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Colleagues, Grants Support Stefanie Chambers’ Research on Somali Americans

For her newest book, Stefanie Chambers, associate professor of political science, is comparing the incorporation of Somali Americans in the Twin Cities and Columbus, Ohio. It’s an effort that she acknowledges was made possible by the support of many others: her colleagues, a Trinity alumnus, and most recently the American Political Science Association.

Stefanie Chambers speaking at Connecticut's Old State House in 2012.

Stefanie Chambers speaking at Connecticut’s Old State House in 2012.

Chambers started this research when she was writing a chapter on minority mayors in majority-white cities. At the suggestion of Abigail Williamson, assistant professor of political science, Chambers wrote a conference paper on Somalis in Columbus. She enjoyed the research experience so much that she decided to make it her next book project.

Chambers collaborated with several colleagues who were able to offer their expertise in immigration, Islam, and other areas. In addition to Williamson, she worked with Anthony Messina, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science; Diana Evans, professor of political science; and Zayde Gordon Antrim, Charles A. Dana Research Associate Professor of History and International Studies.

While preparing for her field work, Chambers came across a book called Somalis in Minnesota. She soon learned the author was a Trinity alumnus: Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, IDP ’97. She later connected with Yusuf, who became an enormous asset to her work in the Twin Cities, connecting her with trusted individuals in the Somali American community who helped her build credibility.

“I’ve had people say to me, ‘I wouldn’t have met with you if it wasn’t for someone vouching for you,’” she said, pointing out that some in the community suffered from what she called “research fatigue.”

In addition to the help from Yusuf and her colleagues, Chambers’ research was supported by Trinity’s Faculty Research Committee and the American Political Science Association. These grants allowed Chambers to conduct 43 interviews in Columbus and another 40 in Minneapolis.

Chambers plans to write the bulk of the book, Immigrant Incorporation in New Destinations: Somalis in the Twin Cities and Columbus, during her Spring 2015 sabbatical.

category: Grant Awards, Research + Scholarship
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Johannes Evelein Explores ‘Learning Exile, German Style’ in Common Hour Talk with Colleagues

Exile means many things to many people. Still, there are common threads that run through the writings of many German thinkers who have tackled the subject. Johannes Evelein, professor of language and culture studies, discussed these common themes with his colleagues in the Department of Language and Culture Studies during a Common Hour talk titled, “Learning Exile, German Style: Benjamin, Brecht, Bloch et al.”

LiteraryExilesFromNaziGermanyEvelein examined the recurring themes in German writing about exile, a subject he discusses at length in his upcoming book, Literary Exiles from Nazi Germany: Exemplarity and the Search for Meaning, set for release this summer. One observation Evelein made was the tendency for those in exile to compare themselves to renowned fellow exiles. One example is Bertolt Brecht’s comparison of himself to Homer and Dante.

Another exile who appears frequently in German literature is Ahasverus (also known as Ahasuerus), a figure said to have been cursed by Jesus Christ after taunting Christ on the way to his crucifixion. Ahasverus is also known as “the wandering Jew” or “the eternal Jew” and was co-opted by anti-Semites in propaganda in the years leading up to the Third Reich.

Evelein’s lecture was the final Common Hour of the academic year in a series of talks among faculty members in the Department of Language and Culture Studies that was organized by Thomas Harrington, associate professor of language and culture studies. The series brought together those from various disciplines to present their work and offered opportunities for faculty members to discuss the intersections of their research interests. Evelein’s talk was no exception.

Following his presentation, Evelein’s colleagues weighed in, comparing and contrasting the German portrayals of exile to those in other cultures, including Israel, Latin America, and other parts of the world. Harrington contrasted the German idea of exile, a very individual experience as observed by Evelein, to the more communal experience of Catalonian exiles, one of his areas of research.

