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Dan Keplinger, freelance artist and subject of the Oscar-winning documentary film King Gimp, addressed a full crowd in the Fillius Events Barn on Sept. 22. At the start of the lecture, he asked the audience to consider whether the importance of art lies solely in the final product, or if the process of creating it is part of its value. After hearing Keplinger's story, the relevance of this question became clear.

The Hamilton Program in New York City students continue to explore the city that is their home for the fall 2008 semester. On Sept. 18 they toured the Tenement Museum, a New York City museum that tells the stories of immigrants who lived in 97 Orchard Street, a tenement built in 1863 on Manhattan's Lower East Side. 

Professor of History Thomas Wilson presented a paper titled, "'Sacrifice as living: Confucian Conceptions of Life and Death in Rites to Ancestors" at the International Symposium on Sacrifice: Between Life and Death at the Katholische Akademie in Weingarten, Germany. Fifteen scholars from Europe, Asia and the United States were invited to attend the conference organized by the Hermann and Marianne Straniak Foundation of Switzerland on Sept. 15.

On Friday, Sept. 26, and Saturday, Sept. 27, Hamilton will host the 2008 New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS). The conference will present panels, roundtable discussions, exhibitions, keynote address and a film screening on the theme, "Cultural Connections, Convergences, and Collisions: Past and Present." Registration is complimentary for interested Hamilton, Colgate, Utica College, and SUNY IT students and faculty.

Students in the College 220 course "Natural and Cultural Histories of the Adirondacks," taught by the Silas D. Childs Professor of Chemistry Professor Robin Kinnel, traveled through the Adirondacks on Sept. 20. The group hiked in an old growth forest site along Powley Piseco Road in the Ferris Lake Wild Forest, visited the gravesite and cabin of abolitionist John Brown in North Elba and ascended Whiteface Mountain. They spent the night at Camp Wenonah as guests of James Schoff '68 and his wife Anne. The students included James Beslity'11, Jeff Chandler '11, Lindsay Getman '10, Cassidy Jay '11, Molly Kane '09, Leila Malcom '10, Andrew Pape '10, Kevin Rowe '10, Jen Santoro '11 and Travis Tomaselli '11.

Gretchen Gardner, a Hamilton College senior from McLean, Va., '09 penned an op-ed about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for the Utica Observer-Dispatch (9/21/08). In "Gov. Palin's nomination a cautious step forward," Gardner called John McCain's choice of Palin "a positive step forward for American women… I felt that the cause of women's equality took a step forward – although not, perhaps in the way that Sen. McCain intended." Gardner, who will be voting in her first presidential election this November, wrote "I felt shivers down my spine when I saw her nominated. Having said that, I have to say that some of the shivers...were a reaction to a set of policies that downright scare me. Gov. Palin has to be judged not simply as a woman, but as a woman who advocates a set of policies that have nothing to do with gender."

An opinion piece written by James Bradfield, the Elias W. Leavenworth Professor of Economics, appeared in the Sunday, Sept. 21, issue of the Utica Observer-Dispatch. In "Turbulence and the U.S. Economy," Bradfield explained that "In a free enterprise system, we probably cannot prevent all turbulence. Even if we could do so, the cost would almost certainly be foregoing the growth (with turbulence) of the economy that we have enjoyed since the founding of the republic."

Dan Keplinger, writer and star of the 2000 Academy Award-winning Best Short Subject documentary, King Gimp, will speak at Hamilton on Monday, Sept. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn. His presentation, "Message is in the Mark," will focus on art as a method of personal expression for the disabled. Keplinger has cerebral palsy. The lecture is sponsored by the Hamilton College Dean of Students, and is in observance of Disability Awareness Month. It is free and open to the public. 

The Hamilton College English Department is sponsoring a reading series during the fall. G.C. Waldrep, assistant professor of English at Bucknell University, will open the series on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 8 p.m., in the Fillius Events Barn. The readings are free and open to the public. 

Curator of Asian Art and Chief Curator at Cornell University's Johnson Art Museum Ellen Avril presented "Cherishing the Past: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art" on Sept. 17 in the Emerson Gallery. The talk was the first of three scheduled in conjunction with a trio of related exhibitions of Chinese art currently on view.