All News

Visiting Instructor of Japanese Minae Yamamoto Savas is the co-translator of the new book titled Virtual Kyoto, edited by Yano Keiji, Isoda Shigeru, Nakaya Tomoki, and Philip Brown (Nakanishiya Shuppan, Kyoto, 2007). This book introduces historic Kyoto’s past, present and even explores its future in virtual time and space. It is a part of the on-going larger interdisciplinary research project launched by Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. The project is funded by the Japanese Ministry of Science, Education, and Culture.

Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies, was awarded a generous grant from The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc. These funds, which Hamilton College is matching, will be used to support ACCESS students’ technology needs. Adair adds this to the more than $750,000 in grant and contract money that she has secured and turned over to Phyllis Breland, the new director of the ACCESS Pathways Program at Hamilton College this year.

An article titled “How Old is the New SDS?” by history professor Maurice Isserman appears in the March 2 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Chronicle Review. Isserman discussed the history of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organization in the 60s and compared the new incarnation of the organization with that of the previous era. He suggested that the current generation might be better off shifting its focus away from the past.

Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin attended two events in Washington, D.C., related to language development in February. She participated in a STARTALK meeting at the National Foreign Languages Center to work with a group of national leaders in the Arabic and Chinese language fields to put together a resource guide for the Arabic and Chinese programs as well as for building the infrastructure of these two language fields. She also participated in the U.S. Department of Education's International Education Programs Service (IEPS) conference on key issues related to language teaching, acquisition, and assessment.

The Diversity and Social Justice Project and the Dean of Faculty sponsored a visit and talk on Feb. 20 by three men who were among the 3,800 “Lost Boys of Sudan” resettled in the United States after being orphaned during the Sudanese civil war. Dut Deng, Machar Majok and Majer Anyang, along with thousands of other young Sudanese boys, were forced to flee their homes and live as refugees in the late 1980s during the conflict and were eventually resettled in Syracuse, N.Y. Deng spoke about the struggles of the Lost Boys, his gratitude to those who brought him to America, and his hopes for further American attention directed towards Sudan.

Dan Sloan, Jesse Thomas and Gretchen Maxam '98, members of Hamilton's Desktop Integration Services Team, ITS, presented the imaging system they use to deploy software images in the Academic Facilities to a group of peers at a NERCOMP Special Interest Group workshop on February 5. Their presentation, titled "From Inventory to Ctrl-Alt-Delete," illustrated how imaging can be automated almost to the push of a single button.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack announced on Feb. 23 that he is dropping out of the 2008 Democratic race for president. Vilsack was the first Democratic candidate to formally declare his candidacy, in November of last year. In announcing his withdrawal from the race Vilsack, who served as Iowa governor for two terms said, "The reality is that this process has become ... about money, a lot of money."

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Armando Bayolo presented a lecture on his works to the composition department at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music.  The presentation focused on Bayolo's works Ritornello, for chamber orchestra, his suite for wind ensemble, Fanfares, and Ludi, for two string quartets.

Soggy, the word that best described last year’s Febfest, was not applicable to Febfest 2007. In a case of feast or famine, with more than three feet of snow over a five-day period, the campus had too much snow to allow for several Febfest events, and classes were cancelled for a day and a half.

As members of a panel sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) at the National Press Club, Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren and neuroscience major Kateri Whitebean ’08 spoke on the value of undergraduate research. The event, held on Feb. 21, was organized to spark a national conversation on the topic by introducing CUR's new publication, Developing and Sustaining a Research-Supportive Curriculum: A Compendium of Successful Practices. Elgren and Kerry Karukstis, professor of chemistry at Harvey Mudd College who was also a presenter, co-edited the volume.