With funding from the Schupf Research Fund, Schupf Scholar and aspiring writer Ali Thaler ’11 spent five days in Manhattan during Amherst’s Interterm. She found inspiration for her writing in the museums that she visited and in the sights and sounds of the city. “I filled up half a notebook with not only notes on interesting objects and manuscripts from the museums, but with bizarre conversations I overheard on the streets and interactions I had with people in elevators,” Thaler said. “Traveling is always a great inspiration for my writing.”
Thaler is shown standing next to an alabaster relief from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Calah (Nimroud). It is from the ninth century B.C.E. and is part of the collections of Amherst College’s Mead Art Museum. The piece was the gift of Dr. Henry John Lobdell (Class of 1849).