Hamilton in the News

David Bell, senior associate director of the career center, was quoted in a July 28 Washington Post article focused on the important role played by funded internships in offering college students career-related summer job experience. Hamilton was included among the colleges that offer funding to support student interns in unpaid positions.

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in Albany will feature a reading by Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate on Friday, July 29, as part of the public radio station’s Academic Minute. Plate’s topic explores the point at which art becomes blasphemy. Plate was last heard on the program in December 2010 when he discussed the persistence of myth.

An article appearing on The New York Times’ The Choice blog announced a forthcoming article in the Times Sunday Education Life section for which Jeannine Murtaugh, assistant director of the career center, was interviewed. “The Next Gate” addresses the graduate school admission process and includes interviews with admission representatives from graduate programs at Yale University, University of California (Berkeley) and University of Texas as well as with Murtaugh.

Hamilton’s Jazz Archive was the source for a story about Duke Ellington that appeared on NPR’s A Blog Supreme on July 18. “Duke Ellington Has His Way” tells the story of how Ellington “poached” trumpeter Clark Terry from Count Basie. The article credits the jazz archive and Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive and Lecturer in Music Performance.

Aside from the summer blockbusters like Bridesmaids, Hangover Pt 2, and Transformers, a few smaller scale films have been making the rounds, stirring up chatter in cinema lobbies and on the Internet. Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate has commented and been quoted on a couple of these films on CNN.com and other online outlets.

A National Post (Toronto) article about a Canadian’s rescue of an abandoned and ill Pakistani porter on a Himalayan mountain included the comments of Maurice Isserman, the James L. Ferguson Professor of History. The co-author of Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, Isserman discussed the shift in attitudes among some mountain climbers

In advance of the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s appearance before the House Financial Services Committee today, Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics Ann Owen discussed the state of the economy, the European debt crisis and public expectations related to his testimony with American Public Media’s Marketplace reporter David Gura. The segment, titled “Bernanke heads to Capitol Hill,” was broadcast on July 13 on Marketplace Morning Report.

“This is the first time we have the data that we can analyze statistically that shows there’s a downward trend [in monarch butterfly populations],” said Professor of Biology Ernest H. Williams in a July 11 New York Times article titled “In Midwest, Flutters May Be Far Fewer.” Williams is the co-author of “Decline of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico: is the migratory phenomenon at risk?” recently published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity.

In an opinion piece in the Naples Daily News titled "Land Bought By the Gallon? Today Not So Much," rising senior Glenn Watkins wrote about the environmental crisis unfolding in Florida and specifically the Everglades. A volunteer for the Everglades Foundation in Miami, Watkins described how “the restoration of the Everglades is not just about restoring an ecosystem, but it’s also an economic development and economic security project. South Florida’s ability to foster economic growth and create jobs hinges on the success or failure of protecting and enhancing our water supply.”

A book review written by Maurice Isserman, the James L. Ferguson Professor of History, appeared in The New York Times Book Review on June 19. In “Life of a Psychohistorian,” Isserman provided an overview of the life of Robert Jay Lifton and a review of Lifton’s autobiography, A Witness to an Extreme Century.