The Wesleyan Connection

Leah Wright, assistant professor of history, assistant professor of African American studies, is an expert on United States history, African American studies and American politics. (Photo by Stefan Weinberger '10)

Leah Wright, assistant professor of history, assistant professor of African American studies joined Wesleyan’s staff this summer.

Wright says she loves being part of an interdisciplinary community and “was impressed by the intellectual curiosity and academic excellence of the students at Wesleyan.” Multiple factors attracted her to the university.

“I was also excited about the faculty—there is equal attention paid to teaching and research, and as a result, Wesleyan faculty excel at both. Joining Wesleyan was a major opportunity to join a vibrant and welcoming intellectual community.”

She graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2003 with a bachelor’s in history. Wright went on to obtain a Master’s and a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. This summer she defended her doctoral dissertation titled “The Loneliness of the Black Conservative: Black Republicans and the Grand Old Party, 1964-1980.” Wright is currently negotiating with publishers to convert her manuscript into a published book.

Wright’s book proposal abstract reads: “Traditionally, the scholarship on civil rights has assumed that the movement existed solely within the boundaries of liberalism; however, this project argues that black Republicans also attempted to promote a genuine agenda of racial equality, civil rights, and black uplift through the conservative movement and the Republican apparatus. Despite the seeming contradiction of African Americans working for civil rights in a party that appeared increasingly hostile to that very idea, many black Republicans did see themselves as part of the movement. In many ways this story is a comparative project about the vision for black equality and advancement.”

Her research interests include United States history, African American studies and American politics. Her extensive research on Black conservatives in the U.S.—specifically Black Republicans—combines all of her interests. Additionally, she has studied women in the Black Power movement and Marcus Garvey, the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association

Wright is the author and co-author of several articles, including “Conscience of a Black Conservative: The 1964 Election and the Rise of the National Negro Republican Assembly,” in Federal History.

Wright was awarded with a Woodrow Wilson Foundation Dissertation Writing Fellowship for 2008 – 2009. Notably, she has received three presidential libraries grants (i.e. the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library Research Grant, the Gerald Ford Presidential Library Research Grant and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library O’Donnell Research Grant). Wright received multiple Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Development/Enhancement Grants throughout her scholarship. She was a Andrew W. Mellon Fellow from 2001 to 2003 and is the first Mellon Fellow to join the Wesleyan faculty, according to Krishna Wilson, who is the coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship at Wesleyan.

This semester, Wright is teaching 20th Century Black Conservatism and The Long Civil Rights Movement in America. In spring 2010, she will be teaching Modern African-American History and U.S. Political History Since 1945.

For her civil rights course, Wright enjoyed working with Valerie Gillispie, Assistant University Archivist, to expose students to the resources within Wesleyan’s archives.

“The Civil Rights Archive at Wesleyan is a wonderful resource,” Wright says.

“Val Gillispie took us through a guided tour of archival resources that allowed the students to better understand Wesleyan’s significant connection to the broader Civil Rights Movement. It was an exciting opportunity for students to ‘get their hands dirty’—and search through interesting, and relevant archival resources—which is a critical component for any historian.”

Wright is a native of Hartford and enjoys traveling, reading, and watching college basketball (her brother plays for Providence College).

Listen to Leah Wright’s recent appearance on WNPR’s Where We Live.

Sarah-Jane Ripa '02, artistic and education coordinator at Green Street Arts Center, is an advocate of social and personal change through creative communication. She's been actively engaged in the fields of arts administration and development for more than 10 years before coming to Wesleyan this fall.

Q: Sarah-Jane, you came to Wesleyan as the artistic and education coordinator at the Green Street Arts Center in July. Is this a new position?

A: The position was created as part of a restructuring, but primarily replaced the artistic director position. My position is overseen by the Center for Community Partnerships at Wesleyan, and fits wonderfully with the service learning and outreach components of the mission of the university. All of the classes, events, workshops, private lessons and community partnership programs that happen at Green Street come under my position.

Q: Cite some examples of recent artistic- and education-related activities at GSAC that you help coordinate.

