The 1/25/12 edition of "All Things Considered" on Minnesota Public Radio includes a feature story on the current Perlman Teaching Museum exhibit, "Running the Numbers," on display through March 11 in the Kaemmer Family Gallery in the Weitz Center for Creativity. "Running the Numbers: Portraits of Mass Consumption" is the work of Seattle artist Chris Jordan, who presents huge color photographs -- assembled from thousands of smaller photographs -- based on statistical facts about American consumer culture. The story on Minnesota Public Radio features Laurel Bradley, director and curator of the Perlman Teaching Museum, and Neil Lutsky, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Psychology, who first encountered Jordan’s artwork in 2010, and was impressed by the way in which it found creative ways to present quantitative data.

The Jan. 24 edition of the Northfield News covered a neat collaboration between William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology Neil Lutsky's class and Northfield Middle School students around the new Perlman Teaching Museum's exhibit, "Running the Numbers" by photographer Chris Jordan. “What they did was, they sat with their Carleton student and brainstormed about big numbers that had some relevance to their lives,” said John Bade, NMS art teacher. Bade had about 65 students participate in the art project, divided into 17 groups with one Carleton student assigned to each group. Lutsky’s students were responsible for trying to find a way to represent the large statistics they had found. “They liked having that college student in the classroom,” Bade said. “And the kids Neil (Lutsky) brought over were very engaging.”

Carleton professor of anthropology Jay Levi appeared on the Jan. 24 episode of National Geographic's "Taboo" show, in an episode entitled "Freaky Remedies." The fourth episode of season eight touched on the extreme and rare remedies people seek to cure asthma, infertility and pain, among other ailments. Levi comments on the use of a guinea pig sacrifice in Peru's Andes Mountains, where the show's subject is seeking an ancient animal sacrifice to remedy his health problems that couldn't be cured through surgery. "The patient has to have faith in the techniques and power of the shaman for it to work," Levi says in the show. "If performed by a shaman, then it does work, especially, and perhaps only, if you believe."

The Chronicle of Higher Education's Scott Carlson wrote a feature titled "In an Old School Building, Carleton College and Its Community Enjoy New Lessons" for the publication's Jan. 21 edition. Carlson tells the history of the building, how the College purchased and planned the renovation, shows how many of the old spaces morphed into the new and how Carleton used many of the old parts of the building in interesting and creative ways. The article includes an online slide show as well.

Trustee Margaret Simms '67 appeared on NPR's "Marketplace" on Jan. 16, discussing the economy and specifically higher unemployment rates in minority communities. In the piece, broadcast on the observed holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, Simms notes that many minority workers were hit hard by layoffs in the fields of construction and manufacturing (black males) and retail (black women). "It's the old cliché -- last hired, first fired. Only in this case as we come into the recovery, it's first fired, last hired," she said. Simms is a Fellow and Director of The Urban Institute's Low Income Working Families Project.

Former Carleton student Jack Lew, who attended the College during his freshman year, will take over as the White House's chief of staff in February 2012 under President Barack Obama. Hundreds of media outlets covered the announcement, but perhaps the best coverage of Lew's Carleton and Minnesota connections were offered by MinnPost.com's Devin Henry, who notes Lew's connections to former Carleton professor and Minnesota U.S. Senator, the late Paul Wellstone. You can also view Lew's full biography on the White House's website.

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, is quoted in a Jan. 2 article in Iowa's HometownSource.com regarding Sixth District Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, who is seeking the Republican party's presidential nomination. After winning a summer straw poll in Iowa, experts are predicting a fatal finish for Bachmann in today's caucus and likely end to her 2012 presidential aspirations. If that happens, Schier told the paper, she'll likely seek re-election to her House seat. "What else will she do?" Schier said.

Aparna Ramaswamy, Carleton Class of 1997, and her mother, Ranee Ramaswamy, have been named the 2011 Artist of the Year by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The mother and daughter are the artistic directors, choreographers, and principal dancers of the internationally renowned Ragamala Dance Company and School. The 1/1/12 edition of the Star Tribune honors "Ragamala artistic directors Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy in a year that included the creation of substantial new work, national touring, a showcase at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and rave reviews from all over."

"The artistic directors of Ragamala Dance use their art form as a prism to refract both the ancient and the modern," writes reporter Caroline Palmer. "The choreographers, ages 59 and 35, continued to advance their dance form into the 21st century, winning kudos for a vibrant modern-day vision born out of ancient Indian tradition. This is why the Star Tribune has selected these impressive women as Artists of the Year." The complete article can be found here.

Aparna Ramaswamy is a 1997 graduate of Carleton College, where she earned a BA in international relations and political economy.

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, is quoted in a Dec. 15 story by Reuters regarding the Tea Party members' attitudes and feelings towards former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as a possible Republican Party Presidential nominee, and how the movement has become more organized and focused in advance of the 2012 elections. "The Tea Party was a very showy populist movement in the last cycle," he said. "Now they are in the trenches and institutionalizing their efforts."  

Carol Donelan, associate professor of cinema and media studies and the department chair, is the focus of a feature on Northfield Patch for the book she recently published entitled Electric Theater: The Emergence of Cinema in Northfield, 1896-1917. According to Patch, "Electric Theater unfurls the history of these theaters and the magic within them, sprinkled with strange and fascinating stories that add special interest to the events of the time (including an unexpected case of anti-Norwegian prejudice)." Donelan is signing books at the Northfield Historical Society during the town's annual winter walk celebration on Thursday, Dec. 8 from 6-9 p.m. The book will be available for purchase during the signing.