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Celeste Friend, visiting assistant professor of philosophy, presented her paper, “Rawls, Abortion, and the Liberal Problem of Personhood,” at a Kirkland Project  lunch talk on October 20. Friend, presented (not endorsed) an argument against abortion rights that could be derived from Rawls’s argument in his renowned book, A Theory of Justice. Friend admitted that his argument may seem “counter-intuitive,” as Rawls is considered to have a rather liberal conception of society. The lecture was sponsored by the Kirkland Project.

Joe Lewis, a 1974 graduate of Hamilton and the current dean of the School of Art and Design at Alfred University, presented a lecture titled “Community, Diversity and Patience: Art as a Verb,” on October 19 in the Kirner-Johnson Auditorium. The lecture was the first sponsored by the newly independent art department and the Office for Multicultural Affairs.

Dave Lupinski, director of recycling for the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority, spoke to students on Oct. 19 about the two-county region's recycling program, as well as recycling efforts at Hamilton.

Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies Ann Frechette conducted a Chinese culture workshop for families adopting children from China on October 17 at the Children's Museum in Boston.  She lectured on China's ancient history, modern history, Chinese language, and families, festivals and food.  Frechette's lectures provide opportunities for her to conduct surveys and interviews for a book she is writing on China-U.S. adoptions and the disparities in the adoption process among different Chinese provinces.

Professor of Biology Jinnie Garrett published an article in the October 2004 issue of BioScience (Vol 10, 942-949, 2004) titled,  "A Three-Tiered Approach to Enhance Undergraduate Education in Bioethics." This work is the result of a collaboration with Lori Zaikowski, chair of chemistry at Dowling College. The article discusses various mechanisms for including bioethics throughout the science curriculum and include two recent developments in the curriculum at Hamilton College: the intensive introductory course Bio115  (Biology: Fundamentals and Frontiers) and the sophomore seminar Soph220  (Forever Wild: The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondack Park).

Visiting Professor of Communication John Adams and Joshua Huling ‘05 presented a poster at the 7th Annual International Workshop on Presence at Polytechnic University of Valencia in Valencia, Spain, October 13-15. The poster, “Video Cellphones, War, and Vidblinks: Exploring the Rhetorical Constraints of Time and Place,” was also authored by Instructional Technology Specialist Janet Simons.  The goal of the PRESENCE 2004 conference is to bring together academic researchers in the area of media and presence, content and technology developers, and interested commercial parties so they can meet, share experiences, present research and exchange ideas.

Assistant Professor of Japanese Masaaki Kamiya presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Michigan Linguistics Society at the University of Michigan.  In his talk, Kamiya argued that noun phrases of natural languages obtain morphological case markings (including attributive adjectives and determiners) freely at the phonetic form of the computational system of the human mind.  For evidence, Kamiya offered the historical change of case-marking of Japanese attributive adjectives and the initial production of Japanese children's attributive adjectival constructions.  In addition, Kamiya examined why English lost its case marking on attributive adjectives that were rich in Old English. 

Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, was interviewed for BBC Analysis on Friday, Oct. 16.  Li discussed French-China-U.S. relations in light of French President Jacques Chirac's renewed calls for the European Union to lift its arms embargo on China.

Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Literature Kyoko Omori presented a paper and organized a panel at the Modernist Studies Association conference held in Vancouver in October. She gave the paper, “Marketing Modanizumu: New Youth Magazine, Vernacular Modernism and Detective Fiction,” and was organizer of “The ‘Others’ of East Asian Modernisms: Literati, Detectives, and Kung Fu Masters.” Omori also received a Freeman Foundation Research Grant in Asian Studies in July, and was referee for Japan Review and Comparative Literature.

The Alumni Council met on the Hill during a glorious Fallcoming Weekend. Temperatures soared into the low 80’s. A record 59 council members made the trip to the Hill. Weekend council activity included:   Fallcoming Photo GalleryCelebration of Service dinner on Friday evening: The Alumni Council presented our Volunteer of the Year award to Dick Couper '44 for his years of dedicated service to the College. Three College Key Awards were presented to Ed Deci '64, John Villios '73 and Alan Silverman '76. Congratulations and thank you! Council Business - Council Expansion: The Executive Committee of the Alumni Council agreed to expand Alumni Council Membership to include Class Agents, as part of the Class Leadership Committee, and GOLD group chairs, as part of the Regional Affairs Committee. The Council approved these recommendations noting that expansion provides "...means of better serving both the College and our alumni constituency ... creates a basis for a stronger, deeper, more far-reaching Alumni Council." Multicultural Alumni - Students Mentoring Kick-off Event: A weekend highlight included the inaugural mentoring event sponsored by the Multicultural Alumni Relations Committee (MARC). Over 80 people attended including more than 20 alumni mentors, over 50 students and members of the College community at large. Kudos are extended to MARC chair Torrence Moore '92 and mentoring committee chair Laura Hsieh '93 and the MARC committee members who contributed to this program inauguration. Alumni Council Welcomes new Alumni Association (AA) Regional Presidents: The Council extended their welcome to new AA presidents who include: Bruce Gaylord '70 and Alexandra Stevens '95 in Fairfield County; Sara Shapiro Haberson '97 and Justin Haberson '96 in Philadelphia along with Lynne Salkin '00 the Philadelphia GOLD chair; Liz Holland '87 in Chicago; Dan Murdock in Westchester County and Bill Gaden '84 (as co-president with Susan Bacot '88) in New York City. AA presidents offer alumni their leadership and energy to help foster educational and social events in the association areas where we live and work. A current schedule of Regional AA events is found here