David PesciUnexpected invitations come with the holidays every year, but one in particular received by Jan Willis, professor of religion, caught her attention. It was from the U.S. State Department, and was inspired by President Barack Obama. The invitation asked Willis to serve as just one of 20 American religious scholars and nonprofit leaders selected by the U.S. State Department to participate in the inaugural Indonesia-U.S. Interfaith Cooperation Forum that was being held in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 25-27 under the auspices of Religions for Peace. “As soon as I read it, I knew I had to attend this,” Willis says. “It…
Corrina KerrThis issue we ask 5 Questions of...Assistant Professor of Psychology and Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Behavior Barbara Juhasz. Q. How did you first become interested in psychology? A. I’ve always been fascinated by how the mind works and why people behave the way they do. Since early in high school, I had the idea that I wanted to be a research psychologist. At that time, I really did not know what the field of psychology actually consisted of. Like most people, I believe, I thought psychology meant psychopathology. Once I started studying psychology at the college level, I realized…
Olivia DrakeIn 1966, the apartheid government controlling South Africa began forcing more than 60,000 residents of color from their Cape Town homes in attempt to destroy a multi-racial neighborhood called District Six. On Jan. 8, 2010, Taylor Cain '11 and CaVar Reid '11 toured this area, once a flourishing and lively community of freed slaves and immigrants. The township exploration was just one way Cain and Reid gained an understanding of the South African socio-economic, racial, cultural, historical and environmental landscape while interacting with students from academic institutions in the United States and South Africa. "Knowing the history involved in District…
Following the catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, three Wesleyan faculty, Alex Dupuy, Elizabeth McAlister, and Gina Ulysse have appeared in numerous publications and on radio programs to provide context for thinking about the disaster. Alex Dupuy, the Class of 1958 Distinguished Professor of Sociology, spoke to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp and wrote an essay titled "Beyond the Earthquake: A Wake-Up Call for Haiti" on the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) forum, saying, “There is no doubt that the dominant economic and political classes of Haiti bear great responsibility for the abysmal conditions in the country that exacerbated the impact of…
Gillian Goslinga has joined the Anthropology Department as an assistant professor of anthropology. She also is an assistant professor of Science in Society. A graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz doctoral program in the History of Consciousness, Goslinga was attracted to Wesleyan for many reasons, including “the school’s progressive ethos and the ’scholar-teacher’ pedagogical model.” She says teaching is one of her passions. “The anthropology department is committed to cutting edge theory-cum-praxis,” Goslinga says. She says she appreciates the combination of theoretical innovation and creativity and serious intellectual inquiry. “That made an impression,” she explains. “People at…
Sheryl Culotta has been appointed director of Continuing Studies and Graduate Liberal Studies. She has served as interim director of the GLSP since April 2009, and in that time has demonstrated outstanding skill in managing the GLSP as well as taking administrative and logistical leadership of the coming Summer Session. Culotta earned her bachelor's of arts degree from Colgate University and her J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of Law. "She has been at Wesleyan for four and a half years, all at the GLSP, taking on increasing levels of responsibility each year, and bringing a spirit of…
For the fifth year in a row, Wesleyan students, faculty and staff are becoming "recycle maniacs." RecycleMania, a national recycling and waste minimization competition for universities and colleges, began Jan. 17. For 10 weeks, Wesleyan will record the volume of paper, cardboard and glass/metals/plastics collected from most academic, administrative, on-campus student dormitory facilities and the Usdan University Center. Wesleyan also will record the amount of garbage. This year, all plastic items identified as numbers 1 through 7 can be recycled in Wesleyan's “glass/metal/plastic” recycle containers. "In the past we have only been able to recycle No 1 and No. 2,"…
Wesleyan's Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science (PIMMS) has been selected by The United Illuminating Company (UI) and The Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) to provide professional development workshops for eesmarts teachers regarding energy and energy-efficient behaviors and technologies. These new contracts provide funding for a fourth year of the program and are renewable for an additional two years. The first three years of the program provided nearly $1M in funding to PIMMS to conduct the program. Funding for the next three years show a slight increase. eesmarts is an energy-efficiency learning initiative that is funded by…