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Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin conducted a workshop at National Capital Language Resource Center, 2007 Summer Institutes for Chinese Teachers, on May 21-23 in Washington, D.C.  The Institute's theme was "New Concepts in Teaching Chinese," and Jin's workshop focused on task-based language instruction.

Hamilton’s admission office has a new home. On Friday, June 1, at 11:30 a.m., the former Sigma Phi fraternity house, having undergone extensive renovation and expansion, will be dedicated in honor of Joy and Chet ’70 Siuda. Later on Friday at 4:30 p.m., the Annex will be formally dedicated and named in honor of Patricia and Winton ’28 Tolles.

Edward "Ned" Walker, Jr., '62, the Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Global Political Theory, contributed an op-ed to the San Diego Union-Tribune (5/23/07). In "Ending the Civil War in Gaza," Walker writes that "The Palestinians appear to be in an 'uncivil war' even as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are working toward serious dialogue on peace." Walker observes: "In my experience ... when there are any signs of progress toward a peaceful resolution of the issue through a two-state solution, Hamas, probably acting on instructions from its leaders in Damascus, will raise the temperature of violence to entice the Israelis into violent response and thus end this dangerous talk of peace."

Seventeen Kirkland College alumnae, some who are professional artists and others who pursue their art as an avocation, will participate in an exhibition during Hamilton's reunion weekend, May 31 – June 3, in the Emerson Gallery. The show titled “Inspirations” includes a wide range of works including paintings, sculpture, etchings, serigraphs, drawings, and photography using a variety of materials. The art represents a wide range of techniques and styles - from representational and narrative to experimental, enigmatic and challenging.

An independent task force established by the Council on Foreign Relations to examine changes in China and to evaluate what these changes mean for China and for the U.S.-China relationship has published its first report in the form of a book titled U.S.-China Relations: An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course. Cheng Li, William R. Kenan Professor of Government, is one of the task force members responsible for the report. The task force is chaired by Dennis Blair, former president and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analyses, and Carla Hills, chairman and CEO of Hills & Company and the former U.S. trade representative.

Three Hamilton faculty members have been appointed to named professorships, effective July 1. Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin has been appointed The William R. Kenan Professor; Associate Professor of Philosophy Marianne Janack was named The Sidney Wertimer Professor; and Professor of History Maurice Isserman has been appointed The James L. Ferguson Professor.

Associate Professor of History Lisa Trivedi has been named to the board of directors of AsiaNetwork. It is a consortium of more than 170 North American colleges that strives to strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of liberal arts education to help prepare succeeding generations of undergraduates for a world in which Asian societies play prominent roles in an ever more interdependent world.

Assistant Professor of English Katherine Terrell presented a paper titled "Orality and the Borders of Identity in the Old English 'Andreas'" at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, held at Western Michigan University on May 10-13. The paper addressed the complex symbolic interplay of food and speech in this Old English poem, arguing that the poem treats the mouth as the body’s most significant threshold, where the power of God to work through man manifests in the intersections of what is consumed and what is said.

Karen S. Brewer, professor of chemistry, and Mary B. O'Neill, director of the Quantitative Literacy Center, participated in the 11th annual meeting of the Northeast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy at Vassar College in April with a presentation about the process of developing a proposal to strengthen the QLit. Requirement at Hamilton College. They discussed the current requirement and highlighted the QLit. Committee's role in addressing the task of cultivating students' comfort level with numerical data and symbolic information while incorporating the college's goals, resources, and vision.

Hamilton College volunteers with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program calculated tax refunds for low-income residents of Oneida County totaling more than three times the dollar amount refunded in 2004, the year the program began.