A: Green Street offers numerous opportunities for people to engage creatively in five major arts disciplines: Visual, Movement, Literary, Media and Sound. Our Opening Day event in September was a microcosm of what we do throughout the year: our visual arts teachers hung work for display, several dance classes were conducted, community musicians gathered to share music as well as perform, our literary arts group and teachers gathered for a reading and a class, our early childhood music teachers collaborated with parents and children, we conducted tours of our media arts studios and new faculty performed.  All of those offerings happen on a weekly basis at Green Street.

We are also home to an Afterschool Arts Program. The program provides 15 different arts classes over the course of the week, and students attend two class periods per day. Class offerings include Breakdance, Comic Book Creation, Digital Animation, Songwriting and Sound Recording.  We always need Afterschool volunteers. We welcome Wesleyan students to visit us for a class or to meet our Afterschool students during homework time.

We also offer an art and science track for third grade students that utilizes curriculum from the Help Yourself Foundation. We partner with the North End Action Team and other community organizations to present free lifestyle programs each season, and our teaching artists go into classrooms and organizations throughout Middlesex County.

Q: Do Wesleyan students, staff or faculty use Green Street?

A: We have wonderful relationships with a variety of departments and professors at Wesleyan who are interested in engaging the Middletown community in their work. Our Sunday Salon discussion series dedicates one Sunday a month to talks by Wesleyan professors. The next one is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 22. Our connection to Wesleyan has also helped bring some truly amazing teachers and programs to the community, including the arts and science Afterschool program and Balinese dance.

Q: Do you take class suggestions from the community?

A: We are always looking for suggestions from the community. When our members ask us to start new classes or programs, we do seek out new instructors, but are open to being sought out by artists who are interested in bringing their work to the community through us.

Q: What challenges do you enjoy most about your job?

A: The greatest challenge in my job is the number of people that I need to communicate with to ensure that we are doing the most we can for the community and the organization. It is important to stay closely connected with our neighborhood and campus partners, teachers, students, families and also consistently perform outreach to the public schools, the Wesleyan community, and our Middletown neighbors who haven’t visited us yet. Fortunately, talking to people about Green Street is my favorite part of my job.

Q: What attracted you to GSAC?

A: I was initially attracted to Green Street because it is the place that truly has the capacity to connect the entire Wesleyan community- students, faculty, staff and families – with the Middletown community. Middletown and Wesleyan are assets to each other, and I feel that Green Street Arts Center is the place where those assets are openly and fruitfully shared.

Q: You graduated from Wesleyan in 2002 with a double major in music and history. How did your Wesleyan degrees help prepare you for a career in arts administration/development?

A: I had the opportunity to manage the orchestra for three years, worked for the Center for the Arts in a number of positions, and had the freedom to arrange and play in performances for myself and other students and graduate students. All the while, I was taking courses that helped me develop an intellectual life for myself that has enriched everything I have done since. I would then say that my education, rather than my degree, has prepared me for my current career, and anything else I might choose to do in life.

Q: What are your hobbies and interests? Where are you from?

A: I am actively involved in efforts to create awareness about local foods and their impact on individual and collective health. I am an advocate for lifelong learning, and am currently enrolled in the GLSP program at Wesleyan and a member of the Middletown Scottish Country Dance class – a well-kept secret of Middletown that I only recently discovered.

I am originally from Sterling, Mass., which also was home to Mary of Little Lamb fame. My husband, Aaron Paige ‘04, is currently a Ph.D candidate in the in the Ethnomusicology program at Wesleyan.

Rich Olson, assistant professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, is teaching a class on membrane properties, structural techniques and protein structure analysis.

Rich Olson joined the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry as an assistant professor.

Olson is an expert on X-ray crystallography and biophysical characterization of soluble/membrane proteins. He specifically studies the structure and function of membrane proteins in the nervous system, immunological molecules in the nervous system and structural biology of pathogen virulence factors.

This semester, he is teaching a course titled “Receptors, Channels, and Pumps: Advanced Topics in Membrane Protein Structure and Function,” and an individual undergraduate research tutorial.

When applying to Wesleyan, Olson says he was looking for an institution that would provide a balance between teaching and research.

“Wesleyan has a tradition of strong undergraduate education as well as a vibrant graduate program essential to supporting my research,” Olson says. “Having the graduate program allows me to tackle advanced research (more…)

Jennifer Platt, printing specialist for Information Technology Services, shows samples of posters she printed in the Cardinal Print and Copy shop located in Usdan University Center. (Photo by Olivia Bartlett Drake)

Q: Jen, when did the ITS Print Shop move to the Usdan University Center and what were the benefits of this move?

