Alumni in Sevice to Oberlin College (ASOC)
From What to Expect from Grad School
to Original Choreography: Alum Experts Return to Campus
What is life really
like in graduate school? On October 3 three alumni--Suzanne McCoskey '90,
Daniel Ash '92, and Ron Garcia '95--returned to campus to answer that question
for current Oberlin students.
Suzanne and Ron are both currently enrolled in graduate school, Suzanne at
Syracuse University, where she is an economics PhD candidate specializing
in urban and regional economics, and Ron at the University of Pittsburgh,
where he is studying for a master's degree in Latin American history. Ash,
who earned an MA in public policy at the University of Chicago, is director
of communications and policy analyst with the Family Resource Coalition. Their
panel discussion was part of the Graduate School Fair sponsored by the offices
of Career Services and Undergraduate Sponsored Programs.
"Anti-Affirmative Action & African American Women and Men: Where Do We
Go From Here?" was the title of the talk delivered October 4 by Stephanie
Moore '82. General Counsel for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Stephanie
graduated with honors from Oberlin with a major in government. She earned
a JD degree from Harvard's law school, where was an editor of the Harvard
Law Review. Before joining the Commission, she clerked for former Chief Justice
A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, was
visiting associate professor of law at the Howard University School of Law,
and taught at the District of Columbia School of Law. Her visit was sponsored
by the African-American Studies Department, Abusua, and Afrikan Heritage House.
Women's labor- and health-issues expert Peggy Kahn '75 gave a talk--"We Didn't
Hire You for Your Children"--about low-paid women and nonstandard hours in
the service sector on November 8. Peggy, whose visit was sponsored by the
politics department, majored in government and history at Oberlin. She earned
an MA and a PhD at UC Berkeley, and is associate professor of political science
at the University of Michigan-Flint, where she also coordinates the Women's
and Gender Studies Program.
Jeffrey Winters '82, another Oberlin government major, examined how General
Suharto's three decades of rule over the Indonesian archipelago are coming
to a close in his November 21 talk, "The Unraveling of Suharto's New Order."
He explored how such a long period of stability could be marked at its end
by so much instability, concluding that Indonesian observers have confused
containment with contentment. A former Shansi rep to Gadjah Mada University
in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Jeff earned an MA and PhD from Yale and is a member
of Northwestern's department of politics. Oberlin's politics department sponsored
his visit.
Since graduating from Oberlin with a major in dance, choreographer Crispin
Spaeth '89 has made a name for herself in the Pacific Northwest, where she
is artistic director of the Crispin Spaeth Dance Group, based in Seattle.
With the sponsorship of the theater and dance department, she brought her
troupe to Oberlin December 3-7 for a teaching residency. Crispin conducted
two master classes, one for about 50 advanced students and one for about 25
students of various levels. The troupe's stay culminated in two performances,
featuring "Having Been," a solo piece; "Hand Over Fist," an ensemble piece;
and "Broken Day," a work in progress.
-MWB