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Ann Owen, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics, was interviewed for an American Public Media Marketplace feature on inflation, broadcast on Tuesday, Oct. 29.

Assistant Professor of Economics Emily Conover, together with colleagues from Amherst, Colgate, Wesleyan and Vassar, co-organized the inaugural Liberal Arts Colleges Development Economic Conference (LAC-DEV).

Hamilton College Professor of Sociology Dan Chambliss gave a talk on Sept. 26 at Trinity College on how to maximize the value of a liberal arts education. Chambliss is co-author of How College Works: What Matters Most for Students in Liberal Arts Institutions with his former student Christopher G. Takacs ’05. The book has been awarded the Virginia and Warren Stone Prize of Harvard University Press as its best book of the year on education and society.

In an opinion piece on the USA Today website, Associate Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons focused on two of the most significant predictors of gun deaths, income inequality and the percentage of the population identified as black. “But for the Grace of Class and Race,” posted on the publication’s site on Sept. 30, Irons expanded the conversation beyond legislation as a solution. “We should look more deeply into the roll race and class play in gun violence in the United States."

Mathematical logarithms and history might seem unrelated to one another, but this summer Turner Trapp ’15 is conducting interdisciplinary research into the role mathematical developments have in history. In his Emerson Foundation project, “The Discovery of Logarithms, Their Application to Ballistics, and Their Role in the Royal Navy’s Rise to Dominance in the Age of Sail,” he is working with Professor of History Kevin Grant to examine how the development of logarithms relates to England’s rise to naval dominance.

In speeches and debates, contemporary politicians often relate their values back to the principles of America’s founding fathers. However, how well they actually represent those ideals is disputable. In her Emerson Foundation project, “What Would Jefferson Do? The Jeffersonian Ideal and Modern Day Environmental Policy,” Claire Zurlo ’14 is examining how Thomas Jefferson’s political philosophy relates to today’s environmentalism.