All News
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Jordan Shedlock, a rising junior at Hamilton, published a letter to the editor in the Philadelphia Inquirer (6/14/04). Shedlock responded to a columnist who claimed Ronald Reagan was responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Any responsible scholar must acknowledge that by the early 1980s the USSR was stagnating under the ineffective reign of Leonid Brezhnev and the ensuing leadership crisis as members of the gerentocracy rapidly died off," wrote Shedlock. "By the late 1980s the Soviet Union was losing its grip on its satellites and its constituent republics alike," he said. "The Soviet Union would have collapsed...All Reagan accomplished was to hasten it and make it happen on his watch." Shedlock, a history major, is a resident of Wallingford, Pa.
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Associate Professor of History Shoshana Keller will serve on the steering committee for an international teaching and research resource project developed by the Social Science Research Council. The two-year project, titled "Histories of Central Asia," received funding from the Department of Education and should start work in the fall. The project will create an on-line "teaching resource tool" on comparative histories of Central Asia.
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Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, was quoted in The Business Times commenting on the suspension of Margaret Ren, Zhao Ziyang’s daughter-in-law, from Citigroup (06/25/04). Ren was suspended for allegedly giving "false information to the company and its regulators." The article stated: "Cheng Li, professor of government at Hamilton College in the United States, was quoted as saying that the trend of younger, more professional and Western-educated princelings joining China's international business, especially investment banking, may have increased in recent years." Li is the author of the book, China's Leaders: The New Generation.
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Director of Technical Services Connie Roberts served on the program planning committee for the North American Serials Interest Group Annual Conference in Milwaukee, June 17-20. NASIG is a professional association of librarians, publishers and vendors concerned with journal publishing. Roberts helped plan programs on developing pricing models for electronic resources and recent trends in scholarly publishing. She also initiated the first joint session between NASIG and members of the National Women's Studies Association who were also meeting in Milwaukee.
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As a sociology major, Becky Conrey ’05 (Burnt Hills, NY) knows what it is like to study human behavior and social norms. However, even after her extensive coursework in the field, Conrey still had some lingering questions about social norms, deviant behavior, and its effect on identity construction. In order to answer these questions, Conrey will collaborate with Hamilton College Sociology Professor Jenny Irons on an Emerson Summer Research Project titled “Identity Construction within Relationships Socially Marked as Deviant.”
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Susan Sanchez-Casal, associate professor of Spanish and women's studies, is among the organizers of the "Future of Minority Studies Conference" held at Cornell University from June 24-27. Future of Minority Studies (FMS) is a national research project composed of a broad group of scholars (faculty and students) and universities devoted to research, scholarship and pedagogy involving minority identity, education and social transformation. Hamilton College will co-sponsor a one-day pedagogy retreat, "Conceptualizing the Realist Classroom" during the conference.
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Emily Lemanczyk '05 contributed a column to the Syracuse Post-Standard about her recent trip to Kenya with Government Professor Steve Orvis' class, "Seminar and Field School in Kenya: What Difference Does Democracy Make." In her column, Lemanczyk, a resident of Syracuse, advised college and high school students to take advantage of opportunities to travel. "It was an experience of a lifetime. It was risky, uncomfortable, surreal, draining and rewarding all at the same time -- 14 days of grueling volunteer work, sightseeing, lectures and traveling that I will remember for the rest of my life," she wrote.
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Stephen Bonta, the Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Music Emeritus, has been elected to honorary membership in the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music. SSCM is dedicated to the study and performance of 17th-century music and related arts. The society currently includes more than 280 members plus 100 additional international subscribers to its electronic newslist.
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Reunions 2004 were an occasion for alumnae of Kirkland College to reconnect with one another. An article about the Open Mic event, authored by Kate Faison Spencer '79, follows ... We had a very energetic meeting about Kirkland, reconnecting with each other and with Hamilton, at the recent Reunion '04. Twelve women from the Class of '79 registered for the weekend, and there were ten who attended this discussion, joined by three Kirkland '74 graduates and a male '79 class member. There were two Hamilton contacts at the meeting, Erin Martinovich, who organized the reunion events for our class of '79 and Doug Raybeck, currently a Hamilton anthropology professor and fondly remembered as one of the outstanding Kirkland faculty members. The intention of the meeting was to explore the impact of the Hamilton/Kirkland merger on each of us. As we spoke, it was immediately apparent that issues raised were largely due to poor communication between Hamilton College and Kirkland students since 1978. By bringing our various perspectives to the meeting, with the assistance of written communication from Sam Babbitt, we were able to finally understand the chronological course of events in their wider historical context. Each direct communication was met by the group with the spirit of cooperation, as we heard about experiences of Kirkland students, faculty members and alumnae from 1978 forward. Erin fielded questions about contemporary processes at Hamilton. Her presence was invaluable and has already proved instrumental in the construction of possible responses at the College. Some simple but meaningful changes are anticipated in the Hamilton database, Website and magazine as a result of being heard. As Sam Babbitt describes the current situation in writing: "Many of us who were at Kirkland have had conflicted feelings about all that transpired in the difficult years when you were students on the Hill. The good news is that Hamilton College is, today, so welcoming to Kirkland people and so open in their acknowledgment of the part that Kirkland played in the evolution of Hamilton over these past decades. It was not always so, and to find it there now is a matter of great delight - and it augurs well for the health of the institution." For those alumnae who are still looking for a glimmer of Kirkland in the Hamilton institution, some exciting new prospects now exist. Without prescription or expectation on my part, allow me to invite you to come back through the open door. Kate Faison Spencer '79
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William R. Kenan Professor of Government Cheng Li was quoted in an article in the South China Morning Post. The article discussed Merrill Lynch’s stunning rise to the top of the initial public offering (IPO) business in China in 2004. Many competitors attribute the company’s success to government ties it has gained access to through one new employee, Wilson Feng. "Some studies show that a large number of [Chinese] officials in investment banking. . .are princelings," Li said.
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