New Faculty Member in History of Science. For the fourth year in a row, the department is in the fortunate position of welcoming a faculty new member to our ranks.  This year, Vivien Hamilton joins us as Assistant Professor of the History of Science.  Her dissertation, "Establishing Authority: The Role of Physics in Radiology in Britain and North America, 1896-1930," explores collaboration between different cultural communities within science.  Along with her other teaching duties, Professor Hamilton will assume responsibility for History 82, "Science and Technology in the Modern World," one of the department's main courses in the history of science, which was taught for many years by Richard Olson.  For further information on Professor Hamilton's teaching and research interests, see our current profile on her in the Faculty Spotlight section.

Visiting and Adjunct Faculty.  We are also pleased to be joined this fall by several visiting and adjunct faculty members:  Ambereen Dadabhoy (literature), Toby Hecht (anthropology), and Lisa Looney (psychology) taught courses for us last year and will do so again in this semester.  Jin Liu joins us for the first time this year to teach Chinese 1a, our fall-semester introductory Chinese Course. 

Other Comings and Goings.  The department welcomes Marianne de Laet back to campus after a year-long sabbatical.  Two faculty members-Jeff Groves and Debra Mashek-have begun full-year sabbaticals; in addition, Chang Tan will be on sabbatical for one semester.  The department wishes each of them a rewarding and productive time away. 

Tenure-Track Search in Art.  As part of a broader effort by the College to increase faculty size in response to curricular needs, the department will do a search this year to fill a new position.  This will represent the second expansion of the department in the last several years, after a long period in which the size of the department remained constant.  The search field also represents something new.  The department will search in the visual arts, as a way of complementing our existing "arts" offerings in media studies, music, and literature, and the two art courses now in our catalogue (hand-press printing and "Building Los Angeles").  The search will seek a practicing artist who can teach both studio and non-studio courses, and who can teach students to express their ideas visually in two or more media.  Areas of specialization might include drawing, digital imaging, architectural design, painting, sculpture, photography, or others areas of the visual arts. 

Olson Will be Hixon-Riggs Visiting Professor.  After a distinguished thirty-five year career at Harvey Mudd, Richard Olson (history) will retire from the regular faculty at the end of the fall semester.  In recognition of his many scholarly contributions to the history of science, and his extensive teaching in this field, he has been appointed Hixon-Riggs Visiting Professor for the spring semester.  Under his leadership, the Hixon Symposium is being planned for early March, around the theme of "Engineers, Natural Scientists, and Political Processes." 

Groves Awarded American Antiquarian Society Fellowship.  Professor of Literature Jeff Groves has been named a Center for Historic American Visual Culture Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.  Groves will be in residence at the AAS in October 2011.  During that period, he will study an eighteenth-century printing press that belonged to Isaiah Thomas, one of the most influential early American printers and the founder of AAS.  In addition to researching the press and its context in the archives, Groves will also make detailed drawings of the press as the first step toward building a working replica when he returns to Claremont.

Faculty Publications.  Bill Alves: Celestial Dance is forthcoming on DVD from the Kinetic Visual Library.  Enhancing teaching and learning: Lessons from Social Psychology, edited by Debra Mashek and Elizabeth Hammer (Xavier University) was recently published by Wiley-Blackwell.