Lauren RubensteinWesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” In a recent article, Professor of Government Giulio Gallarotti debunks the myth that Trump's protectionist tendencies fly in the face of America's tradition of free trade. Gallarotti is also co-chair of the College of Social Studies and professor of environmental studies. Read his bio in The Conversation. Trump's Protectionism Continues Long History of U.S. Rejection of Free Trade Free traders have vilified President Donald Trump as a pernicious protectionist because of policies such as hiking tariffs, abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership…
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News Rolling Stone: "Bethesda Founder Christopher Weaver on the Past, Present and Future of Video Games" Christopher Weaver MALS '75, CAS '76, the Distinguished Professor of Computational Media in the College of Integrative Sciences, is profiled. 2. Transitions Online: "The Search for a New World Order, Then and Now" Peter Rutland, the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, writes that a century after President Woodrow Wilson promulgated his "14 points" to guarantee world…
Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” Amid a flood of accusations against public figures for sexual misconduct and other improprieties, Ashraf Rushdy, the Benjamin Waite Professor of the English Language, writes a piece exploring "the art of the public apology." Rushdy is also professor of English, professor of African American studies, and professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies. Read his bio in The Conversation. The art of the public apology Ashraf Rushdy, Wesleyan University Just prior to his sentencing, former USA…
Cynthia RockwellLyricist for the Grateful Dead and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow ’69 died Feb. 7, 2018. He was 70. A College of Letters major as an undergraduate, he collaborated with his friend from high school, Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, on lyrics for songs that included "Cassidy," "Mexicali Blues" and "Black-Throated Wind." In the 1980s Barlow was active in an early online community. Then in 1990, with John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor, founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In the summer 1994 issue of Wesleyan, an article, "Cognitive Dissident," written by Lisa Greim ’81, profiled his journey. "To…
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News 1. Science Magazine: “India Plans Tricky and Unprecedented Landing Near Moon’s South Pole” James Greenwood, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, comments on India’s plans to unleash a rover into previously unexplored territory near the moon’s south pole. 2. Newsweek: “Putin Keeps His Foot Firmly Pressed on Europe’s Windpipe” Matthew Finkel ’18 writes that Moscow will likely be able to leverage its enormous energy exports to project soft power in Eastern Europe for years to…
Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, "Academic rigor, journalistic flair." Lori Gruen, the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, has written a piece explaining how philosophers determine what is the right, or ethical, thing to do. Gruen also is professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, professor of science in society, and coordinator of animal studies. Read her bio in The Conversation. How should we decide what to do? How many times do we wonder, "What’s the right thing to do?" Most of us are faced with ethical…
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News 1. President Michael Roth publishes op-eds in The Washington Post titled, "We can't let cynics ruin college," and "What is college for? (Hint: It's not just about getting in.)." He also sat for an "On Leadership" interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2. The Conversation: "The dangerous belief that white people are under attack" Assistant Professor of Psychology Clara Wilkins writes about her research on perceptions of reverse discrimination in light of recent societal trends. 3. Marketplace: "Here comes the tax bill…
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News WNPR's Where We Live: "A Life with Food Allergies and Intolerances" Associate Dean for Student Academic Resources Laura Patey is a guest on the show to talk about how Wesleyan works with and supports students and other community members with food allergies. Patey comes in around 40 minutes. 2. The Middletown Press: "Colleague Picks Up Mantle of Late Wesleyan Professor's 20-Year Book Project on South African Hometown Under Apartheid" Professor of History, Emeritus Richard Elphick completed an unfinished book by his late colleague,…
In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we introduce a new feature highlighting some of the latest stories in the media about Wesleyan and our many illustrious alumni. Recent Wesleyan News The Hartford Courant: "Chelsea Manning Draws Crowd at Wesleyan, Talks of Community, Resistance" On Nov. 15, the former intelligence analyst convicted of leaking hundreds of thousands of military documents to WikiLeaks, who is now an activist for gay and transgender rights, spoke to a packed room at Wesleyan in a conversation moderated by Associate Professor Margot Weiss. 2. Boston Review: "An Autobiography of Captivity" In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae, published by Wesleyan…
Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, writes in The Conversation about the recently published Climate Science Special Report. While he, like many others, had feared that the Trump White House would reject the report, instead, he writes, "last week's release was like trick-or-treating on Halloween and coming to a house with a bowl of candy at the door but no one home." (more…)
Writing in The Conversation, Roy Kilgard, research associate professor of astronomy, explains the significance of an exciting new discovery in astronomy. For the first time, astrophysicists have observed merging neutron stars using LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and the Virgo interferometer. Kilgard writes: This news may confirm a longstanding theory: that some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs for short), which are among the most energetic, luminous events in the universe, are the result of merging neutron stars. And it is in the crucible of these mergers that most heavy elements may be forged. Researchers can’t produce anything like the temperatures or pressures of…
Lisa Dierker, the Walter Crowell University Professor of Social Sciences, professor of psychology, is the author of a new article, "Falling in Love with Statistics: Shaping Students' Relationships With Data." It was published in October in Scientia, a site that seeks to open a dialogue between science and society. Dierker writes about the novel approach, called Passion-Driven Statistics, that she and her team at Wesleyan developed to teach statistics and data analysis to students from diverse backgrounds. According to the article, it is a "multidisciplinary, project-based approach that is both supportive and engaging for students at all levels of statistical mastery and those coming from diverse educational…