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| Faculty Newsletter Archive |
Faculty News - Spring 2007Guttman Gives Paper at Association for the Study of Food in Society ConferenceMay 31, 2007Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman delivered a paper at the annual joint meeting of the Association for the Study of Food in Society and the Agriculture and Human Values Society at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, on May 31. The paper is titled "Slow Food, local farmers, and the creation of community in central New York." Slow Food is an international organization devoted to preserving and promoting local foods and the communities that depend on them. Yao Delivers Lecture at Meiji University in Tokyo, JapanMay 29, 2007Associate Professor of English Steven Yao delivered a lecture at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan, on May 25. His lecture, titled "Recent Theoretical Issues in Ethnic American Literature in the U.S.," introduced Japanese scholars and students of ethnic American literature to current debates about the concept of "hybridity" in Asian American and Postcolonial literary theory. He was invited to speak at Meiji University by Professor Yoshiaki Koshikawa. Yao's talk stemmed from his current project, "Foreign Accents: Chinese American Verse and the Counter-Poetics of Difference in the U.S., 1910-Present." Adams Contributes Chapter to BookMay 29, 2007Visiting Professor of Communication John Adams co-authored a chapter in a new book Rhetoric, Religion, and the Roots of Identity in British Colonial America: A Rhetorical History of the United States, Volume 1, by James R. Andrews (Michigan State University Press). According to the publisher "Volume 1 of the Rhetorical History of the United States series probes formal and ideational aspects of colonial rhetoric to illuminate textual/contextual interactions and their enduring implications for American rhetoric." Adams' chapter, co-authored with Stephen R. Yarbrough, is titled "Jonathan Edwards, the Great Awakening, and 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.'" Jin Conducts Language Workshop in Washington, D.C.May 24, 2007Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin conducted a workshop at National Capital Language Resource Center, 2007 Summer Institutes for Chinese Teachers, on May 21-23 in Washington, D.C. The Institute's theme was "New Concepts in Teaching Chinese," and Jin's workshop focused on task-based language instruction. Council on Foreign Relations U.S.-China Report ReleasedMay 22, 2007An independent task force established by the Council on Foreign Relations to examine changes in China and to evaluate what these changes mean for China and for the U.S.-China relationship has published its first report in the form of a book titled U.S.-China Relations: An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course. Cheng Li, William R. Kenan Professor of Government, is one of the task force members responsible for the report. The task force is chaired by Dennis Blair, former president and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analyses, and Carla Hills, chairman and CEO of Hills & Company and the former U.S. trade representative. More ... Three Faculty Members Appointed to Named ProfessorshipsMay 22, 2007Three Hamilton faculty members have been appointed to named professorships, effective July 1. Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin has been appointed The William R. Kenan Professor; Associate Professor of Philosophy Marianne Janack was named The Sidney Wertimer Professor; and Professor of History Maurice Isserman has been appointed The James L. Ferguson Professor. More ... Trivedi Named to AsiaNetwork Board of DirectorsMay 21, 2007Associate Professor of History Lisa Trivedi has been named to the board of directors of AsiaNetwork. It is a consortium of more than 170 North American colleges that strives to strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of liberal arts education to help prepare succeeding generations of undergraduates for a world in which Asian societies play prominent roles in an ever more interdependent world. More ... Brewer and O'Neill Participate in Quantitative Literacy MeetingMay 21, 2007Karen S. Brewer, professor of chemistry, and Mary B. O'Neill, director of the Quantitative Literacy Center, participated in the 11th annual meeting of the Northeast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy at Vassar College in April with a presentation about the process of developing a proposal to strengthen the QLit. Requirement at Hamilton College. They discussed the current requirement and highlighted the QLit. Committee's role in addressing the task of cultivating students' comfort level with numerical data and symbolic information while incorporating the college's goals, resources, and vision. More ... Terrell Presents Paper at International Congress on Medieval StudiesMay 21, 2007Assistant Professor of English Katherine Terrell presented a paper titled "Orality and the Borders of Identity in the Old English 'Andreas'" at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, held at Western Michigan University on May 10-13. The paper addressed the complex symbolic interplay of food and speech in this Old English poem, arguing that the poem treats the mouth as the body's most significant threshold, where the power of God to work through man manifests in the intersections of what is consumed and what is said. Klinkner Quoted in Los Angeles TimesMay 18, 2007Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article on Wednesday, May 16, titled "Giuliani's pro-choice tightrope." The article referenced Klinkner's analysis of data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey that found that more than one-third of Republican primary voters wanted to ban all abortions. More ... O'Neal Promoted to Officer in