Bill Brayton

"Our alums humble me. Every year I hear about their impressive achievements in the art world," he says. Brayton continues to spend a lot of time in the studio as well. Currently, he is working on pieces for a solo show at the George Marshall Store Gallery in York Harbor, Maine set for August of 2011. The exhibit will showcase connections between drawing and sculpture in his work as part of a statewide summer focus on drawing.

Back at Hampshire, Brayton finds new inspiration from his students. Among the ones who are currently working on Division III projects are Christopher Cole 07F and Zaidee Everett 07F. Chris, he says, "is an amazing young artist. He was in my tutorials four years ago, and now he's working across a lot of media including sculpture, printmaking, performance, video, and installation."

Zaidee is focusing her Div III work on soft fabric sculpture and printmaking based on "creatures" of her own design. Viewers of her art are encouraged to touch and interact with it.

The Hampshire Fund, Brayton notes, is an essential tool for allowing these art projects to be made. By supporting students, faculty and staff, Hampshire can provide an environment in which they can thrive and push the boundaries not only of their own abilities but, as he has seen many times over the years, the art world itself.

Read more about Bill's work with students.

Sue Darlington

Sue Darlington loves to teach in the classroom. But she knows that what's really valuable to Hampshire students is the knowledge she brings from outside it.

The professor of anthropology and Asian studies just returned from Thailand, where her decades of research into Buddhist-led environmental conservation work forms the basis of her soon-to-be-published book, The Ordination of a Tree: The Buddhist Environmental Movement in Thailand.

"The presence of active, involved, charismatic monks has been important. They are really trying to change farming and agriculture methods," says Darlington.

On campus, collaborating with teaching assistants Brendan Sweeney 07F and Baldwin Scholar Anthony Thomas 08F has given her fresh insights into her course Environmental Justice in the Age of Climate Change. Darlington is deeply involved in a new program, sparked by the Dalai Lama, that gives Buddhist monks and nuns access to Western educations at Hampshire and Smith Colleges.

An environment built on interdisciplinary academic research brought Sue Darlington to Hampshire. She’s glad to see that each semester continues to give her a chance to approach it in new, challenging ways.

Read more about Sue's work with students.

Dula Amarasiriwardena

As an analytical chemist, Dula Amarasiriwardena has spent decades honing his skills in trace-metal detection. As a chemistry professor at Hampshire, he thrives on sharing that knowledge with his students.

One of his recent collaborations was with Pema Dorjee 06F, who arrived at Hampshire planning to study the social sciences. After taking Amarasiriwardena's course on Pollution and the Environment, Dorjee's focus quickly led him into the chemistry laboratories at the Cole Science Center instead.

In Dorjee's final year at Hampshire, the two researched an innovative way to remove harmful metals from soil. Work like this is one of the reasons the Hampshire Fund exists, as it provides financial assistance for research and technologies while allowing students and professors to collaborate together both in the lab and the field.

"Working with Dula is so much fun," says Dorjee. "He knows so much and guides you through step by step. And he's trying to use knowledge to do good things for communities."

Read more about Dula's work with Pema.

Rebecca Nordstrom

Rebecca Nordstrom knows movement. In theory and practice, the professor of dance has pushed the boundaries of what the human body can do. Many times, it's student work that has sparked her new discoveries. That was the case when Nordstrom served as co-chair, with cognitive science professor Jane Couperus, on Victoria Quine 06F's Div III project, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Circus."

Nordstrom also realizes the importance of the Hampshire Fund in allowing interdisciplinary collaborations like the one Quine pursued. The dance professor has been a contributor herself for the past ten years, and hopes to see everyone involved with Hampshire lending a similar hand.

Read more about Rebecca's work with Victoria.

Lynn Miller

If you're looking for Lynn Miller, professor of biology and one of the "founding faculty," you might find him by the garden of daylilies outside of the Cole Science Center. The flowers themselves are picturesque, but it's the genetics research they represent that grabs his attention. The work his students do is equally captivating for Miller, who, 40 years into his career at Hampshire, still finds himself enthused by student projects:

"I had several students this year who used their skill in genetics, as well as in the social sciences, to critique what's going on in the genetics world. Recent graduate Marissa Baker-Wagner 06F has been working in a high-tech laboratory trying to find cures for dengue fever ever since graduating from high school. Her project is an interesting combination of the radical critique of neoliberalism and very sophisticated labwork."

Read more about Lynn's work with students.