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Students participating in the Hamilton Program in Washington recently toured the Pentagon, led by Hamilton alumnus Brian Burns ’03 who works at the Department of Defense. Created in 1969, the Hamilton Program in Washington provides a combination of academic study and experience in national government. The students in the program conduct research and attend two seminars led by a resident member of Hamilton’s government department, and at the same time are working full time in congressional or executive offices. Students also participate in other activities, such as the Pentagon tour, that help them gain insight into a career in Washington.

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields presented a seminar for Ithaca College's Department of Chemistry on November 15. His lecture, titled "Water Clusters in the Atmosphere: An Overview of Computational Chemistry Research at Hamilton College," featured the atmospheric chemistry work of his students Emma Pokon '04, Tim Evans '05, Frank Pickard '05 and Goldwater Scholars Matt Liptak '03, Meghan Dunn '06 and Mary Beth Day '07. In addition Shields briefly reviewed the biochemical research of Sarah Taylor '03, Damien Ellens '03, Lorena Hernandez '03, Abby Markeson '04, Katrina Lexa '05, Karilyn Larkin '06, Valery Danilack '06, Matroner George '07, Sarah Felder '07, Amanda Salisburg '08 and Amy Barrows '08. Research progress in computational chemistry has been greatly enhanced by the ongoing work and contributions of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner and System Administrator Steve Young.

Houston Baker, the Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer Arts and Sciences Professor of English and Professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University, gave a presentation drawn from his book, The Betrayal of the Black Intellectuals, on Nov. 14.

Loretta Napoleoni, advisor to the Department of Homeland Security on matters of terrorism financing and the author of numerous articles and books, notably Terrorism Inc. (2003) and Insurgent Iraq (2005), spoke at Hamilton College on November 7. Napoleoni’s talk, titled “Who is financing global terror networks?,” focused on the economics of terrorism.

Jan Mazurek, director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Environmental Policy Program, gave a lecture titled “Public Policy Responses to Global Warming” on November 2 as part of the Levitt Center series “Responsibilities of a Superpower.” Mazurek discussed the United States government’s reaction to the threat of global warming and possible programs to implement in response.

Constantine “Dean” Kokkoris will give a lecture titled “Seeking Accountability from a Superpower: Agent Orange, Vietnam, and the New York Courts” on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Red Pit. Kokkoris represents the Vietnam Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin Association in a lawsuit against U.S. companies that, during the war in Vietnam, supplied chemicals that devastated 10% of the land of the former South Vietnam and left lasting consequences for human health and the environment. This lecture is sponsored by The Levitt Center.

Katha Pollit, writer and columnist for The Nation, read from her work at Hamilton on October 25. The event, titled “Writing Memoir,” was sponsored by the Writing Center and was part of the Writers on Writing series.

On October 24 the Levitt Center sponsored a talk by John Berry, psychology professor emeritus of Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. Berry discussed the results of a recent large-scale study in a presentation titled “Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures.”

Barbara Tewksbury, the William R. Kenan Professor of Geosciences, is presenting a session at the 117th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, on October 16-19 in Salt Lake City. Tewksbury’s topic will be “Using recent Mars data to give students practice in revisiting and testing older hypotheses in a variety of undergraduate geoscience courses.” The description of the talk states, “Providing practice in re-evaluating old hypotheses with new data is one way to help students on the path to learning how to set up a new mental frame about a problem and ultimately develop their own new questions and hypotheses.” Tewksbury will use planetary data as an example of old hypotheses that can be revisited when the next planetary mission delivers new information.

Ronald Dworkin gave the Truax lecture in philosophy on October 10. Dworkin is the Sommer Professor of Law and Philosophy at NYU and Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College, London. Dworkin’s lecture was titled “The new religious wars” and discussed religion in American politics. His books include Life's Dominion, Freedom's Law and Sovereign Virtue. His forthcoming book is Justice in Robes (October 2005).