All News

Shannon Fitzsimons ‘05 returned to Hamilton this week as guest dramaturg for the Theatre Department's production of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, written in 1879. The production will be staged April 15-17 and 21-24. Fitzsimons, currently a student in the Ph.D. program in theatre and drama at Northwestern University, majored in theatre and creative writing at Hamilton.

Does America have an unhealthy obsession with beauty? Darryl Roberts thinks so. Roberts’ documentary, America the Beautiful, imagines the causes and social implications of the unrealistic physical ideals presented for women in the American media. On Feb. 3, Hamilton students had the privilege of attending a screening of America the Beautiful, which was followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker himself.

Despite the pressure of continued economic turmoil, Moody’s Investors Service has assigned Hamilton College an Aa2 rating and said the college’s financial outlook is stable.

In an introduction to the Feb. 3 lecture on Tim Davis’ photography, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Kathryn Parker Almanas skipped nearly all customary information in favor of presenting the audience with eight simple facts about the artist. These included his talent for skipping faster than he can run and playing ukulele. Though such random pieces of trivia may seem irrelevant to a professional discussion about photographs, they could not have served as a better preface to Davis’ character.

Anne E. Lacsamana, assistant professor of women’s studies, was invited to Rollins College as a Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholar in January to deliver a public lecture on her current research on the Philippine women’s movement.

The Hamilton College French Club is hosting the Tournées Film Festival which includes the screening of five French films that provide a glimpse into French cinematic tradition and the diversity of French culture. The first film, Le Fils de L’Épicier (The Grocer’s Son), will be screened on Sunday, Feb. 7. Screenings will continue every Sunday through March 7, all at 2 p.m., in the Kirner-Johnson Building auditorium. The screenings are free and open to the public.

Dean of Faculty Joseph R. Urgo has co-authored a new book, Reading Faulkner: Absalom, Absalom! (University Press of Mississippi, March, 2010), with Noel Polk, professor emeritus of English at Mississippi State University.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe joined five other scientists for two weeks of field research in Belize in January. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History operates a marine research lab on Carrie Bow Cay, a one-acre island 10 miles offshore on Belize’s southern barrier reef.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics James Wells will discuss “‘Are you the bee or just a stinging story?’: Maurice Manning’s Bucolics and Poetic Representations of God in a Secular Age,” on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 4:10 p.m. in the Science Center’s classroom 3024. The lecture, the fifth in the Hamilton College Humanities Forum, is free and open to the public.

The Hamilton College Choir presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel in Wellin Hall on Friday, Feb. 5 through Sunday, Feb 7. Performances are Friday and Saturday, Feb. 5 and 6, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m.