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The final rounds of the annual public speaking competition were held on Saturday, March 8, in the Chapel. Students were selected based on their performance in the February 16 preliminary rounds and competed for three different prizes: The McKinney Prize, The Clark Prize, and The Warren Wright Prize. Winners of the McKinney Prize were Amr Rouvan Mahmud '11, Thomas Coppola '10, Asia Agers '09 and Emma Slane '08. Ryan Murphy '08 was awarded the Clark Prize and Alexandra Berkley '08 won the Warren E. Wright Prize.

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Melek Ortabasi co-authored an article with Dr. Charlotte Eubanks (Penn State) for the ADFL Bulletin (38.3/39.1, Spring/Fall 2007), the journal for the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. The article discusses the issues surrounding the study of less commonly taught languages (such as Asian languages) in the context of comparative literature.

Hamilton students in the New York City Program had the opportunity to attend a performance of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in February. The students are sampling all New York has to offer, with visits to the Frick Museum and Tenement Museum, in addition to holding internships at Merrill Lynch, MTV/CH1, NBC and the Clinton Foundation. Vivyan C. Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Professor of Women's Studies, is director of this semester's program, Globalization: The City as Text.

Professor of French John C. O'Neal has edited a volume of essays on Rousseau for  Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (SVEC), a publication of the Voltaire Foundation in Oxford, England. Titled The Nature of Rousseau's 'Rêveries': physical, human, aesthetic, the volume brings together the work of international specialists to explore new approaches to the defining feature – the 'nature' – of the Rêveries. In essays which range from studies of botany or landscape painting to thematic or stylistic readings, authors re-examine Rousseau's intellectual understanding of and personal relationship with different conceptions of nature.

The Hamilton College Orchestra, conducted by Heather Buchman, presents the fifth annual Brainstorm! concert on Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m. in Wellin Hall on the Hamilton College campus. This concert, titled American Generations, explores the development of American musical style from the mid-19th century to the present, with three selections representing snapshots of three very different points along the evolution of an American style. The goal of this program is to begin to explore the historical and stylistic ranges of the music of our country.

Alumnus Martin S. Hirsch '60 of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Infectious Disease Unit and the Partners AIDS Research Center was honored as the recipient of the prestigious Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) on Feb. 13. Hirsch was selected for the honor — given to scientists for outstanding contributions to the understanding of infectious diseases or public health — for his many achievements as a physician, researcher and educator. 

Major John Dehn, a member of the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps and author of articles on international law, visited Hamilton for a lecture on March 6. Using the United States Constitution as framework for his discussion, Major Dehn posed a controversial question that is currently facing United States political and military leaders: Who is in charge of the military, and who sets the rules?

Heroes and Hard Times: A Black Folk History, a musical performance by James "Sparky" and Rhonda Rucker, was presented at Hamilton on March 6. The performance was hosted by the College's Emerson Gallery in conjunction with its current exhibitions that explore key moments in African American history through photography and political satire. .

The donor and two editors of the diary of the "Adirondack Murder," Chester Gillette, will present "The Murder of Grace Brown and the Prison Diary of Chester Gillette," a lecture/discussion and booksigning, on Friday, March 7, at 4:15 p.m. in the Kennedy Science Auditorium. The threesome will present a second program and booksigning on Saturday, March 8, at 1 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Commercial Drive in New Hartford.

While working on her first scholarly article as a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich never expected that an article about puritan funeral services would immortalize her on tee-shirts and bumper stickers. The Harvard historian, who lectured at Hamilton on March 5, was exploring a neglected group of quiet and well-behaved puritans who were ignored in favor of more sensational topics such as witches.Yet in describing the services' rituals, Ulrich famously quipped, "Well-behaved women seldom make history." Although the phrase was intended to focus attention on the dutiful puritans, Ulrich reports that her phrase has since been used in an opposite sense that implores women to break out of the mold and challenge authority.