Napoleonic French OrderMay 18, 2007The French Ministry of National Education, Teaching, and Research has promoted John C. O'Neal, professor of French, to the rank of "officier" in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. He was named a "chevalier" (or knight) in 1998. (The three ranks in this order are "chevalier," "officier," and "commandeur.") Founded in 1808 by Napoleon, the order originally recognized teachers but later included other figures in the fields of letters, the arts, and the sciences. The promotion signed by the French minister of education, Gilles de Robien, and dated February 1, 2007 awards O'Neal for his "services rendus à la culture française" (services rendered to French culture). The envelope containing the promotion arrived recently via the French embassy for cultural services in New York City. McCormick Awarded Department of Energy Grant to Study Uranium BioremediationMay 17, 2007Assistant Professor of Biology Mike McCormick was awarded a $100,000 grant by the Department of Energy to study the use of iron-reducing bacteria to help remediate groundwater contaminated with uranium. The iron-reducing bacteria that are the subject of the study use iron oxides to support cell respiration. In essence, they "breath rust." In carrying out normal life processes these bacteria profoundly affect the geochemistry of the environments where they live often producing a variety of biogenic mineral byproducts. More ... Patterson Gives Paper at Caribbean Historians' MeetingMay 16, 2007Associate Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Ruby Patterson presented a paper titled "Caribbean Activism Stateside: 1968 and Beyond" at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Association of Caribbean Historians in Kingston, Jamaica, May 7 -12. Her paper examined the life of Barbadian immigrant Richard B. Moore from 1920 to 1973. Moore was a major political figure in New York City during these years and from 1942-1968, he ran the Frederick Douglass Bookstore in Harlem. Radically opposed to racism and committed to Caribbean independence, Moore was an important spokesperson for the rights of all African people. He died in Barbados in 1978. Glenn Chairs Session at New England Political Science Association ConferenceMay 15, 2007Brian J. Glenn, visiting assistant professor of government, served as the Public Policy program chair for this year's New England Political Science Association conference, held recently in Newton, Mass. Glenn also presented a paper, "Embracing Risk II: The Rise and Decline of the Twentieth Century Social Policy Net." Westmaas Gives Paper at Historians Conference in JamaicaMay 15, 2007Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper on "1968 and the Social & Political Foundations of the Working Peoples Alliance" at the 39th annual conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians (ACH) held in Kingston, Jamaica, May 7-11. The paper, an examination of a political party, the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) of Guyana, assessed the emergence of new political forces in Guyana (along with regional and global influence) between 1968-1974, and established how the convergence of those forces or the 'new politics' culminated in the birth of the multi-racial WPA considerably changing the political equation in the South American republic. O'Neal Elected President of Society for 18th-Century French StudiesMay 14, 2007John C. O'Neal, professor of French, was elected president of the Society for Eighteenth-Century French Studies, which is the French caucus of the national society. The election took place at the organization's annual spring meeting, held in Atlanta this year. Paris Publishes Article in LiberalArtsOnlineMay 11, 2007David Paris, the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Government at Hamilton and a senior fellow at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, published an article, "The Academics' Lament and the Traditional Liberal Arts," in LiberalArtsOnline (May, 2007). In the piece, Paris discusses and responds to the tensions between two disparate views on the purpose of liberal arts education. On the one hand, there are those who believe that liberal arts education entails pursuing knowledge for its own sake, and that incorporating practical learning of any sort threatens its very soul. On the other hand, there are those would like to see some evidence that a liberal arts education has practical and economic payoffs. Paris discusses ways to bridge that gap in this essay. Peter J. Rabinowitz Publishes Article in NarrativeMay 7, 2007Professor of Comparative Literature Peter J. Rabinowitz has published "The Rhetoric of Reference; or, Shostakovich's Ghost Quartet" in the May 2007 issue of Narrative, a special issue devoted to the legacy of Wayne C. Booth. More ... MacDonald Publishes in Poetics TodayMay 7, 2007In "Poetry and Avant-Garde Film," pubished in the new issue of Poetics Today (Vol. 28, no. 1), Visiting Professor of Art History Scott MacDonald explores the intersection between 20th Century avant-garde/experimental film and modern poetry, focusing on three recent contributions: Rick Hancox's re-presentation of Wallace Stevens' "A Clear Day and No Memories" in 'Waterworx (A Clear Day and No Memories)"; Matthias Muller's cinematic transmission/translation of Ernst Jandl's "Gedichte an die kindheit" in "nebel"; and Clive Holden's cinematic edition of "Trains of Winnipeg." Poetics Today is published by Duke University Press. Patterson Gives Papers on Zora Neale Hurston's Caribbean FolkloreMay 6, 2007Associate Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Ruby Patterson presented a talk on Zora Neale Hurston's Caribbean Folklore and her politics at two different events recently. She was the keynote speaker at the African American Studies Annual Spring Lecture Series in April at