Brian KattenBetween 2000 and 2011, Wesleyan garnered just four New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Players of the Year honors. The first came in the spring of 2001 when John Landay ’01 led Wesleyan to a 17-3 record in men's lacrosse and a spot in the ECAC Championship game by leading the nation in scoring with 121 points on 73 goals and 48 assists. The following fall, Alexis Keeler ’02 paced women’s volleyball to a best-ever 30-6 mark and a spot in the NCAA Division III tournament with 548 kills and a .379 hitting percentage. She was all-New England and…
Olivia Drake
Lauren RubensteinMagda Teter, the Jeremy Zwelling professor of Jewish studies, professor of history, recently gave a lecture at the Vatican. Delivered Nov. 13, the lecture was titled, "Reti di potere: gli ebrei e l'accesso all a Santa Sede nell'eta modern," or "Networks of Power: Jews and their Access to the Holy See in the Early Modern Period." Teter's talk was part of a lecture series organized in collaboration between the University "La Sapienza" in Rome and the Vatican's Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede), previously called the Holy Office…
Wesleyan student-athletes on the men's ice hockey team are growing mustaches in support of the Movember, an initiative that brings vital awareness to men's health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer. Once registered, the men started Nov. 1 clean shaven. For the rest of the month, the "Mo Bros," groom, trim and wax their way into the "annals of fine moustachery," explains the Movember website. The Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health. The…
Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, assistant professor of history, assistant professor of Russian and Eastern European studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies, delivered the Sherman Emerging Scholar Lecture titled "A Sacred Space: The Spiritual Life of Soviet Atheism" Oct. 18 at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Paul Townsend, chairman of the History Department at N.C. Wilmington, said Smolkin-Rothrock was chosen because her work "explored the connections between art, culture and history." A native of Ukraine, Smolkin-Rothrock studied at Sarah Lawrence College and received her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. She has published articles on “scientific atheism” and…
Khachig Tölölyan, professor of letters, professor of English, was appointed by the Social Science Research Council of the U.S. to teach a special seminar jointly with a French professor appointed by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. They taught the topics of "Transnationalism" and "circulation migratoire" to 12 Ph.D candidates--six French and six American--first at the Université de Poitiers, France, from June 11-15, 2012, then in Philadelphia, from Sept. 12-16, 2012. Tölölyan also was the keynote speaker and gave a lecture titled “Claiming diasporas, reclaiming diaspora studies,” at the conference on “Transnationalism and Diaspora,” Centre for Research in International Migration…
John Finn, professor of government, recently finished recording a 12 lecture audio series on the First Amendment for “The Great Courses,” which offers college courses by engaging professors. Finn’s course on “The First Amendment and You: What Everyone Should Know,” is a practical guide to understanding the protections and limitations implied by this fundamental constitutional provision. Finn, an internationally-recognized expert on constitutional law and theory, helps listeners grasp why we have a First Amendment, what and whom it protects, and why it matters. Finn is also an internationally-recognized expert on constitutional law and political violence. His public lectures include testimony…
Eric Graf, visiting assistant professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, speaks about the monetary policy and the economy on Coy Barefoot. Graf connects the dots between the fall of the Spanish Empire and the House of Hapsburg with the fiscal challenges now facing the United States, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and the very real threat of inflation in the 21st century. "We've been here before. There are lessons to be taught in history. What has happened will happen again. What America is experiencing now is similar to 16th century Spain," he says…
On Nov. 11, The Hartford Courant published an op-ed by Assistant Professor of Government Logan Dancey about Republican Linda McMahon's second unsuccessful bid for Connecticut's U.S. Senate Seat, despite spending more than $40 million in her campaign against Democrat Chris Murphy. Dancey writes that McMahon’s loss is reflective of a larger, nationwide decline in split-ticket voting. That is, voters now are much more loyal to one party, and less likely to choose candidates for President and Congress that belong to different political parties.
Cynthia RockwellBenh Zeitlin ’04, director of Beasts of the Southern Wild, and producer Dan Janvey ’06 joined Director of the Cinema Archives and Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies Jeanine Basinger on Nov. 12 for a free-wheeling Q&A on the making of their indie hit, Beasts of the Southern Wild. The talk took place in the Goldsmith Family Cinema. They began by showing a segment on the making of the film—“a world premiere,” they noted, adding that it will be included on the DVD when the film is released for home viewing. Currently the Sundance and Cannes award-winner is still showing in theaters and…
Nicholas Dirks ’72, a College of Social Studies major, and currently Columbia University's executive vice president and dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, was selected as University of California Berkeley's 10th chancellor, pending a vote on the terms by the U.C. Board of Regents in late November. Currently Dirks is the Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and History at Columbia. He is the author of three books on India, including The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006). His 2001 book, Castes of Mind, published by Princeton University…
David LowIn his new book How to Love Wine (William Morrow), The New York Times chief wine critic Eric Asimov ‘79 examines why the American wine culture produces feelings of anxiety and suggests how readers can overcome their fears and develop a sense of discovery and wonder as they explore the diversity and complexity of the world of wine. Asimov shares his professional knowledge and insights along with personal stories of his lifelong passionate relationship with wine, which began when he was a graduate student on a budget. Asimov discusses favorite vineyards, wine’s singular personalities, meaningless wine descriptions that often pass…