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Theobald Gakwaya, a Rwandan genocide survivor, lectured with the aid of a translator at Hamilton College’s Science Center Auditorium to a large group of students and faculty on the issue of Rwandan genocide on September 18. Gakwaya was a minister to the Rwandan government for one year and has since dedicated his efforts to human rights issues. Calling the genocide in Rwanda the “great humanitarian disaster of the contemporary world,” Gakwaya spoke about the social, political and economic history and problems surrounding the political and ethnic upheaval between the Hutus and the Tutsis. He told the audience that the Rwandan conflict has brought the whole area of the great African lakes onto the brink of war with an estimated five million people dead: two million Rwandan and three million Congolese.

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields presented a seminar at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City, on September 12. His talk, "Computational Design of a Small Peptide that Inhibits Breast Cancer" highlighted the work that his students have completed while working with Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner and himself.

Ray English, the Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries at Oberlin College, presented the second annual Couper Phi Beta Kappa Library Lecture.  English spoke about the need for fundamental reform in the system of scholarly communication, and advocated a move toward open access publishing. The Couper Phi Beta Kappa Library Lecture, established last year in honor of Richard “Dick” Couper ’44, brings a distinguished lecturer to campus each fall to speak on issues related to the College’s library or libraries in general.

Summer didn’t turn out quite as expected for Tamim Akiki ’08. The native of Lebanon had planned to go home for the summer and evaluate the objectives of the central bank as part of his Levitt research on the role of a central bank in a small open economy. Then came mid-July and Akiki found himself in a war zone between Israel and Hezbollah.

Cheng Li, William R. Kenan Professor of Government, was quoted in the cover article of the September issue of the National Geographic Magazine. In “The Manchurian Mandate,” Li commented on how the Chinese government could not afford to allow the frustrations of the residents of northeast China to erupt. Social unrest in that area of the country has been high due to lay-offs, rampant corruption, human and environmental disasters and a growing income gap between the highest and lowest groups. Li is currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.

Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies, gave a lecture at Williams College on Sept. 15 in conjunction with the ACCESS Project exhibit, The Missing Story of Ourselves: Poverty and the Promise of Higher Education. The exhibit was the first of a series under The Canvas Project, a series of exhibits sponsored by the Williams College Multicultural Center.

Hamilton’s newly-established Diversity and Social Justice Project awarded grants to three students to pursue “unpaid socially useful work” over the summer. The grants had matching funds from the Kirkland Endowment. The recipients were Pat Hodgens ’09, Jessica Yau ’08 and Joshua Cheung ’09.

Douglas Ambrose, the Sidney Wertimer Associate Professor of History, and Associate Professor of Government Robert Martin, editors of The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton, will discuss their research at an event hosted by the NYU Press and New York Historical Society on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at the NY Historical Society in New York City. Ambrose and Martin will be joined by noted Hamilton historian Richard Brookhiser to discuss Hamilton's legacy and consider why history has denied him the central place he occupied in his own time. Contact the Office of Alumni Relations for information about ticket information, regional@hamilton.edu, (866) 729-0314.

Professor of Religious Studies Richard Seager was interviewed for a Buffalo News article, "Buddhism takes the Spotlight," concerning the Dalai Lama's visit this week to Western New York. Seager was quoted as saying: "In the United States, it's quite common for Buddhism to mesh with other traditions, particularly Christianity and Judaism." Seager said "Catholic priests... have been known to dabble in Buddhist practices to improve their contemplative lives, using 'techniques of Buddhism wedded to a theistic approach.'" In addition Seager said, "A large number of highly trained Buddhist teachers in the United States come from a Jewish background." He is the author of Buddhism in America (Columbia, 1999), an examination of prominent communities and leading figures in a range of Buddhist traditions currently setting down roots in this country. Seager's latest book, Encountering the Dharma (University of California Press, March, 2006) offers a rare insider's look at Soka Gakkai Buddhism, one of Japan's most influential and controversial religious movements, and one that is experiencing explosive growth around the world.

Leide Cabral '10 contributed a chapter to a new book New Directions for Youth Development: The Case for Twenty-First Century Learning (Jossey-Bass). Cabral wrote about her experiences in the Citizen School program in Boston, which is headed by John Werner '92. Citizen Schools is an after-school program that focuses on hands-on learning apprenticeships and homework help. Cabral, who came to the U.S. from Cape Verde when she was four, wrote: "Before I was able to develop and expand my confidence, thinking and ability at Citizen Schools, I was an underachieving student with unrealized potential -- a common problem plaguing students, schools and families across America." Cabral went on to graduate from Boston Latin School and received a Posse Scholarship to Hamilton.