Evelein’s book will be available in August from publisher Camden House. In it, he presents a history of the learning process of exile as experienced by German and Austrian writers who left their countries in opposition to National Socialism.

category: Lectures and Panels, Publications

Kristin Triff Delivers Guest Lecture for Two Wesleyan First-Year Seminars

Kristin A. TriffWhen the papacy followed Pope Clement V from Rome to Avignon, France, in the early 14th century, it had a profound impact on Rome’s politics, architecture, and overall culture. These changes, in particular the way that Roman baronial families filled the void left by the papacy, were among the topics discussed in a guest lecture last semester at Wesleyan University by Trinity’s Kristin A. Triff, associate professor of fine arts.

Triff was invited by two faculty members from Wesleyan to deliver a lecture to their first-year seminar students. Students in the two courses, “Baroque Rome” and “The Roman Family,” were brought together for a lecture about the powerful Orsini family, whose rise and fall during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance in Rome was mirrored in the evolution of its palace complex at Monte Giordano.

The lecture, based on Triff’s upcoming book, The Orsini Palace at Monte Giordano: Patronage and Public Image in Renaissance Rome, served as a bridge between the two seminar courses. “The Roman Family” focused on the institution of the family in Rome and its structure. Meanwhile, “Baroque Rome” was an inclusive look at life, art, and culture in Rome during the Baroque period. Students from both courses, she said, were able to participate in a conversation about the Orsini family and its palace, each contributing to a lively picture of a city in transition.

“Having more first-year seminars ‘talk’ to each other here at Trinity would be fantastic,” Triff added. “To have viable links that are content driven would further strengthen our first-year program and promote more creative synergy among our incoming students.”

Triff’s research examines the Orsini family’s impact on Rome’s social history and palace culture. In particular, her lecture focused on the topic of patronage in Rome and how the Orsini family used it to maintain its status. She also explored the ways that the papacy’s 1420 return to Rome affected the city’s baronial culture and led to the Orsini family’s decline.

At Trinity, Triff teaches art and architectural history in addition to being acting director of the art history program and the faculty coordinator of the Rome study-abroad program. She endeavors to bring a focus on visual literacy to her teaching, as she did in her guest lecture at Wesleyan.

“It is important that we engage with the arts, whether visual arts, music, dance,” she said. “They’re each important and eloquent markers of individual cultures. That’s how we reveal ourselves.”

category: Lectures and Panels

New Book Focuses on Hartford and New England’s Forgotten Cities

Confronting Urban LegacyConfronting Urban Legacy: Rediscovering Hartford and New England’s Forgotten Cities examines the economic and cultural shifts that have beset the region’s urban centers over the past four centuries. Among the cities it looks at are Hartford; Portland, ME; and Lawrence and Springfield, MA.

The new anthology, published by Lexington Books, is co-edited by Xiangming Chen, dean and director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS) and Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Global Urban Studies and Sociology at Trinity, and Nick Bacon ‘10, who is a Ph.D. candidate in cultural anthropology at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate Center and remains affiliated with CUGS.

Confronting Urban Legacy, which is now available, has been called the first academic book to specifically analyze Hartford and other small cities and regions in New England. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the volume includes contributions from sociologists, anthropologists, historians, political scientists, and community leaders.

Part I provides rich historical delineations of the many rises and falls of Hartford, its suburbs, and of Lawrence. Part II offers a broad contemporary treatment of Hartford by dissecting recent immigration patterns, and examining the demographic and educational dimensions of the city-suburban divide by using the case studies of Springfield and Portland. Lastly, Part III explores Hartford’s social, economic and political conjuncture and looks into the future in terms of what the city could become

Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra said of the book: “Given the current challenges facing cities like Hartford, the content of this volume provides ample fuel for further research and public discussion on the 21st century futures of cities like Hartford.”

And Sharon Zukin of Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center, called the work “provocative,” noting that New England “is thoroughly global and highly problematic, divided between poor cities and rich suburbs, ethnic groups representing the Caribbean, Africa, and the U.S. South, a shrinking industrial and white-collar economy and a growing nonprofit sector. Here, in a microcosm, is urban society.”

In addition, Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution said, “I truly believe that in this century every city needs to understand its special position in the global economy and global networks, building from historic legacies and links. To this end, Chen and Bacon compile a rich and original set of research that positions Hartford and similar small New England cities firmly on the global stage. This is a great platform for rebirth and renewal.”

