Bizarre. I was born in Buenos Aires, and I lived in Geneva, and I lived in Manhattan before coming here, and I love it [here].  But that's the bizarre thing. … I would have never thought I would end up in the countryside, in an old house. It's completely different than an urban kind of life but I love it.

How do you satisfy your love of art while living in a place that lacks a prominent art culture?

There's art in my house. I'm afflicted with a very bad case of what we call in French collectionnite, collection-itis, inflammation of the collecting drive, so there's art at home. … I'm looking at art all the time with my students, I go to Europe at least once a year, there's the museum. … I don't feel that I'm in some kind of cultural void.

You seem to have a really diverse background.

I've been a little all over the place. If I'm in America I feel European but if I'm in Europe they think I'm American, which God knows I'm not. … When I was growing up in Argentina as a kid I couldn't roll my R's, I spoke French at home, so people thought I had this thick French accent. I had to study Russian in high school to learn how to roll R's.

When did you realize you were interested in art?

I was always quite creative. I used to do pottery when I was five or six. I loved to create costumes from stuff around the house. I loved to have disguises. Then I really got into ballet. … In Switzerland the end of the obligatory school is when you turn 16, or around that time, so I stopped and went to do ballet full time and within three or four months I started having big problems with my feet. So I went back to school. … to a special section in high school in Geneva that had lots of painting and art history and sculpture. So that's when I started becoming really, really into art history. And then when I started university in Geneva I did both literature and art. I was quite interested in literature, [but] I love art history.

Do the two come together?

Literature and art?  Oh yeah.  If you start thinking about it there's a lot, from comic books to art criticism-because it's people writing on art and on visual stuff, paintings that have some words in them, text that refers to pictures, and you have a whole ancient tradition of describing works of art that didn't even exist or that might have been lost. Somehow I managed to reconcile those two things. As a matter of fact, I'm the president of the International Association of Word and Image Studies. 

What does that mean?

It's an international association of scholars who are in all kinds of different fields. You have art historians, literary types. You have linguists, anthropologists. You have some creative types, and any person who is interested in works that combine verbal and visual expressions.

Why did you choose images over words?

I knew that the main thing I was interested in was art history because I love pictures. I also think it's because I'm lazy, because I love looking at pictures rather than reading books. And I spent my entire childhood reading TinTin. I know it by heart. And that too, is words and pictures. But especially pictures, beautiful pictures.

What have you been researching lately?

I am finishing a book-it's [on] a very bizarre subject–but I'm working on graffiti that were made on frescos. I'm working on a particular chapel in Northern Italy which has 15th century frescos. Some of the frescos had inscriptions scratched on them. There are around 150 inscriptions, they start in the 16th century and go all the way to the 19th century. First they're in Latin, then they switch to Italian. But they're all events that happened in the history of the village. Each time something important would happen someone would go into that chapel and write that down on the paintings. And when you see it you first think vandalism, but it's something else. I'm really thinking about it as a devotional act, because they're on [paintings of] saints. I think about what it means to write history, to record history.

Do you have a favorite piece of art? A single one?

That's tough. That would be, for what [purpose]? Sometimes I'm thinking I would love to have several houses [for different kinds of art], so I could have a very modern one, because I do like very contemporary art. But I have an early 19th century house here, so [the art] has to go with the house. So, no. Don't ask that to an art historian.

Live from the Homesick Jamboree has just been published by Wesleyan University Press. What's the story behind it?

It traces homesickness from the American South. When I came to Colby, I came to teach and I knew that I was coming to a new place and that I wouldn't understand it. They say Southern writers write from the American South and can't really write about anything but the American South, so there's this weird displacement and question of place in the book. Part of the book is about where I am in the world, where I found myself to be in the world. And then motherhood is another big topic. There are a lot of poems about the experience of motherhood.

You have renowned writers in the Creative Writing Program. How do you think this has shaped the program?

I think a lot of the prestige of a creative writing program is traditionally thought to be the faculty, and so the faculty is part of that. But I think the most amazing thing about Colby is how good the students are.

What do you like most about your Colby students?

