Hamilton College’s highest awards for teaching were presented to three faculty members during the annual Class & Charter Day ceremony on May 13.  Professor of Music Lydia Hamessley, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Abhishek Amar and Rob Knight, assistant professor of art, received awards. Assistant Professor of Government Ted Lehmann was named the recipient of Student Assembly’s Sidney Wertimer Award.

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Abhishek Amar presented a paper at a workshop titled “Local Domains/Translocal Claims: New Histories of the ‘Local’ in South Asia” organized by the South Asia Studies department, University of Pennsylvania, on April 12.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate recently received grants from the American Philosophical Society and the Central New York Humanities Corridor from an award by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for two projects.

Abhishek Amar, assistant professor of religious studies, presented an invited talk on July 24 in the department of history at the Hyderabad Central University in India. In “Conflict and Coexistence: Buddhist Hindu Interactions in the Early Medieval Eastern India” Amar examined the role of Hinduism in the disappearance and decline of Buddhism in India.

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Abhishek Amar presented an invited lecture about the beginning of exploration and excavation of ancient religious centers on July 12 at the Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute in Pune, India.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Abhishek Amar co-edited Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on a Contested Buddhist Site: Bodh Gaya Jataka, a volume in the Routledge Press South Asian Religion Series.