Olivia DrakeOn Dec. 4, Ethan Kleinberg, director of the Center for the Humanities, professor of history, professor of letters, presented the keynote address at a conference on "Does Literature Matter," at the University of North Bengal in India. His talk was titled "Matters of Fact and Matters of Fiction: Literature and the Historian." He also led a workshop on "presence" at the conference. Kleinberg also will be presenting lectures and workshops in Delhi including a talk at University of Delhi on Dec. 10, a workshop at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies on Dec. 11, and a lecture on "History and…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, spoke about the poor thinking behind nine of the worst economic policy mistakes of the past 200 years at Boston Public Library Dec. 4. Grossman is the author of the newly-published book, Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them. He also spoke about economic policy mistakes at the Seminary Coop Bookstore in Chicago on Nov. 14 and the Museum of American Finance in New York on Nov. 21. At Wesleyan, he teaches classes in American and European economic history, macroeconomics, and money and banking. Grossman also is a visiting scholar at the…
A book written by Rick Elphick, professor of history, tutor in the College of Social Studies, received "honorable mention" for the Herskovits Prize, the most prestigious award for scholarship on Africa. This annual award is named in honor of Melville J. Herskovits, one of the African Studies Association's founders. Elphick is the author of The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa, published by the University of Virginia Press in September 2012. The Equality of Believers reconfigures the narrative of race in South Africa by exploring the pivotal role played by these missionaries and their teachings in…
The prestigious Folio Society of London has just brought out a limited collector's edition of Fifty Fables of La Fontaine, a book of fables translated by Norm Shapiro, professor of French. The collection, originally published by University of Illinois Press in 1985, was the first of his several volumes of La Fontaine, culminating in the award-winning The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine (2007). Jean de La Fontaine was the most widely read French poet of the 17th century. This new collector’s edition presents 50 of his fables.
Joop Varekamp and Ellen Thomas are the authors of three chapters included in a reference volume for Long Island Sound. The book, Long Island Sound: Prospects for the Urban Sea, is published by Springer in 2013. Varekamp is the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, professor of earth and environmental sciences, professor of environmental studies. Thomas is research professor of earth and environmental sciences. Varekamp co-authored a chapter titled "Metals, Organic Compounds and Nutrients in Long Island Sound: Sources, Magnitudes, Trends and Impacts," and another chapter titled "The Physical Oceanography of Long Island Sound." Thomas co-authored a chapter titled…
Lauren RubensteinPeter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, recently presented a paper at the 13th annual Aleksanteri Conference, held in Helsinki, Finland, Oct. 23-25. The theme of the conference was "Russia and the World." Rutland's paper, titled, "Power or Profit? Explaining Russia's Foreign Trade," was co-authored by Ivan Stoitzev '13, and based on Stoitzev's senior thesis. At the conference, Rutland also chaired a panel on "Russia and Great Power Politics in Asia-Pacific" and, together with Stoitzev, participated in a panel on "Economic Issues in Russian Foreign Policy." Rutland is also professor of government, professor of…
Bill HolderMary-Jane Rubenstein, associate professor of religion and chair of the Religion Department, has been appointed Wesleyan's 2013-14 Distinguished Teaching Fellow. She also is associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies. Established last year by the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology Rob Rosenthal, the Distinguished Teaching Fellowship honors Wesleyan's most outstanding teachers and gives them the opportunity to teach a course outside their usual departmental offerings. The inaugural fellowship was awarded to Andy Szegedy-Maszak, Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek, professor of classical studies. "It is no surprise that Mary-Jane is Wesleyan's second Distinguished Teaching Fellow: she is known…
Rob Rosenthal, the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, will serve as Director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life for a three-year term, beginning July 2014. Rosenthal has a distinguished history of initiating programs to integrate public life into the Wesleyan curriculum: He was the founding director of the Center for Service Learning, founding co-director the Center for Community Partnerships, and as Provost he instituted the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship and developed new programming within the Allbritton Center including the year-long "music in public life" initiative. Rosenthal served as provost from 2010-2013 and oversaw Wesleyan's reaccreditation process. Immediately…
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, was named the winner of the 2013 Association for Women Geoscientists Professional Excellence Award in the Academia category. This award recognizes exceptional women who have made distinguished contributions in their professions throughout their careers. "The Award Committee was especially impressed with the breadth and depth of your professional accomplishments, your commitment to mentoring, and the emphasis you have placed on outreach and other service activities during your career," wrote Aimee Scheffer, president of the AWG in Thomas' award letter. "Congratulations and thank you for being a positive role model to current and…
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman recently had three op-eds published in major newspapers. All related in different ways to the U.S. Congress' negotiations over the budget and debt ceiling, and the resulting shut down. Grossman is the author of a new book, Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them, published this month by Oxford University Press. Read more about it in this Wesleyan Connection story. The Hartford Courant on Oct. 4 published an op-ed by Grossman arguing that the Republicans were on an "ideological crusade" in their refusal to pass a continuing budget resolution unless substantial changes were made to the…
Elise Springer '90, associate professor of philosophy, is the author of the book, Communicating Moral Concern: An Ethics of Critical Responsiveness, published by MIT Press in September 2013. View photos of her recent book signing celebration in this Wesleyan Connection story. Modern moral theories have crystallized around the logic of individual choices, abstracted from social and historical context. Yet most action, including moral theorizing, can equally be understood as a response, conscious or otherwise, to the social world out of which it emerges. In this novel account of moral agency, Springer accords central importance to how we intervene in activity around us. To notice…
On Sept. 24, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a figure that Assistant Professor of Astronomy Seth Redfield generated as part of his research on the interstellar medium, the gas and dust surrounding the Sun and other nearby stars. Each day, NASA features a different image or photograph of the universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The explanation of the figure states: “The stars are not alone. In the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy about 10 percent of visible matter is in the form of gas, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is not…