Washington College Magazine
Karen Smith, professor of physical education, won a gold medal in golf at the National Senior Olympic Games in June. Smith qualified to represent Maryland by becoming a medalist at the Maryland Senior Olympics.
Faculty News
WC's Japanese Scholar Advises Diplomatic Community
A year long junior faculty leave in the nation's capital has catapulted an assistant professor of political science and international studies into top U.S./Japanese diplomatic circles.
Andrew Oros devoted the 2005-06 academic year to two book projects exploring Japan's shifting security policies. Japan's Self-Defense Forces are considered among the most capable militaries in the world; its maritime force is second only to the U.S. Navy. As a military ally responsible for patrolling 1,000 miles of sea lanes in East Asia and as a counterbalance to U.S. perception of "the China threat," Japan has no equal.
In Washington, Oros shared his insights into Japan's current politics at meetings with members of the policy community weekly. In Tokyo and Taiwan, where he was invited for weeklong trips by these governments, he met with more than 50 officials, including Japan's National Security Advisor.
"Many people I lecture to at the Foreign Service Institute have superior knowledge of the minutia of Japan's military and of U.S. policy," says Oros. "What they value is the broader perspective, how things have changed over time. They also look to people like me to interpret the political situation. Japan ushered in a new era of divided government in July 2007—something Japan has never faced before."
Japan's New Defense Establishment, released last spring in Washington and Tokyo, was written specifically for the policy community. Normalizing Japan: Politics, Identity, and the Evolution of Security Practice, is in production at Stanford University Press for release next spring.
Books and Other Media
Performing Maternity in Early Modern England
Kathryn M. Moncrief, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English (Ashgate, November 2007)
English Department Chair Kathryn Moncrief collaborates with Kathryn R. McPherson, associate professor of English at Utah Valley State College on this text, which features essays that share a common concern with exploring maternity's cultural representation, performative aspects and practical consequences from 1540-1690. The essays interrogate how early modern literary and non-literary texts depict fertility, conception, delivery and gendered constructions of maternity by analyzing a wealth of historical documents and images in conjunction with dramatic and non-dramatic texts. They emphasize that the embodied, repeated and public nature of maternity defines it as inherently performative and ultimately central to the production of gender identity during the early modern period.
The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellem New Orleans
Carol Wilson, Ph.D., Professor of History (Rutgers University Press, 2007)
In 1843, the Louisiana Supreme Court heard the case of a slave named Sally Miller, who claimed to have been born a free white person in Germany. Sally, a very light-skinned slave girl working in a New Orleans café, might not have known she had a case were it not for a woman who recognized her as Salomé Muller, with whom she had emigrated from Germany over 20 years earlier. Sally decided to sue for her freedom, and was ultimately freed, despite strong evidence contrary to her claim. In The Two Lives of Sally Miller, Carol Wilson explores this fascinating legal case and its reflection on broader questions about race, society and law in the antebellum South. Why did a court system known for its extreme bias against African Americans help to free a woman who was believed by many to be a black slave? Wilson explains that while the notion of white enslavement was shocking, it was easier for society to acknowledge that possibility than the alternative—an African slave who deceived whites and triumphed over the system.
Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation: Public Investment in High-Quality Pre-Kindergarten
Robert G. Lynch, Ph.D., Everett E. Nuttle Professor and Chair, Department of Economics (Economic Policy Institute, 2007)
Research is increasingly demonstrating that the policy of investing in high-quality pre-kindergarten programs provides a wide array of significant benefits to children, families and society as a whole, including job creation, inequality reduction, education and health care improvement, and reduced crime rates. In this book, Lynch examines the costs and benefits of both a targeted and a universal pre-kindergarten program and shows the positive impact of these programs on the economy, federal and state budgets, crime and the educational achievement and productivity of children and adults.
300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, Maryland 21620 | 410-778-2800 | 800-422-1782