On November 14, 10 faculty members who took sabbaticals in the 2023–24 academic year presented on their projects in the Robert Lagary Board Room. FIT grants sabbaticals to full-time faculty members for work that augments their value to the college. Faculty might use the time away from teaching to write their doctoral dissertation, author a book, collaborate with other institutions, or complete a research project.
Anna Blume, professor of History of Art, praised the sabbatical as a vital opportunity for faculty inquiry and investigation. “Sabbaticals are a remarkable return to that curiosity we had when we were alone in graduate school,” they said.
Blume’s full-year sabbatical continued their ongoing study of bannerstones, indigenous American sculptures dating back to 6,000 BCE whose purpose is yet unknown. They wrote a monograph about bannerstones that will be available open-source through Yale University’s MAVCOR Journal. Blume also answered a call for submissions from the Max Planck Institute in Florence, Italy, by writing a paper, “On the Creative Practices of Spiders,” inspired by their new course Animals, Architecture, and Aesthetics. Consequently, they were invited to be a keynote speaker at the institute’s location in Berlin, Germany.
Erica Moretti, associate professor of Modern Languages and Cultures, used her sabbatical to study the fate and legacy of 20,000 children repatriated to Italy days before Mussolini declared war on Britain. She traveled to archives in Italy, Northern Europe, Africa, and North America to find out what happened to the orphaned children and why they, like millions of children throughout Europe at that time, were not reunited with their families. She posits that the lessons learned from this tragedy can be a blueprint for the American response to immigration today.
Natasha Degen, chair of Art Market Studies, used her time to write a comprehensive history of the art market, to be used in a course on that topic. She also wrote numerous opinion pieces and began another book about an entrepreneurial approach to museum stewardship that reflects a paradigm shift for how museums can survive in the current era.
The other faculty members who presented were Yuniya Kawamura (Social Sciences), Bernard Dillard (Science and Math), Ruth Jeyaveeran (Textile/Surface Design), Mario Valero (Modern Languages and Cultures), Naomi Gross (Fashion Business Management), Nomi Kleinman (Textile/Surface Design), and Lawrence Langham (Communication Design Pathways).
Yasemin Jones, interim vice president of Academic Affairs, hosted the event, along with the Sabbaticals Speaker Series Team: Brian Fallon (Center for Excellence in Teaching), Greta Earnest (Gladys Marcus Library), Jacqueline Jenkins (Strategic Planning and Innovation), Deborah Klesenski-Rispoli (Academic Affairs), Devon Vidal (Academic Affairs), and Johanna Wilson (Academic Affairs).