faculty publications

The climate change Earth is experiencing today is similar to that during a period of rapid and intense global warming it experienced some 56 million years ago. Understanding the similarities can help scientists evaluate what is happening in today’s warming world, according to Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emerita. Key to that understanding is figuring out how much oxygen was dissolved in large swaths of the oceans during that period of rapid warming, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM, when average temperatures increased by 5-8o Celsius or 9-14o Fahrenheit in a few thousand years, Thomas…

Wesleyan’s faculty has been hard-at-work in 2023 sharing their scholarship with the world. Here are some of the books written by Wesleyan’s faculty over the past year. Homesick Blues: Politics, Protest, and Musical Storytelling in Modern Japan by Scott Aalgaard Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies Scott Aalgaard explores how people in Japan have used “musical storytelling” as a means of expressing themselves in their everyday life and as a political practice from the late 1940s to 2018. Within the book, he challenges assertions that political upheavals in the 1960s and 70s in Japan were the climax and end of…

Wesleyan University faculty and alumni are making art across the region over the next several months. Here is a small sampling of offerings: Assistant Professor of Art Tammy Nguyen’s first museum solo exhibition is on display at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston now through January 28, 2024. Assistant Professor of the Practice in Theater Edwin Sánchez’s one-act play, Still Nuts About Him, is based on Clara from The Nutcracker, and is part of the eleventh annual evening of theater Christmas on the Rocks at TheaterWorks Hartford. Sanchez also collaborated with playwright Jacques Lamarre on the latest addition to the…

Newly published research on cognitive remediation’s impact on those with mood disorders calls for public health officials to consider assessing and treating cognitive deficits. Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Behavior Matthew Kurtz said offering those people with mood disorders and cognitive deficits some type of behavioral treatment may help mitigate their difficulties. Kurtz, Zoey Goldberg ’21, and Brina Kuslak ’21 published “A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive remediation for mood disorders: Efficacy and the role of study quality, sample and treatment factors” in the June edition of the Journal of Affective Disorders. By meta-analyzing 22 unique, controlled studies with nearly…

Assistant Professor of Sociology Courtney Patterson-Faye felt that her recent contribution to a new book celebrating Black families might have been just what she needed to read when she was growing up. Karida L. Brown, a professor of sociology at Emory University assembled — with her husband, artist and illustrator Charly Palmer — “The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families,” released on Oct. 10 by Chronicle Books. The book was recently selected by Oprah Daily as part of its holiday gift books list. Patterson-Faye contributed a moving essay called “For Breanna and Other Children Who Love to…

There are few things as deeply embedded in the American consciousness as the ideas of religion and capitalism. Assistant Professor of History Joseph Slaughter’s new book talks about the connection between those two aspects of the national psyche and how Christian capitalism developed in the first half of the 19th century. The book, entitled Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in the Early American Republic, was published in November by Columbia University Press. In the first half of the 19th century, the United States saw both a series of Protestant religious revivals and the dramatic expansion of the marketplace. “It’s easy for…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 joined Middletown High School students in a discussion of his new book “The Student: A Short History” on Thursday, Oct. 5 at RJ Julia Bookstore. In addition to Roth’s talk, MeshEd led a writing and tutoring workshop entitled the “Art of the Personal Essay.” MeshEd, an organization that provides project-based learning curriculum and professional development for teachers, also offers afterschool programs at Middletown High School through its Aspiring Young Learners Initiative. Roth discerned a common theme through examining the relationships of Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus with their students, and diving into what it has meant…

More than half of people who die by suicide visited a primary care physician in the month prior to their death, according to research. That statistic indicates a unique opportunity to help identify people wresting with suicidal ideation and perhaps save lives. Assistant Professor of Psychology Alexis M. May, director of the Risk, Prevention, and Intervention (RPI) Lab, has recently published research that shows a common depression screening questionnaire given at regular primary care visits is more effective in predicting future suicidal behavior over the short term than specific questions about suicidal thoughts themselves. “It suggests to me that while…

Margot Weiss, associate professor of anthropology and American studies, affiliated faculty in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and coordinator of queer studies, saw a gap in the world of queer anthropology—there was no central text compiling the leading theories and ideas of the field. So, she made one—well, two. Weiss recently published Queer Then and Now, a collection of lectures given by the winners of the CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies' annual David R. Kessler Award. CLAGS, which is housed at the City University of New York, gives the Kessler Award for lifetime achievement in queer and trans studies. The…

You might expect that a pregnant person at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic would’ve rested easily being fully compliant with public health measures aimed at keeping them safe. Not so, according to a new study by Assistant Professor of Psychology Royette Dubar published in Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation. Dubar and her colleagues looked at perceived current and anticipated postpartum sleep duration and quality among a nationally representative sample of pregnant people. Dubar believes that the quality of sleep a person experiences can be a strong indicator of their mental health. “Findings from the present study…

While the majority of students are away from campus during the summer months, many members of Wesleyan’s faculty, staff, and alumni are hard at work and making headlines. President Joseph R. Biden announced that attorney Ed Siskel ’94 will serve as White House counsel on August 22. Siskel spent four years working in the White House Counsel’s Office during President Barack Obama’s administration, including time as the Deputy Counsel. Siskel will lead a team to provide the president with legal counsel, help to craft policies and executive actions, and defend and advance Biden’s agenda. “Ed Siskel’s many years of experience…

Every day, when Charles Barber comes home from teaching at Wesleyan, he starts what he calls “his second shift.” After a short nap, he settles down to reading, research, and writing, a disciplined practice that has allowed him to be, over the past several years, a prolific nonfiction author. Since 2019 Barber has published three substantive works and has more ideas in the pipeline. “I wish I’d started (writing) earlier. I had done some other things—I was working in the mental health world, and I was proud of what I did. I am now trying to get as much done…

New Research Suggests Ocean May Increase in Oxygen During Warming

Wesleyan Faculty Publications 2023

Upcoming Faculty and Alumni Performances and Exhibitions

New Research Calls For Public Health Officials to Consider and Treat Mood Disorders

Patterson-Faye Contributes to New Brownies’ Book

New Book Explores Religion in the 19th Century Marketplace

Roth Speaks to High School Students at RJ Julia

New Research Explores Efficacy of Suicide Risk Screening Versus Depression Screening

Weiss Publishes First of Two Queer Studies Anthologies

New Study Released on Impact of COVID on Pregnant People’s Sleep

Wesleyan in the News: August 2023

New Book Tells of Most Successful Medical Development of the Iraq War