Theresa Snyder ’11 presented a paper titled “Popular Media, Yellow Journalism, and the Penitentes of the Southwest” at the annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain-Great Plains Chapter of the American Academy of Religion. The conference took place on March 18 at the University of Denver. Snyder, from Crested Butte, Colo., and a double major in Southwest Studies and religion, based her conference paper on her senior thesis.
3 CC Students Present Papers at Ethnomusicology Conference
Three Colorado College students will present papers at the April 15-16 meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology-Southwest Chapter, which will be held at Colorado College. The three CC students are the only undergraduates to present at the conference.
Caitlin Bette-Waner ’11, a music major, will present a paper titled “The Apache Mountain God Dance: A Musical Analysis.” Her conference paper is based on her senior thesis. Stephan Gordon ’11 will discuss “Music, Trance, and Healing in Bali.” He is majoring in Liberal Arts and Sciences; his conference paper is based on his senior thesis. Andrew Salimbeni ’11 will present a paper titled “Regional Style in Balinese Gender Wayang Music: A Preliminary Study.” Salimbeni is a music major whose conference paper is based on an independent study project he undertook during the summer and fall of 2010.
The Regional Music Scholars Conference involves the Rocky Mountain/Southwest Chapters of the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Musicological Society, and the Society for Music Theory. All presenting students have been working with Music Professor Victoria Levine on their senior theses and independent study projects.
Additionally, Tendai Muparutsa, who joined the music department in October as director of the African Music Ensemble, will present a performance workshop on Zimbabwean music on Saturday. Muparutsa, who was born and raised in Zimbabwe, is a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta. A specialist in African musical cultures and the performance of Southern African traditional and pop music, Muparutsa’s dissertation focuses on the role of American women in the global revival of Zimbabwean traditional music.
The conference was organized by Richard Agee and Nilanjana Bhattacharjya of the music department.
What’s going on at Van Briggle?
By George Eckhardt, Manager of Logistical Support
Is all the activity going on at Van Briggle over the past couple of weeks an extreme makeover, a building demolition project, an archeological dig, or a new construction project?
The correct answer is all of the above. Thanks to the generous support from the Schlessman family, longtime 
Colorado College benefactors, the Van Briggle building exterior and surrounding landscape is receiving an extreme makeover, to be concluded by mid-June.
Much like the nearly completed Cutler Hall and Cossitt Hall improvements, both part of the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), there is an improvement project at Van Briggle, 1125 Glen Ave., and the Transportation Shop across the street, 1144 Glen Ave. The project is intended to greatly improve the “gateway first impression” appearance for Colorado College and for the entry to historic Monument Valley Park for vehicle traffic traveling on Uintah Street.
The goal is to attractively screen the maintenance vehicle parking area on the north side of the Van Briggle building, and the fleet vehicle parking area across the street at the Transportation Shop. A Colorado College campus stone sign replica of the Cascade and Nevada parkway median signs will be installed at an angle along the Uintah Street east-bound traffic lanes, just before reaching the Uintah Bridge, to announce arrival at the college.
The Western Ridge residential buildings will be visible, directly over the top of the new sign. Also, the improvements will eliminate the street side parking on the west side of Van Briggle, and add attractive landscaping around the historic Van Briggle building and the Transportation Shop property to greatly improve aesthetics.
The local community and many other interested visitors to the historic building will have more access and interaction with the west side of the Van Briggle building to explore and photograph the unique architectural features. Hardly a day passes that curious and historically knowledgeable visitors do not stop to take photos and drop in through the front office for a look at the building interior to learn more about the Van Briggle pottery history. Many, too, are interested in the Historic Walking Tour Van Briggle National Register listing: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/welcome/walkingtour/vanbriggle.php )
Decorative brick screen walls, much like the existing brick screen wall on the west side of the Van Briggle building, will be constructed around the north side parking area, and at the north side of the Transportation 
Shop parking area. In both projects the brick screen walls will be set back significantly from the property line boundaries to allow for attractive landscaping, which will provide a softer park-like or garden-like appearance, and still provide an uninterrupted view toward the campus’ Western Ridge residences above Stewart Field as vehicular traffic approaches the college from I-25. The new landscaping will blend nicely with the attractive Horticultural Art Society garden on the south side of the Van Briggle building. The Van Briggle brick screen wall also will emphasize the northern view of the attractive upper Van Briggle building roof lines and showcase the building’s many unique architectural features, such as the decorative tiled dormers and chimney stacks. The utilitarian chain link fences and gates will be replaced with attractive traditional custom wrought iron fencing typical for the historic period, containing subtle architectural elements borrowed from the Van Briggle building and existing screen wall.
