A guest column written by Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas was published Dec. 19 in the Stabroeck News (Georgetown, Guyana). “Knowing Our Past: Current demonstrations and histories of public protest in Guyana” appeared in the paper’s weekly “In the Diaspora” column and focused on the reaction of state media, pundits and government spokespersons to the protests that followed Guyana’s recent elections.

Dissent Magazine published an article titled 50 Years Later: Poverty and The Other America by Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of History Maurice Isserman in its winter 2012 issue. The article is an adaptation of the prologue of The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington, the biography Isserman wrote in 2000. The article included updated statistics and observations.

An article titled “Study: Does enduring extreme weather make you vote liberal?,” appearing on the USA Today website on Dec. 30, reported on a study written by four Hamilton economists. Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics Ann Owen, Assistant Professor of Economics Emily Conover and Associate Professors of Economics Julio Videras and Stephen Wu co-authored the study, “Heat Waves, Droughts, and Preferences for Environmental Policy.” The Weather Channel also reported on the study on Jan. 2. 

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate will join the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Published by Oxford University Press, JAAR is one of the leading journals in the field of religious studies, and publishes articles by the top scholars from around the world.

The New York Times published a letter to the editor written by Professor of Government P. Gary Wyckoff as the leadoff response to “Class Matters. Why Won’t We Admit It?” in its Dec. 22 editorial section titled “Reducing Inequality in Our Schools.” He compared our current educational policies as being “like a requirement that all children clear the same height in the high jump, regardless of their stature.”

The New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium, of which Hamilton is a member, has received a $15,000 planning grant from The Teagle Foundation for a project titled “Faculty Work and Student Learning in the 21st Century,” aimed at exploring the changing nature of faculty work at leading liberal arts colleges.

Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics Derek Jones attended the Mid-Year Fellows Workshop and the Beyster Symposium Dec. 8-11 in La Jolla, Calif. The events were sponsored by Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations where Jones is a faculty fellow and mentor.

A paper recently published by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe received notice in two different venues in the past month. It was featured on the Oak Ridge National Labs’ supercomputing center website and was named a “must-read” by the post-publication review service Faculty of 1000.

“Cats, Dogs, and Social Minds: Learning from Alan Palmer—and Sixth Graders,” by Corinne Bancroft ’10 and Professor of Comparative Literature Peter J. Rabinowitz, has appeared in a special issue of Style.

American young people say that the top two causes of poverty are a lack of jobs (83.7 percent) followed by a lack of health insurance (64.3 percent) according to a new national survey of young Americans’ attitudes on poverty, released on Dec. 12 and conducted by Hamilton. More than two thirds (67.7 percent) also cited the growing incomes of the wealthiest people as negatively affecting the quality of life of those with lower incomes. The full results of this survey are available online and were presented by webcast at www.hamilton.edu/poverty.