Authors Unbound 2024-25: Celebrating Writing Across Genres
The Gordon Library is excited to announce Authors Unbound, a series of events in C and D terms that will feature informal conversations with WPI and other area scholars and writers about their vision, process, innovations and challenges as authors writing across multiple genres. Details on locations and programs will be announced for each event and also added here throughout the spring:
On January 22, at 3pm, the series will kick off with Ludic Soundscapes: Music, Sonic Environments, and Video Games, a conversation about a 2024 publication co-edited by Dr. Elizabeth Hambleton (Gordon Library), and Professor Kate Galloway (RPI). On January 28, at 1pm WPI Chemistry & Biochemistry Professors Anita Mattson and Raul Orduna Picon will share their innovative work in The Chemistry of Belonging: A Graphic Novel Approach to Organic Chemistry Education. On February 13, at 3 pm (GL303), WPI HUA Professors Joel Brattin and Lance Schachterle will introduce us to their work as expert textual editors of works by Charles Dickens and J. Fenimore Cooper, in an interactive program about Great Editions: The Scholarship of Textual Editing. On February 20 at 2pm (GL303), we are delighted to confirm a new Authors Unbound program, Who Owns Poverty. The program will feature a conversation between School of Business Professor Martin Burt, and WPI Press editor in chief, Professor Rob Krueger, about Burt's newly released second edition of Who Owns Poverty (2025) from the WPI Press. On February 21 at 11am (GL303), WPI HUA Professor Lucy Caplan will host Maud Cuney-Hare: Musician, Scholar, Writer, Activist, at the opening at Gordon Library of her exhibit on the life and work of Maud Cuney Hare (1874-1936), an African-American scholar, writer, composer and activist with deep roots in the Boston area. On March 19 at 4pm (SL104), Global School Dean Mimi Sheller will be joined by Northeastern University’s Professor Adriana de Souza e Silva to discuss how their co-editing is shaping emerging fields of global scholarship, with a program on Mobility Justice and Mobile Networked Creativity. This event is also part of a city-wide spring event series on sustainability, organized by the Worcester-area association of Worcester’s research and academic libraries (Academic and Research Collaborative). Just added! On April 10 at 3pm (GL 303), WPI HUA Professor Lucy Caplan will return to Gordon Library for a conversation about her new book, Dreaming in Ensemble (Harvard University Press, 2025). Crowning the 2025 spring series on April 17 at 4 pm (Higgins House) will be WPI Library’s first annual Olive Higgins Prouty Poetry Celebration, featuring National Book Award winner, poet, and UMass Amherst Professor Martín Espada, reading from his award-winning book Floaters (2021), and his new book Jailbreak of Sparrows (April 2025). Espada's reading has been organized and made possible in collaboration with the WPI School of Arts & Sciences, the Worcester County Poetry Association, and the Clemente Course in the Humanities.
Please mark your calendars now, and join us in explorations and conversations that celebrate and share the shaping power of authorship across every genre!
The Gordon Library is excited to announce Authors Unbound, a series of events in C and D terms that will feature informal conversations with WPI and other area scholars and writers about their vision, process, innovations and challenges as authors writing across multiple genres.
Details on locations and programs will be announced for each event and also added here throughout the spring:
- On January 22, at 3pm, the series will kick off with Ludic Soundscapes: Music, Sonic Environments, and Video Games, a conversation about a 2024 publication co-edited by Dr. Elizabeth Hambleton (Gordon Library), and Professor Kate Galloway (RPI).
- On January 28, at 1pm WPI Chemistry & Biochemistry Professors Anita Mattson and Raul Orduna Picon will share their innovative work in The Chemistry of Belonging: A Graphic Novel Approach to Organic Chemistry Education.
- On February 13, at 3 pm (GL303), WPI HUA Professors Joel Brattin and Lance Schachterle will introduce us to their work as expert textual editors of works by Charles Dickens and J. Fenimore Cooper, in an interactive program about Great Editions: The Scholarship of Textual Editing.
- On February 20 at 2pm (GL303), we are delighted to confirm a new Authors Unbound program, Who Owns Poverty. The program will feature a conversation between School of Business Professor Martin Burt, and WPI Press editor in chief, Professor Rob Krueger, about Burt's newly released second edition of Who Owns Poverty (2025) from the WPI Press.