They are very smart. My students are self-selected, so most people don't take the class unless they want to. It's not like an intro math class where you have people that really don't like math but have to take it. Many of them actually do what I say. They work at it, and they try it, and they get really good fast. It does not cease to amaze me how good they can get.

Given how much you like writing, how did you decide to go into teaching?

I like to write. I wanted to go live on my grandmother's farm and have children and… then the truth of the economy of the world stepped down and I had to figure out how to make a living. And someone offered for me to teach one project class at this one college and I thought, I'll try. This was twenty years ago. And I found that I liked it. It's funny because my father is a college professor and it's the last thing I wanted to do. But I liked it, and I didn't want to be bored. So I ended up teaching and it was a surprise I loved it very much.

Did you always know you would write poetry?

I started out as a fiction writer. I have a really hard time writing stories… I feel like I'm lying. It took me longer than other people to realize I should be writing poetry. So the most amazing thing is I couldn't tell a story in prose but I could in poetry, and I don't know why.

Should writers write only when they feel inspiration or is inspiration a myth?

I think that both things are true. When we are young, we often need a trigger, something that inspires the writing, for instance, emotions. As you grow older, the triggers can be a bit more complicated than that. They come from different sources. Rather than just being an emotional trigger, they can be intellectual triggers, like you read a poem. They can be sensual triggers, like something you see in the world. I think the triggers could get more complicated. If you wait for inspiration you're probably doomed.

Run by Tufts University School of Medicine and Maine Medical Center, the program aims to combat the shortage of medical doctors in Maine. A competitive group of college students from the University of Maine system as well as Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin apply towards the end of their sophomore year.

Admission to the program is contingent upon having taken a prescribed curriculum of biology, physics, chemistry and math classes, and maintaining a grade point average (G.P.A) of 3.5 or better in all coursework. Out of the 60 or so applicants each year, about a dozen gain admission. The program offers discounted tuition because Maine does not have an in-state medical school. Though it does not require it, the program encourages students to practice medicine in Maine after the program.

“Basically, it's trying to put a rural twist to your education so that you know if practicing in a rural situation in Maine is what you want to do,” Baier said. “Often, doctors will come in to Maine and they will get out as quickly as they can because it's not what they are prepared to do and it's not what they want to do.”

For the first two years of the program, students spend most of their time taking classes at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. For the last two years, students have the opportunity to participate in clinical rotations in Portland and other cities in Maine.

A major factor in the appeal of the Early Assurance Program is the fact that candidates can major in a wide range of disciplines and pursue other interests besides the traditional premed curriculum.

Baier expressed joy and relief at his admission to the Early Assurance Program. “It ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be, because it wasn't something I was driving towards all the time. Basically I was going about what I wanted to do here, my music major and doing premed on the side,” he explained. “It's a really nice feeling. I've always dreamed of being a doctor, and now I know that it's actually going to happen.”

After finishing her Colby studies in January, Emily Colin '10J had plans to coach alpine skiing at a high school in Vermont, study arctic watersheds in Alaska, and bicycle from Ecuador to Argentina teaching young people about the environment.

Colin's plans seem to take her all over the place, and this isn't the first time she has carved her own nontraditional path.

In January Colin graduated at the age of 24. She had arrived as a 21-year-old freshman, and she was one of only three students on Mayflower Hill over age 22 last fall. She shrugged when asked about being in college with students six years younger. “I like to do things different than everyone else, so I guess it's fitting.”

Age isn't the only thing that set Colin apart. Unlike most Colby students, she didn't start college straight out of high school. Colin had other plans before her love of learning drew her to Waterville, where she thrived academically and beyond.

Colin arrived at Colby ready to pursue a geology major and was immediately inspired by her structural geology class. “It's so freaking rad,” she said, eyes illuminating. During her four years Colin embraced experiences outside of the classroom as well, skiing for Colby's Division I alpine ski team (finishing as high as seventh in the NCAA Eastern Championships in her final season) and exploring Maine on her bicycle.