University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. Her paper was titled "What Haiti Meant to Zora Neale Hurston Politics." A revised version of this paper was delivered at the St. Lucie County's Zora Fest in Fort Pierce, Florida, on April 28. Patterson and Rutgers University Professor Cheryl Wall, a major authority on Hurston's literary work, were also interviewed for a documentary on Hurston's life and work. Lehman Lectures at Neurofest, Annual Meeting of Upstate New York Neuroscience CommunityMay 3, 2007Herm Lehman, associate professor of biology, presented a talk titled "Social regulation of neurotransmitter synthesis" at Neurofest, in Skanetateles, N.Y., in April. Neurofest is an annual meeting of the upstate New York neuroscience community that is attended by faculty and students from Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Lemoyne University, SUNY Cortland, University of Rochester and Hamilton College. His talk examined the social behavior of honey bees and how the manifestation of this social behavior is regulated by the synthesis of octopamine, a neurotransmitter in the bee brain. Guttman's Wet Apples, White Blood Reviewed in ForeWordMay 3, 2007Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman's new book of poems, Wet Apples White Blood (McGill-Queen's University Press), has been reviewed in ForeWord Magazine. Published six times a year, ForeWord showcases critical reviews of titles from independent book publishers. Newest Cambridge Companion Includes Chapter by KodatMay 2, 2007Associate Professor of English and American Studies Catherine Gunther Kodat contributed a chapter on the work of William Faulkner to the just-released Cambridge Companion to the Modernist Novel. Edited by Morag Shiach, professor of cultural history in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary, University of London, The Cambridge Companion to the Modernist Novel features essays on James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Wyndham Lewis, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Djuna Barnes, and Samuel Beckett, in addition to Kodat's chapter on Faulkner. Published by the U.K.'s Cambridge University Press, the Cambridge Companions are among the world's most highly-regarded guides to literature, featuring erudite yet accessible essays written by experts in the field. Shields Lectures at Vassar CollegeMay 2, 2007Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields presented a seminar at Vassar College on April 25, titled "Research on accurate pKa calculations, the role of water clusters in Atmospheric Chemistry, and the use of computational chemistry in Cancer Drug Design." He discussed the work that Hamilton students have done over the past few years, working with him and Karl Kirschner, co-Director of the Center for Molecular Design. Jin Participates in Less Commonly Taught Languages ConferenceApril 30, 2007Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin participated in the annual conference of National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL) in Madison, Wisc., in April. Currently the vice president of the council, Jin attended the executive board meeting and the assembly meeting with 14 member organizations representing more than 20 world languages. During the conference, she also chaired a workshop conducted by national experts on "National Foreign Language Standards and Performance Guidelines" and presented a research paper titled "Design curricular objectives for less commonly taught languages: a model based on learning outcomes." Guttman Participates in Blue Metropolis, International Literary FestivalApril 26, 2007Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman is participating in Blue Metropolis, an international literary festival, April 23-27 in Montreal, Quebec. She will take part in a Soiree de poesie, a Translation Slam, and will be giving an all-day poetry-writing workshop called, "Lyric Yoga." Ellingson Publishes The Megachurch and the MainlineApril 26, 2007The Megachurch and the Mainline: Cultural Innovation, Change, and Conflict in Mainline Protestant Congregations, a book written by Assistant Professor of Sociology Stephen Ellingson, will be in book stores on May 1. This examination of a religion in flux—one that speaks to the growing popularity of evangelicalism in America and to the broader pathways of religious change is published by the University of Chicago Press. More ...Greg Hartt '08 and Tim Evans '05 Publish Atmospheric Chemistry Paper with Kirschner and ShieldsApril 26, 2007Greg Hartt '08, Tim Evans '05, co-director of the Center for Molecular Design Karl Kirschner and Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields published an article titled "In Search of CS2(H2O)n=1-4 Clusters" in the April 21 issue of Journal of Chemical Physics. The research has potential impact for understanding the uncertainties in global warming. More ...Li Talk Webcast Today from Woodrow Wilson CenterApril 25, 2007Cheng Li, William R. Kenan Professor of Government and Brookings Institution Fellow, will be a participant in a forum titled "The Chinese Communist Party: Bent, But Not Broken" at the Woodrow Wilson Center. The forum will be Webcast live from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. today, April 25. Other participants include professors from George Washington University, University of Wisconsin and City University of New York Graduate Center and Queens College. More ...Berea College Hosts Muirhead ExhibitionApril 25, 2007Berea College hosted a one-person show, "Northern Climate, the Etchings of Bruce Muirhead," in the college's Upper Traylor Gallery. The show opened on March 2 and will close on Friday, April 27. The etchings of Professor of Art Muirhead are also the focus of"Robert Bruce Muirhead, Prints, 1969-2006, A Catalogue Raisonne," a book just published by the Amity Art Foundation. Yao Presents at American Comparative