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A New York State historical marker commemorating the founding of Hamilton College by missionary Samuel Kirkland will be rededicated on the Hamilton campus on Sunday, July 2, as part of Historic Clinton Week.

Sylvia de Swaan, visiting instructor in art, has been awarded a New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in photography. de Swaan is one of 117 New York artists to receive a NYFA grant this year. More than 4,400 artists applied for the 2006 NYFA Fellowships in the following disciplines: architecture/environmental structures, choreography, fiction, music composition, painting, photography, playwriting/screenwriting and video. Fellows are selected by peer panels in each discipline. Eighteen photographers were among this year’s fellowship recipients.

Assistant Professor of Music Heather Buchman made a one-time appearance with the Excelsior Cornet Band for its performance at the 10th annual Chenango Summer MusicFest on June 17 in Hamilton, N.Y. She is pictured here holding the over-the-shoulder Eb Alto Horn. "The Excelsior Cornet Band is New York State's only authentic Civil War brass band. Founded in 2001, the band consists of a group of upstate New York musicians who are dedicated to the performance of original Civil War music on actual antique brass band instruments of the 1860's period." From the band's web site: http://www.excelsiorcornetband.com/

Ernest Williams, the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Biology, presented at the annual meeting of the Lepidopterists' Society, held at the University of Florida, Gainesville, June 14-18. He gave a talk (coauthored with Associate Professor of Biology Bill Pfitsch) titled "Frosted Elfin Butterflies and Management of their Habitat." He has been secretary of the Society for the past eight years, so also participated in the business meetings. This is an international society focused on the scientific study of butterflies and moths. Attendees came from 13 countries and 33 states; the countries included Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Canada and the USA.

Some people never stop. Michael Mortimer ’07 (Montague, N.J.) spent last summer based on campus researching the friendship between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. This summer, he finds himself several hundred miles south and several hundred years later as, with Peter Cannavo, visiting assistant professor of government, he researches human-induced saltwater intrusions in the Upper Floridian aquifer.

Brian J. Glenn, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Government, presented a paper titled, "The Lessons and Legacies of State Old Age Pensions" at the biannual Policy History Conference at the University of Virginia.  The paper examines the remarkably successful campaign by the Fraternal Order of Eagles to bring non-contributory pensions to the elderly prior to the Social Security Act of 1935.  The conference also hosted two panels on Glenn's co-edited project on conservatives and American political development.

William Hoffman ’07 (Baltimore, Md.) received an Emerson research grant to pursue a project in geosciences with Barbara Tewksbury, the William R. Kenan Professor of Geology. His project, titled “Reconnaisance Study of Deformation Bands in Palagonitic Tuffs in Iceland,” will take him to Iceland to collect samples to be studied at Hamilton.

Derek C. Jones, The Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics at Hamilton and a visiting professor at the Helsinki School of Economics, recently published an article titled “The Determinants of Stock Option Compensation: Evidence from Finland” in the academic journal Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society. His co-authors were Panu Kalmi and Mikko Makinen.

Elena Filekova ’08 (Gabrovo, Bulgaria) is a double major in mathematics and economics and has taken numerous Hamilton economics courses in which she learned, understandably, a great deal about the U.S. economy. She is also well-read in EU economic development. She was surprised, however, to learn how little had been published about her own country of Bulgaria, set to enter the EU in 2007. What was the preparation for this entry doing to Bulgaria’s economy? What effects would this have on states already in the EU or future members? No one had dealt with these questions and Filekova, interested, applied for and was granted a Levitt Research Fellowship to study the macroeconomic effects of the Bulgarian integration into the European Union.

Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh has work exhibited at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. The group exhibition titled “Everson Biennial: Beauty is in the Eye of the Artist” features the work of Central New York artists who address nature, people, dreams and abstraction. Claire Schneider, associate curator of contemporary art at Albright Knox curated the exhibition which runs until August 20. For directions and more information visit www.everson.org.