GS Class of 2008

Kelly Ricciardi Colvin ’03 AM, ’08 PhD, a history professor at UMass Boston, has published Charm Offensive: Commodifying Femininity in Postwar France with the University of Toronto Press. 

Aya Natalia Karpinska ’08 MFA writes: “A project of mine has won this year’s Core 77 Design Award for Interaction and received a notable mention for emerging technologies. Working with the experience design company Tessellate Studio, I created an augmented reality experience for a gallery of photographs in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This innovative project celebrates the lives of Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust and is having a tremendous impact on museum visitors. During my time in Brown’s literary arts program, I was the electronic writing fellow, honing the craft of creative writing and storytelling using emerging technologies.”

Benjamin Weber’s ’08 MAT new book, American Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration, will be published in October with the New Press and is available for preorder.

Jeff Stewart writes: “Breakaway Partners was acquired by Komodo Health. What is interesting is the high concentration of Brown folks on the Breakaway side! There is Andrew Laubscher ’07 (married to Amanda Puffer ’05, ’08 ScM), PJ Santoro ’04, and myself (married to Karen Steinig ’91, parent to two sons ’20 and ’24). Also on our team are Andrew Coggins ’18 and Dylan Groos ’19. A nice ‘conclusion’ to a gathering of several Brunonians across a few decades.” 

Marcia Chatelain ’03 AM, ’08 PhD is the recipient of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in the history category for her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. The board called Chatelain’s book “a nuanced account of the complicated role the fast-food industry plays in African American communities [and] a portrait of race and capitalism that masterfully illustrates how the fight for civil rights has been intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.”  In her book Marcia reveals that for African Americans, fast food is a source of both despair and power—and a battlefield on which the fight for racial justice has been waged since the 1960s.  Marcia is currently a professor of history and African American studies at Georgtown University. 

Laura Hendrickson ’88 AM, ’08 PhD (see Patricia MacBride Hendrickson ’52).

Patricia MacBride Hendrickson is living alone in her home in the Highlands, an assisted living community in Topsham, Me. While confined largely to her own space, she is able to take long walks around the beautiful surrounding rural area. She orders her groceries through the Highlands management and they deliver the groceries to her door. She maintains her very active involvement in politics, writing letters to the editor, participating in webinars, and working on campaigns to elect progressive leadership. Her daughter Laura Hendrickson ’88 AM, ’08 PhD, and husband Rupert, who is an anthropology professor at Cambridge University, UK, are self-isolating at home. Groceries are delivered by their food cooperative, and their 7-year-old daughter is engaged in remote learning with her school.

Stephanie Fortunato ’08 AM, director of Providence’s Department of Art, Culture and Tourism since 2016, is among the four new appointees to the New England Foundation for the Arts Advisory Council. Contact Stephanie at sfortunato@providenceri.gov.

Robert Newcomb ’06 AM, ’08 PhD, writes that after four months of training, he ran up the Rock of Gibraltar while in Gibraltar on a research trip. The run, traditionally considered a fitness test by the Royal Navy, is approximately 2.7 miles in length, rising from sea level to 1,350 feet, with an average incline of 8 percent.

Robert Newcomb ’02, ’06 AM, ’08 PhD’s book, Iberianism and Crisis: Spain and Portugal at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, was published by Univ. of Toronto Press in July. He is an associate professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Davis and lives in Woodland, Calif., with his wife and two sons.