This Week in Photos: January 29</h1> <article> <h1>This Week in Photos: January 29</h1> <p>ygay — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:15:28 +0000</p> <span>This Week in Photos: January 29</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-01-29T16:15:28-05:00" title="Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 16:15">Wed, 01/29/2020 - 16:15</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Eliza Goodell and Assistant Professor of Geology Rachel Eveleth perform Lake Erie climate research on South Bass Island, Ohio. Photo credit: Kristin Stanford</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Joey Rizzolo, director of film and theater, leads a workshop with students in Hall Annex 100. Photo credit: Dustin Frantz</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>The Ninde Scholars Program under way at 91ֱ�� High School. Photo credit: John Seyfried</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>A student works on a handcrafted spoon in the Arts, Artisans, and Anonymity workshop. Photo credit: Yvone Gay</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Students demonstrate a pair of wooden snow glasses from the Practicum in Exhibit Design project that were reproduced in 3D Printing 101. Photo credit: Yvonne Gay</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>A student reassembles a flute in Conservatory Professor Alex Still’s Flute Maintenance and Repair group project. Photo credit: Dale Preston ‘83</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Students in the Trip Through the Deep South tour visit with Yemko Pryor ’17, a current PhD student at Emory University. Photo credit: Michael Hartman</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Students in the classroom for the Intensive Elementary Russian project. Photo credit: John Seyfried</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Students in Assistant Professor Emily Barton’s Writing for Everyone project read and discuss texts on pedagogy while building their own principles for running a vibrant, inclusive workshop. Photo credit: Yvonne Gay</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Financial Education Specialist Melissa Donohue ’87 discusses the concept of bringing the 91ֱ�� graduate into the corporate world. Photo credit: Yvonne Gay</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Students enrolled in Sonic Arts in Society work on projects. Photo credit: Julie Gulenko ’15</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Lights are the focal point of the photo-sonic composition piece being created in this project. Photo credit: Oli Bentley</figcaption> </figure> <p> </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-01-29T12:00:00Z">Wed, 01/29/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2402">Winter Term</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33031">TIMARA</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25441">Theater</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25296">Archaeological Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25426">Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/emily-barton" hreflang="und">Emily Barton</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/rachel-eveleth" hreflang="und">Rachel Eveleth</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/theater" hreflang="und">Theater</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/geosciences" hreflang="und">Geosciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Studio art open house in the Clarence Ward Art Building.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">John Seyfried</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Students and Faculty Travel to China through LIASE Grant</h1> <p>eulrich — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 15:10:38 +0000</p> <span>Students and Faculty Travel to China through LIASE Grant</span> <span><span>eulrich</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-03-01T10:10:38-05:00" title="Friday, March 1, 2019 - 10:10">Fri, 03/01/2019 - 10:10</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This winter term, students, faculty, and staff traveled to China on two LIASE grant-sponsored study tours. The trips, Parks and the Environment and Community-Based Environmental Studies: Hong Kong-U.S. Transnational Partnership and Exchange, took place in Sichuan Province and in Hong Kong, respectively.</p> <p>91ֱ�� is in its third year of the five-year LIASE implementation grant to expand teaching and research at the intersection of Asian and environmental studies. The grant has supported winter term and summer study tours to East Asia, <a href="https://www2.oberlin.edu/amam/Worlds%20Apart.html" target="_blank">exhibitions</a> at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, on-campus lecture series, and faculty curriculum development grants. A two-year postdoctoral fellow will also teach anthropology courses on Asia and the environment.</p> <p><a href="/node/5481" target="_blank">Ann Sherif</a>, professor of Japanese and codirector of the LIASE Implementation grant, says that she and Professor of Geology <a href="/node/4926" target="_blank">Steven Wojtal</a>, grant codirector, are especially proud of how the grant’s implementation has spanned myriad parts of campus, including the College of Arts and Sciences, Conservatory of Music, Bonner Center for Service and Learning, 91ֱ�� Shansi, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM).</p> <p>91ֱ��’s ethos and teaching approaches are innately interdisciplinary, and this same thinking is at the forefront of what the LIASE grant seeks to promote. The LIASE grant aims to confront environmental issues from a plurality of viewpoints and disciplines—not just from environmental studies—and with a strong emphasis on knowledge of Asian cultures, societies, and languages.</p> <p>True to the grant’s philosophy that environmental problems are best addressed from numerous perspectives, the grant has acted as the impetus for cross-campus discussions about environmental challenges.</p> <p>“It’s the belief of environmental studies that the sciences alone can’t address all environmental issues; it takes multiple perspectives,” Sherif says. 91ֱ��, naturally a good fit for the grant, summoned a multitude of professors and staff to take part in this year’s winter term trips: Assistant Professor of Religion <a href="/node/6356" target="_blank">Cheryl Cottine</a>, Assistant Professor of Sociology <a href="/node/6491" target="_blank">Christie Parris</a>, Assistant Professor of Biology Jordan Price, Associate Professor of English and Comparative American Studies <a href="/node/5631" target="_blank">Harrod Suarez</a>, Associate Professor of Geology and Chair of Archaeological Studies <a href="/node/5781" target="_blank">Amanda Schmidt</a>, Director of Bonner Center Curricular Initiatives and Assistant Professor of History <a href="/node/30426" target="_blank">Tania Boster</a>, and <a href="/node/6816" target="_blank">Jody Kerchner</a>, professor of music education in the conservatory.</p> <p>Rather than asking faculty to plan their winter term trips from scratch, the 91ֱ�� LIASE team invited them into the conversation, and asked them to build off of their existing teaching and research interests and frame their work within an environmental context. For many participants, the study trips were their first opportunity for experiential learning in East Asia.</p> <p>The winter-term trip to Sichuan Province, sponsored and directed by Schmidt, explored how cultural norms influence environmental attitudes and park management in the country. The group traveled with students and faculty from Sichuan University to prominent sites and landmarks such as Mt. Emei, Dujiangyan (one of the oldest surviving irrigation systems in the world), and an animal conservation reserve. They also carried out water sampling and analysis.</p> <p>Rex Simmons ’19, an environmental studies and East Asian studies double major, says that the winter term gave him the opportunity see firsthand the intersections of his studies at 91ֱ��. “I was able to have conversations about environmentalism, geology, and politics in Mandarin,” he says. “The experience was one of the first times I got to connect the dots between my different fields of study.”</p> <p>Lauren Waldman ’22, who intends to double major in East Asian studies and biochemistry, was also on the trip to Sichuan. Waldman echoes that she was also able to apply her studies at 91ֱ�� to a global learning context. “It was my first time abroad, and the opportunity to immerse myself in another culture and connect those experiences to the material I had been studying was absolutely incredible.”</p> <div class="obj-center"> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>A student on the Community-Based Environmental Studies: Hong Kong-U.S. Transnational Partnership and Exchange winter term takes notes in the Kadoori Farm and Botanic Garden Greenhouse<br> Photo by Tim Pelling</figcaption> </figure> </div> <p>Meanwhile, the trip to Hong Kong, sponsored and directed by Boster, explored environmental studies through the lens of social justice. Through a connected learning course collaboration as part of a <a href="http://liberalartsalliance.org/home" target="_blank">Global Liberal Arts Alliance</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> initiative, 91ֱ�� partnered with Lingnan University and the Education University of Hong Kong to learn how these institutions model community-based learning approaches to environmentalism in their own communities.</p> <p>Nia Daids ’19, an environmental studies major with a public health pathway, says that learning from the Chinese university students allowed her to reflect on her own activist engagements. “Subconsciously, I could feel tensions between culture and environmental sustainability before this trip, but now I am actually able to name that discomfort in my own community, advocacy, and environmental work,” she says.</p> <p>By incorporating visits to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and conservation sites, the group studied first-hand the roles of liberal arts institutions and their surrounding communities in simultaneously addressing environmental issues and social inequities.</p> <p>To prepare students academically as well as to provide a cultural introduction to China and Hong Kong, two module courses—one for each winter-term trip— were offered to students by faculty leaders in the fall. The readings, discussions, and presentations they conducted provided students with cultural, social, and historical contexts of the regions they would be visiting.</p> <p>From the early stages of the grant, the Luce Foundation has encouraged the college to think about ways to make grant initiatives sustainable. Sherif says that the grant has achieved what 91ֱ�� has been striving for: connected learning engagement and connecting people.</p> <p>“One element of LIASE has been to ‘bring Asia to 91ֱ��’ through guest speakers and increased curricular content about Asia,” Sherif says. “The ‘in Asia’ part is crucial; we can’t replicate the high-impact experiential learning that happens when students are actually in Asia on 91ֱ��’s campus. It can be transformational.”