David PesciThe sold out "NPR Without the Dignity" featuring Doug Berman '84 is profiled in The Hartford Courant.
Corrina KerrBefore the internationally-known social network site Facebook existed, there was Social Psychology Network (SPN), founded at Wesleyan in 1996 by professor of psychology Scott Plous. Three years after launching his site, Plous received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to enhance SPN. Now NSF is providing a new $700,000 grant to help Plous transform the site into a full featured social networking service for visitors and its approximately 2,000 members across the world. The primary users of SPN are researchers, educators, students, and others interested in psychology. According to the site's usage page, more than 10,000 people from over 100…
Olivia DrakeStudents who received academic prizes, fellowships and scholarships, were honored at a reception May 5 in Daniel Family Commons. The awards and the recipients are: George H. Acheson and Grass Foundation Prize in Neuroscience Established in 1992 by a gift from the Grass Foundation, this prize is awarded to an outstanding undergraduate in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program who demonstrates excellence in the program and who also shows promise for future contributions in the field of neuroscience. Eric LaMotte 2009 Kai Xuan Keith Tan 2009 Alumni Prize in the History of Art Established by Wesleyan alumni and awarded to a…
David LowPaul Yoon ’02 makes his literary debut with a short story collection, Once the Shore (Sarabande Books), about residents of an imaginary island somewhere off the coast of South Korea. In his eight stories, Yoon introduces characters who live over a span of half a century, several of them working in modern tourism jobs or more traditional fields of fishing, farming, and diving. Yoon often writes about individuals who have suffered great losses in their lives. His imaginary world was inspired by a handful of sources he happened to read, and he did little research for the book. In the…
Tesla Place, a "thunderous light project" by Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, was performed May 10 and 11 on the Wesleyan campus. The dance, light and sound-based performance began outside Crowell Concert Hall and ended in the Center for the Arts Courtyard. The theme focused on the inventor/scientist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). Tesla Place was created in collaboration with Marcela Oteiza, adjunct assistant professor of theater and faculty fellow; Paul Boylan; Sal Privitera, audio-visual technician; Adam Tinkle; graduate student Rod O'Connor; Dante Brown '09; Brittany Delany '09; Aaron Freedman '10; Spencer Garrod '09; Shayna Keller '09; and Samantha Sherman '09.…
The dance and music departments of Wesleyan hosted the West African Drumming and Dance Spring Concert showcasing the vibrancy of West African cultures through their music and dance forms. In West Africa, dance is life embodied in rhythm and movement. It celebrates and reinforces life and its various cycles. Right from conception to death, people in West Africa are called upon to honor and celebrate the different stages, achievements and successes of life, as well as to mourn and remember bitter experiences and losses, through music and dances. (Photos by Alexandra Portis '09)
Singapore-Malaysia Cultural Night was held April 23 in Beckham Hall. The first-ever event offered music, dance, drama, comedy, political satire and ethnic foods to introduce the Wesleyan community to the Singapore and Malaysian culture. Photos of the event are below. (Photos by Alexandra Portis '09)
Bill HolderTwo Wesleyan alumni performed May 12 for President Obama, his family and others at the White House. The event was titled “An Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word.” Ayelet Waldman '86 and her husband Michael Chabon, both writers, were among the speakers. An NPR story about the event included Waldman discussing the power of the written word: “To harness the power of language you have to be able to put yourself in the position of the person you are speaking to—to imagine what they are thinking, what they’re feeling. That’s hard.” Also at the White House was Lin-Manuel…
Rebecca N. Hill ’91 is the author of Men, Mobs, and Law: Anti Lynching and Labor Defense in U.S. Radical History (Duke University Press) in which she compares two seemingly unrelated types of leftist protest campaigns: those intended to defend labor organizers from prosecution and those seeking to memorialize lynching victims and stop the practice of lynching. Her incisive new study suggests that these forms of protest are related and have considerably influenced one another. She recognizes that both campaigns worked to build alliances through appeals to public opinion in the media, by defining the American state as a force…
Wesleyan jazz musicians have been tooting their own horns to the local community. During spring semester, the 20-member band has performed six times at public elementary, middle and high schools in Middletown. They work under the direction of vibraphonist-composer Jay Hoggard, adjunct associate professor of music. "It's good for the Wesleyan students to get out of their little shell of the universe according to Momma Wesleyan, go a few blocks away and play for young people who may or may not have been exposed to this type of music before," Hoggard says. "We're representing jazz and we’re representing Wesleyan." The…
The 177th Commencement Ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. on Andrus Field. The ceremony will be simulcast in the Memorial Chapel, Patricelli ’92 Theater, Crowell Concert Hall, and Tishler Lecture Hall (Room 150) at Exley Science Center, rain or shine. The ceremony also will be broadcast through a live video stream at http://condor.wesleyan.edu/openmedia/webcast/cast1.qtl. The latest version of Quicktime Player is required to view the webcast. The player can be downloaded for free, for both Windows and Mac, by clicking here. A high-speed internet connection is also necessary to view the broadcasts.
Q: Wendy, how many years have you worked at Wesleyan? A: I've worked at Wesleyan 10-and-a-half years. I started at WesShop and worked there two years. I've also worked at Summerfields, a half year at MoConn and a half year the Davenport Campus Center in food prep. I've worked here at Usdan in The Martketplace since it opened two years ago. Summerfields had a very homey atmosphere, but the best part about working here in Usdan is that I get to meet more students. Q: What hours do you work? A: I'm here 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday through…