Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly Fall 2008 by Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College

A lu m n ae Q uart e r ly

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Trouble InYour Tank? Ethanol Fuels More Problems Than It Solves

Also: Special Focus on Eldercare: Alums share what’s working for them. Find extensive resources online. Discuss and share strategies on our blog.

The Coming of Age by E m i ly D i e t r i ch ’ 8 5

Changes and Challenges in Eldercare

Move Over, Lara Croft

by C a i t l i n H e a l e y ’ 0 9

Not All the Women in Video Games Are Digital

Photo Essay: Light Motifs Images by Marcia Katz Birken ’71 Meld Math and Art

M arci a Kat z B irk en ’71

On the cover:

Illustration by Gerald Bustamante/Images.com

Trouble In Your Tank? By Th o m a s M i l l e t t e

Ethanol Fuels More Problems Than It Solves

2 campus currents 26 off the shelf 30 alumnae matters 37 class notes 77 bulletin board & travel

Mount Holyoke Quarterly Fall 2008 Volume 92 Number 3

Ideas expressed in the Quarterly are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of either the Alumnae Association or the College.

Editor Emily Harrison Weir

Associate Editor Mieke H. Bomann

Class Notes Editor Erica C. Winter ’92

Designers James Baker Design Design Farm (class notes)

Editorial Assistant Hannah Clay Wareham ’09

Quarterly Committee: Linda Giannasi O’Connell ’69 (chair), Kara C. Baskin ’00, Emily Dietrich ’85, Caitlin Healey ’09 (student rep.), Catherine Manegold (faculty rep.), Charlotte Overby ’87, Hannah Wallace ’95, Mary Graham Davis ’65, ex officio with vote Alumnae Association Board of Directors President* Mary Graham Davis ’65 Vice President* TBA Clerk* Julianne Trabucchi Puckett ’91 Treasurer* Linda Ing Phelps ’86

Alberto’s Daughters By e r i c G o l d s ch e i d e r

MHC Bonds Buoy Professor Through Troubled Times

Alumnae Quarterly Linda Giannasi O’Connell ’69 Alumnae Trustee Ellen Cosgrove ’84 Alumnae Relations Mari Ellen Reynolds ’91 Classes and Reunions Susan Swart Rice ’70 Clubs Lily Klebanoff Blake ’64 Director-at-Large Adrienne Wild Skinner ’77 Director-at-Large for Information Technology Elizabeth A. Osder ’86 Nominating Chair Jill M. Brethauer ’70 Young Alumnae Representative Akua S. Soadwa ’03 Executive Director TBA, ex officio without vote *Executive Committee The Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, Inc., 50 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075-1486; 413-5382300; www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu. Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly

Published in the spring, summer, fall, and winter and copyrighted 2008 by the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at South Hadley, MA 01075 and additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Lane Press, Burlington, Vermont. The Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College serves a worldwide network of diverse individuals, cultivates and celebrates vibrant connections among all alumnae, fosters lifelong learning in the liberal arts tradition, and facilitates opportunities for alumnae to advance the goals and values of the College. Comments concerning the Quarterly should be sent to Alumnae Quarterly, Alumnae Association, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA 010751486; tel. 413-5382301; fax 413-5382254; e-mail: eweir@ mtholyoke.edu. (413538-3094, ecwinter@ mtholyoke.edu for class notes.) Send address changes to Alumnae Information Services (same address; 413-538-2303; ais@ mtholyoke.edu). Call 413-538-2300 with general questions regarding the Alumnae Association, or visit www.alumnae. mtholyoke.edu. POSTMASTER: (ISSN 0027-2493) (USPS 365-280) Please send form 3579 to Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA 01075-1486.

Summer 2008

campuscurrents

Sandra Postel

Water, Water Everywhere... and Not a Drop to Waste

Q: You have described rivers as the “blue arteries of the earth.” Can you explain their importance? A: I think of rivers as an important part of

the planet’s circulation system—a fundamental part of what makes the planet function. They transport critical nutrients and elements to the ecosystems. Rivers help keep the earth alive. Q: What are the most pressing issues regarding fresh water today?

A: What drives my interest is how we can meet the growing human demands for water and at the same time protect the ecosystems that keep us going. We have a finite supply of water and growing needs to meet, so how do we manage water to meet all those needs

at the same time? If we don’t do that well, there are direct human, social, economic, and ecological consequences. Q: What will be required to correct the problems?

Andrea Burns

The importance of fresh water is hard to overstate. So are the pollution, drought, and mismanagement severely challenging the world’s rivers, lakes, ponds, and wetlands. Sandra Postel, interim director of MHC’s Center for the Environment, is a fresh water expert. We talked to her over the summer about why water matters.— M.H.B.

The Meaning of Kindergarten Philosophy instruction for young children got a boost recently when Professor of Philosophy Thomas Wartenberg received a three-year, $56,000 Squire Family Foundation grant to continue work in the field. One course he teaches now sends MHC students out to teach philosophy in several Pioneer Valley elementary schools. The grant will help spread philosophy for kids to more schools. Check out his site at www. teachingchildrenphilosophy. com.

A: What I prescribe in my writing recently is the idea that we put a limit or a cap on how much we’re degrading freshwater ecosystems. Historically, what we do when we run out of water is we go tap another aquifer or divert another river. We’re running out of those types of solutions; they’re very costly both economically and environmentally. What we need to do is to say, okay, rivers and lakes in their natural state are providing valuable benefits to us, including filtering pollutants, recharging groundwater, and delivering nutrients

to coastal fisheries. We need to preserve ecosystem services sufficiently to sustain these benefits. Q: In your essay in Mike Wallace’s book, The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today, you envision better management of water a half century from now. Are you optimistic that can happen? A: It’s hard to be optimistic fifty years out, as the problem is getting worse faster than we’re implementing solutions. But I tried to envision a world that is in harmony with the earth’s water cycle and used my essay to paint

that picture so that we could work with intention to create it.

water as the Colorado. And it’s much cleaner than it used to be.

Q: What is your favorite body of water?

Learn More: To read more of our interview with Postel, go to www.alumnae. mtholyoke.edu/go/postel. To read her essay in the Mike Wallace book, go to www.alumnae.mtholyoke. edu/go/postelwallace. For more information about Postel’s work, go to www. globalwaterpolicy.org. To see what’s happening at the Center for the Environment, check out www.mtholyoke.edu/ ce/5598.shtml.

A: That’s hard to say. I have strong affinity for the Atlantic Ocean—I grew up as a beach kid on Long Island. When I was twelve, I made a pilgrimage to Walden Pond. If I’m in D.C., I’ll be hiking along the Potomac. Here, the Fort River is a great place to walk and it’s an important tributary of the Connecticut. The Connecticut is a wonderful river. One of the striking things is it carries as much

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campuscurrents

Professors Tom Wartenberg and Rachel Fink introduce Speedy the chameleon to a second-grade philosopher.

The Class of 2012 Has Arrived! Their belongings and expectations in tow, firsties came to campus in late August for Orientationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and their first taste of college life. From the looks and sounds of their large gatherings in Chapin and small-group circles on the greens, MHCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest student crop will not disappoint in the classroom or out in the world. Here are a few details about the incoming class: Number of students who applied

3,127

Number from parochial schools:

47 (8.9%)

Number of students admitted:

1,645

Percentage of ALANA students:

22%

Number in class:

527

Number of students who came from public schools:

311 (59%)

Number from private schools:

Number of legacy students:

65 (12.3%)

Number of students receiving institutional grant/scholarship aid

326 (62%)

152 (28.8%)

Number and percentage of students from New England 171 (32%)

West 78 (15%)

Middle Atlantic 77 (15%)

Central 42 (8%)

Number and percentage of international students: 106 (20%) Top five foreign countries represented: China, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Bangladesh

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Top ten states in America where students come from: Massachusetts, New York, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Washington, Pennsylvania, Vermont

James Baker

South 46 (9%)

Researching Hope in Guatemala: Medical Tourism

The demand for medical tourism is certainly there, Ponce says: many Europeans and Canadians are tired of the long waiting periods for surgeries common in their healthcare systems. And forty-five million uninsured Americans represent a virtually untapped market.

A decade ago, people from other countries flocked to America for high-quality healthcare, delivered with limited delays. Today, “medical tourism” consists mainly of Americans, Europeans, and Canadians traveling to developing nations to receive the same care at rock-bottom prices. Andrea Ponce ’09 thinks this new twist may help ignite her beloved Guatemala’s floundering economy. “I think that medical tourism is a great way to start offering services to developed countries and empower our economy,” she writes in an e-mail from home. Daughter of a surgeon and a tour operator, Ponce began examining Guatemala’s prospects for the emerging medical tourism industry for a

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visit Guatemala’s renowned volcanoes, lakes, and Mayan ruins.

Student Edge

That’s good news for Guatemala. A decade after a peace agreement that ended thirty-six years of guerrilla warfare, 32 percent of the population of this tropical beauty lives on less than $2 a day. class in microeconomic theory. This past summer she looked at which of Guatemala’s offerings were strongest in relation to India, Singapore, and the Philippines, where medical tourism also is growing. “In Guatemala, people can have surgery at the

best hospitals with great medical attention … by doctors who have specialized in the U.S., Japan, Great Britain, and Germany—at half the price,” she says. Prior to their tummy tuck, gastric bypass, or hip replacement, patients can

Ponce, who plans to get her MBA after graduation, hopes the burgeoning industry will alleviate some of the pressure for many of her compatriots to emigrate for work. “I want to create opportunities for Guatemalans so that they do not have to migrate to other countries,” she says.—M.H.B.