Among the authors who contributed to this volume are Chen and Bacon; Hartford Courant columnist and editorial writer Tom Condon; and several Trinity faculty members: Janet Bauer, associate professor of international studies; Jack Dougherty, associate professor of educational studies; and Andrew Walsh, associate director of the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life; and Michael Sacks, professor of sociology emeritus at Trinity.

Others who wrote chapters include Lyle Wray, executive director of the Capitol Region Council of Governments; John Shemo, vice president of the MetroHartford Alliance; Jason Rojas, Trinity’s director of community relations; Ezra Moser ’10; James Gomes ’75, and currently director of the Mosakowski Institute at Clark University; and Clyde McKee, a longtime professor of political science at Trinity who passed away in 2011.

Two additional contributors are Llana Barber, assistant professor in the American Studies Department at the State University of New York, Old Westbury; and Louise Simmons, professor of social work and director of the Urban Semester Program at the University of Connecticut.

category: Publications

Cut It Out Examines the C-Section Epidemic in the United States

CutItOutCut It Out: The C-Section Epidemic in America, a new book by Theresa Morris, professor of sociology at Trinity College, examines the exponential increase in the number of cesarean sections, the most technological form of birth that exists today and one fraught with medical complications and negative consequences.

In the tightly written volume, published by New York University Press, Morris challenges most existing explanations for the unprecedented rise in c-section rates, which are physicians practicing defensive medicine; women choosing c-sections for scheduling reasons; and women’s poor health and older ages.

Morris’s explanation is more complicated, taking into account how women are treated by the medical profession, how hospitals are run, and the professional standards in the medical and insurance communities.

She argues that there is a new culture that avoids unpredictable outcomes and instead embraces planning and conservative choices, all in an effort to have “perfect births.”

The book’s conclusions are based on in-depth interviews with women had had just given birth, obstetricians, family physicians, midwives, and nurses, as well as a careful analysis of U.S. c-section rates.

Cut It Out provides a riveting look at an epidemic that greatly affects the lives, health and families of pregnant women in this country.

A member of Trinity’s faculty since 2000, Morris is the mother of two children, the first delivered by c-section and the second by vaginal delivery.

A sampling of what others are saying about the book:

“Engagingly written, rigorously research, and compellingly argued, this book [is] a must-read not only for women’s health advocates and scholars of reproduction, but also for those engaged in health care policy.” – Susan Markens, author of Surrogate Motherhood and The Politics of Reproduction

“By looking at the power structures of the medical, legal, and professional organizations involved, the politics that devalue women, the organizational arrangements and protocols of hospitals, and the professional standards used in medicine and the insurance industry, [Morris] discovers a culture that avoids risk and encourages planning to avoid adverse outcomes. This results in conservative choices in the pursuit of the perfect birth. The author interviewed 130 new mothers, obstetricians, midwives, and labor and delivery nurses and reviewed local and national c-section rates to obtain the data for this study. VERDICT: A useful addition to health sciences and academic library collections.” – Library Journal

“Challenging conventional wisdom, Morris’s interviews reveal that some doctors feel their hands are tied by the legal system, for which a prompt c-section indicates that the hospital has fulfilled its responsibilities to the patient in the event of a lawsuit; hospital policies like constant fetal monitoring, which limits the movement a laboring mother needs to facilitate a vaginal birth, and the requirement that mothers who have already had cesareans cannot have vaginal birth, and medical training that no longer teaches methods of delivering breech or multiple births vaginally…Morris’s powerful book deserves the attention of policymakers.” – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Theresa Morris calls the c-section epidemic a paradox: doctors don’t like it, women don’t like it, and we know it’s a danger to our health. Yet like a bad habit, we can’t seem to stop doing more and more cesareans. Why? Morris demystifies the paradox in clear, accessible terms: rather than ‘patient choice’ or doctors’ convenience, it is our systems and institutions driving this addictive behavior.” – Jennifer Block, author of Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

category: Publications
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New Survey Shows College Students are Worried about Economic Prospects

An on-line national survey of 1,710 college students by Trinity College public policy researchers found that today’s college students are worried about their economic future, and are socially liberal on most of the “culture war” issues raging in the United States today.