- On February 21 at 11am (GL303), WPI HUA Professor Lucy Caplan will host Maud Cuney-Hare: Musician, Scholar, Writer, Activist, at the opening at Gordon Library of her exhibit on the life and work of Maud Cuney Hare (1874-1936), an African-American scholar, writer, composer and activist with deep roots in the Boston area.
- On March 19 at 4pm (SL104), Global School Dean Mimi Sheller will be joined by Northeastern University’s Professor Adriana de Souza e Silva to discuss how their co-editing is shaping emerging fields of global scholarship, with a program on Mobility Justice and Mobile Networked Creativity. This event is also part of a city-wide spring event series on sustainability, organized by the Worcester-area association of Worcester’s research and academic libraries (Academic and Research Collaborative).
- Just added!
On April 10 at 3pm (GL 303), WPI HUA Professor Lucy Caplan will return to Gordon Library for a conversation about her new book, Dreaming in Ensemble (Harvard University Press, 2025).
- Crowning the 2025 spring series on April 17 at 4 pm (Higgins House) will be WPI Library’s first annual Olive Higgins Prouty Poetry Celebration, featuring National Book Award winner, poet, and UMass Amherst Professor Martín Espada, reading from his award-winning book Floaters (2021), and his new book Jailbreak of Sparrows (April 2025). Espada's reading has been organized and made possible in collaboration with the WPI School of Arts & Sciences, the Worcester County Poetry Association, and the Clemente Course in the Humanities.
Please mark your calendars now, and join us in explorations and conversations that celebrate and share the shaping power of authorship across every genre!
Latest Announcements - Talent & Inclusion
- Gordon Library Food Drive: Knowledge is Power, Food is FuelIn the lead up to Thanksgiving and in light of impending SNAP cut-offs, WPI Library will be hosting a food drive over the next 3 weeks (Monday, November 3rd - Friday, November 21st). We're accepting non-perishable food donations in designated bins (archival banker boxes for the win!) located just inside the front entrance of the library. These will be accessible for drop-offs only when the library is open: https://www.wpi.edu/library/about/visiting All donations will be going to the local Flourish at Thrive food pantry. In addition to the list of suggested items available on their website, they've also relayed special need of these staples: Ramen Chef Boyardee canned meals Microwaveable meal cups, such as mac n cheese Boxed potatoes, and Juice Please email any follow-up questions directly to me at gmccuistion@wpi.edu. Many thanks in advance for whatever you're able to contribute!
- Benefits NewsletterClick here to view the November 2025 Benefits Newsletter.
- Where in the World Are WPI Students in B-Term '25?This B-Term, nearly 325 students are participating in Interactive Qualifying Projects (IQP) or Major Qualifying Projects (MQP) with WPI’s Global Projects Program. Students participate in a term-long immersive research experience that sharpens their skills and brings a new way of looking at the world. This fall, the Syros, Greece, project center is gearing up for its sophomore year with a 12-student cohort. Robert Hersh, Syros advisor and director, says the small island located 80 miles southeast of Athens supports students with an enthusiastic community, challenging projects, and a working relationship with the University of the Aegean. Hersh, an adjunct teaching professor in The Global School, is familiar with the area, having directed the Thessaloniki, Greece, project center for many years. Opening the Syros project center was serendipity, he says, after a chance visit with a colleague from the University of the Aegean. The colleague’s son is a WPI alumnus, and the conversation turned to how students could use their skills to work with the Syros community. In 2024, the project center hosted its first students. Elizabeth Jordan ’26, who is double majoring in environmental engineering and environmental and sustainability studies, was part of the first Syros cohort and said the Greek island appealed to her because it was unfamiliar. “I was really interested to explore a place I didn’t know much about,” she says. Being part of an inaugural project center was not without hurdles. The lack of previous projects or examples to reference was daunting at first, Jordan says. “But as we settled into the work, we realized it was actually a blessing in disguise. Being the first group at the Syros project center meant we had the freedom to set our own standards and shape the foundation for future teams.” Hersh says he expects student projects to be intellectually stimulating, and he also expects the experience to hold deeper meaning where students can explore their creativity and build cross-cultural understanding. Jordan’s team project exemplified how that all comes together in a project center. Her team, which focused on the challenges of recycling on the island, realized there was