Ben Barnhart (below right)

identity figure prominently in author Danzy Senna’s debut novel, Caucasia, which has been selected as this year’s “common read.”

Reading in common Racial

tension, family disintegration and reunion, and personal

Assigned to incoming firstyear students, common-read books are often incorporated by faculty members into their curricula. Alumnae clubs frequently add common-read books to their rosters too. Caucasia “is a compelling narrative that will encourage you to explore your own views of race and class, identity and community,” said college President Joanne V. Creighton. Senna has been invited to campus to discuss her work.

New Dorm Opens Doors • Construction is finished, and 172 lucky residents—first-years to seniors—have moved into the first new dorm built here in forty years. The winter Quarterly will feature a photo essay on the new residence hall and its denizens.

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“Medicalizing these experiences tends to create passivity,” she says. “If the medication doesn’t work, people don’t know what else to try. Peer support groups teach them a range of ways to help themselves.”

Brainstorms A Different Way of Thinking For the past five years, Gail Hornstein has sat in on support groups organized by people who hear voices.

A Psychologist’s Search for the Meanings of Madness, to be published in March 2009, that she came to understand “what a truly patient-centered approach could achieve.”

Across the United States and Europe, people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses are coming together to share their stories, to devise coping strategies, and to reframe what it means to be “mentally ill.” Hornstein’s new book takes readers inside this world.

“I was forced to reject much of what I learned in graduate school and from other professionals,” says Hornstein. “People who have been diagnosed with mental illness have been working for more than thirty years to develop alternatives to mainstream psychiatric approaches. It’s important to listen to their ideas.”

A psychology professor at MHC, Hornstein has always been interested in states of mind beyond the normal. But it was not until she did the research for Agnes’s Jacket:

Rather than accepting the drugs and behavioral treatments favored by professionals, the people Hornstein writes about recover mainly with support from their peers. In the groups they organize,

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In her book, Hornstein introduces readers to some of these people, including historical figures and contemporary activists. The book’s title refers to the jacket made by Agnes Richter, a woman institutionalized against her will in 1890s Germany. Every inch of the garment she fashioned from her institutional uniform is hand-embroidered with an autobiographical text recording her experiences. For Hornstein, Agnes’s jacket symbolizes “the conundrum we face in understanding madness. People have an intense desire to tell their stories, but we can’t always grasp their meaning.” Hornstein hopes her book will serve both the storytellers and her readers.—M.H.B. Learn More: To read more of Hornstein’s interview, go to: alumnae.mtholyoke. edu/go/hornstein. To see Hornstein’s 600-title bibliography of first-person narratives of madness, go to www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/ misc/profile/ghornste.shtml For information and links to the psychiatric survivor movement, go to www. freedom-center.org or www. mindfreedom.org.

Need JPEGof bob herbert image. EML won’t work

Emeriti Brainstorms An Art Historian Takes New Delight in Science Bob Herbert is done with French art history. After nearly a half century of scholarship on the likes of Seurat, Impressionism, and Renoir, the professor emeritus of the humanities turned to the work of an Amherst-based artist, Orra White Hitchcock, whose nineteenth-century lithographs, woodcuts, and watercolors were known, but whose travel writings were virtually undiscovered—until he stumbled on them. Herbert has now edited and published Hitchcock’s diaries, which he came across in an archival folder while investigating her artwork at the Amherst College library. Familiar with her lithographs of the Connecticut River Valley that had been previously exhibited, Herbert was surprised and delighted to find her witty journals. Married to Edward Hitchcock, a prominent geologist and onetime president of Amherst College, Orra describes in a “plainspeak” style what

Ho r n s t e i n : Pau l S c h n a i t tac h e r • He r b e rt : D o n n a C o t e

patients encourage one another to describe, often for the first time, what the voices in their heads are saying, and to analyze traumatic experiences that seem linked to the appearance of symptoms.

In addition to publishing her diaries, Herbert is the co-curator of an exhibition of her art scheduled for October 2010 at Amherst’s Mead Art Museum. Some of Orra’s published illustrations of her husband’s work will be shown, along with several dozen watercolors of plants and large classroom charts and drawings (including prehistoric fossils).

Student Leaders:Fred LeBlanc • Sports: Michael Malyszko

If his move from fine art to science illustration seems jarring, consider this, he says: much of his research

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she sees during two trips, one to Europe and the other to Richmond, Virginia. “Unlike other travel diaries, she’s writing to herself. She’s not thinking of others, but merely what she’s seeing,” says Herbert.

This has gotta hurt … In preparation for their upcoming seasons, Mount Holyoke’s fall athletic teams begin training at the end of August. Workouts are designed to increase conditioning and agility. Players work hard, both individually and as a team, to improve before regular season contests begin.

was devoted to the work of Seurat, an artist whose exploration of the science of color is evident in his technique, which came to be known as pointillism. “My interest has been all along … in the relation of art and science,” says Herbert, who is now at work editing Hitchcock’s husband’s travel diaries. Bob Herbert has just begun, again.—M.H.B.

Some Facebook groups we think we’ll join…. • MoHos for Naming the New Dorm After Stephen Colbert • Mount Holyoke College: Studying Harder Than Your School Since 1837 • Mount Holyoke Biologists ... We Are Naturally Selected • I’ve Been Menaced by the Mount Holyoke College Skunk Student Leaders Around the Globe Gather at MHC • After two years of planning, Women’s Education Worldwide (WEW) hosted its first Student Leadership Conference at MHC in June. Some seventy students from five continents took part in leadership and skill-building workshops. As they got to know one another and learned new skills, participants developed personal projects to implement in their home countries. Conceived in 2003 by the leaders of Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges, WEW was organized to foster exchange among colleges and universities and to advocate for the education of women.

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Coming of

Marilyn J. Bruno â&#x20AC;&#x2122;69 cares for her ninety-two-year-old mother (E. Alda Bruno, above) and aunt Irma Micera, in their Coral Gables, Florida, home.

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Bill Cooke

The

Age

Changes and Challenges in eldercare B y E m i ly D i e t r i c h ’ 8 5

Vickie Martin ’04 and her family always “assumed” Martin’s mother would care for Martin’s grandmother in her own home until she died. But when Martin’s mother unexpectedly died, “the responsibility fell into my lap,” says Martin, who is now the long-distance primary caretaker for her eighty-nine-year-old grandmother. Similarly, Nancy Willbanks ’77, chief financial officer of Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, found her mother widowed, homeless, and without income after her father unexpectedly died. These women are part of a cultural and demographic shift that will affect the hearts, minds, and daily lives of many alumnae in the near future. Statistics reveal the magnitude of the shifts in aging and eldercare: 43 percent of caregivers for elders are now fifty and older, finds a study by the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the American Association for Retired People (AARP). Eldercare is not affecting just the “sandwich generation”—those squeezed between raising children and caring for parents— anymore. The “young-old” are now taking care of the “oldest-old.” And there are more of the oldest-old needing care for a longer time. The fastest-growing age group in America, according to the US census, is centenarians, predicting protracted care needs.

Learn More and Join the Conversation:

For an extensive list of resources about eldercare options, and to discuss the topic with other alumnae (including this article’s author), visit alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/go/eldercare.

Here, alumnae experts—including caregivers from classes 1952 through 2004, doctors, mental-health, and eldercare professionals—share their thoughts to help other alumnae make sense of the challenging changes in eldercare.

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reluctant to discuss legal and healthcare issues.

Planning Helps First and foremost, our experts agree that everyone needs to start thinking, and talking, about important issues in eldercare before a crisis. These talks may not be easy. Even knowing how vulnerable their mother became due to lack of planning for illness and death, some of Willbanks’s family members are

For Susan YoshinagaWard ’82, her siblings’ and parents’ “open and natural” talks about death and dying helped immensely. Some were spurred by friends’ situations and by the Terri Schiavo case, which involved a dispute between Schiavo’s husband and parents over how to handle her extended comatose state. Continued on p. 12.

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Bill Cooke

Alda Bruno, a former teacher and librarian who has suffered from dementia since 1991, enjoys magazines, puzzle books, and card games.

To broach difficult topics, Margie Johnson Ware ’71, caregiver coordinator for the Family Caregiver Support Program at Elder Services of Berkshire County (Massachusetts), suggests using “naturally occurring family occasions,” such as the day after a celebration or holiday, for these discussions. Elizabeth Clark Nelson ’74 printed out the forms for a living will and medical surrogate and mailed them to her father. In her gynecology practice, Nelson opens the door for family discussions by asking patients about their living wills. Marilyn Bruno ’69, who cares for her mother and aunt, notes that the last thing you want to do in a crisis “is run around looking for a notary public.” Desired funeral or memorial arrangements, a current will, and a contact for legal issues also need to be known before a crisis, suggests Harriet Cone Baldwin ’88, whose mother died at seventy-five after a brief illness. If you do not complete the forms, Nelson cautions, “the government will make the decision for you.”

