Lauren RubensteinLori Gruen, professor and chair of philosophy, discussed her new book, Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals, with University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Mark Bekoff in The Huffington Post. Bekoff calls the book "a wonderful addition to a growing literature in the transdisciplinary field called anthrozoology, the study of human-animal relationships." Gruen defines "entangled empathy" as "a process whereby we first acknowledge that we are already in relationships with all sorts of other animals (humans and non-humans) and these relationships are, for the most part, not very good ones. We then work to figure out how to make them better and that…
Olivia DrakeAs a 2015 Humanities Research Centre Visiting Fellow, Associate Professor Jennifer Tucker will study Victorian sustainability, photography, law and river pollution prevention reform at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. Her appointment will be May 15-July 15. Tucker's ongoing research, tentatively titled “Science Against Industry: Photographic Technologies and the Visual Politics of Pollution Reform,” traces the historical roots of the use of visual evidence in environmental science and pollution reform. Using nearly 300 visual representations (drawings, engravings photographs, and graphs) from archives and libraries, many of which have never previously been studied, she analyzes the scientific impact of new forms of visual representation in chemical climatology and examines the…
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Hannah Norman '16Backpack-clad students shuffle into a sunlit room on the first floor of the Allbritton Center, greeted by the scent of freshly brewed coffee and a menu brimming of specialty tea and espresso drinks. It’s Saturday morning, and as of earlier this month, Espwesso, Wesleyan’s only student-run café, has expanded its hours to cater to its Middletown customers. "Our regulars, and people who before couldn’t be our regulars because of the late night hours, are very excited,” said manager Jasmine Masand ‘15. Now, the hotspot for delicious fair trade coffee is open for business from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. These new…
#THISISWHY Linda Cummings, administrative assistant in the Sociology Department and for the Public Affairs Center, was recently presented with a Cardinal Achievement Award for her efforts in taking on the responsibility of cleaning the PAC basement storage rooms. These large rooms were so full of old furniture, papers, books and assorted other items that it was almost impossible to enter them. Cummings worked with Physical Plant to arrange for multiple rounds of removal of usable furniture, assisted current and emerti faculty with review of their stored materials, arranged with the university archivist to remove historical files of interest to the university,…
On Feb. 5, the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center hosted dancers from the Connecticut premier of Tari Aceh! (Dance Aceh!). The performance features a group of nine female performers from Aceh, Indonesia on their first-ever tour of the United States. Their dances, inherited from their ancestors, are stunning in their synchronicity and include rhythmic body percussion and the singing of both Islamic liturgical and folk texts, accompanied by percussion. The dancers are between the ages of 14 and 24, and study at Syiah Kuala University, located in Banda Aceh, the capital of the Aceh province on the western Indonesian island of…
Beginning this month, Wesleyan's College of the Environment, Center for the Arts and other outside partners will present "The Elements: An Annual Environmental Film Series." The first film, Elemental, will be screened at 7:30 p.m. March 30 in the Center for the Arts Hall. The award-winning film follows three activists as they work to protect air, water and earth around the world, and offers a call for global action. The second film in the series, WATERSHED, will be screened at 7 p.m. May 4 in Middlesex Community College's Chapman Hall, 100 Training Hill Rd. in Middletown. Executive produced and narrated by Robert Redford, this film tells the story…
Bill HolderIt is Feb. 24, 10:20 a.m., and Mike Whaley, vice president for student affairs, steps out of a meeting in the President’s Office to take a phone call. He returns two minutes later, takes his seat, and in an emotion-laden voice tells the group that a student whose life was endangered by poisoning from a variant of the drug Molly (MDMA) was improving. It was a moment so many had been waiting for. As of Tuesday evening, eight of the 10 Wesleyan students hospitalized Sunday had been discharged. Two, however, remained hospitalized. There was more news Tuesday night: four Wesleyan students…
Master printmaker Keiji Shinohara, artist in residence, will have three solo exhibitions in 2015." The title is "Keiji Shinohara: Woodcut." The first will be at the Odakyu Shinjuku Art Salon in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan March 11-17. For more information call 03-3342-1111 (Japan). The second show will be at Art Zone-Kaguraoka in Kyoto, Japan May 9-May 25. For more information call o75-754-0155 (Japan). The exhibition will return to the United States and be on display at the Visual Arts Gallery at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. throughout the month of October. In addition, Shinohara will be demonstrating Japanese Ukiyo-e printmaking…
Since the announcement last September that residential fraternities must become fully co-educational over the next three years, Greek life on campus has changed in several significant ways. The decision to mandate coeducation of residential fraternities came after several months of deliberations among students, faculty, staff, alumni and the Board of Trustees. While the three all-male residential fraternities were given three years in which to become fully co-educational, the deadline to present an initial co-education plan was the end of fall semester. (more…)
Bryan Stascavage '18#THISISWHY In this Q&A, we speak with Peter Blasser, a music graduate student. Q: What was your first experiences with music? When did you decide that music would be your life work? A: I was in elementary school in the 1980s when music programs were still part of the public school curriculum. I remember that those music classes were not very noteworthy at the time. In middle school I took a wood shop class and liked working with the tools. After taking classical civilization classes, I started to triangulate all three — I wanted to work with wood to make ancient Greek…
Joy Mlozanowski, library assistant/accounting specialist, is the author of Night Flying, published by Port Yonder Press in January 2015. Abstract: In her diary, Mae questions God as she and her husband confront the news of an abnormal pregnancy and agonize over the decisions they face. Needing time away to think, she visits her childhood home and reconnects with Will, a deaf friend who taught her to sign when they were young. After her visit, Mae and Will continue an intimate written exchange in which she confides her despair, while Will shares his own struggle to honor the wishes of his…