What to Do - Hill Stops - Hamilton College

More than 100 experts, performers, writers, and artists visit Hamilton each year — and that’s in addition to the dozens of alumni who return to offer students career-related advice. To give you an idea of the breadth and variety of topics covered by campus guests, here’s a sampling from 2025-26.

Maryam Banikarim, Emmy Award-winning storyteller and host of The Messy Parts Podcast • Delivered Hamilton’s Baccalaureate address

John Bare, the Charles Shaffer Distinguished Fellow and Professor of Practice in Philanthropy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • “Philanthropy and Civil Rights Funding: Navigating Elites vs. Streets”

Writer, cartoonist, and educator Lynda Barry • Tolles Lecture that addressed her work, teaching, and the question of “What is an image?”

David Blight, the Sterling Professor of History, African American Studies, and American Studies at Yale University; Lucas Morel, the Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and Politics at Washington and Lee University; and moderator Nina Moore, the Dr. William L. Boyle, Jr. Professor in Political Science at Colgate University • Common Ground panel discussion, “The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence from 1776 to 2026”

Lois Brown, Foundation Professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, Arizona State University • “Civic Genealogies of Place, Race, Exile and Belonging”

Former Representatives Matt Cartwright ’83 (D-PA) and Tom Rice (R-SC) with moderator Dave Chanatry ’80, former journalist and professor emeritus at Utica University • Common Ground panel discussion, “Capitol Under Assault: Members of Congress Reflect on January 6, 2021”

Kobie Colemon, author, professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College, and classes and curriculum lead for the NYC Climate Justice Hub • “Anti-Black Racism, Violence, and Black Ecologies”

Award-winning chef and chocolatier Stephen Durfee ’85 • Delivered Hamilton’s Commencement address

New York Times bestselling author Bart Ehrman • “Love Thy Stranger,” on the influence of Christianity on the western moral imagination.

Alyce Englund, curator of American decorative arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art • “The American Wing at 100”

Indie guitar band Frog • Performance sponsored by WHCL

William Hill, former ambassador and head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Moldova • “The Russia-Ukraine War in a World of Global Disorder”

Jymm Hoffman of Hoffman’s Forge, Barnesville, Ohio • Blacksmith demonstration Rob Lester, associate professor of economics, Colby College • “Crate or Crib? Some Economics of Pet Ownership” as part of the Colgate-Hamilton Seminar Series

Damon Linker, author and senior lecturer in political science, University of Pennsylvania • “The Religious Right in the Time of Donald Trump”

Architect Farzin Lotfi-Jam, who leads an interdisciplinary design studio that works across architecture, urbanism, computation, and media • “Real Time: The Imperial Architecture of Now”

David Mandiyanike, senior lecturer in political & administrative studies, University of Botswana • “Lessons from Botswana’s Peaceful Transfer of Power — From Dominance to Alternation: Rethinking Party Hegemony and Democratic Resilience in Africa”

Heather Masson-Forsythe, founder of Communitique, a meet-up app for donating and swapping clothes locally • “Fashion as Activism: How Centering Local Communities Can Drive a Global Movement Toward Circular and Sustainable Fashion Future”

Edward McArdle, J.D., clinical assistant professor of bioethics and humanities, SUNY Upstate Medical University • “The Medical Aid in Dying Act: Insights from the New York State Bar Association Task Force Process

Lillia McEnaney ’17, assistant professor of museum studies, Institute of American Indian Arts, and Jennifer Denetdale, professor and chair of American studies, University of New Mexico • “Archives, Storytelling, and Curatorial Methodologies: The Intersecting Legacies of Photography and Federal Livestock Reduction Policies Across Diné Bikéyah”

Suzanne Mettler, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University • “Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy”

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator, composer, and original star of the Broadway musical Hamilton • Addressed more than 5,000 guests in the Scott Field House for a moderated Q&A as part of Hamilton’s Sacerdote Great Names Series

Christopher K. Morgan and Artists • Performance “Native Intelligence/Innate Intelligence” as part of Hamilton’s Performing Arts Series

Robert Morrison, professor of religion and Middle Eastern and North African studies, Bowdoin College • Pre-Modern Jews on the Move Between East and West”

Grammy, Emmy, and Peabody Award winning jazz artist Endea Owens and band The Cookout • Performance as part of Hamilton’s Performing Arts Series

Desirée Plata, associate professor of civil & environmental engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology • Morris Fellow Lecture, “Climate Optimism: Developing Technologies for a Restorative Economy”

Author Robert V.S. Redick • “Fantasy & SF: Nurturing Your Vision, Nurturing Your Craft” as part of Hamilton’s Visiting Writers Series

Robbie Rioux ’21, doctoral student, Yale School of the Environment • “Can Enhanced Rock Weathering Deliver? What Watersheds Teach Us About Its Climate Potential”

Laurie Santos, the Chandrika & Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology, Yale University • Plant Lecture, “Psychology and the Good Life”

Max Schnidman ’14, senior researcher, Office of the Chief Economist at Microsoft • Playing to the Algorithm: How Spotify’s Recommendations Shape Music Production” as part of the Colgate-Hamilton Seminar Series

Robert Spoo, the Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters, Princeton University • “Ezra Pound’s Cantos, Literary Piracy, and Marital Monopoly”

James Steiner, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics • “X-Raying Black Hole Microquasar Systems”

Maya Taliaferro ’21, Ph.D. student in cognition and perception, New York University • “The Complicit, the Invisible, and the Forgotten: Critically Integrating Intersectionality into the Psychology of Intraminority Solidarity” and Minh Duc Pham ’21, post-doc fellow, Columbia University • “Blended Conceptual Representation in Bilinguals Suggest a Shared System at the Semantic Level” both as part of Hamilton’s Alumni Research Talks series

SherAli Tareen, professor of religious studies, Franklin & Marshall College • “Transnational Pasts and Futures: Islam and Socialism in the Twentieth Century”

Film scholar and video essayist Max Tohline • “Through the Keyhole: The Cinematic Background of AI” as part of Hamilton’s F.I.L.M. Series

Qiu Wang, professor of chemistry, Duke University • “New Chemical Methods and Strategies for Molecular Imaging — New Roles of Aza-Heterocycles as Imaging Agents”

John Warner, Chicago Tribune columnist and author • “Thinking & Learning in the Age of AI” Lucan Way, Distinguished Professor of Democracy, University of Toronto • Constitution Day lecture, “The Great Abdication: America’s Descent into Authoritarianism and How to Reverse It”

Sara Weinstein ’02, founder and partner, WCPG, an agency that works with global nonprofits, brands, and talent to grow charitable causes • “The Business of Doing Good,” her kickoff talk as a Hamilton Career Center employer-in-residence

Meghan Woolley ’13, assistant professor of history, Idaho State University • “Love in the Legal Revolution of the Twelfth Century”

Great Names

Sacerdote Series

The Sacerdote Series is named in recognition of a significant gift from the family of Alex Sacerdote, a 1994 Hamilton graduate. Other speakers in the series have included President Barack Obama, Venus Williams, Tina Fey, Aretha Franklin, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Derek Jeter, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Jon Stewart, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lady Margaret Thatcher, Susan Rice, F.W. deKlerk, and David Cameron.

About the Series