Literature Association meeting in Puebla, MexicoApril 25, 2007Associate Professor of English Steven Yao presented a paper titled "From the Language of Race to the Poetics of Ethnicity in the Rise of Asian American Verse," on April 22, at the annual conference for the American Comparative Literature Association, which was held in Puebla, Mexico. Yao is also a member of the advisory board for the organization, and currently the only member representing a liberal arts college. Ortabasi Presents at Kinema Club Annual ConferenceApril 25, 2007Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Melek Ortabasi presented a paper titled "Indexing the Past: Visual Language and Translatability in Kon Satoshi's Millennium Actress" at Kinema Club Conference VIII, the annual film conference for Japanese film studies on April 23. In the paper, Ortabasi questioned existing subtitling conventions, which have remained largely unchanged over the past 70 years. Using Kon's innovative animated film, Ortabasi proposed that audiovisual translation techniques should adapt to new technologies and changing viewing habits. The conference was held in Frankfurt, Germany, this year, in conjunction with the Nippon Connection film festival. Sharon Williams Presents at SUNY Writing Council ConferenceApril 24, 2007Sharon Williams, Writing Center director, presented a paper titled "A Longitudinal Study of Student Writing at a Liberal Arts College" at the annual conference of the SUNY Council of Writing, held in Albany on April 20-21. Friend Gives Paper at OxfordApril 24, 2007Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy Celeste Friend gave a paper at Oxford in April. The paper, "Sketching the History of the Contract: From Socrates to the Present" gave a general overview of both social contract theory through history and some of its recent critics. It was the first paper of a workshop, The Social Contract Revisited, sponsored by the Foundation for Law and Justice in Society, located at Wolfson College at the University of Oxford. Bayolo's Ludi Performed at the Library of CongressApril 24, 2007Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Armando Bayolo's string octet, Ludi, was presented by the Euclid and Degas Quartets at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on April 20. The work, which explores human relationships through the metaphor of musical games, received a standing ovation by the capacity crowd. Bayolo also led a panel discussion with members of the Euclid and Degas quartets addressing the work's themes and the process of bringing a new piece of music from commission to concept, grant writing and, finally, performance. More ... Burke Presents Paper in Puebla, MexicoApril 24, 2007Jessica Burke, assistant professor of Hispanic Studies, delivered a paper at the American Comparative Literature Association's annual meeting in Puebla, Mexico, April 19-22. The conference's theme was "Trans, Pan, Inter: Cultures in Contact" and Burke presented a paper titled "Fantasizing the Feminine: Sex and Gender in Donoso's El lugar sin límites and Puig's El beso de la mujer araña" as part of a seminar called "Changing the Name of the Game: Language, Translation and Gender." Rivera Presents at Mid-Atlantic Slavic ConferenceApril 23, 2007Assistant Professor of Government Sharon Werning Rivera presented a paper titled "Parliament as Teacher in Post-Communist Russia: Can Democracy be Learned?" at the Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, held at Barnard College in New York City on March 31. More ... Keating Delivers Paper at Northeast Anthropology AssociationApril 23, 2007Neal B. Keating, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, presented a paper titled "Toward a Genealogy of Iroquois Studies: Healing the Great Divide?" at the Northeast Anthropology Association meetings, at Ithaca College on April 21. The paper examined the discursive divide that has emerged in the field of Iroquois studies, between non-Native scholars of Iroquois life, and Native Iroquois/Haudenosaunee scholars, intellectuals and artists. More ... Paris Delivers Paper at Midwest Political Science AssociationApril 20, 2007David C. Paris, Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Government, presented a paper titled "'Market' and 'State' in Higher Education: A New 'Nation at Risk'?" at the Midwest Political Science Association, in Chicago on Friday, April 13. The Spellings Commission report, like "A Nation at Risk," emphasizes the economic threat of educational failures and offers policy responses to them. Paris' paper examined the claims of "market" and "state" on higher education, especially in light of the history of K-12 education reform. More ... Shields Lectures at Symposium Celebrating 100 Years of Chemistry at Georgia TechApril 19, 2007George Shields, the Winslow Professor of Chemistry, presented a lecture at his alma mater, Georgia Tech, on April 18-19, in conjunction with a symposium commemorating 100 years of chemistry there. Shields earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from Georgia Tech in 1981, a master's degree in 1983, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1986. He participated in events to inaugurate the Molecular Science and Engineering building, the new home for the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Shields was one of a dozen alumni invited to campus to present a lecture during the 100 year celebration. More ... Rubino Honors Former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes at Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign LanguagesApril 18, 2007Carl A. Rubino, the Edward North Professor of Classics and the current president of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, travelled to New York City on April 13 to speak in honor of former U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes at the annual meeting