</p> <p>She attributes the two new courses that she has developed on East Asia and the environment to the grant and says that faculty and staff’s ability to think about environmental challenges within the context of their own disciplines “has potential for long-lasting effects on campus. Using what they have learned from the grant, they will be here, teach, and interact with generations of future students.”</p> <p>There is currently a LIASE-sponsored exhibition at the AMAM titled, <a href="http://www2.oberlin.edu/amam/NatureandNostalgia.html" target="_blank">Nature and Nostalgia in Early 20th-Century Japanese Art</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>.</p> <p><a class="view-more" href="https://cilc.oberlin.edu/liase/" target="_blank">Read more about 91ֱ�� LIASE</a></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-03-01T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/01/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erin Ulrich ’18</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Luce Initiative on Asian Studies (LIASE) implementation grant from the Henry Luce Foundation emphasizes integrative approaches to confronting environmental problems.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2402">Winter Term</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2563">Grants</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25336">East Asian Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25296">Archaeological Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/harrod-suarez" hreflang="und">Harrod Suarez</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jody-kerchner" hreflang="und">Jody Kerchner</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/amanda-schmidt" hreflang="und">Amanda Schmidt</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/christie-parris" hreflang="und">Christie Parris</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/east-asian-studies" hreflang="und">East Asian Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/archaeological-studies" hreflang="und">Archaeological Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Students in the Community-Based Environmental Studies: Hong Kong-U.S. Transnational Partnership and Exchange winter term in Hong Kong</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tim Pelling</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Associate Professor of Geology Amanda Schmidt and Monica Dix ’20 Conduct Research in Cuba</h1> <p>eulrich — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 15:45:48 +0000</p> <span>Associate Professor of Geology Amanda Schmidt and Monica Dix ’20 Conduct Research in Cuba</span> <span><span>eulrich</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-01-17T10:45:48-05:00" title="Thursday, January 17, 2019 - 10:45">Thu, 01/17/2019 - 10:45</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The research team aso included Mae Kate Campbell ’17, an 91ֱ�� alumna who is working on the project at the University of Vermont.</p> <p>After an arduous process of gaining permissions from the Cuban government, Schmidt, Campbell, and Dix were able to conduct geological research in Cuba this past summer through the University of Vermont’s (UVM) Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory. The laboratory’s research is a collaborative effort supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, 91ֱ�� College, and Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos in Cuba.</p> <p>Paul Bierman, professor of geology at UVM, oversees the Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory and traveled to Cuba with the 91ֱ�� team. Bierman has worked closely with Schmidt since she was a graduate student. They decided to write a proposal to visit Cuba after former President Obama visited the country in 2016, becoming the first president to do so since 1928. Conducting scientific research in Cuba is notoriously difficult. U.S. citizens have only been able to travel to the country since 2014, following decades of political turmoil and tenuous diplomatic relations.</p> <p>The research project explores the environmental ramifications on the Cuban landscape following the fall of the Soviet Union. Cuba was dependent on the Soviet Union in myriad ways and shared diplomatic ties. Specifically, the project explores the effects of Cuba’s transition to organic agriculture on erosion rates and water quality. With the help of <a href="https://www.aquagenx.com/university-of-vermont/" target="_blank">Aquagenx’s CBT E. coli kit</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> , the research team tested water samples from 24 Cuban rivers in an expedited, cost-efficient fashion.</p> <div class="obj-center"> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Associate Professor of Geology Amanda Schmidt on-site in Cuba<br> Photo courtesy of 91ֱ�� Geomorphology Research Lab</figcaption> </figure> </div> <p>Although Cuba has made the shift to organic agriculture, its agricultural methods still pose health hazards to its citizens. “In the United States, we have a tendency to assume using organic agriculture means you’re therefore protecting the environment entirely,” Schmidt says. “But Cuba’s agricultural is still, in many ways, industrialized.”</p> <p>The research team found high levels of E. coli in the rivers and initially predicted that the lack of sewage infrastructure in Cuba had directly caused the presence of the bacteria. However, there was no human DNA found in the samples sent off for testing. The feces that was present was from cows. The findings left Schmidt and the rest of the team to speculate what could be causing the E. coli levels, which exceed Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization standards.