Convocation
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Address Professor Albert L. Park Bank of America Associate Professor of Pacific Basin Studies
Claremont McKenna College
PROGRAM Musical Performance.........................................................................Spirit of Oya Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Johann Sebastian Bach Invocation............................................................ Professor Emeritus Steve Davis Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus Welcome...................................................................President Hiram E. Chodosh Recognition of Faculty Awards........................................Professor Shana Levin Associate Dean of the Faculty Crown Professor of Psychology and George R. Roberts Fellow Professor Shanna Rose........................................Roy P. Crocker Award for Service Professor Nicholas Warner................ G. David Huntoon Senior Teaching Award Professor Heather Ferguson......Glenn R. Huntoon Award for Superior Teaching Professor Stacey Doan...................................................Faculty Scholarship Award Professor Tamara Venit-Shelton................... Dean’s Distinguished Service Award Introduction of New Faculty.............................................Professor Ellen Rentz Associate Dean of the Faculty and Associate Professor of Literature Introduction of Keynote Speaker............................ Professor Heather Antecol Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Boswell Professor of Economics Address............................................................................. Professor Albert L. Park Bank of America Associate Professor of Pacific Basin Studies “What Now?” Song............................................................................................. Elizabeth Morgan Registrar and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs “Claremont McKenna” (sung to the tune of “Loch Lomond,” arr. Brent Pierce) Student Reflection......................................................Katherine Almendarez ’22 President, Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College
CLAREMONT McKENNA We’re the sons and the daughters of Claremont McKenna And proud of our famed alma mater. With friends of our youth, seeking wisdom, seeking truth, We will lead on from Claremont McKenna. We have Crescit Cum Commercio Civitas As our motto at Claremont McKenna. We always will be part of dear old CMC, Ever loyal to Claremont McKenna.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER Albert L. Park is the Bank of America Associate Professor of Pacific Basin Studies at Claremont McKenna College. As a historian of modern Korea and East Asia, his current research project focuses on the roots of environmentalism in modern Korean history and its relationship to locality and local autonomy. This book project is tentatively titled Imagining Nature and the Creation of Environmental Movements in Modern Korea. He is the author of Building a Heaven on Earth: Religion, Activism and Protest in Japanese Occupied Korea and is the co-editor of Encountering Modernity: Christianity and East Asia. Dr. Park is the co-founder of EnviroLab Asia—a Henry Luce Foundationfunded initiative at The Claremont Colleges that researches environmental issues in Asia through a cross-disciplinary lens. He is the co-founder and co-editor of Environments of East Asia—a Cornell University Press, multidisciplinary book series that covers environmental issues and questions of East Asia. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Asian Studies. He is the recipient of four Fulbright Fellowships for Research, an Abe Fellowship (Social Science Research Council and Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership), and fellowships from the Korea Foundation and the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago. A native of Chicago, he received his B.A. with honors from Northwestern University, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW FACULTY New Assistant Professors Gautam Agarwal joins the Keck Science Department as an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience. He is interested in how experimental design and modeling can inform each other in unpacking the complexity of brain function. In one line of research, Agarwal analyzes brain waves recorded by hundreds of electrodes. While these waves were thought to be a blurry reflection of the underlying neuronal population, he finds conditions in which these waves carry surprisingly precise information about behavior. In another line of research, he has developed a game which he uses to study how people discover solutions to hard problems. He observes that humans display leaps of insight that distinguish them from current AI. Bethany (Beth) Caulkins joins the Keck Science Department as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Her research background is in biophysical chemistry and the use of solid-state NMR to study biomolecular structure and enzymatic catalysis. Her postdoctoral work focused on the investigation of the structure of amyloid fibrils implicated in the progression of Huntington’s Disease and the mapping of binding sites of small molecules and antibodies to the huntingtin protein. In graduate school, Caulkins worked to understand the underlying mechanisms involved in catalysis for pyridoxal-5’-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes, including teasing out chemical-level details of the active site environment needed to understand the role of acid-base chemistry in the reactions performed by PLP. Her lab