of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. More ... Thickstun Publishes Book, Milton's Paradise Lost: Moral EducationApril 18, 2007Margaret Thickstun, the Elizabeth J. McCormack Professor of English Literature at Hamilton, has published a new book, Milton's Paradise Lost: Moral Education (Palgrave Macmillan, April 17, 2007). More ... Chang Publishes Article in Biology DirectApril 16, 2007Wei-Jen Chang, assistant professor of biology, published work in the open-access journal Biology Direct. His article, titled "Intron Evolution and Information processing in the DNA polymerase alpha gene in spirotrichous ciliates: A hypothesis for interconversion between DNA and RNA deletion," is co-authored by scholars from Sweden and from Princeton University. Two former Princeton undergraduate students were also involved in this project, which used computer programs to help analyze empirical data. Murtaugh Artwork Featured in MagazineApril 16, 2007Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh has an installation titled "Breathe" featured in the Brooklyn-based magazine Artworld Digest. The magazine's mission is to promote and publish new and emerging artists as well as connect them to a global community of environmentally concerned citizens. First published in March of 2006, Artworld Digest is currently distributed in 400 stores around the United States, including The New Museum, PS1, and selected Barnes & Nobles around the country. Cannavo's Forthcoming Book Featured at MeetingApril 16, 2007Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Peter Cannavo's forthcoming book The Working Landscape: Founding, Preservation, and the Politics of Place (MIT Press, 2007) was one of the featured titles in a "New Books in Environmental Political Theory" panel at the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association. Cannavo presented the book, and it was reviewed - quite favorably - by the panel discussant. The meeting was held in March in Las Vegas. More ... Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz Presents at Classics Association MeetingApril 15, 2007Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, the Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Comparative Literature, presented a paper at the Classics Association meetings held April 12-15 in Birmingham, England. Rabinowitz's paper, titled "Looking at Women Looking in Tragedy," asks what women actually saw in ancient Athens—specifically, whether they watched tragedy and what they are represented as seeing in tragedy. Rabinowitz addressed the question of whether women's point of view can be said to offer a different focalization, or whether since it was constructed by a male author, it merely corroborates hegemonic thinking. Cafruny Presents at the British Political Science AssociationApril 13, 2007Alan Cafruny, Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs, presented a paper on the transatlantic dimensions of European integration at the University of Bath at the British Political Science Association on Friday, April 13. The paper was co-authored with Magnus Ryner. More ... De Swaan Presents at Visual Studies WorkshopApril 10, 2007Sylvia de Swaan presented a slide talk about her work at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, N.Y., on Wednesday April 4, as the community service component of her 2006 photography fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her presentation, which was free and open to the public, included selections from her work of the last 15 years. She placed special emphasis on her ongoing project "Sub-version," which on a range of contemporary issues - terror, surveillance, mass media, post millennial anxiety, dual realities, shadowy threats and ominous rumors. More ... MacDonald Presents at Colgate Lecture SeriesApril 10, 2007On Wednesday, April 4, Visiting Professor of Film History Scott MacDonald lectured at Colgate University as part of Colgate's Art and Art History Lecture Series. In his talk, "Aspects of a Critical Cinema," MacDonald explored some of the ways in which the varied experiences provided by avant-garde films offer critiques of the conventions of mass culture as these conventions are embodied in commercial media; create revealing avenues into essential elements of the cinematic apparatus (the set of machines and practices that make motion-picture media possible); and retrain perception, instigating new forms of engagement with the spaces and times of everyday experience. More ... Isserman Serves on Organization of American Historians PanelApril 10, 2007Professor of History Maurice Isserman was a panel member at a symposium noting the 25th anniversary of the publication of Cornell historian Nick Salvatore's prize-winning biography Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. The symposium was held on Friday, March 30, at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians (OAH), held this year in Minneapolis. Isserman argued that Salvatore's interpretation of Debs was shaped by a "Sixties prism," emphasizing Debs' radical individualism rather than his role as a proponent of the class struggle. Nesecan Balkan Conducts Research in El SalvadorApril 10, 2007Economics lecturer Nesecan Balkan and Gwyn Kirk, a former Jane Watson Irwin Chair in Women's Studies (1999 – 2001), traveled in El Salvador during spring break to observe sustainability projects. They are researching sustainable development in Central America with a focus on El Salvador, a country characterized by great inequality, legacies of colonization, militarism and war; environmental devastation; and the privatization of resources, especially water. More ... Keller Lectures at George Mason UniversityApril 9, 2007Associate Professor of History Shoshana Keller gave a lecture at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., on March 29. She was invited by their Central Asian Studies and History programs, and