Editorial Statement

Winter 2015

A belated Happy New Year! The essays and reviews in our winter issue further suggest the contours of interdisciplinary research and compel us to think even harder about our students.

As participants in the College of General Studies’ undergraduate research program, Professor Cheryl Boots and Boston University student Julia Katzman have been analyzing Civil Rights memoirs and music. Their interview with Civil Rights icon and Representative John Lewis underscores the significance of personal reflection and song for political protest. Boots and Katzman’s essay also suggests the value of professorundergraduate student collaboration. Among other things, in his essay “Abstract Reasoning in the Azores,” Professor Sam Hammer reflects on how students negotiate the abstract world of natural phenomena and the more precise world of science. By encouraging observation, contemplation and play, Hammer allows students to become better interdisciplinary thinkers. Aaron Fine wants his line drawings and the intentional format of his essay to bring readers into his imagined dialogue between Newton and Goethe. Moving from Newton to Fine and then from Goethe and back to Fine, “Newton and Goethe: A Dialogue in Color” lends insight into the creative process. Substantive and provocative, this issue’s review essays by Professors Corwin, Fiscella and Vail further map the terrain of interdisciplinary research and offer a comprehensive reading list for 2015.

Last year, in our 2014 winter issue of Impact, we published “Supercool Art: Drawing with Liquid Nitrogen in Provincetown” by Dan Jay. Since then, Jay’s chemical drawings have been featured at various venues, and he has created art with students. Recently, BU Graduate student Christine Tannous wrote about Jay’s work. We provide this link to Tannous’s article for two reasons: to demonstrate what has grown out of Jay’s initial essay for Impact, and to further acknowledge student work.

As always, we welcome your feedback and responses and encourage you to submit your research or other creative work for consideration to Impact.

With best wishes for a healthy, happy, and productive new year,

The Editors