A: The ITS Print Shop closed on July 16 and opened on July 17 with a new name. We are now Cardinal Print and Copy. We have enjoyed a very loyal following with many of the departments across campus but new customers always seemed surprised to discover who we were and what we could do. Our new location solves that problem and is more convenient for most members of the Wes community.

Q: What are your thoughts on the new space? Was it difficult to leave the fifth floor of ITS?

A: The Usdan Campus Center is entirely different from the fifth floor. I now share the service window with Wes Station and feel like I really am in the center of campus. It was hard to leave the 5th floor, especially my officemate Jerry Maguda but everyone at the Usdan Center has been so warm and welcoming I can hardly complain.

Samples of Cardinal Print and Copy publications.

Q: Are printing services available to the entire Wesleyan Community? Do you prefer people stop by the Cardinal Print and Copy window or e-mail you jobs? Also, when is the shop open?

A: We are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. We print for faculty, staff, students and non profit organizations. I am currently a one person show and still do need to attend meetings so the best way to contact me is by email printing@wesleyan.edu or phone x2132. I would hate to have someone walk over to discuss a potential project and find that I am not here.

Q: What types of printing, and printing services does Cardinal Print and Copy offer?

A: We print posters, postcards and flyers in full color. We have high speed (85 ppm) black and white printing with the ability to print (more…)

Laura Stark, assistant professor of science in society, assistant professor of sociology, is teaching The Sociology of Medicine and Regulating Health, both part of the Science in Society Program.

Laura Stark has joined the Department of Sociology and the Program in Science in Society as assistant professor.

Her research focuses on the social history and sociology of medicine, research ethics, human subject research, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), and group/committee decision-making in healthcare.

Stark graduated from Cornell University in 1998 with a bachelor’s in communication. She went on to obtain a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University, ending in 2006. She was awarded the biannual prize for best dissertation from the History of Science Society’s Forum for the History of the Human Sciences for her work titled “Morality in Science: How Research is Evaluated in the Age of Human Subjects Regulation.”

Stark was a postdoctoral fellow in Northwestern University’s Department of Sociology and Program in Science in Human Culture Program. She been working (more…)

Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, vice president for diversity and strategic partnerships, helped launch the beginning of a campus-wide diversity initiative with an affirmative action component.

Diversity and civic engagement initiatives play a large role in President Michael S. Roth’s Preliminary Reflections On Planning from September 2009. To that end, the Wesleyan community is fortunate to have Sonia Mañjon at the helm of the Diversity and Strategic Partnerships as Vice President. Mañjon looks forward to working with students and other members of Wesleyan as the university makes its mark on the 21st century.

Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Wesleyan earned the informal moniker “Diversity University” in reference to the Vanguard classes that attended the school and the administration’s active recruitment of students of color. Since Wesleyan was the first of our peer institutions of to admit African Americans in large numbers, Mañjon has noticed that a common on campus perspective is that since Wesleyan was a leader in creating an ethnically diverse student body, there is not a need to evaluate and/or change our current methods.

Mañjon expressed that while Wesleyan’s legacy (more…)

Patrick Tynan joined the Department of Athletics July 1.

Patrick Tynan, who spent the 2008-09 season as assistant men’s lightweight crew coach at Yale University, has been named faculty head coach of women’s crew at Wesleyan on July 1.  Tynan steps into the position occupied by Beth Emery from 1988 through 2008 and covered on an interim basis by Brian Dawe in 2008-09.

“The opportunity to be a head coach in the NESCAC, which is probably the most competitive league for women’s rowing in Division III, was a big attraction to me,”Tynan says. “When I met some of the athletes on the team through the interview process, I knew this would be a good fit because it was clear that they have a very strong drive to be excellent and they just seemed like great, down to earth, hard working kids. The facilities are top notch and the administration is supportive of the program.”

A 1999 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he was an integral member of the varsity lightweight crew, Tynan began his coaching career as a men’s assistant at his alma mater for two seasons before heading to Colby College from 2001-06. There he assisted with both the men’s and women’s programs, helping the women’s novice crew win three New England championships. As interim head women’s crew coach at Williams College in 2006-07, Tynan directed the Ephs to a New England and NCAA Division III title at the varsity eight level. Williams also captured a team title at the NCAAs in 2007.