spoke on "Story, Time and Dependent Nationhood in the Uzbek History Curriculum," concerning the creation and teaching of a narrative of Uzbek history to schoolchildren. Adair Lectures at LeMoyne College and Alfred UniversityApril 9, 2007Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies, gave two recent lectures. She spoke at LeMoyne College on March 8 and Alfred University on April 2. Both lectures were titled "Poverty, Higher Education and the Politics of Representation" and were presented in conjunction with a photography exhibit, "The Missing Story of Ourselves: Poverty and the Promise of Higher Education." Jin Awarded Department of Education Grant to Fund Post Study Abroad Program in ChinaApril 6, 2007Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin has been awarded an $80,000 grant from the Department of Education's Fulbright Hayes Group Project Abroad program for her proposal "ACC Post Study Abroad Field Experience Program for U.S. Undergraduate Students." The project will provide 12 nationally selected students, who have already completed a term or more of a study abroad program in China, with the opportunity to participate in a language-intensive and experience-based language/culture internship in China for seven weeks in the summer of 2007. More ... Guttman to Give Reading at St. Lawrence UniversityApril 4, 2007Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman will speak and read from recent works in an appearance at St. Lawrence University on Thursday, April 5, at 8 p.m. in the Sykes Common Room, as part of the University's Writers Series. More ... Xu Elected to Post in Chinese Language OrganizationApril 3, 2007Professor of Chinese De Bao Xu was elected to the executive committee of the Association of Modernization for Chinese Language Education (AMCLE). AMCLE is the world largest association for Chinese language education, headquartered in Beijing and Hong Kong. It hosts a biennial international conference on modern Chinese language education ICNTTLC. Its members are from China, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. Xu was the keynote speaker of ICNTTLC5 (the fifth International Conference on New Technologies in Teaching and Learning Chinese) hosted by City University of Hong Kong, July 19-22, 2006. The title of his speech was "Multimedia Instruction: Reasons, History, Current Situation, and Future." Chambliss Participates in National Higher Education Summit Convened by Secretary SpellingsApril 3, 2007Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology Dan Chambliss was a participant in the "Test of Leadership" Higher Education Summit convened in March by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in Washington D.C., comprising 300 college presidents, business leaders, and education activists and policy makers from around the country. Chambliss was one of only three teaching professors in attendance, according to the Inside Higher Education Web site. Chambliss also was a keynote speaker at the Higher Education Data Consortium winter conference in Santa Fe, N.M., where he spoke on "Lessons from the Mellon Assessment Project at Hamilton College." The Beverly S. and Eugene M. Tobin Employee Awards AnnouncedApril 3, 2007Nominations are now being sought for The Beverly S. and Eugene M. Tobin Employee Awards, an annual recognition for Hamilton College administrators, staff and maintenance and operations workers. More ... Wilson Lectures at Mellon Seminar on ConfuciusApril 2, 2007Professor of History Thomas Wilson gave an invited talk titled "Confucius on gods" to the Mellon Seminar on Confucius at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, on February 23. He also presented a paper titled "Imperial and Ancestral Sacrifices to Confucius" at the Association for Asian Studies annual conference in Boston on March 21. Wilson organized the panel, titled, "Ritualizing Imperial Authority in the Ming and Qing." Omori Presents at Association for Asian Studies MeetingMarch 30, 2007Assistant Professor of Japanese Kyoko Omori presented at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Boston (March 22-15). Her talk was titled "Narrating the Detective: Nansensu and Formulaic Inversion in Absurdist Detective Fiction of Tokugawa Musei," and it discussed how Tokugawa Musei (1894-1971), arguably the most famous benshi or silent film narrator/commentator in Japan, undermined conventions of detective fiction to show the limitations of literary form by adapting the narrative techniques of benshi into writing fiction. Brewer Presents at American Chemical Society MeetingMarch 30, 2007Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer presented at the 233rd American Chemical Society National Meeting in Chicago (Feb. 26–29) at the Division of Chemical Education Poster Session. Professor Brewer's poster titled "Materials Chemistry Projects in Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry" presented the implementation of multi-week projects in the laboratory program for the spring semester course Inorganic and Materials Chemistry 265. More ... Rosmaita Promotes Service Learning and AccessibilityMarch 30, 2007Brian Rosmaita, assistant professor of computer science, presented "Making Service Learning Accessible to Computer Scientists" at the Association for Computing Machinery SIGCSE 2007 Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, held in Covington, Ky., March 7-10. In his paper, published in the conference proceedings, Rosmaita contends that service learning can play an important role in computer science education. More ... Boutin Publishes Research ArticleMarch 30, 2007Associate Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin recently published a research article "Structure and Properties of Locally Outerplanar Graphs" in the Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing. Boutin's paper investigates graphs (network diagrams) that can