Lauren RubensteinFrom March 30-April 1, Shamar Chin ’13 joined nearly 1,200 other students at a meeting in Washington, D.C. of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U). According to the Clinton Global Initiative’s website, CGI U, launched by former President Bill Clinton in 2007, “challenges students and universities to tackle global problems with practical, innovative solutions.” CGI U hosts an annual meeting for students, national youth organizations and university officials to discuss solutions to pressing global issues. Prior to attending the meeting, each student must develop and submit a Commitment to Action: a specific plan to address an important challenge on…
Olivia DrakeResearch on PT-symmetric optics by Tsampikos Kottos, associate professor of physics, was mentioned at the 2012 Spring Review of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. In this meeting, program directors from AFOSR Scientific Directorates presented briefings that highlighted basic research programs beneficial to the U.S. Air Force. The review took place March 5-9. Kottos's work appears on page 26 of this presentation.
Jennifer Tucker gave a talk on "An electric shock upon society: The British Association and electro-metallurgy," during the Scholars’ Day Workshop on Victorian Electrotypes March 26 at the at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tucker is associate professor of history, associate professor in the Science in Society Program, and associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies. The workshop was held in conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's display of electrotypes, the metalwork reproductions that were among the first European decorative arts purchased by the Museum in the 1870s and 1880s. These highly sculptural and often monumental pieces were…
James McGuire, chair and professor of government, professor of Latin American studies, spoke on "Class Structure, Distributive Conflict and Democracy: Brazil and Argentina in Comparative Perspective," during a conference on Guillermo O’Donnell and the Study of Democracy on March 26. The conference took place in in O’Donnell’s hometown of Buenos Aires. The conference was held in celebration of immense legacy of the eminent political scientist Guillermo O’Donnell (1936–2011), one of the pioneers of democratization studies. More information is online here.
Jorge Arévalo Mateus, a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology, received a grant award from the GRAMMY Foundation. Mateus was selected to be an archives and preservation consultant at the Liborio Mateo's Calvary in the Dominican Republic. He will oversee unique recordings of primary source of the musical, celebratory, religious and domestic events at the Calvary. These rare recordings comprises sacred and festive music, rituals, liturgies, interviews and daily life at this important pilgrimage center. These field recordings took place from 2000 to 2006 through close work with Reyna Jimenez. Reyna was keeper of the Calvary for forty years, until her death in 2008.
Iwan Djanali '09 and Damien Sheehan-Connor, assistant professor of economics, are the authors of an article, "Tax affinity hypothesis: Do we really hate paying taxes?" published in the Journal of Economic Psychology. The paper resulted from Iwan's senior thesis at Wesleyan. The article, which was published online in February, will appear in the August 2012 issue of the journal. It can be read online here. Through an experiment using 66 Wesleyan undergraduate students as subjects, Djanali and Sheehan-Connor found evidence contradicting a well-established economic principle: that people derive no utility from paying income taxes. Standard economic analysis assumes that when people…
Richard Adelstein, the Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, is the author of The Rise of Planning in Industrial America, 1865-1914, published by Routledge in March 2012. In the book, Adelstein explores the remarkable transformation undergone by business in the U.S. over the half-century following the Civil War—from small sole proprietorships and proprietorships to massive corporations possessing many of the same constitutional rights as living men and women. Approaching this story through historical, philosophical, legal and economic lenses, Adelstein presents an original, three-pronged theory of the rise of business firms. He traces the big business boom to three historic developments: a major managerial…
Benjamin TraversThe Recess at Wesleyan Program welcomed 100 students from a local intermediate school who were rewarded for exemplary behavior with a midday recess excursion to Wesleyan's Bacon Field House. Dozens of university student athletes hosted the children in a variety of play activities including basketball, kickball and capture the flag. Recess at WES is an ongoing partnership with regular visits by student athletes to the Intermediate school. It is supported by the Wesleyan Athletics Advantage Program, which integrates community service into the undergraduate student athlete experience. [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc5CPIZI29Y[/youtube]
Phillip Wagoner, professor of art history and chair of the archaeology program, spoke on "Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India's Deccan Plateau, 1300-1600," at Penn State University Park campus April 5. Wagoner discussed his upcoming book of the same title, which focuses on the cultural history of the Deccan region of South India (1200-1600), primarily in the historical interactions between the region’s established Indic culture and the Persianate culture that arrived in the early 14th century. Since 1987, Wagoner has been associated with the Vijayanagara Research Project, an international team of scholars in different disciplines dedicated to documentation and…
Rachel Levenson '12, saw a need for an elevated, intellectual based conversation on how to evaluate programs, scale up effective programs, and allocate funds in a way that will have the biggest positive impact. Levenson designed The Forum For International Development to create a space at Wesleyan for that discussion so people could learn from each other as well as from speakers that Wesleyan Students brought in from all over the country. [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riwhO7r0YlU[/youtube]
Five Indian Americans, including Wesleyan's William "Vijay" Pinch, will be felicitated by the Connecticut chapter of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) for their achievements and contributions at an awards banquet April 28. William "Vijay" Pinch will be honored with a Friend of India award at a banquet in Stamford, Conn. "The award selection is a rigorous process conducted by an independent committee which evaluates all nominations and we are glad we select the best possible candidates every year," said GOPIO-Connecticut president Shailesh Naik in a Times of India article. Pinch, professor of history and chair of…
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