Hamilton in the News

Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert was a guest on the Connecticut Public Radio (WNPR) morning call-in show “Where We Live” on Aug. 28.  He was part of a conversation on the middle class. Participants discussed political candidates’ views on the middle class as well as how it’s defined and how politicians use the term. Gilbert is the author of The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality.

National Public Radio science reporter Richard Harris interviewed Eugene Domack, the Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences, for a segment on All Things Considered on Aug. 22 titled “Humans’ Role In Antarctic Ice Melt Is Unclear.”  Domack’s research, published in the journal Nature in 2005, provided evidence that the break-up of Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf was caused by a combination of long-term thinning over thousands of years and short term cumulative increases in surface air temperature that have exceeded the natural variation of regional climate during the Holocene period.

An article on The Washington Post website titled “Atheists find a new venue for the godless: on film,” and released by the Religion News Service, quoted Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate.  “An independent faith film festival will create film fests for similar reasons — to be with other, like-minded people, to laugh together and cry together and think together,” Plate said in the article that focused on the San Francisco-based, annual Atheist Film Festival. Published on Aug. 17, the article also appeared on the The Times-Picayune site.

In an  essay in Inside Higher Ed titled “Change,” President Joan Hinde Stewart began with a reference to the recent leadership upheaval at the University of Virginia.  Published on August 16, the article  addressed how college presidents might consider their decision-making processes in making institutional changes.  Stewart included advice she offered in an invited presentation at the Mellon Foundation to new college presidents. She suggested to her new colleagues that they should first “identify those things that they would not alter.”

In a Huffington Post article titled “Why the Ryan Pick Fizzled,” Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, discussed why assumed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s selection of U.S. Representative Paul Ryan as his vice president nominee didn't generate an overwhelmingly positive response among voters.

Opening with a discussion of Mr. Rogers' metaphor of the mind as a garden and lyrics from one of his songs on the importance of curiosity, President Joan Hinde Stewart addressed the purpose of education in her most recent Huffington Post blog. In “Minds and Gardens,” posted on Aug. 8, Stewart wrote, “Those who see the value of college in the amount of money a graduate earns miss a fundamental point: The purpose of an education is not simply to make a better living but, by enlivening the mind, to make a life worth living.

Daniel O’Kelly’s article titled “4 study abroad hurdles” appeared on the USA Today College site on Aug. 6. O’Kelly ’14 is interning this summer with the Study Abroad Team at Go Overseas and plans to study abroad in Paris this fall. In his article, O’Kelly addressed the fears and concerns that sometimes stop students from considering studying in another country.

Tyler Roberts ’12 was interviewed for a Wall Street Journal article “More Law Schools Haggle on Scholarships” (7/29/12). The piece describes how as the number of law school applicants has declined, some schools are negotiating scholarships and bargaining with prospective students while other schools don’t need to.

In an essay titled “What Would Jean Valjean Do?” and published on the Huffington Post, President Joan Hinde Stewart discussed “the transforming potential of individual example and community action” and “the redeeming value of great models, whether literary or historical.” Stewart employed Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and the author’s protagonist, Jean Valjean, as examples to illustrate these themes and to demonstrate how literary works from centuries past have relevance in today’s society.

Ann Owen, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics, was interviewed for a Wall Street Journal MarketWatch article titled “One Fed tool that gives Wall Street heartburn.” The piece addressed a desire by some to reduce the interest rates paid to banks for reserves they leave at the Federal Reserve.