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The banjo can reveal much about socioeconomic class, slavery and music in the 19th century. Catherine Crone ’13 certainly sees the value in this often-neglected instrument. She will spend this summer researching the banjo in order to build an Internet resource about its past and its significance. Crone will be working under an Emerson Summer Grant with Professor of Music Lydia Hamessley to create their project, “A Study of Banjo Instruction Manuals from the 19th Century.”

For students interested in public policy, the chance to spend a summer in Washington, D.C., means an opportunity to be involved in policy making and to observe government officials at work.  Fertaa Yieleh-Chireh ’12 sees the value in this opportunity, and will be traveling to the nation’s capital for a summer 2011 Public Service Internship at the Public Forum Institute.

Four Hamilton students were co-authors of a paper accepted for presentation at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing held May 7-12 in Vancouver, B.C.

The subject of medieval times frequently conjures up images of knights, chivalry and the iconic and mysterious King Arthur. Most historians agree that King Arthur is probably only a legend, yet his image pervaded medieval history and politics. Meghan Woolley ’13, a recipient of a 2011 Emerson Summer Grant, will spend the summer exploring the role of Arthurian legend in English monarchies of the 12th to 16th centuries.

Assistant Dean of Faculty for Institutional Research Gordon Hewitt was part of a panel presentation on using data in the accreditation process at the annual conference of the Association for Institutional Research in Toronto on May 23.

The Posse Foundation honored Hamilton President Joan Hinde Stewart as a 2011 Posse Star at the foundation's anniversary gala on May 25 in New York City.  Posse is a national non-profit that identifies public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes.  Hamilton and the Posse Foundation celebrated a 10-year partnership this year.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe,was a contributing author of a paper published in the June issue of the journal Chemical Biology and Drug Design. The paper, titled “Applying Molecular Dynamics Simulations to Identify Rarely Sampled Ligand bound Conformational States of Undecaprenyl Pyrophosphate Synthase, an Antibacterial Target,” presents the results of research conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of California-San Diego, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Throughout history, the interplay of morality and law has proved to be a point of debate and intense interest for philosophers. Specifically, does one concept determine the other? And if so, does law establish what is moral or should it be the other way around? The issue is even more perplexing in modern society, where religion plays a much smaller role than in most other cultures in history. Thomas Cheeseman ’12 is studying the complex philosophical principles regarding law, morality and religion under a Levitt Research Fellowship Grant with Professor of History Doug Ambrose.

“The evolutionary history of histone H3 suggests a deep eukaryotic root of chromatin modifying mechanisms,” a paper co-authored by Assistant Professor of Biology Wei-Jen Chang, was published in the online journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.  In the paper, Chang and his collaborators present the results of their research into the evolution of histone proteins in eukaryotes.

The New York Times’ current entry on the publication’s Civil War blog is the work of James L. Ferguson Professor of History Maurice Isserman. Titled “From the Playing Field to the Battlefield,” the article reveals that during the war, the majority of Hamilton students participated on both the Union and Confederate sides and that many perished.