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What do you do when you’re reading and come upon an unfamiliar term? Most people will look it up and move on; Ian Baize ’18 took it a step further and turned his search on “positivism” into an Emerson summer research project. His advisor on the project is Professor of History Al Kelly.

He’s a neuroscience concentrator, but Pat LeGates ’18  is spending the summer exploring a very different interest.  He’s composing experimental electronic music and video and studying the relationship between the two through an Emerson Foundation grant.

Marisabel Rey ’19 is exploring the link between past and present in her native Peru this summer through an Emerson project that will examine the lingering oral storytelling tradition of the Peruvian highlands.  

Emma Reynolds ’17 is spending this summer pursuing one of her passions – poetry.

Passionate about storytelling, Samantha Donohue ’18 crafted a summer research project that plays to that interest.

The adjustment to college life is something that many remember as perhaps overwhelming and, at times, confusing. As a Writing Center tutor, Fain Riopelle ’17 has tracked this transitional period by reading first-year students’ essays.  Through an Emerson research grant this summer Riopelle hopes to identify common issues with high school writing and create a curriculum that addresses them.

Recipients of the 2016 Emerson Summer Grants were recently announced. Created in 1997, the Emerson Foundation Grant program was designed to provide students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty members, researching an area of interest. Twenty-six Hamilton students and 23 faculty members will be working on the following projects this summer. The students will make public presentations of their research throughout the academic year.

Anyone who doubts the significance of Hamilton students’ research should have a talk with Arthur Williams ’16. His summer research, focused on the impact of microfinance loans on Cuban entrepreneurship, attracted the attention of President Obama’s senior director for speech writing as the president prepared for his historic trip to the island nation this week. Williams, an international student from Jamaica, also presented that research at SUNY Binghamton, and he attended Nasdaq’s Cuba Opportunity Summit.

Moliere’s comedic masterpiece Tartuffe, directed by MJ Lugo ’16 with costumes by Asad Javed ’16 was performed on Feb. 28. The production fulfilled the 2015 costume design Emerson project collaboration between Javed and Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Andrew Holland. The cast included Mackenzie Bettman ’18, Ryan Cassidy ’17 and Michael Gagnon ’16.

Initiated following her junior year, Leigh Gialanella’s Emerson Grant-funded summer project resulted in more than the usual final paper and presentation. Under the continuing guidance of Special Collections and Archives Director and Curator Christian Goodwillie, Gialanella ’15 has created an interactive website featuring the Oneida Community’s library, received the Communal Studies Association's Starting Scholar Award for her senior thesis, and begun a master’s degree at the University of Michigan in a tailored track that will lead to a career in digital libraries, digital archives, and/or digital asset management.