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Indiana University Press has just released Associate Professor of  Anthropology Chaise LaDousa’s book, House Signs and Collegiate Fun: Sex, Race, and Faith in a College Town.  The book is based on three years of ethnographic and historical research in which students at  Miami University of Ohio collaborated with LaDousa to explore the ways in which "house signs" such as Liquor Up Front, Poker in the Rear, Plantation, and Crib of the Rib became foci of college culture.

Canada has recently declared a chemical known as BPA to be a toxic substance. Europe has partially banned BPA from consumer products. The United States also faces a similar push to remove BPA from products in which the chemical can be ingested. Claire Zurlo ’14, a recipient of an Emerson Summer Grant, and Amanda Ng ’14, funded with summer research funds, will spend the summer contributing to this effort. They will work with Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren to perform a BPA analysis on various beer samples.

Janet Simons and Angel Nieves, co-directors of the Digital Humanities Initiative at Hamilton, and Hena Ahmad and Patricia O'Neill, professors of English at Truman University and Hamilton College respectively, attended the 10th annual Summer Institute in Digital Humanities at the University of Victoria in British Columbia June 4-11. More than 100 librarians, faculty and graduate students attended this year's institute representing an impressive array of scholarly work in digital humanities.

Jay Williams '54, the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies, posted an article "Matthew: the Heavenly Gospel" on the Bibleinterp. com website.

Joe Harmon ’12 is fascinated with the culture of boxing—and he's certainly not alone; there is a mystique to the sport that has allured Americans for more than a century, and boxing has given birth to some of the biggest stars in the sporting world. An Emerson grant recipient, Harmon will spend the summer studying “Filmic Interpretations of Boxing” with Visiting Professor of Film History Scott MacDonald.

Professor of Communication Catherine W. Phelan chaired a panel on “Censorship in the Digital Age” at the International Communication Association (ICA) conference held May 30 in Boston. Conference participants from Singapore, Israel and the United States presented a trans-national comparison of the cultural practices regarding censorship.

Twenty-one Hamilton faculty members, representing 14 different departments ranging from chemistry to comparative literature, attended a workshop on Incorporating Quantitative Reasoning Across the Curriculum on June 6-7 at Hamilton.

Solar cells hold the potential to provide an efficient and environmentally-clean energy source. With the recent interest in alternative forms of energy, solar power is gaining importance, and so is research on solar cell efficiency. Over the summer, Sarah Fobes is working on an innovative method of improving solar cell efficiency using rare earth elements. She is collaborating with Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith on their project, “Quantum Cutting to Enhance Solar Cell Efficiency.”

Works from Hamilton’s art collection that were recently on view at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice are now part of an exhibition at Tate Britain in London.  The Emerson Gallery lent four paintings by English artist Dorothy Shakespear (1886-1973), wife of Ezra Pound, Class of 1905, to the exhibition, the first attempt to recreate the three Vorticist exhibitions mounted during World War I in London and New York. Two of the Hamilton works have been prominently featured on the BBC’s website and other English media outlets as well as in marketing materials.

One of the summer’s most labor-intensive student projects on the Hill is the maintenance of the Hamilton College Community Farm (HCCF) garden. Student workers are constantly brainstorming about ways to streamline the farming process, which begins in February with germination within the greenhouse and doesn’t end until the final crops are harvested in the fall. The most recent advance for the community farm was made by former farm manager Sarah Gamble ’13 and co-founder Andrew Pape ’11, who developed a comprehensive farm almanac through which they hope to pass on their knowledge and experience to future farmers.