Campus News & Events

In the 1920s, a team of scientists working in the Zhoukoudian cave system in Beijing, China unearthed Peking Man, a roughly 700,000 year-old sample of Homo erectus. After the communist revolution of 1949, Peking Man became a prominent figure in bringing science and the story of human evolution to the masses. As part of the required reading for the HIST 368 class, History of Science and Technology in Modern China, Ying Jia Tan, assistant professor of history, is having his students read The People's Peking Man, written by Wesleyan alumna Sigrid Schmalzer '94. The People’s Peking Man offers a skilled…

From Nov. 4-7, Gabriel Lipton Galbraith '16 participated in the 67th annual Student Conference on United States Affairs (SCUSA) at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The conference, titled "Confronting Inequality: Wealth, Rights and Power" brought together students, scholars and members of the military to talk about pressing challenges currently facing U.S. policy makers. Student delegates were split into roundtables to discuss specific topics touching on this broader theme. Lipton Galbraith's roundtable focused on international trade and inequality. Over the four day conference they authored a position paper focusing on the possible consequences of the recently signed Transpacific Partnership (TPP) on inequality.…

Suzanne O'Connell, professor of earth and environmental sciences, received the Exchange Award from the Association for Women Geoscientists at its annual awards breakfast on Nov. 2. The Exchange Award recognizes the contribution of those who exchange technical, education, and professional information in the field. The award ceremony took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland in conjunction with the Geological Society of America's annual meeting. O'Connell is also faculty director of the McNair Program. According to Blair Schneider, president of the Association for Women Geoscientists, O'Connell won the organization's Outstanding Educator Award in 2000. Since then, she has been an active…

During Homecoming/Family Weekend Nov. 6-8, more than 2,000 family members, alumni and friends visited Wesleyan for a flurry of festivities. Football fans packed Corwin Stadium on Nov. 7 to cheer on the Cardinals as they defeated rival Williams College 27-7 in the annual Homecoming game. While on campus, alumni and families participated in an array of WESeminars, the annual Homecoming/Family Weekend Dinner, campus and department tours, the 12th annual Schumann Symposium “Where on Earth Are We Going?,” a Friends of the Wesleyan Library book sale, a leadership donor reception, art exhibits, a student a cappella concert, a West African Drumming and Dance workshop and much more. The campus community also celebrated and honored…

(Updated: Wesleyan won 27-7) If you're unable to attend the 2015 Homecoming game Nov. 7, cheer on the Cardinals to victory from the comfort of your own home! The Wesleyan vs. Williams College Homecoming football game will be webcast live at 1 p.m. EST by Northeast Sports Network accessible through WesCast. To view a live streaming video of the game, see http://www.wesleyan.edu/wescast/. The Cardinals current record is 4-2, 4-2 NESCAC. View the team's roster online here. Also, at 11 a.m. Oct. 7, men's soccer (7-7-1, 3-6-1 NESCAC) will move on to the second-round of the NESCAC Tournament when they take on No. 2 seed Middlebury.…

#THISISWHY This year, four Wesleyan faculty are coordinating a year-long interdisciplinary project that enables students from an array of majors and academic disciplines to collaborate, create and work together as a learning community under the theme "Renaissance Projects: Reclaiming Memory, Movement and Migration." The Collaborative Clusters Initiative of the Allbritton Center enables faculty from a variety of departments and programs to develop a shared research project with a unifying theme. Cluster courses in 2015-16 provide perspectives from dance, music, English, and African American studies on the ways performance practices have engaged the past and present in the face of great…

The American Studies Department is hosting a panel discussion on "American Studies Takes On the World: American Studies Alumni in the Media" from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Nov. 5 in Downey 113. American Studies Department majors Claire Weinraub ’93, Laura Clawson ’98 and Grace Ross ’12 will discuss ways they are putting American studies into action, thinking about what they are involved in, and what they can do about it. A Q&A and reception will follow the discussion. ABC’s Emmy-winning producer and documentary creator Claire Weinraub ’93 has worked closely with Diane Sawyer on the "Hidden America" series. In February 2015 Weinraub produced a special about…

Professor of Anthropology Gina Athena Ulysse received the Haitian Studies Association's Excellence in Scholarship award during the organizations' 27th annual conference Oct. 24. The conference centered around the theme "Haiti in the Global Environment: Presence, Representations, Performances" and took place at the Université de Montréal in Québec, Canada. Previous anthropologists awarded this honor include Paul Farmer (2001) and Michel-Rolph Trouillot (2003). While in Québec, Ulysse presented a talk on "Successfully Individuating Within Academia: Thoughts on Rebel Mentoring and Your Voice” at the Emerging Scholars pre-conference. Ulysse also will be recognized by her peers at the American Anthropological Association meeting next month for…

On Nov. 13-14 Wesleyan will host the inaugural Social Impact Summit, a gathering of alumni and parents who are passionately working for social change on a local, national and global scale. The summit is underwritten by James Shasha ’50, P’82, and organized by the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, and the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations. Many alumni joke about the “Wesleyan Film Mafia” but less well-known is the “Wesleyan Social Impact Mafia,” a large web of alumni engaged in social impact work. (more…)

On Oct. 28, as part of its Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut hosted Javanase musician and scholar Sumarsam for a presentation on "Javanese Puppet Theater and the West." Sumarsam is the University Professor of Music at Wesleyan. Sumarsam's talk included discussion of the complex nature of Javanese wayang kulit shadow theater in the context of his recent research into the history of Javanese gamelan culture. Professor Sumarsam's work analyzes adaptations in gamelan art as a result of Western colonialism in 19th century Java, showing how Western musical and dramatic practices were domesticated…

Tom Morgan, Foss Professor of Physics, recently attended the 68th Gaseous Electronics Conference of the American Physical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii and presented a poster dealing with the behavior of giant atoms with an electron far from the nucleus in phase space. Andrew Murphy '11 and Jace Haestad '11 contributed to the study. Phase space is a momentum-velocity space that provides a different perspective on atomic behavior. Looking at atoms from this viewpoint provides a mechanism to uncover new insight into their quantum nature. Morgan also took the opportunity to reconnect with a Japanese colleague, Professor Tomoyuki Murakami, at Seikei University, Tokyo,…

During the Society for Neuroscience's (SfN) annual meeting Oct. 17-21, Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, received the Louise Hansen Marshall Special Recognition Award. The Louise Hanson Marshall Special Recognition Award honors individuals who have significantly promoted the professional development of women in neuroscience through teaching, organizational leadership, public advocacy and more. Naegele shares the 2015 Louise Hansen Marshall award with Paul Greengard P'77, P'79, GP '08, the Vincent Astor Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York. Naegele began her career studying the characteristics of cortical neurons and more recently has performed pioneering studies of transplantation of inhibitory…

Anthropology, Archaeology Collections Offer Hands-On Learning

Lipton Galbraith ’16 Attends Confronting Inequality Conference at U.S. Military Academy

O’Connell Honored by Association for Women Geoscientists

Football Victory, Family Activities during Homecoming/Family Weekend

Homecoming Football Game Webcast Live at 1 p.m. Nov. 7

Collaborative Cluster Provides Perspectives in Dance, Music, English, African American Studies

American Studies Alumni Speak about Careers in the Media Nov. 5

Ulysse Honored with Excellence in Scholarship Award

Patricelli Center to Host Social Impact Summit, Nov. 13-14

Sumarsam Speaks on Javanese Puppet Theater at Museum of Puppetry

Morgan Presents Phase Space Research at Gaseous Electronics Conference

Naegele Honored by Society for Neuroscience