Speaker Biographies
Matthew Ansfield is an associate professor of psychology at Lawrence University. His research explores the nature
and function of paradoxical smiling, laughing, and humor during the experience of distressing emotional
circumstances, typified by his recent paper, “Smiling when distressed: When a smile is a frown turned
upside down,” published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Jill Beck assumed the presidency of Lawrence University in 2004. Under her leadership, the college has created an innovative
postdoctoral teaching fellowship program, the Lawrence University Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences. She also is the founder of
ArtsBridge America, a nationwide outreach program that offers hands-on experiences in the arts to school-age children, placing university
students in K-12 classrooms as instructors and mentors. A graduate of Clark University, Beck received the Ph.D. in theatre history
and criticism from the City University of New York. She has served on the faculties of City College of
the City University of New York and The Juilliard School and has written extensively in the fields of dance history, theory,
repertory, and technique, as well as choreographing and directing ballet and modern dance repertory. From 1995 to 2003, she
was dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine.
Robert J. Beck is visiting professor of education at Lawrence University. Beck earned his A.B. in Social Sciences
from the University of Chicago, where he also received both the M.A. and Ph.D. from the Committee on Human Development.
He is also currently professor emeritus of education at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information
Technology, University of California, Irvine, studying the effects of online professional development for math teachers
on students' algebra skills. Beck researched educational discussions at UCI where he also taught research methods and
evaluation of educational programs in the doctoral program in education. He is the co-author of Home Rules: Culture,
Environment and the American Family, The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Nancy Berner is professor of biology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in
zoology from the University of Idaho and the Ph.D. in biological sciences from Stanford University. A member of the Sewanee faculty
since 1992, she teaches comparative vertebrate physiology and anatomy and neurobiology. She has served as a visiting fellow or researcher
at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, and the University of Laval in Quebec, Canada.
Sarah Bolton is associate professor of physics at Williams College. Her research interests include optics and
semiconductor physics, particularly the ultrafast response of nanoscale structures. She has taught tutorials in
electromagnetic theory, solid state physics, and advanced mechanics.
David Burrows is provost and dean of the faculty at Lawrence University. Prior to arriving at Lawrence in
July 2005, he served as dean of the college and vice president for academic affairs at Beloit College from 1997 to 2005.
He spent eight years on the faculty at the State University of New York at Brockport and 17 years at Skidmore College,
including three as associate dean of the faculty. A cognitive psychologist, he earned a bachelor's degree in psychology
from Columbia University and a master's degree and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Toronto.
Paul Cohen is professor of history and the Patricia Hamar Boldt Professor of Liberal Studies at Lawrence University.
He earned the Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is the author of Freedom’s Moment: An Essay on
the French Idea of Liberty from Rousseau to Foucault and Piety and Politics: Catholic Revival and the Generation of
1905-14 in France.
Andrea Danyluk is a professor and chair of the computer science department at Williams College, who also teaches in
the cognitive science program. Her primary area of research is artificial intelligence and, more specifically, machine
learning. She teaches a tutorial on machine learning, which can be taken by advanced computer science majors as well as
by students with only an introductory background in computer science.
James DeCorsey is associate professor of music at Lawrence University. A member of the faculty of the Conservatory
of Music since 1990, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in English literature at Stanford University and later became the
first horn player to receive a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. He has performed throughout the
Americas and Europe as soloist, recitalist, orchestral player, chamber musician, and recording artist, with
internationally recognized ensembles and conductors. His teaching interests include horn, music history, chamber
music, brass techniques, and Freshman Studies.
Elizabeth De Stasio '83 is associate professor of biology and the Raymond H. Herzog Professor of Science. A
molecular biologist and alumna who joined the Lawrence University faculty in 1992, she is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of
Lawrence University and the recipient of the Ph.D. from Brown University. She has served as a visiting research
scientist with the Horvitz Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research investigates the
mechanisms by which nerves coordinate the contraction of muscle, as well as how muscle is assembled and organized.
