Diversity: Then and Now
One of the College's African-American pioneers
remembers.

Many recall Swarthmore as an ideal, generous, and inclusive community, and as far as their own experience went, it may have been. But it is easy to forget that until relatively recent times, the College was rather more homogenous than diverse.

To the Stars
James Freeman's ensemble makes music at the Kimmel Center.

By David Wright ’69

For 14 years, a Swarthmore-based professional ensemble has been leading concert audiences on an odyssey of discovery to the farthest reaches of new music.

City Beat
Lively Philadelphia balances Swarthmore’s suburban calm.

By Andrea Hammer

Two diverse worlds enrich the lives of Swarthmore students: a lush suburban retreat and a metropolitan cultural feast.

By Jeffrey Heckelman ’02

Nearly 30 years after writing the article that set off the “crisis in social psychology,” Ken Gergen is a very different man. Having spent most of his professional life as an outsider in his own field, he’s surprising his critics yet again—by reaching out to them.

Invitation to Play
Pig Iron Theatre Co. leaps onto national and international stages.

By Mark Lord ’84

Members of the company discuss concepts as if they were collaborating aspects of a single mind—not that there’s any single-mindedness involved here. Ideas are tossed out, challenged, conflated with additional suggestions, chuckled over, altered, teased, tested, and discarded. All with a peculiarly gentle quality, with both rigor and grace