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Former Iowa Governor Thomas J. Vilsack '72 has been named to co-chair a Council on Foreign Relations independent task force formed to make U.S. policy recommendations for international engagement on climate change. Vilsack, an attorney with the Des Moines, Iowa, office of Dorsey & Whitney, and former New York Governor George E. Pataki will lead a 30-person task force that will examine the economics, science and politics of climate change.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) President Myles Brand spoke to a packed Hamilton College Chapel on Tuesday, Oct. 2, about the alignment of intercollegiate athletics and higher education. Brand made a case for the continued link of the two institutions, stating that athletics is “connected to higher education because, and only because, it helps educate.”

Associate Professor of Art History Stephen J. Goldberg presented a paper titled “Frames of Engagement: Video Podcasts and the Teaching of Chinese Culture and Society” on the panel “Sharing Expertise: Podcasts and Web Units for Students and Teachers of Asian Studies” and chaired a panel on “Teaching Together: Simulcasts and Guest Lectures on Asian Studies” at the 2007 Symposium on Asia and the Curriculum. The symposium was held at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs on Sept. 28. “Frames of Engagement” represented a reflection on the suite of six digital video podcasts on which Goldberg and Michael Viveiros, a senior majoring in Asian studies, had collaborated with the support of an Emerson Research Grant this past summer.

Chad Williams, assistant professor of history, has published an article in the current issue of The Journal of African American History. His article, “Vanguards of the New Negro: African American Veterans and Post-World War I Racial Militancy,” examines the participation of African American veterans in several post-war black radical organizations, and how their physical and symbolic presence informed the broader ideological tenor of the New Negro movement. The article is drawn from Williams’ larger forthcoming book project, Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers and the Era of the First World War. The Journal of African American History, founded in 1916 by Carter G. Woodson, is the leading peer-reviewed journal devoted to African American life and history.

In a Reuters article published by The Washington Post, Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History, commented on the reasons behind dwindling crowds of protestors as opposition to the Iraq War mounts. “Largely absent from the actions are young people, who were the majority of Vietnam-era protesters -- perhaps because they do not risk being drafted into the military or from a sense that they can express their opposition to the war on the Internet, rather than on the streets.” 

The annual Clinton Community Fall Fest will take place on Sunday, Oct. 7, from noon to 3 p.m. on the Village Green in Clinton. Fall Fest is an event that was started in 2002 by Hamilton's Class of 2005 to promote and strengthen the relationship between Hamilton College and the village of Clinton. It is free and open to the public.

Laura Purdy, the McCullough Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy, authored an article titled "Is Preconception Sex Selection Necessarily Sexist?" on Sept. 28, 2007, in Reproductive BioMedicine Online. It will also be published in the next Ethics Supplement issue of the upcoming December print volume. 

Director of Financial Aid Matt Malatesta participated on WIBX's "Speak Out Show" with U.S. Congressman Michael Arcuri on Saturday, Oct. 6, at 9 a.m. in a discussion of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The bill was signed into law by President Bush on Sept. 27.

Austin Briggs, the Hamilton B. Tompkins Professor and Lecturer in English Literature emeritus, was honored for his 50 years of teaching at Hamilton during Fallcoming 2007 weekend. The English Department sponsored a day-long symposium on the poet James Joyce, on whose work Briggs is an expert.  Joyce scholars from across the U.S., Canada, Dublin, London and York participated, as well as current and former students of Briggs. Among the panelists was John Gordon '67, an English professor at Connecticut College and former student of Briggs who has published three books on Joyce.

Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, is quoted extensively in the Oct. 15 issue of TIME magazine in "The Man to See." The article analyzes the leadership of China's president Hu Jintao and the forces and issues within the government that he must address. Li describes the two distinct factions within the government, the populists led by Hu and his allies, and the élitists, made up of so-called princelings--children of top officials--and supporters of former President Jiang Zemin. They represent "two starkly different sociopolitical and geographical constituencies," according to Li.