An interview with Michael Barresi

Michael Barresi is Professor of Biological Sciences at Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA, where he uses the zebrafish to understand central nervous system development. Michael is also Program Director of the ‘Student Scientists’ outreach project and has made significant contributions to teaching developmental biology, including being co-author and illustrator of the textbook Developmental Biology, producing developmental documentaries and starting the Online Developmental Teaching Forums. He was awarded the 2021 Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the Society of Developmental Biology (SDB). We caught up with Michael over Teams to hear more about his career and love of learning.

Una académica comprometida con el estudio de la historia del pensamiento iuspolítico alemán y el trabajo de Hans Kelsen: una aproximación a la apasionante obra de Sara Lagi

Sara Lagi obtuvo el grado de doctora en Historia del Pensamiento Político Europeo por la Universidad de Perugia en el año 2005. Actualmente es catedrática de la Universidad de Turín; también ha sido docente en la Universidad de Florencia (2007-2009), Middlebury College, Smith College y Fashion Institute of Technology (2005-2014). A lo largo de su prolífica trayectoria docente, Sara Lagi ha publicado un gran número de artículos y libros, entre los que destacan: “Pensare la democracia: Hans Kelsen e Hermann Heller a confronto”; “Kelsen e la Corte costituzionale austriaca: un percorso storico-politico (1918-1920)”; “Hans Kelsen, un pensatore democrático tra Europa e America (1920-1955)”; Il Pensiero político di Hans Kelsen (1911-1920). Le origini di Essenza e valore della democracia; “Georg Jellinek storico del pensiero politico (1883-1905)”; “Adolf Fischer e Karl Renner: la questione nazionale austriaca (1869-1917)”; “The formation of a liberal thinker: Georg Jellinek and his early writings”; “Hans Kelsen and the Austrian Constitutional Court (1918-1929)”; “Karl Renner: Staat und Nation”; “Hans Kelsen: pensador político”; “Territorio y pueblo en Hans Kelsen”.

In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist

Classical scholars have begun to delineate the dynamic pattern of black classicism. This new subfield of the classical tradition involves the analysis of the creative response to classical antiquity by artists as well as the history of the professional training in classics of scholars, teachers and students in high schools, colleges and universities. To the first group belongs Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969). Born in Fayetteville, NC, Chesnutt was the second daughter of acclaimed African American novelist, Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932). She earned her B.A. from Smith College in 1902 and her M.A. in Latin from Columbia University in 1925. She was a member of the American Philological Association and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Her life was spent teaching Latin at Central High School in Cleveland, OH. This is the first full scale account of her career.

Unknown Roads (poem)

Solidarity researcher and artist Ninette Rothmüller is a visiting scholar from Germany at Smith College, Massachusetts. With a background in Cultural Studies, Social Work and Interdisciplinary Arts, her practice-led and theoretical work is concerned with who humans are to, and with, each other under various circumstances, such as severe crisis. Her autobiographical documentary poetry reflects experiences of forced immobility and displacement across borders and languages.

“How to Know Butterflies” and the “Confessions to a Heathen Idol”

This chapter discusses the teaching experiences of Anna Botsford and John Henry Comstock at Chautauqua. At Chautauqua, they had a very large field class and they were both tired when they returned to Ithaca early in August of 1903. Henry had 33 classes in his summer term that year. He gave a course of lectures on spiders, which was very popular. Meanwhile, Anna's problem in the Chautauqua classes was a difficult one. The teachers had no background of science, and it seemed best to get each one in the class interested in some phase of nature that they could follow by themselves later. Anna found trees, ferns, birds, and butterflies adapted for this work. However, all the butterfly books were too advanced for use in these courses. As such, Anna besought her husband to write one with her. On November 13, 1903, she accepted the trusteeship of William Smith College.