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“I'm here to fill you with despair,” proclaimed Bill McKibben, one of our nation’s leading environmental advocates.  On Oct. 19, McKibben spoke to a crowd of approximately 250 people gathered on the wooden bleachers of Keene Central School’s auditorium.

Novelist Zadie Smith held the Chapel audience captivated throughout the 2015 Tolles Lecture. Attendees hung onto her every word as she read what she called “Two Essays About Being A Person.”

As both the founder and editor of the blog, Angry Asian Man, Phil Yu began his lecture remarking that, “I guess that kind of makes me the Angry Asian Man, but please, just call me Phil!” In a lecture co-sponsored by the Asian Cultural Society, Hamilton American/Chinese Exchange, and the Days-Massolo Center, Phil Yu shared the story of his journey to find his voice through the blog he started 15 years ago, and how this experience has changed his own approach to claiming and defining his own identity.

William Jacobson ’81, associate clinical professor of law and director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell Law School, will present a lecture titled “Academic Freedom and BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)”, on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m., in the Red Pit, Kirner-Johnson Building. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Charles Watkinson, director of the University of Michigan Press, will give the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 4:10 p.m., in the Kennedy Auditorium, Taylor Science Center. His lecture is titled “Open Access Monographs. Why Should Authors, Librarians, and Administrators Care?” and is free and open to the public.

Kevin Quashie, a professor of Africana studies at Smith College, discussed issues of the idea of blackness and social perceptions of that identity  in a Hamilton lecture on Oct. 13, and ultimately concluded that the idea of blackness is rooted in social and historical prejudices, especially those relating to resistance and belligerency.

The goal of the first TEDx talk at Hamilton College, sponsored by the Oral Communication Center and Dean of Faculty’s Office, was to leave the conformity of our everyday lives and return to no-strings attached inquisitive nature of youth in order to achieve uninhibited curiosity and creativity.

For many Americans, radiation exposure is often linked to cancer treatment or atomic fallout. For villagers living in and around Semipalatinsk, however, exposure to radioactivity is a part of everyday life. Semipalatinsk, nicknamed “the Polygon” due to its cartographic shape, is located in east Kazakhstan and is the world’s largest nuclear test site.  Medical Anthropologist Magdalena Stawkowski, the MacArthur Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, spent 20 months living just outside of the “official” borders of the Polygon. She spoke at Hamilton on Oct. 7 about the lifestyle and health of residents in the Polygon.

A highlight for many during Fallcoming Weekend was the talk by Ambassador Thomas Pickering. In front of a packed audience in the Chapel, Ambassador Pickering outlined in detail the background and discussions that have led to the Iran Deal.

Dominick LaCapra, professor emeritus of History, Comparative Literature and Humanistic Studies at Cornell University, will present a lecture titled “History, Memory and Trauma: Problems and New Directions” on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 4:10 p.m., in the Kennedy Auditorium, Taylor Science Center. The lecture is sponsored by Hamilton’s Humanities Forum and is free and open to the public.