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Visiting Assistant Professor of English Katherine Terrell participated in a panel on "Medieval Canonicity" at the American Comparative Literature Association conference at Pennsylvania State University, March 11-13. She presented a paper titled "Literary Genealogy and Poetic Authority in Dunbar's Verse."

Seven Hamilton students and a faculty member are traveling to Cuba over spring break to study the impact of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuban education, health care and social services. Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies Danielle DeMuth is leading the group of students that include Hilary King ‘05, Kris Rios ‘05, Jackie Kook ‘05, Emily Kerr ‘05, Shana Weinberg ‘05, Latoya Malcolm ‘06 and Elaine Martinez ‘07.  Funding for the trip was provided by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton and the trip was facilitated by the Witness for Peace Organization.

Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, was quoted in the Reuters article "China PM true to 'man of the people' image," on Monday, March 14. The article focused on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his annual news conference. According to the article, "For many, Wen's loyal character is summed up in a black and white photograph taken two weeks before the bloody military crackdown that ended the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989. The picture shows a wooden-faced Wen standing next to then Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang as he made an emotional appeal to students to leave. Zhao was purged days later and lived under house arrest until his death in January." "Jiang [Zemin] certainly saw the picture and the Rumors said that he was actually impressed by the way Wen Jiabao handled that crisis," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics.

Assistant Professor of Government Yael Aronoff recently participated in two panels at the International Studies Association Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 1-5. She presented a paper titled "Leadership and Foreign Policy Change: The Enigma of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon" on the panel, Leaders and Leadership in Foreign Policy Decision Making. Aronoff also chaired and acted as a discussant on another panel, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Foreign Policy Decision Making.

Professor of English Edward Wheatley will give a lecture drawn from his book project, Stumbling Blocks Before the Blind: Medieval Constructions of a Disability, for Quodlibet, the student medieval studies group at Cornell University, on Thursday, March 17 at 4:30 p.m. He is also a visiting scholar at Cornell this year.

Jim Memmott '64, a senior editor and columnist at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, wrote about the legacy of the late Sidney Wertimer, long-time professor of economics at Hamilton, for a column in the paper (3/12/05). Memmott noted that Hamilton has been in the news lately because of the Ward Churchill speech controversy. Memmott wrote: "On Feb. 1, the college president canceled the speech, saying that death threats against her and Churchill raised serious issues of public safety. As it happened, on that same day, Sidney Wertimer, a longtime professor of economics at Hamilton, died. He was 84. For generations of Hamilton students, and certainly for me, that death was bigger news than the controversy surrounding Churchill. Controversies, however serious, come and go. Sidney Wertimer, on the other hand, had staying power," wrote Memmott.  

Winslow Professor and Chair of Chemistry George Shields and Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner attended the 45th Sanibel Symposium on Atomic, Molecular, Biophysical, and Condensed Matter Theory, March 5-10,  at St. Simons Island, Ga.  They were accompanied by their research students, Tim Evans '05, Katrina Lexa '05, Frank Pickard '05 and Meghan Dunn '06. Lexa won the award for top undergraduate student poster at the conference.

Hamilton's Mock Trial team has received a last minute invitation to compete in the American Mock Trial Association national championships, being hosted by Stetson University College of Law, St. Petersburg, Fla., on March 11-13. Six students will travel to Florida to compete in this prestigious event.

Bridging Minds Across the Pacific, a new book edited by Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, offers an examination of Chinese students who have studied in the U.S. since the late 1970s and have returned to China. This volume of essays focuses on how these students have contributed to shaping their home country, especially in social science curricular development, program-building, research and public policy formation. It explores whether sweeping educational exchanges between these two profoundly different countries have promoted productive mutual understanding. Li is also the author of China's Leaders: The New Generation (2001) and Rediscovering China: Dynamics and Dilemmas of Reform (1997).

Donald F. Kettl, professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, gave a lecture titled "The Next Government of the United States: Strategies for 21st Century Government" on March 7 as part of the Levitt Center's 2004-2005 speaker series. Kettl discussed the new problems and persistent challenges of governance in the 21st century, and offered some solutions for creating a more "responsive and responsible" government.