Colin's untraditional path began when, after high school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, she trained for three years-moving around the country in hopes of making the U.S. Ski Team. During this time she recovered from frustrating knee injuries and at times worked four jobs to pay for rent, groceries, and ski equipment. As always, Colin was open to any opportunity-even after her knee kept her from fulfilling her alpine dreams. Her injuries led her to Pilates for recovery and then to her winter job as a Pilates instructor. Before college Colin learned to be economically self-sufficient and resourceful.

Moving into a Colby dorm room with students right out of high school was a little strange after living in an apartment and paying rent, Colin said-but not a worry. “I was excited to be in school again, and I didn't even think about it.”

The transition was hard at times, but Colin ended up living off campus with five 21-year-old classmates she considers best friends. At their Waterville apartment, which is decorated with stickers that say Geology Rocks!, they host potluck dinners for the organic gardening club.
But Colin's main passion at Colby was in the Mudd Science Building. Not ready to end her formal education with her Colby degree, she has applied to graduate school for environmental geochemistry. Her passion for learning about how the Earth works goes hand in hand with her love for keeping the Earth working this way. Colin said she hopes to “inspire others to love what they see and respect it.”

Before starting graduate school, Colin intends to teach others how to respect the Earth, continuing her unusual path towards education out of the classroom-and south of the border. This September Colin will travel the length of South America with a high school friend, educating young people about environmental issues in their own countries.

At her off-campus apartment, Colin relaxes in her hammock

What inspired a college graduate with big plans to take time away from school to bike 3,600 miles through a foreign continent? That same lust for learning that brought Colin to Colby-and a desire to make a difference. “First of all,” she said, “biking is a great way to see things a lot better than when you're driving in a car.” Colin said she learned how to “tread lightly, live greenly, and leave no trace” during high school, and that launched her into a path of environmental activism.

Colin plans to provide her own basic knowledge about climate change to as many people as possible through environmental education on her journey from Quito, Ecuador, through Peru and Bolivia to Cholila, Argentina.

Then what? Colin received a three-year research position at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, studying arctic watersheds near Lake Toolik. It's an offer that will combine her love of science and the outdoors and give her a straight shot into grad school. “I can't pass it up,” she said, putting her hands up and shrugging. She smiled widely: “It's rare you come across something in the Arctic Circle.”

An indirect path to graduate school, but, if past experience is any indication, it will work out just fine.

Two years ago, the Yes Men got themselves invited as keynote speakers to Go-EXPO, Canada's largest oil conference. Posing as representatives of Exxon-Mobil and the National Petroleum Council, Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum introduced a new biofuel, made from the human victims of climate change, and they called it Vivoleum. While showing a video about the first victim, a loyal Exxon-Mobil janitor (actually a comedian friend of theirs) they passed out biofuel candles to all those in attendance.

“There's a priceless look on the audience's face when they realize they're holding this dead person in a candle,” said Bonanno.

This stunt is one of many. The Yes Men have (mis)represented the Dow Chemical Company on BBC news, spoken for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development along with the mayor of New Orleans, and presented their vision of Halliburton's latest survival technology at an insurance conference. But these alternative personas aren't just for fun.

The dynamic duo poses as high-level corporate executives or government officials, staging hoaxes to expose what they say are the unethical, profit-maximizing practices of the very organizations they pretend to represent. On October 27, Bonanno spoke at Colby about their recent work and to promote their new movie, The Yes Men Change the World, which was screened later that evening at the Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville.

Their brand of social activism is unconventional to say the least-“mischief that exposes truth,” Bonnano calls it. “If you want to be taken seriously, you have to make people think you have a lot of money,” he said.

In the Yes Men's latest stunt, Bichlbaum posed as a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official in front of journalists at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and announced that the chamber would support an across-the-board carbon tax-a radical step beyond current cap-and-trade proposals that the chamber opposes-in order to satirize what he calls the chamber's traditionally eco-unfriendly practices.

“The debate on climate change has been created by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” Bonanno told students. “The reason we [as a society] haven't done anything [to address climate change] is because there is lobbying and fake grassroots campaigns saying that climate change is not happening. It's like trading a bit of short-term profit for, essentially, the future.”

The chamber took the Yes Men's attack seriously. The night the pair was scheduled to speak at Colby and Railroad Square, they received word that the chamber was suing the comedy group on the grounds that the Yes Men used its trademark to make money.

