wednesday evenings from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information about the show and art classes at Wells, please contact William Roberts at 315/364-3237.

March, 2005

Wells College Presents Bioethics Lecture

Michigan State professor looks at ethics, surgery, children

The Wells College Philosophy Department will sponsor a bioethics lecture on Thursday, March 10. Michigan State University professor Hilde Lindemann will speak on “The Power of Parents: Surgically Shaping Children” at 4:40 pm in the Art Exhibit Room in Macmillan Hall. The lecture is free and the public is invited to attend.

Professor Hilde Lindemann will discuss the ethical ramifications of elective surgery on children. While authorizing surgery for children is always a significant exercise of parental power, when parents request surgery for the purpose of normalizing the appearance of children with physical deformities, they are at special risk of using their power irresponsibly. 

“The social norms that inevitably form some part of a parental conception of what life is about are embedded in widely circulated and socially shared stories, which I have elsewhere called ‘master narratives’, ” says Lindemann. “These are stories that people use to make sense of their social worlds.” 

In this lecture, Lindemann describes “…three narratives that might put parents at particular risk of misusing their power over their children as they contemplate body-normalizing surgery: the master narrative of the Self-Promoting Consumer, the master narrative of the Ugly Outcast, and the master narrative of the Scientific Fix.”

Hilde Lindemann is associate professor of philosophy at Michigan State University. She is the editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, and coeditor (with Sara Ruddick and Margaret Urban Walker) of Rowman and Littlefield’s Feminist Constructions series. Her books include Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair and, with James Lindemann Nelson, Alzheimer’s: Answers to Hard Questions for Families and The Patient in the Family. She has also edited two collections: Feminism and Families and Stories and Their Limits: Narrative Approaches to Bioethics. A Fellow of the Hastings Center, her ongoing research interests are in feminist bioethics, feminist ethics, the ethics of families, and the social construction of persons and their identities. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Georgia and her Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University in 2000.

For more information about Dr. Lindemann’s lecture, please contact Wells Professor of Philosophy Laura Purdy at 315/364-3244.

March, 2005
 

Earlier Articles in Wells College News:
 

	April, 2005	Dec., 2002	March,1998
	March, 2005	Nov., 2002	Feb.,1998
	Jan.-Feb., 2005	Oct., 2002	Jan.,1998
	Nov.-Dec., 2004	Sept., 2002	Dec.,1997
	Oct., 2004	Aug., 2002	Nov.,1997
	Sept., 2004	Sept.,2001.-May.,2002	Oct.,1997
	May-Aug., 2004	Sept.,2000.-May.,2001	Sept.,1997
	April., 2004	Sept. 1999-Aug.,2000	July - Aug., 1997
	March, 2004	August,1999	May - June,1997
	Jan.-Feb., 2004	May,1999	March - April,1997
	Nov., 2003	April,1999	Feb.,1997
	Oct., 2003	Feb.-March, 1999	Nov. - Dec.,1996
	Sept., 2003	Jan.,1999	Oct.r,1996
	Summer, 2003	Fall,1998	Sept.,1996
	May, 2003	Aug.,1998	June - Aug.,1996
	April, 2003	June -July, 1998	May,1996
	March, 2003	May,1998	April,1996
	Jan.-Feb., 2003	April,1998	Feb - March, 1996

Last updated 06/17/2005