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With a record 1,617 alumni and guests on hand, Reunion Weekend 2007 represented a historic moment of transformation for the Hamilton campus, with three events that both change the face of the College and help mark its historic legacy.

The weather might have been unpredictable for Reunions '07, but one thing attendees could count on was an abundance of things to do during the weekend of May 31-June 3. From history classes to art exhibits, musical performances to sports discussions, building tours to a golf tournament, the weekend was packed with 86 activities, from the sedate to the stimulating.

The first edition of Stone Canoe: A Journal of Arts and Ideas from Upstate New York won a bronze medal in the anthology division of the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Stone Canoe is edited by Robert Colley '66, and contributors to the award-winning issue include sculptor John von Bergen '63 and Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive at Hamilton.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Mark Bailey is managing a program for faculty from colleges with high minority enrollments. The program supports travel for faculty to attend one of 17 research conferences being held in San Diego in June as part of the Association for Computing Machinery's Federated Computing Research Conference (see http://www.acm.org/fcrc). Bailey secured funding for the program from a grant from the National Science Foundation with matching money from various special interest groups with the Association for Computing Machinery.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Ian Rosenstein and three students participated in the 40th National Organic Symposium, sponsored by the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society at Duke University, June 3-7. The students, Daniel Griffith, Silas McKee and Rebecca Parkhurst, all graduated from Hamilton in May. The three students made four poster presentations. Griffith was a co-author on two posters, one with Rosenstein and the other co-authored with Associate Professor of Biology Herm Lehman. McKee's poster was co-authored by Greg Nizialek '08 and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Camille Jones and Rosenstein. Parkhurst and Rosenstein were the authors on her poster.

Thirteen students from Geosciences 295: The Geology of Tasmania, along with the Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences Gene Domack and Associate Professor of Philosophy Katheryn Doran, are traveling through the country to study the geology of Tasmania and wilderness ethics. The students participating are: Andrew D'Amico '08, Samuel Bromley '08, Taylor Burt '08, Abigail Carpen '09, Katherine Goodwin '08, Alyssa Kanagaki '10, Julia MacDougall '09, Michael Millar '09, Richard Munschauer '09, Ryan Murphy '08, Sarah Powell '09, Kimberly Roe '08 and Cody Westphal '08. The group is filing reports from their trip.

Associate Professor of History Lisa Trivedi is the author of a new book, Clothing Gandhi's Nation: Homespun and Modern India (Indiana University Press).  The book explores the making of one of modern India's most enduring political symbols, khadi: a homespun, home-woven cloth. According to the publisher's Web site, "The image of Mohandas K. Gandhi clothed simply in a loincloth and plying a spinning wheel is familiar around the world, as is the sight of Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and other political leaders dressed in 'Gandhi caps' and khadi shirts. Less widely understood is how these images associate the wearers with the swadeshi movement—which advocated the exclusive consumption of indigenous goods to establish India's autonomy from Great Britain—or how khadi was used to create a visual expression of national identity after Independence. Trivedi brings together social history and the study of visual culture to account for khadi as both symbol and commodity. Written in a clear narrative style, the book provides a cultural history of important and distinctive aspects of modern Indian history."

Edward Walker '62, Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Global Political Theory and former U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Israel, presented his views on current U.S. relations in the Middle East as a featured speaker during Reunion Weekend on Saturday, June 2.

Associate Professor of Music Lydia Hamessley presented a paper titled “Commercial Folk: Dow Chemical’s ‘Human Element’ Campaign” at the Music & The Moving Image conference, held at New York University on May 18-20. Her paper examined Dow Chemical’s $20 million advertising campaign, “The Human Element” (2006).

The life of 1st Lt. Michael Cleary, a graduate of the class of 2003 killed in Iraq, was remembered by his sister Erin Flanagan '91 on NBC's Today Show on Thursday, June 7. The Today Show interview came about following a question Flanagan posed during CNN's Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire on Tuesday, June 5. As a member of the audience, she asked U.S. Senator John McCain to explain his Iraq exit strategy. In posing her question, she talked about her brother and his death.