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Associate Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas was a guest on WRFG Radio Atlanta on Oct. 3 to discuss the Guyana-Venezuela border dispute. It recently escalated when Venezuela made aggressive statements and troop buildups on Guyana’s western border in the wake of the recent discovery of oil in Guyana’s territorial waters.

Hamilton College Dean of Faculty Patrick Reynolds announced the promotion of four Hamilton faculty members to the rank of professor. Brian Collett, physics; Heather Merrill, Africana studies; Cheryl Morgan, French; and Lisa Trivedi, history, were promoted effective Oct. 3.

Angel David Nieves, associate professor of Africana studies and co-director of the Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi) was awarded an NEH Office of Digital Humanities Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities Summer Institutes Grant of $245,299 for “Space and Place in Africana/Black Studies: An Institute on Spatial Humanities Theories, Methods and Practice.” 

When Njideka Ofoleta ’16 studied abroad in Spain last semester, she noticed something about the population in her neighborhood. She lived in an area with a high immigrant population, and although she saw many African men in public and in the media, she saw few African women. She realized that African women were rarely discussed, and she “wanted to delve deeper into that rarely-covered realm.” With a grant from the Emerson Foundation, Ofoleta has spent time in Morocco, Spain, and the United States to research African women immigrating into Spain.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas was a guest on Jamaica Radio’s NewsTalk93FM for a discussion of Guyana’s national elections on May 11. He addressed the significance of the elections for Guyana’s future and the prospects for political and social change.

Hamilton College’s highest awards for teaching were presented to four faculty members during the annual Class & Charter Day ceremony on May 11. Professor of Classics Shelley Haley was awarded the Samuel & Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching; Assistant Professor of Mathematics Courtney Gibbons was honored with the John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award; and Max Majireck, assistant professor of chemistry, received the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition, Education Studies Program Director Susan Mason received Student Assembly’s Sidney Wertimer Award.

This semester marks the introduction of a new course in the college’s Art History department: African-American Art and Black Historical Experience. The proseminar, taught by Professor Stephen J. Goldberg, is the first in the College’s history to reevaluate Western art from the African-American perspective.

Kiana “Kiki” Sosa ’15 and Kayla Cody ’15, both Boston Posse Foundation scholars, have been awarded Hamilton’s prestigious Bristol Fellowship.

The age-old adage of “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” appears to be playing itself out yet again in Europe. From the return of “the German question,” to civil unrest in the former USSR, or the resurgence of political scapegoating and economic disarray, current conditions are raising concern from the global community. On April 2 the Government Department hosted a roundtable panel of four Hamilton faculty members to address key elements of the continent’s contemporary crisis.

Hamilton will host a faculty panel discussion, “Europe in Crisis,” on Thursday, April 2, at 7 p.m., in the Fillius Events Barn. The discussion is free and open to the public.