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"I hate to use this word," explained a smiling Dan Chambliss, the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology, "but it was a 'unique' event – it brought together students from about seven different courses." The event in question was Bowling Night, in which about 200 students and faculty gathered in the Chapel on Dec. 2 to discuss a widely debated article by political scientist Robert D. Putnam.

Jane Springer, visiting assistant professor of English, has been awarded a 2009 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship for poetry. The NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established, bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

Katherine H. Terrell, assistant professor of English, published a paper on the Middle English poem "Pearl" in the fall 2008 issue of Studies in Philology. Titled "Rethinking the 'Corse in clot': Cleanness, Filth, and Bodily Decay in 'Pearl,'" the article argues that the poem's examination of death, grief, and Christian consolation hinges upon the symbolic opposition and resolution of the images of pearl and corpse.

Associate Professor of Theatre Craig Latrell's article "Exotic Dancing: Performing Tribal and Regional Identities in East Malaysia's Cultural Villages" has been published in TDR:The Drama Review, Winter 2008. The article, based on research conducted over the past several years, concerns the way tourist shows in Southeast Asia contain coded statements about cultural ownership, tribal relations to the state, and the state's relation to international tourist markets.  Latrell's research was supported by funds from the Mellon Foundation and the Christian Johnson Foundation.

Avery Rizio '09 presented her second consecutive poster at the annual Psychonomic Society Meeting in Chicago on Nov. 15. Psychonomics is the annual gathering place for the top researchers in the field of cognitive psychology to discuss their research findings. The poster outlined the work Rizio conducted this past summer and is an extension of the work that she has been conducting over the past three years with Makiko Maeyama '09, Jennifer Sadowsky '08, Leigh Ercole '11, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Mark Oakes and Professor of Psychology Penny Yee. Previous work by Rizio and colleagues was presented in Long Beach, Calif., last November.

Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren presented a lecture titled "Harnessing the Power of an Enzyme: Catalytically Active Biomaterials" on Dec. 1 as part of the University of Wisconsin - Madison Biochemistry Department's seminar series focused on Biofuels. Elgren presented the work of several of his Hamilton undergraduate collaborators, including Trevor Pedrick '10, Sydney Fasulo '09, Christina Clark '10, Nick Berry '09, and Amy Barrows '08, who have contributed to their ongoing efforts to trap enzymes in functional materials.

Robert Spiegelman, sociologist, multimedia artist and writer, will present a lecture in the Speakers in the Humanities series on Friday, Dec. 5, at 11 a.m. and again at noon in the Kirner-Johnson Auditorium at Hamilton. The lecture, titled "The Wild, Wild East: New York's Drama of Westward Expansion," is free and open to the public.

Allison Eck '12 contributed a column to The Buffalo News titled "Tips for success: Highlighters, to-do lists, naps" (11/26/08). Eck writes occasional columns for the newspaper about her experiences as a college freshman. In the most recent piece, Eck wrote "College requires time management because it is several times more difficult to get all your work done than it was in high school. Each professor will expect that you place his or her class at the top of your priority list. Obviously, this is impossible, and so the challenge is to balance quality and efficiency when you study."

Robert Morris '76, founder of private equity firm Olympus Partners and member of the Hamilton Investment Committee, was profiled in The Deal Newsweekly in its Dec. 1 issue. The publication is an "award-winning business and financial newsweekly offering insightful coverage of the business transactions that fuel corporate growth," according to the magazine's Web site. "Power of Regeneration" focused on Morris' philanthropic projects and specifically his work with the Polio Foundation.

Science Magazine published a study titled "Multi-University Research Teams: Shifting Impact, Geography, and Stratification in Science" in its Nov. 21 issue that included Hamilton in an analysis of research trends in higher education. Hamilton was ranked 15th in a group of 662 colleges and universities in citations per faculty member and 24th in citations per paper in science and engineering.