</p> <p>Schmidt says that the data “are suggesting that Cuba is one of the most rapidly weathering places in the world.” Thus, the facade of organic agriculture conceals far more daunting environmental and health threats.</p> <p>Dix, who had never traveled to Cuba before this project, was able to come into her own in the midst of onerous circumstances, Schmidt says. Despite the governmental red tape, language barrier, and long days in extreme heat, Dix developed relationships with the Cuban collaborators in what Schmidt says are still hierarchical, communist, Soviet-era style government posts. “The personal connection with the local people we had in Cuba is something I’ve never had to the same extent in other projects,” she says.</p> <p>Dix says the challenges she faced in Cuba not only put her research at 91ֱ�� in perspective, but also enhanced her experience. In spite of the 18-hour days, the heat, and the exigency of constant translation, Dix says it was worth it.</p> <p>“Having moments where you truly realize science is this universal language that we all share and can connect so well through, across governments and strife, is just so incredibly powerful,” she says. “To be together, share knowledge, and learn together and to be a part of that is just really magical.”</p> <p>Dix plans to attend graduate school and study geology, building off the relationships she developed in Cuba. “I’m planning on trying to bring Obies back with me to Cuba to keep passing along the good fortune,” she says.</p> <p>Schmidt has submitted requests for sampling points for two more field seasons in Cuba: spring and early summer 2019.</p> <p>Reflecting on the importance of working so closely with students, she says, “It’s really amazing to see how time in the field and doing geology all day and thinking about it and collecting samples gives students so much more ownership of their education and what they value.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-01-17T12:00:00Z">Thu, 01/17/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erin Ulrich ’18</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This past summer, Associate Professor of Geology and Chair of Archaeological Studies <a href="/node/5781" target="_blank">Amanda Schmidt</a>, along with third-year politics and geology major Monica Dix, traveled to Cuba to conduct geological research on water quality in the country.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2367">Science & Math</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2358">Undergraduate Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2368">Alumni</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25366">Geosciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25296">Archaeological Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/amanda-schmidt" hreflang="und">Amanda Schmidt</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/geosciences" hreflang="und">Geosciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/archaeological-studies" hreflang="und">Archaeological Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">(From left) Monica Dix ’20, Mae Kate Campbell ’17, and Rita Sibello Hernandez from the Center for Environmental Studies of Cienfuegos present their research at the MARCUBA 2018 Conference.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Photo courtesy of 91ֱ�� Geomorphology Research Lab</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Reunifying 91ֱ��’s Natural History Collection</h1> <p>hhempste — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 17:22:49 +0000</p> <span>Reunifying 91ֱ��’s Natural History Collection</span> <span><span>hhempste</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-08-29T13:22:49-04:00" title="Tuesday, August 29, 2017 - 13:22">Tue, 08/29/2017 - 13:22</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Inside King Hall, Associate Professor of Anthropology Amy Margaris ’96 sifts through bins of plastic sleeves. In each is a carefully preserved object from the department’s ethnographic collection. Margaris gingerly holds a colorfully threaded <a href="https://danglingcollections.wordpress.com/2017/09/20/heart-sack/">sack</a> made from the pericardium—the membrane that surrounds the heart—of an animal. The once pliable bag, Margaris explains, used to flex and bend to hold whatever was placed inside.</p> <p>Alongside the delicate bag are other objects, including a bentwood cedar box, whose purpose was likely for berry collecting, and an oblong wooden bowl whose dark stains suggest it was a vessel for holding meat.</p> <p>These are just three items of 36 in 91ֱ��’s Arctic collection, an assemblage of ethnographic items that came to the college in 1889 as part of a collection exchange with the Smithsonian Institution (at that time called the United States National Museum). Each of the pieces in the collection was obtained by a who’s who of 19th century Smithsonian naturalists who travelled to various Native communities in Alaska and eastern Canada to meet Yup’ik, Inuit, and Innu peoples.</p> <p>“Their sister objects are still at the Smithsonian in a <a href="http://alaska.si.edu/">famed collection</a>,” Margaris says.