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Hamilton College students Joey Campanella '08, Benjamin Critton '06, Sarah Felder '07 and Liz Herring '08 are participating in the "Speak Out" art exhibition at the Utica Library. This regional Juried College Student Art Exhibition includes work by students from Hamilton College, Colgate, Syracuse University and the Munson-Pratt at Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute. The exhibition will run until March 31. The library is located at 303 Genesee Street in Utica.

Associate Professor of French Martine Guyot-Bender and Associate Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Patterson have been awarded Class of 1963 Faculty Fellowships.

Gregg Mitman, professor of science and technology studies at the University of Wisconsin, will speak on Breathing Space: An Ecological History of Allergy in America, on Monday, Feb. 20, at 4:10 p.m. in the Science Auditorium (G047). The topic is the subject of his latest book. This talk is supported by the Mary and Elihu Root Faculty Innovation Fund, F.I.L.M., the Dean of the College, and the Biology Department. Refreshments will be served. Also, on Sunday, Feb. 19, Professor Mitman will speak at 2 p.m. in the KJ Auditorium on Glamorous Species, which will be about the use and views of elephants and dolphins in science and film.

The Preliminary Rounds of the 2006 Hamilton College Public Speaking Competition begin on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. in the Chapel. Students can compete for one of three prizes. All interested students are asked to register in advance by sending an e-mail to cwphelan@hamilton.edu. In the e-mail, students should indicate which competition they are registering for and identify their class year. Registration for the competition indicates a commitment to participate.

The Department of Music presents the College Choir in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” at Wellin Hall in the Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts. The choir, directed by G. Roberts Kolb, will perform on Friday, Feb. 3, and Saturday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, Feb. 5, at 2 p.m. The musical, written by Rupert Holmes, is a play-within-a-play that centers on the Music Hall Royale’s production of an unfinished Dickens mystery. Notable musical numbers include “The Wage of Sin,” “Perfect Strangers,” and “Both Sides of the Coin.” The production culminates in the audience voting on a solution, which leads to an extremely unusual finale.

Visiting Instructor of Comparative Literature Janelle Schwartz recently brought her Comparative Literature 311 “Fields of Visibility: Science and Literature in European Romantic Thought” class to Professor of Biology Pat Reynolds’ lab to look at worms through microscopes and put their theoretical knowledge of worm generation and regeneration into practice. The class is an interdisciplinary course that attracts students interested in the sciences and the humanities.

Colonel Jeffrey E. Short, MD ‘81 will speak on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. in Science Center G041 about his career in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, emergency medicine, and aerospace medicine.  Short graduated from Hamilton Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude. He has served in Somalia, Jordan, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Iraq, and many other posts in Europe and Asia, and this month he heads to Antarctica. During his medical career, Short received his MPH from Harvard, attended Jump School, flew combat maneuvers in T-37 and T-38 jets, worked for Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson in Washington, D.C. He serves on NASA's Space Shuttle Crash Rescue Team.

Laura Fortinsky ‘02 was recently featured in an article in the Pictorial Gazette in Old Lyme, Conn., for her work studying AIDS in Tanzania. Fortinsky spent 10 weeks working with a non-profit organization, Cross Cultural Solutions, to provide AIDS education in schools to help prevent spread of the epidemic. The article highlighted Fortinsky’s trip and her hopes to return to Tanzania within the next six months to continue her work there. Fortinksky is quoted in the article as saying, "I was really impressed with what I saw of the country. I felt a sort of connection to it. I knew then that I had to go back and spend more time with the people." -- by Molly Kane '09

Catherine Gunther Kodat, associate professor of English and American studies and chair of the English department, published a review of Ali Smith’s novel, The Accidental, in the Baltimore Sun on January 15 titled, “An ‘Accidental’ tale that's difficult by design; Ali Smith's novel rewards readers who can rise to a challenge.” Kodat, a former reporter for the Sun, praised the book and its author for the novel’s depth and literary style saying, “A brilliant work by a major literary talent, The Accidental is not an easy read, but then the issues it addresses cannot be made easy. The Accidental is a challenging novel made for challenging times, for readers who relish a challenge. Rise to it.”

Professor of Psychology Mark Oakes will lecture at the next Think Tank, on Friday, Nov. 18 at noon in KJ 221. He will speak on "Unconscious Stereotypes: What are they and how can we measure them?" Think Tank is a student-directed organization that works to stimulate dialogue between students, faculty, and staff outside of the classroom. Funding for Think Tank is provided by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.