Bichlbaum went to deal with the lawsuit and Bonanno introduced the film at Railroad Square to an overflowing crowd of community members, Colby students, and faculty.

“That film was remarkable,” said Bob Ingalls, a frequent Railroad Square visitor from Mt. Vernon, Maine, said afterwards. “Now that was good work.”

Loosely defined, epidemiology is the study of disease-the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Epidemiology is the basic science of public health, which aims to "prevent disease, prolong life, and promote health at population level," Scott said. Why study disease? he asked. "The global death rate is still one-hundred percent." The epidemiologist's job is to analyze and observe in order to "maximize the amount of time people are healthy."

Epidemiologists, he said, describe disease, investigate outbreaks, and design and implement interventions. Disease isn't randomly distributed amongst the population. Risk factors target more susceptible groups. Therefore, treatment on a patient-by-patient basis is less efficient than intervention or a long-lasting treatment for the group as a whole. Epidemiology and public health should work together, Scott said.

Don't doctors do the same thing? No, Scott said. The goals of medicine and the goals of public health are different. Medicine assesses a patient's health and provides a one-time treatment regimen. If the patient is cured, then all is well. Public health, on the other hand, with the help of information provided by epidemiology, assesses disease across a population and how it can be prevented or managed in different groups in the population. Policies are then developed to treat the entire population and to assure services that are available to everyone.

This spring Scott will offer a course Topics in Epidemiology. Students expressed interest not only in enrolling, but in researching organizations he discussed in his talk-local and national disease surveillance initiatives and the World Health Organization-in hopes of learning about trends and recent disease outbreaks.

Holiday music from the Colby College Chorale, a cappella groups, and the hand bell choir will emanate from Lorimer Chapel Dec. 11 and 12 for the 40th Annual Service of Carols and Lights.

Protestant Chaplain Ron Morrell has produced the annual service for more than 20 of the service's 40-year history and will do it again this year as “Colby's gift to the community.” Many central Maine residents make this a regular part of their holiday season, and students enjoy participating in the festive tradition.

“I'm singing with the chorale and am so excited to sing at the service, because music is all about entertaining,” Jean-Jacques Ndayisenga '13 said, “We just want everyone to come. I am excited about the wide community participation.”

The Annual Service of Carols and Lights was first held in 1969 in Lorimer Chapel. This year's services will occur at 7 p.m. each night, with an additional service Saturday at 3.30 p.m. Although the format varies each year, many traditions, like the lighting of devotional candles, have been preserved.

Attendance at the three services, which is free, nears 2,000 people every year, according to Morrell.

Please note: Free tickets, which have been distributed, are required.

Devlin discussed how math applies to real world scenarios. The dimples in question? They help create turbulent flow, which improves flight and speed in the golf ball's travel, reducing drag and favoring the player.

Using Newton's third law of motion, which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, Devlin explored air travel. When airplanes fly, he said, the nose increases slightly to dramatically force air downwards. To help push the air downwards most aircraft have dimples in their wings.

If anyone in the audience had no knowledge of physics or calculus applications, Devlin's approach to these two questions assuaged their doubts that mathematical concepts can be simple and relevant. Christine Zeng '13 appreciated Devlin's “figuring out things about the world in layman's terms and not through extremely difficult calculus terms.”

Devlin came back to Colby (he taught here from 1989 to 1993) to engage in a two-part IBM Lecture series, which brings a notable professional in the field annually. Devlin is the cofounder and current executive director of Stanford University's H-STAR (Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research) Institute.

This wasn't the only talk about real world mathematics presented by the Math Department. A colloquium series meets once a week for an hour, which, says Visiting Instructor Scott Taylor, “exposes students to a wide variety of math in the world that students won't necessarily receive in the classroom.”

At the third annual Colby Alumni Networking Weekend in October, students of color and graduates in the Alumni of Color Network shared thoughts on being in the minority at Colby and established connections that could be helpful in the future.