</p> <p>And while this collection is noteworthy, it is not the only impressive collection that exists on campus. It’s just one of many that Margaris has dubbed the college’s “dangling collections”— objects and specimens spread across various campus buildings that at one time had a home in the college’s natural history museum. You may even walk past artifacts from the former museum without even realizing it. Those bird specimens you see in the hallways of the Science Center? Part of the museum. The fossils on the fourth floor of the Carnegie Building? Those too were once in the museum.</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Objects in 91ֱ��'s Arctic collection were once part of the Smithsonian Institution and still possess their handwritten tags. Photo by Jennifer Manna.</figcaption> </figure> <p>So why do we have these collections? And what happened to the museum?</p> <p>In the 19th century, there was a campus museum called the 91ֱ�� College Museum, explains Margaris. It began as a small-scale natural history “cabinet” and was administered by Albert Wright, a professor of geology. Wright gathered the bulk of the early items from Northeast Ohio and from trips to Jamaica in 1863, to the West in 1868, and to upstate New York in 1869. All of the items were kept in what was termed the “College Cabinet.” (Collections of natural history specimens and curiosities were called “cabinets” in the 18th and early 19th centuries.)</p> <p>Contributions from 91ֱ�� alumni, many doing missionary work across the globe, helped the collection expand rapidly. In 1875, the collections were moved to <a href="http://www.oberlinlibstaff.com/omeka_oca/items/show/32">Cabinet Hall</a>, a structure built specifically for exhibition and recitation space. The building caught fire three times but, miraculously, no specimens were damaged. The collections continued to grow, and the College Cabinet was eventually termed a “museum,” as was the fashion in the 1880s.</p> <p>The collections were moved to various locations after that, including to a “fireproof” building at <a href="http://www.oberlinlibstaff.com/omeka_oca/items/show/151">Spear Library</a> on Tappan Square. When the collections outgrew the space in the library, there were attempts to fund the museum and erect a dedicated building to house the collections, but plans never came to fruition.</p> <p>“Many schools at the time were building these kinds of collections,” says Margaris. “But like at a lot of colleges, the 91ֱ�� museum eventually faded away. As the sciences changed and methods of inquiry changed, they were seen as out of date and as taking up too much space. Those collections that were retained were dispersed among departments. The taxidermied bird specimens went to biology, the mineralogical specimens went to geology, and anthropology received the ethnological objects.”</p> <p>Margaris along with other faculty and staff members on campus have embarked upon an effort to bring these objects to the forefront and assemble them—at least digitally—into a “Cabinet 2.0.” While this effort actually began in the early 2000s when Margaris’ advisor, Professor of Anthropology Linda Grimm, and Albert Borroni ’85 the director of 91ֱ�� Center for Technologically Enhanced Teaching (OCTET) digitized the Ethnographic Collection, there has been a renewed interest in digitization. Now, with Margaris’ students working on the initiative, this project has spanned decades.</p> <p>Digitizing objects from the long-dispersed collections presents numerous opportunities. “We not only make it possible for researchers at 91ֱ�� and beyond to find and use our collections in research, we can also learn more about what we have,” says Digital Initiatives Librarian Megan Mitchell. “We’ve been contacted by scholars abroad who have used our digital collections and provided us with additional information about objects. There’s a lot of potential for making connections with people, places, and things.”</p> <p>Professor of Geology Karla Hubbard is one such faculty member who has been part of the digital initiative. Hubbard is working to digitize the thousands of objects in the paleontology collection of the former 91ֱ�� College Museum.<br> <br> “It is a very slow and careful process,” says Hubbard. “The collection has been languishing without serious curatorial attention for a very long time, so as we work on digitizing the specimens, we also update the information associated with each [object]. The database we create will be available to students for research projects and laboratory exercises, as well as something available to the global research community interested in fossil specimens from all over the world.”</p> <p>As for the 36-piece Arctic collection, the Department of Anthropology and Mudd Center library staff plan to work with a student research assistant in this fall to incorporate the objects into the online database in the <a href="http://www2.oberlin.edu/library/digital/ocec/">91ֱ�� College Ethnographic Collection</a>, a hub for 91ֱ��’s many ethnological materials that were once housed in the former museum.</p> <p>Moving these objects online not only allows for access to the collections by students and researchers, but it also give access to those people whose ancestors created the objects.</p> <p>“These objects are cultural treasures,” says Margaris. “What we see happening more and more is Native people are visiting collections such as this as a way to learn old techniques and gather new knowledge. They’re not repatriating the objects. Instead, they’re repatriating the associated knowledge so that young people can learn about their ancestors and how they lived and carry that knowledge forward into the future.