Fallen The author’s father, Phil Dietrich, outside his Kalamazoo, Michigan, home

By E

m i ly

i e t r i c h

’85

The big old maple is down. It fell politely between two garages without unseating a single brick of the patio. We’ve learned a lot about it because of its naked roots and now-dissected limbs. A tornado-warning storm brought it down, and my father, who has Alzheimer’s, is taking it hard. I am too. It turns out that tree was hanging on to the earth with no means of support. Although the branches were proud and the leaves plentiful, the roots have been exposed as disintegrated, hanging to the circumference of the trunk and just a foot under it. If they nourished the tree at all, the nourishment was poor. It’s the same with my father’s mind. The very same. He walks, talks, charms, and jokes, but there is nothing holding him down, no reliable system for information, memory retrieval, recognition. It may seem trite to compare my father to a tree, but he loves trees. Retired from a career in law, he’s done with his protection of civil liberties and estates, but he’s still protecting trees, and this old maple was his pet. He comes by this tendency honestly. His own father swore he wouldn’t leave his Detroit home until his glorious elm, one of the last holdouts on the block from Dutch elm disease, died. A white pine’s roots mingle with my mother’s ashes in a memorial meadow where my father went often before we stopped him from driving. He and I visited it on her birthday this May, adorning the tree with ribbons and marveling at the lime-green candles of new growth. When musing about life after death, Dad always told us to put an acorn in his mouth, “so I can turn into a tree,” he would say. For the last few years, Dad had tended to his maple actively, having it carefully pruned last summer. Advised to take it down, he instead raked its leaves in fall, worried about it during ice storms, got out his chair to sit under it this spring. I sat there with him last month, looking up at the leaves. Watching him lean back and close his eyes, I felt that, despite his resentment of caregivers in his home, despite his feelings of loneliness and confusion, and despite his wish that I’d visit more often, he seemed content. I was thinking that with his tree in his yard and his art in his house, he might just have enough.

Yet the fallen tree may also presage my fallen dream of his peaceful, if diminishing, life at home. Since the tree fell, Dad has flooded the house twice, and has started calling me to ask, “Do you know where I am?” Home isn’t what it used to be without that tree, and, sadly, Dad isn’t truly comfortable anywhere for very long. So the standard must be safety; he has to live in a place where trees won’t fall on him. We recently reserved a room in a memory-care facility, but we haven’t moved him yet. I hope for a scientific breakthrough—maybe tomorrow?—to discover a way to nourish his roots, keep them whole, to preserve every single leaf my dad has left. Meanwhile, there is not one lost attribute, turn of phrase, or wise word that doesn’t hurt, one loss that doesn’t seem unthinkable. We mourn every fallen leaf.

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Especially when a “do not resuscitate” order (DNR) is requested by a loved one, “knowing what the patient wants allows you to do what’s kinder,” says Susan Beers Betzer ’65, a family-practice doctor and certified geriatrician. Since it can be very difficult to enforce a DNR, the more you’ve worked out specifics and scenarios the better, she says. Further, these discussions should be revisited every few years, Betzer recommends, since one’s perception of what circumstances are “livable” at age sixty-five may change by the time one is eighty. Eldercare Choices Expanding One of the biggest trends in aging services, Willbanks says, is a widening range of choices for consumers. “Aging in place,” when an elder receives care at home instead of in an institution, is a popular choice. Medicare regulations have begun to change, allowing reimbursement for home

health aides and other assistance. In many cases, the possibility of aging in place requires a reliable primary caregiver, usually a family member (there are 26 million of them in the United States, according to the NAC). When making plans—or promises—about keeping a loved one at home, potential caregivers must “be realistic about exactly what they can, or are prepared to, take on,” Ware advises. “Caregivers don’t realize the toll it’s taking [on them],” cautions Betzer, whose own mother had a heart attack brought about by caring for Betzer’s father. Caregivers may “get frustrated to the point that the elderly person’s care suffers,” says Andrea Snelson ’95, deputy director of the Guardianship Project, a Brooklyn agency devoted to keeping the elderly and disabled part of the community. Fortunately, help can be found. Most counties

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have an Area Agency on Aging offering counseling, training, and support groups for caregivers. Further, senior centers and adult-daycare centers provide breaks for those taking care of spouses or loved ones. Some nursing homes have even begun to offer patient stays to give caregivers a respite. And sometimes just “ten to fifteen minutes devoted to self-care [for caregivers] can make all the difference in the world,” Ware says. Baldwin, Bruno, Martin, and Yoshinaga-Ward say the support of partners, friends, family, and other caregivers is invaluable. And Diane Biegel ’74, the onsite caregiver for her mom, got together with classmates recently to find “our widely varying circumstances … had one thread of common experience: increasing roles as parental caregivers.” For elderly people alone or without a family caregiver, a growing number of agencies support aging in place. Shared housing, in which those who need

housing are matched with someone who has room but needs care, has systematized services in many states. Barbara Stone ’85, shared housing program manager of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, says this barter system works well to protect elders from “social isolation.” Instead of calling 9-1-1 with a panic attack, for example, an elder knocks on a housemate’s door for company and reassurance. Betzer says companionship reduces anxiety “better than medication.” Snelson’s agency works to return to or keep in the community its disabled and elderly clients. In her work, she has encountered elderly people in institutions “unnecessarily.” Sometimes all that is needed is one person to organize the homecare, and the Guardianship Project supplies that person. For those with ample means, concierge services are starting up, says Ware, to provide the customized care necessary to stay at home.

Bill Cooke

Taking care of two elders while working for the State Department and consulting, Marilyn Bruno “remains the ever-adept juggler, keeping everyone content and well. When it comes to peace of mind, home care for the elderly is worth every penny,” she says.

Marilyn says her mom is quite physically healthy and so is not a candidate for nursing care. “Mom gets up at noon, takes two hours to eat lunch, and would be content never to brush her teeth or shower. I am certain most assisted-living facilities would not adapt to her quirky routine.” Marilyn, however, does.

In another example of consumer choice in eldercare, some 40,000– 80,000 elders have moved to Mexico to enjoy assisted living at a quarter of the cost in the United States, albeit braving lax government regulation. In the United States, assisted-living facilities, licensed and regulated at the state level, provide independent living for those who need assistance with daily activities such as cooking and medication monitoring but can otherwise live independently. (Definitions for assisted living are inconsistent, according to the AARP, but generally patients there need less medical care and daily assistance than patients in nursing homes.) However, these facilities are out of reach financially for many Americans, since Medicare does not reimburse these costs. Paying for long-term care poses a problem, leading many Americans to consider long-term healthcare insurance.

Willbanks recommends consulting an elderlaw attorney before committing to a plan. “Caveat emptor,” she says, speaking from experience, having tried to contact an insurer six times to secure information about a client’s benefits. No one at the agency knew the answers, and no one returned her calls. Consumer Reports research bears this out, unable to recommend any long-term insurance plan after its study, largely because the product is too new to have enough data to evaluate. Although only 5 percent of the 65+ population occupy institutions, 50 percent of those age ninety and older live in such facilities. A choice about a nursing-care facility will be in the future for many of us. Nursing homes, with costs reimbursable by Medicaid, are monitored and evaluated federally. Many other agencies rate facilities, with their findings available on the Web. (See “Learn More,” on page 9.)

An emerging alternative to nursing homes is congregate housing, small group homes. Congregate housing deinstitutionalizes care, giving elders private rooms and a great deal of choice in their activities. In 2005, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided $10 million in seed money for one type of congregate housing, Green Houses, in all fifty states to add to the forty-one Green Houses already in ten states across the country. No matter where they live, today’s seniors benefit from another important trend, says Beverly Arzt Walton ’52, president and CEO of the Mental Health Association of Connecticut (MHAC): increasing recognition of the mental-health needs of seniors. MHAC’s research revealed that only 20–25 percent of older adults with mental-health issues receive services from mental-health professionals. Stone says elders sometimes hide their mental-health issues out of fear that the associated

symptoms signify Alzheimer’s or dementia. Stone advises a mentalhealth examination along with a physical. The good news, says Walton, is that the two most common forms of mental-health disorder in the elderly, depression and anxiety, are also “the most successfully treated.” In navigating the rapid changes in the larger eldercare situation, alumnae interviewed were amazed by the resilience and creativity with which both elders and caregivers meet the new challenges. For all of us, says Willbanks, “it takes courage” to survive the big and small losses while thinking clearly about the hardest decisions we’ll ever make. Especially during this era of dramatic increase in those needing—and those providing—eldercare, we’ll have to do it together.

Emily Dietrich ’85 is a freelance writer based in Redmond, Washington.

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Move Over, Lara Croft Not All the Women in Video Games Are Digital By Caitlin Healey ’09

When you think of video games, you probably picture a geeky teenage boy camped out in a living room, chomping on potato chips while piling up points racing from one virtual level to the next. (You don’t imagine girls at a slumber party playing Super Mario Brothers, right?) The $42 billion-a-year worldwide video-game industry still reflects this stereotype, but career women in the field—such as Patricia Su Yin Kallusch ’93—may help change all that. If you think video games are just kid stuff, think again. They’re the fastest-growing segment of the entertainment industry, and computer- and video-game sales are expected to surpass movie boxoffice revenues by the end of 2008. Grand Theft Auto IV, released in May, set a record for day-one sales in any entertainment sector.

The video-game industry began to boom while Kallusch was in her mid-twenties. “Three-dimensional animation was really taking off,” she recalls, and 3-D artists originally interested in film careers took notice of the skyrocketing videogame sector. Armed with an MFA in computer animation, Kallusch built a career as an animator and video-game environment artist, then moved up the managerial ranks as though mastering levels in one of the games. While an animator, she worked primarily as an environmental modeler for Electronic Arts,

Learn More: For more about women and video games, see www.alumnae. mtholyoke.edu/go/videogames.

