Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Whitman College is pleased to welcome its second cohort of Faculty Fellows to campus this fall. 

Faculty Fellow in Anthropology Nicole Cox (right) is an anthropologist, interdisciplinary scholar, and artist whose work engages the intersection of dance, power, and meaning making. Her scholarly research investigates how artists and movement practitioners navigate highly politicized settings of transnational cultural connection and how political actors in India’s foreign relations programs use cultural movement practices as political tools. 

Faculty Fellow in Theater Mylan Gray (left) is an Eagle Scout and Kansas State Debate champion turned playwright. He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he received the Kennell Jackson Jr. Award for his honors thesis. He has also received the Lorraine Hansberry Award from the Kennedy Center for his play, “Buried in Blood.” Currently, he is under commission from La Jolla Playhouse for a play about AI companions, masculinity and intimacy.

Faculty Fellow in Physics Zarif Rahman (second from right) is a nuclear physicist interested in understanding the mysteries of the universe. His doctoral research involved developing a novel technique to extract crucial nuclear data and simulating the heating evolution in neutron star crusts.

Faculty Fellow in French and Francophone Studies Emma Rossby (second from left) is an interdisciplinary scholar of comics, media and museum studies, particularly as they intersect with critical race and queer theories. With a focus on print and digital bande dessinée (Francophone comics), her research examines how forms of multisensory and transmedia storytelling are used as vectors for public pedagogy in contemporary Belgium. 

Read more about each of these Faculty Fellows and the classes they are teaching at Whitman.

In a new study in Nature, a research team that includes Post-Doctoral Researcher Brian Gallagher compiled federal monitoring data to estimate trends in freshwater fish biodiversity from 1993–2019 across the lower 48 U.S. states. Biodiversity trends differed substantially based on stream temperature, where fish communities in cold streams (mostly in western states) became less abundant and diverse over time, while those in warm streams (mostly in central and southeastern states) showed opposite trends. Species composition also diverged over time, as small-bodied opportunistic species increased in warm streams and declined in cold streams, possibly due to the spread of introduced game fishes in cold streams. This study highlights an urgent need to protect native fish biodiversity from rising temperatures and introduced species across the United States. Gallagher was recently interviewed about this research on NPR.

Residence Life is hiring student leaders. Submit your application through your Whitman housing portal between now and Monday, Oct. 20. Information sessions will take place on Thursday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. in Prentiss Lounge and Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m. in Stanton Lounge. (Flyer attached.)

The annual Fall Job and Internship Fair will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Reid Campus Center Young Ballroom. This event will feature approximately 13 local employers who are offering internships and part-time paid positions for Whitman students. Learn more on Handshake.

The Indigeneity, Race and Ethnicity Studies (IRES) program will host a roundtable discussion titled “Teaching Anti-Racism in Fascist Times” on Thursday, Oct. 2, from 5–6:30 p.m. in Olin Auditorium. Panelists will include Khalil Saucier, Professor of Critical Black Studies at Bucknell University, and from Whitman, Giramata (Assistant Professor of Gender Studies), Tarik Elseewi (Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies) and Zahi Zalloua (Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature, Professor of Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies). The event will be moderated by Nicole Simek (Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature, Professor of Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies and Gender Studies).

Campus Security invites the Whitman community to a farewell reception for Security Officer Jake Wright ’14 on Wednesday, Oct. 1, from 1–3 p.m. in the Technology Services Building. Wright has been an integral part of the Security Office since 2017 and is moving on to pursue an opportunity outside of Whitman.

In accordance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act, a federal law that requires colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses, the 2025 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is now published on our website. The report includes statistics for the previous three years (2024, 2023, 2022). Questions? Email security@whitman.edu.

Last week, Moira Gresham, the Nathaniel Shipman Professor of Physics, coordinated a private tour of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) at Hanford for a group of Whitman students, faculty and staff. LIGO is one of two places in the world where the first gravitational waves and binary black hole merger were measured through wave interference of powerful laser beams stretching over 4 kilometers. See more photos (by Patrick Record) on Instagram.

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Fall Job & Internship Fair

Reid Campus Center, Young Ballroom

12:10–12:50 p.m.

Movement That Matters: Strength & Stretch

Sherwood Athletic Center, Room 114

1–3 p.m.

Farewell Reception for Jake Wright

Technology Services Building, Security

3–3:45 p.m.

Workshop: Zotero

Penrose Library, Room 313 (“The Fishbowl”)

4:30–5:30 p.m.

Zfit

Sherwood 114 or Reid Side Lawn (weather dependent)

5:30–6 p.m.

ASWC Finance Committee

Cleveland Commons, Room 116

6–7 p.m.

Presentation by Bon Appétit Sustainability Fellow

Cleveland Commons, Conference Room

6–8 p.m.

Drip Drop Open Dance

Sherwood Athletic Center, Room 114

8–10 p.m.

Open Kayak

Harvey Pool

Would you like to share an event with campus? Submit the information to the Events Calendar.

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