Monday, December 18, 2023

With many students away from Whitman during Winter Break, our calendar of events is noticeably quieter this week. However, three Whitman basketball games are on the schedule. 

The women’s basketball team will play two away games in Nashville, Tennessee. Both games will be available to watch via livestream which will be accessible shortly before tipoff. The men’s basketball team will play at home this week at Sherwood Athletic Center. Admission to home games is free at the door with your Whitman ID. Tickets can also be reserved (up to four free tickets) and purchased in advance.

Go Blues!

Assistant Professor of Classics Daniel C. Smith co-edited the recently-published collection of essays titled “Revelation and Material Religion in the Roman East.” A diverse group of internationally recognized scholars builds on the work of Steven J. Friesen to analyze the material and ideological dimensions of John’s Apocalypse and the religious landscape of the Roman East. The book examines texts and material culture through carefully localized analysis that attends to questions of ideology, materiality and power. The project, to be available Open Access next year, brings together an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars in the fields of Roman social history, classical archeology and Biblical Studies. Smith’s own contribution examines the ways discourses of disablement shape the competition between the author of John’s Apocalypse and his prophetic rivals.

Sharon Alker, the Mary A. Denny Professor of English and General Studies, has co-published with her sister and colleague, Holly Faith Nelson, an article titled “Defoe and War” in the “Oxford Handbook of Daniel Defoe.” Daniel Defoe is best known for his most popular novels, “Robinson Crusoe” and “Moll Flanders,” but he produced a plethora of publications in a wide range of genres, and on a large range of issues. Alker and Nelson argue that warfare, both historical and contemporary, held a particularly strong interest for Defoe as is evident in his extensive range of writings on military matters. He acknowledges that military campaigns are an enormous dynamic set of interrelated parts and sets out to help his eighteenth-century readers understand and evaluate that system, and thus to be able to engage with and critique war in a much more informed and educated manner. 

The Staff Advisory Council (SAC) will offer one final Open Office Hours of the semester on Tuesday, Dec. 19 from 1–2 p.m. The virtual session will be hosted by Veronica Ortiz, Senior Associate Director of Admission, a bilingual (Spanish/English) SAC representative.

The SAC will also be holding elections in the Spring semester to fill seats that are opening up at the end of the academic year. If you are interested in serving on SAC or other campus committees, please fill out this form.

Penrose Library will operate on a reduced schedule during Winter Break as follows:

All Bon Appétit locations on campus are currently closed for Winter Break, reopening as follows.

Cleveland Commons:

Reid Market:

Jewett Café: 

During Winter Break, Whitman Today will be published on a limited basis:

Daily weekday publication will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024.

On Friday, faculty, staff and their guests gathered in Reid Campus Center for an end-of-semester Winter Celebration hosted by President Sarah Bolton. It was a merry gathering with delicious food, drinks, a DJ, dancing and socializing.

11 a.m.

Women’s Basketball vs. Wartburg College

Away (Livestream Link)

1 p.m.

Open Office Hours: Staff Advisory Council

Virtual (Meeting Link)

11 a.m.

Women’s Basketball vs. Christopher Newport University

Away (Livestream Link)

1 p.m.

Whitman Men’s Basketball vs. Misericordia University

Sherwood Athletic Center

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