Deep Springs Newsletter Fall 2011 Visiting Professors
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DEEP SPRINGS NEWSLETTER FALL 2011 VISITING PROFESSORS Sam Laney and dynamics of marine photosynthetic microbes. Dur- Sam Laney DS87 returned to the valley in August ing his intervening time “on shore” he pursues his other to teach both a standard course in Differential Calculus research interests in marine microbial ecology and leads and an advanced course in Multivariable Calculus, having graduate courses in his institution’s joint program with taught computer science and mathematics at Deep Springs MIT. before, in 2007. Sam fits naturally into the Deep Springs project, Sam grew up in a small paper-mill town on the riding on the occasional cattle drive or with students on Kennebec River in central Maine. After high school he weekends. He says that spent two years at Deep Springs (1987-89) before continu- one of the great lessons ing his studies at Cornell University. Sam lived at Telluride he gained from Deep Association’s Cornell Branch, serving twice as house presi- Springs was the ability dent, where he was able to maintain his interest in Nunnian to take two interests— education while completing a joint degree in Engineer- one intellectual, and ing and Biology. He then worked at the Department of one practical—and Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, unite them to build a developing and field-testing technology for monitoring the life and career. “On health of oceanic microorganisms. Later he worked in the the one hand you’re ocean instrumentation industry in both the US and UK, dealing with ecologi- and subsequently went back to graduate school at Oregon cal theory of marine State University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Biological photosynthesis, and on Oceanography with a minor in Electrical Engineering and the other hand you’ve Computer Science. got the duct tape and Sam received a post-doctoral research scholar- the superglue and the bailing wire, trying to make some- ship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where thing that’s going to go into the ocean.” Sam continues he began growing his current research program in polar to express this practical intellectualism, and we thank him oceanography. Sam now spends a couple months out of deeply for his time in the valley and for bringing this qual- each year on icebreakers in the Arctic, studying the health ity and approach to life with him. De-nin Lee When professor De-nin Lee arrived in the valley in August with her husband Jack and their son Sebastien, many were impressed by how quickly and naturally they integrated themselves into the Deep Springs milieu. Here for the fall semester on leave from Bowdoin College, De-nin leads a class on art and politics in 20th century China, bringing an East Asian tilt to our often occidental curriculum. While De- nin contributes to the academic program, Jack and Sebastien explore the valley—venturing as far as Dead-Horse mead- ows—help in the kitchen, or toss the frisbee with students on the main circle. In addition Jack spends many hours in the woodshop re-defining the space and repairing furniture and loose ends around the college. De-nin attended UC Berkeley, where her academic Springs because “we both felt that the commitment to labor, interest in art history first began to bud. Initially interested community, and the academic program here is an ideal we in questions of social dynamics and historical changes, De- would like to see elsewhere. This is one of the best situations nin says it was actually through art history that she gained I’ve seen for teachers at the college or university level.” perspective to begin answering some of her questions and explore these interests. De-nin earned her Masters at Williams College, and eventually returned to the west coast to further her studies on Chinese art and painting at Stanford, where her Ph.D. work culminated in a book, The Night Banquet, pub- lished in 2010. De-Nin’s political art history course has broken the mold in a Deep Springs way with a creative hands-on com- ponent where students are asked to practice calligraphy and painting in order to gain additional perspective on the mate- rial at hand. De-Nin says she and Jack were attracted to Deep Deep Springs’ 2010-2011 student body 2011 Withrow Speakers Philip Gourevitch Philip Gourevitch, contributing editor to the New His work is certainly a service to humanity. Mr. Gourevitch Yorker, visited the Valley this past June as our Spring Withrow performs the difficult but important task of humanizing and Speaker. He was joined by his wife Larissa MacFarquhar, also presenting the tragedies and conflicts of the third world to an a journalist at the New Yorker, and their two dog-loving daugh- audience that is often far removed from them. He noted that ters. The family stayed in the valley for a week and