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Jude Mooney Photography

Kallusch, who played video games casually while growing up, wondered how she would use her MHC studio art degree. Internships with a New York City sculptor and in the design department of DC Comics made her realize the broad possibilities of commercial art.

making the physical worlds video-game characters navigate. For example, she modeled the golf courses for the PlayStation 2 Tiger Woods PGA Tour game. After five years at Electronic Arts, the globe’s largest producer and publisher of video games, Kallusch was recruited by LucasArts to work on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game, which came out in September.

Courtesy of LucasArts

At LucasArts she directed a team of thirty artists in varied disciplines. One role was to produce character art and animation. This included the production of visualization, creation, and animation of Darth Vader, his secret apprentice (pictured below), and other characters (including Maris Brood, above). She also produced cinematics (brief movies) for the game and ran the project’s art outsourcing with teams at Industrial Light and Magic and Lucasfilm Animation in Singapore.

Working with colleagues in design, marketing, and engineering, she managed the artists creating all the

art “assets” for the game. This could mean anything from driving the creation of marketing pieces to overseeing development of concept art used to inspire the designers and artists working on the game. “I was in charge of the art piece of the pie,” Kallusch summarizes. “As a producer and development director, coordination is key. I’ve been on a few projects [with] almost 200 people working together to create the game. Defining and driving processes for artasset creation is important because art is a key element of what enhances the experience and makes players feel like they’re in the game.” That sense of immersion reflects video games’ role as a new form of storytelling. Early games such as Donkey Kong and Pac-Man were all about scoring points. But some of today’s video games “involve more storyline, [so] the player can experience more emotion through the story, similar to how a person relates to a character in a film or a book,” Kallusch explains. “Different genres of games provide for different game-play experiences.” And recent game narratives emerge on the screen as fingers furiously tap controllers, with the story evolving differently for each player. “You’re actually creating an experience,” Kallusch says of games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Grand Theft Auto. “Video games are a growing part of the future of the entertainment industry, and they are more and more about character, story, and emotion.”

that audience wants a game where women are busty and violent crime runs rampant, games will reflect that. Kallusch believes that the nature of the product will change only when women find a place in the industry and get more into gaming as entertainment.

Where Are the Women? This spring Kallusch returned to work for Electronic Arts, where she is doing the same tasks as at LucasArts, only on a much higher level. Currently she is in charge of a team of seventeen artists, only one of whom is a woman. “Being able to go toeto-toe with other artists, regardless of gender,” was part of the industry’s appeal to Kallusch. There are still many more “Lara Crofts”—female video-game characters— than actual women creating the games; Kallusch is among the few women managers. “Women probably think it is a bunch of nerdy guys … [but the industry] lends itself to so many jobs women may be interested in,” she notes, as if eager for female colleagues. Would the presence of more women change the industry? Kallusch notes that customer demand drives video-game content, with men ages eighteen to thirty as the prime targets of video-game marketing. If

Things are already starting to shift. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 38 percent of gamers are female, and they spend an average of 7.4 hours each week playing video games. Kallusch mentions that while the chances are slim of finding a woman in her thirties who is really into games like Grand Theft Auto, the social nature of other games may begin to build a new female consumer base. Socially oriented role-playing games such as The Sims series (which lets players simulate day-to-day activities such as eating, sleeping, and working, and control characters’ destinies) are popular with women. According to eMarketer research, females also prefer “casual games,” such as computer versions of board, card, and word games, rather than the battle games favored by males. Although the videogame industry is still male-centered and maledominated, Kallusch says anything can change if women infiltrate the animation floors and other parts of the business. She notes, “I didn’t see any ‘no girls allowed’ signs when I came in here.”

Caitlin Healey ’09 is an English major who is considering a future as a gamer.

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Light Motifs 16

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Marcia Birken

Marcia Birkenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Images Meld Math and Art

Learn More: Birkenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s detailed

explanations of the mathematical principles visible in her photos are at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/go/birken.

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atterns are important to Marcia Katz Birken ’71. As a mathematics professor at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for nearly three decades, Birken taught about the elegant patterns numbers make. But a nature tour of Yellowstone National Park in 2005 sent her love of pattern in a new direction. “I was looking at the same things everyone else was, but I saw different things. They’d see flowers; I’d see rotational patterns in the petals. They’d see a landscape; I’d see patterns repeated in the meanders of the river. They’d see birds; I’d see how the feathers grew.”

That moment of revelation brought together her love of the natural world and the mathematical world. Now retired from RIT, she pursues these merged interests through a third one, photography. Joined by husband Eric, Birken and her trusty Canon digital have camped across Botswana, explored Chilean Patagonia, and sailed to Antarctica on the icebreaker The Endeavor. Wherever the site and whatever the sights, Birken finds patterns— “from the regular striping of zebras to the random scattering of wildflowers in a meadow; from mountains reflected exactly in calm waters to mangrove roots mirrored with distortion in swampy ripples; from the regular patterns of symmetry to the rough and jagged patterns of fractals; from number series in math to a series of birds in flight.” Peering through a camera, Birken saw fractal patterns in Antarctic icebergs. She found Fibonacci sequences (a specific kind of repeating pattern) in the spirals formed by bracts of pinecones and the central disks of composite flowers, such as daisies. “I found patterns in nature that I had been describing mathematically,” she recalls. This realization bloomed into a new book, cowritten with professor/poet Anne C. Coon. Discovering Patterns in Mathematics and Poetry uses Birken’s nature photos to illustrate mathematical concepts, such as the Golden Mean, logarithmic spirals, and four types of symmetry. Combining the scientific and the artistic isn’t new to Birken. “My whole career life has been based on what I learned at MHC. I majored in math and minored in religion. That [combination] seemed completely logical because I was educated to see everything in the world as connected.”

Although Birken’s photos are sold on her Web site (mbirken.com) and at occasional shows near her home, she says she’s “having too much fun [traveling] to organize the business end. Our kids are settled, so it’s easy to pick up and go. And I want to go everywhere!”—Emily Harrison Weir

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Marcia Birken

She and Eric (a physician with a flexible schedule) decide “quite spontaneously” when and where to travel, mostly joining small nature-travel groups. Their adventures have already included South Africa, Ecuador, Iceland, Israel, Britain, China, Costa Rica, and most recently, New Zealand. Visits to Yosemite and Glacier National Parks are on the horizon.

Birkemn Photo: Leichtner Studios

Marcia Birken

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Alberto’s ‘Daughters’ MHC Bonds Buoy Professor Through Troubled Times By Eric Goldscheider

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Professor of Spanish Alberto SandovalSánchez remembers his fortieth birthday party in 1994 as a death-taunting celebration. No one present thought the guest of honor, even if he was lucky, would survive until the millennium. He was gaunt to the point of wasting, and suffering advanced AIDS symptoms, including the loss of an eye. “It was a farewell to Alberto. But then, Alberto never died,” recalled Sandoval-Sánchez during a recent interview in his College Street apartment about a mile south of campus. He still refers to the 1990s as “the time I was dead.”

A long-term survivor of AIDS, Sandoval-Sánchez remains a vibrant and active part of academic life both at Mount Holyoke and in his fields of literature, Latina theater, Latino and “queer” identity, and monsters as literary constructs. Sustained by luck, patience, humor, and a powerful will to survive, Sandoval-Sánchez has a support network that is deep in the commitment his friends feel to him, and wide in terms of its sheer size. He cultivates dozens of mutually caring relationships, many of which grew out of his passions as a scholar. His health is now stable, but he is unable to teach courses. Among those who delight in Sandoval-Sánchez’s presence on the planet is a group of women—many of whom don’t know each other—who identify themselves as “Alberto’s daughters.” They are students he bonded with in the classroom and through La Unidad, a Latina students’ organization he has been involved with as an adviser since he came to Mount Holyoke in 1983. For some—who were struggling to claim their ethnic identities while mediating tensions between the privileges of an elite liberal arts college and socioeconomic backgrounds that often made them feel out of place— Sandoval-Sánchez was a welcome father figure. A number of students took to calling him “Papi” while getting to know him and his life partner, New York City architect John R. Schwartz, as mentors. As his health regularly veered into precarious peril during the 1990s, and more recently through the soul-wrenching calamity of Schwartz’s sudden death of a heart attack in 2003, Alberto’s “daughters” rallied around him. They reciprocated his paternal support with filial love. What started as humorous and slightly ironic appellations evolved into profound and durable relationships. Milagros “Millie” Cruz ’87 (at right in photo), a Hartford immigration attorney, was a first-year student the year Sandoval-Sánchez arrived at Mount Holyoke. He not only turned her on to the golden age of Spanish literature, which became one of Cruz’s majors, but he and Schwartz became her emotional pillars. Toward the end of her first year, Cruz’s brother, a Vietnam veteran and intravenous drug user, contracted AIDS and died. Cruz remembers sitting at the bar at Woodbridges restaurant and finding Sandoval-Sánchez there. “He would be writing on his napkin, always writing any thought that came into his mind so he could use it later,” said Cruz. “We would chat literature, life, whatever.” As the relationship evolved, Sandoval-Sánchez and then Schwartz “helped mold my thinking and my conduct, not just intellectually but morally as well,” said Cruz, “Alberto and John helped raise me.” She was “devastated” to learn of Sandoval-Sánchez’s diagnosis during her first year of law school. She knew the expected trajectory of AIDS, having watched her brother’s decline. And she knew what she calls “the intimacy of

