The Williams College Museum of Art will honor Whitney S. Stoddard, Williams College Class of 1935, Amos Lawrence Professor of Art, Emeritus, by presenting a symposium, "The New Reality of Psalmodi" on Sunday, October 17 at 2:00 p.m. in the Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall at Williams College. Stoddard, who initiated and led archeological excavations at Psalmodi in Southern France, has organized the exhibition, "'The Dig'--Thirty Years of Excavations at Psalmodi, France" in conjunction with the symposium. He taught at Williams from 1938 through 1982.

For three decades, under the direction of Professor Stoddard and his son Brooks Stoddard, over 150 students and faculty from Williams College and elsewhere have spent a month in the summer at the Psalmodi architectural site in the Languedoc region of southern France. The symposium will focus on current activity and research at the former Benedictine monastery and celebrate Professor Stoddard's leadership of this important dig, which has yielded artifacts dating back to the late Roman and early Christian eras.

Brooks Stoddard, Williams Class of 1960, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Maine at Augusta, and current Director of the project will speak on "Psalmodi as a Cultural and Economic Force in Southern France." In 1992-1993, Brooks Stoddard was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to live and work in France. His work that year concentrated on an analysis of the Abbey's sculpture and on the priory churches of Psalmodi and resulted in crucial information regarding the larger history of the region and the religious and broad economic impact of the Abbey. Brooks Stoddard has delivered papers on these topics at the Courtauld Institute, London and the International Medieval Conference at Leeds, England.

Jerrilynn D. Dodds is Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the School of Architecture of the City College of the City University of New York. Her work has centered on issues of artistic interchange and identity, and the problems surrounding art and minorities in pluralistic societies. She has worked extensively in Spain, Bosnia, and New York City and is known as a distinguished author, curator and filmmaker. Ms. Dodds is the author of Architecture and Ideology of Early Medieval Spain; Al Andalus: The Arts of Islamic Spain; and numerous other publications, including articles concerning the reconstruction of the historical center of Mostar in Bosnia. She has also curated and co-curated many exhibitions on the subject of cultural interchange as seen through art and architecture. As a prize-winning filmmaker, Professor Dodds writes and directs films in conjunction with museum exhibitions and for public television audiences. Among the several institutions at which Professor Dodds has taught are Harvard University and Columbia University. Ms. Dodds will speak to "Psalmodi in Context-OR-Why We Should Teach Psalmodi in Art 1."

Sebastian Heath, who joined the dig in 1994 is writing his dissertation for the University of Michigan's Classical Archeology Department on a topic concerning late antique-early medieval culture in southern France. Heath has brought to the dig a wealth of field experience and a strong knowledge of computerized archeology; he also maintains the Psalmodi web site at http://classics.lsa.umich.edu/Psalmodi.html. Heath is also working on a definitive article on the pottery excavated at the site.

The symposium will be followed by a reception at the WCMA, 3:30-5:00 p.m.