The archeological dig is a result of demolition of the old Monument (Storage) Shed on the north side of the Van Briggle building along the Monument Creek bank and the excavation for the new screen wall.
From 1908 through the 1950’s, Van Briggle Pottery used the backyard as a repository for kiln waste materials, used brick, and failed pottery and tile shards. Most of these bulky waste materials had to be removed and replaced with adequate soils for proper structural compaction for the new parking area surface and the new brick screen wall. The waste materials will be recycled as fill material in the deepest part of a large ditch on college- owned property located on West San Miguel Street just north of the Grounds Shop, which will provide a new storage lay-down yard replacing the lost Van Briggle storage yard. Many salvaged examples of 80 to 100 year-old glazed tile, terra cotta, and pottery shards will be useful for display and discussions for the annual Woman’s Educational Society historical scholarship fundraising tour of Van Briggle, held each September (and scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011).
Discarded monument markers with names and dates also were found under the Monument Shed floors. Much 
of the discarded materials were used to fill in the undermined shed on the creek bank where soils were eroded and washed away during the infamous 1935 flood. It is noted on Van Briggle Pottery financial statements from 1937 and 1938 that the Monument Department was a significant part of the business as Van Briggle was recovering from the flood and the depression.
Unknown to most people, the Van Briggle building’s three north side additions, done in years prior to college ownership, were constructed of exposed concrete block exterior walls. In 1968, after Colorado College purchased the Van Briggle Pottery, the building restoration and re-adaptation included removal of the two large brick kilns. The used kiln bricks were cleaned and installed on the exterior faces of the concrete block walls on the north side additions to improve the historic look of the building. The 1968 restoration did not address removal of the plywood faced flat roof overhangs on two of the three additions.
This project includes removal of the two remaining flat roof overhangs and construction of raised brick parapet walls to match the northeast addition, which was topped with a brick parapet wall capped with sandstone in 1968. Roger Renck, one of the retired owners of Renck & Roberts Masonry Company, which originally did the brick restoration work 42 years ago, is acting as the project masonry consultant. Renck was able to locate oversized recycled, historically accurate, matching bricks in a used brickyard in Denver for constructing the two parapet walls. The north side of the building roof line will have a uniform historic appearance as viewed over the top of the new brick screen walls.
The west side of the Van Briggle brick screen wall will feature a projected 30-foot-long wall section framed by two pilaster columns containing art work including limestone floral carvings, bas relief bronze plaques of Artus 
and Anne Van Briggle at work, and brightly colored glass tile mosaic artwork panels, all created by local artist and sculptor Larry Terrafranca. The artwork will depict and celebrate the Van Briggle Pottery story, adding another interesting feature for visitors to enjoy and to photograph. Terrafranca previously recreated the black ceramic cat, which was missing from the southeastern brick chimney for more than 30 years. He also helped recreate very significant architectural art features on the Cutler Hall, Palmer Hall, and Jackson House historic preservation projects.
The brick screen walls also will incorporate decorative Van Briggle art tiles arranged in six-tile panels on each of the 13 brick pilaster columns. These art tiles are being produced by the current Van Briggle Art Pottery Company at 1024 S. Tejon St. The art feature wall will be surrounded on the west side by the Schlessman Family Garden, which will be a landscaped paver patio area with two bench seating areas for relaxation and enjoyment of the art works and scenery.
