Whether it was coaching Olympic athletes, writing about Bob Dylan, or trying to unlock the secrets of the universe, the following Kenyon community members earned accolades in 2024.
Jay Cocks ’66 H’04
Like a rolling stone, Bob Dylan came to Gambier for a visit in 1964. Jay Cocks chronicled that epic day for The Collegian as a student, and, now, decades later, the Kenyon grad has returned to writing about the legendary singer-songwriter in the new Golden Globe-nominated biopic “A Complete Unknown,” starring Timothée Chalamet. In a December article about the film, Rolling Stone noted the “deep breadth of knowledge about Dylan and his past” that Cocks brought to the job as co-writer of the screenplay based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric!” A former critic for Time magazine, Cocks is a longtime collaborator of filmmaker Martin Scorese and has two Oscars nominations to his name for his screenplays of 1993’s “The Age of Innocence” and 2002’s “Gangs of New York.” He also wrote the futuristic “Strange Days” and the Cole Porter biography “De-Lovely.”
Nia Imara ’03
An artist and astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Nia Imara has dedicated herself to studying how stars are born, uniting her creative and scientific instincts in the process. Her work using 3D printing to produce three-dimensional models — each about the size of a softball — helps scientists visualize stellar nurseries and was highlighted twice in Scientific American this year, through a video and article that she penned. “My being an artist very much affects my view of the world,” she says in the video. “And it bleeds into everything, including my science.” The first Black woman to receive a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, Imara in 2020 founded Onaketa, a nonprofit that provides free online tutoring — specializing in science and math — to underserved Black and brown youth. Look for her to make more headlines in 2025: Her book “Painting the Cosmos: How Art and Science Intersect to Reveal the Secrets of the Universe” is due out in February.
Bryan Doerries ’98 H’17
“We read something. And then we break it open.” That’s how Theater of War Productions co-founder Bryan Doerries ’98 H’17 described to The New Yorker in March the complex task of bringing people together during contentious times by examining ancient and classical texts. The group’s production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People,” used as a jumping-off point for conversations about contemporary public health challenges, was featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Deadline and PBS. (It came to Gambier in April.) And as many college campuses across the country erupted over the Israel-Hamas war, Doerries drew on Homer’s “The Iliad” and Euripedes’ “Trojan Women” to give people of diverse backgrounds and life experiences the tools to discuss difficult topics. “We’re talking about the present conflicts, but we’re talking about it by way of the ancient past (which) creates enough of a buffer where people can hear each other’s perspective,” Doerries shared on WOSU/The Ohio Newsroom during a visit to Kenyon with Theater of War in October. “You are not alone across time.”
Sarah Longwell ’02
In a time of hyperpolarization in politics, Sarah Longwell is trying to understand peoples’ views in order to change them. Throughout the presidential election, her work with focus groups and as publisher of The Bulwark — highlighted as a “safe harbor” for anti-Trump centrists by the Washington Post in March — made the longtime Republican political strategist a go-to expert on the minds of voters. In addition to her own podcast, she’s shared her insights with The New Yorker, PBS, Politico, The Atlantic and other prominent media outlets. During the presidential campaign, she moderated events with Vice President Kamala Harris and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Style highlighted Longwell as one of five prominent LGBT Republicans in June and New York magazine profiled her in April. Co-Founder of the organization Defending Democracy Together, Longwell also is president of Republican Accountability PAC.
Siobhan Fennessy, Philip and Sheila Jordan Professor of Environmental Studies and professor of biology
Kenyon professor Siobhan Fennessy was honored by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands for her work in wetland conservation and restoration. The recognition — announced March 8 for International Women’s Day — was part of an inaugural list highlighting 12 women across the globe for their contributions to the field. An expert in the role of wetlands in climate change mitigation and adaptation, Fennessy was labeled a “woman changemaker” in the category “Wise (Sustainable) Use of Wetlands.” Her work exploring the significance of non-tidal freshwater wetlands in addressing climate change — a collaboration with scientists in India and Amanda Nahlik ’02, a research ecologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — was highlighted later in the year by The Hindu in a news story about wetland conservation in India. The coauthor of “Wetlands,” a college textbook now in its sixth edition, Fennessy has spent much of her career working to save what remains of Ohio’s wetlands and those around the world.
