Five political journalists covering this year’s presidential campaigns participated in a panel discussion titled “Tales from the Trail” on Oct. 6. The discussion, which was open to the public and held in Johnson Chapel, featured Julia Ioffe from Politico, Abby Phillip from The Washington Post, Jessica Taylor from NPR and Byron Tau from The Wall Street Journal and was moderated by Tim Murphy from Mother Jones.
President Biddy Martin opened the night by introducing Murphy, who introduced each of the four other participants.
Professor, lawyer and activist Dean Spade gave a talk titled “Can We Survive Mainstreaming? On the New Visibilities and Invisibilities of Trans Politics” in the Powerhouse on Thursday, Oct. 13. The talk was open to the public and the Powerhouse was near capacity..
During the hour-long talk, Spade evaluated different reform movements for increasing justice in a time of changing attitudes about queer and trans people and answered questions from the audience.
Spade opened by acknowledging “that we are on stolen land.”
Associate Professor of History Jen Manion received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her doctorate from Rutgers University. Her focus is on women’s and gender studies and early America.
Phillip Pang ’17 is a Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought major. His thesis explores the shaping of Asian-American identity through language and the power of language to alter the concept of self in society. His advisor is Professor Martha Umphrey.
Art historian and curator Kellie Jones ’81 was named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow by the MacArthur Foundation on Wednesday, Sept. 21. Along with the 22 other fellows, Jones received the foundation’s “genius” grant, a $625,000 stipend paid over five years.
The career center was renamed the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning on Sept. 14 after receiving a seven-figure gift from Michael Loeb ’77, the founder and CEO of the investment firm Loeb Enterprises.
Emily Griffen, the director of the center, said that the exact amount of the gift could not be disclosed, but the center may allocate the funds however it chooses.
As the first director of the college’s new Department of Emergency Management, Tamara Mahal manages crises for the college, including coordinating the school’s current response to the ongoing drought in western Massachusetts, and helping the school remain prepared for a potential emergency.
Before coming to Amherst, Mahal created her own emergency management startup company, Firefly, which managed finances for disaster relief. She also worked as a consultant for the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency within the field of disaster response.
