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Kyoko Omori, assistant professor of Japanese, gave a talk in the Nichibunken Evening Seminar in Kyoto, Japan, on March 1. The title of her talk was “The Art of the Bluff Among Japanese Migrants: Popular Literary Modernism in the 1920s.” The Nichibunken Evening Seminar provides an English-language forum at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in which visiting research scholars, visiting research fellows, faculty members, graduate students, and other guests can discuss current research on Japan. Meetings are held approximately 10 times a year; the March 2007 Evening Seminar was the 117th in the series. In keeping with the interdisciplinary character of this Center, speakers and audience members offer distinctive perspectives from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.

Five current Hamilton students, two alumnae, and two professors attended the 47th Sanibel Symposium from February 22-27. Marco Allodi, '08, a chemical physics major, and Jovan Livada, '08, a chemistry major, won the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation awards.

Janet Halley, the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard University, and formerly a professor of English at Hamilton College, gave a lecture titled “Define and Punish: New Feminist Reforms in the ‘Law in War’” on March 1 to a large audience in the KJ Red Pit. Halley spoke about the reforms on war-time rape law that feminist legal activists have pressed for in international law, and outlined three dilemmas she believes feminists must face in regard to this issue. Her lecture was sponsored by the department of women’s studies, the Kirkland Endowment, and the Dean of the Faculty. 

Internationally renowned jazz drummer Bob Rosengarden, the recipient of a Hamilton honorary degree in 1999 and a regular visitor to campus, died Feb. 27 in Sarasota, Fla. He was 82.

Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, will be a guest on NPR’s “News & Notes” on Monday, March 5, during the 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. hour. She will discuss welfare reform and education with Robert Rector, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Adair founded the ACCESS Project at Hamilton College, a program that enables low-income parents to obtain a higher education. According to its Web site, “News & Notes explores fascinating issues and people from an African American perspective.”

Hamilton’s best student speakers will compete in the final round of the 2007 Public Speaking Competition on March 3, from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Chapel. The 17 finalists will compete for three separate prizes. All winners will be recognized at the Class and Charter Day 2007 ceremony.

The Hamilton College Department of Dance presents the 2007 Spring Dance Concert on Saturday March 3 at 8 p.m. in the Schambach Center for the Performing Art's Wellin Hall. The concert will feature works by dance faculty Elaine Heekin, Bruce Walczyk and Emily Hildebrand. Christina Brewer '07 will present her senior project titled "An Excursion through Solitude." Tickets are $5 for general admission and $3 for students and seniors and can be purchased or reserved by calling 315-859-4331.

Katie Spencer '06 was featured in an article in East African Business Week - Kampala (2/26/07) about her volunteer work with the Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA) and travel to Uganda, where she worked for 2 months.

"Ms. Wagner's piece practically leapt off the stage." So wrote New York Times critic Anne Midgette in her rave review of the new Trombone Concerto by Melinda Wagner '79, which was premiered on February 22, 2007, in Avery Fisher Hall, with trombonist Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel. Wagner, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion, was commissioned by the Philharmonic to write the new work--and she honored both the soloist and the orchestra by turning out a piece that, in Midgette's words, is "vital," "fresh," "smart," and "complex."

The Hamilton College Democrats and the Town of Kirkland Democratic Committee will host a screening of "Out of Balance, ExxonMobil's Impact on Climate Change," on Thursday, March 1, at 7 p.m. in the Kennedy Science Auditorium. The film will be followed by a discussion, moderated by Philosophy Professor Richard Werner. It is free and open to the public.