Olivia DrakeJillian Roberts ’15 presented a poster at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association in Boston, Mass. on March 15. The poster, titled "Influence of minimal group membership on children’s ideas of equality," is co-authored by Jessica Taggart, research associate and Psychology Department lab coordinator, and Hilary Barth, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior. Roberts developed the project herself and has conducted the research over the past two years.
On March 6, Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, presented "Why Haiti Needs a Higher Love I," a performative meditation on representation, ripostes and self-making at Central Connecticut State University's Center for Africana Studies 20th Anniversary Conference. On March 10, Ulysse and Jungian analyst and author Craig Stephenson participated in a public dialogue titled "Possession and Inspiration – Between the Psyche and the Spirits: A Conversation about Therapy and Vodou" at the CUNY Grad Center in New York City.
Wesleyan faculty and staff participated in a College Readiness Summit March 19 in Usdan. Throughout the day, the participants developed a detailed inventory of all on-going initiatives that improve college readiness of Wesleyan students, youth in Middletown or Middlesex County, or youth in the United States. Several participants who are involved in college readiness-related programs at Wesleyan made short presentations. They discussed their program’s mission, goals, target population, program approach and content and staffing. The event was coordinated by Ruth Weissman, vice president for academic affairs and provost; and Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Center for Community Partnerships.
Bill FisherOn the eve of the fourth season of HBO’s fantasy hit Game of Thrones, Wesleyan Visiting Writer in English Jim Windolf talks with series creators D.B. Weiss ’93 and David Benioff and novelist George R.R. Martin – on whose works the show is based – in Vanity Fair: “Based on ‘A Song of Ice and Fire,’ the epic series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the show seemed like an odd fit for HBO. But Benioff and Weiss believed it was in the tradition of The Sopranos,Deadwood, Oz, and other HBO shows in that it would breathe new life into a tired or…
Susanne Fusso, professor of Russian, East European and Eurasian studies, delivered a paper at a symposium on "Dostoevsky beyond Dostoevsky," held at Brown University, March 15-16. Merging Darwinian theory, Romantic poetry and the complexities of human morality, the Dostoevsky symposium offered multiple perspectives on novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky's work. Fusso's paper was titled "Prelude to a Collaboration: Dostoevsky's Aesthetic Polemic with Mikhail Katkov." The conference was attended by scholars from Yale, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, St. Petersburg State University, Brandeis, University of California - San Diego, and other institutions.
Lauren RubensteinProfessor of Economics Richard Grossman is the author of an op-ed titled, "The Monetary Cosmopolitans," published March 27 on Project Syndicate, a website that publishes commentary "by global leaders and thinkers." Grossman expresses support for a new trend toward countries appointing foreigners, and those with considerable foreign experience, to what is widely considered a country's second most important post: that of the head of the central bank. "This represents a major departure from the tradition of filling central banks' top leadership positions with people who have spent most of their careers there—a tradition that, over time, allowed central banks to…
Natalie Robichaud ’14James Lieber ’84, president of the consulting firm, Lieber Strategies, hosted a dinner for Wesleyan students in Paris in March. “I think they were all fed for a week," Lieber said. After graduating from Wesleyan with a BA with honors in art history, Lieber went on to get his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard and a juris doctor degree cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law. In Paris, he founded Lieber Strategies, a strategic consulting firm that specializes in management of cross-border projects for multinational and national corporations, investment funds and private individuals.
David LowNot one but two books about baseball by Wesleyan graduates have just hit the shelves. Daniel Gilbert ’98, assistant professor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has published Expanding the Strike Zone: Baseball in the Age of Free Agency (University of Massachusetts Press), while Benjamin Baumer ’00 and Andrew Zimbalist P’02 have co-written The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics in Baseball (University of Pennsylvania Press). Expanding the Strike Zone takes a look at issues of work and territory that have come into play as baseball expanded since the mid-20th…
Roberta Pereira ‘03 is the co-founder and managing editor of Dress Circle Publishing, whose mission is to provide its readers with a peek behind the curtain through theater-themed books. The company publishes fiction and nonfiction, which attracts a varied audience, and especially theater-lovers everywhere. Dress Circle Publishing has just published The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 1, by musical theater historian and producer Jennifer Ashley Tepper, which records the stories of eight Broadway theaters and productions that have played there, as told by producers, actors, directors, writers, musicians, and the various other artists and workers involved. Pereira edited the book and…
Kenneth Kimmell ’82 will join the Union of Concerned Scientists as president in May. After graduating with a BA from Wesleyan, Kimmell received his JD from UCLA. His decision to become an environmental attorney was prompted by an experience assisting a United State District Court judge on a case in which the government misused science. He was a director and senior attorney at a law firm in Boston before joining the administration of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. As General Counsel of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Kimmell wrote and helped pass five groundbreaking environmental and energy laws.…
Cynthia RockwellThe Institute on Education Law and Policy (IELP), an interdisciplinary research project at Rutgers University-Newark that director Paul Tractenberg '60 established in 2000, has produced two major reports [see one and two] on school segregation in New Jersey in collaboration with The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. “The findings were sobering, even for a state that has long been home to some of the most segregated schools in the country,” wrote Tractenberg for NJ Spotlight. Tractenberg, who is also the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor and Alfred C. Clapp Distinguished Public Service Professor of Law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, recently published Courting Justice:…
Robert Feldman ’70 was appointed deputy chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst by Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy. In this new role, Feldman, currently dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, will coordinate and facilitate campus-wide quality enhancement efforts, collaborating across campus areas including Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Administration and Finance. He will also oversee implementation of campus-level strategic plan initiatives, as well as oversee administration of the Chancellor’s Office, including portfolios such as the Equal Opportunity and Diversity. Subbaswamy praised Feldman, saying that he “brings to this position a wealth of skills and experience as an administrator, a…