Award-Winning Author Jennine Capó Crucet to Keynote 30th Isaac Symposium

March 13, 2019

An award-winning author and an environmental researcher will offer a wealth of ideas during Albion College’s 2019 Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium. Natalie Dubois, ’97, will present the Isaac Alumni Lecture on Wednesday, April 17, 7:30 p.m., in the Norris Science Center’s Towsley Hall. Following the day-long research symposium, Make Your Home Among Strangers author Jennine Capó Crucet will deliver the Symposium Keynote Address on Thursday, April 18, 7 p.m., in Goodrich Chapel.

Make Your Home Among Strangers, published in 2015, won the International Latino Book Award for Best Latino-themed Fiction and was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Crucet’s work was read by all Albion first-year students in fall 2018 via the Richard M. Smith Common Reading Experience, a component of the William Atwell Brown, Jr., and Mary Brown Vacin First-Year Experience. Her story collection How to Leave Hialeah won several literary prizes and was named a Best Book of the Year by the Miami Herald, the Miami New Times, and the Latinidad List. Originally from Miami, Crucet is an associate professor of English and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Dubois is a senior research specialist with Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Incentives, helping international conservation programs develop evidence-based projects. In this role, she has worked extensively with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its promotion of biodiversity-related programs. Dubois previously worked with Defenders of Wildlife, providing technical and scientific guidance on renewable-energy and climate-adaptation programs.

From 8 a.m. through 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, more than 100 Albion students will present research papers and other scholarship during the 30th annual Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium. The Symposium honors alumnus “Ike” Isaac, ’48, who served for 25 years at Albion as a coach, professor and athletic director. Isaac later taught and served as athletic director for the University of the Pacific. The Symposium was established in 1990 by Isaac’s former students and team members.

All Symposium events are free and open to the public. For further information, visit the Symposium website, albion.edu/isaac, or contact Symposium coordinator Michael VanHouten at [email protected] or 517-629-0382.