Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20103min
Nicaraguan Sign Language, developed only 30 years ago by Deaf children in Nicaragua needing a way to communicate, offers insight to ways an adapted language affects thought processes. In a new study, which was published June 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, co-author Anna Shusterman, assistant professor of psychology explains how human spatial cognition depends on the acquisition of specific aspects of spatial language. The article, titled “Evidence from an emerging sign language reveals that language supports spatial cognition,” is co-authored by Jennie Pyers (Wellesley), Ann Senghas (Barnard College), Elizabeth Spelke (Harvard) and Karen Emmorey (San…

Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20102min
Quality-of-life for patients with Schizophrenia has been recognized as a crucial domain of outcome in schizophrenia treatment, and yet its determinants are not well understood. Arielle Tolman ’10, who studied "Neurocognitive Predictors of Objective and Subjective Quality-of-Life in Individuals with Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analytic Investigation” as her senior honors thesis, will have the opportunity to share her research with other scientists interested in schizophrenia. This month, the editors of  Schizophrenia Bulletin accepted Tolman’s paper for publication in an upcoming edition. “This is a real achievement, particularly at the undergraduate level,” says the paper’s co-author and Tolman’s advisor Matthew Kurtz, assistant professor…

David PesciJune 28, 20102min
Mary Alice Haddad, assistant professor of government, was named a U.S.-Japan Network Fellow and joined an elite group of 14 other scholars and researchers invited by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership (CGP) to join its June Policymakers meeting in Washington, D.C. this month. The meeting is part of an ongoing effort by the Mansfield Foundation to “build and enhance a network of new generation Japan specialists that can bring diverse expertise and perspectives to he U.S.-Japan policymaking process.” The U.S.-Japan Network Fellows also provides an invaluable resource for policymakers in Washington…

David PesciJune 28, 20103min
Every Tuesday night this July is a Cary Grant night at Wesleyan, though he'll be joined by some very attractive company. “Cary Grant and his Leading Ladies” is the title and theme of this year's installment of Wesleyan University's annual Wesleyan Summer Film Series. The free series held at the Goldsmith Family Cinema will feature a classic, fully-restored Cary Grant film each Tuesday night in July, with an introductory talk beginning at 7:30 p.m. The screenings star on Tuesday, July 6, with “To Catch a Thief” featuring Grant and Grace Kelly. On Tuesday, July 13, Connecticut’s own Katherine Hepburn and…

Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20101min
Join members of the Class of 2014, new transfer students, and their families for a casual summer social as they prepare to head to campus. “The Summer Sendoffs are an opportunity to meet others new to Wesleyan, as well as some current students and their families, alumni and friends of Wesleyan,” says Dana Coffin, assistant director of parent programs. All Sendoffs are hosted by Wesleyan alumni or parents. Sendoffs begin June 27. They will be held in New York, N.Y., Atlanta, Ga., Boulder, Colo., Cary, N.C., Chappaqua, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., East Hampton, N.Y., Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, Calif., Memphis, Tenn., Newton, Mass., Philadelphia, Pa.,…

Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20102min
Laura Fraser ’82 wrote the May 28 “Modern Love” column for the New York Times. In “Our Way of Saying Goodbye,” Fraser traces the role of the Italian farewell, “ci vediamo,” or, “we’ll see each other” in her long-time, but sporadic, relationship with “The Professor,” her sometimes-married lover. She writes that earlier on, the words served as affirmation that “he would always stitch in and out of my life, and that this stitching was slowly mending my heart.” Ultimately, it again allowed the lovers to avoid “goodbye,” when he is diagnosed with liver cancer. Fraser’s memoir on their meeting, An…

Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20102min
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s battering storm smothered Bob Flowers’ Gulfport, Miss. home. The flooding and winds left the structure unlivable, forcing Bob and his wife to reside in a FEMA trailer for the next four years and 10 months. Desperate for some helping hands, the couple applied for relief with Mission on the Bay, a ministry of Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi. The organization provides volunteers who help families rebuild post-Katrina homes. Mike Conte, assistant director of mechanical trades, and his daughter, Megan Nicole Conte, 17, are among 1,800 volunteers from across the country and Canada who joined the…

Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20102min
Gary Shaw, professor of history, professor of medieval studies, was appointed Interim Dean of the Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs for the 2010-2011 academic year, beginning this July. In his 20 years at Wesleyan, Shaw has served as chair of the History Department, vice-chair of the advisory committee, chair of EPC, and has been a member of FCRR and the faculty merit appeals committee. He is the associate editor of History and Theory. His numerous awards include an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, an American Philosophical Society Research Grant and Wesleyan’s Carole A.…

Bill HolderJune 28, 20101min
Anne Martin has been appointed Wesleyan’s Chief Investment Officer. Her appointment is the culmination of an intensive search that began in October and included many individual candidates as well as investment management firms. “We explored a variety of models for the management of Wesleyan’s portfolio before concluding that we had found the outstanding candidate in Anne Martin, of the Yale University Investments Office,” says President Michael S. Roth. “We are confident that her experience, financial acumen, and disciplined (more…)

David LowJune 28, 20102min
Fans of Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, the creator and composer of the long-running Tony Award-winning Broadway musical In the Heights,  have a chance to catch him perform again on stage. Miranda has joined the national tour of In the Heights to recreate the role of bodega owner Usnavi as the show plays a five-week run at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif. from late June through July 25. The Los Angeles Times and the Ventura County Star recently caught up with Miranda. He will also be appearing with Freestyle Love Supreme, the hip-hop improv group, at the Gramercy Theater in New York…