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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.

Facebook is one of the Internet’s most popular phenomena; the site already has more than 400 million active users, and an average of 374,000 new people join every day. But users may not realize that putting a lot of their personal information on Facebook could leave them open to identity theft and other security issues. Working under Associate Professor of Computer Science Mark Bailey, Spencer Gulbronson ’12 is creating exercises to inform college students about security threats that could put their most essential information at risk.

More than 120 Hamilton students are spending part of their summer conducting research with faculty. From Clinton to Iceland and Green Lakes to Greece, students are collaborating with Hamilton faculty on Levitt Center public affairs-related research, Emerson fellowships and science research.

For outdoor enthusiasts, few things are as appealing and exciting as biking, hiking and rock climbing. All three of these require physical strength and substantial amounts of movement. But on the Bruce Climbing Wall in Hamilton’s Blood Fitness Center, climbers are lent a helping hand—literally. In conjunction with Art 307, Advanced 3D and Material Studies, under Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh, environmental studies major Lauren Duncan ’10 created hand-shaped climbing wall holds that are not only artistic and significant, but also functional. She calls her project “LED by hand.”