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Russian and Soviet government expert Timothy J. Colton delivered a talk on Nov. 4 on leadership in post-Soviet nations. The lecture was titled “Political Leadership after Communism” and sponsored by the Levitt Center Speaker Series. Colton is the Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies and chair of the Government Department at Harvard University, and the author of numerous books on Russian and Soviet politics.

Tim Colton, the Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies and the chair of the department of government at Harvard University, will present a lecture titled “Political Leadership after Communism,” on Monday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m., in the Fillius Events Barn.

Stanford University Professor Richard Zare delivered the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture to an eager audience in the Chapel on Oct. 29. Established in 1988 by Hamilton alumnus James Plant, the series was created to bring to the campus outstanding scientists and guest lecturers. Zare was no exception.

Hamilton alumnus Luvuyo Mandela ’09 returned to the Hill on Oct. 29 to speak about his work as a social entrepreneur in South Africa. His former philosophy professor, A. Todd Franklin, introduced Mandela and thanked him for agreeing to speak to the small gathering, heavily composed of students in Franklin’s “Philosophy of Race, Gender and Culture” course.

As Hamilton  prepares for its new bike path, cultural anthropologist Luis Vivanco’s lecture, “Reconsidering the Bicycle,” could not be more timely. Vivanco, director of the Global and Regional Studies Program and founding director of the Global Studies Program at the University of Vermont, spoke about the current global state of using bikes as alternative transportation.

Jen Kleindienst ’09 returned to Hamilton on Oct. 21 to speak to the community about her career in environmental activism and give advice to those interested in the campus sustainability movement.

“When I talk about race, I like to start with shock.”  That is precisely what Allison Williams did on Sept. 23 in KJ’s Red Pit. In front of Hamilton community members, Williams dove head-first into her pursuit of racially charged comedy as she opened her lecture with a tale of different racial preferences in inappropriate Craigslist ads.

It’s hard, if not impossible, to read Art Spiegelman’s Maus just once. The Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel tells the story of first- and second-generation Holocaust survivors, challenging the notion—if any such notion existed—that the effects of war and genocide are finite in a gripping autobiographical/biographical narrative. As such, Maus fits Spiegelman’s definition of the graphic novel genre: “a long comic book that needs a bookmark and wants to be reread.”

Naomi Wallace, playwright and author of Slaughter City, spoke at Hamilton on February 15 as part of the Tolles Lecture Series. As a guest of the theater department, Wallace discussed the ethical obligations of theater performers. At times personal and other times political, Wallace informed and challenged the more than 100 guests in the Chapel. Her speech focused on the concept of “hospitality” in theater along with issues of race and class.

Kate Cooper, professor of ancient history at the University of Manchester (UK), will give the Winslow Lecture at Hamilton College on Thursday, Jan. 27, at 4:10 p.m., in the Kennedy Auditorium, Science Center. The lecture “City, Empire, Family Belonging and Resistance in the Prison Diary of Perpetua of Carthage,” is free and open to the public.