Removal of two rental houses on two college-owned properties near Van Briggle made these improvements possible. The loss of parking area at the north side of the Transportation Shop was compensated by removal of the college-owned rental house immediately south of the shop, creating additional fleet vehicle parking area. Likewise, the loss of indoor and outdoor storage and parking areas on the north side of the Van Briggle building will be compensated by the combination of two college-owned rental properties and construction of a new storage building at 228/232 West San Miguel St., directly north of the Grounds Shop. One rental house will be removed and the Facilities Services Construction Shop will move into the other rental house, which will remain. The perimeter of the new storage yard will be visually attractive with new landscaping and screening treatments which will include raised earth berms, new wood fencing, and new tree plantings.
Learn about CC President-Elect Jill Tiefenthaler
Read the announcement about CC’s 13th president, as well as her biography and speech; check out the photo gallery and videos; and send her a welcome message. Check back for new content, all here.
2 CC Juniors Recognized by Goldwater Scholarship Program
Two Colorado College students have been recognized by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program. Colby Sides was named a Goldwater Scholar and Eric Wigton received an honorable mention.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program was created to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.
Sides, a junior, is majoring in biology and Spanish. He plans to earn a Ph.D. in tropical biology, then conduct research in tropical forest succession and teach at the university level. Wigton, also a junior, is a biochemistry 
major who plans to earn an M.D./Ph.D. or Ph.D. in biochemistry and conduct translational research on chemoprevention in cancer.
In awarding scholarships, the Foundation Board of Trustees considers the nominee’s field of study and career objectives and the extent to which that individual has the commitment and potential to make a significant contribution to the field. To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be going into their junior or senior year and must be nominated by their college or university.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was authorized by the United States Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater.
84 CC Faculty, Staff Honored at Biennial Author’s Reception
- An author’s reception was held March 28 in the Tutt Library atrium to honor Colorado College faculty and staff who published books, articles, and other works since March 2009. The biennial event, co-sponsored by Tutt Library and the Dean’s Office for the past decade, honored a record-breaking 84 authors this year. Academic books and articles, works of fiction and poetry, entries in reference works, journal articles, music compositions, films, and other publications were on display.
2010 Colorado College Alpine Journal Now Available Online
By Erik Rieger ’12
Unbeknownst to many, Colorado College plays host to one of the most significant climbing communities in the world. Since the early 1900’s, CC climbers have been pioneering first ascents and embarking on significant climbs throughout Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West, as well as the rest of the world.
In an attempt to unite and showcase the talents of this spirited community, Joe Forrester ’06 and Michael Wejchert ’08 founded The Colorado College Alpine Journal in 2006. Since its first release, the CCAJ has sustained itself as a unique compilation of stories, photos, and artwork which chronicle the significant climbs of both current CC students and CC alumni, while also displaying the creative talents of its many contributors. Now in its fourth annual publication, the CCAJ has come a long way from what Forrester calls its “rough and humble beginnings.” The 2010 edition, released in February, saw some major design improvements and all those involved in the project hope the journal will become a keynote publication among the canon of Colorado College publications as well as among the greater body of climbing literature.
The CCAJ is a free publication and those looking to gloss through its vibrant pages can find copies in Tutt Library and the Ritt Kellogg Climbing Gym. The CCAJ also is available electronically. The 2010 edition can be viewed at: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/campusactivities/orc/cacc/securecacc/2010%20CCAJ.pdf
Past editions are at: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/campusactivities/orc/cacc/securecacc/caccresources.asp
We hope you enjoy exploring this unique publication and reading about some of the most exciting climbing trips the CC climbing community has taken over the past year!
Two CC Sociology Majors Awarded Watson Fellowships
Two Colorado College seniors have received Thomas J. Watson Foundation fellowships for their research projects, enabling them to pursue a year of independent exploration and study outside the United States.
Sophia Herscu, of Amherst, Mass., will study “Social Circus: Trust Building and Empowerment Though Circus Technique.” Her research will take her to Canada, Australia, and Brazil.
Hannah Sohl, of Ashland, Ore., will research “Against the Current: Exploring Migratory Fish Runs and Cultures,” will travel 
to Canada, Bolivia, Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Mongolia, and Laos for her research.
