research

Professor Barclay Lectures on West Berlin in the Context of Postwar History

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David Barclay, the Margaret and Roger Scholten Professor of International Studies, delivered a lecture titled “Island City, Cold War City: West Berlin in the Context of Postwar History, 1948-1994” at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Florida.

The presentation was based on his current book project: a general history of West Berlin from the time of the city’s division (1948) to the withdrawal of Russian and Allied troops (1994).

The history of West Berlin—a unique creation of the Cold War, like the two German states themselves—has largely been overlooked.

Barclay’s lecture drew on extensive interviews and years of archival research and argued that, in the wake of the well-known “spatial turn” of the 1990s and thereafter, West Berlin’s role in the history of the Cold War can be understood in terms of that truncated city’s function as political space, symbolic space, and cultural space. Moreover, its history can be divided into two parts: an “heroic” phase from 1948 to 1971-72 and a phase of “abnormal normality” from 1972 to 1989.

Student Researches American Volley Ball Coaches Association

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Colleen Leonard class of 2012
Colleen Leonard ’12

Colleen Leonard ’12 examines results from the first-ever salary survey conducted by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) in the February/March 2012 issue of Coaching Volleyball, an AVCA publication.

She drew valuable conclusions from coaches at all levels of NCAA competition for “Money Talks: AVCA Salary Survey Analysis,” an article she researched and wrote as part of her Senior Individualized Project at K.

Colleen is an economics major with minors in math and art from Mason, Mich. who studied abroad in Strasbourg, France and interned with AFLAC in East Lansing. She was an outside hitter on the Hornet volleyball team for four years, earning All-MIAA First Team honors as a junior and senior, Second Team as a sophomore. She also traveled to China with her Hornet team in 2009. Well done, Colleen!

SIPs into Published Works: Alumni Collaborate in Research

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When alumni mentor seniors doing their Senior Individualized Projects it can lead to co-authorship of published papers. The proof: Rebecca (Becky) Tonietto ’05 and Katherine (Katie) Ellis ’09. The two are coauthors of the paper “A comparison of bee communities of Chicago green roofs, parks and prairies,” which appeared in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning 103 (2011) 102-108.

Tonietto was a mentor for Ellis during the latter’s SIP, and the published article includes results from Katie’s senior research. Tonietto is working on a Ph.D. in plant biology and conservation at Northwestern University. According to Associate Professor of Biology Ann Fraser, the biology department has many examples of alumni serving as SIP mentors for seniors, “and entomology has been an especially fruitful area for this kind of collaboration,” she added.

SIPs Presented at 59th Annual Spectroscopy Meeting

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Aidan Klobuchar
Niclas West ’12

Seniors Aidan Klobuchar and Niclas West presented posters describing their Senior Individualized Project research at the 59th annual Western Spectroscopy Association Meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, in January.

Klobuchar worked on the project “Revealing Orientation Using Circularly Polarized Light” with Associate Professor of Chemistry Jeff Bartz. West based his poster, “Revealing Molecular Dynamics Through DC Slice Ion Imaging,” on his research with Professor Simon North at Texas A&M University. Both students have worked with Professor Bartz on laser-based research since Summer 2008. Klobuchar and West will attend graduate school in physical chemistry this fall.

“We Were Googled!”

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Study co-authors Kelly Usakoski, Jeff Bartz and Nic West.
Study co-authors (l-r): Kelly Usakoski, Jeff Bartz; and Nic West.

Or—alternate headline: “How to Ruin a Spring Break.” Though Professor of Chemistry Jeff Bartz quickly notes that the ruination was sweet indeed, given that it led to the publication of a paper in the The Journal of Chemical Physics (September 7, 2011) on which he and two students—Nic West ’12and Kelly Usakoski ’14—are co-authors.

The story begins last spring break when Bartz was getting ready for the start of a new term. Scientists in the department of chemistry at Texas A&M wanted to do an experiment on molecular imaging, and to start they did a literature search seeking similar experiments. In that search they discovered an abstract of experimental work West had presented in June 2010 at the 65th International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy at the Ohio State University.

They contacted Kalamazoo College—“We’d been Googled!” laughs Bartz.

Thus began a research collaboration on further imaging experimentation that culminated in this month’s publication of “A method for the determination of speed-dependent semi-classical vector correlations form sliced image anisotropies.” The paper involves work that Usakoski performed in Bartz’ lab during spring quarter 2011.

In addition to his on-campus contributions to the partnership last spring, West also traveled in the summer to A&M’s College Station campus and conducted related work that is the basis of his Senior Individualized Project. And Bartz “lost” a spring break to the start-up of the “K” and A&M research collaboration. “It was well worth it,” he says. Pictured are the study’s three Kalamazoo College co-authors (l-r): Kelly Usakoski, who is considering declaring her major in either chemistry or physics this year; Jeff Bartz; and Nic West, a chemistry and physics double major.