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Hamilton College's highest awards for teaching were presented on May 7 to three faculty members. Douglas Weldon, the Stone Professor of Psychology and director of the Neuroscience Program, was awarded the Samuel & Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching; Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole Snyder received the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award; and Associate Professor of Africana Studies Angel David Nieves was honored with the John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas has been appointed to the board of directors of the Guyana Institute of Historical Research (GIHR). The Institute, which collaborates with the History Department of the University of Guyana, conducts programs and research on labour history, women’s history and other histories of Guyana and the Caribbean.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas participated in a four-person panel who responded to questions at the University of Toronto launch of a new documentary film on March 26. The film, “W.A.R: (Walter Anthony Rodney) Stories,” captures the life and work of the renowned Guyanese historian and scholar-activist. Walter Rodney, an influence on the Black Power movement, Pan-Africanism, Caribbean independence and the idea of self-emancipation, was assassinated in 1980. Westmaas was also one of several advisors and archival consultants on the film.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas published a book review in the March 2009 issue of the Arts Journal (Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Literature, History, Art and Culture of Guyana and the Caribbean). He reviewed the new book by Trinidadian academic Selwyn Cudjoe, Caribbean Visions: ARF Webber and the Making of the Guyanese Nation, (published by Mississippi Press, 2009). Webber, an early and prominent politician in British Guiana was instrumental in forming the Popular Party in 1926, the first organized political party in Guiana and the colonial British West Indies.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas gave an invited talk on Haiti at Syracuse University on Jan. 28. His presentation at the forum organized by the Africa Initiative Project (Department of African-American studies) of Syracuse University was titled “Haiti: Historical Reflections on the narrative of Haitian poverty in the wake of the Earthquake.”

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Donald Carter participated in the panel "Old and New Minorities in Europe" at the American Anthropologist Association meeting in Philadelphia on Dec. 3. His paper was titled "Breaking the Visible Barrier: Invisibility, Belonging and the Long March to Humanity."

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Donald Carter presented a paper at the Africans in Europe in the Long 20th-Century: Transnationalism, Translation and Transfer conference, organized by the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, University of Liverpool, in October. His paper was titled “Blackness Over Europe: Meditations on Culture and Belonging.”

Shelley Haley, professor of classics and Africana studies, and director of the Africana studies program, published an essay in Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies. The essay is titled "Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies." The book was edited by Laura Nasrallah and Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza of the Harvard Divinity School and was published by Fortress Press, an imprint of Ausberg Fortress.

Angel David Nieves, associate professor of Africana Studies, received national recognition at the 2009 Nebraska Digital Workshop on Oct. 3 for his work on Soweto ’76: A Living Digital Archive, from The Center for Digital Research in the Humanities (CDRH) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas published an opinion piece in Georgetown, Guyana’s newspaper, Stabroek News, titled “Corruption, criticism and political culture in Guyana” on Aug. 3. The article addressed Guyana’s “lack of objective oversight standards” and offered ways to prevent and fight against corruption.