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William Julius Wilson, the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of the Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, spoke Monday evening to a packed Hamilton Chapel. His lecture was titled "Roots of Racial Tensions: Immigration and the Realities of Today's Urban Ethnic Neighborhoods." Wilson concluded, “If you want to change things, don’t try to get people to change their attitude, create situations which minimize racial tension- the best way to fight racism in American is to achieve low unemployment.” He is the second speaker in the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center’s year-long series on Immigration and Global Citizenship.

A panel of the Social Justice Conference brought together alumni from diverse backgrounds in grassroots activism and government bureaucracy with a common theme – how to effectively bring about social change. The panel was moderated by Nathaniel Hurd '99, associate, Iraq Sanctions Project, Center for Economic and Social Rights.

Darlene Clark Hine, the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of History at Michigan State University and a noted author, will give a lecture, “Black Professionals and Race Consciousness: The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement 1890-1950," on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m, in the Chapel at Hamilton College. This is the first lecture in the Christine Johnson Voices of Color Lecture Series, with sponsorship from the Africana Studies department and the President's Office. It is free and open to the public.

Dr. Helen Small, Visiting Pembroke Scholar from Oxford University, will visit the Hamilton campus from October 8 through 18. Dr. Small, the author of Medicine, the Novel, and Female Insanity, 1800-1865 (Clarendon Press) and the editor of The Public Intellectual (Blackwell Publishers), specializes in 19th century English literature and science. Dr. Small will give a lecture, "Chances Are: Thomas Hardy and the Individual at Risk," on Wednesday, October 9, at 4:10 p.m. in the Red Pit, Kirner-Johnson Building. The lecture is sponsored by the President's Office and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.

China expert and professor of government Cheng Li was quoted in a Reuters article about China’s Fourth generation. This generation of China’s political leaders was among tens of millions of China’s “sent-down” youths and banished cadres of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution who met grim rural realities, a violent ideological climate and bitter disillusionment. “This event was a catastrophe for the nation but could be an asset for an individual’s growth,” said Li. He defines the forth generation as those party officials born between 1941 and 1956. Many analysts say the leaders will stay on the road toward collective leadership paved by their immediate predecessors and tackle social threats to stability like unemployment, welfare and peasant tax burden.

Shauna Sweet '03 spent a week at Brigham Young University studying returned missionaries as part of her yearlong senior fellowship. She is looking at the social organization of life transitions. Sweet is studying the returning missionaries and missionaries in the field because "it's very difficult to be reflective and critical of an experience you are in the middle of," said Sweet, adding, "there are a lot that missionaries go through that we don't know and we don't see, especially when it comes to how missionaries interact with each other." Sweet is also studying the Appalachian Trail "thru-hikers" and amateur jazz musicians.

Stephen Wu, assistant professor of economics, and James Bradfield, professor of economics, are quoted in a Journal News (North edition) article about the stock market and consumer confidence. "A lot of this is all about expectations and psychology and not much more than that," Wu said about the interrelationship between low consumer confidence and the Dow Jones industrial average closing lows and vice versa. "Publicly traded companies often raise money to invest in their operations by selling new issues of their own shares. But when the market is as poor as it is now, that becomes a less attractive option," said Bradfield. This causes 401(k)s and pension plans to erode, nevertheless, many people have taken advantage of the slump to borrow money for cars and houses or to refinance homes with the currently low interest rates.

Former faculty member Lucy Ferriss will read from her recent fiction work on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m. in the Fillius Events barn. The reading is free, open to the public, and sponsored by the English Department as a part of its Fall 2002 Reading Series. Ferriss is a former Hamilton faculty member and the author of six volumes of fiction, most recently the novel, Nerves of the Heart, available now from the University of Tennessee Press. Ferriss is currently writer-in-residence at Trinity College.

Douglas Massey, outgoing president of the American Sociological Association, will present “Mexican Immigration: Consequences of Failed U.S. Policies” on Monday, Oct. 14, at 8 p.m. in the Hamilton Chapel. Massey will examine how the social and economic fabric of Mexico and the U.S. has been affected by U.S.immigration policies. This lecture is part of a series on "immigration and global citizenship" sponsored by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.

Robert P. Moses '56, H'91, author, mathematician and civil rights activist, gave the keynote address at the "Making Change - Working for Social Justice Conference" organized by the Kirkland Project. His talk was on "The Presumption of Innocence, Sharecropper Education and America's Ideals."