be drawn in the plane with their vertices on a circle and which contain no short self-intersecting path. More ... McCormick Co-organizer for International Symposium at American Chemical Society MeetingMarch 29, 2007Assistant Professor of Biology Mike McCormick co-organized and presided over a symposium at the American Chemical Society meeting in Chicago during March. The symposium titled "Abiotic and Biotic Factors Affecting Contaminant Fate at Iron Oxide Surfaces," was organized in collaboration with Dr. Ed O'Loughlin of Argonne National Lab and Assistant Professor Dan Giammar at Washington University in St. Louis. More ... Rowe Contributes Article to Stone Canoe JournalMarch 28, 2007Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive, contributed an article to Stone Canoe Journal from Syracuse University. His article, "Long As the Music Plays" deals with jazz and race. Stone Canoe, a journal of arts and ideas from Upstate New York, is published annually, each spring, by University College of Syracuse University. Robert Colley '66 is the founder and editor of the journal and John von Bergen '63 is also featured in this issue. More ... Oerlemans Publishes Two ArticlesMarch 27, 2007Associate Professor of English Onno Oerlemans has seen two essays appear in print this month. "A Defense of Anthropomorphism: Comparing Coetzee and Gowdy" appears in "Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature," and "Romanticism and the City: Toward a Green Architecture" is published in "Coming into Contact: Explorations in Ecocritical Theory and Practice" (University of Georgia Press). The first essay compares strategies for the representation of animals in novels by J.M. Coetzee and Barbara Gowdy, while the second examines attitudes towards urban landscape in British Romantic writing. Hamessley Publishes Chapter in Book About Folksinger Peggy SeegerMarch 27, 2007Associate Professor of Music Lydia Hamessley has published a chapter, "Peggy Seeger: From Traditional Folksinger to Contemporary Songwriter," in Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in Twentieth-Century American Music, Ray Allen & Ellie M. Hisama, eds. (University of Rochester Press, 2007). More ... Guttman Publishes Book of PoetryMarch 26, 2007Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman has published a book of poetry, Wet Apples, White Blood (McGill-Queen's University Press). More ... Shields Lectures at Brown UniversityMarch 24, 2007Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields presented a seminar to the chemistry department at Brown University on March 22. The title of his talk was "Working with Undergraduates on Research: Cancer Drug Design and Modeling Atmospheric Chemistry Processes with Computational Methods." His lecture highlighted the work that he and Karl Kirschner, co-director of the Center for Molecular Design, have carried out with Hamilton students over the past few years. More ... Savas Publishes Paper in Asian Theatre JournalMarch 24, 2007Visiting Instructor of East Asian Lauguages and Literatures Minae Yamamoto Savas wrote an article for Asian Theatre Journal (vol. 24, Spring 2007). The article, "Oko Sako (Oko and Sako): Wawashii Woman in the Kyôgen Oko and Sako" was edited by Jonah Salz and Julie Lezzi, University of Hawai'i Press. Peter Rabinowitz Gives Talk at International Conference on NarrativeMarch 23, 2007Professor of Comparative Literature Peter Rabinowitz gave a paper titled "'You May Be Surprised to Receive My Letter': Toward a Narratology of Scambaiting" on March 16 at the International Conference on Narrative in Washington D.C. Scambaiting is a sport that turns the tables on e-mail scammers: on receiving a scam letter, the baiter assumes a fake identity, writes back, and strings the scammers along for as long as possible with the double intention of wasting their time and of generating an interesting narrative. Rabinowitz's paper explored the complex rhetorical structure of these narratives and showed how they challenge some of the common assumptions of narrative theory--in particular, how they trouble the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. Major Publishes Article in Journal of Mathematical PhysicsMarch 21, 2007Associate Professor of Physics Seth Major has published an article he co-wrote in Journal of Mathematical Physics (Vol.48, No.3). Major's article, "On recovering continuum topology from a causal set," was written with Sumati Surya (Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India) and David Rideout (formerly of Hamilton College now at Imperial College, London). More ... Book About Muirhead's Etchings PublishedMarch 20, 2007The Amity Art Foundation of Connecticut has published a book about Professor of Art Bruce Muirhead's etchings. The book, "Robert Bruce Muirhead, Prints, 1969-2006, A Catalogue Raisonne," contains 130 illustrations of his etchings, most done while teaching at Kirkland and Hamilton. More ... Hind '80 Named Hamilton College Athletic DirectorMarch 20, 2007Jon Hind '80, associate athletic director for operations at Butler University, has been named director of athletics at Hamilton College. More ... Shields Presents Seminar at Middlebury CollegeMarch 19, 2007Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields presented a seminar, "Computational Design and Experimental Discovery of an Anti-estrogenic Peptide Derived from Alpha-Fetoprotein," to an audience of 60 faculty and students in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Middlebury College on March 16. His lecture highlighted the work that he and Karl Kirschner, co-director of the Center for Molecular Design, have carried out with Hamilton students over the past few years. More ... Armando Bayolo's Great Noise Ensemble Nominated for Best New Artist of the Year by Washington Area Music AssociationMarch 19, 2007The Great Noise Ensemble, a group specializing in the performance