John Dreher is the Lee Claflin-Robert S. Ingraham Professor of Philosophy at Lawrence University, where he has
received the Babcock Prize for service to students, the Freshman Studies Teaching Award, and the Outstanding Teacher
Award. He earned his B.A. from St. Peter's College, the M.A. from Fordham University, and the Ph.D. from the University
of Chicago. A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1963, his research and teaching interests focus on ancient
philosophy, ethics, and American pragmatism.
Stephen Fix is the Robert G. Scott Professor of English at Williams College and, since 2000, director of the Williams College Tutorial
Program. His primary interests are in 18th-century British literature, history of the novel, and modern poetry. He has
taught numerous tutorials, including courses on Elegies, The Place of Place in English Poetry, and Fielding
and Sterne.
R. Stanton Hales, Jr. has served as the president of The College of Wooster since 1995. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of
Pomona College, he earned master's and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from Harvard University, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.
Hales joined the faculty of his alma mater, Pomona, in 1967 and was named associate dean of the college in 1973. In 1990, he was
appointed vice president for academic affairs at Wooster and professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. He has
served as a member of the board of the Association of American Colleges & Universities and as chair of the Great Lakes Colleges
Association, the Association of Presbyterian Colleges & Universities, and the Annapolis Group, an organization of the nation's
leading liberal arts colleges.
Barbara Kaplan has served as dean of the college at Sarah Lawrence College since 1985. She received her B.A. from Vassar College, the M.A. from Columbia University, and the Ph.D. from New York University.
Christopher B. Nelson has been president of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, since June 1991. He is an
alumnus of that school and a graduate of the University of Utah College of Law, where he founded and directed the
university's student legal services program. He practiced law in Chicago for 18 years and was chairman of his law firm
when he left the practice to take his current position at St. John's College. Nelson chairs the Annapolis Group, an
association of presidents of national liberal arts colleges, and has served as a board chair and member of the Board
of Directors of the AFS-USA (American Field Service). He also has served on the National Association of Independent
Colleges and Universities (NAICU) board of directors and its executive committee and, recently, as chair of the
Maryland Independent Colleges and Universities Association.
David Palfreyman is the bursar of New College, Oxford University. The bursar is a Fellow of the college, and the chief administrative
officer responsible for financial, legal, personnel and endowment matters. He also is the director of the Oxford Centre for Higher
Education Policy Studies and co-editor of the journal Education and the Law. He is the author or co-author of The Economics of Higher
Education and Oxford and the Decline of the Collegiate Tradition and served as editor of The Oxford Tutorial. The
recipient of the MBA from Aston and the LLB from Brookes, he previously worked at the University of Warwick and
the University of Liverpool.
Alan Ryan is warden and tutor for admissions at New College, Oxford University. The warden is elected by the Fellows of
the college as the "primus inter pares" (first amongst equals) and serves as the “Head of House.” As warden, he chairs meetings of
the governing body and is the principal representative of the college in its dealings with students, alumni, and the general public.
A graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, Ryan earned the D. Litt. in 1993. He was a lecturer at the University of Keele and University
of Essex before joining New College in 1969 as Fellow and Tutor in Politics. A professor of politics at Princeton University from
1988-1996, he returned to New College in 1996 to head the college. A Fellow of the British Academy, he is the author of eight books
and editor of many others in the area of political philosophy.
Duna Sabri is educational development adviser and Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University. *
Timothy Spurgin is associate professor of English and the Bonnie Glidden Buchanan Professor of English Literature at
Lawrence University. A graduate of Carleton College, he received the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He
specializes in 19th-century English literature, especially the works of Charles Dickens, and he recently recorded a
series of twenty-four lectures on the history of the English novel for the Teaching Company, a leading producer of
educational materials for lifelong learners. His writing has appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, as
well as in Dickens Quarterly, Dickens Studies Annual, and
minnesota review. He also directs the Freshman Studies program at Lawrence University.