Andrew Kahrl ’01
The implications of a new book by Andrew Kahrl are staggering — and captured perfectly in the headline of an April Bloomberg news story: “How the U.S. Tax System Stole $400 billion from Black Americans.” A professor of history and African American studies at the University of Virginia, Kahrl examines the history of discrimination in the assessment and taxation of Black-owned properties — forcing them to pay more for less and stripping them of their land and investments — in “The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America.” The issue is symptomatic, he wrote in an April essay in The New York Times, of a larger problem in America’s fiscal structure that fuels the “zero-sum politics that keep Americans divided, accelerates the upward redistribution of wealth and impoverishes us all.” The book was covered in major media around the world, including The Guardian and The New York Times, and led to an appearance on CSPAN’s Book TV.
Ransom Riggs ’01
Known as the bestselling author of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” and the series of books that followed, Ransom Riggs launched a major new effort in August with “Sunderworld, Vol. I: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry.” A fantasy adventure set in Los Angeles, the instant New York Times bestseller — and first installment in a new literary series — focuses on the adventures of a grieving teen. A starred Publishers Weekly review hailed Riggs for his “incandescent storytelling, exquisite worldbuilding, and vivid characterization.” For his part, Riggs, whose “Miss Peregrine” novels have sold more than 10 million copies, positioned his new work as a potential source of joy during difficult times. In a May statement, reported by the Associated Press, Riggs said, “We’re living through some very heavy, very dark times — we have been for a while — and this story is meant to be an escape — and a respite from darkness.”
Colette Pichon Battle ’97 H’18
For years, Colette Pichon Battle has worked to protect vulnerable communities from suffering the worst effects of climate change. A generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana — a community devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — Pichon Battle is a climate activist and award-winning lawyer who is co-founder and vision and initiatives partner for the global climate justice organization Taproot Earth. In September, Forbes included her in its list of “Sustainability Leaders Making A Difference In Their Communities,” and earlier in the year, her personal story was featured in a ProPublica article about the heartbreaking process of climate migration in the United States. In August, she appeared in a Ms. magazine article about a feminist approach to philanthropy. An Obama Fellow and a trusted voice in the climate justice and Black liberation movements, her 2019 TED Talk has been viewed nearly 3.7 million times.
Tom Rushton ’01
When the Olympics opened in Paris this July, Tom Rushton was there poolside. A coach of individual elite swimmers from around the world — including Summer Games competitors from Hong Kong, Estonia and Israel — he guided Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong to two bronze medals. In a profile ahead of the Olympics, the South China Morning Post described him as the “mastermind” behind her bid for Olympic glory. This wasn’t his first taste of Olympics success, either. At the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, swimmers he worked with brought home a total of six gold medals, seven silver and four bronze. The son of two British Olympic swimmers — both of whom became coaches — Rushton had a distinguished collegiate career competing at Kenyon. The only swimmer in NCAA Division III history to claim the 500-yard freestyle national title four consecutive years, he won six career NCAA individual event titles and five career NCAA relay championships. He entered the Kenyon Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.
Emma Specter ’15
As a culture writer for Vogue, Emma Specter has fashioned a niche writing prolific and incisive commentary on film, TV, books, politics, news and LGBTQ+ pop culture. (She even name-checked Kenyon in one of her recent essays.) With the March release of her first book, “More Please: On Food, Fat, Bingeing, Longing and the Lust for ‘Enough,’” she got a taste of what it’s like to create pop culture buzz. Using a combination of in-depth reporting and memoir writing, she investigates “the ways in which compulsory thinness, diet culture, and the seductive promise of ‘wellness’ have resulted in warping countless Americans’ relationship with healthy eating.” Literary Hub ran an excerpt of the book, and a starred Kirkus Review called it “an inspiring personal account of living with an eating disorder and finding joy in a fat body.” She was interviewed about it in the L.A. Times, and in September the book was included in Glamour’s “The Best Books for Book Clubs in 2024, So Far.”
Edwin Stanton, Class of 1834
While Edwin Stanton, a product of the 19th century, likely wouldn’t understand the concept of streaming television, he nonetheless had a boost in popularity this year because of it. The limited series “Manhunt,” released on Apple TV+ in March, tells about the hunt for President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin and the central role played by Stanton, who was secretary of war at the time and is portrayed in the show by Tobias Menzies. Newsday called the series a “thoughtful, engrossing drama” and The New York Times said it “thrives on taut, terrific little moments.” Kenyon got in on the fun this fall when Monica Beletsky, the series’ creator, writer and executive producer, came to campus to discuss the show featuring Stanton, Lincoln’s right-hand man who also organized the war effort, marshaling the resources of the North to defeat the Confederacy. While at Kenyon, the story goes, Stanton once “borrowed” the favorite horse of College founder Philander Chase and took it for an evening’s escapade.
Patty Burns, Yvonne Johnson, Abigail Serfass, Ryan E. Smith, Molly Vogel ’00 and Elizabeth Weinstein contributed reporting.