Bill HolderThe Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, Jack M. Balkin, will speak on “The First Amendment is an Information Policy,” during the 20th Annual Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression. The event will be held at 8 p.m. March 23 in Memorial Chapel. The annual event is endowed by a gift from Leonard S. Halpert ’44, Esq. Halpert has provided the following commentary: What are Professor Balkin’s views as to the parameters of freedom of expression, legal as set by the First Amendment, and by societal pressures and norms? To understand…
David PesciDr. Paul Farmer, known worldwide for co-founding Partners In Health to serve the world’s poor, will receive an honorary degree and deliver the commencement address at Wesleyan University’s 179th Commencement in May. Wesleyan's other honorary degree recipients at Commencement include a legendary singer of the American Songbook, an alumnus envisioning the future of online journalism, and two local friends of the institution long dedicated to serving the Middletown community. (more…)
Olivia DrakeMarshall Johnson’s research is out of this world. For the past two years, the senior astronomy major used the Van Vleck Observatory’s 24-inch Perkin Telescope to study the transits of “exoplanets,” or planets outside our solar system, that orbit another star. His study, titled “First Results from the Wesleyan Transiting Exoplanet Program,” explains a refined orbital period of a newly-discovered planet named WASP-33b (Wide Angle Search for Planets). Ultimately, Johnson may prove that he’s discovered another planet, WASP-33c. “Here in Connecticut, with clouds and haze, we don’t have the best observing conditions, but I was still able to obtain high-quality…
Eric GershonSarah Kopac, a Ph.D student in Professor of Biology Fred Cohan’s lab, has won a $20,000 NASA grant for research on ecological aspects of bacterial evolution in Death Valley National Park. The grant, announced Jan. 11 by the Connecticut Space Grant College Consortium, will support Kopac’s study of Bacillus subtilis, a bacterium commonly found in soils that can endure extreme conditions, such as high heat levels. Kopac, a third-year Ph.D candidate, is focused on identifying bacterial species that evolved within a gradient of salty soils – part of a broader effort to understand how ecological factors influence the spawning of…
Sex, Gender, Species is the title of an international conference being hosted by Wesleyan Animal Studies and The Center for the Study of Public Life on Feb. 25-26. The conference will explore the intersections between feminist and animal studies and the practical and theoretical problems central to both fields. Speakers from a range of disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts will focus on a variety of topics addressing human-animal relations and their representations. “The growing field of animal studies has turned critical attention to the real conditions and stakes of human relationships with other animals,” says…
Charlotte Cottier ’12, at right, bikes through rice paddies in Mai Chau, Vietnam during the Cities in the 21st Century Program in December. Cottier spent 17 weeks studying the development of the world’s cities. During the fall semester, Charlotte Cottier ’12 set a lofty goal: “I wanted to pop the Wesleyan bubble and become a citizen of the world,” she says. “I wasn’t quite sure what this meant, but I knew that growth, challenge, and change would be necessary.” Cottier applied for the Cities in the 21st Century Program, coordinated through the International Honors Program (IHP). For 17 weeks, she…
Student-run organizations have the opportunity to win cash prizes through the Dell Social Innovation Competition. The University of Texas at Austin and Dell are looking for university students who are working to combat social problems worldwide. They’re giving away more than$100,000 in cash prizes to at least five winning teams. Shining Hope for Communities, directed by Jessica Posner ’09 and Kennedy Odede ’12, received the $50,000 Dell Social Innovation Competition grand prize award in 2010. This year, three other student-groups at Wesleyan are competing for the awards. Vote tallies, along with the competition judges, determines the $50,000 grand prize winner (more…)
Ray Hardman from WNPR’s “Morning Edition” will serve as emcee and master of ceremonies to Green Street Art Center's second annual fund-raising event and auction, A Feast for the Senses. This Caribbean themed event will feature music of The Fresh Men-toes with Bill Carbone (drums), Gabe Gordon (piano), Zac Rosen (bass) and Andrew Fogliano (sax/flute) performing songs from Jamaica, Trinidad and elsewhere in a calypso and mento style, and a steel pan duo featuring Deborah Fischer Teason and Sarah Sedgwick Heath. A Feast for the Senses will be held April 8 at the Green Street Arts Center at 51 Green Street in Middletown,…
Cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum, journalist Jane Eisner, poet Yusef Komunyakaa and novelist Amy Bloom are among the speakers featured in the Writing at Wesleyan 2011 Spring Russell House Series. Author James Kaplan ’73, the Writing Programs’ 2011 Joan Jakobson Visiting Writer, kicked-off the series Feb. 9, followed by MacArthur award winner Sarah Ruhl on Feb. 10. All events are free and open to the public. The full list of speakers is below, or online at http://www.wesleyan.edu/writing/distinguished_writers/. Wednesday, Feb. 16, Memorial Chapel 8 p.m. The Writing Programs’ 2011 Annie Sonnenblick Lecturer Michael Cunningham is the author of the novels A Home at…
This issue, we ask “5 Questions” of William Johnston, professor of history, professor of science in society, professor of East Asian Studies. One of his areas of specialty is the history of disease and epidemics. Q: How did you become interested in the history of diseases, and more specifically, flu outbreaks? A: While in graduate school I examined a number of different fields of history, but was drawn to the history of medicine in Japan because it was in that field that the Japanese first absorbed European scientific ideas and methods. My advisor suggested that I take courses in the…
In 1786 the American Philosophical Society published a volume of essays and commentaries by its members on natural curiosities: a partridge with two hearts, a horse with a worm in its eye, a slave girl with mottled skin. More than 220 years later, Professor of Art Jeffrey Schiff has transformed these Enlightenment-era accounts into a series of 16 artworks now on display at Wesleyan’s Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery “Double Vision: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,” runs through Sun., Feb. 27, with a panel discussion scheduled for Feb. 22 at the gallery. “The troubles we continue to have with…
The Center for Faculty Career Development welcomes Wesleyan faculty and staff to Academic (Technology) Roundtable meetings (also known campus-wide as A(T)R meetings), co-sponsored with Olin Library and Information Technology Services. The weekly meetings aim to promote conversation, cooperation, and the sharing of information and resources among Wesleyan’s faculty and staff. This spring, the luncheon topics include pedagogical uses of student-produced podcasts, dyslexia research, teaching evaluations and more. A(T)Rs are held at noon in the Develin Room of Olin Library, and a buffet lunch will be served. The schedule is below: Thursday, Feb. 24; Ad Hoc Committee on “The Evaluation of Nontraditional…