The Wesleyan Connection

The Wesleyan Theater Department presents Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker Nov. 19, 20, 21 and 22 in the Center for the Arts Theater.

The play is directed by Bob Bresnick, visiting assistant professor in theater with costume designs and puppet designs by Leslie Weinberg, artist in residence in theater.

Churchill describes the title character in The Skriker as a “polluted, not-believed-in nature spirit who comes up to the world to get love, attention and revenge.” The Skriker tries to enlist the help of two friends: one pregnant and one who has killed her child. With tragic poetry and stunning linguistic pyrotechnics, the play examines the disturbing forces that have led us to the brink of ecological destruction.  

The production uses puppet and dance theater, and is constructed from post-Wesleyan consumer waste.

The chorus includes a black dog, green ladies, a horse, piglike-men and women, “Rawheadandbloddybones,” and other characters who dance, sing, throw rocks and perform with puppets.  The Skriker appears as a mental patient, homeless woman, American woman, pink fairy, child, young man, school chum, older man and hospital patient.

The play is not suitable for children.

The show runs from 8 to 10 p.m. Nov.  19, 20, 21 and from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 22 in the Center for the Arts Theater. The cost is $3. Tickets are available through the Center for the Arts Box Office at boxoffice@wesleyan.edu.

Photos of The Skriker below. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett Drake)

Priscilla Meyer, professor of Russian language and literature, was awarded the University of Southern California Book Prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) during their annual conference. The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the field of literary and cultural studies.

Meyer is the author of How the Russians Read the French.

More than 2,100 scholars attended the conference.

Wesleyan played Williams during the Homecoming football game Nov. 7 in Corwin Stadium.

More than 5,000 parents, alumni and friends came to campus Nov. 6-8 to celebrate Homecoming/Family Weekend. This year’s theme was “Come Home!” Event photos are posted on the HCFW website.

“Every year, I hear from alumni, parents and students that Homecoming/Family Weekend gets better and better,” says Gemma Fontanella Ebstein, associate vice president for external relations. “We had a terrific turnout this year and the energy was palpable across campus – in the WESeminars, athletic contests, department anniversary celebrations and other special gatherings throughout the weekend. This has become one of the highlights of the year for the Wesleyan community.”

The weekend began Friday, Nov. 6 with tours of campus, sessions for parents, department open houses, the Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony and dinner, an all-campus dinner, a concert by Eilen Jewell and the Sacred Shakers, a fall senior thesis dance concert and several WESeminars. Interactive and inspiring, WESeminars provide opportunities to revisit the classroom and attend presentations by scholars, pundits, and other experts in their fields.

The College of Letters and the College of Social Studies both held their 50th Anniversary celebrations.

Prometheus, Wesleyan's student fire-dancing group, performed on Foss Hill Nov. 6 during Homecoming/Family Weekend.

On Saturday, Nov. 7, campus guests attended the annual Where on Earth are We Going? Symposium, rowing instructions with Wesleyan’s crew team, a family swim, WESeminars on dance, study abroad projects, the history of Wesleyan, and international journalism.

Deana Hutson, director of events, estimates that 5,000 fans showed up for tailgating, the homecoming football game and the NESCAC men’s soccer semi-finals. The day wrapped up with several other athletic events, a community bike ride, the Dwight L. Greene Symposium, the Reed Labyrinth Opening and a concert with Amy Crawford ‘95.

A Fall Harvest Bruch and the Alumni Association Executive Committee meeting kicked off events on Sunday, Nov. 8. The day also included a legacy gathering and photo of current students posting with parents or grandparents that are Wesleyan alumni, a celebration of Western Art Music and a student A Capella Concert.

Alumni who are parents and grandparents of current first-year students gathered on Denison Terrace for a legacy photograph Nov. 8.

