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World hunger is a pressing issue, yet its causes aren’t fully known and there is much debate about what responsibilities developed countries should have in ending it. Daniel Knishkowy ’13, a recipient of a 2011 Emerson Summer Grant, will explore the issue of world hunger with Associate Professor of Philosophy Katheryn Doran for their project, “World Hunger: The Debate About its Causes and the Scope of Our Ethical Responsibilities.”

Canada has recently declared a chemical known as BPA to be a toxic substance. Europe has partially banned BPA from consumer products. The United States also faces a similar push to remove BPA from products in which the chemical can be ingested. Claire Zurlo ’14, a recipient of an Emerson Summer Grant, and Amanda Ng ’14, funded with summer research funds, will spend the summer contributing to this effort. They will work with Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren to perform a BPA analysis on various beer samples.

Joe Harmon ’12 is fascinated with the culture of boxing—and he's certainly not alone; there is a mystique to the sport that has allured Americans for more than a century, and boxing has given birth to some of the biggest stars in the sporting world. An Emerson grant recipient, Harmon will spend the summer studying “Filmic Interpretations of Boxing” with Visiting Professor of Film History Scott MacDonald.

Learning a second language is undoubtedly a challenging undertaking, and the pedagogical methods involved in teaching a second language can make the process easier or more difficult for students.  Linda Yu ’12 will spend this summer with Professor Hong Gang Jin, the William R. Kenan Professor of East Asian Languages, testing different pedagogical methods for teaching Chinese. Their project, “Attention to What? An Investigation on the Linkage Between Attention and Input,” is funded by an Emerson Summer Grant.

For the past several years, the economic downturn has been making headlines, and so it seems uncommon to study a market specifically for its stability. Yet this is precisely how Mao Ding ’14, a recipient of a 2011 Emerson Summer Grant, plans to spend his summer, researching the reasons behind the surprising steadiness of the Chinese real estate market, which was expected to collapse in 2008 or 2009.

The banjo can reveal much about socioeconomic class, slavery and music in the 19th century. Catherine Crone ’13 certainly sees the value in this often-neglected instrument. She will spend this summer researching the banjo in order to build an Internet resource about its past and its significance. Crone will be working under an Emerson Summer Grant with Professor of Music Lydia Hamessley to create their project, “A Study of Banjo Instruction Manuals from the 19th Century.”

The subject of medieval times frequently conjures up images of knights, chivalry and the iconic and mysterious King Arthur. Most historians agree that King Arthur is probably only a legend, yet his image pervaded medieval history and politics. Meghan Woolley ’13, a recipient of a 2011 Emerson Summer Grant, will spend the summer exploring the role of Arthurian legend in English monarchies of the 12th to 16th centuries.

Twenty-two students have been awarded 2011 Emerson Summer Research grants.  The students receive a stipend and spend the summer working collaboratively with a Hamilton faculty member, researching an area of interest. The Emerson recipients and their projects will be featured in stories on the Hamilton website in the coming weeks.

Still highly controversial, China’s One-Child Policy has had many effects on the population. One of the least-known is what Olivia Lin ’12 calls “left-behind parents,” or parents who are left in China because their only child is studying in another country. Guided by Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures Zhuoyi Wang, Lin is filming a documentary about left-behind parents through an Emerson grant.

Over the past 30 years, writer and director Pedro Almodóvar has created some fascinating and controversial films, and he has received worldwide recognition for it. Almodóvar's work has a surprising number of similarities with Greek tragic playwright Euripides. With an Emerson grant and guidance from Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Comparative Literature Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Andres Matlock ’12 will analyze and compare the two.