William Wagner is the Brown Professor of History and dean of the faculty at Williams College, and a former director
of both the Williams Tutorial Program and the Williams-Exeter Oxford Program. A specialist in modern Russian history
whose current research focuses on the social, cultural, and religious history of Imperial and early Soviet Russia, he teaches
courses on Russian and modern European history. He received the D.Phil. from Oxford University and is the author of Russian Women, 1698-1917: Experience and Expression, An Anthology of Sources and
Marriage, Property, and Law in Late Imperial Russia. He has taught tutorials on 19th-century Europe and fin-de-siecle
Russia.
Gavin Williams is a Fellow of St Peter's College and lecturer in politics at the University of Oxford. He studied
at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Oxford and taught at the University of Durham. He edited and contributed
to Sociology and Development, Nigeria: Economy and Society; State and Society in Nigeria; Rural
Development in Tropical Africa; and Sociology of Sub-Saharan Africa. His recent articles are on land reform
in South Africa; studying development; democracy in Africa; African studies; black economic empowerment in the South
African wine industry; and Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. At Oxford, he has taken tutorials in comparative politics, social
and political theory, political sociology, Marxism, and African politics.
Robert Williams is assistant professor of education at Lawrence University. A cognitive scientist with the Ph.D.
from the University of California, San Diego, he is a member of the President’s
Committee on Individualized Learning, which is studying the personal nature of learning at Lawrence -- in tutorials
and independent studies as well as in larger courses. In that spirit, he recently conducted a tutorial in
Assessment in Second Language Learning and advised students doing independent studies in Mood-Dependent
Memory Effects, Literacy Acquisition in English Language Learners, and Computational Semantics.
Jasmine Yep is director of the Lawrence University ArtsBridge program and national program coordinator of
ArtsBridge America, a nationwide arts education and outreach program that offers hands-on experiences in the arts to
K-12 schoolchildren through university and school partnerships. A former ArtsBridge scholar herself at the University
of California, Irvine, she first became affiliated with the program in 1999-2000. She teaches a tutorial on dance
history and choreography and the ArtsBridge Seminar in the Education Department at Lawrence. She also teaches
Japanese taiko drumming and is a guest instructor in dance and musical theatre for the HereandNow Theatre Company
in Los Angeles.
Other Contributors
Lawrence University ArtsBridge Scholars
Taeya Abdel-Majeed '08
Blair Allen 07
Michael Beaderstadt 07
Amanda Engle '09
Emily Meranda '08
Kelly Mulcahy '08
Gabriela Szteinberg '07
Sarah Tochiki 07
Kyle Traska 09
ArtsBridge Faculty Mentors
Robert Beck, visiting professor of education
Julie Lindemann, assistant professor of art
Stewart Purkey, associate professor of education and the Bee Connell Mielke Professor of Education
Dane Maxim Richeson, associate professor of music
John Shimon, assistant professor of art
Phillip Swan, assistant professor of music
Annette Thornton, Lawrence Fellow in theatre arts
Jasmine Yep, Lawrence University ArtsBridge program director
ArtsBridge Host Teachers
Matthew Bonson, Edison Elementary School
Thomas Franklin, Appleton North High School
Brooke Kasmarek, Clovis Grove Elementary School
Andrea MacDonald, Clovis Grove Elementary School
Marcia Macdonald, Tullar Elementary School
Sue O'Connell, St. Mary Elementary School
Nancy Quasius, Lincoln Elementary School
Michael Rospenda, Lincoln Elementary School
Judy Stoffel, St. Margaret Mary Elementary School
Linda Thompson, Clovis Grove Elementary School
Participating Elementary and High School Students
Appleton North High School, Appleton, Wisconsin, Grade 10
Clovis Grove Elementary School, Menasha, Wisconsin, Grades 1 and 2
Edison Elementary School, Appleton, Wisconsin, Grade 5
Lincoln Elementary School, Appleton, Wisconsin, Grade 5
St. Mary Elementary School, Menasha, Wisconsin, Grade 5
St. Margaret Mary Elementary School, Neenah, Wisconsin, Grade 5
Tullar Elementary School, Neenah, Wisconsin, Grade 4/5
*Research paper in support of conference discussions submitted in absentia.
