Appendix A: CBB Mellon Collaborative Faculty Enhancement Grants: Abstracts OCTOBER 2010 AWARDS Second Annual Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Economics Conference Collaborators: Bowdoin, Bates, Colby Principle: Stephen Meardon (Economics, Bowdoin) This project continued the Annual Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Economics Conference. The conference was a full-day annual event open to faculty, students and the community. Goals of the conference are cross- sub-disciplinary scholarly exchanges and research networking among faculty, presentation of honors work by students, and exposure of less senior students to questions and standards of economic research. The larger purpose is to bring the economics departments at Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin closer together, thereby encouraging collaborative faculty research and advancing the quality of student research. Participants expressed clearly their wish to repeat the event. A successful first conference was held at Bates on April 10, 2010. The conference in 2011 was held at Bowdoin; the aim is to continue the conference at Colby in 2012. Fostering Communication and Collaboration among Algebraists, Number Theorists and Topologists Collaborators: Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby Principle: Thomas Pietraho (Mathematics, Bowdoin) This collaboration brought together researchers who specialize in the fields of number theory, algebra and topology from Bowdoin, Bates and Colby Colleges for a three-part program: a research seminar with prestigious invited speakers, a “local collaboration conference” once per semester to stimulate collaborative research, and the appointment of six student-scholars committed to attending all lectures with faculty members. Goals are to facilitate the creation of joint research projects between faculty members (and possibly students) by highlighting problems which lie at the intersection of these three important disciplines within mathematics. Twelve faculty members among the three schools specialize in these areas. Mainely Data Conference in Psychology Collaborators: Bates, Colby, and Bowdoin Principle: Todd Kahan (Psychology, Bates) The “Mainely Data” conference was a small, state-wide conference for experimental psychologists and students in Maine. Until recently, no venue at the state level was available for showcasing psychological research. The first “Mainely Data” meeting, held at Colby College in May 2010, was an initial step in filling this gap. This year’s conference enabled researchers to engage with their peers from other institutions and increased awareness of the research being conducted throughout the state. Continued support of the conference will (1) establish the conference as a regular occurrence, (2) ensure its continued success and increased impact and (3) create opportunities for the forging of new collaborations among faculty and students. Student participation continues to provide experience for refining communication and presentation skills and providing a broader forum for their research. Teaching and Learning: Wabanaki Issues on CBB Campuses Collaborators: Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby Principle: Leslie Shaw (Liaison for Native American Affairs, President’s Office, Bowdoin) The Wabanaki-Bates-Bowdoin-Colby Collaborative (WBBC) has been active for four year, following a 2007 meeting of the Wabanaki leaders and the presidents of the three colleges. The goals of this collaboration are to develop outreach programs that encourage Wabanaki students to consider college in their future, and to create awareness on our campuses of the history and culture of the Wabanaki tribes. In addition to being part of that outreach effort, these events, reflect efforts by a group of CBB faculty involved with the WBBC to initiate a dialogue among the campuses on how to bring Native American and Wabanaki history and culture onto our campuses through courses, events, and collaborations with Wabanaki leaders and educators. Three events took place in 2010-2011, one on each campus. They provided examples of how Wabanaki issues can be incorporated into traditional disciplines or cut across disciplinary lines. In fall 2011 a faculty workshop will discuss the implications of the three events and define ways that each campus might build on past efforts. DECEMBER 2010 AWARDS Docu-China: Advanced Readings in Chinese Collaborators: Colby and Bowdoin Principle: Hong Zhang (Chinese and East Asian Studies, Colby) With China’s ascendance both as a major economic power and as a player in the world affairs, learning Chinese has become a strong trend worldwide. With more and more K-12 schools offering Chinese, an increasing number of college freshmen are enrolling directly in intermediate or advanced Chinese classes. This has created new challenges for teaching advanced Chinese as textbooks for advanced Chinese are still lagging behind and are unsatisfactory in quality. Generally speaking, advanced Chinese language courses aim at both further enhancing students’ Chinese language proficiency and their learning about the rapid social and economic changes in contemporary China. However, few existing textbooks of advanced Chinese are up to this task. With the CBB Mellon grant, professors at Colby and Bowdoin began development of multi-media course material for advanced Chinese course using recent documentaries. Textbook publishers have expressed an interest in their work. Ecological Genetics of Adaptation to Island Life in the Blue Flag Iris Collaborators: Colby and Bowdoin Principle: Judy Stone (Biology, Colby) Archipelagos provide an exceptional opportunity to study ways plants adapt to their environments, because each island effectively represents a separate evolutionary and ecological experiment. Stone, an evolutionary biologist, and Wheelwright, a field ecologist, combined their expertise to study adaptation of an insect-pollinated flower, blue flag iris, to the harsh vicissitudes of boreal island life. Two summer research students received cross-training by participating in coordinated research at the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island, New Brunswick, and in Stone’s molecular genetics laboratory at Colby. Outcomes include novel data on the population genetic structure and ability of plants to self-fertilize on different islands; a new project-based laboratory course at Colby; an honors thesis project at Bowdoin; and data for an NSF grant proposal and student-authored publications. Social and Physiological Mechanisms underlying Individual Variation in Behavior in Male Frogs Collaborators: Colby and Bowdoin Principle: Catherine Bevier (Biology, Colby) This project investigated the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that underlie alternative male reproductive tactics in a Maine frog, the spring peeper. In peepers, some males defend territories and call to attract females while others remain silent and attempt to steal callers’ mates. We involved students in this research by offering field and laboratory-based experiences over the course of two years. We found that males in better condition, with lower levels of stress hormone, perform better and may be more attractive to female spring peepers. We accomplished one of our goals of demonstrating to students how scientists from different backgrounds integrate ideas and approaches to make novel scientific discoveries. The students presented results in several venues. We also anticipate that local, regional, and national meetings. MARCH 2011 AWARDS Process, Performance, Pedagogy: Perspectives on Hybridity in Dance and Theater Collaborators: Colby and Bates Principle: Todd Coulter (Theater and Dance, Colby) This collaboration will strengthen the artistic community of theater and dance artists at Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby Colleges among faculty and students. The project hinges on creative and performance research by faculty through the commission of a new hybrid performance work by the acclaimed Headlong Dance Theater (HDT). The questions we address will be tackled with groups of students and faculty at all three institutions. The campus communities will be exposed to a deep process of creative research, workshops, and discussions. The final product of our research will be presented professionally, an essential component of an artist’s research profile. With good press, this has the potential to bolster the visibility of our Theater and Dance programs at the national level. Medieval Miseries: Responses to Hard Times (The New England Medieval Conference, October 21-22, 2011) Collaborators: Bates, Bowdoin, Colby Principle: Rebecca W. Corrie (Art and Visual Culture, Bates) A consortium of Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin together with the thirty-year-old Maine Medievalists’ Association are hosting at Bates College the annual fall meeting of the New England Medieval Conference, October 21-22. Both the NEMC, founded in 1974, and the MMA are interdisciplinary organizations that bring together scholars of various disciplines around a single theme and forge on- going relationships among scholars across institutions. Eight papers will be presented, four by invited scholars who are leaders in their fields, and four by scholars who have submitted proposals to the steering committee. The topic, responses to hard times, asks how the pressures of adversity – economic, political, and medical – divert, distort, inspire, and otherwise transform cultural production and social, political, and religious structures, and events. The conference will bring to Maine scholars from New England an elsewhere who will share, enrich, and strengthen the collaboration of Maine’s scholars of the medieval world. .