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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.

While falling prices at the gas pump may be a boon for everyday consumers, fluctuations in the price of gasoline can have very real consequences for nations such as Russia, the second largest exporter of oil in the world. Muhammad Najib ’18, along with Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Onur Sapci, is this summer attempting to assess the impacts that falling oil prices have had and will continue to have upon the Russia’s economy, politics and macroeconomic policy decisions.

Though the human eye processes hundreds of different shades and tones every day, color may not be a subject that is often considered by the average individual. Art major Lily Anne Johnston ’16, however is exploring color theory this summer in order to paint a vivid picture of the Upstate New York area’s regional color history through an Emerson Foundation grant.

Over the past several years Cuba has seen many changes. Since Raúl Castro assumed the Cuban presidency in 2008, he has introduced a number of economic reforms that have removed many commercial restrictions and lessened government control. This has resulted in a growing private sector and a rise in Cuban self-employed entrepreneurs.

Elana Van Arnam ’17 is pursuing research into one of Spain’s most commonly misunderstood monarchs: Juana I of Castile. Popularly known as “Juana la Loca,” or Juana the Mad, the Queen is one of the most iconic figures in early-modern Spanish history.  Van Arnam’s summer research is funded through an Emerson Summer Collaborative Research Award and is being directed by Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies Xavier Tubau.

As more and more contemporary scholars begin to reevaluate the roles of female characters in foundational ancient texts, Grace Berg ’16 is this summer assessing scholarly reactions to reimaginings of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey through an Emerson Summer Collaborative Research Award.  Berg’s project is titled Penelope and Her Odyssey: A Reception Study, and her adviser is Barbara Gold, the Edward North Professor and chair of Classics.

When you think of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet’s soliloquy “to be, or not to be” is probably the first thing that comes to mind. This scene is just one well-known example of the power of monologues. Monologues, whether in a 17th-century play or a recent movie, have a special power to delve into the mind of characters and connect with audiences. This summer, Kelsey Crane ’17 is exploring the particular power of monologues, working with Professor of Theatre Craig Latrell under an Emerson Summer Research grant.