Kahn Chronicle Fall 2019
A Culture of Care
Read Smith’s plans for the fall 2021 semester.
Current Operating Mode: GREEN
News & Events
The Kahn 2019-20 project Fear hosted an anticipatory graduation celebration for Student Fellows in early March during a weekly colloquium at the Kahn Institute before students departed campus. The Kahn projects Fear and TranslationS have continued weekly seminars online this month.
News from the Kahn
The stories and updates formerly featured in our printed newsletter, the Kahn Chronicle, will now be featured here on this News & Events webpage. Check back regularly to read profiles of students and faculty, notes from the Kahn staff, and to learn more about Kahn projects and events.
Focus on Fellowship: Espy Thomson ’21
Espy Thomson ’21, a fellow in Technophilia/Technoskepticism, has spent much of her final spring semester at Smith researching the reproductive technology industry, including interviews with some of her 65 half-siblings.
Focus on Fellowship: Amanda Jiang ’20
Amanda Jiang ’20 has been working on a new protocol to explore the efficacy of an alternative-based intervention to reduce stress and improve the quality of life for COVID-19 healthcare workers.
Coming Soon at the Kahn
Curriculum: Protest and Process
A Kahn short-term project
Organized by Darcy Buerkle, History, and Frazer Ward, Art
Friday, April 9, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Recently, at Smith and elsewhere, students have protested curricular offerings. Sometimes these protests have addressed perceived lack of institutional support for particular areas of study, sometimes they seem to pit student and faculty experience against student and faculty expertise, and frequently it seems there is no specific framework or process in which to engage with such protests. In addition, some forms of protest, such as the anonymous calling-out of faculty members on social media, have been a matter of concern. While as faculty we support our students’ activism, we would like to explore the terms of engagement when our own work is its object. This short-term Kahn project begins a discussion about curriculum, protest and process, where we can articulate specific positions around these issues, and think about processes that might be adequate to the task.
Kahn Past Events
Beyond Big Data: Communicating Climate Change Through Indigenous Voices & Art
An online conversation between Indigenous scientist/artist James Temte and special guest, Alaska native Ahtna Elder Wilson Justin. Temte, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe who leads the NSF Navigating the New Arctic Community Extension Office, will share a conversation with Ahtna elder Wilson Justin on the topic of Indigenous knowledge, connection to the land and the role of art in communicating the realities of climate change beyond the Arctic. This public conversation is presented as part of the Kahn Institute yearlong project Imagining Climate Change: From Slow Violence to Fast Hope.
WATCH THE EVENTOn Rising Together: Collective and Creative Responses to the Climate Crisis
Elizabeth Rush, award-winning author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, speaks on her book and related themes as a guest of the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design, and Sustainability (CEEDS) and the Kahn Institute’s yearlong project Imagining Climate Change: From Slow Violence to Fast Hope. Rush's most recent book, Rising, a Pulitzer finalist, lyrically documents the transformation of shorelines around the United States as a result of climate change and rising seas.
WATCH THE EVENTReversing Knowledge Loss
What does it mean to regain knowledge and practice of lost technologies? Why do some successful technologies disappear? MacArthur Fellow Sven Haakanson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington, works with the Alutiiq in Kodiak, Alaska, and other communities in preserving and relearning languages and cultural practices. Haakanson received a MacArthur Fellowship for his work reviving Alutiiq language and culture. He recently worked with Kodiak communities in relearning, building and using angyaaq again. He lectured as part of the yearlong project Technophilia/Technoskepticism.
WATCH THE LECTURE
In 2021–22, Smith College will host an ambitious set of programs and events under the organizing theme “Year on Democracies.” Everyone in the Smith community is invited to participate and collaborate in this collegewide initiative.
Kahn Chronicle Past Issues