2014 – Page 20

Graduate Student Services welcomed 64 graduate students to Wesleyan on Aug. 26. Of the students, 19 are part of Wesleyan's BA/MA program; 12 are MA students; 20 are Ph.D. candidates; eight are Foreign Language Teaching Assistants; three are Wesleyan Writing Fellows and one is an exchange student from Germany. Twelve are studying music and ethnomusicology; 37 are pursing degrees in science and mathematics; three are studying psychology and 12 are non-degree seeking students. Of the 64 graduate students, 43 are from the United States. The other 21 are from France, Ghana, India, Greece, Spain, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Singapore, United Kingdom,…

Amy Bloom, the Distinguished University Writer-in-Residence and director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing, is the author of a novel, Lucky Us, published in July 2014 by Random House. Disappointed by their families, Iris, a hopeful star and Eva the sidekick, journey through 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris’s ambitions take the pair across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, and to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island. With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine…

Here's a wide look at Wesleyan's campus on Aug. 15 and Aug. 22. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)

Jean Redpath, a Scottish-born singer who delighted audiences worldwide and was described by The Boston Globe as “something very close to Scotland’s folk singer laureate,” died Aug. 21 at age 77. She brought her musical talent and extensive knowledge of Scottish history to Wesleyan and the Middletown community as an artist-in-residence in the 1970s. According to her official website, Redpath arrived in the United States in 1961 with $11 in her pocket. (more…)

Registration is open through Sept. 12 for Family Weekend, Sept. 27-28, when Wesleyan families are invited to attend classes and WESeminars, take in concerts and sporting events, enjoy meals, tour campus and learn about student programs and services. Breaking from tradition, this year Family Weekend will be separate from Homecoming Weekend, because Homecoming occurs during Fall break. Register for Family Weekend here. A full schedule of the weekend’s events is available here. Highlights include a South Indian vocal performance as part of the Navaratri Festival at the Center for the Arts; the 22nd annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium, featuring a movie screening…

Steven Greenhouse ’73, P’08, will bring his years of experience in journalism back to Wesleyan this semester as the Koeppel Journalism Fellow. The longtime New York Times reporter, who covers labor and workplace issues, will teach “Journalism, Nonfiction Writing and the Search for Truth.” “It's an honor to be invited to teach at Wesleyan, but it also feels a little daunting because I've never taught a full course before,” Greenhouse said. “But I imagine that I've learned a thing or two about journalism and writing and editing since once upon a time, when I was editor of the Argus eons…

Award-winning film and television director, producer and writer Joss Whedon ’87 is the subject of the informative and entertaining Joss Whedon: The Biography (Chicago Review Press) by Amy Pascale, a director at MTV. The book begins by tracing Whedon’s growth from a creative child and teenager who spent years away from his family at an elite English boarding school (Winchester College in Hampshire), through his early successes—which often turned into frustration in television (Roseanne) and film (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The biography then covers his breakout career turn as the creator, writer, and director of the highly successful Buffy television series, which…

Two graduate students and two faculty attended the 248th national meeting of the American Chemical Society Aug. 10-14 in San Francisco, Calif. Chemistry graduate students Duminda Ranasinghe delivered a poster presentation on her research titled "Efficient extrapolation to the (T)/CBS limit" and an oral presentation on "Density functional for core-valence correlation energy." Chemistry graduate student Kyle Throssell presented two poster presentations on "Potential curves of selected radical thiol double additions to alkynes" and "Assessing weak interactions in small dimer systems with PM7." The students were accompanied by George Petersson, the Fisk Professor of Natural Science, professor of chemistry; and Michael…

Roth makes the case for a pragmatic liberal education, discusses efforts to keep Wesleyan's cost down

Mathematics Ph.D. candidate Alicia Marino recently attended a four-day workshop in Portland, Ore. studying various aspects of computational number theory. The workshop focused on Sage, a mathematics software package, developed by and for the mathematical community. The event included talks, tutorials, and time spent in small project groups developing Sage code. Participants worked to enhance the Sage library and discussed ways to increase the number of women in Sage development. The workshop ran July 28-Aug. 1. Marino, who holds a bachelor's degree in computer science, attended the conference to sharpen her programming skills. "My initial desire to attend the workshop…

A figure created by Katherine Kaus, graduate student in the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department, was selected to run as the featured cover graphic in the Sept. 9 Journal of Molecular Biology. The graphic is related to her article, titled "Glycan Specificity of the Vibrio vulnificus Hemolysin Lectin Outlines Evolutionary History of Membrane Targeting by a Toxin Family," which was published in the journal on July 29. It is co-authored by Rich Olson, assistant professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, and researchers at the University of Connecticut. The abstract appears online here. Vibrio vulnificus is an emerging human pathogen that causes severe food poisoning…

Associate Professor of Psychology Anna Shusterman has received a major grant from the National Science Foundation to study language structure and number word learning in children. The research is a collaboration with David Barner at the University of California-San Diego. The total grant is $1,496,636, of which $724,128 will go to Wesleyan. According to Shusterman, the project explores how the structure of a language affects children's acquisition of word meanings for abstract concepts. Specifically, they will consider how the pace of children's number acquisition is affected by the presence of a "dual marker" — that is, grammatical marking to specify a precise quantity…

Wesleyan Welcomes 64 Graduate Students

Bloom’s Novel Lucky Us on Success, Luck, Big Dreams, Scandals

A Wide Angle View of Wesleyan’s Summer Campus

Former Artist-in-Residence Redpath Remembered for Teaching Folklore

Registration for Family Weekend Open Through Sept. 12

New York Times‘ Steven Greenhouse ’73 Teaching Journalism as Koeppel Fellow

Whedon ’87 Is Subject of New Biography

Graduate Students, Faculty Attend American Chemical Society Meeting

Roth Participates in Panel on the Value of College

Ph.D. Candidate Marino Attends Workshop on Computational Number Theory

Grad Student’s Graphic to Appear on Journal’s Cover

NSF Grant Supports Shusterman’s Study on Number Word Learning