were well a common question which has driven him through much of received by the community. Everybody was won over by their his work is “Why do events that occur in other parts of the charm, intelligence, and general amiability. world have no conceivable effect on the average American Mr. Gourevitch’s first speech was about his work as a matter?” Through his work Mr. Gourevitch clearly demon- journalist, which has largely focused on Rwanda and Central strates a conviction that these events do matter. He says that Africa. His book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will asking this question has been an important step in delivering Be Killed with our Families: Stories from Rwanda, is an account of news and raising awareness of these tragedies an American the Rwandan genocide, based primarily around interviews audience with no notable stake in the matters. with survivors. Philip and his family’s visit to the valley was invigo- This speech led seamlessly into Mr. Gourevitch’s rating and pleasant for the community; it left everyone with a following talk, which centered around how he came to be host of new questions and potentially inspired a few budding a journalist and how he believes it to be a life of service. journalists. Kristi Graunke Our fall 2011 Withrow Chair was Kristi Graunke, a While at Deep Springs, she read about a case involving a senior staff attorney with the Immigrant Justice Project at the class-action suit brought by maids against their employers, de- Southern Poverty Law Center. manding fair treatment, wages, and benefits. Thinking about Ms. Graunke, following tradition, gave two talks the massive human impact that cases like this can have moti- while in the valley, one focusing on her professional career, vated Ms. Graunke to pursue public interest law. She ultimate- the second about her route to that life. In her first presenta- ly graduated from Yale Law School and served for at time as tion, Ms. Graunke discussed ongoing legal battles over the clerk with the US Ninth Circuit Court. In her presentation, constitutionality of Alabama’s draconian new law targeted at she also described her experiences litigating a suit brought by immigrants without papers. Ms. Graunke, who is part of a undocumented workers from Mexico against a company that team supporting attempts to have the law overturned, ana- had failed to pay its workers and then turned them over to im- lyzed many of the larger constitutional and legal issues at migration authorities when they protested their exploitation. stake and answered numerous questions regarding the process It was a pleasure having Ms. Graunke—whose bona whereby law is interpreted and put into practice. fides as a student of Nunnian educational programs and phi- In her second talk, Ms. Graunke talked about her his- losophy towards public service are hard to match—return to tory with both Telluride Association and Deep Springs (she Deep Springs and inspiring to hear about her work in public was one of a small group of women Telluride students who interest law. joined the DS student body for two semesters in 1995-6). Fall Semester 2011 Course Offerings This semester the Deep Springs academic course offering is broadly varied, offering students a chance to dig deeper into personal areas of academic interest, from multi-variable calculus to Chinese art history. We are pleased to have visiting faculty members Samuel Laney and De-nin Lee teaching this fall, along with our dean, Brother Kenneth Cardwell, and our three returning long-term faculty members: Joel Schlosser, Jennifer Rapp, and Amity Wilczek. Art and Politics in Twentieth-century China (Art His- cooperatively and interactively outside of class in solving tory, Asian Studies) looks at Chinese art from the mid-19th problem sets, reviewing progress and understanding. Classes century to the present as it intersects with changing political are mostly student-led. Instructor: Samuel R. Laney DS87. contexts. Students explore how artists used various media, traditional or otherwise, to express new concepts of nation- Liberalism and its Discontents (Political Science, Philos- hood, mobilize against Japanese aggression, raise political ophy) examines the genesis and basic elements of liberalism. consciousness among workers and peasants, and voice politi- In addition to understanding and analyzing these theories in cal protest. Instructor: De-nin Lee. their historical contexts, the class is considering these argu- ments in light of some of liberalism’s discontented critics and Directed Study in Introduction to Multivariable Calculus as they appear in contemporary discussions of the state, the (Mathematics) is a comprehensive, accelerated course in social contract, diversity, inequality, and democratic move- multivariable calculus comparable to the first two-thirds of a ments. Instructor: Joel Alden Schlosser. semester-long course in this material.