David PesciShining Hope for Communities, a student-founded non-profit organization, has been named the winner of the 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition. The award is based on a world-wide competition among college students who create projects that can “make the world a better place.” Shining Hope for Communities founded The Kibera School for Girls in 2009 in the Kenyan slum of Kibera, and is creating the Johanna Justin Jinich Memorial Clinic and a community center this year at the same site. Initial funding for the Kibera School for Girls was provided by the Davis 100 Projects for Peace program. The Dell award…
Corrina KerrFor this issue, we queried Laurie Nussdorfer, professor of history, letters and medieval studies and author of Brokers of Public Trust: Notaries in Early Modern Rome (published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in 2009). She supplied her answers in writing, of course. Q: How did the idea for the book begin? A: Daniel Rosenberg ’88 wrote a senior honors thesis in the History Department about the historiography of literacy (how historians had interpreted and investigated the ability of people to read in the past). I was one of the readers of this fascinating thesis, and it occurred to me…
Olivia DrakeThe Deans’ Office honored recipients of the ‘10 Academic Scholarships, Fellowships and Prizes during a ceremony May 5 in Daniel Family Commons. This year, 167 students received scholarships, fellowships, prizes and awards; Forty-seven students received multiple prizes, with four students receiving four or five. One employee received a prize, as did two Graduate Liberal Studies Program students. The deans and several faculty gathered at the reception to honor the students who represent the highest ideals of Wesleyan University – intellectual curiosity, academic excellence, creative expression, leadership and service. (more…)
Brian KattenThe softball team claimed a NESCAC tournament title and automatic bid to the NCAA championship May 14. Recovering from a disappointing 5-2 loss to Bowdoin in a potential title game, the Cardinals came back to trounce Bowdoin 10-1. Wesleyan softball, coached by Jen Lane, adjunct associate professor of physical education, joins the 2005 men's soccer team and 2009 men's lacrosse team as NESCAC titlists. The Cardinals will play Kean University of New Jersey in the NCAA first-round game May 14 at Rhode Island College (R.I.C.). (more…)
Francis Starr, associate professor of physics; David Beveridge, the Joshua Boger University Professor of the Sciences and Mathematics; and Michael Weir, professor of biology, director of the Hughes Program in the Life Sciences, received a grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “MRI-R2: Acquisition of Shared Cluster and Database Computing Facilities at Wesleyan University.” The grant, worth $298,736, will be awarded over three years beginning May 1, 2010. The grant was awarded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Olin Library welcomes one of the country’s largest King Arthur collections to Wesleyan’s Special Collections and Archives department. The Nathan Comfort Starr Collection of Arthuriana is one of Wesleyan's great hidden treasures. It comprises of more than 900 volumes related to the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. The Friends of the Wesleyan Library funded a three-month, full-time librarian to catalog the collection. Rare book cataloger Samantha Klein began the task in January 2010, and finished in March. The collection was the 1981 bequest of Nathan Comfort Starr, (more…)
Suzy Taraba, University Archivist and head of Special Collections, received a grant from the George Frederick Jewett Foundation for the purpose of upgrading its exhibition area, located outside Special Collections & Archives in Olin Library. The $50,000 award will be applied Jan. 15, 2011 through Sept. 15, 2012. “The grant will enable us to improve the lighting in the area, and allow us to install new cases that are more secure and attractive, and that offer some humidity control,” Taraba says.
Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the co-author of “Gene and stem cell therapies for treating epilepsy,” published in Epilepsy: Mechanisms, Models, and Translational Perspectives, Dekker M, Inc., 2010; “Migration of transplanted neural stem cells in models of neurodegenerative diseases,” published in Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine by Springer Science (Humana Press, 2010; “Westward Ho! Pioneering mouse models for X-linked infantile spasms syndrome,” published in Epilepsy Currents 10(1): 1-4, 2010; “Trekking through the telencephalon: hepatocyte growth factor-mediated guidance for parvalbumin-expressing interneurons,” published in Epilepsy Currents 10(4), 2010; and “Transplants for brain repair in epilepsy and…
Jeremy Zwelling, director of Jewish and Israel Studies Certificate Program, associate professor of religion, is retiring from Wesleyan after 43 years. Zwelling came to Wesleyan’s Religion Department to teach a range of courses in Jewish studies in 1967. He established Wesleyan’s Program in Israel Studies, and helped create Wesleyan’s Certificate Program in Jewish and Israel Studies. Zwelling received a bachelor’s degree in religion from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He received a M.A. and a Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. At Wesleyan, Zwelling…
Dominic Ireland '09 has accepted the position of desktop support specialist in the sciences on April 26. He was previously working as a contracted employee in Administrative Support. In order to serve the numerous administrative staff, Information Technology Services merged Jerry Maguda’s position in Operations with Administrative Support. Maguda will assist in responsibilities answering the admin support line (x4777) and monitoring the support queue. He will provide remote support and communication with the users while being a continuous presence in the office.