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On Dec. 19 and 20, Professor of Comparative Literature Scott MacDonald served as a juror at the Black Maria Film Festival. The Black Maria, named for Thomas Edison's original filmmaking studio in New Jersey (it was covered in black tar paper), specializes in independent cinema, particularly on short documentary, experimental and animated films.

"Coherence, Literature, Languages," an article that appeared in the Dec. 23 issue of InsideHigherEd, reported on a white paper released at the recent meeting of the Modern Language Association (MLA) that addressed "new ways of organizing English and language programs within the general parameters of a liberal arts education." The article referenced the panel that wrote the report including its leader, Yale professor and former MLA president Michael Holquist, and Hamilton President Joan Hinde Stewart.

Senior Eric Kuhn interviewed four authors who recently published fictional novels with political overtones for a Huffington Post article. "Political-ish Holiday Stocking Stuffers" included interviews with Candice Proctor and Steven Harris, authors of The Archangel Project; James Grippando, author of Born to Run; and Bart Schneider, author of The Man in the Blizzard.

A work by Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and alumna Jackie Brown '04 titled "Accretion" has been accepted into the 23rd International Juried Show at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. The show runs from February 13 to March 27. Adelina Vlas, Assistant Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, juried the show.

Fallen Giants : A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, a book co-authored by James L. Ferguson Professor of History Maurice Isserman and University of Rochester Professor Stewart Weaver, was included in a list of recommended books for sports enthusiasts by the St. Petersburg Times. Reporter Tom Jones wrote, "Isserman and Weaver, through painstaking research, detail many other pioneers in Himalayan mountain climbing, including never-before-heard-of expeditions from the late 1800s. Not only do Isserman and Weaver provide the details of the climbs, they analyze how each expedition changed mountaineering."

The students from "The Natural and Cultural Histories of the Adirondacks" taught by Professor of Chemistry Robin Kinnel conducted a poster session on Monday, Dec. 8.  Posters included "Alternative Energy Sources," "The Philosophers' Camp" and "The Geology of the Adirondacks."

President-elect Barack Obama has tapped former Iowa governor and Hamilton alumnus Thomas J. Vilsack '72 to be his secretary of agriculture. He introduced Vilsack on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at a news conference in Chicago. According to The New York Times, "Mr. Obama particularly praised Mr. Vilsack's advocacy of biotech and his work to foster 'an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat but the energy we use.'"

A feature article written by Casey Wick, assistant director of custodial services, appears in the November/December issue of Facilities Manager magazine titled "From Here to There: Effectively Managing Organization Change." APPA, an organization of educational facilities professionals that, according to its Web site, "promotes excellence in all phases of educational facilities management, including administration, planning, design, construction, energy/utilities, maintenance, and operations" is the magazine publisher.

Levitt Center Associate Director of Community Research Judith Owens-Manley was the keynote speaker at the Civic Engagement Conference at St. Lawrence University on Wednesday, Dec. 10. Owen's remarks, titled "Civic Engagement: Connecting College and Community," were delivered to faculty, administrators, students and community partners at this conference sponsored by the university's Center for Civic Engagement.

Assistant Professor of Economics Emily Conover was invited to attend and present at a conference held Dec. 6-7 at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C. The conference convened a group of economists to present and discuss their work on assessing productivity levels, dispersions and growth in different Latin American countries. The work Conover presented used firm level data to assess productivity levels in Colombia.