Olivia DrakeDecember 17, 20092min
Q: Alec, when were you hired as Wesleyan's music librarian? A: I came in the summer of 1998 to interview for the position, and started work that Fall semester. Q: Do most universities have a music librarian? Like other librarians, are you involved in cataloging, organizing, acquisitions and assisting patrons? A: Large universities with separate schools of music often have a branch music library with one or more librarians staffing it. Institutions of Wesleyan’s size vary somewhat, usually according to the relative importance of the music department within the school. In our case, with graduate programs in composition and ethnomusicology,…

Olivia DrakeDecember 17, 20092min
Shirley Lawrence celebrated her 34 years at Wesleyan with a retirement party Dec. 14 in the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies. Lawrence began her Wesleyan career in a part-time position the Mathematics Department where she remained until 1977. Lawrence moved to the Center of Humanities where she worked until 1985, and she worked in Alumni Programs until 1987 when the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies officially opened on Washington Terrace. She is retiring as a program coordinator. Over the years Lawrence has coordinated such events as tours of the Freeman Family Japanese Garden, lectures on U.S.-Japan…

David LowDecember 17, 20092min
Grammy Award nominations were announced on Dec. 2. Tierney Sutton ’86 and her band received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album for their album Desire (Telarc). In a review of the recording on All About Jazz.com, Carl L. Hager wrote, "Singer Tierney Sutton’s Desire is the kind of provocative musical work that could change the way a listener hears music. It is an album that is meant to spiritually provoke. It arrests, alarms, it even terrifies." MGMT's Ben Goldwasser ’05 and Andrew Vanwyngarden ’05 received two Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance by…

Olivia DrakeDecember 17, 20092min
Pamela Tatge, director of the Center for the Arts, received the William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The William Dawson Award is given to an individual or organization in the presenting field for sustained leadership, innovation and vision in program design, audience building and community involvement efforts. The award honors William M. Dawson, a seminal leader in the field of arts administration, who served for 14 years as Director of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (then called the Association of College, University and Community Arts Administrators). "The William Dawson Award is the…

Olivia DrakeDecember 17, 20091min
Lisa Dierker, chair and professor of psychology, and David Beveridge, the University Professor of the Sciences and Mathematics, professor of chemistry, received a $174,999 grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will support an inquiry based, supportive approach to statistical reasoning and applications. The award will be applied Jan. 1, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2012.