All News

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.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Sally Cockburn gave a talk at the recent Canadian Discrete and Algorithmic Mathematics Conference in Victoria, B.C., on May 30.

Professor of Comparative Literature Peter J. Rabinowitz has published “‘The Impossible Has a Way of Passing Unnoticed’: Reading Science in Fiction” in the May issue of Narrative. The article is a development of a paper originally delivered in 2009 at a symposium on narrative, science and performance at Ohio State University.

Learning a second language is undoubtedly a challenging undertaking, and the pedagogical methods involved in teaching a second language can make the process easier or more difficult for students.  Linda Yu ’12 will spend this summer with Professor Hong Gang Jin, the William R. Kenan Professor of East Asian Languages, testing different pedagogical methods for teaching Chinese. Their project, “Attention to What? An Investigation on the Linkage Between Attention and Input,” is funded by an Emerson Summer Grant.

 “When you are totally dependent on local intelligence organizations, you tend to protect them,” said Ned Walker, the Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Global Political Theory and former ambassador to Egypt and Israel. Walker was quoted in a June 12 Newsweek  article titled “Intelligence Test” that also appeared on The Daily Beast website. The article detailed the challenges currently being experienced by U.S. intelligence networks due to the upheaval in the Middle East.