Gabriela De Golia ‘13 spent the event-filled weekend with her parents, Jim De Golia and Terri Hanagan of San Francisco; her uncle, Jose Hanagan of Reno, Nevada; and her brother, Nicolas, who goes to high school in France. Together, the family saw the Wesleyan screening of Matt Tyrnauer ‘91 Valentino: The Last Emperor, attended the Labyrinth opening in honor of Joe and Kit Reed, the Amy Crawford concert on Saturday night,  a panel discussion on how parents can help students achieve academic success, a lecture on the role of public opinion in foreign policy, the Homecoming football, soccer and ice hockey games and swimming meet. In addition, Hanagan P’13 worked as a parent volunteer at Usdan University Center.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to meet many other parents, a great many of them new (as I am) to Wesleyan,” Hanagan says. “I also met many of Gabriela’s new friends and colleagues, which was especially important to me. It gave me a great sense of comfort to see that she has so many kind, fun and intelligent new friends.”

Homecoming/Family Weekend was Nov. 6-8.

President Michael Roth also led a Sunday morning address to parents. He laid out his near and long term views for enhancing the overall student and academic experience at Wesleyan, making a strong case for the benefits of the entire Wesleyan experience and the need to provide increased financial aid to those strong candidates for admission whose ability to become members the student body would be prevented due to lack of financial means.

“As a person who has seen firsthand the benefits that my children have gained from being routine exposure to diversity on virtually all levels and all types, I found particularly attractive his passion for increasing the geographic and other diversity of the student body and for more effectively removing financial barriers to attending Wes,” De Golia P’ 13 says.

Lauren Valentino '10 taught French to rising 9th graders as part of the Breakthrough Collaborative in Denver, Colo.

For 12 weeks last summer, Lauren Valentino ’10 taught underprivileged rising 9th graders how to speak French and read Hamlet – all while most of her students were still learning English as a second language.

Valentino was in Denver, Colo, working with residents who had recently moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Kenya, Mexico and Columbia, to name a few.

“One student was a refugee from the Ivory Coast and had no formal schooling until three years ago,” says Valentino, a sociology and French major. “He was one of my brightest kids.”

Valentino keeps in touch with Teo, pictured, through e-mail. Teo, a student from Mexico, wants to study sports medicine.

As a student-teacher working at the Breakthrough Collaborative location in Denver, Valentino, who is from Charlotte, N.C., had the opportunity to work with high-potential, low-income middle school students. More than 80 percent of Breakthrough student alumni are accepted to college preparatory programs.

Valentino applied for the highly selective student-teaching internship while studying abroad in France during the spring 2009 semester. From May 31 through mid-August, she worked 11-hour days, excluding time devoted to lesson planning.

The teachers also shared lunch and playtime with their students.

“Most of the students will be the first person in their family to go to college,” says Valentino, who also mentors a student through the North End Action Team. “They value education. They have perspectives about education that most public school children don’t have.”

Christine Capeless, executive director of Breakthrough Denver, says more than 135 applicants applied teaching spots last fall. Of those, 65 were interviewed. Valentino was one of only 15 students to be selected as a Breakthrough teacher.

Valentino taught Omar, who is from Kenya and wants to return there after his education to be a nurse.

“Our competition is highly competitive,” Capeless says. “The ideal teacher at Breakthrough comes from an academically rigorous high school or college, is passionate and dedicated to education has an understanding of urban youth and education and would like to pursue a career in education. We really evaluate the entire applicant as match to our program, students and community. ”

In addition to teaching the rigorous summer sessions, Valentino and fellow teachers were expected act as liaisons between the school and students. They made weekly calls to parents to inform them about their child’s progress.

“It was very challenging to make these calls, because many of the parents didn’t speak English,” Valentino says. “Fortunately some of the teachers spoke other languages, so I could call parents and speak French to them, and other teachers could call and speak Spanish.”

Valentino helped set-up an informational guide about the different types of colleges, and ran a seminar on college and career planning. She’d play games with the students, and hosted a “Tour de France” race for the French class. Winners were awarded yellow t-shirts adorned with puff-paint.

“My students were so fun to teach. It was effortless because they loved learning so much,” Valentino says. “Especially with French, they were like sponges. I’d walk down the hall and hear a couple students reciting the months in French. They loved learning, and we ran the program with the intention that learning is fun and it’s OK to be smart.”

Valentino taught Abdul, a student who immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan one year ago.