The Career Center organized various workshops, lectures, and panels and also provided the opportunity for the groups to meet informally. One panel included 10 alumni of color and 10 ALANA (African American, Latin American, Native American, Asian American) students who talked about the good and not so good of being a minority student at Colby.

While some students and alumni talked about challenges, alumni shared ways in which they were able to make the most of their Colby experience and were enthusiastic about what they got out of it. Organizer Karin Weston of the Office of Alumni Relations said that the weekend is an opportunity for alumni and students “to express negative and positive raw emotions.”

The discussions were candid and honest. Richard Uchida '79 said how good it was “to hear about the issues from students in a setting that's not artificial.”

As students shared their experiences, alumni offered reflections and guidance. Mindy Pinto '02 said that despite the ups and downs in her social experience at Colby, it ultimately came down to having “good friendships with good people.” Some alumni remembered it being difficult to maintain friendships with people who, because of their backgrounds, weren't diverse in their beliefs and opinions.

The alumni panelists collectively expressed that they had struggled to feel a sense of belonging In the Colby community. This session, though, allowed current students to use the experiences of others to avoid some of the same challenges. “Use this opportunity as a way to get outside of your individual bubble and meet with new people,” said Jacquelyn Lindsey Wynn '75.

Alumni said that in getting out of their bubbles or broadening the scope of their social experience it became easier to be part of the Colby community-and the results were good. A Colby education provided alumni with limitless possiblilities, taking them just about anywhere, they said. Each alum recalled triumph in both the academic and social spheres of their life at Colby when they formed relationships with professors and administration outside of academics. They encouraged students to take advantage of the resources unique to a small liberal arts school.

“Learning how to communicate with people was like being on a stage all the time, “ said Steven Earle '79. He took away the ability of not only dealing with but also understanding different groups of people.

Later that evening, ALANA students got together with alumni in the AOCN casually over dinner at Freedom Café, a soul food restaurant in Waterville. Students who attended both the panel and dinner expressed gratitude for the opportunity to create a sense of family with alumni. This informal setting allowed for students to compare and contrast their experiences to those of the alumni.

Uchida said he was struck most by the students' optimism. Students understand there are issues here at Colby, but they are optimistic and above all, he said, still feel they are having a good experience.

Sighted: witches, wizards, Dobby, and the Whomping Willow … at Foss Dining Hall?

Students seeking a little magical reprieve from their studies transformed one of the Colby dining halls into The Great Hall from the Harry Potter books and movies, resplendent with house colors, flickering cauldrons, suits of armor, and medieval paintings. On Oct. 29 the dining hall was packed with more than 600 students, 50 percent more than on an average night. Cameras flashed and students chattered excitedly-and got on the phone to gloat to friends from home.

Posters publicizing the dinner went up a week earlier and by Thursday night students were abuzz with anticipation. They weren't disappointed. After being “sorted” at the entrance by picking a house out of a hat, students sat at their respective house tables and feasted on the likes of Gillyweed Soup, Hippogriff Pot Pie, and Steamed Forbidden Forest Tubers, followed by a lavish selection of desserts including pumpkin bread, and treacle tart. A newly formed Quidditch team circulated a sign-up sheet to recruit more members.

Photo by: Hannah Shapiro '12

The magic was contagious-even the dining hall staff got into the spirit. Manager Terry Landry dressed up as Dumbledore and encouraged competition by offering a $25 gift certificate for the staff member with the most original costume.

“This should be a Colby tradition,” said Fiona Masland '12 as she finished her Hippogriff Pot Pie. There was general agreement from her friends.

It turns out Colby students have much to look forward to. “We just threw all the decorations in a box so we could pull them out next year,” said Nick Cunkelman '11, one of the students who organized the event.

Butterbeer, anyone?

Allen spoke at Colby Oct. 7. As he set out to investigate the Enhanced Interrogation Program run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Allen said he asked, "What were the doctors doing?"

The doctors, Allen said, designed, implemented, monitored, and provided the foundation for a legal rationalization for torture. “And it is now obvious that you could not have launched this torture program without the doctors,” he said. Conversely, he added, “The doctors could have stopped this in its tracks.”