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2017-08-29T12:00:00Z">Tue, 08/29/2017 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Hillary Hempstead</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2583">College of Arts and Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2374">Archives & Special Collections</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2384">Libraries</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25296">Archaeological Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=24656">Anthropology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25366">Geosciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/amy-margaris" hreflang="und">Amy Margaris ’96</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/anthropology" hreflang="und">Anthropology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/geosciences" hreflang="und">Geosciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/archaeological-studies" hreflang="und">Archaeological Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Associate Professor of Anthropology Amy Margaris ’96 sits amid objects in a 36-piece Arctic collection that she’s leading the effort to digitize. </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jennifer Manna</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Practical Magic</h1> <p>anagy — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:03:18 +0000</p> <span>Practical Magic</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:03:18-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:03">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:03</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/archeological_studies/faculty_detail.dot?id=21291">Drew Wilburn</a> has been teaching about the archaeology of ancient magic since he came to 91ֱ�� in 2005. He is one of the few researchers in his field studying the physical objects used to practice magic in the Greco-Roman world.</p> <p>While the material side of magic intersects with others’ work, “I don’t think many others are looking at it from the archaeological side,” says Wilburn, who was recently named the Irvin Houck Associate Professor in the Humanities and is chair of archaeological studies.</p> <p>“There’s a long tradition of magical practice in antiquity through literature and texts written on objects. I’m one of the few, certainly, trying to understand how the objects made magic happen. It’s the physical things that informed and actualized magical practice in antiquity.”</p> <p>His latest book, <a href="http://www.press.umich.edu/233550/materia_magica">Materia Magica: The Archaeology of Magic in Egypt, Spain and Cyprus</a>, was published in 2012. The book draws on objects excavated or discovered in three Mediterranean sites in the late 19th or early 20th century. Ancient magic was not a part of mainstream religious practice, but it was a force individuals relied on to make their lives better, particularly in times of crisis. “Magic was often a crisis response or a kind of insurance policy. One would go to a ritual specialist for solutions. In my book I find several categories of objects used for spells and protection.”</p> <p>A common example people would associate with magic today is the amulet that was thought to ward off illness or harm. Figurines (voodoo dolls are the modern equivalent), magical bones to protect livestock or other animals from illness, and curses written out on lead sheets figure prominently in Wilburn’s book.</p> <p>He says there is a substantial body of curse tablets from the ancient world, which are often in the form of strips of lead. Lead was a byproduct of silver production, and lead was also used by the Romans for water pipes. In magical practice, pieces of lead were hammered into sheets, and a magician would inscribe spells on them. The tablets could be used against opponents in court cases, rival shopkeepers, or in love spells.</p> <p>Wilburn has recently begun to examine the ancient use of magic in buildings, such as floor mosaics and protective features in door frames that were believed to keep out evil spirits.</p> <p>He has also embarked on a digital humanities project involving student collaborators to create a GIS map of the ancient site of Karanis in Egypt, excavated by the University of Michigan from 1924-1935. Ryan Reynolds ’14 and senior Miranda Rutherford have been instrumental in the mapping that will show the distribution of archaeological finds across the site. Karanis was a highly multicultural location in the first century AD. Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were all living side by side and worshipping the same gods in the local temples.</p> <p>The Michigan excavation uncovered hundreds of thousands of objects and texts written in papyrus. Karanis also has some of the best examples of preserved houses from the ancient world. “Much of this has never been published before. We’re digitally reconstructing the excavation and history of the site.”</p> <p>Rutherford taught herself some programming over the summer, and has since worked with the computer science department to take further classes to bring data onto the map and make it accessible to the rest of the world.</p> <p>Rutherford began the project with some working knowledge of HTML and CSS. She spent much of the summer learning other languages and techniques, such as Javascript, in order to display an interactive map of Karanis on the project website and to link the map with a database of artifacts found at the site. She created the database with a program called PostgreSQL, which required learning a database programming language, SQL. She also set up a server to host the project website.