the illness,” as the patient loses independence. Cruz was there to drive Sandoval-Sánchez to New York, through a blinding snowstorm, on the day Schwartz died, and she stayed with him that week as he adjusted to the most painful trauma of his life. Cruz is still one of many admirers who monitor SandovalSánchez’s well-being. She calls South Hadley a “wonderful womb” where her teacher gets emotional sustenance from friends and colleagues. But, Cruz adds, “his support network goes beyond just the people who are around him physically ... he has a far-reaching spiritual network. We keep him in our prayers, we send him our love, and when he’s not feeling well, we make sure to send him our energy.” Meredith E. Field FP’96, a nontraditional-age student who is actually nine months older than Sandoval-Sánchez, is also part of the international “Alberto’s daughters” coterie. An analyst with the Center for Disabilities and Development at the University of Iowa, Field became Sandoval-Sánchez’s research and editorial assistant after taking his course on US Latino literature in 1995. “It was a critical class for me,” said Field, “I learned how to read in a different way—he called it ‘reading backwards’. ... it was incredibly engaging.” The next term she wrote “Imagining Alberto,” an article in which she related that from the moment she met him she started to fear losing him. There was a sense “that he was on the edge of a cliff,” said Field. “Once or twice a semester he would become very ill ... he was so close to the edge.” Last Christmas they spent two days in Sandoval-Sánchez’s apartment working on a manuscript. “We just went back into writer/editor mode,” said Field. “It was a wonderful reconnecting.” In addition to essays and plays, Sandoval-Sánchez has published several books since his diagnosis, including José Can You See? (1999), about Latinos on and off Broadway. Krysia Villón ’96 (at left in photo), Alida MontanezSalas ’89, Bibi Rahamatulla-Hayakawa ’86, Daniela A. Montecinos-Loubon CG’85, and Marcia R. Webb ’87 are all alumnae who view Sandoval-Sánchez as a fatherly figure. “I think Alberto and I were meant to cross paths and to be part of each other’s lives,” said Hayakawa, a Guyanese-American who is now a paralegal specialist in the major-crimes unit of the US attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. Villón, a poet who works for the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association, said Sandoval-Sánchez is one of the few people with whom she shares her works in progress. Villón, whose father is Peruvian, thinks of Sandoval-Sánchez more as an uncle, but she understands the daughter analogy. “There are many generations of us,” she said. Learn More at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/go/sandoval. Eric Goldscheider is a freelance writer based in Amherst.

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What everyone

should know about ...

A Quarterly series

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What I find most puzzling is how little we, as a nation, seem to care about finding alternative solutions to the fuel mess.â&#x20AC;?

Andrea Burns

Thomas Millette, MHC associate professor of geography, explains why corn-based ethanol fuels cars and controversy.

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As summer hit the beautiful Mount Holyoke campus, world energy and food markets were in a state of unprecedented turmoil. Lest you think I exaggerate, here are some sobering numbers. In 2003 the benchmark price of a barrel of crude was $34.79 (in 2007 US dollars). In 2006 the same barrel sold for $67.32. By mid-June the price hit $147 per barrel.* If I didn’t know better, I would think the time is ripe (sorry, I couldn’t resist) for biofuels.

Trouble in Your Tank? Ethanol Fuels More Problems Than It Solves B y Th o m a s Mi llet t e

Food prices have mirrored the rapid price increases in oil. Corn on the US commodities market sold for $2 a bushel from 2002 to 2006. In 2007 the price doubled. In mid-June the price shot past $6 a bushel. Over the last year, with an inflation rate below 4 percent, the price of eggs went up 35 percent, white bread went up 16 percent, and chicken went up 10 percent. Could these phenomena be related? It appears that the centerpiece of the US alternative energy policy, ethanol, has linked the global energy and food markets in a manner not seen before. If you look at the menu of alternative energy, and in particular biofuel options, it would be useful to ponder why corn-based ethanol? How did ethanol become the highest-profile bullet in the US arsenal for reduced reliance on foreign oil, and for global-warming mitigation? Since fermentation of sugar into alcohol is one of the oldest chemical reactions mastered by humans, perhaps we are just comfortable with it? That the same basic process produces Clos Saint-Denis wine certainly gives me comfort. However, there is more going on here than my fantasy circling the Cote d’ Or. There is a fantasy here, but this one is circling Capitol Hill. In all fairness, there are some compelling reasons to look at corn ethanol as a substitute for foreign oil. First, we’ve mastered the chemical process and packaged it into politician-friendly sound bites. Second, we have a superb infrastructure for producing corn with unmatched yields. Third, there is a well-cultivated notion that corn ethanol will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Lest I forget, there is a fifty-one cents per gallon tax break for ethanol producers and federal subsidies to farmers who grow corn. Throw in the recent Congressional mandates to increase US ethanol production by 40 percent next year and 600 percent by 2022, and there appears to be a bright future in ethanol.

Learn More: For more on

biofuels, visit alumnae. mtholyoke.edu/go/ethanol.

* p.s. It’s amazing what a couple of months will do to the price of oil. Since reaching a record of $147 a barrel in June, the price of light sweet crude retreated to $107 in early September. Although it’s hard not to take a bit of comfort in falling oil prices, what we are seeing is some short-term volatility due to dampening demand; not a trend. In July, I had dinner with some energy industry executives and they unanimously believed that crude prices would likely fall in the short-term due to high prices, but that the long-term trend was for prices to continue to rise due to increasing global demand. I think time will prove them correct. One of the unfortunate consequences of falling oil prices is the accompanying investment paralysis for alternative liquid fuels. –T.M.

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So if you’re not an ethanol producer or a farmer, what’s the problem? To those of us who measure and count things, it looks like we are trading one problem for two. We clearly have supply and refining limitations (real or contrived) that are resulting in record prices for liquid fuels. If we continue to cultivate corn-based ethanol as the only solution, we will have two problems: record high prices for fuels and for food. Corn-based ethanol will never be an economically or ecologically viable substitute for gasoline, and continuing to develop this industry beyond a sustainable threshold will only drive global food prices to the same levels as oil. If you can manage to bypass the mountain of compost on this topic shoveled around the blogosphere and on infotainment programs, the basic facts are fairly digestible. Let me share a few unvarnished facts and popular myths. Fact: The production of corn-based ethanol is energy intensive. Considering tractors, combines, hydrocarbon-based fertilizers, fermentation,

Fact: There is no nationwide distribution infrastructure for ethanol and no prospect for one anytime soon. Moving large quantities of ethanol the way we do gasoline is not possible for a variety of reasons. The most important reason is that it cannot be moved by pipeline from production facilities to markets, since ethanol absorbs water and impurities that are always present in these conveyances. Fact: This year, 25 percent of all the corn produced in the United States will go to ethanol production, which will surpass the amount we export. All indications are that this percentage will continue to grow as the ethanol subsidy drives the development of more production facilities, further tightening grain supplies to the food market. For example, the rapid rise in corn prices (more than 300 percent since 2006) has resulted in farmers allocating more tillage to corn, reducing the supply of other grains and food commodities, causing their prices to rise also. Now for a few popular myths:

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Myth: The tightening corn supply is little more than a short-term productivity issue. Rising prices will generate investment and innovation that will raise productivity levels. This popular myth is generally spun: “When my grandfather worked this farm he got forty bushels of corn per acre. Last year I was getting 160 bushels, and someday we’ll get 300 bushels per acre.” Unfortunately this wellworn tonic conveniently omits the fact that past productivity increases have been driven by having cheap oil as fuel for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, processing, and virtually every aspect of mechanized agriculture. Myth: Weather is always the largest driver of grain supply and prices. The rapid price increases we currently see in grains are more a function of large-scale weather disruptions than of ethanol production. Well, historically this has been true, and to some extent weather will always be an important factor in grain prices. However, expanding ethanol production is one more tug on grain supply added to a collection of global factors, including large-scale crop-land conversion for urban, industrial, and commercial uses; and crop-land degradation due to rising salinity and dropping fertility. Myth: Corn-based ethanol is a “green” fuel that will reduce global warming. In theory it could be, but not the way we do it now. As long as it takes 1.29 gallons of gasoline to produce ethanol with the energy equivalence of a gallon of gasoline, it’s hard to see this happening.

Cellulosic production of ethanol from forest and agricultural residues may move us closer to this objective, but breaking down cellulose into sugars is presently mired in technical challenges. So where does this leave us? Clearly we have an economy and lifestyle that are at significant risk due to global demand for, supply of, and prices for liquid fuels. Globally, a food crisis is brewing, driven in part by the recent linkage of the food and energy markets. Although ethanol production at a glance seems attractive, when you look at the details, it doesn’t work. High fuel prices will probably do more good than harm in the short run by reducing demand. On the other hand, rising food prices create catastrophic misery and starvation. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable will bear the burden of this recent linkage of the food and energy markets. Clearly, we have a national liquid-fuel problem. Unfortunately our national ethanol policy is unlikely to solve it, and may create equally challenging problems for the food supply. What I find most puzzling is how little we, as a nation, seem to care about finding alternative solutions to the fuel mess we’ve seen coming down the pike since M. King Hubbert first published his theory of peak oil production in 1956. Thomas Millette is MHC associate professor of geography.