in Keck will study the structure and function of biomolecules using both solution- and solid-state NMR, which will allow students to gain experience in the overexpression and purification of proteins and fundamental bio-NMR structural techniques. Sierra Williams joins the Keck Science Department as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Her research is at the interface of chemistry and biology, specializing in organic synthesis and protein engineering. Williams’ research interests currently focus on understanding and improving potential protein therapeutic to combat harmful bacteria. Her latest article in Biochemistry is titled, “Orthogonal Bioluminescent Probes from Disubstituted Luciferins.” New Associate Professors Michael Javen Fortner joins the Government Department as an Associate Professor of Government. He is also a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center in Washington, D.C. His work studies the intersection of American
political development and political philosophy—particularly in the areas of race, ethnicity, and class. Fortner is the author of Black Silent Majority: The Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Politics of Punishment (Harvard University Press, 2015). He’s currently finishing a book on the rise and fall of the New Deal coalition in New York City New Full Professors Ran (“Ron”) Libeskind-Hadas joins the Integrated Sciences Department as Founding Chair. He most recently served as the R. Michael Shanahan Endowed Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College. While there, Libeskind-Hadas jointly led the Core Revision Committee that was tasked with revising the college’s core curriculum, a challenge given the need to balance preparation for all majors, as well as establishing the broad foundations of a STEM-based liberal arts education. He was also one of the co-developers of the “CS For All” family of introductory courses at Harvey Mudd that sought to provide students with compelling and relevant exposure to various computing fields. Libeskind-Hadas currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Division, and holds national leadership positions in the Computing Research Association, the Caltech Schmidt Academy of Software Engineering, and the Editorial Board of the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery. Muriel Poston joins CMC as the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and the Integrated Sciences Department as a Professor of Environmental Analysis. She has a public policy focus to her science work and extensive decanal and academic leadership experience at Pitzer College, Skidmore College, and Howard University. Poston has held several leadership roles at the National Science Foundation, including Division Director in Biological Sciences and Division Director in Education and Human Resources. She has also served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board of Life Sciences and as a member and chair of the NSF Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. As a plant systematist and professor of environmental analysis, Poston has worked to support efforts to broaden the participation of underrepresented students and faculty in STEM disciplines. She also has sought to enhance the capacity and infrastructure of STEM facilities and, while a professor at Howard for 20 years, worked to develop the university’s environmental science program, and curated its herbarium.
ACADEMIC REGALIA date back to European universities in the Middle Ages, when caps, gowns, and hoods were required for warmth in unheated buildings. In the late nineteenth century, American universities revived these medieval costumes (and made efforts to standardize their use) in order to lend color to academic functions and to serve as visible reminders of the historic antecedents of intellectual pursuits. The cap is the simplest part. The most common is the mortarboard or Oxford cap. The soft or Cambridge cap is less common though more comfortable. The tassel varies in color and importance (usually black for the bachelor’s degree, gold for the doctor’s degree) and is now mostly decorative. Gowns differ in size, shape, and color according to the degree held by the wearer. The bachelor’s is often black, relatively short, and unadorned. The master’s and the doctor’s gowns are generally colorful, ankle length, and closed in front. The master’s gown has pointed sleeves that are slit at the elbows. The doctor’s gown has wide lapels of velvet, either black or the color of the scholar’s specialization. The sleeves are full and bell shaped and have three velvet chevrons in the same color as the lapels. Gowns are normally black, although some universities have designed their own in the color of the institution. The hood, which drapes over the back of the gown, carries the greatest symbolism of the components of the regalia. Its length, width, and colors denote the wearer’s highest academic achievement. The master’s hood is pointed; the doctor’s hood is bell shaped. The color of the border of the hood indicates the scholar’s major field of study—for example, sand for business; white for arts, letters, and humanities; dark blue for philosophy; and golden yellow for science. The color of the lining identifies the institution that conferred the wearer’s degree. The hood was originally trimmed in fur but now has satin borders for the master’s degree and velvet borders for the doctor’s degree. Unfettered by strict regulations and sanctions, colleges and universities have, and continue to introduce, their own variations to the above—all of which brighten formal celebrations.