Playwright, actor, and educator Anna Deavere Smith Hon. '97 launched her yearlong residency at Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts (CFA) on Oct. 27 with the first public staged reading of her new work This Ghost of Slavery. The cast featured 15 actors, including Associate Professor of Theater, African American Studies, and English Rashida McMahon, along with students Connor Wrubel ’25 and Raimi Bagwell ’26. First published in The Atlantic, the work blends contemporary interviews with activists and social justice workers with her research into the archives of American slavery, revealing how historical trauma shapes present-day behavior. The play depicts events…

Legendary director Charles Burnett paved the way for generations of African American filmmakers in his work, including director Shaka King who made the recent Academy Award-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah. Burnett and King spoke and screened their work at Wesleyan during the 2024 Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns, titled “Black Voices and Visionaries in Cinema,” on Nov. 8 and 9. The two filmmakers were joined by international film producers Ama Ampadu and Tamara Dewit for presentations and a panel discussion. Endowed by James Shasha '50, P'82, the Shasha Seminar supports lifelong learning and encourages participants to expand their…

At the age of 27, Valentina Ramia received an urgent call from a friend in Ecuador, where she was born, to join a newly formed government. With her master’s degree in public policy analysis and management, Ramia left her work at a think tank in New York to return home and assist with governing in the new administration. The year was 2007. In her role as an under secretary, Ramia was put in charge of social policy in a newly formed department, and asked to help resolve a crisis in the prison system. Working with the prisoners’ unions and other…

Artist Glenn Ligon '82, Hon. '12 spoke with Associate Professor and Program Director for Art History and Associate Professor of American Studies Claire Grace on Nov. 1 in the Frank Center for Public Affairs during Homecoming and Family Weekend 2024. The exhibition, Reading Signs: Jasper Johns and Glenn Ligon in Print, which features etchings and lithographs by both artists as well as screenprints by Johns from the Davison Art Collection, is on display at the Pruzan Art Center in the Goldrach Gallery through Dec. 11. In her introduction to the conversation, Grace noted that Ligon’s work has been at the…

Wesleyan students  Akhil Joondeph '26 and Tanvi Navile '25 performed during the Indian Dance Showcase as part of the 48th anniversary Navaratri Festival at Wesleyan on Oct. 12. Each dancer demonstrated a different classical dance style. The students were invited to perform at the festival by Hari Krishnan, professor of Dance, Global South Asian Studies, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. They were joined by Connecticut-based choreographers Sarada Nori Akella, who performed South Indian Kuchipudi dance, and Rachna Agrawal, performing North Indian Kathak dance. Navile and Joondeph had previously taken Krishnan’s South Indian Bharatanatyam dance class together. “At Wesleyan, there's such a rich cultural history of the Indian…

Three Wesleyan professors—Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, Associate Professor of Government Logan Dancey, and Assistant Professor of Government Justin Peck—made sense of this year’s election results and the potential path forward during a talk, “The 2024 Election: What Happened and What’s Next?” on Nov. 7. Fowler, co-director the Wesleyan Media Project, said that there would be careful analysis of the year’s election once all the votes are fully counted. Fowler also cautioned against reading too much into the results or focusing on identity politics until those analyses are completed. She said that many political scientists were able to predict…

Wesleyan’s Government Department gathered students to take in the results of the Nov. 5 election together, with games, snacks, and multiple news feeds. “I feel like today, and this time in particular, is very anxiety inducing,” said Adriana Begolli ’25, co-chair of the Government Majors Committee. “Everyone can't focus on their work because they're really nervous. So, we really just wanted to come up with a space that people can learn more about what's going on, but it doesn’t feel super anxious.” Professor of Government Mary Alice Haddad said she helped to create the event because this election night…

For many, the ideal of democracy lies in the concepts of government by the people and the rule of the majority. While this is a significant part of what makes a democracy work, or fail, the discourse surrounding elections plays a key role, too, said Xander Starobin ’27. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Starobin and dozens of other Wesleyan students have taken action to strengthen democracy, canvassing in states that could define this year’s election, and the country, going forward. “To be able to go canvass—which is directly talking to people about what people are concerned about,…

By: Phuc Ngo ’27 I Updated on Nov. 20, 2024 President Michael S. Roth ’78 spoke with the New York Times for a piece on potential consequences for higher education under Donald Trump’s leadership. “President-elect Trump has threatened the largest deportation in American history, and we have students and faculty and staff who will be threatened by that,” Roth said in an interview. “I want them to know that the university will do what it can to support them.” The.Ink conducted an interview with Roth on the same subject. Roth spoke on practical idealism, the university’s response to the protests against…

From across the country, thousands of Wesleyan alumni and family members came together for a weekend of community, connection, and conversation during Homecoming and Family Weekend (HCFW) from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3. HCFW activities kicked off on Friday with numerous opportunities for alumni, families, and students to attend classes, open houses, exhibits, and WESeminars—presentations that allow Cardinals to revisit the classroom and experience the pragmatic liberal arts that is the essence of Wesleyan. For many, it was first and foremost an opportunity to reconnect. Sueann M. Papertsian P’28, from New York, was looking forward to reuniting with her son,…

To hear Nicholas Whittaker tell it, horror movies are greater than the sum of their terrifying, putrid parts. “[Horror] allows us to sit in that feeling that the world is something you could never fully understand—and that’s also the place where philosophy is born,” says Whittaker, assistant professor of philosophy. “Philosophy happens when you recognize that your ways of making sense of the world—whether with science, with history, with psychology—aren’t cutting it anymore. When it feels like there’s an excess of unintelligibility in the world, that’s [also] where horror thrives.” This semester, Whittaker is digging beneath the gore and the…

Images of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 are still shocking. What had historically been a ceremonial procedure turned riotous and deadly. The peaceful transfer of power between administrations was a point of national pride taught in history books, but today it is mired in uncertainty. Robert Cassidy, assistant professor of the practice in government, gathered four scholars with different perspectives on what may happen this election cycle at a panel on Oct. 17. Logan Dancey, associate professor of government, offered insight into political developments and election reforms passed since the 2020 election. David Aaron ’95, visiting professor of…

Anna Deavere Smith Hon. ’97 Starts Yearlong Artist Residency with Staged Reading of New Work

Celebrated Filmmakers, Producers Share Insight into Black Cinema at Shasha Seminar

Narratives of Fear: An Anthropologist’s Research with Asylum Seekers

Glenn Ligon ’82, Hon. ’12 Talks Career, Work at Pruzan Art Center

Students Perform During Annual Celebration of Indian Music and Dance

Wesleyan Faculty on Election Results, Path Forward

Gallery: Election Night Watch Party

Wesleyan Students Canvass Voters in Key Swing State

Wesleyan in the News: November 2024

Celebrating Community at Homecoming and Family Weekend 2024

The Gory Details: Nicholas Whittaker on Philosophy and Black Horror Cinema

Peaceful Transfer of Power? Scholars Discuss the Possibilities