Student Research

Associate Professor of Psychology Jen Borton, students Sam Briggs '12 and Beril Esen '13, and former Hamilton Professor Mark Oakes presented two posters at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Diego in January. Their posters were titled Defensive Self-Esteem and Self-Awareness and Unforgettable: Autobiographical Memories of People with Defensive High Self-Esteem.

Over winter break 15 students from Hamilton’s Model European Union club — as well as faculty advisor Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs — attended the 25th annual EuroSim conference in Wroclaw, Poland, from Jan. 5-8.  Each year, the EuroSim conference presents a different topic relating to European policy; the topic of this year’s conference was European asylum policy and the development of a common European asylum system.

Two Hamilton students have been selected as recipients of the Class of 1979 Student Travel Award. The award, established by the alumni of Hamilton’s Class of 1979, offers financial assistance to outstanding students who wish to pursue extensive research projects in different parts of the world.

Four Hamilton students have received grants from the Steven Daniel Smallen Memorial Fund. The recipients, all seniors, are Shawon Akanda, Nathaniel House, David Hyman and Haley Riemer-Peltz.

The total number of students on Hamilton’s campus may be smaller than an entire graduating class at big research universities, but that doesn’t mean Hamilton’s research opportunities are any more limited. In fact, as Matthew T. Farrington ’12, Diane Paverman ’13, Spencer Gulbronson ’12, Peter Lauro ’12 and alumnus Sam Hinks ’11 are discovering, research at Hamilton is just as engaging as it can be at large universities. The students are working with Professor of Computer Science Stuart Hirshfield to determine if computers can recognize the unique “signature” of a user’s brain.