much more to the project than just a municipal process. “Once we arrived on Syros, we quickly realized how difficult it was to access reliable information, and our data collection became more limited than expected,” she says. “This challenge ultimately became an important part of our project, helping us understand the underlying reasons behind residents’ hesitations toward recycling and their complex relationship with the local government.” While the projects illuminate difficult questions, the community partnerships that develop reveal why and how answers aren’t so clear-cut. As students learn about the island residents’ way of life and the government structure, they understand why a solution that worked on paper back on the WPI campus isn’t easy to implement on Syros, Hersh says. Students may leave a project center with excellent professional skills—and, he says, they also acquire something even more important. “They realize that it’s a complicated world.” In B-Term 2025, the Global Projects Program is hosting projects in these locations: IQP Cape Town, South Africa, with project advisors Gbetonmasse Somasse (Social Science & Policy Studies) and Alejandro Manga (contingent) Hangzhou, China, with project advisors Hansong Pu (adjunct) and Gu Wang (Mathematical Sciences) Honolulu, Hawaii, with project advisors Zoë Eddy (Department of Integrative and Global Studies) and Jed Lindholm (adjunct) Kathmandu, Nepal, with project advisors Brigitte Servatius (MA) and Herman Servatius (MA) Kyoto, Japan, with project advisors Melissa Belz (DIGS) and Alex Sphar (DIGS) Melbourne, Australia, with project advisors Uma Kumar (Chemistry & Biochemistry) and Joe Sarkis (The Business School) Nantucket, Mass., with project advisors Dominic Golding (DIGS) and Seth Tuler (DIGS) Prague, Czech Republic, with project advisors Fred Looft (adjunct) and Linda Looft (adjunct) Santa Fe, N.M., with project advisors Laureen Elgert (DIGS) and Phil Hultquist (adjunct) Syros, Greece, with project advisor Robert Hersh (adjunct) Tirana, Albania, with project advisors Michele Femc-Bagwell (adjunct) and Mallory Bagwell (adjunct) Venice, Italy, with project advisors Judy Nitsch (adjunct) and Luis Vidali (Biology) Washington, D.C., with project advisors Melissa Butler (DIGS) and Tsitsi Masvawure (DIGS) MQP FinTech (formerly Wall Street), with center directors Adrienne Hall-Phillips (TBS) and Kwamie Dunbar (TBS) Kyoto, Japan, with center director Adam Powell (Mechanical and Materials Engineering) Silicon Valley, Calif., with center director Mark Claypool (Computer Science) Tokyo, Japan, with center director Adam Powell (ME)
- Registration is open for Intro to Mindfulness Meditation in B-TermMIEA Intro to Mindfulness is a four-week evidence-based mindfulness curriculum the Center for Well-Being is offering to WPI employees and graduate students at no cost. Registration is now open for the in-person program that runs Tuesdays, 4:00 to 5:15 PM, Nov 11 to Dec 2. Register here
- WPI Police Department Reaccreditation AssessmentChief Stephen Marsh is pleased to announce that a team of assessors from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission is scheduled to arrive on campus Nov. 17, 2025, to begin examining various aspects of the WPI Police Department’s policies, procedures, operations, and facilities toward reaccreditation. WPI police first became accredited in 2017, and this will be the third reaccreditation assessment to verify that the department continues to meet the commission’s standards for accreditation. Accreditation is a voluntary process that involves police departments meeting and maintaining over 325 operational standards and best practices. Achieving accreditation is a highly prized recognition of law enforcement professional excellence. Anyone interested in learning more about this program is invited to speak with the department’s accreditation manager, Capt. Brendan Green, or with Chief Stephen Marsh at the WPI Police Department located in Founders Hall.
- Project Advising 101 Series: Responding to Student WritingTuesday, November 18, 2025 12 pm - 1 pm CC: Mid-Century Room In this workshop, participants will review several styles of written commentary, considering how the type, placement, and quantity of comments on student drafts can affect their revision and learning. Participants will learn and practice with a “reader-based” approach that has the potential to: 1) Reduce the time you spend marking student papers 2) Model for your students how to better anticipate and respond to a reader's needs 3) Help your students become less dependent on your editing and directive feedback This workshop is one component of our Project Advising 101 program for faculty new to IQP and MQP advising. The workshop is equally helpful to faculty teaching writing-intensive courses in any discipline, as well as faculty working with graduate students on theses and journal articles. All are welcome to attend! Please register by Tuesday, November 11th, so we can finalize the headcount for lunch.