By relatively large pluralities, the students say that economic inequality is a major issue in the U.S. They strongly believe in freedom of expression, and support same-sex marriage and reproductive rights as well as controls on the sale of handguns. The college students, known as Generation Y or the Millennial Generation, say assisted suicide for the terminally ill should be legalized and they do not believe that immigrants threaten American jobs.

Those were among the findings of the American Religion Identification Survey (ARIS) 2013 College Student Survey conducted by Trinity College in April and May, and partly funded by The Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. The principal investigators were Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, public policy research professors and the authors of the renowned ARIS survey series since 1990.

The surveyed students, ages 18 to 29, attend 38 colleges and universities from across the U.S., including so-called Red and Blue States. Twelve of the institutions are located in the South, 12 in the Northeast, eight in the West and six in the Midwest. Fourteen of the colleges and universities are private; 24 are public. A random sample of emails was taken from each school’s list. The sample is fairly representative of today’s four-year college students. Fifty-nine percent of the respondents were women and 28 percent were members of minority groups, including African Americans, Latinos, Asians and some who described themselves as “other.”

Asked their political party affiliation, 42 percent said they are Democrats, 26 percent said independent and 19 percent said Republican. Thirteen percent said other or don’t know. However, when asked their ideological philosophy, 32 percent identified themselves as liberal, 17 percent said conservative and an identical 17 percent said moderate. Twelve percent said progressive, 6 percent said libertarian and 15 percent said other or don’t know.

The responses to several public policy questions, in particular, demonstrate that the current cohort of college students is very concerned about their economic future and job prospects, and don’t see the picture brightening. They also see a country where the per-capita debt has risen, and an aging population whose Social Security and Medicare bills will be largely borne by younger Americans. A large majority, 85 percent, consider a “balanced federal budget” to be an important issue, while 13 percent do not.

“Having lived through a steep economic downturn and facing a rocky recovery that is not producing the high-paying, good-benefit jobs that previous generations benefitted from,” said Kosmin, “it’s not surprising that college students see difficult times ahead for themselves, particularly since many have gone deeply into debt to pay for their education. So they question whether they’ll ever be able to achieve the quality of life that their parents have enjoyed.”

Indeed, asked whether young people’s changes of establishing themselves economically and professionally in the U.S. will be better, worse or the same in comparison with their parents’ generation, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of the respondents said worse, 19 percent said better and 13 percent don’t know. The more pessimistic students tended to be male, white and Latino, attend private college and major in the arts or humanities. Women, African Americans, students studying at public universities and those majoring in science, technology, engineering or mathematics – fields that typically pay higher salaries and have plentiful jobs – are among the more optimistic about economic advancement.

Moreover, 56 percent agree with the statement that, “people with no college degree have little chance of succeeding in life in the U.S. today,” although 42 percent disagree. And 85 percent of those who turned in the survey said “economic inequality is a major issue in the U.S. today.” Even more women (88 percent) agreed with the statement than men (81 percent). Only 14 percent of the respondents think economic inequality is not a major issue.

Three-quarters of the students said a higher minimum wage is important, compared to 23 percent who said it’s unimportant and 7 percent who don’t know. Yet, 69 percent of the respondents said immigrants don’t threaten American jobs, whereas 25 percent said they do and 6 percent don’t know.

In terms of non-economic issues, a whopping 91 percent of the students endorse the Constitution’s First Amendment right that people should be guaranteed freedom of expression regardless of their views. Six percent disagreed and only 3 percent were unsure.

“This finding implies criticism of the speech codes imposed by many colleges,” said Kosmin.

Regarding the Second Amendment, when asked whether the federal government should do more to control the sale of handguns, 70 percent said yes, 24 percent said no and 6 percent didn’t know.