</p> <p>“Professor Wilburn has been hugely influential during my time at 91ֱ��, and I am so grateful for his presence in the classics department and for the opportunities he has given me to help with his research,” says Rutherford, a San Diego native who has majors in religion and classical civilizations, as well as a minor in French. “Not only has he continually encouraged me to explore subjects I never would have considered (especially computer science, through the Karanis mapping project), he has taught me that the borders of the classical world do not end at Greece and Rome.</p> <p>“Projects such as the work on Karanis show that Greece and Rome did not exist in isolation, but had important connections with Egypt and the rest of North Africa, as well as the ancient Near East. Not only are these regions fascinating in and of themselves, but my work with Professor Wilburn has taught me that to truly understand Greek and Latin texts, we must also understand the culture they arose from, no matter how mundane it may seem in comparison. And sometimes, ‘mundane’ material culture really is the most exciting part of the classical world. The weird magical texts and artifacts he works with are good examples.”</p> <p>Wilburn says his collaboration with computer science faculty, including Associate Professor Ben Kuperman and Assistant Professor Cynthia Taylor, is one of the great aspects of a liberal arts community. “Miranda was able to learn new skills and immediately apply them. In the humanities, we are thought of as lone scholars. At 91ֱ��, we incorporate students in meaningful ways. My students have become an integrated part of the research.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2014-12-31T12:00:00Z">Wed, 12/31/2014 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25296">Archaeological Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25261">Classical Civilization</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/drew-wilburn" hreflang="und">Andrew (Drew) Wilburn</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/classics" hreflang="und">Classics</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Protecting Libyan Archaeology</h1> <p>anagy — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:04:39 +0000</p> <span>Protecting Libyan Archaeology</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:04:39-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:04">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:04</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Professor of Art History and Classical Archaeology Susan Kane has been awarded a Presidential Award from the <a href="http://www.saa.org">Society for American Archaeology</a> (SAA) for her work to preserve Libyan archaeological sites and heritage during Operation Unified Protector, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operation to protect Libyan citizens during the country’s civil war in 2011.</p> <p>Kane, along with three fellow award recipients and numerous collaborators, took the initiative to compile a “No-strike” list of important archaeological sites in Libya. The list provided NATO with precise coordinates of these sites to avoid damage during military operations.</p> <p>Fellow recipients of the SAA award include Corine Wegener, the cultural heritage preservation officer at the Smithsonian Institution; Tim Melancon, in the operational environment analysis division of the Defense Intelligence Agency; and Serena Bellew, the deputy federal preservation officer at the Department of Defense.</p> <p>“The SAA Presidential Award is made to recognize those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Society and its goals,” says SAA president Fred Limp. “A major Society goal has always been the preservation of the ever-diminishing record of the past that is found in archaeological sites — the destruction of any sites and heritage means that they are forever lost to scholarship, but, perhaps even more significantly, it has an immediate, enduring negative impact on the local residents.</p> <p>“By gathering this data and providing it to the military planners, Professor Kane and her collaborators preserved for the entire world the extraordinary archaeological heritage of Libya.”</p> <p>Kane began her work in Libya in the 1970s, and, after the country’s political embargo of the 1980s and 90s, returned in 2004 as the leader of the American archaeological mission. The main site of Kane’s work is the ancient Greek colony of <a href="https://archive.archaeology.org/0509/abstracts/cyrene.html">Cyrene</a>, one of the country’s five United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/190">World Heritage sites</a>. For her work in protecting Cyrene during Operation Unified Protector, the Friends of Cyrene named Kane an honorary president of their organization and bestowed upon her the title of honorary martyr.</p> <p>“I am deeply moved by the SAA’s acknowledgement of our work to protect Libya,” says Kane. “It was a real team effort with many collaborators both in the United States and abroad. I feel that I was only one member of a large team and the award should be on behalf of them all.”</p> <p>The award will be presented to Kane on April 5 in Honolulu at the SAA’s annual meeting. </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2013-02-22T12:00:00Z">Fri, 02/22/2013 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2377">Arts & Humanities</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25296">Archaeological Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/archaeological-studies" hreflang="und">Archaeological Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Susan Kane</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>