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Professor of Chemistry George Shields, Matthew D. Liptak '03 and Dreyfus Fellow Steve Feldgus presented a poster, "Absolute pKa Determinations for Protonated Nitrogen Compounds," at the Pfizer Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, held in Groton, Conn. In addition, Shields gave a lecture titled "Basic Research and Drug Design: Computational Chemistry at Hamilton College" at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Associate Professor of Spanish and Women's Studies Susan Sanchez-Casal presented a paper at the Puerto Rican Studies Association in Chicago, in early October. The paper was titled "Abraham Rodriguez's Spidertown: Repositioning Race and Gender in the Internal Colony." October 17-20, with her book co-author Amie Macdonald, Sanchez-Casal headed a panel dedicated to critical anthology 21st Century Feminist Classrooms: Pedagogies of Identity and Difference (2002) at the University of Michigan conference "Redefining Identity Politics-Internationalism, Feminism, Multiculturalism." The panel was focused on the theoretical introduction of Sanchez-Casal's book, "The Pedagogical Relevance of Identity." This conference was the fourth in an ongoing series of bicoastal conferences.

Professor of Government Cheng Li will speak on "China's Road Ahead: Will the New Leaders Make a Difference?" at The Maxwell School of Syracuse University on Thursday, Oct. 17, 4-6 p.m. in 220 Eggers Hall.

Maurice Isserman, William R. Kenan Professor of History, was interviewed for a Voice of America story on the discussion about war with Iraq. Isserman drew comparisons between current anti-war sentiment and the anti-war movement of the sixties.

Genetics published an article this month by Visiting Instructor of Biology Astrid H. Helfant titled "Mutational analysis reveals a role for the C terminus of the proteasome subunit Rpt4p in spindle pole body duplication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae."

Associate Professor of Chinese De Bao Xu and Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin published two books, Crossing Paths: Living and Learning in China, and Shifting Tides: Culture in Contemporary China, Cheng & Tsui Company, Boston, 2002. In addition, Xu's talk "Pedagogical Issues in Teaching Classical Chinese" was selected in the proceedings of "Reflecting on the Future of Chinese Language Pedagogy: A Conference Honoring the 40-year Career of Professor George Chih-ch'ao Chao", that was held at University of Chicago, Oct. 11.

Professor of Government and China expert Cheng Li was quoted in a Reuters article about how the children of Chinese leaders today are different from their predecessors because they are avoiding the political spotlight. They were once assured tickets to power and riches, which changed after a series of scandals in the 1990s that sparked a crackdown on corruption. The children had come of age amid unprecedented economic reform that saw them put in control of key industries and deep pools of public fund with little oversight. “Public resistance to, and the institutional restraints on, tazai [the children], mishu (personal assistants) and other personal networks has been stronger than ever during the past few years,” Li said. The children of the political elite and their spouses had incomes as high as 120 times the national average with 78 percent of them suspects in fraud cases involving more than five million yuan.

The rhetoric employed in the Congressional debate over the Iraq resolution has been long on historical precedent, and short on historical context. Maurice Isserman, William R. Kenan Professor of History at Hamilton College, says, "To justify the unprecedented policy of preemptive attack, supporters of the Bush administration's resolution have frequently cited the examples of Winston Churchill in the 1930s, and John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. These are, at best, misleading historical analogies."

U.S. citizens have been living in fear since the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and the newest rein of terror, D.C.’s sniper, has generated increased fear for personal safety. Douglas Raybeck, professor of anthropology, says, “While this sniper may have nothing to do with Islamic extremists, he is playing upon similar fears and upon a context of significant unease. His acts are terrifying: he is a terrorist."

Author and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich gave the Winton Tolles Lecture to a filled Chapel made up of both Hamilton and area-community members. Ehrenreich is the author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Metropolitan Books, 2001) which is an assigned reading in more than eight Hamilton classes this semester.