Olivia Drake(Photos courtesy of Megan Kelly '06)
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, director of private lessons, chamber music and ensembles, adjunct professor of music and Wesleyan Orchestra and Wesleyan Concert Choir music director, is mentioned in the October 2009 issue of Gramophone, the world's leading classical music magazine. Gil-Ordóñez directed the Washington D.C.-based Post-Classical Ensemble, which performed a newly-recorded soundtrack to Aaron Copland's 1939 documentary film, The City. The article says, "In what can only be called a spectacular improvement from the original monaural recording (which is included on the DVD as an extra), the newly performed score showcases every aspect of Copland's Americana style, from majestic splendor accompanying wide-angle…
Earth and environmental sciences graduate student George Bennum '08 received an honorable mention for his student research poster titled "3D Modeling of Synsedimentary Faults in the Capitan Reef, Guadalupe Mountains, NM/TX" at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists "Rocky Mountain Rendezvous of Geoscience Students and Employers." Phil Resor, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, is Bennum's advisor.
Four weeks before the nations meet in Copenhagen to try to avert the catastrophes that global warming may bring, ABC News Correspondent William Blakemore ’65 will identify many surprising psychological factors at play as people in all walks of life deal with the latest "hard news" on climate. Blakemore will speak on "The Many Psychologies of Global Warming," during a talk at 8 p.m. Nov. 3 in Memorial Chapel. He'll explore new definitions of sanity that may pertain, and give examples displaying different "psychologies, as well as manmade global warming's place in "the long history of narcissistic insults to humanity…
During the last 50 years, humans have degraded rivers and lakes through excessive water abstraction, pollution and by over-harvesting aquatic organisms. River flow has been impeded by dams, and floodplains have been converted for agriculture and urban areas. The human population has doubled to nearly 7 billion and, per capita water availability has declined on all continents. During the past 50 years, global climate change has further impacted water resources. On Nov. 7, three climate experts will speak on "Global Environmental Change And Freshwater Resources: Hope For The Best Or Change To Prepare For The Worst?" during the annual Where…
David PesciThe candidate for issue’s "5 Questions with..." is Mary Alice Haddad, assistant professor of government, assistant professor of East Asian studies. She provides some insight into the recent, dramatic change in the Japanese government. Q: What are your primary areas of study and research? MAH: My primary area of research has been on civil society and democracy with a focus on Japan. I am beginning a new research project on environmental politics in East Asia. I am particularly interested in the ways that local politics around environmental issues can lead toward greater citizen participation in democratic as well as nondemocratic…
Under beaming spotlights and surrounded by video cameras and an audience holding their breath in anticipation, Max Nussenbaum ’12 pondered a single question: "What is the one-word title of the 2009 book whose subtitle is "A History of the Propitious Esculent"? A. Nitrogen, B. Penicillin, C. Potato or D. Gold. "Obviously I have no idea … I feel like it would be something kind of funny, like a potato. That would be a clever title to a book," said Nussenbaum during a recent episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? After using two "lifelines" on the popular television quiz…
A film directed by Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology, emeritus, and edited by film major Joe Sousa ’03, explores the life of a painter, composer and singer living in West Bengal, India. The 35-minute film, Songs of a Sorrowful Man, was screened Oct. 29 in the Powell Family Cinema inside the Center for Film Studies. The "sorrowful man," Dukhushyam Chitrakar is a charismatic figure who encourages women to take up the traditional craft of scroll painting and musical composition pursued almost exclusively by men before. In a series of edited sequences, the film chronicles Dukhushyam's vision of the decline and rebirth…
Corrina KerrNeely Bruce, professor of music, directed The Mitchell College Singers & Friends Oct. 20 in New London, Conn. The Mitchell College Singers performed The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets, one of the more notable musical works created within Connecticut in the past decade. This unique program was presented in New London's historic Pequot Chapel. Prior to the concert, Bruce spoke on "Why I Set the Bill of Rights to Music," and led a recitation of the Preamble to the Bill of Rights. This was the fourth complete performance of The Bill of Rights. The song's premiere was…
Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, and physics and mathematics major Gim Seng Ng '08 are co-authors of "Avalanches of Bose-Einstein condensates in leaking optical lattices," published in New Journal of Physics, 11, 073045 in 2009. The paper is about novel properties of Bose-Einstein condensates (ultra-cold atoms) in open systems. This project constituted a large part of Ng's senior honors thesis in physics.
A book published by Wesleyan University Press is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist in the poetry category. Versed, by Rae Armantrout, offers readers an expanded view of the arc of the author's writing. The poems in the first section, “Versed,” play with vice and versa, the perversity of human consciousness. They flirt with error and delusion, skating on a thin ice that inevitably cracks. In the second section, “Dark Matter,” the invisible and unknowable are confronted directly as Armantrout’s experience with cancer marks these poems with a new austerity shot through with her signature wit and stark unsentimental thinking.…
Leo Lensing, chair and professor of German studies, professor of film studies, is the editor of the book, Peter Altenberg: The Self-Invention of a Poet. Letters and Documents 1892-1896, published by the Wallstein Verlag (Goettingen) in Germany. The 210-page book, published in September, documents the beginning of the literary career of the Viennese writer Peter Altenberg (1859-1919). The book received positive reviews in a Sept. 28 issue of The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, whose arts pages are the most prestigious in the German-speaking world.