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Gary E. Knell has served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Governmental Affairs Committees and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Geographic Foundation Board of Governors and AARP Services, Inc. Knell now serves as president and CEO of Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind the production of Sesame Street and other educational children's programming viewed in 140 countries. On Monday, Nov. 13, he spoke to a packed Chapel audience, following a brief introduction by assistant professor of psychology Jean Burr.

Visiting Professor of Communication John Adams was interviewed for an Associated Press article about the ways in which presidential candidates end their speeches on the campaign trail (11/10/07). In the article, which was published in The Washington Post, The New York Times and Newsweek.com, Adams and other communication experts analyze how the various presidential candidates use their final words to send home a message with the audience. "Candidates often save their most emotional material for the end, after they've established their credibility and followed up with the nuts and bolts of their plans. Usually, speakers will pick up the pace toward the end -- it's like NASCAR rhetoric,' Adams says.

The women's soccer team, two cross country runners and the men's rugby team all advanced in national competition.

An essay by Visiting Assistant Professor of English Scott MacDonald serves as the concluding essay in a new book of 16 essays on experimental filmmaking by women. Women's Experimental Cinema: Critical Frameworks, published by Duke University Press and edited by Mt. Holyoke Associate Professor of Film Studies Robin Blaetz, includes MacDonald's essay "Women's Experimental Cinema--Some Pedagogical Challenges."

Associate Professor of Physics Seth Major traveled to the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada, for the workshop "Experimental Signatures of Quantum Gravity." Among some 25 attendees invited from around the world, Major presented a talk, "Discrete Geometry Phenomenology: New models, possible tests."

A mild fall extended this year's construction season thus enabling renovations of the Kirner-Johnson Building to continue at a good pace.

The Charlean and Wayland Blood Fitness and Dance Center has received another architectural award and is slated to receive another construction award in December, bringing the total design and construction awards received to five since its dedication in 2006. On Friday, Nov. 9, in San Francisco, the facility received the National Award of Excellence from the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA). In December, the center will be recognized by McGraw Hill Construction publications as the "Sports Facility Project of the Year." 

Marca Bristo, an internationally acclaimed leader in the disability rights movement, will give a lecture titled "Disability Policy in the Post-ADA Era" on Monday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn. It is free and open to the public.

Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of the Sesame Workshop, will give a lecture titled "Muppet Diplomacy: How Sesame Street is Working to Change our World" on Monday, Nov. 12, at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel. The Sesame Workshop is a non-profit educational organization that strives to create innovative, engaging content that maximizes the educational power of all media to help children reach their highest potential.  Knell will explain how the Sesame Workshop achieves these goals and helps to promote child development. The lecture is free and open to the public and is hosted by the Psychology Department and Dean of Faculty.

Catherine Gunther Kodat, associate professor of English & American Studies, has published an essay in the winter 2007 issue of American Literary History (ALH), a quarterly journal of U.S. literary and cultural studies published by Oxford University Press. "Making Camp: Go Down, Moses," offers a reading of William Faulkner's 1942 novel that questions commonplace assumptions about the intersections of race and sexuality in the author's work, an area of research that has seen a great deal of activity in the past 20 years.