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"I grew up as a nomad," announced Suleiman Nuh Ali to those in the Kirner-Johnson Auditorium on April 14. "In my childhood I cannot remember a place my family stayed more than a month." Nevertheless Ali's experience in his native Somalia was not unique: approximately 65 percent of the Somali population is nomadic, traveling "without borders." And as the lecture progressed, it became even clearer that borders – or, more specifically, the conflict between those political boundaries formed from within and those formed from without – drastically influenced the course of Somalia's history.

Comedian and satirist Andy Borowitz P'11 will perform at Hamilton on Thursday, April 16, at 8 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn. This event is hosted by the Hamilton College Democrats, and it is free and open to the public.

Thirteen Hamilton seniors on campus and two students in Hamilton's program in Beijing recently took the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI test) for Chinese language proficiency. ACTFL language tests determine a candidate's ability to use the language effectively and appropriately in real-life situations.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Shelley McConnell will speak at Cornell University on Wednesday, April 15, on "The Collective Protection of Democracy or Old-Fashioned Interventionism? Lessons from Nicaragua." Her talk will focus on the use of the Inter-American Democratic Charter to frame an international response to Nicaragua's constitutional crisis in 2005.

Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies, gave a presentation, "The Missing Story of Ourselves: Women, Poverty and the Politics of Feminist Representation," at the University of Texas San Antonio on April 7.

Hamilton College will host a Bone Marrow Registry Drive on Thursday, April 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Tolles Pavilion. This drive is in memory of Katharine C. Eckman, a member of Hamilton's Class of 2009, who passed away last October from leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. The drive is organized by her friends.

Gideon Clark '09 went 3-for-4 with three RBI and earned Most Valuable Player honors as Hamilton College won the 22nd Annual Jackie Robinson Game, 19-5, against visiting Utica College at Royce Field on April 14.

Hamilton College placed second at the 13-team Skidmore College Palamountain Invitational, which was held at McGregor Links Golf Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on April 12 and 13.

Roberta L. Krueger, the Burgess Professor of French, was one of three scholars invited to respond to the work of Susan J. Dudash in a seminar sponsored by the Mellon Foundation at the Medieval Institute of Notre Dame University on April 4. Krueger gave a formal response to Dudash's book manuscript, titled "Giving Voice to the People: Poetic and Theological Responses to Social Class Conflict in Medieval France, 1270-1422."

On Monday, April 13, award-winning journalist Naomi Klein presented a lecture on her best-selling book, The Shock Doctrine: the Rise to Disaster Capitalism, to the Hamilton Community. The event was co-sponsored by the Kirkland Endowment and the Dean of Faculty.