Olivia DrakeThe Campus Activities Committee sponsored the 3rd Annual Taste of Middletown, an event offering samples from 15 local restaurants and hotels including Typhoon Asian Cuisine, Sweet Harmony Bakery, Lyman Orchards and more. The event took place on April 30 in Beckham Hall and included a raffle prizes. More than 225 Wesleyan faculty and staff attended. Employees were encouraged to donate non-perishable food items to Amazing Grace, a food pantry located in Middletown. "Amazing Grace is grateful to all of our employees who donated a whopping 227 pounds of food and an additional $80 in cash," said event organizer Olga Bookas, director…
Lauren RubensteinThe Wesleyan Media Project's research was cited by U.S. Senator Angus King of Maine during a hearing April 30 of the Senate Committee on Rules & Administration. The subject of the hearing was "Dollars and Sense: How Undisclosed Money and Post-McCutcheon Campaign Finance Will Affect 2014 and Beyond." Watch a recording of the webcast here. The Wesleyan Media Project, directed by Assistant Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler and collaborators at Bowdoin College and Washington State University, works to increase transparency about political advertising. It tracks political ad airings on television and reports in real time about ad sponsors, spending,…
The Wesleyan Media Project has received a grant of $74,800 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to track and analyze campaign ad spending in the 2014 midterm election cycle. The project is directed by Assistant Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, along with Michael Franz of Bowdoin College and Travis Ridout of Washington State University. A resource for journalists, policymakers, scholars and voters, the project has worked to increase transparency in federal elections since it was established in 2010 with support from Knight Foundation. Read more about the grant and the Wesleyan Media Project’s work here.
The Wesleyan Media Project: interest groups, dark money, play a growing role in campaign advertising
Sonali Chakravarti, assistant professor of government, is the author of Sing the Rage: Listening to Anger after Mass Violence, published by University Of Chicago Press on April 23. In Sing the Rage, Sonali Chakravarti examines the relationship between anger and justice through a careful look at the emotionally charged South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Between 1996 and 1998, the commission saw, day after day, individuals taking the stand to speak—to cry, scream, and wail—about the atrocities of apartheid. Uncomfortable and surprising, these public emotional displays, she argues, proved to be of immense value, vital to the success of transitional justice and…
Meredith Hughes, assistant professor of astronomy, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to support her research on "Dust and Gas in Debris Disks Reveal the Origins of Planetary Systems." The grant, awarded on April 21, is worth $532,943. Hughes’ research focuses on understanding the formation and evolution of planetary systems. She particularly studies the huge disks of gas and dust surrounding a young star, which can give insight into how and when a star planet might form. The disk is made up of “junk” left over from the star’s formation. The main technique Hughes uses to observe these circumstellar…
Professor Don Oliver received a three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) (R15) for his research titled “Mechanism of SecA-dependent protein translocation." The grant, worth $374,148, was awarded on April 15. Oliver is the Daniel Ayres Professor of Biology and professor of molecular biology and biochemistry. Oliver studies how proteins are targeted to and transported across biological membranes utilizing bacteria as a simple model system."The current genetic and biochemical studies are designed to elucidate a molecular motor protein, SecA ATPase, that drives proteins through a universally conserved protein-conducting channel by a largely unknown molecular mechanism,"…
Kate CarlisleAssistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences James “Jim” Greenwood has received a $331,000 grant from NASA to support his research on the moon’s water. His proposed research, tracking water in rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions, will “take a giant leap towards solving one of the most important questions in planetary science – whether the Moon is wet or dry,” Greenwood said. “We’ll be studying pockets of glass trapped in early and late-crystallizing minerals in lunar mare basalt samples,” Greenwood said. “We will measure water and other volatile elements in these trapped melt pockets to reconstruct the…
David Low '76, associate director of publications in University Communications, is the author of a short story titled "Elevor," published in the Spring 2014 literary magazine Solstice. "Elevor" is about a young Chinese American woman living and working in Manhattan who suffers from claustrophobia and has several surprising adventures around the city. In addition to his many articles in Wesleyan magazine, Low's fiction has appeared in the Ploughshares Reader, American Families, Under Western Eyes: Personal Essays from Asian America, Many Lights in Many Windows, and Mississippi Review. He is a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, the MacDowell Colony and…
From daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and pansies to flowering cherry, magnolia and pear trees on College Row, spring blooms finally emerge across campus in warmer temperatures at the end of April. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)
The Wesleyan Media Project received a grant of $74,851 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to track and analyze campaign ad spending in the 2014 midterm election cycle. The project is directed by Assistant Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, along with Michael Franz of Bowdoin College and Travis Ridout of Washington State University. A resource for journalists, policymakers, scholars and voters, the project has worked to increase transparency in federal elections since it was established in 2010 with support from the Knight Foundation.
A summer science camp for girls – featuring three Wesleyan faculty, several Wesleyan students and two teaching artists – will be supported by a new $10,000 grant from the Petit Family Foundation. The camp, a pilot program of the Green Street Arts Center, will expose about 10 local 5th grade girls to “real world examples of women in science” and introduce them to the wide variety of scientific careers. “We still have a long way to go to achieve gender equality in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields,” said Sara MacSorley, Green Street’s director. “We want to support young girls in our…