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Professor of Mathematics Robert Kantrowitz '82 presented results from his recently-published paper "Is the Optimal Rectangle a Square?" (co-authored with Michael M. Neumann) at the spring 2008 meeting of the Seaway Section of the Mathematical Association of America. The talk discussed how geometric properties such as concavity, log-concavity, and symmetry of the graphs of the underlying functions may be applied to ensure uniqueness of solutions to various optimization problems.

Roberta Krueger, the Burgess Professor of French, gave a paper titled "Representing Authority in the Chantilly Manuscript of Marguerite de Navarre's La Coche" at the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America in Chicago on April 3. Krueger examined the richly illuminated manuscript prepared in 1541 for the Queen of Navarre to illustrate a love debate poem that she dedicated to the mistress of her brother, King François 1er. 

Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures Masaaki Kamiya presented at Generative Linguistics in Poland 6 on April 5-6, at the University of Warsaw. The presentation was titled "Covert movement, reconstruction and edge phenomena in nominalizations" (with Angeliek van Hout at University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and Thomas Roeper at University of Massachusetts).

Mbumwae Suba-Smith, founder of the Subayo Foundation for Women and Children, discussed the foundation and her role in changing the lives of African women and children on April 13 at Hamilton. She explained that the Subayo Foundation for Women and Children in Africa is a Non -Governmental Organization (NGO) that primarily works in Ghana, but is present in other African nations, including Zambia. The foundation finds teachers within communities to provide literacy, health and business classes.

Professor of Anthropology Emeritus Douglas Raybeck was interviewed for a Philadelphia Inquirer article,"Puncturing pols online," that appeared in the Sunday, April 13, issue of the paper. The piece addressed how members of the "proletariat," via Internet submissions, are helping define how a wide range of voters see the presidential candidates, in contrast to past campaigns during which opinions were formed via the quips and jokes of professional television pundits.

Russell Marcus, the Chauncey Truax Post-Doctoral Fellow of Philosophy, presented a paper on Intrinsic Explanation at the Sidney-Tilburg Conference on Reduction and the Special Sciences, in Tilburg, the Netherlands, on April 10. The Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science (TiLPS) is devoted to the study of logic and philosophy of science in all its forms.

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Anjela Peck has been accepted to a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute titled "The Medieval Mediterranean and the Origins of the West."" This four-week program is for college faculty who study the Middle Ages through the lens of the Mediterranean. It is limited to 24 college faculty members and will take place in July in Barcelona, Spain.

The Theatre Department will stage six performances of Charles L. Mee's Big Love beginning Thursday, April 17. The play, directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Craig Latrell, is a zany rehash of the ancient play, The Suppliant Women, where 50 sisters flee arranged marriages to their 50 cousins. Big Love will be staged on April 17-18 and April 23-26 at 8 p.m., as well as a matinee on Saturday, April 19, at 2 p.m. All performances are in Minor Theater. For reservations call 859-4057.

Melek Ortabasi, assistant professor of comparative literature, presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, held in Atlanta on April 3-6. She gave a talk titled "Teaching Children to Do Things With Words: Yanagita Kunio and the Postwar Education Debate," which dealt with the work of well known ethnologist Yanagita Kunio's work as chair of the editorial board on a series of language textbooks widely adopted in Japanese schools after WWII.

At a Washington, D.C. alumni event, Edward S. Walker, Jr., '62, former U.S. Ambassador and Hamilton's Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Global Political Theory, lectured on U. S. relations with Iran on Thursday, April 10. In attendance in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill were current students attending the Washington, D.C. program as well as alumni.