David LowMark Schafer ’85 is the translator for Before Saying Any of the Great Words: Selected Poems of David Huerta (Copper Canyon Press, 2009), a bilingual anthology of one of Mexico's foremost living poets, David Huerta. The collection contains translations of 84 of Huerta's poems selected from 12 of his 19 collections along with the original Spanish-language poems. The book is a powerful antidote to recent news coverage of Mexico that depicts the country as often violent and drug-ridden. Huerta has been a central figure in two of the most influential poetic movements in late-20th-century Latin America—the neobaroque movement and that…
Michael Rau ’05 is the director of the play Evanston: A Rare Comedy by Michael Yates Crowley at the Undergroundzero Festival at P.S. 122 (150 First Ave.) July 14–17 and at the Summer Sublet Series at HERE! Arts Center 145 Sixth Ave., between Spring and Broome Streets, enter on Dominick Street) Aug. 3–5 in New York City. Presented by Wolf 359, Evanston: A Rare Comedy begins with the disappearance of a teenage girl in deepest suburbia and ends when a meeting of The Evanston Women’s Book Club goes horribly awry. In between, a transgender student dreams of death, a housewife…
Olivia DrakeRichard Grossman, chair of the Economics Department and professor of economics, appeared on Fox Business Radio on May 22, 2009. In the news segment, Grossman speaks on the historical recession and offers his views on how the country got to this point, how we will emerge from the problem and where are the opportunities.
Claire Potter, professor of history, chair and professor of American studies, director of the Center for the Americas, is featured in a June 24 Inside Higher Ed article titled "Fifty Years After Stonewall." Police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwhich Village in June 1969 and drag queens fought back. In the article, Potter says the GLBTQ liberation "is unfinished and becoming more complex as the research emerges that takes us on beyond Stonewall. What I would like for transgender studies in 10 years is what is happening already in gay and lesbian history: placing the emergence of identities and the emergence of liberation…
Extra-solar planets was the theme of StarConn, an all-day convention and astronomy celebration held at Wesleyan on June 4. The event was an outreach effort presented by the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford with the help of the university. The event featured lectures and a two-hour observing session with the 20-inch Clark refractor at Wesleyan's Van Vleck Observatory. Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, was one of the speakers at the event. He is featured in a June 4 Meriden Record Journal article about StarConn. The article is online here.
A book review by Kirk Swinehart, assistant professor of history, was published in the June 27 edition of The Chicago Tribune. Swinehart writes about the novel, Tall Man, written by Australian author Chloe Hooper. According to the review, Hooper has written an account of life and death on Australian's Palm Island "as fast paced as it is horrific. Australians long ago consigned Palm Island to the bin of places best forgotten. And there it stayed until November 2004, when a 36-year-old Aboriginal man named Cameron Doomadgee died in police custody. Overnight, Palm Island became the epicenter of a wrenching national…
Wesleyan's Green Street Art Center was the lead story in the July 9 issue of The Middletown Press. The article featured the GSAC's North End Nights, series of four consecutive Thursday evenings that feature free concerts and arts workshops. North End Nights will continue for the next three Thursdays. On July 16, an African drumming workshop at Green Street Arts Center at 5:30 p.m. will precede a concert in the herb garden featuring the Wesleyan African Drummers. Roslyn Carrier-Brault, administrative assistant in the Chemistry Department, is a photojournalism teacher for the program and is quoted in the article.
David PesciPeter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, professor of government, has co-written an opinion piece for the Moscow Times where he reviews U.S. President Barak Obama's recent trip to Russia.
Ann Burke, associate professor of biology, comments in Science on a new study that examines turtle embryology with an eye to the animal's evolutionary development.
Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth reviews Michael Schama's new book The American Future, which Roth says is powerful and offers "promising vistas."
Joshua Boger ’73, P’06, P’09 has been elected by the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees to serve as its chair, July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2011. Boger has served on the board for 10 years, previously chairing the Campus Affairs Committee and the Facilities Working Group. In addition, he has served on the Board’s Finance Committee and chaired the Science Advisory Council of the University. Boger founded and recently retired as chief executive officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass. Also elected to leadership positions on the Board of Trustees were Ellen Jewett ’81, who will serve as vice…