Olivia DrakeAntonio Farias, currently Chief Diversity Officer at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, will become Wesleyan’s Chief Diversity Officer on Nov. 4. At the Coast Guard Academy since 2005, he chaired the Inclusive Excellence Council and worked with the highest level of leadership in the Coast Guard, developing a metrics-driven inclusion and diversity strategy for the Academy that eventually shaped strategy for the larger 47,000-member organization. He has developed retention programs for students of color, first-generation students, women, LGBT and students of various faith/non-faith backgrounds; implemented pre-orientation programs for first-generation students and students of color; and conducted inclusion and diversity workshops…
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, was named the winner of the 2013 Association for Women Geoscientists Professional Excellence Award in the Academia category. This award recognizes exceptional women who have made distinguished contributions in their professions throughout their careers. "The Award Committee was especially impressed with the breadth and depth of your professional accomplishments, your commitment to mentoring, and the emphasis you have placed on outreach and other service activities during your career," wrote Aimee Scheffer, president of the AWG in Thomas' award letter. "Congratulations and thank you for being a positive role model to current and…
Brian KattenThe Wesleyan field hockey team team joined hands with the National Foundation for Cancer Research to participate in its fundraising campaign titled Play4theCure, in which sports teams across the country are invited to participate by committing to donate proceeds from at least one game to NFCR. Wesleyan field hockey raised funds during its game against Little Three rival Williams College on Oct. 12. The team sold wrist bands and T-shirts at the contest, and accepted general donations for the National Foundation for Cancer Research. The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) is a leading cancer research charity dedicated to funding cancer…
Ethnomusicologist Sumarsam, University Professor of Music, and Andy McGraw Ph.D. '06, now an associate professor at the University of Richmond, have been working with the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Smithsonian Institution to organize and design a festival and conference on Indonesian performing arts. The festival will be held in the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art, Oct. 31-Nov. 3. The Wesleyan Gamelan Ensemble will participate in the festival and Sumarsam will deliver the keynote address on “Traditional Performing Arts of Indonesia in a Globalizing World" on Nov. 2. Sumarsam will discuss Javanese musical and cultural interactions…
Masami Imai, professor of economics, participated in the first annual Stanford Summer Juku on the Japanese Political Economy. He discussed a paper titled, "Banks restructuring sonata: How capital injection triggered labor force rejuvenation in Japanese banks" by David Vera. Learn more here.
Lauren RubensteinProfessor of Economics Richard Grossman recently had three op-eds published in major newspapers. All related in different ways to the U.S. Congress' negotiations over the budget and debt ceiling, and the resulting shut down. Grossman is the author of a new book, Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them, published this month by Oxford University Press. Read more about it in this Wesleyan Connection story. The Hartford Courant on Oct. 4 published an op-ed by Grossman arguing that the Republicans were on an "ideological crusade" in their refusal to pass a continuing budget resolution unless substantial changes were made to the…
Mike Callaghan '13 seized an opportunity to play professional basketball abroad, and it has paid off. A two-time second-team all-NESCAC selection, Callaghan is now playing for SSE Renewables Moycullen in Galway, a member of the Irish Premier League. He's the only American on a team of 11 players and three games into the 18-game regular season, Callaghan leads his squad in both scoring and rebounding while playing 34 of 40 minutes per game. "The competition is tough," Callaghan said. "The one American for the other team is often a former Division I player and the Irishmen who play are good…
David LowIn her recently published scholarly work, Pygmalion's Chisel: For Women Who Are Never Good Enough (Cambridge Scholars Publishing), Tracy Hallstead MALS ’91 examines the enduring critical presence in contemporary Western culture that scrutinizes, critiques, and sizes women down in their daily lives, despite rights gained through the centuries. The book takes its title from Pygmalion, the ancient mythical sculptor who believed that all women were essentially flawed and endeavored to chisel a statue of the perfect woman, Galatea, for himself. Like the perpetually carved and refined Galatea, women labor under Western culture's a priori assumption that they are flawed, yet…
Cynthia RockwellKatherine Bergeron ’80, currently dean of the college at Brown University, was elected to be the 11th president of Connecticut College, to take office on Jan. 1, 2014. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan, Bergeron majored in music and earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology at Cornell. At Brown since 2004, when she joined the faculty as professor of music, she served since 2006 as the university’s chief academic office for undergraduate education. In that capacity, she was noted for strengthening academic and career advising, as well as implementing programs in community service, science education and internationalization. She…
From reviewing hundreds of published research studies and years of treating children with autism and ADHD, Dr. Debby Hamilton '87 has developed a comprehensive prevention plan to help women control risk factors before, during and after pregnancy, which she shares in her new book, Preventing Autism and ADHD (Hedwin Press). This guide helps women reduce their risk factors in the areas of nutrition, digestion, immune function, inflammation, hormones, and detoxification. Hamilton stresses that women have the best chance of having a strong, healthy child by improving their health starting before pregnancy. The Boulder Daily Camera recently interviewed Hamilton and comments…
In Designing Together: The Collaboration and Conflict Management Handbook for Creative Professionals (New Riders), Dan Brown ’94 offers practicing designers a guide to working with other people. The increasing complexity of design projects, the greater reliance on remote team members, and the evolution of design techniques demands professionals who can cooperate effectively. This book encourages cultivating collaborative behaviors and dealing with the inevitable difficult conversations. Brown covers 28 collaboration techniques, 46 conflict management techniques, 31 difficult situation diagnoses, and 17 designer personality traits. The volume should prove helpful for designers on large or small teams and those working in remote…
New York based sculptor Meredith Gang Bergmann ’76, creator of the lifesized statues of historical Bostonians, will attend the 10th anniversary celebration of the unveiling of her “largest sculpture project to date,” the Boston Women’s Memorial. The celebration will be held on Oct. 27 on Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston. The subjects were chosen for their progressive ideas, commitment to social change, and writings that had significant historic impact. Bergmann’s statues, also, break with convention: Instead of standing above the street on a pedestal, Bergmann places Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley level with pedestrians, using their pedestal as…