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Brian J. Glenn, visiting assistant professor of government, served as the Public Policy program chair for this year's New England Political Science Association conference, held recently in Newton, Mass.  Glenn also presented a paper, "Embracing Risk II: The Rise and Decline of the Twentieth Century Social Policy Net."

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper on “1968 and the Social & Political Foundations of the Working Peoples Alliance” at the 39th annual conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians (ACH) held in Kingston, Jamaica, May 7-11. The paper, an examination of a political party, the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) of Guyana, assessed the emergence of new political forces in Guyana (along with regional and global influence) between 1968-1974, and established how the convergence of those forces or the ‘new politics’ culminated in the birth of the multi-racial WPA considerably changing the political equation in the South American republic.

That the content of many websites is inaccessible to visually impaired computer users is not surprising. But surfers with vision problems can view sites using special software that reads web pages aloud - if sites are properly designed and coded. Students in a section of the computer science department's innovative new course “Explorations in Computer Science” led by Assistant Professor of Computer Science Brian Rosmaita learned how to increase accessibility and usability, focusing on the sites of a half dozen non-profit Utica-based organizations.

The winners of the Beverly S. and Eugene M. Tobin Employee Awards were announced at Hamilton's annual employee service recognition luncheon on May 14. Custodian Foreperson Bobby Evans, Academic Office Assistant Robin Vanderwall and Director of Central Information Services Martin Sweeney were presented with the awards.

Alexander Hamilton airs on American Experience, PBS, tonight, Monday, May 14, at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m CT. The show promises to "cover the full sweep of Hamilton's short life, one that had more than its share of heroism, scandal and tragedy.

More than 125 Hamilton students will spend at least part of their summer on campus doing research with various faculty members. Students have received funding through the Dean of Faculty's office, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Emerson Foundation and the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.

John C. O'Neal, professor of French, was elected president of the Society for Eighteenth-Century French Studies, which is the French caucus of the national society. The election took place at the organization's annual spring meeting, held in Atlanta this year.

David Paris, the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Government at Hamilton and a senior fellow at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, published an article, "The Academics’ Lament and the Traditional Liberal Arts," in LiberalArtsOnline (May, 2007). In the piece, Paris discusses and responds to the tensions between two disparate views on the purpose of liberal arts education. On the one hand, there are those who believe that liberal arts education entails pursuing knowledge for its own sake, and that incorporating practical learning of any sort threatens its very soul. On the other hand, there are those would like to see some evidence that a liberal arts education has practical and economic payoffs. Paris discusses ways to bridge that gap in this essay.

Three Hamilton juniors have spent the spring semester participating in the Hamilton-New England Center for Children (NECC) Cooperative Educational Program, in Southborough, Mass. Sociology concentrator Amanda Iturbe and psychology concentrators Jennifer Franco and Katherine Ribble have worked directly with children with autism or other developmental disabilities, while taking advanced courses in applied behavior analysis. In this program, Hamilton juniors spend a semester in full-time residence at NECC, where they earn full academic credit and work intensively with children who have special needs.

Eight Hamilton College seniors have been awarded Fulbright Scholarships and Teaching Assistantships to pursue research projects abroad and to teach English in foreign countries next year. Seven other students have received national scholarships and recognition that will enable them to conduct research or study abroad.