David PesciProfessor Lori Gruen’s The First 100 web site was featured in The New York Times. The web site provides biographies of the first 100 chimpanzees used in scientific experimentation. Gruen is chair and professor of philosophy, professor of feminist gender and sexuality studies, professor of environmental studies. Chimpanzees live 50 to 60 years in captivity, so those who are retired have long histories, although the details can be spotty. On her web site, Gruen has thumbnail biographies of the first 100 chimps used in research in the United States. She hopes to create a similar site for chimps now in…
Olivia DrakeRachel Levenson '12 was featured in the Nov. 7 Jewish Daily Forward as one of "10 Young Jews, Making a Difference." In September, the Forward asked readers to nominate Jews, age 21 and younger, who are working to make a difference locally or globally. Levenson made the list for her efforts studying money-lending practices in Africa. “When I was part of the Jewish Community Teen Foundations, I was really drawn to… this question of, with limited resources, how do you maximize your effectiveness," she says in the article. Her research became part of a larger project led by schools — including Yale and…
Masami Imai, presented a paper titled "Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence from the Constraints of the Open-Economy Trilemma" at three venues in Japan, including the Center for Economic Institutions of Hitotsubashi University; Keio University; and the Institute of Developing Economies-Japan External Trade Organization. The paper is co-authored with Peter Hull '10. Imai is the director and chair of the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies and associate professor of economics.
Elvin Lim, associate professor of government, provided a political analysis on "Why Republicans Can't Find their Candidate" in the Nov. 10 Faster Times. He discusses politicians Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. "It is far from clear, then, that 2012 will be a Republican year," he writes."Conservatives have yet to explain away a fundamental puzzle: if government is so unnecessary, so inefficient, and so corrupt, why seek an office in it? This is possibly why the very brightest and savviest would-be candidates are in Wall Street, and can’t be bothered with an address change to Pennsylvania Avenue.…
Erika Fowler, assistant professor of government, received a grant worth $80,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The award will provide support to the Wesleyan Media Project through October 2013. The grant is shared with Bowdoin College and Washington State University.
Charles Lemert, University Professor and Andrus Professor of Social Theory, emeritus, is the author of Why Niebuhr Matters, published by Yale University Press, November 2011. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was a Protestant preacher, an influential religious thinker, and an important moral guide in mid-20th-century America. His work has informed the thinking of political leaders and commentators from Barack Obama and Madeleine Albright to David Brooks and Walter Russell Mead. In this lively overview of Niebuhr's career, Lemert analyzes why interest in Niebuhr is rising and how Niebuhr provides the answers we ache for in the face of seismic shifts in the…
A paper titled "Corporate Capital Budgeting Decisions and Information Sharing" by Abigail Hornstein, assistant professor of economics, was published in the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy on Oct. 24. In the paper, Hornstein explains how firms must overcome agency and information asymmetry problems to make efficient corporate capital budgeting decisions; this is particularly true for firms with multiple units dispersed across geographic locations. Internal communication and coordination may therefore be crucial in reducing information asymmetry and achieving efficient resource allocation. We examine the relationship between corporate capital budgeting decisions and the degree of internal information sharing using a data set…
Peter Rutland has mentioned in the past that many Americans know little about the European Union (E.U.), and what they know may be more based on myth than fact. With a major debt crisis threatening the E.U.’s very existence, 5 Questions thought it might be a good time to discuss some of these misconceptions with Professor Rutland who is Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, professor of government and professor of Russian and Eastern European studies. Q: What is one of the more significant myths many Americans believe is a “fact” about the E.U.? A:…
Benjamin TraversCarmen Yip '12 comes to Wesleyan from the New Territories, Hong Kong. She is majoring in German studies and sociology. Learn more about Carmen in the video below: [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHV7Cn9t4bw[/youtube]
Ed Moran, associate professor of astronomy, received a grant worth $62,804 from NASA for a project titled "Black Holes at the Center of Nearby Dwarf Galaxies." The project involves observations of six dwarf galaxies with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, also known as the "Hubble Space Telescope of X-ray Astronomy." "We have identified 'active nuclei' in these objects, which are powered by the accretion of gas onto massive black holes," Moran says. "The X-ray emission associated with the accretion will give us direct information about the black holes and their surroundings in their host galaxies." The black holes in these galaxies…
Wesleyan's Center for the Arts received a grant worth $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. The funds will support the 2012-13 Breaking Ground Dance Series. The NEA is supporting 863 organizations and individual writers across the country with grant funds. The CFA is the only dance presenter in Connecticut to receive support. The Breaking Ground Dance Series at the Center for the Arts, now in its 12th season, features cutting-edge choreography, world-renowned companies, and companies pushing the boundaries of the art form. Upcoming performances this season include the Connecticut premiere of Connected (2011) by the Australian dance company…
Stewart Novick, professor of chemistry, received a grant worth $43,260 from the National Science Foundation. The award is shared with Professor Stephen Cooke of SUNY-Purchase and represents a new collaboration between Professors Cooke and Novick who now co-mentor graduate students and share sophisticated equipment (Fourier transform microwave spectrometers housed in Novick's lab at Wesleyan). The collaboration, which goes beyond this one grant, involves investigating the structures and dynamics of a whole range of systems including large halogenated compounds and molecules involving actinide valence electrons in their chemical bonding.