The Campaign for Carleton

Carleton College has announced the successful completion of its largest-ever fundraising campaign. Breaking Barriers, Creating Connections: The Campaign for Carleton has exceeded its goal, raising more than $300 million from alumni, parents, friends, corporations and foundations. One-third of all campaign dollars were given by members of the Carleton Board of Trustees and 76 percent of all alumni contributed to the campaign. As of today, the College has received a total of $300,383,642 in gifts and pledges from 23,148 donors toward three strategic initiatives: enriching the teaching and learning environment by creating better ways for students to learn broadly and deeply; broadening access for students from increasingly diverse backgrounds; and enhancing the College’s physical facilities in ways that effectively support a leading liberal arts college in the 21st century.

Alex Freeman, Assistant Professor of Music, in conjunction with American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), a New York-based ensemble, received an Encore grant from the American Composers Forum for his composition, Blueshift. Read more on recent grants.

A travel research grant was awarded to George Vrtis, Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies, from the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming to support research on his book project, "Gold Rush Colorado: An Environmental History." Read more on recent grants.

Carleton College has announced that the Weitz Family Foundation’s $15 million challenge to Carleton’s Board of Trustees has been met, with trustees now having pledged a total of $100 million toward the Breaking Barriers, Creating Connections campaign goal of $300 million. The Weitz challenge promised the $15 million gift to Carleton if Board of Trustee members contribute $85 million collectively, including the Weitz’ initial $10 million gift that launched the Breaking Barriers, Creating Connections campaign, which is scheduled to finish at the end of June.  The campaign has raised a total of $287.5 million to date.

The Research Corporation granted $35,000 to Dwight Luhman, Assistant Professor of Physics, for his research “The Effect of Disorder on the Superfluid Transition in Two-Dimensional Liquid Helium Films.” This Cottrell College Science Award supports two undergraduate student researchers along with needed lab supplies and equipment. Read more on recent grants.

Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Professor of Anthropology, received a $25,000 Post-Ph.D. Research Grant and Osmundsen Initiative Supplement from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, funding her research project, "Birth and Belonging: Global Webs and Local Exclusion from Cameroon to Berlin." The Osmundsen Initiative supports projects that use anthropology to "make a significant contribution to the modern world," in this case regarding immigration and health care reform. Read more on recent grants.

In spring 2010, Carleton’s Science Education Resource Center (SERC) received

- a subaward of $41,228 through Illinois State Museum Society from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Geoinformatics program for a collaborative research project “Neotoma Paleoecology Database”; and

- a subaward of $5,000 through the University of Washington from NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences MARGINS program for the hosting of lessons for “Source-to-Sink Concepts and Supporting Research.”  Read more on recent grants.

Stephanie Cox, Visiting Assistant Professor of French, received a $1,000 grant from the Government of Québec in support of activities and research related to Québec Studies. Read more on recent grants.

Noboru Tomonari, Associate Professor of Japanese, received a Japanese Studies Short-term Research Fellowship from the Japan Foundation to undertake two months of research for his current project, "Band of Brothers: Masculinity and Identity in Cinema by Koreans in Japan." This book project investigates the issues of ethnicity, masculinity, and identity in the works of Korean filmmakers in Japan - artists who exemplify and examine the experiences of one of Japan's most prominent minority groups. Read more on recent grants.

The Japan Foundation awarded Asuka Sango, Assistant Professor of Religion, a Japanese Studies Fellowship to complete her first book project, including research in key Japanese archives; consultation with Japanese scholars, and revising critical sections of her manuscript on the ties between Buddhist rituals and imperial religious authority in Japan’s Heian period (794–1185), "The Halo of Golden Light: Power and Knowledge in Japanese Buddhist Rituals." Read more on recent grants.

Alex Freeman, Assistant Professor of Music, has been awarded a $7,500 fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation for 2011 in support of two interrelated projects on Finnish music: research on the music of the Finnish composer Armas Launis, including the creation of a performance edition of an unpublished chamber work by Launis; and an endeavor to compose several short choral pieces which will included in a multimedia performance featuring the Tapiola Choir, a musician playing the electric kantele (the Finnish zither), and visual art by a well-known Finnish artist. Read more on recent grants.

Bill North, Associate Professor of History, was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Teaching Development Fellowship to revise an intermediate-level history course, “Cultures of Empire: Byzantium, 711-1453.” The $21,000 Fellowship will allow him to read recent scholarship, conduct archival research, translate primary sources, and travel to key sites in support of adding new course content in artistic and architectural dimensions of Byzantine culture, and in encounters between Byzantium and its Latin and Muslim neighbors. Read more on recent grants.