She also had the opportunity to connect with Wesleyan alumnus Dave Bryson ‘99, who is a teacher network specialist at the Breakthrough Collaborative in San Francisco. Bryson supports the National Program Team in recruiting, training, and building an alumni network of Breakthrough Teachers.

Valentino, who is writing her senior thesis on internships, is applying for a 2010-11 English Teaching Assistantship through the French and U.S. governments. Afterwards, she plans on attending graduate school and becoming a sociology professor – at Wesleyan.

“Breakthrough allowed me to have a classroom teaching experience while interacting with a population that I wouldn’t have contact with otherwise,” Valentino says. “I think about my students every day. They have changed my life and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to hopefully change theirs.”

Wesleyan has launched its new online look with a completely redesigned homepage.

The new, image-rich homepage, http://www.wesleyan.edu/, offers rotating photographs of campus life, university factoids and departmental highlights that change when the page is reloaded. The most noticeable change to the new homepage is the open layout that emphasizes information, facilitates navigation, and refocuses content for Wesleyan’s primary target audiences, including prospective students, their parents and external users.

Under the images are recent headlines, upcoming events and title selections from a new, open access Community Blog. All members of the Wesleyan community can author a post, and anyone can comment on a post.

“Everyone at Wesleyan is invited to join in the conversation on the Community Blog,” says Web Redesign Team member Mark Bailey, director of strategic communications. “Many provided great ideas and expressed the hope that we all will use it to bring faculty, student and alumni news to the attention of homepage readers. Only your participation can make the Blog a distinctive online space that reflects Wesleyan life and achievements.”

(more…)

Kate Wetherhead ’98 currently stars in the off-Broadway musical Ordinary Days with a score by Adam Gwon and directed by Mark Bruni. The show deals the lives and troubles of four young people living in New York City. In a positive review in The New York Times, Charles Isherwood says the show “captures with stinging clarity that uneasy moment in youth when doubts begin to cloud hopes for a future of unlimited possibility.”

Wetherhead plays an unhappy graduate student who has lost her thesis notebook, which is found by an aspiring artist (Jared Gertner), and the two eventually meet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In his review for the Associated Press, Michael Kuchwara says, “Wetherhead has a quirky, offbeat stage presence perfectly suited for this aggressively neurotic young woman, a person quick to form opinions and not shy about expressing them either.”

The other half of the show deals with a couple, played by Hunter Foster and Lisa Brescia, who problems mount when they decide to move in with each other.

Ordinary Days plays through Dec. 13 at the Roundabout Theater Company Black Box Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, Manhattan, 212-719-1300. Tickets are $20.

WesWars, an inter-class, campus-wide competition, was held Oct. 30 on Andrus Field.  Modeled after older class competitions and “cannon scraps,” which were popular in the mid 1800’s, WesWars is composed of field games and trivia questions.  The students participated in games such as tug-o-war, the human pyramid, disc toss, the loudest scream, three-legged-race and a roll down Foss Hill. The Class of 2012 won WesWars.

WesWars is supported by the Cardinal Council, University Relations, the Alumni Association and the Office of Student Affairs. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett Drake)

In The Calculus of Friendship (Princeton University Press), Cornell University professor Steven Strogatz chronicles the moving story of the friendship he developed with his former high school math teacher, Don Joffray ’50, over 30 years through the exchange of letters between them. For a long time, their friendship revolved almost entirely on a shared love of calculus.

Joffray goes from the prime of his career to retirement, competes in whitewater kayaking at the international level, and loses a son. Strogatz matures from high school math whiz to Ivy League professor, has a failed marriage, and experiences the sudden death of a parent. Eventually they get to know each other better beyond the world of mathematics.

In the prologue, Strogatz writes: “Like calculus itself, this book is an exploration of change. It’s about the transformation that takes place in a student’s heart, as he and his teacher reverse roles, as they age, as they are buffeted by life itself.” Their shared love of calculus becomes “a constant while all around them is in flux.”

A video about the book is on YouTube.