Herscu and Sohl, both sociology majors, are two of only 40 college seniors across the country to become Watson Fellows. They were selected from a field of 148 finalists, and each will receive $25,000 for 12 months of travel and exploration.
Herscu will examine how circus pedagogy can be used in a new movement called Social Circus, which uses circus technique as a way to build self-confidence and trust in group settings. She will study the ability of the performance techniques to empower women and youth.
Sohl notes that “riverine communities throughout the world depend on migratory fish runs not only for their economic and nutritional livelihoods, but also for cultural identity and a sense of place.” She plans to explore the traditional and contemporary relationships between humans and migratory fish runs, the threats facing rivers and fish, and the various conservation efforts emerging to protect them, and will document the project through a series of podcasts.
This year’s Watson Fellows come from 21 states and four foreign countries, and exhibit a broad diversity of academic specialty, socio-economic background, and life experience. They will traverse 71 countries, exploring topics from sword dancing to pro-gaming, gay marriage to voluntary poverty, migratory fish to nomadic societies, and fiber art to fly fishing.
Get to Know: Peter Wright
When Peter Wright’s graduate advisor received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Harvard in the early 1980s, there were two or three tenure-track positions available in the field. When Wright graduated in 2008, there were more than 40 such positions.
There was no way Wright could have predicted the sea change that crashed over the discipline. He entered graduate school in Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August 2001; the events of 9/11 occurred when he had been on campus less than a month.
Wright took the long road in becoming an Islamicist – he detoured through law school. A philosophy and classical languages double major at the University of Pittsburgh, he hoped someday to become a literary critic. But a pragmatic father persuaded him to go to law school, and Wright complied, earning his J.D. from the Duquesne University School of Law, getting married, and accumulating the accompanying law school debt. He then hung out a shingle to pay for it all.
As a practicing attorney, he spent about a third of his time on criminal defense work, and in that capacity visited clients in prison, where he encountered African-American inmates who had converted to Islam. He began researching, studying, writing, and eventually presenting papers at conferences on the topic of Islam in the American prison system. Academics at the conferences were impressed, and told Wright he should pursue the topic. “That was important to me; I needed someone to say I should do this.”
Wright contacted leading scholars in the field, and received positive feedback. “I knew I had to make the move,” he said. “I was 40 years old, and had been practicing law for 10 years. It was getting comfortable. I thought, ‘If I don’t do this now, I’ll never do it.’ I didn’t want to be one of those people who gets to the end of his career and says, ‘I wish I had done what I really wanted to do.‘ ”
Wright, who by now had a toddler, told his wife that he wanted to leave the law practice to pursue graduate studies in Islam. His wife, pregnant with their second child, encouraged him to do so. The more difficult conversations, Wright says, were with his father, who said, “I thought we had you straightened out,” and with his law partner. “The first words out of his mouth were ‘You can’t do this.’ “ (The law partner has since come around and enjoys visiting Colorado on rock climbing trips. His father, who has passed away, visited Wright in North Carolina and saw how contented he was in his chosen field of study.)
Wright‘s M.A. thesis continued his work on Islam in American prisons through its focus on the rise of the Black Nationalist movement known as the “Nation of Islam.” His interest in literary criticism blossomed when he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation. A study of the Qur’an, Wright’s dissertation applies recent allusion theory to the text of the holy book in order to gain insight into the likely composition of its original audience. He is a historian of literature, and his mentor was the late Nasr Abu Zayd, a world-renowned Qur’anic scholar who held positions at Cairo University and the Universities of Utrecht and Leiden in Holland.
