Benjamin TraversThe City of Middletown hosted its first Middnight On Main New Year's Celebration on Dec. 31. The event, which was co-sponsored by Wesleyan, drew more than 10,000 midnight revelers of all ages from the Middletown community and surrounding region. Food, fun, live performance art, and fireworks created bright memories for all. The event also included a jazz piano performance by Wesleyan’s Jazz Ensemble coach Noah Baerman and a performance by SteveSongs' Steve Roslonek ’93. Middnight on Main is featured in the video below: [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZZHdHA5gs&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Lauren RubensteinProspective students from around the globe who are eager to explore Wesleyan’s 340-acre campus can now do so from the comfort of their homes, thanks to a new partnership with Google. Over the past few months, Google Maps has released new imagery of university campuses, including Wesleyan’s, in its “Street View” collections. Google describes its expanding collection as an “ongoing effort to create a virtual mirror of the world.” According to a Jan. 11 Los Angeles Times story featuring Google’s virtual campus tours, “Google announced it has more than tripled the number of university partners that participate in its Street…
Olivia DrakeIn the 19th century, the guardian hills of New Haven known as East and West Rock, attracted much attention from poets, painters and scientists. More than two dozen painters sought to capture the magic of the Rocks and the views they allowed of the city. Jelle de Boer, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, emeritus, has combined these artists' works for a current exhibit at the New Haven Museum. De Boer is the author of Stories in Stone: How Geology Influenced Connecticut History and Culture. "New Haven’s Sentinels: The Art and Science of East and West Rock" opened Jan.…
Paulette Campo '14, a Spanish major, works in the Usdan University Center and wants to become a pediatrician. Learn more about Paulette in the video below: [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCb27FY9zQ&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Sarah Wolfe '12 is a theater major with a concentration in acting. She aspires to teach middle and high school students about the potential of live theater to make a difference in the lives of others. Learn more about Sarah in the video below: [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwMCheyfwvA&feature=relmfu[/youtube]
Wesleyan contractors put the finishing touches on the remodeled squash building and faculty are moving in. The new building will re-open as the Career Center, Art History Department and College of Letters. A grand opening ceremony will be held Feb. 24. Read more about the squash renovation in this October 2011 Wesleyan Connection story. (Photos by Olivia Drake and Bill Tyner '13)
After last winter's record snowfall (not to mention October), it's been nice to have a taste of the opposite this year. Some snow finally fell in the third week of January reminded us all that it is still winter here at Wesleyan. Below are photos taken on Jan. 20: (more…)
Q: Parker, when did you join the staff at Wesleyan University Press, and what attracted you to Wesleyan? A: I came to work at Wes Press in Fall 2007. As an aspiring poet, some of my favorite poets have been published by Wesleyan over the years. As an editor in academic publishing, it was a great chance to work for one of the best presses in the country. Q: Please explain your role as an acquisitions editor? Do you select manuscripts that may be of interest to the Press, or do you help edit books? What do you look for? A: Both…
Brian KattenJohn Biddiscombe, in his 37th year at Wesleyan and 24th as its athletics director, will be one of 12 individuals along with one team inducted into the Middletown Sports Hall of Fame on Jan 26. Biddiscombe came to Wesleyan in 1974 as a three-sport coach of football, wrestling and track and field. He was head coach of wrestling from 1974 to 1989 with a won-loss record of 128-85-3, and in 1984 the team won the New England championship. He was voted New England wrestling coach of the year in 1984 and 1989, and was inducted into the New England Collegiate…
Cynthia RockwellEthnomusicologist and musician Stan Scott Ph.D. ’97, was honored by the Indian Musicological Society and the Mumbai Music Forum with their "Award for Contribution to the Cause of Indian Music by an Overseas-Resident Personality." He was presented the award in absentia at the Jan. 21 Sangeet Research Academy conference held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, and he will receive the presentation personally in March, when he’ll be performing in Delhi and Mumbai. Scott, a private lessons teacher in the Music Department, teaches banjo, mandolin and guitar. Also writer, Scott is the co-author of two ethnomusicology textbooks: …
David LowCourage in the Moment: The Civil Rights Struggle, 1961–1964 (Dover Publications) is a remarkable book of photographs by Jim Wallace, accompanied by a written narrative by Paul Dickson ’61. While many mainstream Southern newspapers ignored the burgeoning civil rights movement in the early 1960s, student journalists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill bravely ventured out every day to document protest marches and other demonstrations in their town. Jim Wallace was one of these students, and he took memorable photographs primarily during the watershed year of 1963. His pictures contain powerful scenes from a new American revolution, ranging…
Jane Goldenring '77 produced the upcoming Disney Channel original movie, Radio Rebel. It airs at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 (7 p.m. Central). The film stars Debbie Ryan (Jessie) and was directed by Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors). Radio Rebel, which is based on the book, Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph, tells the story of Tara, a shy 17-year-old, who has another identity: DJ Radio Rebel. As her popularity as a radio DJ skyrockets, Tara finds it harder to keep her alter ego a secret and learns to take her own advice and embrace who she is. “The movie is a lot…