Lauren RubensteinReviewing Oliver Sacks' new memoir, On the Move, in The Atlantic, President Michael Roth writes that the celebrated neurologist "opens himself to recognition, much as he has opened the lives of others to being recognized in their fullness." The memoir begins in Sacks' early life, when a teacher noted in his report card that "Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far." Sacks describes going to extremes in areas of his life ranging from recreational swimming to competitive weightlifting to drug use. A native of England, Sacks traveled to the United States after completing his medical training to get space from his parents and…
Olivia Drake
Laurie Kenney#THISISWHY In this News @ Wesleyan story, we speak with Kate Weiner from the Class of 2015. Weiner is an anthropology and environmental studies major. Q: Can you describe your thesis, “Reciprocity: Cultivating Community in Urban Agriculture”? A: My thesis is an exploration of how community, identity and belonging interact in urban agricultural spaces, with my hands-on fieldwork with East New York Farms! serving as a case study for examining urban agriculture as a political project. Through melding creative non-fiction, feminist theory, community politics and environmental studies, the intention of my thesis is to provide a framework for understanding the various social, natural, socioeconomic…
Elizabeth McAlister, professor of religion, professor of African American studies, professor of American studies, spoke at DePaul University on May 11. The topic of her talk was "American Evangelical Spiritual Warfare and Vodou in Haiti." According to the flyer for the talk, one strand of American evangelicalism practices so-called "spiritual warfare" in which Christian "prayer warriors" pray against "territorial strongholds." This group believes the world to be mapped into either Christian or demonic space, where Satanic forces operate as "strongholds" of evil. They believe that Haiti is under the influence of Satan. McAlister draws on recent ethnographic fieldwork in Haiti to…
Wesleyan faculty members played key roles in StemCONN 2015, Connecticut's stem cell and regenerative medicine conference, held April 27 in Hartford, Conn. Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, director of the Center for Faculty Career Development, served on the conference's organizing committee for the second time this year. Gloster Aaron, associate professor of biology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, spoke at the conference on "Investigating how transplants reduce seizures: brain slice electrophysiology and ontogenetic stimulation of transplanted cells." He discussed the collaborative work being done by his lab and those of Naegele and Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs…
Two Wesleyan students, Lucy Rubin ’17 and Aletta Brady ’15, have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) to study critical needs languages abroad this summer. Rubin will study Japanese in Hikone, Japan, while Brady will study Arabic in Amman, Jordan. (more…)
On May 6, dozens of Wesleyan students received academic scholarships, fellowships and prizes. Recipients represent the highest ideals of Wesleyan University — intellectual curiosity, academic excellence, creative expression, leadership and service. Several awards are supported by the legacies of alumni, administrators, faculty and friends whose lives and work are honored through endowed gifts. View all the awards and award recipients here.
Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies, has co-authored a paper published in FEBS Letters, an international journal established for the rapid publication of final short reports in the fields of molecular biosciences. The paper, which is an expansion of her lab’s work on the enzyme Heptosyltransferase I, is titled "Cloning and Characterization of the Escherichia coli Heptosyltransferase III: Exploring Substrate Specificity in Lipopolysaccharide Core Biosynthesis," The paper is co-authored by her former graduate student Jagadesh Mudapaka. FEBS Letters is published by Elsevier on behalf of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Taylor also is the co-author of “Improving Alternate Lignin Catabolite Utilization of LigAB…
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of four recenty-published papers. They include: "Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal turnover during the early middle Eocene transition at Walvis Ridge (SE Atlantic)," published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Issue 417: pages 126-136, January 2015. The paper's co-author, Silvia Ortiz, was a PhD student at the University of Zaragoza, and spent several months at Wesleyan working with Thomas. (more…)
The Hartford Courant turned to Erik Grimmer-Solem, associate professor of history, tutor in the College of Social Studies, for perspective on the sinking of the ocean liner R.M.S. Lusitania, one century later. "The British were very effective in using the sinking of the Lusitania as a propaganda tool, portraying the Germans as beastly and dastardly," he told the Courant. "But [Woodrow] Wilson was in a tough spot. The United States had a significant German population, who were certainly not in favor of war." Grimmer-Solem said the German government naturally viewed the horror of the Lusitania quite differently. He said the British…
Brian KattenEudice Chong '18 has been named both the women's tennis NESCAC Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, as well as a first-team all-NESCAC choice in both singles and doubles, following her tremendous rookie campaign as she surrendered just one set in singles all year with a 17-0 overall record. In doubles, almost exclusively with Helen Klass-Warch '18, Chong fashioned a 20-3 record at #1 doubles. Klass-Warch received a nod to the all-NESCAC first team in doubles. (more…)
On May 1, the Neuroscience and Behavior Program held its second annual undergraduate research symposium. Arranged in the format of a professional scientific conference, seniors in the program presented their research done in faculty labs, while students and faculty in attendance enjoyed dinner at Daniel Family Commons. Five seniors spoke and seven other students presented posters on topics ranging from sonification of measures of electrical activity in the brain to the study of characteristics of neuronal membranes. About 50 junior and senior neuroscience and behavior students attended, in addition to the NSB faculty. (Photos by Dat Vu '15.) (more…)