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Professor of Economics Ann Owen, along with the chief fixed income strategist at Morgan Stanley, was interviewed on American Public Media’s Marketplace about the decisions the Federal Reserve might make on interest rates and the possible effects these decisions might have on inflation rates. The syndicated program was broadcast across the nation on public radio stations on Oct. 15.

More than 50 students from Hamilton College and the five other New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium’s member institutions gathered at Colgate University on Sept. 24 for a Student Diversity Leadership Conference. “This was the first major event sponsored by the New York Six, and it was a great success,” said Amy Cronin, special assistant to the presidents for the consortium.

Having received a grant for $458,900 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Stuart Hirshfield, the Stephen Harper Kirner Chair of Computer Science, and Research Associate Leanne Hirshfield ’02 have begun studying the real-time, quantitative assessment of computer users’ mental states to enhance usability testing and to create adaptive computer systems. They are creating a state-of-the-art usability laboratory that allows them to make concurrent cognitive, physiological and behavioral user measurements.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Hamilton College $800,000 in support of the Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi at http://www.dhinitiative.org), a research and teaching collaboration in which new media and computing technologies are used to promote humanities-based research, scholarship and teaching, including curriculum development, across the liberal arts. This is one of the largest humanities grants ever received by Hamilton.

Property developer Stephen Steinberg ’66, a generous supporter of the College, is establishing a $1 million endowment to create the Steinberg-Lalli Scholarship Fund. Students with need who are accepted to Hamilton from the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, the public secondary school in Steinberg’s community, will be given first consideration for support from this fund. Steinberg’s objective is to support Hamilton’s need-blind initiative and encourage students from the Acton and Boxborough area to apply to the college.

In her education blog on the USA Today website, Mary Beth Marklein reported on how some colleges have promoted religious and cultural awareness “even before Florida preacher Terry Jones announced plans to burn the Quran this weekend.” Included in a summary of how “colleges have been seeking ways to counter anti-Muslim sentiment on campus and promote understanding of religious and cultural diversity” was a description of Hamilton’s recent in which 170 Muslim and non-Muslim students participated in a fast and post-fast dinner. One of the reasons for holding the annual event is to offer non-Muslim students the opportunity to experience what Muslims practice for an entire month.

The Emerson Gallery will present a trio of exhibitions that examine definitions of religious art, what makes images religious and what happens when objects leave an artist’s studio or their spiritual context and become “property” of the community. The exhibitions will be on view Sept. 13 – Jan. 2 and will feature a range of works from different cultures and historic periods, including works from the Emerson Gallery collection and the Burke Library special collections. 

Approximately 170 students, Muslim and non-Muslim, participated in the annual "fast-a-thon," sponsored by the Muslim Students Association on campus on Sept. 8. The day of fasting during the month of Ramadan, ending on Sept. 9, brought students of several faiths together. One of the reasons for holding the annual event is to offer non-Muslim students the opportunity to experience what Muslims practice for an entire month.

Hamilton College’s Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center will sponsor a series of evening lectures for the 2010-11 academic year focused on three thematically based programs: Security, Sustainability, and Inequality and Equity. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History, was interviewed and quoted in a BBC Magazine article titled Mad Men and the 60s - the decade is in the detail. The article explored the “un-60sness of the early 1960s,” the years in which the TV series is set.