The survey demonstrated that college students are more open-minded than older Americans on many controversial and divisive issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

Asked whether women’s reproductive rights must be defended, 84 percent of women agreed, as did 74 percent of men. Ten percent of the female students disagreed, as did 15 percent of male students. As for same-sex marriage, which has been in the news of late given the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, three-quarters of the students (76 percent) said gay marriage should be legalized nationally, while 17 percent disagreed. Seven percent said maybe.

Another issue that was recently dealt with by the Supreme Court was affirmative action. Asked whether affirmative action in college admissions should be abolished, 42 percent said it should be, 35 percent said it shouldn’t be and 23 percent were unsure.

“The finding on affirmative issue showed a more culturally conservative side to the students than the answers to other questions,” said Keysar. “It could be because it’s an issue that directly affects students and their ability to gain admission to the college of their choice.”

When it comes to religion, 32 percent of the students described themselves as religious, 32 percent said they are spiritual but not religious, and 28 percent said they are secular but not religious. Eight percent offered no answer.

Students were divided on whether religion is the root cause of conflicts around the globe. Asked whether religion brings more conflict than peace, 47 percent said yes, 41 percent said no and 12 percent were unsure. As for religious liberty in this country, 57 percent said they didn’t believe it is being threatened, 35 percent said it is threatened and 8 percent were unsure.

Regarding their views of the ethics and integrity of people in various professions, the students had relatively low opinions of most, except for scientists who led the way at about 65 percent, followed by clergy at roughly 40 percent. They were followed in descending order by university administrators and police officers (38 percent); bankers and journalists (17 percent); and professional athletes and corporate executives (less than 10 percent).

Similarly, asked whose opinion the students trust concerning social and political issues, the answers they gave in descending order were: themselves, family members and academics, professors and academics, friends, the president of the U.S., religious leaders, local political representatives, national political representatives, political commentators, and political bloggers/Internet forums.

Among other findings:

  • Eighty-three percent of the students agree that they have “a personal responsibility to help those worse off than myself.” Thirteen percent disagreed.
  • About half (51 percent) said unionized workers have a right to collectively bargain. Eighteen percent disagreed. Nearly one-third (31 percent) didn’t know.
  • Forty-seven percent said assisted suicide for the terminally ill should be legalized, 20 percent said it shouldn’t and 30 percent said maybe.
  • Forty-five percent believe in the efficacy of prayer, compared with 20 percent who don’t and 35 percent who said maybe.
  • Exactly half said they believe in miracles, 26 percent said they don’t and 24 percent said maybe.

To contact Barry Kosmin directly, please email him at barry.kosmin@trincoll.edu or call him at 860-297-2388.

For more details about the ARIS 2013 survey of college students and its findings, please visit: http://www.trincoll.edu/Academics/centers/isssc/Documents/ARIS_2013.pdf.

category: Research + Scholarship
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Diet-Based Epilepsy Therapy May Offer Hope for Children with Autism

Susan MasinoA dietary therapy known to be highly effective at reducing epileptic seizures may independently reduce behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorders, new research on mice has shown. The high-fat, low-carbohydrate food regimen, known as a “ketogenic” diet, has been prescribed to treat epilepsy patients — most often in children — for nearly 100 years.

Research in recent years has suggested that the diet may benefit neurological conditions besides epilepsy, including neurodegenerative disorders. However, these new findings provide the first translational evidence in an established animal model that a ketogenic diet can reverse multiple symptoms that characterize a developmental disorder such as autism.

The research was conducted by an international team of scientists, led by Susan Masino, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Trinity College, and published in the June 5 issue of the open-access peer reviewed journal, PLOS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065021). Researchers at the Legacy Research Institute in Portland, OR; at the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan; and at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, contributed to this work.

“Although treatment strategies for children with autism spectrum disorders are under development, the ketogenic diet is available now and could offer multiple benefits,” Masino noted. “For example, children with autism and uncontrolled seizures have few options, and this research suggests a ketogenic diet could reduce seizures and improve behavior.”