Before joining the Yale staff in 2008, Tynan spent the 2007-08 season with a second stint at his alma mater, this time assisting with the women’s squad.

A USRowing Level III certified coach, Tynan also has a wealth of experience at summer rowing camps (more…)

Charles G. Salas, director of strategic initiatives in the President's Office, works with President Roth and senior staff on issues and initiatives that involve the institution broadly.

Q: Charles, your title is Director of Strategic Initiatives and you work in the President’s Office. When did you begin?

A: I retired from the Getty in Los Angeles last fall and began here on Dec. 1, 2008.

Q: This is a new, temporary position. What is the objective of your role and with whom do you work?

A: Where other members of Cabinet are responsible for particular parts of the university, I work mostly with President Roth and senior staff on issues and initiatives that involve the institution broadly.

Q: Can you say a bit about these issues and initiatives?

A: I began with the initiatives launched by President Roth and explored by faculty task forces: Civic Engagement, Creative Campus, College of the Environment, Internationalization and Strengthening the Undergraduate Experience. Unsurprisingly, I quickly found (more…)

Brian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry, will teach Principles of Chemistry in Fall 2009. (Photo by Bill Burkhart)

Brian Northrop has joined the Chemistry Department as the assistant professor of chemistry.

His research focuses on the design, synthesis and analysis of new organic materials utilizing molecular recognition, self-assembly and dynamic covalent chemistry.

“I wanted to work at a school that has a strong emphasis on teaching and the liberal arts, but I also really enjoy doing high-level research in chemistry and Wesleyan allows me to do both,” Northrop says. “Wesleyan is unique in it’s size and strengths, and I’m very excited to be here.”

Northrop graduated from Middlebury College in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and minors in physics and math. After working in the flavor laboratory at Nestlé in New Milford, Conn., Northrop started graduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles, finishing with a Ph.D in 2006. There, he used experimental and theoretical techniques to study a variety of problems in physical organic and organic materials such as sigmatropic rearrangements, mechanically-interlocked molecules, molecular motors, self-assembly and dynamic covalent chemistry.

Through a National Science Foundation-sponsored Materials Creation Training Program, Northrop spent an additional five months at Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent) investigating organic semiconductors.

He was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah between 2006-09, focusing his research on the design and synthesis of metal-organic supramolecules via coordination-driven self-assembly.

Next fall, he will teach Principles of Chemistry I (CHEM 145) with Stewart Novick, professor of chemistry. He’s also developing a course on materials chemistry and nanoscience, which he will teach in the spring.

Northrop is the co-author of more than 35 articles published in prominent chemistry journals. His papers titled “Introduction of Heterofunctional Groups onto Molecular Hexagons via Coordination-Driven Self-Assembly,” “Geometry Directed Self-Selection in the Coordination-Driven Self-Assembly of Irregular Supramolecular Polygons” and “Synthesis of Six-Component Metallodendrimers via [3+3] Coordination-Driven Self-Assembly,” were all published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry in 2009.

Aside from developing the new course and setting up his lab, Northrop plans to immerse himself in the Wesleyan community.

“I’d like to take advantage of the many additional opportunities Wesleyan provides, such as the film and art events, and watching hockey and football games,” he says.

Outside the lab, Northrop enjoys downhill skiing, hiking, racing triathlons and spending time with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four-month-old daughter, Darcey.

Anne Marcotty is a senior designer in the Office of University Communications. She is a member of the Wesleyan Web Redesign Team, which is redesigning the university web site, starting with the homepage, the major landing pages and the Office of Admission site.

Q: Anne, you came to Wesleyan in 2001. What were you hired in as, and what is the objective/purpose of your position?

A: I was hired as senior designer in the Office of University Communications. I design and produce many of the print pieces and some of the web sites for various departments in the university.

Q: Who are your “clients” on campus? Does this repeat year to year?

A: I have worked with many of the academic departments and programs over the years, but much of my recurring work is with University Relations, particularly the events staff and the Wesleyan Fund.

Q: What are a few examples of recent projects you’ve been working on?

A: The Reunion & Commencement brochures (more…)