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Thadious Davis, G.C. Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University spoke to a crowded chapel Thursday as guest in a lecture series to commemorate Black History Month. The series celebrates the centennial of W.E.B. DuBois’s work, The Souls of Black Folk and Black History Month. Davis said of the book, “it is primarily a book deeply engaged in feeling.” She went on to say that it “changed forever the methodology of racial research and the language of racial discourse.” The lecture was sponsored by the President’s office, with assistance from the Black Student Union.

Alejandro Portes, director of the Princeton Center of Immigration and Development and former president of the American Sociological Society, spoke of his ongoing study of second-generation immigrants in the Chapel on Wednesday. Portes’ study showed that “the settlement process of second generation immigrants sets the course of adaptation, setting the character of immigrant’s ethnic communities.” Portes was the latest speaker in the Levitt Center’s year long lecture series on immigration and global citizenship.

Dr. Daniel Pipes gave his much-anticipated lecture to a crowded Chapel on Monday evening. His talk, titled, “The Palestinian-Israeli War: Where Did it come from, where is it going?” addressed several issues of the well known conflict and suggested the terms needed for any form of resolution. Pipes stated, “the way to deal with this threat is to defeat it.” Pipes is the director of the Middle East forum and a prize-winning columnist for the New York Post and the Jerusalem Post. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and the U.S. Naval War College.

Karsten Lund spent the majority of his summer in Morocco on a self designed project to explore the themes of tradition, modernization, age, youth and questions of identity in Morocco. Lund, a senior at Hamilton College, was the recipient of a Schambach grant which enabled him to remain in Morocco after his academic term abroad, in order to explore his chosen themes through the medium of photography. He will be exhibiting the 30 black and white photographs in an independent show on campus beginning on January 27.

Thursday evening the Hamilton College Chapel was filled with music from the college’s four a cappella groups on campus. Special K, one of the two all women’s groups, began the program with a combination of Holiday classics and popular rock hits. The Hamiltones, Hamilton’s co-ed a cappella group performed a number of pieces, concluding with “Roslind” written by their own Dan Hayes. Tumbling After, began and ended their performance with Holiday songs, but treated the audience to several rock selections including Merril Bainbridge’s “Mouth”. And the Buffer’s performed with their usual combination of humor and talent singing several rock classics and some “reworked” holiday favorites. For more information on Hamilton College a cappella check out the Performance Groups on the Student Activities page.

Director of the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center and Associate Professor of Economics Paul Hagstrom is leading a group of students in an independent study on immigration. The students have been researching immigration issues and creating a survey to measure current attitudes and stereotypes across the nation. The polling will be done by Zogby International once the students have finished running their own pilot tests. Seniors Paul P. Jones, Amanda Chase, Keith Foster, Lauren Goldblatt, Aaron Migdol, Katie McKeon and Jimmy Li; junior Brian Alward, and sophomore Erin Smith made the pilot calls. Hagstrom conducts research on the economic impact of immigrant populations.

Raja Halwani, assistant professor of philosophy at the School of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, gave a talk to the Hamilton community on October 28 titled, "The Just Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Halwani is the fifth speaker in the Levitt Public Affairs Center series on Immigration and Global Citizenship.

Professor of Anthropology Bonnie Urciuoli gave the second talk in Hamilton's Faculty Lecture Series on the varying meanings of the words "diversity and multiculturalism." Urciuoli shared data from her ongoing study of students at Hamilton and how the college environment has led them to change their use and definition of many terms associated with diversity and multiculturalism.

Samuel F. Pratt Professor of Mathematics Robert Redfield attended the International Conference on Modern Algebra at Vanderbilt University. The conference celebrated the 60th birthday of Ralph McKenzie. Redfield gave a talk titled "Lattice-ordered fields of quotients of group rings."

James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government Philip Klinkner gave a lecture titled "Is the Old Racism Really Dead" as the first guest in Hamilton's Faculty Lecture Series. He presented data he had collected concerning racial attitudes in Alabama and South Carolina based on a referenda in the two states that would remove a long dead law prohibiting blacks and whites to marry. Edgar B. Graves Professor of History Alfred Kelly asked Klinkner about what had drawn voters to the polls in each instance and if the draw had skewed his data. Klinkner admitted the electorate tends to skew more strongly toward the educated, but that both ballot items were included in high turn out elections, leaving the data relatively unskewed in that way. The next lecturer in the Faculty Lecture Series is scheduled for October 25.