Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religion Jay Williams discussed “Thomas Nast as an Artist” on Feb. 6 at the Arts Center - Old Forge, in Old Forge, N.Y. Thirty holiday-themed Thomas Nast wood engravings from Williams’ collection were on display at the center in an exhibition titled “Thomas Nast Celebrates the Holidays.”

President Joan Hinde Stewart announced the passing of Professor of English Emeritus George Bahlke in an e-mail to the campus community on Feb. 1:

Professor of English Emeritus George Bahlke died on Feb. 1 of complications from pneumonia. He was 76 and, although retired, was a frequent presence on campus.

Professor of English Vincent Odamtten presented the first Dr. Robert Milton Young Memorial Lecture in African American Literary and Cultural Theory on Jan. 27, at the University of Alabama. The recently established lecture series honors Robert M. Young ’90 who died in January 2010. Odamtten was Young’s mentor while Young was a student at Hamilton. In “The Pleasures of Influence and Reciprocity” Odamtten spoke about his professional relationship with Young.

Assistant Professor of Physics Natalia Connolly was recently named the recipient of a $15,000 research grant from the Hubble Space Telescope Cycle E/PO Grant Program. Connolly’s grant is a companion grant to a research program on the phenomenon of strong-lensing, a program for which Connolly is co-investigator.

Associate Professor of English Steve Yao spoke at the Modern Language Association (MLA) annual meeting held in Los Angeles, Jan. 6-9. Yao delivered a paper, "Comparing American Modernisms," on a panel sponsored by the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). The MLA conference is the main national venue for language and literature scholars in higher education.

Lisa Trivedi, associate professor of history, assumed her tenure as the president of Society for Advancing the History of South Asia (SAHSA) at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Boston, Jan. 6-9. Trivedi leads SAHSA in a period of growth and as it seeks a new role and position within the American Historical Association, the nation’s premier professional association of historians.

An exhibit featuring 40 intaglio works by members of the Atelier Four is on display through Feb. 3, in the Foreman Gallery at Hartwick College’s Anderson Center for the Arts. The Atelier Four is William R. Keenan Professor of Art Bruce Muirhead, Professor of Art and Curator of the Hamilton Collects Program William Salzillo and artists Amy Georgia Buchholz ’80 and Jake Muirhead ’86.

An article by Hong Gang Jin, the William R. Kenan Professor of East Asian Languages and Literature, has been published in Journal of Chinese Teaching in the World (SJHYJX), 2011, Vol. 25:1, pp.78-98. The article is titled "Ten Methodological Principles of Modern Language Teaching."

Teaching Fellow in Hispanic Studies and Fulbright Scholar María Gabriela Portal discussed her first semester experience in a presentation titled “My First Three Months on the Hill,” at the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) Conference held December 8-11, in Washington, D.C.

Professor of Mathematics Dick Bedient served as moderator for the debate "Derivative vs. Integral: The final showdown” during the Joint Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America held Jan. 6-9, in New Orleans.