Eric GershonBelow are several photos taken at Wesleyan's 179th Commencement Ceremony: View additional photos of Reunion & Commencement Weekend on Wesleyan's Flickr site.
For more than five decades, late spring has been a season for writing at Wesleyan, and a distinguished cohort of literary talents will assemble in Middletown next month for the 55th annual Wesleyan Writers Conference. Roxana Robinson, Amy Bloom, Honor Moore and Arthur Phillips – whose new novel, The Tragedy of Arthur, was reviewed on the cover of the May 1 New York Times Book Review – will be among more than 20 professional literary artists, editors and publishers on campus from June 16 to June 20. “We are very serious about the work that we do,” says Anne Greene, director…
In a newly published paper, Rich Olson, assistant professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, describes studies of a toxin produced by the bacterium that causes cholera. The paper –“Crystal structure of the Vibrio cholerae cytolysin heptamer reveals common features among disparate pore-forming toxins” – is the culmination of nearly eight years work. Co-authored with Swastik De, a graduate student in Olson’s lab, the paper has been published online by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and will appear in a print edition later this spring. Olson’s lab studies the molecular details of how pathogens invade human hosts. Bacteria produce toxins to…
A diverse group of primate researchers will convene at Wesleyan on April 22 for a day-long symposium about the relationship between humans and the other great apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas. The schedule is online here. “Protecting Great Apes: How Science and Ethics Contribute to Conservation” will feature presentations by anthropologists, psychologists, primatologists and conservationists who study or advocate for non-human great apes in the wild and in captivity. Discussions will follow each talk, with an emphasis on chimpanzee behavior and the ethical treatment of non-human great apes. “We’re in this complicated and increasingly intense relationship with the…
Will Erhard Konerding become a millionaire? The Wesleyan librarian may know already, but the rest of us will have to wait until a mid-May broadcast of ABC’s “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” quiz show. Originally scheduled for April 14, the broadcast is now scheduled for Tuesday, May 17 at 10 a.m. Konerding, a documents specialist in Olin Library, is a contestant in an episode that taped Nov. 17, 2010, in New York City. The top prize is $1 million. Renowned on campus for his handlebar mustache, Konerding has previously been a contestant on three other television game shows –"Jeopardy" (1994),…
Even when he’s in Connecticut, Associate Professor of Theater Yuriy Kordonskiy never really leaves Romania – his work is almost always on display there. During a fall sabbatical from Wesleyan, Kordonskiy returned to Bucharest to find that “Uncle Vanya” – the Anton Chekhov classic he directed there in 2001 – was not only in performance, but still had its original cast. “They didn’t replace a single actor,” he says, 10 years later. “And the shows are still sold-out.” Today, no fewer than five Kordonskiy productions are in rotating performance at the Bulandra, Bucharest’s top repertory theater, including his latest, “Bury Me…
Assistant Professor of Art Elijah Huge and 11 of his students have designed four proposals for a bird-viewing observatory for a 700-acre nature preserve in Southbury, Conn., and plan to build one by the end of April. It is the third major design-build project for North Studio, the faculty-student design collaborative Huge established in 2006. The students are all members of his Architecture II class. Previous North Studio projects have included a bird-viewing platform for an Audubon Society sanctuary in Portland, Conn., and a Sukkah, or temporary Jewish ritual structure, at Wesleyan. Audubon wildlife sanctuary Bent of the River is…
Former Boston Red Sox hero Luis Tiant will visit Wesleyan on April 7 to attend a screening of “Lost Son of Havana,” a 2009 film about the charismatic pitcher and Cuban émigré’s first return to his homeland in 46 years. The screening and a subsequent discussion with Tiant and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jonathan Hock are part of the Center for the Americas’ 2011 Americas Forum, which will take place on campus April 7-8. The forum, “Sports Documentary Filmmakers in the Americas: The Politics of Access,” also will feature a screening of “The Two Escobars,” a documentary by Jeffrey and Michael…
Fresh off a performance at Crowell Concert Hall last week, Wesleyan’s Indonesian gamelan ensemble packed its gongs for Washington. Led by Adjunct Professor of Music Sumarsam and artist in residence I.M. Harjito, the ensemble performed at the Indonesian Embassy March 4, in an opening event for a festival celebrating composer Lou Harrison (1917-2003). Harrison is the American composer credited with merging gamelan music and Western concert traditions. Gamelan refers to several varieties of Indonesian ensemble music performed mainly with metallophone and bronze gong-type instruments played with mallets. (Listen to the Wesleyan gamelan ensemble perform "Ladrang Gegot laras pelog pathet nem" in…
At first blush, it’s all about the cheese. But Zachary Malter ’13 says the new Wesleyan Cheese Co-op can be more than a source of variations on Gouda, Cheddar and Provolone – it’s a social and political experience in the making. “Food is not just a source of nourishment,” says Malter, chair of the Wesleyan Student Association’s dining committee and an organizer of the cheese co-op, which made its first distribution on Feb. 16. “It’s also a source of community building.” Malter envisions wine-and-cheese socials where Wesleyan’s cheese lovers, other foodies and friends-of-foodies mingle. The co-op has already established a…