Andrea Burns

and ethanol’s lower energy density (56 percent lower than gasoline’s), the process consumes a great deal of fuel. The best calculation I can find comes from a group at Cornell, which estimates it takes 1.29 gallons of gasoline to produce enough ethanol to replace a gallon of gasoline at the pump. It seems that producing corn-based ethanol is actually making us more dependent on foreign oil.

From the pages of your yearbook … to your Facebook page You may have changed since you graduated. But you’re always an MHC alumna. As a member of the Alumnae Association, you have a lifelong connection to an exceptional worldwide community. Throughout the years, wherever you are in the world, you can keep your connections strong. One of the newest and best ways to connect is through Facebook. You can share news, photos, and videos on your own page and on the Alumnae Association’s active Facebook group. To make connecting even easier, we’ve added a brand-new Facebook application just for alums. With a few clicks, you’ll be able to visit the Alumnae Association Web site from within your Facebook page, where you can find fellow alumnae, check out online class notes, or join a discussion group. Once you’ve logged in, you will never have to log in again from Facebook. The new application also feeds you instant alumnae event updates, so you’re never out of the MHC loop.

Get connected. Stay connected. Visit us today at www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/go/mhconnect (No Facebook page yet? Join us today at www.facebook.com)

offtheshelf

Words Worth a Second Look Nonfiction Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Save Them By Kimberly Lisagor and Heather Hansen ’94 (Vintage Books) Eco-tourists need look no further than Disappearing Destinations for a guide to Earth’s breathtaking but beleaguered splendors. From Puerto Rico’s phosphorescent bays to the boreal forests of Finland, the authors show environmentally responsible travelers how to enjoy (and preserve) fascinating but fragile wonders on all seven continents. Heather Baukney Hansen is a freelance journalist, environmentalist, and world traveler based in Colorado.

By Christopher Benfey (The Penguin Press) A meditation on a moment in history, Benfey’s book seeks to show how some of the most famous writers of the nineteenth century responded to the Civil War and the era’s dynamic aesthetic, in part, with allusions in their work to the effervescent hummingbird. Christopher Benfey, professor of English at MHC and an Emily Dickinson scholar, is also a critic and essayist.

Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema

The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama

By Angela Dalle Vacche MA’80 (University of Texas Press)

Edited by Gabrielle H. Cody ’78 and Evert Sprinchorn (Columbia University Press)

The “diva film” became popular around the turn of the twentieth century, as artists questioned what it meant to be human in an increasingly mechanistic world. Diva is the first authoritative study of this genre, whose films denounced social evils and explored new models of behavior between the sexes.

This 1,700-page reference highlights the interdisciplinary nature of modern drama by placing playwrights and plays within their social, cultural, and historical contexts. The editors take a global look at drama in the literary sense, providing concise entries and offering new perspectives on familiar figures, movements, and texts.

Angela Dalle Vacche, an internationally recognized expert in European cinema, is an associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Literature, Communication, and Culture.

A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade

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Gabrielle Hamilton Cody is professor of drama at Vassar College and the author of Impossible Performances: Duras as Dramatist; Direction: Essays on 20th Century Theater; and Annie Sprinkle Solo.

Beating Lyme: Understanding and Treating This Complex and Often Misdiagnosed Disease By Constance A. Bean ’49 with Lesley Ann Fein, MD, MPH (AMACOM) Lyme is the fastest-growing infectious disease in America, and—if misdiagnosed—can result in chronic, debilitating symptoms. Beating Lyme helps explain the prevention, diagnosis, and antibiotic treatments available to beat the disease that afflicts 1.7 million people worldwide. Constance Austin Bean is the author of six previous books, including Methods of Childbirth, a classic of the natural-childbirth movement.

Eat Smart in Sicily: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods, & Embark on a Tasting Adventure By Joan Peterson and Marcela Croce CG’72 (Gingko Press) This guidebook provides a historical overview of the peoples who have contributed to Sicilian cuisine, and the distinct fare of the villages and cities of Sicily’s four regions. It includes a guide to Sicilian menus, how to shop for traditional ingredients, and a glossary of foods. Marcela Croce was born in Sicily and organizes Elderhostel programs there for Trinity College. For a schedule of Croce’s book tour, go to alumnae. mtholyoke.edu/go/crocetour.

What This Cruel War Was Over: Slavery and the Civil War By Chandra Manning ’93 (Alfred A. Knopf ) Using wartime correspondence, this book traces the evolution of Union and Confederate soldiers’ attitudes about slavery and patriotism. It shows both the increasing centrality of slavery to the Union’s crusade as well as the centrality of slavery and racial ideology to the Confederate national identity. Chandra Miller Manning is assistant professor of history at Georgetown University.

Size Matters: The Hard Facts About Male Sexuality That Every Woman Should Know By Harry Fisch, MD, and Kara Baskin ’00 (Random House) Just what goes on inside a guy’s underpants? Size Matters is a humorous, engaging, and candid conversation between a doctor, the director of Columbia University’s Male Reproductive Center, and a patient, with writer Kara Baskin acting as “Everywoman.” The conversation revolves around questions that every woman has about men’s private parts—but rarely has a chance to address. Kara Baskin is the editor of The Boston Globe’s “Lola” magazine, and has written for The New Republic, Slate, the Washington Post, The Boston Phoenix, and NPR.org. She lives in Boston. Quarterly Blogazine Exclusive! Size Matters author Kara Baskin ’00 reveals more of what she learned researching her book in a Quarterly blog beginning November 1. She’ll write about what women understand about men, what we don’t, and why we need not worry so much about pleasing men. Read on at alumnae.mtholyoke. edu/go/karablog.

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A Sojourn in Tropical Medicine: Francis O’Connor’s Diary of a Porto Rican Trip, 1927

Radical Sisters: Second-Wave Feminism and Black Liberation in Washington, D.C.

Edited by Raul Mayo Santana, Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano ’65, and Jose G. RigauPerez (The University of Puerto Rico Press)

By Anne M. Valk ’86 (University of Illinois Press)

This book contains an annotated version of the diary of a tropical medicine specialist who spent eighteen days in Puerto Rico during a time of great colonial tension on the island. The diary reveals the pretensions and prejudices of a masterful clinician who engaged in a whirlwind of teaching, fieldwork, and writing. Included are essays by de Arellano as well as by Silvia Rabionet ’79.

Radical Sisters uncovers the often fruitful but divisive connections between the 1960s movements for urban change, welfare rights, reproductive control, and black liberation, while detailing their impact on the ideals of modern feminism. Anne M. Valk is associate director of programs for the John Nicholas Brown Center at Brown University.

Annette Biscombe Ramirez de Arellano is coauthor of Colonialism, Catholicism, and Contraception: A History of Birth Control in Puerto Rico. Legendary Long Islanders: Interviews With Famous Residents From the Hamptons to New York Out of the Fog: Meditations for Believers and Skeptics By Sarah Clark ’63 (Xlibris) Writing of good and evil, sorrow and joy, nature and nurture, Clark offers meditations for all seasons of the year and spirit. With humor and reverence, she calls us to recognize and share the love and happiness in our lives. The Reverend Sarah E. Clark was a playwright, journalist, bookstore clerk, Tupperware dealer, actress, teacher, and publicist before becoming a parish minister.

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By Helene Herzig ’49 (Mixed Media Memoirs) Herzig has collected more than seventy of her interviews with Long Island, New York, celebrities and entrepreneurs written over a twentyyear period when she was feature editor of North Shore Magazine. Personalities include Martha Stewart, Billy Joel, and Kiri Te Kanawa as well as artists, astronauts, and politicians. Helene Phillips Herzig lives on Long Island and in Palm Beach.

Fiction

Yo u n g R e a d e r s Tomboy

The Wakame Gatherers

By Nina Bouraoui; translated by Marjorie Attignol Salvodon ’89 and JehanneMarie Gavarini (University of Nebraska Press)

By Holly Thompson ’81 (Shen’s Books)

This translation of a bestselling French coming-of-age novel introduces Nina, a French-Algerian girl deeply conflicted about her identity. First, she becomes a tomboy to escape Arab culture’s limits on female behavior. Later, Nina forges a more feminine identity as a French girl, only to be constantly reminded that she is a foreigner. Marjorie Attignol Salvodon is an associate professor of French at Suffolk University in Boston who wishes she was “still taking classes taught by professors Joan Cocks, Samba Gadjigo, Elissa Gelfand, Jean Grossholtz, Richard Johnson, and Jacques-Henri Périvier.”

The Royal Baker’s Daughter By Barbara Goldberg ’63 (University of Wisconsin Press) In this collection of poems, cooking is used as a metaphor for the creation of human hope. “Elegant and earthy,” according to the poet David St. John, the poems “reveal the inner workings of the human psyche and show us that sometimes the best defense against terror is making mischief.” Barbara Heymann Goldberg is the coeditor of an anthology of contemporary Israeli poetry, After the First Rain: Israeli Poems on War and Peace.

Holly Thompson’s picture book for children features bicultural Nanami, who goes wakame seaweed gathering with her Japanese and American grandmothers. During their day at the shore, Nanami serves as translator for the two women, whom she comes to understand were at war when they were her age. Included is a note about wakame, a glossary of Japanese words used, and recipes for wakame. Holly A. Thompson is the author of the novel Ash and a longtime resident of Japan. She teaches creative writing at Yokohama City University. Visit her site at www. hatbooks.com.

