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Professor of Chinese De Bao Xu gave the keynote speech at TCLT6, the 6th International Conference and Workshops on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching in the 21st Century, held at the Ohio State University on June 12-14. His talk was titled “Assessment of Participatory Learning Tools and Selection of Virtual Classroom Software (VCS).”

In 1918, the global influenza pandemic struck millions of families, killing a jaw-dropping 3 percent of the world’s population at the time. Scientists since devised a treatment to stop the flu infection from spreading within the body. With the recent emergence of a particularly virulent strain of avian influenza, H5N1, and the rise of the highly transmissible but somewhat less virulent pandemic H1N1 “swine flu” in 2009, many fear a repeat of this serious and lethal world health crisis. The common drugs used for treatment of influenza are far from perfect, and they sometimes act in unexpected ways on the molecular level. Working with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe, Erica Losito ’12 and Jeremy Adelman ’13 are taking a closer look at exactly what happens when the virus and the drug interact, in two different ways.

Standing in the dark lab, Sarah Fobes ’12 and Zane Glauber ’12 flip the switch to turn on their laser. In the blink of an eye, the tiny glass sample that they had labored over glows a radioactive green—with any luck, a brighter green than the last one they illuminated. Working with Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith, Fobes and Glauber are spending the summer experimenting with different aspects of glass formation to make it fluoresce (or glow) more brightly, with the indirect consequence of being able to make a better laser.

Hong Gang Jin, the William R. Kenan Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, published an article titled “Task Complexity and its Effects on Interaction & Production: An Experimental Study of Task-based Instruction” in the May issue of the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (JCLTA). The article presents the results of her study about “the effect of task complexity on language and interaction in a Chinese as a foreign language context.”

Hamilton has no formal pre-law program, but that doesn’t stop a large number of graduates, many of whom have degrees in economics or government, from pursuing a law degree after Hamilton. With so many students choosing law school, some faculty members ask “How do we better prepare students with interests in becoming lawyers?” The possible solution? A new major that would draw on classes from multiple disciplines and would, hopefully, be attractive for students who anticipate a future in law.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Russell Marcus has published two articles in the spring issue of the American Philosophical Association’s Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy.

As the sun shines and Hamilton’s campus heats up during the summer months, most summer researchers retreat to the air conditioning of Kirner-Johnson and the Science Center. Three hardworking students, however, elect to spend their summers outdoors, working eight hours per day on Hamilton’s community farm garden. The three summer farm managers, Andrew Pape ’11, Sarah Gamble ’13 and Christine Roback ’12, are all dedicated workers with a taste and a passion for locally-grown produce.

ArtCenter/South Florida (ACSF), located in Miami Beach, describes itself as “an access point for artists, curators, and visitors alike. ACSF is a major cultural institution that offers the community exhibitions for up-and-coming visual artists and educational programs in a wide variety of media for many different age groups and skill levels. This summer, Hamilton’s Sarah Perdomo ’12 will be joining the ArtCenter/South Florida team as a teaching assistant at one of the institution’s summer education programs.

Richard Werner, the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, has published the lead article "Hope and the Ethics of Belief," in Positive Peace, edited by Andrew Fitz-Gibbon and with an introduction by Arun Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi's grandson (Rodopi, 2010). Using the reasoning of William James' "Sentiment of Rationality" and recent findings in empirical psychology, Werner argues that we should be hopeful when the facts allow because of the self-fulfillling prophecy that can be contained in hope. Hope is to be preferred to trendy cynicism.

Students in Hamilton's New York City Program wrapped up their semester with dinner and conversation with Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne.