Williams College Announces Tenure for Latino/a Studies Faculty Member

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Trustees of Williams College voted to appoint Nelly Rosario, the 2017-18 W. Ford Schumann Distinguished Visiting Professor in Democratic Studies and the 2018-20 Artist in Residence of Latino/a studies, to the position of associate professor with tenure.

The appointment took effect July 1, 2019.

Rosario's research interests range from creative writing, world literature and graphic novels to history, archival studies and data visualization. Author of "Song of the Water Saints: A Novel" (Pantheon, 2002), winner of a PEN Open Book Award, and its translation "El canto del agua: Una novela" (Emecé Planeta, 2003), her recent work includes chapters in the 2018 books "Everyday People: The Color of Life" (ed. Jennifer Baker. Atria Books) and" The Nation and its Writing: Collection of Dominican Voices" (1965-2017) (eds. Carmen Cañete Quesada and Franklin Gutiérrez. Editorial Santuario). In addition, she contributed the chapters “Latinx + DNA: Complicando the Double Helix” for the forthcoming publication "Critical Diálogos in Latina and Latino Studies" (eds. Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas and Mérida M. Rúa, NYU Press) and “Th/Inking in Black: Notes on Teaching Creative Writing” for the forthcoming publication "Teaching Black: Pedagogy, Practice, and Perspectives on Writing" (eds. Drea Brown and Ana-Maurine Lara, University of Pittsburgh Press).  

Rosario received the Archives and Library Research Award from City College-CUNY's Dominican Studies Institute in 2017 for research on her novel-in-progress "How the Medicines Go Down" and a Creative Capital Artist Award in Literature from the Creative Capital Foundation in 2016 for a photo story she is co-authoring with journalist Macarena Hernández and poet Sheila Maldonado.

At Williams, her course teaching includes Latina/o Identities: Constructions, Contestations, and Expressions, Ficciones: A Writing Workshop, and DNA + Latinx: Decoding the “Cosmic Race,” among others. She earned an S.B. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University.


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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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