More Books Note: Mount Holyoke alumnae and faculty members are prolific authors. To reduce the lag time between a book’s printing and its mention in the Quarterly, all books are briefly noted either in the printed Quarterly or the online edition. Zapped By Carol Higgins Clark ’78 (Scribner) To Jane and Yongxiu, China Letters 1981–2002 By Jane F. McCall Babson ’47 and Yongxiu Pang (The Winstead Press Ltd.) A Civil War Love Story By Laura Gott Dondey ’48 (Driftwood Press) Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650–1750 By Tanya Kevorkian ’87 (Ashgate Press) Itty & Bitty on the Road By Nancy Carpenter Czerw ’74 (McWitty Press) For descriptions of these books, go to www.alumnae. mtholyoke.edu/go/morebooks_f08.

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alumnaematters Association Fellowship Winner Shares Stories of Muslim Americans

Moushumi Khan ’93

Moushumi Khan ’93 was awarded the 2008 Mary Woolley Fellowship and received $7,500 to begin research for a book examining the issues facing New York Muslim immigrants after the attacks of 9/11.

Khan, who ran her own general law practice serving working-class immigrants in Queens, New York, after 9/11, found herself acting as a bridge between government agencies who needed help from the Muslim community and Muslims fearful for their rights. “My [Muslim] clients told me of FBI monitoring in their neighborhoods … at the same time, some government agencies were trying to reach out to the Muslim population … to elicit their help in fighting terrorism and to reassure them of their rights. I found myself serving as an intermediary between them,” Khan wrote in her fellowship application. A legal and social analysis of the Muslim American immigrant community, informed by her experience as one of the few attorneys who directly represented them post 9/11 and worked with government agencies and think tanks, will fill a void in the literature, she says. Khan, a recent graduate in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, begins research for her book this fall.— M.H.B.

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Career Services at Your Fingertips! Need help organizing your career? Director of Alumnae Career Services Cori Ashworth is here to lend a hand! The services she offers and the issues she can help you address include career and life transitions, selfassessment, identifying new areas of work, jobsearch strategies, coaching on interviewing and networking, and editing tips for résumés, letters to prospective employers, bios, and personal statements. Office hours are Tuesday–Thursday, 2–4 p.m., and Tuesday and Wednesday, 7–9 p.m. (Evening appointments are by phone.) To make an appointment, call 413538-2080. Many questions can be addressed by e-mail, as well. Don’t forget

to check out the career resources available on the Alumnae Association Web site (alumnae.mtholyoke. edu) under “Programs and Services.”

Marketing Pro Nominated as Alumnae Trustee In today’s competitive market for top-notch students, faculty, and donors, colleges are eager to bring to their boards trustees who demonstrate leadership, strategic communications skills, and personal integrity. Ellen Hyde Pace ’81 is primed and ready for the challenge. Nominated this summer as alumnae trustee of Mount Holyoke by the Nomination of Alumnae Trustees/

“Mount Holyoke is positioned now and in the future to leverage its unique profile as an educator of women in the world. The college’s truly global student body and commitment to empowering women to act make a compelling story,” Pace added.—M.H.B.

Successfully managing diverse teams to help build the businesses of leading global corporations has been a highlight of Pace’s career. “Ellen knows when to lead, when to listen, but most important, how to motivate a team of leaders to agree to decisions and action,” said one colleague.

As the association bylaws state: Names of additional candidates may be submitted to the Committee on the Nomination of Alumnae Trustees/ Awards provided that the nominations shall be by written petition, signed by at least 100 voting members, no more than 30 percent of whom shall be from the same class or from the same club area, and such written petition is received by the executive director by January 15 of the year of the election. Nominations by petition shall include the written consent of the nominee to serve if elected.

Her multifaceted volunteer work for the college and the Alumnae Association has shown her focus and talent, said another reference. A Communications Ad Hoc Committee member of the association since 2005, Pace helped to formulate the association’s ten-year strategic plan and has served as a lead gift chair for her class, class Cornerstone chair, and head class agent. She received a Medal of Honor in 2006.

Ellen Hyde Pace ’81

Awards Committee of the Alumnae Association, Pace is expected to be elected to the five-year term during the association’s annual meeting in May 2009. A resident of New York City, Pace currently is managing director of the marketing communications powerhouse Young &

alumnaematters

Rubicam. She previously worked at J. Walter Thompson and DMB&B, and has for the past twenty-five years helped to deliver and manage integrated marketing strategies for global clients such as Colgate Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Married since 1999 to Anthony Pace and mother of twins Liz and Leo, Pace worked in Australia for several years early in her career as an advertising account manager for DMB&B. Her experience in long-range planning, recognizing trends, and helping a particular product evolve while retaining its proven values are all relevant to a trustee’s role, she noted in her personal statement.

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bulletinboard but there was an essence. Finally, visually, I was seeing what I felt.”

Announcements

Fall MHC Art Museum Exhibitions

The exhibition coincides with the tenth anniversary of MHC’s Center for the Environment.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands From the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation: September 2–December 14 This show brings to life the complex cultures that once flourished across an enormous expanse of territory from northern China and Mongolia into Eastern Europe. The small-scale personal objects on display were eminently portable, reflecting the lifestyles of the horse-riding nomads who populated the area. They reveal how the steppe dwellers used the animal kingdom as a primary source of symbolic imagery to indicate tribe, social rank, and connection to the spirit world. A Spectacle of Wings: Photographs by Rosalie Winard: September 9–December 14 “Beauty can be a tool if used well,” Rosalie Winard says, and it is a tool that she wields with a distinctive touch. She photographs birds as one might a family member caught in an intimate moment. “It was in an environmental biology course that binoculars became my second set of

Rosalie Winard’s Brown Pelican Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida (iris print photograph, 1998)

eyes,” remarks Winard. The camera later replaced her binoculars as she searched for ways to depict the birds’ simultaneous fragility and power, elegance and humor. It was award-winning documentary filmmaker

Errol Morris who put her onto the possibilities of the infrared film that she has used to great effect in her bird portraits. “In a way, it’s counterintuitive,” Winard explains. “The best times to shoot birds are at dawn and dusk. This film needs bright light,

The Career Development Center (CDC) is seeking alumnae who would like to sponsor MHC students for summer internships. Internships have become a vital part of the college experience, and what better way for students to connect with Mount Holyoke alumnae! Students traditionally seek summer internships in areas such as financial institutions, management, scientific and medical research, media outlets, social-service agencies, not-for-profits, law and government agencies, museums and historical societies, and in education. If you would like further information, please contact the CDC at 413538-2080, or register online at http://www. mtholyoke.edu/offices/ careers/employer/ipo_form. htm.

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photograph courtesy of the artist

Alumnae Expertise and Sponsorship Sought by CDC

class&clubproducts For the benefit of the Alumnae Association’s Alumnae Scholar Program, Mount Holyoke classes and clubs are selling these MHCrelated products. Full descriptions of all products are at http://www.alumnae. mtholyoke.edu/shop/ alumgifts.php.

Class of 1996

Class of 1991

MHC Alumna Logo T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, children’s items, tote bags, stickers, and more. To purchase, go to www. cafepress.com/mhcalumnae. Merchandise also available at www.mhc91.com.

Class of 1992

Poster of Mount Holyoke Blue Laws Calligraphy by Andrea Pax ’92. $20. Ten actual blue laws transcribed from the Holyoke TranscriptTelegram of 1862. Contact Kathryn Popoff at kpopoff1@yahoo.com or go to www.mhc1992.com/ devo/stuff.asp.

MHC Visors. $11. Send orders, with checks payable to MHC Class of 1996, to Jessica Dial, ’96, 955 Jane Place, Pasadena, CA 91105.

BOSTON CLUB The MHC Boston Marathon 1837 T-Shirt

Mount Holyoke Mirrors, Desk Boxes, and Paintings with Mary Lyon tower and Field Memorial Gate. Mirror ($210); walnut desk box ($210), painting ($175). Mount Holyoke Chairs: $400; Boston rocker, $385; swivel desk chairs and lamps. Vanity License Plates displaying the college name and older logo; blue on white; $5.25. Reed & Barton Silver-Plated Paul Revere Bowls, 4 1/4'', $45; 5 1/4'' $50; 6'', $58; 8'', $77; 9'', $86. Chelsea Clocks: Paperweight brass desk button clock (2'' diameter), $124; Newport: wall-mounted clock (4 1/2'' diameter), $200; Chatham: round dial with mahogany base (4 1/2'' high), $254; Carriage clock: Roman numerals (6 3/4'' high), $285; Presidential: mahogany base (7 1/2'' high), $370. Contact Jane Chandler Weiss ’59 at janeredsox@ yahoo.com; 617-267-5504 or 492 Beacon Street #33, Boston, MA 02115-1002.

for $38. Contact Laura OBrien ’73 at obrienlaura@sbcglobal.net or 203-374-9300. BRITAIN CLUB

Traditional English Mount Holyoke Placemats and Coasters Placemats of four different campus scenes, $75.50 per set (includes p/h). Coasters of six different Campus scenes, $38.50 per set (includes p/h). To view and purchase online go to www.alumnae.mtholyoke. edu/go/britainclub or send check payable to Mount Holyoke Club of England to: Julie Ogg, Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, Mary E. Woolley Hall, 50 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075. CAPE COD CLUB

BRIDGEPORT CLUB

Class of 1995

Got Milk (& Cookies)? cotton onesie. The front reads “Got milk (& cookies)?” and on the bum is “mhc.” $12. Contact Michelle Chuk at 231 14th Street NE, Washington, DC, 20002. Visit www.mhc1995.com/ shopping.htm for order forms.