Wright applies literary and rhetorical theory to religious texts and is well aware of the objections raised to this approach by some who hold such texts sacred. “My position on this issue is the same as Nasr Abu Zayd’s,” he explains. “Every Holy Scripture is revealed in language that its original audience is capable of understanding; therefore, every Holy Scripture is subject to the laws by which language communicates meaning. The application of literary and rhetorical theory to sacred texts is simply one means of ascertaining how a given text has complied with (or transgressed) those laws.” He adds: “The earliest commentators on the Qur’an in the Islamic tradition were not only masters of Arabic grammar, they were steeped in the imagery and vocabulary of pre-Islamic Arab poetry. They made no apology for resorting to non-Muslim poets to explain obscure words or even passages of the Qur’an. In fact, the foundation of the Muslim exegetical tradition lies in such scholarly activities. The notion that what Nasr did or what I do somehow ‘reduces’ the Qur’an to ‘mere literature’ is a very recent one. Individuals who hold such views would do well to acquaint themselves with the history of Qur’anic interpretation.”
Wright says that he strives to teach his students to examine the ways in which human beings imagine the divine and their relationship to it. In doing this, he likes to invoke the “metaphysics of imagination” developed by the 13th-century Muslim polymath Ibn ‘Arabi. “Ibn ‘Arabi argued that every human being worships an idol – the image of the divine that makes sense to them. Everyone gets a glimpse of the truth; the truth that is available to them.” So much of that interpretation, he says, depends on context: where a person was born, how they were raised, what language they speak, his or her life experiences, etc.
Wright joined the CC faculty in the fall of 2008, after weighing offers from several other schools. “Timing never was my strong suit,” he says, “except in the matter of Islamic Studies.” Islam, he says, “was not on the radar of most Americans before 9/11, despite 20 percent of the world’s population being Muslim.” He chose CC over a prestigious public research university for a variety of reasons. “I believe in the importance of undergraduate education and was excited about meeting students at a critical time in their lives, where you can have a significant impact,” he said. He also liked the collegiality of CC’s religion department. “Overall, I felt that this was a better place for me,” he said.
Wright’s fields of expertise are Islamic sacred literature and its interpretation, Islam in the Americas, the history of religions, theory and method in religious studies, and religion and violence. He says that, in order to better understand the sacred texts of Islam, he spends a significant portion of his time studying the history and literature of both Judaism and Christianity.
There is no scale of justice in Wright’s office. Instead, one of the first things a visitor notices is a large, silver samovar surrounded by small Moroccan tea glasses. Islamic Studies are not just about texts, Wright says. There is an entire civilization built around the values of Muslim culture, and one of the preeminent values of that culture is hospitality.
Wright’s two sons, a toddler and newborn when he started out on his path toward Islamic Studies, are now 10 and 12 years old. His wife, an active member of the Pittsburgh theater community who wrote and directed plays, is currently a certified Pilates instructor and teaches Pilates and yoga as physical therapy.
Dispatches From Japan
Two Colorado College professors and a former employee were in Tokyo when the 8.9 earthquake struck March 11. Here is a round-up of messages and news they have sent:
Joan Ericson, Professor of Japanese Language and Literature
I appreciate all of the messages from many others who have asked about our welfare in Japan.
Jim and I are fine here in Kyoto. It seems strange to think that just last Saturday I was up in Sendai to give a talk (through Fulbright) at Tohoku University. I’m sooo glad that we were safe at home Friday afternoon when the terrible earthquake hit the northeastern area of Japan. We’ve been glued to the TV watching news – tsunami waves are unbelievably forceful – they have swept cars, houses, and large ships along in their wake. The three national TV stations canceled all of the usual programming from Friday afternoon to now (Sunday afternoon) to show news and real time footage of the disaster. For those who couldn’t stand the harsh reality any longer on Friday, there were several channels of soothing music and images (Grand Canyon and the like).
Unfortunately the news seems to get worse with the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant and aftershocks. It’s also a shock to hear the words “being exposed to radiation” (hibaku) being applied to those who’ve been affected by the released nuclear vapr – up until now this was part of the word “hibaku-sha” which was used for those who experienced the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
People in this general area told us that they felt the tremors on Friday afternoon, but we must have assumed that any tremor was just part of the process of a large building being demolished near us. We’re far enough away from the Tohoku (northeast) area which has felt the brunt of the earthquake and tsunami, but are ever mindful of the unpredictable nature of earthquakes.
Dan Johnson, Associate Economics Professor
Just got back to my hotel again, as it was evacuated again to check for structural damage as there were some superficial cracks in the walls when I first returned.
