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As part of Hamilton College’s Fallcoming celebration, NPR commentator/author Frank Deford will give the keynote lecture on Saturday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel, followed by a book signing and reception at 9 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.

Ann Frechette, the Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies, published "Sexuality, the Media, and Intercountry Adoption: Recent Changes in China-U.S. Adoption Policy," in Asian Anthropology, volume 3, August 2004. She was invited to serve, for the third year in a row, on the screening committee for the Social Science Research Council's International Dissertation Field Research (IDRF) program. Frechette also presented a paper, "Cultural Heritage in the China-U.S. Adoption Process:  Parental Intentions, Aspirations, and Rationalizations," on a panel on transracial adoption at the Boston Asian Students Intercollegiate Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in October.

It’s 8:59 a.m. and Sam Pellman is anxiously awaiting the start of Professor Edith Toegel’s third-semester German class. He did his homework, he studied his vocabulary, yet still he knows the next hour will be a tough one. He only hopes he can get through it without looking like a fool. Though he is sitting in an ordinary classroom, Pellman is no ordinary Hamilton student — he has been a member of the music department faculty for 24 years. What could possibly prompt a professor to take on such a venture while teaching a full course load? It’s the simple fact that Pellman is, he confesses, “one of those poor souls who just can’t give up on the idea of being a student.”

Author Dorothy Allison will give a lecture, “A Racecar named Desire: The Intersection of Class, Sex and Gender in Contemporary American Culture,” on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 4:10 p.m. in the Chapel. Allison is the award-winning author of Bastard Out of Carolina (Dutton Books, 1992), which was nominated for the National Book Award.  In another appearance at Hamilton, she will read from her upcoming novel, She Who, on Friday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel. It will be followed by a book-signing and reception at the Emerson Gallery.

Ceramic work by Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh was presented and discussed by Margaret Boozer at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C., in September. The panel discussion focused on the situation and perspectives of ceramic sculpture in Mexico and the United States. Also, her solo exhibition was featured at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, Calif., last summer. An artist talk accompanied “The Termination of the Production of Writing” in August. The exhibit was previewed in the June issue of Artweek.

Lecturer in Art Sylvia de Swaan presented a slide lecture in September on process and editing in relation to her long-term photographic projects at Chester College. She also exhibited work at Periferic Biennal, at the Vector Foundation, Iasi, Romania, and at "Un-staged" international group exhibition, Amsterdam, Netherlands. de Swaan has also been invited to serve on the board of directors of Light Work, an international residency and exhibition program for photographic arts in Syracuse, N.Y.      

Award-winning biographer Ron Chernow spoke in the Hamilton College Chapel on Sept. 30, delivering a lively lecture titled "Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Imagined America." Chernow discussed the academic, personal and professional life of the first secretary of the treasury.  

The Levitt Public Affairs Center held a DebateWatch event for Hamilton students, faculty, staff and community members on Sept. 30. A large crowd gathered to watch the first presidential debate on television. After the Bush-Kerry debate concluded, the TV was turned off, and some of the viewers stayed around to discuss their impressions in small groups moderated by members of the Hamilton College Debate Society. Two more DebateWatch events will be held on Oct. 8 and Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. in the Bristol Hub.

Dee Britton, visiting instructor in sociology, presented a paper for the 2004 Conference of the International Visual Sociology Association held in San Francisco in August. The paper was titled "Memory in Stone: From ‘Lest you forget’ to ‘We won’t forget’" and examined memorials and public policy implications in memorialization projects.  

Kirk Ormand, professor of classics at Oberlin College, gave the classics department's Winslow Lecture on Sept. 29. His talk, titled "Electra In Exile," focused on the political and social meaning of setting, gender, and exile in Euripides' version of the Electra myth. The talk was part of the Winslow Classical and Archaeological Lectureship.