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More than 120 Hamilton students are spending part of their summer conducting research with faculty. From Clinton to Iceland and Green Lakes to Greece, students are collaborating with Hamilton faculty on Levitt Center public affairs-related research, Emerson fellowships and science research.

“I really just want to help people,” declared Kate Northway ’11, an Emerson Fellowship recipient who will be staying on campus over the summer, pursuing an independent research project in the city of Utica. Northway’s project examines and promotes the local food movement in underprivileged communities.

A documentary film screening of Fighting For America: The Reflections of Black WWII Veterans, a film produced by Susan Perham ’12, will take place on Friday, April 30, at 4 p.m., in the Bradford Auditorium (formerly known as the Kirner-Johnson Auditorium, KJ 125). The film was produced as part of Perham’s summer 2009 Emerson Fellowship titled “Oneida County’s African American WWII Veterans,” which she worked on under the advisement of Professor of History Esther Kanipe. The screening is free and open to the public.

Twenty-eight Hamilton students have been named recipients of the 2010 Emerson Summer Grants. The students receive a stipend and spend the summer working collaboratively with a Hamilton faculty member, researching an area of interest.

A few years ago, Grace Liew ’12 would have told you she had little interest in the politics of her native country. So it may come as a surprise that Grace spent her summer pursuing an Emerson Grant to investigate a paradigm shift in Malaysian politics. It was the trend of government itself that inspired Grace’s interest. In the 2008 elections, the leading party lost its majority, a new step for a nation that has not traditionally seen significant opposition in government. Liew’s research sought to examine the reasons for this development and to track its progress, aided by Professor of Philosophy Rick Werner.

Xiaohan Du ’12 is proud of her Chinese culture, but has some qualms about its philosophy on education, especially in museums. “The Chinese people don’t get enough from the museums as they should,” she said. Du describes the labels and audio guides that resemble those in American museums, but also mentions that there is a staggering lack of activity outside of these merely informative aides. “It’s pretty passive,” she noted. This summer, she did a comparison of American and Chinese educational methods in art museums. Her research was funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant program, which was created in 1997 to bolster student-faculty relations through collaborative research projects.

From Boston to Washington, and from Long Island, N.Y., to Portland, Ore., summer 2009 saw a constellation of "Welcome to Hamilton" events take place across the country. The small gatherings, graciously hosted by alumni and parents, brought Hamilton communities together by region in a continual, concerted toast to the Class of 2013 and the supportive family members behind it.

Yinghan Ding ’12 is an international student at Hamilton, and so are some of his friends. When it comes time to head home for winter break, they might want to heed his advice about buying airline tickets.  By the end of the summer, Ding will be practically an expert on the topic. In the spring, he received an Emerson Grant to study price fluctuations in the airline industries. Because the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 eliminated most of the U.S. government’s interference in the economic standing of airlines, Ding is curious to see whether or not the government needs to become reacquainted with airline regulation in order to achieve stable prices that will benefit both consumers and the industry.

Juancho Hurtado ’11 is a fire-breathing dragon. Well, not really. But he has experimented with the dangerous art of breathing fire this summer. His newly-acquired talent comes from his work at Teatro Taller de Colombia, one of the oldest street theatre groups in Colombia. He is studying street theatre there through the Emerson Grant Foundation, which was created in 1997 to promote collaboration with faculty on subjects that students find fascinating and worthwhile. His adviser and co-researcher is Professor of Theatre Craig Latrell, who stays in regular contact with Hurtado while he is out of the country.

The Oath of Lasagna is not a pledge to Italian food; it is a modern-day revision of the Hippocratic Oath, an ethical code of conduct for doctors. Historians believe that the Greek physician Hippocrates, the “father of western medicine,” wrote the Oath, thereby taking medicine from a practice of superstition to one of ethical obligation and rationality. This summer, Julianne Tylko ’10 is studying the relationship between the Hippocratic Oath and modern versions like the Oath of Lasagna, devised by Dr. Louis Lasagna in 1964.