The Wesleyan Connection

Ellen Thomas

A paper co-authored by Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2009.

In the article, “Surviving mass extinction by bridging the benthic/planktic divide,” Thomas and her colleagues show a very unexpected observations, i.e. that a species of foraminifera, which lives floating in the surface waters of the Indian Ocean, is genetically the same as a species living on the bottom of the ocean in shallow waters (between tide levels, coast of Kenya) – using DNA analysis.

“We then show, using a sophisticated way of chemical analysis, that it was not just blown there by storms, but formed its shell there in the surface waters,” Thomas explains. “We then interpret these data, and argument that such species that live both on the bottom and floating in surface waters (until now unknown for foraminifera) are much better able to survive the adverse environmental effects at such times as the meteorite impact that resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs.”

The story is written up by the UK counterpart of the National Science Foundation (NERC), which funded the first author of the paper, Kate Darling.

Neely Bruce, at bottom of photo, conducts "Orbits" inside the Guggenheim Museum. The event was featured in The New York Times. (Photo by Robert Stolarik for The New York Times)

Neely Bruce, professor of music, lead 89 trombones, a soprano and an organ in the East Coast premiere of Henry Brant’s “Orbits” in the rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum June 21, as part of both the museum’s Works & Process series and the citywide festival Make Music New York.

A New York Times article on the event is online here. Henry Brant is a 1998 Honorary Degree recipient.

Christiaan Hogendorn, associate professor of economics, is the co-author of “Platform Competition with ‘Must-Have’ Components,” published in the Journal of Industrial Economics, 57(2), pages 294–318, in 2009.

Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, and Moritz Hiller are co-authors of the article “Wave-packet dynamics in energy space of a chaotic trimeric Bose-Hubbard system,” published Physical Review A Issue 79, No. 023621 in 2009.

Michael Armstrong-Roche, associate professor of romance languages and literatures, associate professor of medieval studies, is the author of Cervantes’ Epic Novel: Empire, Religion, and the Dream Life of Heroes in Persiles, published by the University of Toronto Press in May 2009.

New book by Michael Armstrong-Roche.

The 384-page study sets out to help restore Persiles to pride of place within Cervantes’s corpus by reading it as the author’s summa, as a boldly new kind of prose epic that casts an original light on the major political, religious, social, and literary debates of its era. At the same time it seeks to illuminate how such a lofty and solemn ambition could coexist with Cervantes’ evident urge to delight.

Grounded in the novel’s multiple contexts – literature, history and politics, philosophy and theology – and “in close reading of the text, Michael Armstrong-Roche aims to reshape our understanding of Persiles within the history of prose fiction and to take part in the ongoing conversation about the relationship between literary and non-literary cultural forms. Ultimately he reveals how Cervantes recast the prose epic, expanding it in new directions to accommodate the great epic themes – politics, love, and religion – to the most urgent concerns of his day.”

The following promotions and appointments have been made to the Office of Diversity and Strategic Partnerships in July.

Trisha Gordon has been promoted to the position of affirmative action specialist/administrative manager. She will oversee the Office of Affirmative Action and specifically work with Human Resources on staff issues, diversity and sexual harassment prevention trainings, and work with me to develop a campus-wide affirmative action plan. She will oversee the Office of Diversity and Strategic Partnerships and manage all strategic initiatives. She will also continue to assist me in day-to-day operations, meetings, and special project. Gordon has been with Wesleyan since 2001 and has worked in the Office of the Vice President/Secretary of the University. Trisha earned her B.A. in history from Central Connecticut State University, a M.S. in business management from Saint Joseph College, and is a certified middle school teacher and affirmative action professional.

Frank Kuan has been promoted to executive director of the Center for Community Partnerships and will manage the Green Street Art Center and the Office of Community Service and Volunteerism. He will continue to represent Wesleyan in the community, on committees, and at special events, and continue to work closely with the Office of Service Learning. Kuan has been with Wesleyan since 1998 and has worked in various capacities throughout Wesleyan including director of community service, interim director of the Green Street Arts Center and director of community relations. Kuan earned a B.A. in biology, chemistry and Asian American Studies, and a M.S. in counseling from California State University, Fresno. He also serves on many board, commissions and committees in Middlesex County and in Middletown including Middletown Youth Services Bureau, Commission on the Arts, Middlesex United Way and the North End Action Team.

Renee Johnson-Thornton has been appointed to the position of dean of diversity and student engagement. She will focus on student issues campus-wide, manage the Dwight Green Interns, WesDEF and other student lead initiatives. She will continue in her role as associate coordinator for Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program. Johnson-Thornton has been with Wesleyan since 1998 and has served as associate director of the McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program, assistant to the dean of the college, assistant dean of the Student Academic Resource Network (SARN), and associate coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program. She earned her B.A. in English and African American Studies from Binghamton University, SUNY, M.A in liberal studies from Wesleyan University, and Ph.D (ABD) in education from the University of Rhode Island. Johnson-Thornton also is a board member of the Middletown School Board of Education.

The following recent Wesleyan employees have announced their retirement:

Carol Kosloski, Rosalind Eastaway, Rene Rinaldi, David Boule, Lisa Davis, Dianna Dozier, Linda Secord, Jane Tozer and Janice Guarino. Alan Nathanson will retire on July 17.

Ann Burke, associate professor of biology, received a three-year, $395,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the development and evolution of the shoulder girdle using transgenic mice, frog and salamander. She also received a two-year $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to use the same amphibian systems (salamander and frog) to develop a model system for understanding body wall defects in humans.The grants will provide funds for a team of researchers at Wesleyan working with Burke on these projects, including a postdoctoral fellow, graduate students and undergraduates.

Evan Perkoski ’10 is a recipient of a 2009-10 Undergraduate Research Program grant sponsored by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

Perkoski, who is majoring in government, will study “Counterterrorism and ETA in Spain.” His faculty advisor is Erica Chenoweth, assistant professor of government.

Undergraduate Research Program recipients are actively engaged in critical research related to the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism, consistent with the mission of START. Each recipient is paid $3,000 to enhance his/her START research and professional development and receives funds to attend the 2010 START Annual Meeting in College Park, MD.

Large-scale installations by Rachel Harrison '89 are on exhibit at Bard College.

Now through Dec. 20, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. presents Consider the Lobster, the first major survey of New York-based artist Rachel Harrison ’89. Named after an essay by the late David Foster Wallace, this exhibition encompasses more than 10 years of large-scale installations by Harrison, all of which will be reconfigured for the CCS Bard galleries, as well as a number of the autonomous sculptural and photographic works for which she is best known.

In addition to Rachel Harrison’s work in the CCS Bard Galleries, six artists, including Nayland Blake, Tom Burr, Harry Dodge, Alix Lambert, Allen Ruppersberg and Andrea Zittel, have collaborated with Harrison to re-install works from the Marieluise Hessel Collection.

In a recent review of the exhibition in The New York Times, Holland Cotter wrote: “Ms. Harrison … is often called a sculptor, which is accurate. But she is also, and simultaneously, a painter, photographer, video maker, collagist and installation artist. She has the databank brain of a historian, the magpie instincts of a collector and a curator’s exacting eye. Her work is figurative and abstract, casually piled on and highly deliberated, zany and chilly. ”

Consider the Lobster is a collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in London, where the exhibition will be on view from April 27 through June 20, 2010.
For more information, visit http://www.bard.edu/ccs/ or call 845-758-7598.