Olivia DrakeNorman Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, is the translator of Théophile Gautier’s Selected Lyrics. The book was published in December by Yale University Press. Théophile Gautier [1811–1872] was a prominent French poet, novelist, critic, and journalist. He is famous for his virtuosity, his inventive textures, and his motto “Art for art’s sake.” His work is often considered a crucial hinge between High Romanticism—idealistic, sentimental, grandiloquent—and the beginnings of “Parnasse,” with its emotional detachment, plasticity, and irresistible surfaces. According to the book’s preview: “Norman Shapiro’s translations have been widely praised for their formal integrity, sonic acuity, tonal sensitivities, and overall poetic…
Masami Imai, associate professor of economics, chair and associate professor of East Asian studies, director of the Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, is the co-author of an article titled, “Bank Integration and Transmission of Financial Shocks: Evidence from Japan,” published in the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pages 155-183 in January 2011. This paper investigates whether banking integration plays an important role in transmitting financial shocks across geographical boundaries by using a dataset on the branch network of nationwide city banks and prefecture-level dataset on the formation and collapse of the real estate bubble in Japan.…
Eric GershonMichael McAlear, chair and associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, and James Arnone, a Ph.D candidate in his lab, have published “Adjacent Gene Pairing Plays a Role in the Coordinated Expression of Ribosome Biogenesis Genes MPP10 and YJR003C in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae” a paper that shows that the physical position of genes on chromosomes -- immediately adjacent gene pairs in particular -- plays an important role in how they are turned on and off. These findings were first discovered in yeast cells, but also hold true over a wide range of life forms, from worms to fruit flies to humans.…
James McGuire, professor of government, is the author of "Mortality Decline in Chile, 1960-1995," published in Living Standards in Latin American History: Height, Welfare, and Development, 1750-2000, Cambridge, Mass: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2010; and "Political Factors and Health Outcomes: Insight from Argentina's Provinces," published in the United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2010, September 2010.
Charles Sanislow, assistant professor in psychology, co-authored a publication showing that personality disorders increased the time to the remission of a depressive episode, and accelerated the time to relapse of a new depressive episode following remission. The work was published in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and stems from the NIH-funded Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Study, a 10-year prospective study on which Sanislow is a co-investigator.
Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, received a $55,973 grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute to support the Advanced Spectra Library Project: Cool Stars. The grant will allow Redfield to facilitate the analysis of data collected on the Hubble Space Telescope and travel to meetings to present the results. He will collaborate with 20 other researchers from around the world on the project. "All astronomers, worldwide, put in proposals once a year to use the Hubble to get observations. They get about 10 times more requests than they have time to give," Redfield explains. "If you are approved, you…
On Dec. 12, the Center for the Arts received a grant worth $136,585 from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism (CCCT) to support the Feet to the Fire initiative in 2011-12. The CCCT also awarded the CFA with an $11,000 award to support the Breaking Ground Dance Series in 2011-12.
Ron Jenkins, professor of theater, was featured in the Dec. 24 edition of the New York Times for his efforts teaching incarcerated men Dante’s “Inferno.” In the Dante Project, Jenkins leads a series of workshops that, through reading, analyzing, adapting and performing, explores the connections between Dante’s 14th-century epic poem and the lives of incarcerated men and women. Jenkins, who has taught in Wesleyan’s theater department for 11 years, introduced prison outreach into the curriculum in 2007, bringing Wesleyan students to the York Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Niantic, to work with inmates on literary classics. In 2009 and 2010, they…
David PesciSuzanne O’Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, director of the Service Learning Center, and Edward Laine ’69, associate professor of earth and oceanographic science at Bowdoin College, organized a virtual workshop on service learning through the National Science Foundation in early 2010. Several participants met in person at the fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) national meeting in fall 2010. Timothy Ku, associate professor of earth and environmental science, one of virtual workshop participants, presented information about his service learning course “Environmental Geochemistry” at the AGU meeting. Laine, O’Connell, and Ku are pictured above at the AGU meeting.
On a recent episode of WNPR’s ‘Where We Live,’ Giulio Gallarotti, professor of government, and Michael Nelson, assistant professor of government, discussed China’s rising national profile and the Western perceptions of Chinese power. According to the WNPR broadcast, China reports a $20.8 billion trade surplus for December, $191 billion for the year and the world is cowering in fear of China’s rapid rise to power. Goldman Sachs predicts China’s and U.S. economies will be equivalent in size around 2027. As a result, recent polls show that Americans think the U.S. is in a downward spiral and China is the new…
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in December. Thomas joins 502 other fellows from across the country. These individuals will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum to be held Feb. 19 during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Thomas will receive a certificate and a blue and gold rosette as a symbol of her distinguished accomplishments.
Post-Classical Ensemble, the Washington, D.C.-based orchestra co-founded by Angel Gil-Ordóñez, Wesleyan’s director of orchestra studies, has been awarded $200,000 by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The ensemble plans to use the money for programming and touring programs through the 2012-2013 season, as well as a DVD. At Wesleyan, Gil-Ordóñez is director of private lessons, chamber music and ensembles, music director of the Wesleyan Orchestra and Wesleyan Concert Choir, and adjunct professor of music. Founded in 2003, the ensemble specializes in thematic programming involving film, theater, dance and vernacular music.