Great women start here. Wear the 1837 entry number with pride and support the Boston Club. $25 (include S/H). Purchase at mhcboston.org/ Merchandise.html.

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Cell Phone Lariats $8 each or two for $15. Wine-glass charms $20 for set of six or two sets

Notecards and Postcards “Boats and Fishing Shacks” note cards (packet of four); “Sandpipers on the Beach” postcards (packet of ten); $5 each. Contact Barbara H. Tucker (daughter of the artist, Marcia Herrick

Howe ’24) at 781-2590204 or 175 Winter Street, Lincoln, MA 01773. CINCINNATI CLUB

$66 or $82, depending on size. Contact: Cindy White Morrell ’68 at cmorrell@MtHolyoke. edu or call the Alumnae Association at 413-5382303 for her mailing address. HOUSTON CLUB

A Separate Sphere: Dressmakers in Cincinnati’s Golden Age 1877–1922 by Cynthia Amneus; hardcover, $64. Defining Women’s Scientific Enterprise: Mount Holyoke Faculty and the Rise of American Science by Miriam R. Levin, hardcover $30. Books signed by the author. Contact: Jennifer Harris Daniels ’75, PO Box 27118, Cincinnati, OH, 45227-0118 or mhc75jhd@aol.com. GENESEE VALLEY CLUB

Pet Leashes Pet leashes $13 each. Sue Bonafini ’82 and sbona82@rochester. rr.com. GREATER SOUTH HADLEY CLUB The Orchards DVD/ VHS From Tee to Green: The History of The Orchards. $19.95. Napkins with college seal. Packages of 25, $3. Terrycloth Hand Towels $5.Luggage Straps $15. Silk Scarves depicting the Mt. Holyoke range.

Montblanc Pens: Generation Pens Fountain pen $235; rollerball $175; ballpoint $165; and pencil $115. Meisterstück Solitaire Doué Pens: Fountain pen $495; rollerball $375; and pencil $375. Black leather pen case available for one ($85) or two ($95) writing instruments. Special Edition Millennium Noblesse Oblige Pens: pencil $120; ballpoint $120; roller ball $135; and fountain pen $200. Contact: Mary Dethloff Dryselius ’66 at mdrysse@ gmail.com or call the Alumnae Association (413-538-2303) for mailing information. LYON’S PRIDE

Mount Holyoke Note Cards A set of ten (blank inside) with matching envelopes, $12. Contact Donna Albino ’83 at dalbino@mtholyoke.edu. Purchase Lyon’s Pride

Paraphernalia including clothing, mugs, cards, and mouse pads with the Lyon’s Pride logo online: www. cafepress.com/mhlyonspride. NORTHERN NEW JERSEY CLUB Gift Candy Mints, 8 oz. box, $11. Almond Butter Crunch, 9.5 oz. box, $12. Almond Butter Toffee, 7.5 oz. box, $11.Endangered Species Candy Bars, 4 for $10. Virginia Peanuts (plain), $11. Contact Suzanne Fresh Anderson ’58 at dublin5977@aol. com or via the Alumnae Association (413-5382303) for information. Alumna Car Window Decal $2. Contact Carolyn Conant-Hiley ’83 at 15 Pomeroy Road, Madison, NJ 07940 or mwhiley@optonline.net. PITTSBURGH CLUB

by Jean Valens Bullard ’46 and Betty Spohr. $9.95. Order from the author at Sirpos Press. (See above.) ST. LOUIS CLUB MHC Postcards Packages of fifty, $10. Contact Amae Kurre ’03 at amae_mhc@ hotmail.com or via the Alumnae Association at 413-538-2300 for mailing information. WESTCHESTER (N.Y.) CLUB

College Seal Embroidery Kits $23 Contact Sharon Campbell Rubens ’73 at rubens@ cyburban.com or via the Alumnae Association at 413-538-2303 for mailing information. ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION

Blazer Buttons, 24-karat gold-plate w/ enameled MHC seal, from the Ben Silver Collection. Send check for $75/set (6 small and 3 large) payable to “Mount Holyoke Club of Pittsburgh” to MHC Blazer Buttons, 1462 N. Euclid Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206. PUGET SOUND CLUB Let’s Go Camping in a National Park, by Jean Valens Bullard ’46. $5. Write “MHC Gift” on check, payable to Sirpos Press, 4611 35th Ave. SW, Apt. 513, Seattle, WA 98126 (206-938-0837). Catch a Falling Star: Living with Alzheimer’s,

The De Longa Print Limited edition linocut print of block carving by Leonard A. De Longa; features medieval subject matter; $50 Logo Pin MHC logo in 14 kt. gold. $50 Ordering: Make check payable to Alumnae Association of MHC. Massachusetts residents add 5 percent sales tax. Send with order to the Alumnae Association (Attn: Products), MHC, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA 01075-1486.

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travelopportunities December 26, 2008 –January 4, 2009 Mayan Kings and the Great Pyramids: A Yucatán Voyage With Amherst College and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Ring in the new year under the open Yucatán sky. Following two days in the colonial city of Mérida, embark the ninetypassenger French motor yacht Le Levant for a seven-night cruise around the Yucatán peninsula. The voyage includes visits to spectacular Mayan sites including Chichén Itzá (above), Uxmal, and the Temple of the Five Storeys. Also included is an optional post-tour to the Mayan city of Tikal, Guatemala.

Park, and Tortuga Island. Highlights include a walk along a suspended catwalk in the rainforest canopy, snorkeling among colorful tropical fish, exploring mangrove swamps, and learning from local wildlife experts about the stunning biodiversity of Costa Rica. The cost of this trip is approximately $4,995 per person. Please call Siemer & Hand Travel at 1-800-451-4321 for more information. March 15–23, 2009 Tahiti and French Polynesia

The cost of this trip is approximately $6,690 per person. Please call Academic Arrangements Abroad at 1-800-221-1944 for more information. January 28– February 7, 2009 Costa Rica: Aboard the Wind Star With Vassar College Sail aboard the intimate, seventy-four-cabin yacht Wind Star on an elevenday voyage featuring visits to the highland rainforests in the center of Costa Rica and a cruise along the Pacific coast. The trip begins in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica, and continues on to San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, then back to Playas del Coco, Corcovado National

Enjoy a seven-night cruise through the island paradise of French Polynesia aboard the intimate clipper ship SY Star Flyer. Sail from Papeete, Tahiti, with port calls at the islands of Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora Bora, and Moorea. The cruise includes excursions with expert local

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guides who will enlighten travelers about the treasures of the ancient Polynesians, the natural history of the islands, traditional culture and society, local mythology, and the rich environmental diversity of Polynesia and Tahiti.

and Roman art and architecture.

The cost of this trip is approximately $3,595 per person. Please call Gohagan & Company Travel at 1-800-922-3088 for more information.

To request a brochure for any of these trips, please call the Alumnae Association at 413-5382300 or visit our Web site at www. alumnae. mtholyoke.edu. For additional information, please call the travel company sponsoring the trip.

October 16–27, 2009 Remarkable Women of Antiquity and Their Times A Seven Sisters Trip Sail aboard the all-suite, 114-guest Corinthian II on a voyage in search of the history of antiquity’s most powerful women. Beginning in Athens with a visit to the Acropolis and an excursion to the Sanctuary of Artemis, we will board the ship for a cruise across the Aegean Sea to arrive in Bodrum, Turkey, where Queen Artemisia commanded a naval vessel during the famous Battle of Salamis. The cruise will continue on to Rhodes, home of Kallipateira (the only woman to have attended the ancient Olympics) and then to Fethiye, Turkey; Tartus, Syria; and Alexandria, Egypt, as we visit ancient shrines dedicated to goddesses, magnificent museums and churches, and famous archeological sites that shed light on the lives and deeds of antiquity’s most fascinating women. The Mount Holyoke faculty lecturer for this trip is Bettina Bergmann, Helene Phillips Herzig ’49 Professor of Art and a specialist in Greek

The cost of this trip is approximately $7,395 per person. Please call Travel Dynamics International at 1-800-257-5767 for more information.

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation This information published as required by USPS; data taken from form 3526-R. • Publication title: Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly; publication number 0027-2493; published quarterly; subscriptions are free • Office of Publication: Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, 50 College St., S. Hadley, MA 01075-1486; editor and contact person: Emily Weir, 413538-2301; publisher and owner: Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College • Circulation (based on spring ’08 issue): net press run 31,502; requested subscriptions 30,102; nonrequested (campus mail) distribution 1,400

Thank You

to every alumna and friend who has made a gift to the Founder’s Fund, which supports postgraduate projects from medical study to music, cultural relations to politics.

Thank You for making a gift to the endowment fund of the Alumnae Association, which encourages MHC alumnae to serve their communities— and develop their own potential—with the help of fellowships.

Find out more about the Founder’s Fund. Visit our Web site at www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/giving/founders.php.

Thank You.

l ysz ko

Ma c h ael

Fall pulls me toward Mount Holyoke. I associate the season with new dorm rooms, catching up with friends, Mountain Day, and finding blue accessories for convocation. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a time for new school supplies, new classes, and new professors. This fall, as I start graduate school, I still have new classes, professors, and school supplies. But they come without the people, MHC traditions, and South Hadley colors that make the fall I have known for the last four years. Anindita Dasgupta â&#x20AC;&#x2122;08