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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.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas published a book review in the latest issue of The Arts Journal (Guyana and the Caribbean). He reviewed The Sky's Wild Noise: Selected Essays, a book published in 2013 by Guyanese writer Rupert Roopnaraine. Westmaas deemed the book an “almost complete witness to Roopnaraine’s discerning mind in the field of arts, literature, and politics.”

Barbara Gold, the Edward North Professor of Classics, and Professor of Comparative Literature Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz gave a lead-off talk titled “22 Years of Feminist Theory and the Classics” at a conference on “Classics and the New Faces of Feminism.” The conference was held Jan. 31 at the Institute for Classical Studies in London.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas was a guest on WRFG Radio Atlanta in a Jan. 24 discussion on poverty and the global political economy. In the backdrop of the Davos World Economic forum Westmaas highlighted the growing gap between the super-rich and big capital on the one hand and the poor and global inequality on the other.

Shelley Haley, professor of classics and Africana studies, was invited to be a guest facilitator for a Mellon workshop on “Sex and Gender in Past Societies: New Theories and Approaches.”

France Winddance Twine, anthropologist and professor of sociology, will present a lecture “The Sexual Lives of Soldiers: the Circularity of Violence in a Masculine Institution” on Monday, Nov. 10, at 4:10 p.m., in the Red Pit, Kirner-Johnson Building. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will examine the emotional and sexual health of active duty military personnel through a series of memoirs by female veterans. It is sponsored by the Africana Studies Department.

Angel David Nieves, associate professor of Africana studies and co-director of the Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), presented “Digital Humanities as Restorative Social Justice: Virtual Heritage, 3D Reconstructions, and South Africa's Township Histories” on Oct. 29 at Amherst College.

Associate Professor and Chair of Africana Studies Heather Merrill published an article in Acme: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies. The article is titled "Post-Colonial Borderlands: Black Life-Worlds and Relational Place in Turin, Italy" (Volume 13 (2) 2014).

Three Hamilton College faculty members were approved for tenure by the College’s board of trustees during a recent meeting. The board granted tenure to Jessica Burke, Hispanic studies, Jane Springer, English and creative writing, and Nigel Westmaas, Africana studies.