All News

De Bao Xu, professor of Chinese and chair of the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department, was invited as external reviewer to review the Chinese Program and the Chinese Study Abroad Program at Syracuse University in February. The Syracuse Chinese Program has a large enrollment of more than 200 students in its first year and second year Chinese. Its Chinese Studies Abroad Program has two tracks, one goes to Tsing Hua University, Beijing, built in 2005; the other goes to City University, Hong Kong, established in 1997. Professor Stephanie A. H. Divo, coordinator of the Chinese Program at Cornell University, also served as external reviewer.

Eleven Hamilton students participated in the Harvard National Model United Nations conference at the Boston Park Plaza on Feb.14-17. The conference consisted of approximately 3,000 delegates from 30 different countries. Samantha Power, a 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning author on the U.N. and the Rwandan genocide and professor at Harvard University, delivered a speech about leadership in international policy for the opening ceremony.

L'impair de la nation, a novel by Associate Professor of French Joseph Mwantuali, was reviewed on February 8, 2008, in Reperes, a Cameroonian newspaper. The book was published by Les Editions Cle in September 2007. The reviewer praises Mwantuali for "giving to the African Woman a place that few African authors have dared to give her: the position of president." 

During the week of Feb. 18, Douglas Raybeck, professor of anthropology emeritus, presented two papers and participated on a panel at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research in New Orleans.

Harris Miller, former president of the Information Technology Association of America and CEO of the Career College Association, presented a lecture at Hamilton titled "Can America Still Cut It? Thoughts About the American Worker in the Age of Global Competition" on Feb. 19. Miller called for "a new covenant with the American workforce" and a focus on skills education in order to rebuild the American middle class.

Students in Boston's Citizen Schools program 8th Grade Academy are spending three days exploring the Hamilton campus this week in their fourth consecutive visit to the Hill. Citizen Schools is a national education initiative utilizing adult volunteers to help improve student achievement through skill-building apprenticeships, rigorous academic and leadership development activities and real world learning projects.

Derek Jones, Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics, has accepted an invitation to join the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Co-operative Studies. His membership on the editorial board of the Annals of Public and Cooperative Economy has also been renewed.

Donald Martin Carter, visiting associate professor of Africana Studies, presented a paper at the Center for African Studies Gwendolen M. Carter conference at the University of Florida, Gainesville, on Feb. 15-16. Carter's paper was titled "Navigating Diaspora: Shipwrecks, Identity and the Nation." This year's conference theme was "Migration in and out of Africa: old patterns & new perspectives."

Marla L. Jaksch, visiting assistant professor of women's studies, published a co-authored article in the February 2008 issue of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Scholarship. The article, titled "Developing Excellence in Indigenously Informed Research: Collaboration between African Communities and the Academy," explores a community-based participatory research strategy called Community Driven Development (CDD).

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper at the 16th annual conference of the National Association of African-American Studies (NAAAS) held in Baton Rouge, La., on Feb 11-16. His paper, "The 'Quiet' Pan-Africanist: The significance, work and scholarship of Eusi Kwayana of Guyana and his impact on Pan Africanism" assesses the scope of Eusi Kwayana's pan-africanism. It evaluates why, in spite of his substantial literary, cultural and political output over time, Kwayana is scarcely accredited in pan-Africanist historiography and scholarship.