Despite the hope that President Obama’s clear victory last November might lead to a reduction in partisan polarization, the results of new survey conducted by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton College indicate that American are as divided as ever. Full poll results will be released on Tuesday, May 21, at 10:30 a.m. at www.hamilton.edu/PostElectionPoll.

In his April 22 lecture, author and University of Western Ontario professor Tony Weis traced the beginning of the global food crisis to advancements in agribusiness, farm subsidies and global food aid that then forced many small scale farmers in developing countries out of business.

Author Anthony Weis, associate professor of geography at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, will present a lecture titled, “The Meat of the Global Food Crisis,” on Monday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m., in the Fillius Events Barn.

More than half of working-age African American men in the United States have a criminal record. This statistic does not include those who are currently in jail or prison, who have effectively lost their voice and their status as individuals of worth. On April 17, Michelle Alexander, associate professor of law at Ohio State University, presented a lecture on mass incarceration and her bestselling book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The visit was presented by The Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, the Chief Diversity Officer and the Days-Massolo Center.

Jim Jacobs, a professor of law and director of the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at New York University School of Law visited campus to lecture on the current state of gun control legislation in the United States through the Levitt Center's Security program. Jacobs, who was on the hill at the invitation of Maynard-Knox Professor of Government and Law Frank Anechiarico, attracted a standing room only audience of students and local residents at his April 15 lecture in the KJ Red Pit.

Author and legal scholar Michelle Alexander will present a lecture titled “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” on Wednesday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m., in the Hamilton Chapel.  Her lecture, based on her best-selling book of the same title, is part of the Levitt Center’s Inequality and Equity series and is free and open to the public.

Jim Jacobs, the Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts and director of the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at the New York University School of Law, will present a lecture titled “Gun Control,” on Monday, April 15, at 4:15 p.m., in the Red Pit, KJ.  His lecture, part of the Levitt Center’s Security Series,  is free and open to the public.

While many students may have been relaxing at home or on the beach during spring break, 19 Hamilton College students participated in the second week of the two-week Levitt Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C.

Under former Inspector General of the Department of the Interior Earl E. Devaney, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB) has served as watchdog of  the $800 million American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.  Devaney described the board’s work in a lecture on March 7 that was part of the Levitt Center’s Security Program.

Earl E. Devaney, inspector general for the Department of the Interior, will deliver a lecture titled “How to Protect $800,000,000,000 in Public Spending: Oversight of the Stimulus Package,” on Thursday, March 7, at 4:30 p.m., in the Dwight Lounge in the Bristol Center at Hamilton. His lecture is part of the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center’s Security program and is free and open to the public.