Here’s the story as it developed here: I’m at a conference here in downtown Tokyo, due to present some research in international trade. Midway through someone else’s presentation, the room started to rumble more than shake. It wasn’t heavy, but was noticeable as an earthquake. The speaker stopped to wait for it, and it kept on and on, growing stronger and stronger. As the light fixtures started to swing, we all climbed under our desks, hoping that the worst would pass quickly. But for several minutes that seemed like hours, it grew even stronger. The room really vibrated, and people grew genuinely terrified. I wasn’t scared yet, just amused, so I smiled and cracked jokes with my colleagues to keep the mood light. After all, what are the odds against a killer quake on my first day of my first trip to Japan, right?
During a lull in the shaking, we heard the public siren outside calling for building evacuations, along with instructions to reach high ground as a precaution against a tsunami coming ashore. That’s actually when I started to get scared. We filed out in orderly fashion, and were thankfully already on a hilltop, so could watch as dozens of others streamed out of nearby buildings to join us in the hilltop courtyard between buildings. The trees were swaying, the ornamental caps on one building were vibrating precipitously, sirens were blaring, and people were starting to panic. Everyone had cell phones out, trying to call loved ones or get news.
We remained outside for the better part of an hour, with the ground still regularly trembling with aftershocks. Slowly word trickled in about the enormity of the quake, where it was centered, how big the tsunami wave would (and wouldn’t) be, etc. Security teams were remarkably calm and professional in checking buildings for gas leaks and fires and structural damage.
We called off the remainder of the afternoon’s conference, and I went back to my hotel, where elevators were of course not working. So I climbed the 13 flights to my room, passing cracks in the wall that the bellhop asserted had definitely not been there that morning. Upstairs, my room was still frequently swaying and vibrating with aftershocks, so I changed into warmer clothes and went back downstairs and outside to wait it out.
Looking around at the skyline, it would have been a major humanitarian disaster had the quake been centered here. With millions of people in the city, skyscrapers on every block, streets clogged with cars and buses, construction cranes and industrial facilities in close proximity, it could have been horrific. As it is, by 11 p.m. this evening, most subway and train lines have been checked and are back on limited service, stores are still stocking food and water, restaurants are open to serve meals, and the city is a little subdued but not too much the worse for wear.
So to celebrate surviving the Tokyo Quake of ’11, the conference group went out this evening for a fugu dinner (the Japanese pufferfish that must be prepared by a licensed chef because if prepared incorrectly it is fatally poisonous). It was sublime. And so is Tokyo.
Bob Kerwin: Former CC director of communications
Most Japanese have expected a big quake their whole lives. We do regular drills in hard hats and carrying survival kits – these came out for sure last Friday. But Tokyo is built for quakes and there was little damage in the city.
While we had no idea if our ordeal was over, as the aftershocks lasted for hours, everyone’s attention switched to the horrific images on TV of the tsunami coming ashore. No drill could have prepared for that. Surviving the quake suddenly seemed inconsequential. Only family counted as everyone struggled for hours to contact their homes, many finally walking for hours in the absence of train service.
Things are tense in Tokyo as the nuclear crisis has now taken center stage, but one has to admire the calm, communal approach to the danger. I can only contrast this to the alarmist foreign press that appears to live on incomplete information, hyperbole and more than a few accusations. I have yet to hear one person complain or point a finger in Tokyo. Emphasis is on the well-being of families, with coming to work entirely voluntary for most companies.
If I had one wish out of this, other of course than for the reactors to cool down, it would be for the foreign press to find some objectivity and stop upsetting people needlessly. I get the impression that people in the US are more upset than here in Japan, where I can assure you we take the danger very seriously. It is amazing how a few well placed seeds in a paragraph of bland copy, like “desperate bid”, “catastrophic” (ahead of the fact) and, my own favorite, “apocalyptic” can stir people’s fears. We may have the radiation, but at least we don’t have such a toxic press to deal with.
All of my colleagues and I are buoyed by the many messages of support from friends over the horizon.
