Annie Abdalla is immersing in a creative project she calls, “The Process of Abstracting: Searching for Essence.” In Annie’s words: “I’m curious about the parallels between the habits of mind and the habits of mark-making. My work is turning to landscape – stimulated by my years of living in two very different landscapes each year, the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and southern Québec.”
Pamela Booker published, “Tilling Soil and Soul in the Aftermath of the Climate March,” about her recent experiences with Goddard faculty and students at Soul Fire Farm and at the New York City Climate Justice March in September. Check out Pamela’s blog!
Bobby Buchanan’s essay, “Reflections on Learning at Goddard College: Progressive Education in a World of Growing Hierarchy,” was published in the Fall/Winter 2014 issue of Clockworks.
Bobby Buchanan, Catherine Lowther, Otto Muller and Otto’s family attended a Vermont rally against fracking in October 2014 sponsored by Rising Tide and 350 VT. This rally was part of an ongoing series of initiatives across Vermont and New England to halt the development of regional fossil fuel infrastructure.
Neema Caughran’s ceramic sculpture, Kwan Yin, was accepted into a statewide juried show held as part of the annual Colorado State Fair. In October 2014, Neema attended the annual Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Conference in Seattle, Washington.
Maike Garland, who co-founded the Vermont organization Reading to End Racism, was interviewed on Goddard’s radio station WGDR this December about systemic racism in Vermont. Reading to End Racism challenges racism through literacy in the local elementary schools.
Newcomb Greenleaf’s fabulous essay, “Art & Spirit in Mathematics: The Lessons of Japanese Temple Geometry,” is now featured on the Science and Non-Duality website with accompanying images.
Bethe Hagens has been transforming a former dump into a terraced permaculture forest garden in Kennebunk Port, Maine. Bethe reports, “We are turning it gradually into a neighborhood sustainability center and will be adding a community bread oven and cold storage unit this summer — using wattle and daub, coir-crete, and other new low impact design tech. I am very excited about the research possibilities and the medicinal and food uses of the native plants.”
Catherine Lowther and the rest of the Goddard Sustainability Team have been hard at work divesting Goddard’s endowment from fossil fuels. It’s now official! Goddard joins 15 other university campuses in the U.S. who have committed to move their endowment funds into fossil fuel free accounts. While some of these 15 colleges have agreed to divest from coal, Goddard has taken a comprehensive step: moving our entire endowment into fossil fuel free accounts.
SB Sowbel was a guest faculty member at (VCIH) the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, co-facilitating the course, Healing Presence: Cultivating Communication Skills and Compassionate Relationship. This summer, Sowbel had a solo exhibition entitledBoustrophedonerie at the Drawing Board Gallery in Montpelier, Vermont. The show included 25 mixed-media (wax, oil, and gouache) prints. Plus, Sowbel published six works in four literary venues, with two awards (1st place Poem of the Year and Top Ten Poems in Northeast Poetry Competition.)
Eva Swidler was invited by the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities to present a paper at the annual MLA conference in January 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The paper is part of a panel entitled, “Protecting Campus Freedoms: Speech, Assembly, Disruption.” Eva attended a January protest in Philadelphia against the Keystone XL pipeline and in support of sustainable green jobs.
Diana Waters co-taught, “Inside-Out: Pathways of Opportunity” this fall. Diana explains, “We took 15 college students from different colleges into the Philadelphia Detention Center where they were peer learners and discussants with 15 incarcerated men. We used Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow as a foundation for examining our criminal justice system and education in America and their impact on groups and individuals according to difference.”
In early January, Karen Werner started teaching a Spring semester dual enrollment course called, “True Stories: Adventures in Nonfiction Audio Storytelling.” Stay tuned this winter and spring to hear students’ pieces broadcast each month on Goddard’s community radio station, WGDR. Karen’s audio story, “Slow Down, Mr. Werner,” will be nationally broadcast and podcasted on the February 6th episode of Radiotonic, a show produced by the Creative Audio Unit at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Herukhuti Williams co-sponsored and moderated a panel discussion at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on the use of the seven principles of Kwanzaa (i.e., the nguzo saba) as principles of development in Black LGBTQSGL communities. Herukhuti’s organization, Center for Culture, Sexuality and Spirituality, launched the Sacred Sexuality Practitioners of Color Network, an important resource for sacred sexuality practitioners of color who want to connect with their colleagues. Herukhuti also authored an article on the Center for Culture, Sexuality and Spirituality website, analyzing LGBTQ organizational responses to the Black Lives Matter movement. And, he was named a Thought Leader for the Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians for 2015.
Sui Yee Wong participated in the panel, “Without Borders: Exchange and Representation,” at the Ethnocultural Art Histories Research Group (EAHR) conference,Cultural Convergences II: Alliances at Concordia University in Montreal. Sui Yee was also nominated by ELAN, the Quebec English Language Arts Network, to be featured in the February 2015 artists’ studio tour. The program brings together gallerists from New York and Boston with Montreal artists with the goal of increasing access to the art market beyond Quebec.