Hamilton in the News

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.

Works from Hamilton’s art collection that were recently on view at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice are now part of an exhibition at Tate Britain in London.  The Emerson Gallery lent four paintings by English artist Dorothy Shakespear (1886-1973), wife of Ezra Pound, Class of 1905, to the exhibition, the first attempt to recreate the three Vorticist exhibitions mounted during World War I in London and New York. Two of the Hamilton works have been prominently featured on the BBC’s website and other English media outlets as well as in marketing materials.

 “When you are totally dependent on local intelligence organizations, you tend to protect them,” said Ned Walker, the Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Global Political Theory and former ambassador to Egypt and Israel. Walker was quoted in a June 12 Newsweek  article titled “Intelligence Test” that also appeared on The Daily Beast website. The article detailed the challenges currently being experienced by U.S. intelligence networks due to the upheaval in the Middle East.

An interview with Katharine Kuharic, the Kevin Kennedy Associate Professor of Art, appears in the May/June issue of Artillery magazine. Written by Hamilton Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Christopher Russell, the piece appears under the publication’s “Studio Visit” column. Kuharic’s work is currently included in a group show titled Cinematic Bodies at the Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago.

University Business magazine featured an opinion piece written by President Joan Hinde Stewart in the Viewpoint section of its May issue. In “Becoming Need-Blind in an Environment of Need: How one institution has made it work,” Stewart discussed how Hamilton is ensuring access, “a deeply held principle at an institution where six of nine senior staff members were the first in their family to attend college.”  She explained the College’s decisions to eliminate merit aid and to adopt a need-blind policy in admission, examples of Hamilton’s commitment to this principle as well as its willingness to make changes counter to current trends in higher education.