2017 – Page 10

Guns in American Society, this year’s Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns, will be held on campus on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27-28. Made possible by a generous grant from the Shasha family, the 16th annual event will convene experts, including Wesleyan faculty and administrators, as well as alumni from across the country, to examine current debates about the role of guns in American society and discuss ways of reducing the national incidence of gun violence. According to seminar organizer Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history and science in society and researcher in the history of technology, law and culture, guns are a topic…

A team of scientists from Wesleyan, led by Associate Professor of Astronomy Seth Redfield and graduate student Prajwal Niraula MA '18, has co-authored a paper on the discovery of three planets, or super-Earths, transiting around a nearby star, just 98 light-years away. “Super-Earths are slightly larger than Earth, and the three of them straddle the divide between the rocky planets like Earth and ice giants like Neptune,” explains Redfield. These planets were found using the Kepler Space Telescope. “Kepler has found thousands of exoplanets these last eight years, but this is the closest planetary system that Kepler has ever found, although closer planetary systems have been…

Amid the devastation wrought by recent storms, Professor of Government Mary Alice Haddad calls in The Hartford Courant for people everywhere to be better prepared to respond to natural disasters. When the next storm hits our area, she writes, "It will not be professional first-responders but rather our neighbors who will be the ones handing our child to safety, lifting our dog from his perch atop the garage or helping our grandmother stay warm. America needs to build up its civil society infrastructure. We are known for our volunteerism, our generosity and our big hearts. We now need to organize that volunteer spirit…

This month, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, will award Sumarsam, the Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, with a Cultural and Traditional Arts Maestro Award. The honor, Satyalancana Kebudayaan, is awarded on decree from Indonesia President Joko Widodo and given to eight outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to develop and foster Indonesian traditional culture. (more…)

Nicholas "Nicky" Antonellis '17, a BA/MA student in physics, is one of 14 students in the U.S. selected to receive a $10,000 scholarship from the Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS). Candidates for the award must be full-time graduate students who are interested in pursuing or are currently studying the directed energy technology areas of high-energy lasers or high-power microwaves. Antonellis is interested in using his knowledge in photonic device design and computational simulations in order to eventually improve upon medical technologies. (more…)

In response to recent signals from the Trump administration that it plans to re-visit enforcement of Title IX on college campuses, President Michael S. Roth writes in The Washington Post to reaffirm Wesleyan's commitment to support and protect the rights of survivors of sexual violence while also protecting the presumption of innocence and due process of the accused. Roth writes: "At my university, we regularly review procedures to ensure that adjudication is supportive of those who come forward with reports of being attacked, and that the process is fair in assigning any responsibility to a particular individual. We will pay close attention to the…

In a program jointly sponsored by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, artist Glenn Ligon ’82 joined Dean and Professor of Art History at Northwestern University Huey Copeland for a discussion on Sept. 13 at the Atheneum in Hartford. The two, who noted their longstanding friendship as they began their onstage discussion, explored Ligon’s creative practices and Copeland’s research on the ways African American artists have addressed race in the history of American art. Prior to the conversation, attendees were invited to view the Atheneum's permanent installation of post-2000 contemporary art in…

The Theater Department has begun fall semester with a new chair who combines an impressive list of creative accomplishments with deep and varied experience as an academic administrator. Kathleen Conlin, Frank B. Weeks Visiting Professor of Theater, has held tenured faculty positions at the University of Texas at Austin, Ohio State University, and the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. While juggling the varied demands of an academic career, she also served for 22 seasons as associate artistic director and stage director at the Utah Shakespeare Theater. “I love being around young people who are not narrowly defined and are actively…

The Leavers, the debut novel by Lisa Ko ’98, has been selected as one of 10 works longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. “I was surprised and thrilled to receive the news, which I hadn't expected as a debut novelist,” says Ko. “I'm thankful to the judges and everyone who has read and supported The Leavers. It's especially great to see how many women writers are on the longlist this year—women of color in particular.” Inspired by the true case of an undocumented mother who was deported without her son in 2009, the book tells the story of…

For more than a decade, Assistant Professor of Art Sasha Rudensky '01 has repeatedly returned to Russia and the post-Soviet territories to photograph a lost generation that has come of age during the Vladimir Putin era. On Sept. 13, Rudensky debuted a collection of these photographs at an exhibit titled "Acts and Illusions" at the Davison Art Center. The exhibition presents 24 photographs together with a video installation, revealing an unsettling view into contemporary life in the New East. Elijah Huge, associate professor of art, associate professor of environmental studies, collaborated with Rudensky on the video installation. Clare Rogan, curator of…

(By K Alshanetsky '17) Molly Jane Zuckerman ’16 is one of only 40 student ambassadors representing the United States at the World Expo 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, which brings together key leaders from the global business community, high-ranking government officials, and cultural representatives in the first world fair to take place in Central Asia. The theme of this year’s international exposition is “Future Energy,” and the United States is one of more than 100 countries and international organizations to participate. As an intern for the USA Pavilion, Zuckerman conducts tours of the exhibit for both Kazakh and international visitors. "The…

Professor of English Typhanie Yanique writes in The New York Times on how the news media's coverage and the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Irma's devastation in the U.S. Virgin Islands reflects a bigger failure of America to fully embrace and grant rights to the citizens who reside on the islands. In an essay titled "Americans in a Battered Paradise," Yanique explains that 2017 marks 100 years since the transfer of the Virgin Islands from Danish to American rule. Yet this major anniversary has been scarcely noted in the continental United States. Virgin Islanders were granted American citizenship a decade after this transfer, yet…

Shasha Seminar 2017 Convenes Experts on Gun Legislation Debate, Paths Forward, Oct. 27-28

Niraula MA ’18, Redfield Lead Team in Discovery of 3 Super-Earths

Haddad Calls for Development of Volunteer Force to Respond to Natural Disasters

Sumarsam Honored for Contributing, Fostering Traditional Indonesian Culture

BA/MA Student Antonellis ’17 Awarded Scholarship for Energy Technology Research

Roth Argues Colleges Must Not Turn Back the Clock on Efforts to Combat Sexual Assault

Ligon ’82 Discusses Creative Practices, Race, at Wadsworth Atheneum

As Theater Department Chair, Conlin Says Students Leave Strengthened to Generate New Work

The Leavers, by Lisa Ko ’98, Longlisted for National Book Award for Fiction

Rudensky’s Post-Putin Era Photographs on Display at Davison Art Center

Zuckerman ’16 Represents U.S. at Kazakhstan World Expo 2017

Yanique: Hurricane Irma Response Reflects Unresolved Feelings on U.S. Virgin Islands’ “Americanness”