Cynthia RockwellMax Perel-Slater ’11 has won an Advancing Leaders Fellowship from World Learning for the Tanzania-based project, The Maji Safi Movement (“maji safi” means “clean water” in Swahili; see majisafimovement.org). Maji Safi is focused on disease prevention and health promotion and particularly aimed at empowering rural communities in their efforts to combat water-borne and water-related diseases. The Movement encompasses both a local NGO and a US-based 501(c)3; Perel-Slater is president and co-founder of the U.S. arm and treasurer of the Tanzania-based organization. He has worked on water projects in Shirati, Tanzania, since 2009, when he led the construction of a rainwater…
Brian KattenTalia Bernstein '11 made a walk-on in a scene set at Wesleyan during the episode of How I Met Your Mother titled "Rally" which aired Monday, Feb. 24. Bernstein is the all-time leading hitter in Wesleyan softball history with 192 career hits and the career RBI leader with 114. She works on the production staff of the show and was picked to walk across the scene in her Wesleyan softball sweatshirt while characters Marshall and Lily Eriksen were dropping their son off at Wesleyan in the year 2030. How I Met Your Mother is in its ninth and final season…
Lauren RubensteinHistory major Solomon “Zully” Adler ’11 has been named a Marshall Scholar for 2013-14, an honor that will allow him to study toward a graduate degree at a British university. He is Wesleyan’s eighth Marshall Scholar, and the first since 1996. The Marshall Scholarship was founded in 1953 in honor of U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall to commemorate the humane ideals of the Marshall Plan (the American program to help European economies rebuild after the end of World War II). Each year, up to 40 intellectually distinguished young American scholars are selected to receive full financing of a…
Olivia DrakeAssistant Professor of Psychology Charles "Chuck" Sanislow, Liz Reagan '13 and Katie da Cruz '11 the co-authors of a chapter titled "Avoidant Personality Disorder, Traits, and Type," published in The Oxford Handbook for Personality Disorders, Oxford University Press, pages 549-565, in 2012. May Gianoli, formerly a postdoc in psychology and now at Yale, also was a co-author. Katie da Cruz is currently working on her Ph.D in school psychology at Michigan State. Read the abstract online here.
Government major Jourdan Khalid Hussein '11 has published an article based on his thesis at Wesleyan. The article "Not Secular Enough? Variation in Electoral Success of Post-Islamist Parties in Turkey and Indonesia" has been published in the journal STUDIA ISLAMIKA. Hussein currently works in the Indonesian "White House," as the assistant to the head, Indonesian President's Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight." STUDIA ISLAMIKA is a journal published by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society. It specializes in Indonesian Islamic studies in particular, and South-east Asian Islamic Studies in general, and is intended to communicate original researches and…
An article written by three Wesleyan faculty and two alumni was published in the January 2012 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, 32(1): pages 46-61. In "Differentiation and functional incorporation of embryonic stem cell derived GABAergic interneurons in the dentate gyrus of mice with temporal lobe epilepsy," the authors describe embryonic stem cell derived neuronal transplants for treating temporal lobe epilepsy. The authors include Jan Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior; Gloster Aaron, assistant professor of biology, assistant professor of neuroscience; Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society, professor of biology; Xu Maisano Ph.D. '11; and Elizabeth…
The Society of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society, welcomed 87 members to the Gamma of Connecticut Chapter May 21. Election to the society is based on fulfillment of eligibility requirements, including a grade point average of 90 or above and the satisfactory completion of general education requirements prior to commencement. Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 1776, during the American Revolution. The organization’s Greek initials signify the motto, "Love of learning is the guide of life." The students join the ninth oldest Phi Beta Kappa chapter in the United States—founded in 1845. During the ceremony, Wesleyan…
Eric GershonA Ph.D candidate and six recent graduates received Fulbright Fellowships for the 2011-12 academic year. Aaron Paige, a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology, has received a Fulbright Fellowship to support his dissertation fieldwork in Malaysia, as well as a research grant from the Society for Asian Music to support research in Chennai, India. The dissertation project, “From Kuala Lumpur to Kollywood: Music, Language, and Identity in Tamil Solisai,” involves multi-sited ethnography and will trace the various meanings of Tamil hip-hop as it travels within and between local, national, and transnational spaces. Paige's work will take him to Chennai in the summer…
David LowNomi Teutsch ’11 received a Faiths Act Fellowship from the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. This year-long, paid international fellowship brings together exceptional future leaders inspired by faith to serve as interfaith ambassadors for the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with particular focus on malaria. Fellows build partnerships across faith lines in their home countries to show the world how faith can be a positive global force in the 21st century, and they work in local NGOs to mobilize communities to take part in malaria-focused, multi-faith action. Teutsch grew up in a vibrant, diverse neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia. A progressive Jewish…
David Pesci"Keep the habits of critical analysis you've learned at Wesleyan. This may sound like an austere and overly-sober message," said Dr. Paul E. Farmer. "But by critical I don't mean you should be contrarian...By being critical I mean taking an extra moment to interrogate accepted wisdom." This observation was the cornerstone of the address delivered by Dr. Farmer at the 179th Commencement Ceremonies at Wesleyan University, on Sunday, May 22. Farmer, a physician-anthropologist and author, founded Partners in Health, an international nonprofit organization that provides direct health care services to the sick living in poverty. Partners in Health also undertakes…
This semester, 18 earth and environmental sciences majors explored dwarf mangrove forests, studied landslide susceptibility in a rainforest, examined if cave rocks record bat inhabitation, and analyzed the chemistry of coastal seagrass – all in Puerto Rico. The students, who are enrolled in the E&ES 398 course Senior Seminar, developed observational, interpretative and research skills through their island studies. The seniors traveled to Puerto Rico in January for fieldwork, and spent the past few months analyzing their findings. They presented their Senior Seminar Presentations on April 19 and 21 as part of the Stearns (more…)
Davy Knittle '11 will participate in the 2011 American Experience Student Freedom Ride, created by PBS. From May 6-16, Knittle and 39 other college students will join original Freedom Riders in retracing the 1961 historic rides from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, La. via bus. They will explore the state of civil engagement today. "I'm getting on the bus to work with and learn from several generations of student activists," Knittle says. "I’m interested in thinking about what student activism can look like, does look like, and has looked like by considering what we can do to provide a model…