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Hamilton’s Emerson Gallery will host two exhibitions this summer selected from the permanent collection. Opening Thursday, June 21, and continuing through Sunday, September 9, “Photographs by Silvia Saunders” and “The Beinecke Collection – Prints, Watercolors and Drawings of the Lesser Antilles” will be on display.

This is “an investigation into various questions of perception and understanding,” wrote studio arts and English major Erin Shapiro '08 in her February proposal. Four months later, she has an Emerson grant to work on a sculptural exploration of natural elements, concentrating on the relationship between art, materials and audience reaction. She will work with Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh.

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Melek Ortabasi wrote a review of the 2002 animated film Millennium Actress, titled "Teaching Modern Japanese History with Animation: Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress." The article, which has appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Education About Asia, is written for instructors who wish to make more use of contemporary Asian media such as anime in their history and culture courses. Education About Asia is published by the Association for Asian Studies.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin presented a talk titled "Measuring Graph Symmetry with Determining Sets" at the 1st Canadian Discrete and Algorithmic Mathematics Conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Boutin's work focuses on finding a smallest set of nodes that captures all the symmetries in a network. In this talk Boutin gave upper and lower bounds on the size of such a set when the network is presented with a particular decomposition.

Some people start their summer research with an experiment, but Geoffrey Hicks '09 (Newton Mass.) preferred to start with a more abstract problem: the relationship between shame and spirituality and the African American experience. A dual major in English and African Studies, Hicks came to his topic through the plays of August Wilson and this summer takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the complicated issue of blackness in America.

Martha Mockus, the Jane Watson Irwin Chair and visiting assistant professor of women's studies, presented a paper at the Feminist Theory and Music conference at McGill University in Montreal, June 6-10. The paper was titled "Carla Lucero's Wuornos: Feminism, Violence, and Lesbian Redemption."

One night last November, Max Currier '10 (Manlius, N.Y.) was thinking about his summer plans. It occurred to him at 3 a.m. that maybe he could get funding for his hobby of researching the current government and political situation; "regardless of what I did, I was going to be reading up on the war anyway," he thought. Later that year, he was awarded an Emerson Grant to research the Bush administration's actions regarding the War on Terror. Through extensive reading and analysis, Currier hopes to address the behavior of the Bush administration through the lens of Bush's key ministers.

One of the many highlights of Reunions 2007 was the dedication of Siuda House, the new home of Hamilton's admissions office. The former Sigma Phi fraternity house was dedicated in honor of Joy and Chet ’70 Siuda on June 1.

Beloved Hamilton College Dean Winton Tolles '28 and his wife, Patricia, were honored during Reunions 2007 when The Annex was formally dedicated and named the Tolles Pavilion on June 1. U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, Utica businessman Eugene Romano '49, president Joan Hinde Stewart and board of trustee chair Stuart Scott '61 were among the speakers.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas was a guest on WRFG (Radio Free Georgia) 89.3 on "Revolutionary African Perspectives," a program hosted by Sobukwe Shukura. Shukura interviewed Westmaas on the life and career of famed Guyanese historian Walter Rodney (author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa) and his contribution to the Pan-African movement. Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980 but his impact on pan-Africanism and African and Caribbean political movements continue to resonate. The interview was on June 11.