It is well established that autism rates are increasing, and are now estimated at 1 in 88 children. Currently, there are no biologically validated treatments for autism’s core symptoms of poor social behavior and communication and restricted interests. Although dietary approaches for treating autism are not uncommon – for example, a gluten-free, casein-free diet remains popular – none of these special diets have proven to be effective in controlled clinical studies. Furthermore, most available medical treatments address co-morbid conditions, such as anxiety, seizures and aggression rather than the core behavioral symptoms that result in an autism diagnosis.

A ketogenic diet is administered under medical supervision and was developed based on the historical observation that fasting reduces seizures. Because of very restricted carbohydrates and limited proteins, the ketogenic diet forces the body to use fat rather than glucose as an energy source and thus produces a metabolic state similar to fasting. Ketogenic diets have been used successfully to treat epilepsy in people since 1921, and can sometimes stop seizures when drugs are ineffective.

A small study a decade ago demonstrated that some children with autism on an intermittent ketogenic diet experienced a significant reduction in autistic symptoms, but this initial work did not lead to controlled clinical or animal studies. Masino and her colleagues have been studying the ketogenic diet for a variety of neurological disorders, and working on hypotheses that the anti-seizure molecule, adenosine, may be key to the diet’s effects and may also be helpful in alleviating symptoms of autism.

Masino and her team tested the behavioral effects of a ketogenic diet using a model known as the BTBR mouse, a mouse strain that shows multiple characteristics of autism, including low sociability, poor perception of social cues and highly repetitive behaviors. As expected, the group confirmed that BTBR mice fed a normal diet displayed behavioral symptoms of autism.

Surprisingly, however, after feeding a ketogenic diet to a matched group of BTBR mice for three to four weeks, autistic behaviors reversed significantly and BTBR mice behaved like normal mice. For example, BTBR mice fed a ketogenic diet were more social and opted to spend more time with another mouse rather than time alone; they were also successful at perceiving social communication cues regarding food choice. Ketogenic diet-fed BTBR mice also spent significantly less time grooming, indicating reduced repetitive self-directed behavior.

“Together, these behaviors represent the complement of core symptoms used to diagnose autism, and all were reversed by the ketogenic diet,” said Masino.

Because seizures are common in persons with autism spectrum disorders, it was important to determine if the effects of the diet were related to the ketogenic diet’s well-known ability to treat epilepsy. Based on a battery of tests, including EEG recordings and evoked seizures, the researchers found that the BTBR mice do not have epilepsy, and are not generally vulnerable to seizures. Therefore, the behavioral effects of the diet are independent of its anti-seizure effects.

Based on previous research on the ketogenic diet and on the causes of autism, multiple possible cellular changes may underlie these behavioral improvements. In addition to Masino’s hypothesis regarding adenosine, inflammation is emerging as an important factor in causing autism: a general decrease in inflammation due to the ketogenic diet could underlie its effectiveness against autistic symptoms. In a prior paper in PLOS ONE, Masino’s laboratory showed for the first time that a ketogenic diet can reduce inflammation in rats. Inflammation, adenosine, and other possible mechanisms are under investigation by several research groups.

At this time, with increasing prevalence and few treatment options, new treatment strategies for autism are needed. Based on these findings, additional research on the ketogenic diet may offer clues to reversing symptoms of autism.

Added Masino: “We hope this research draws attention to ketogenic diets as a promising, non-pharmaceutical treatment for children with autism spectrum disorders. These diets may be particularly useful for children with autism and co-morbid uncontrolled seizures. This is a clinical population known to have particularly poor outcomes. If other treatments are not working, a ketogenic diet should be offered as an option.”

Masino’s laboratory is funded by the National Institutes of Health (National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke), and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, please contact Masino at susan.masino@trincoll.edu or at 860-748-7746.

Founded in Hartford, CT, in 1823, Trinity College is an independent, nonsectarian liberal arts college with more than 2,300 students from 47 states and 54 countries. It is home to the eighth-oldest chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in the United States. The faculty and alumni include recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur award, Guggenheims Rockefellers and other national academic awards. Trinity students integrate meaningful academic and leadership experience at all levels on the College’s celebrated campus in the capital city of Hartford, and in communities all over the world.

category: Publications, Research + Scholarship
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Sam Kassow speaks at opening of Polish history museum

Since the 2007 publication of Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive, Samuel Kassow, Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity, has won numerous awards, been elected a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, lectured often and widely, and been recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars on the Holocaust and more specifically, the fate of Jews in Poland.

Just last month, Kassow was invited to Warsaw to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and was asked to speak at the unofficial opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The five-day event, April 18-22, was somber yet uplifting and featured a number of dignitaries and notable organizations, including the president of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski; the Israeli Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta; philanthropic organizations; human rights activists; scholars; and Simcha Rotem, one of the last survivors of the ghetto uprising.

About 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland at the outbreak of World War II, although in 2011 only about 7,500 Poles identified themselves as Jews. Nonetheless, the Warsaw Ghetto and Poland’s pre-war Jewish population is still inextricably linked with Polish history.

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising began on April 19, 1943 when the German military entered the Ghetto with the intention of “liquidation” – the deportation of all residents, mostly Jews, to forced labor camps. The residents chose to resist rather than be deported to the camps, where death awaited them. The Jews continued to fight for 28 days, though greatly outnumbered and lacking weapons. By May 16, thousands of Ghetto fighters were captured or killed and the Germans proceeded to destroy the Ghetto.

The major highlight of the 70th anniversary commemoration was the dedication of the museum, although it is not scheduled to officially open until early next year. Kassow not only has served as a consultant to the museum since 2006 but he delivered the first formal lecture in its auditorium to approximately 400 people.

When the permanent exhibition of the museum (which cost about $100 million in money donated by the Polish government, Jewish groups and private donors) opens in the spring of 2014, it will tell the story of the Jewish people’s 1,000-year history in Poland. The core exhibition will demonstrate how Jewish history and Polish history have been intertwined, if not always happily.

Kassow also participated in a panel discussion on human rights, during which he spoke about the history of the Holocaust as well as Ringelblum. Kassow is considered the leading authority on Ringelblum, who, in 1940, established a secret organization named Oyneg Shabes in Nazi-occupied Warsaw to document Jewish life in wartime Poland and to compile an archive that would preserve the events for posterity.

Ringelblum was captured and killed in 1944 but before he died, he hid thousands of documents in milk cans and tin boxes. They were discovered in 1946 and 1950. Who Will Write Our History? tells the gripping story of Ringelblum and his determination to use historical scholarship to resist Nazi oppression. Kassow’s book has been published in eight languages.

View photos from Kassow’s trip. 

category: Lectures and Panels, Research + Scholarship
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James Trostle awarded Fulbright grant

James Trostle, Charles A. Dana Research Professor of Anthropology, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to teach a graduate seminar at the University of Chile in Santiago. The Fulbright, which will run from March through July 2014, will also allow Trostle to lecture at different sites in Chile, and conduct research on the health impact of road development.

A medical anthropologist with training and experience in epidemiology and public health, Trostle was seeking an opportunity to travel to a country where he could continue his research on the health effects of social change.

Chile, as it turns out, will afford him a chance to do just that. As Trostle wrote in his Fulbright proposal, “Chile offers a number of benefits for this project: it has a long and creative history of community public health, it has undergone rapid rural and urban social and economic development, and it has a strong educational system.”

Trostle’s teaching and research will emphasize an interdisciplinary approach, making use of collaborations between social scientists, epidemiologists, health-care specialists and even ecologists and geographers.

A member of Trinity’s faculty since 1998, Trostle will teach a course from among the following: “Introduction to Medical Anthropology,” Anthropology and Epidemiology,” or “The Anthropology of Global Health.” He has experience teaching similar courses in Spanish at the graduate level in both Mexico and Argentina.

As for his research, it has been directed toward using anthropological and epidemiological methods and theories to explore issues such as adaptation to chronic disease, use of medications, transmission of infection disease, and the health effects of rapid social change.  In Chile, Trostle will seek to work with research teams that are engaged in studies of the health and social changes prompted by development projects such as inter-city roads or other construction projects.