The Obama administration released the Justice Department memos that were written by lawyers and used by the Bush administration. These documents sought to legitimize the use of torture on U.S. detainees overseas. The lawyers who drafted these memos called the interrogation techniques humane and cited the presence of doctors as a reason the techniques to be permissible, said Allen.

The enhanced interrogation program used psychological techniques like diapering (in which interrogators put the detainees in diapers and would not let them go to the bathroom), sexual humiliation, prolonged isolation, and more. Walling, for example, is when “a towel is put around the neck and the detainee's head is slammed into a flexible wall” while blindfolded, Allen said.

“But how could good doctors do bad things?” he asked.

Doctors, Allen said, can get caught between their professional duty to their patients and their duty to their employers. This is especially true for doctors in the military. The institutions, he said, use seductive arguments to lure doctors into this program, like arguing for the presence of doctors because they wanted to ensure that detainees were ‘safe.' Many good doctors were thus swayed into participating in something that Allen maintains was wrong. The lack of an independent institution they could appeal to also played a role in their silence, he said.

Although he understands the doctors' predicament, Allen believes. “A physician should use the human dignity standard,” he said. “Torture is dehumanizing to everyone… those being tortured and those being asked to do it.”

Allen is a clinical associate professor of medicine the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and cofounder and co-director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I.

Before an audience of mostly economics majors in a full Ostrove Auditorium on October 15, Robert E. Diamond '73, CEO of Barclays Capital and chair of Colby's board of trustees, spoke on Mayflower Hill about the current state of Wall Street and what to expect moving forward in the global economic climate. Diamond had recently returned from the World Bank meetings in Istanbul and spoke on a range of topics, from the fundamental changes taking place in international markets to the inner working culture at Barclays.

Citing the fact that in the first half of 2009, G10 nations suffered a 3.5 percent drop in GDP, Diamond emphasized that “banks now face an unprecedented series of challenges, such as significant write downs, capital raising, regulatory stress tests, liquidity, and compensation.”

“The question for the economist is what are the summations of these changes and what is the impact on credit and the economy,” he said.

Noting that the original goal of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae was to offer affordable mortgages to middle-class Americans, and the fact that this attempt spiraled out of control, Diamond pushed for more control in the future-and on the international level as well.

“A lot of things that happened in the weaker banks could've been avoided with stronger, more intrusive, more constant regulation,” he said. “We need a regulatory environment where there is a level playing field and an interconnectedness across geography. There is a tendency for banks to not be part of regulatory reform.”

Diamond outlined that such reform must foster two interrelated elements: a safe and sound financial system and one with healthy banks able to assume risk. “We all want strong, confident banks that are willing to take risks across borders in international trade,” he said.

Sitting in the front row of the auditorium, in a building named after the man at the podium, were several of Diamond's current employees-some of them recent Colby graduates or current Colby students with internships. After introducing the assembled constituents, Diamond outlined his goal for Barclays Capital itself: to become the world's premier investment bank.

“I love coming to work every day,” he said, and, considering Barclays' September 2008 acquisition of Lehman Brothers and 10,000 new employees, he added that it was a positive sign that at Barclays “the culture has not changed.”

Dozens of students turned out on Miller Lawn despite the weather and formed the number 350 for photos. "The photo in the rain wasn't supposed to be in the rain," said Rachel Baron '11, co-president of the Environmental Coalition.

The organization, called 350, is a global campaign confronting the climate crisis. The number 350 comes from the maximum carbon emissions that Earth can sustain-350 parts per million, according to some scientists.

Three-fifty is such an iconic image,” said Sarah Sorenson '11, co-president of the Environmental Coalition. “It's a great way of involving people so that people can find out what it's all about.”

After the photo session, the students had snacks and a pumpkin raffle. Khoa Nguyen '11, a native of Can Tho, Vietnam, and one of those who won a pumpkin, reflected afterward. “I didn't know about 350, but Rachel Baron explained it well," he said. "My town is among several cities around the globe that will be under water if we didn't take any action now. It's scary to think about, but, hopefully, it's not going to happen, not in my lifetime.”

The campaign hopes global leaders will commit to reducing emissions at the December conference in Copenhagen.