Olivia DrakeApril 29, 20142min
This month, the National Science Foundation awarded Brian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry, with a 2014 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The CAREER awards support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. The honor came with a five-year grant totaling $537,561, which Northrop will use on his study titled "Selective Thiol-Ene and Thiol-Yne Chemistry, From First Principles to Organic Materials.” At Wesleyan, Northrop's research focuses on the design, synthesis and analysis of new organic materials utilizing molecular…

Lauren RubensteinApril 29, 20143min
Students, faculty and staff who exercised cultural sensitivity, helped promote diversity and inclusion, and improved the campus climate were recognized at the annual Edgar Beckham Helping Hand Awards ceremony held April 27. The event brought together generations of alumni, students, faculty and staff to celebrate the tenets that make Wesleyan "Diversity University." The keynote speaker this year was Daphne Kwok '84. The awards are sponsored by the Administrators and Faculty of Color Alliance, African American Studies Program,  Alumni of Color Council,  Edgar Beckham Fund, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, and Office of Equity and Inclusion. Honored at the ceremony were: Students…

Bill HolderApril 28, 20141min
April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and its observance at Wesleyan has coincided with a spirited discussion about campus climate, including a particular focus on the future of single-sex, residential fraternities. On April 20, the Wesleyan Student Assembly passed a resolution calling on residential fraternities to accept full co-education – “with a clear and swift plan of action” to become coeducational in membership and residence, and an initial co-educated pledge class in spring 2015. The purely advisory 14-12 vote, however, underscored a difference of opinion. (more…)

Olivia DrakeApril 25, 20146min
Once a week, a group of Wesleyan faculty gather to work on individual projects. Although they come from different departments - psychology, classical studies, government, among others - they're all working towards the same goal: to write, be published, and celebrate each others' accomplishments. The Wesleyan Faculty Writing Group, founded in 2010, provides an opportunity for faculty to come sit in a shared space and work on any writing projects they are pursuing. Participants are currently working on book proposals, book manuscripts, articles, reviews, grant and fellowship applications and op-eds. "All of us have found that the occasional change of…

Kate CarlisleApril 24, 20143min
Associate Professor of Art and Art History Katherine Kuenzli has won a prestigious American Council of Learned Societies fellowship for next year. The award will support her work on Henry van de Velde, a European artist whose aesthetic helped shape modernism. The fellowship – one of 65 awarded this year to scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences – provides salary replacement for faculty who are embarking on six to 12 months of full-time research and writing. “I am thrilled to have the support for and acknowledgement of my work,” Kuenzli said. “I began (the project) in 2009 and…

Lauren RubensteinApril 23, 20144min
Casey Smith ’17 has received a scholarship from the U.S. Department of State to study Arabic—considered a “critical needs language” by the U.S. government—in Oman this summer. Smith, who plans to major in the College of Social Studies, was one of approximately 550 American undergraduate and graduate students to receive the Critical Language Scholarship. CLS participants will spend seven to 10 weeks in intensive language institutes in one of 13 countries. They will study critical needs languages such as Chinese, Hindi, Russian, Turkish and Urdu, among others. Smith currently studies Arabic at Wesleyan. She began learning the language as a…

Kate CarlisleApril 22, 20142min
The second annual Cardinal Golf Outing to benefit Wesleyan women’s athletics will be held May 12 at Lyman Orchards Golf Club. This year, there’s a twist: in conjunction with the tourney, which celebrates Wes women of the 1980s, alumnae will be on hand to offer advice and support to current students. The two-hour mentoring session in Daniel Family Commons will match alumnae with current Cardinals to discuss careers, academics and athletics. “We started the Cardinal Golf Outing to raise money for women’s sports at Wesleyan,” said Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Mike Whalen ’83. “This year we’re adding the…