Williams Awards Tenure to History Professor

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Sara Dubow
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Board of Trustees voted in April to promote Sara Dubow, assistant professor of history, to the position of associate professor with tenure. The promotion will take effect July 1.

Dubow's research and teaching interests look at the intersections of gender, law, and politics in the United States during the 20th century. Her book, "Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America," published in 2011 by Oxford University Press, won the 2011 Bancroft Prize from Columbia University.

Since her arrival at Williams in 2007, Dubow has taught classes in the department of history and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies departments. During the 2011-12 academic year, she served on the Faculty Steering Committee and on the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Advisory Committee.

She received her bachelor's degree from Williams in 1991 and her doctorate from Rutgers University in 2003. Before arriving at Williams, Dubow taught at the Brearley School, Hunter College High School, and Hunter College.
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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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