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Despite being the world’s oldest continuous democracy, the United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the developed world. Peter Adelfio ’13 and Benjamin Anderson ’14 have been awarded a Levitt Group Research Grant to study this paradox by conducting a controlled experiment on methods of increasing voter turnout. They’re being advised by James S. Sherman Professor of Government Philip Klinkner.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Andrew Holland first had the idea to create a theatrical piece with a focus on architecture after reading about a Berlin play which took inspiration from the Bauhaus architecture of the planned community at which it was performed. Holland brainstormed for locations to conduct a similar play at Hamilton College with Professor of Theatre Carole Bellini-Sharp, and the two decided the perfect location would be the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School in the Cornhill section of Utica.

The Levitt Center has announced the 2012 Levitt Summer Research Fellowship recipients and Levitt Summer Research Group Grant Recipients. Twenty-one students will conduct research with 13 faculty members.

Technological literacy is an invaluable personal skill in the information age, one that can open doors and allow individuals to escape the cyclical pattern of urban poverty. Chip Larsen ’13, Ana Baldrige ’12 and Paige Cross ’13 are spending their summer as Levitt Fellows with Associate Professor of Anthropology Chaise LaDousa on a project called “New Literacies for an Old City,” a reference to the social and economic landscape in the city of Utica.

Within the past 25 years, a new type of social movement has emerged in American culture: religious environmental groups. Their members apply religious texts and beliefs to environmental causes, raising environmental concern and benefiting sustainable practices. However, despite how diverse and numerous these groups have become, sociologists have yet to study them in detail.