Pedro Alejandro (photo by Harold Shapiro for The Hartford Courant)

Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, is a recipient of the C. Newton Shenck III Award for a “lifetime achievement in and contribution to the arts.”

Alejandro received the award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven board of directors. He was mentioned in a Nov. 9 article in The Hartford Courant.

Alejandro was featured in The Wesleyan Connection in May 2008.

Ethan Kleinberg researched the origins of the Wesleyan "College Plan" in 1959 and published an article on the challenges facing interdisciplinary programs. (Photo by Cora Lautze '11)

As the College of Letters (COL) celebrates its 50^th anniversary, we asked Ethan Kleinberg, associate professor of history and letters, director of the COL, about his life in two departments, his views on interdisciplinary teaching, how this impacts his own scholarship, and the future of the COL.

Q. How did you end up with a joint appointment in the College of Letters and History Department?

EK: As an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley I created my own curriculum combining philosophy, history and religion as a “Humanities Field Major.” In graduate school at UCLA I combined work in History and Comparative Literature and served as a graduate fellow at the U.C. Humanities research Institute at U.C. Irvine where I also studied with Jacques Derrida. When I received a Fulbright to conduct research in Paris it was as a “philosopher.” When I saw the job description for a joint appointment between a History department and an interdisciplinary major that combined literature, philosophy and history and I said to my wife “this job is me!!!” I was overjoyed when I got the call offering me the position. How many other Professors get to teach Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Mask one day and Milton’s Paradise Lost the next?

Q. Has this given you a new perspective on the academic disciplines and interdisciplinarity?

EK: The challenges and rewards of a life in two departments forced me to think about the parameters of the historical discipline as well as to appreciate the different sorts of questions asked by philosophers, or literary scholars. Beyond this, the responsibilities of serving as Director of the College of Letters led me to research the origins of the Wesleyan “College Plan” in 1959 and then to publish an article on the challenges facing interdisciplinary programs and departments in the 21^st century. Wesleyan still stands at the fore of interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship, but we have to improve the ways that we provide our interdisciplinary programs and departments support without sacrificing the disciplines that ground them.

Q: Has your intellectual work been altered by your appointment?

EK: I feel that the support and interest of my colleagues in the History Department have allowed me to develop as an historian even as I branch out into areas such as critical theory and the philosophy of history. I have been an editor for the Wesleyan based journal History and Theory, also celebrating its 50^th year, since my arrival at Wesleyan and this has been a source of both joy and inspiration. Then of course there are the realities of teaching in the College of Letters.  In any given year I could be teaching texts of antiquity, the middle ages, the early modern, or the modern and in most cases I teach alongside a scholar from another discipline. The joy of this endeavor is that I am always learning alongside and often from the students.

Q.  What projects are you working on currently?

Alexander Nehamas, professor of humanities at Princeton University, delivered the COL 50th Anniversary Philip Hallie Memorial Lecture Nov. 6 in Memorial Chapel. His talk was titled "Because It Was He, Because It Was I: The Good of Friendship."

I have two projects on the front burner right now. The first is a book on the Talmudic Lectures that the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas presented in Paris between 1960 and 1990. This book explores the role and place of the author and authority in intellectual production but also the tense relation between religious belief and historical interpretation. The other project is focused on the utility of employing deconstruction for the writing of history. This project came about as a result of research into the relationship of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida that just seemed to click while I teaching a class on Derrida for my 20^th century intellectual history class. This led me to write an article entitled “Haunting History: Deconstruction and the Spirit of Revision” for History and Theory. I am looking forward to completing this book while serving as Director of the Vassar-Wesleyan Paris Program next year.

EK: This is a tough one. A bit of speculative history I suppose.  While I can’t say with any certainty what the academic trends will look like in 50 years I do know that structure of the College of Letters is such that it will be able to move and thrive with the times. At our recent 50th anniversary celebration dinner I was amazed by the ways that the class of 1959 and the class of 2009 were able to come together around a shared experience and a shared body of texts. To be sure the interpretations differed but the COL experience of cultivating the educated imagination, the ability to think individually but discuss collectively, allowed all of our alums to immediately connect across the generations.