of contemporary concert music founded and directed by Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Armando Bayolo was recently nominated as "Best New Artist of the Year" by the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA). The Great Noise Ensemble, which is in its second season, was the only classical ensemble nominated in the Best New Artist category in 2006. More ... Williams Awarded Career Enhancement FellowshipMarch 16, 2007Chad Williams, assistant professor of history, has been awarded a 2007 Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The fellowship, granted yearly, supports the scholarly research, writing, and intellectual development of underrepresented faculty in the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences in order to improve their success in attaining tenure. Williams will use the fellowship to complete his book on African American soldiers and the First World War, as well as begin research on a future project. Four Faculty Members Awarded TenureMarch 16, 2007Four Hamilton College faculty members were approved for tenure by the college's board of trustees during their recent meeting. The Board granted tenure to Jennifer Borton, psychology; Michelle LeMasurier, mathematics; Onno Oerlemans, English; and Tiffany Patterson, Africana Studies. More ... Gilbert Publishes New Book, Mexico's Middle Class in the Neoliberal EraMarch 15, 2007Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert is the author of a new book, Mexico's Middle Class in the Neoliberal Era (The University of Arizona Press, March, 2007). Gilbert who joined the Hamilton faculty in 1976 and is currently chair of the Sociology Department, earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Cornell University. His primary research interests are Latin American and American class system. He is also the author of Sandinistas: the Party and the Revolution (1988) and The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality (2003). More ... Kodat Publishes Article on Faulkner and Godard in Blackwell Companion to William FaulknerMarch 14, 2007Associate Professor of English and American Studies Catherine Gunther Kodat contributed an essay to Blackwell Publishing's recently-released A Companion to William Faulkner. Titled " 'C'est Vraiment Dégueulasse': Meaning and Ending in A bout de souffle and If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem," Kodat's essay discusses the long-recognized influence Faulkner's narrative structures had on mid-20th century cinema, and in particular on the early work of the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. More ... Pearle Publishes PaperMarch 9, 2007Physics Professor Emeritus Philip Pearle has published a paper titled "How Stands Collapse I," in the Journal of Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 (2007) 3189-3204. In this work, he reviews the current status of a theory called "dynamical wave function collapse," begun by him in the 1970s, which since then has been developed significantly by others as well as himself. It changes standard quantum theory, which may be thought of as describing a collection of identical systems, enabling it to describe an individual system's behavior. He presents 10 problems raised by his initial theory, and shows how five of them were overcome. In a future paper, to be published in a volume honoring the physicist-philosopher Abner Shimony, he discusses the the other five problems, some of which have also achieved a resolution. Rubino Contributes Chapter to BookMarch 5, 2007Carl A. Rubino, the Edward North Professor of Classics, has published a chapter titled "The Consolations of Uncertainty: Time, Change, and Complexity" in Reframing Complexity: Perspectives from the North and South, a book edited by Fritjof Capra, Alicia Juarrero, Pedro Sotolongo, and Jacco van Uden (ISCE Publishing, 2007). The book includes essays by scientists and philosophers from the US, Europe, and Latin America. Rubino's essay reflects his long-time collaboration with the Belgian scientist Ilya Prigogine, who received the Nobel Prize in 1977. Omori Presents in Kyoto, JapanMarch 2, 2007Kyoko Omori, assistant professor of Japanese, gave a talk in the Nichibunken Evening Seminar in Kyoto, Japan, on March 1. The title of her talk was "The Art of the Bluff Among Japanese Migrants: Popular Literary Modernism in the 1920s." The Nichibunken Evening Seminar provides an English-language forum at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in which visiting research scholars, visiting research fellows, faculty members, graduate students, and other guests can discuss current research on Japan. Meetings are held approximately 10 times a year; the March 2007 Evening Seminar was the 117th in the series. In keeping with the interdisciplinary character of this Center, speakers and audience members offer distinctive perspectives from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Li Presents on Both CoastsMarch 2, 2007William R. Kenan Professor of Government Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has made several presentations recently, traveling across the country to various venues. On Feb. 23, Li spoke at Florida Gulf Coast University on the school's public radio atation, WGCU. He addressed the complex issues facing China now and in the future. On Feb. 27, Li traveled to Naples, Florida, to present two talks to 1,500 enthusiastic members of the Naples Council on World Affairs. More ... Hamilton Students, Alumnae and Faculty Well-Represented at Sanibel SymposiumMarch 2, 2007Five current Hamilton students, two alumnae, and two professors attended the 47th Sanibel Symposium from February 22-27. Marco Allodi, '08, a chemical physics major, and Jovan Livada, '08, a chemistry major, won the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation awards. More ... |
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