Trostle’s work in Chile will build on the 12 years of research that he has done in Ecuador that has examined how construction of a new two-lane paved road in a previously road-less border region in that coastal South American country has changed the residents’ social lives and disease transmission. In essence, Trostle has asked the question: “What happens in terms of social, environmental and health changes when a road gets built in a place where no road existed before?”

Although it might seem that a road would not cause upheaval, in the area in Ecuador that Trostle studied, most people and goods had previously traveled by horse or boat. The road was a catalyst for the movement of valuable natural resources and population growth.

In his Fulbright proposal, Trostle explained, “The research [in Ecuador] is interdisciplinary and longitudinal. Its methods and results are relevant to many other types of construction projects (so-called ‘linear intrusions’: railroads, canals, pipelines, electrical transmission lines) that change how people, products, and pathogens move across landscapes.

In Chile, Trostle will be exploring similar themes, such as do changes to the environment foment social change and affect public health, the transmission of disease, diet and the movement of pathogens.

Read more. 

 

category: Honors + Awards, Research + Scholarship
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First major CUGS publication focuses on secondary cities

In the autumn of 2007, Xiangming Chen arrived at Trinity to become the founding dean and director of the College’s Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS), which began that year thanks to a major donation from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Chen brought with him strong credentials—a distinguished 18-year career at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an impressive body of scholarship. He was precisely the sort of leader that the new center, the first of its type at a top liberal arts college in the United States, required.

CUGS is at the epicenter of Trinity’s strategic mission to integrate urban and global education in Hartford and globally. And Chen wasted no time tackling that mission. In November 2008, he convened the new center’s first major conference. It was a two-day program that drew speakers, panelists and participants from all over the region, including 13 prominent scholars from Harvard, Brown, MIT, Yale, and other major universities, plus a large, interdisciplinary contingent of Trinity faculty.

The collective focus of the conference—Rethinking Cities and Communities: Urban Transition Before and During the Era of Globalization—signaled Chen’s determination that the center would lead, rather than follow, in defining new and innovative ways of thinking about the role of cities in the future of the planet. And the subjects of many of the papers, inspired by that focus, spoke volumes about his vision for the new center, which seeks to balance Trinity’s commitment to international learning opportunities with the College’s commitment to employing Hartford and the region as an experiential learning laboratory.

Now, four years later, a book—Rethinking Global Urbanism: Comparative Insights from Secondary Cities (2012, Routledge)—has emerged from that seminal conference. Edited by Chen and Ahmed Kanna, assistant professor in the School of International Studies at the University of the Pacific, the book’s 12 chapters are expanded from papers presented at the 2008 conference.

Not surprisingly, some papers presented at the conference focused on issues related to the Connecticut River Valley and the historic impact of economic change on Springfield and Hartford. But several papers ranged far abroad, tackling such diverse subject matter as social accountability systems in African cities; the intersection of global politics and community politics in San Francisco’s Chinatown during World War II and the Cold War; the struggle of Black women for land rights in Brazilian cities; and the community-based nature of women’s activism in response to global economic and political change.

Those themes are explored in depth in Rethinking Global Urbanism. “Today cities play a more important role in the connection and organization of global economic activities and everyday activities than ever before,” asserts Chen, “but scholars often do not explore the importance of cities beyond a handful of mega-metropolises. This is a narrow-minded and short-sighted view of the interconnected world of cities. Many secondary cities are playing increasingly stronger roles in the global economy than many people might imagine. They deserve more focused scholarship.”

In addition to Chen, the book includes chapters by two other Trinity faculty members, Associate Professor Beth Notar of the Anthropology Department and Assistant Professor Scott Tang of the American Studies Program. And several of Chen’s former students left Trinity with a credential few undergraduates, in any discipline, are able to boast, a citation in a significant scholarly book.

This story was extracted from an article that appeared in the spring 2013 issue of The Trinity Reporter. Read the full article here.  

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