Olivia DrakeNeely Bruce, professor of music, received an Arts Advocy Award from the Middletown Commission on the Arts on April 4. Annually, in honor of National Arts Advocacy Day, the Middletown Commission celebrates an individual and a group who have shown extraordinary support and initiative for the arts in the city. Bruce was granted the individual award for his lifelong commitment to the arts. Bruce is a composer, conductor, pianist and scholar of American music, past chorus director for Connecticut Opera, and director of music at South Congregational Church.
Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history, associate professor of science in society, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, is the recipient of the Curran Fellowship for 2011, according to the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP). The Curran Fellowship, made possible through the generosity of Eileen Curran, professor emerita of English at Colby College, and inspired by her pioneering research, provides research and travel grants intended to aid scholars studying 19th-century British magazines and newspapers in making use of primary print and manuscript sources. Tucker is carrying out a study of the British press's coverage of the Tichborne Claimant…
David PesciOn a March 9 episode of Ebru TV‘s “Fresh Outlook,” Giulio Gallarotti, professor of government, discussed the premise, “Has the United States, once the leader of the free world, lost its edge?” The discussion was prompted by recent world events, especially the uprisings in the Middle East, as well as the outcome of last fall’s G-20 Summit. Ebru TV is a Turkish-based broadcasting network with affiliates throughout the world.
The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that a recently-discovered dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (about 110 million years ago) has been named Brontomerus mcintoshi for John S. “Jack” McIntosh, Foss Professor of Physics, emeritus. The fossil, discovered in Utah, is marked by its large, powerful thighs which may have been used to kick predators and travel over rough terrain. The American-British team of scientists who discovered the remains named the dinosaur for McIntosh, “a lifelong avocational paleontologist.” According to the article, it's possible that Brontomerus mcintoshi was more athletic than most other sauropods. It is well established that far from being…
Faculty, alumni and students from the Biology Department and Neuroscience and Behavior Department have an article titled “STEP regulation of seizure thresholds in the hippocampus,” published in Epilepsia, Volume 52, Issue 3, March 2011. Epilepsia is the journal of the International League Against Epilepsy. The paper’s co-authors include Gloster Aaron assistant professor of biology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior; Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior; Stephen Briggs BA ’07, MA ’08, Jeffrey Walker BA ’08, MA ’09, and biology Ph.D. candidate Kemal Asik. Paul Lombroso, a professor at Yale University, contributed to the report. This…
Magda Teter is the author of Sinners Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege after the Reformation, published by Harvard University Press in March 2011. Teter is the Jeremy Zwelling Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, associate professor of history, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of medieval studies. In post-Reformation Poland—the largest state in Europe and home to the largest Jewish population in the world—the Catholic Church suffered profound anxiety about its power after the Protestant threat. According to Harvard University Press, Teter reveals how criminal law became a key tool in the manipulation of the meaning…
Lisa Dombrowski, associate professor of film studies, is the editor of the book, Kazan Revisited, published by Wesleyan University Press in March 2011. According to WUP: A groundbreaking filmmaker dogged by controversy in both his personal life and career, Elia Kazan was one of the most important directors of postwar American cinema. In landmark motion pictures such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden, and Splendor in the Grass, Kazan crafted an emotionally raw form of psychological realism. Arriving in the wake of his centenary, Kazan Revisited engages and moves beyond existing debates regarding Kazan’s contributions…
Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, received a $165,038 grant from the Connecticut Department of Health to support her project titled “DNA Mismatch Repair in Tobacco Smoke Medicated Cancer.” The project will be funded for 18 months.
Matthew Kurtz, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, received a $104,338 grant from the National Institute for Health on Feb. 8. The grant, titled "Cognitive Remediation for Nicotine Dependence" involves adapting cognitive training procedures developed for use in schizophrenia, for addressing the temporary deficits in memory that often accompany smoking cessation in long-term users and that also predict relapse. The project, part of a collaboration between Wesleyan and the University of Pennsylvania, is lead by Dr. Caryn Lerman, director of the Tobacco Use Research Center at Penn's School of Medicine. It will help support Kurtz's work…
The Fund for Greater Hartford awarded the Green Street After School Arts and Science Program with $5,000 on Feb. 24. The grant will support the program through June 30, 2011.
Bill HolderUniversity Photographer Bill Burkhart retired in early March after two decades of service to Wesleyan. Known particularly for his portraiture work, he was the principal photographer for Wesleyan magazine and provided images of classrooms, faculty and staff, students at work and play, alumni across the country, and just about every aspect of campus life one could imagine. His work contributed to the magazine’s receiving several national awards. “If you’ve seen images of Wesleyan and its people on the web or in print, you’ve almost certainly seen a Burkhart image,” says William Holder ’75, director of university communications. “He did a…
Sean Martin is serving as acting director of Financial Aid. Martin joined the Wesleyan staff in the financial aid office in December 2004 and has been associate director since July. He is managing the day-to-day operations and supervising the office while working closely with the staff in Student Accounts.