Wesleyan in the News: April 2024

Basinger Recognized for Contributions to Film

Jeanine Basinger, Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies, Emerita, will receive the Turner Class Movies Classic Film Festival’s Robert Osborne Award, which recognizes an “individual who has helped keep the cultural heritage of classic film alive for future generations.” Basinger spoke with The Hollywood Reporter Magazine about her career.

“It’s a great honor to be associated in any way with TCM and the late Bob Osborne and to be in the company of [Martin Scorsese]; Leonard [Maltin], who I’ve known since he was a teenager; and Kevin [Brownlow] and Donald [Bogle],” Basinger said. “We all share the wish that classic movies will be shown and studied forever.”

Basinger came to Wesleyan in 1960 as marketing director for American Education Publications and began teaching film in 1969. Since then, she founded Wesleyan’s Film Studies Department and ushered it into a “film powerhouse.” The department has since played a role in the careers of many notable alumni in film.

“Jeanine Basinger’s love of cinema and the people who make it is joyful and infectious; it’s overflowing,” said Scorsese, one of the most celebrated filmmakers of all-time.

“…Her books should be required reading for any aspiring filmmaker. . . or anyone who simply loves film,” said actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood.

Faculty, Staff, and Alumni Media Appearances, Awards

Dean of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Martha S. Gilmore appeared on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on April 5 for the show’s series on The Science of Siblings, analyzing Earth’s “twin” Venus. Gilmore, a planetary geologist who studies Venus, gave some insight into how these two planets ended up on wildly different paths despite their relatively similar size. Since Venus is a bit closer to the sun, its oceans dried up. “Once you get rid of an ocean, you turn off the major mechanism to store carbon dioxide in rock. And therefore, it just stays in the atmosphere, and the greenhouse effect takes over,” Gilmore said.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Connecticut to highlight Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education‘s partnership with the state Department of Correction, which provides college-level programming for people who are incarcerated at two state correctional facilities, according to WNPR. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont also toured the facilities with Cardona and spoke with incarcerated people “who told him education helps make communities safer and opens doors for people,” the story said. “With great leadership and great educators and leaders at the state level here at the universities, at the community colleges, and in our correctional facilities, I know we can continue to raise the bar,” Cardona said.”

Desaree Edwards ’25 was one of 60 student leaders in the United States awarded a Truman Scholarship. Her great accomplishment was highlighted in a Forbes piece covering the announcement. Edwards aims to become a legal advocate for the adult survivors of human trafficking.

Hari Krishnan, professor of Dance, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Global South Asian Studies, and Tavia Nyong’o ’95, professor of Theater & Performance Studies at Yale University, received Guggenheim Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Both were mentioned by The Hartford Courant’s piece on Guggenheim recipients with Connecticut ties.

Associate Professor of Astronomy Meredith Hughes and Carlos Ordoñez G’25 joined WNPR’s “Where We Live” on April 8 to talk about the partial solar eclipse and how the Astronomy Department ensured access to Spanish speakers at its viewing event at Van Vleck Observatory. The event was also mentioned within CT Insider’s coverage of the eclipse.

Assistant Professor of Art Tammy Nguyen went through the ins and outs of her studio space—her routine and planning, her favorite features, what music she listens to while working, and more—with Apollo Magazine. Nguyen just opened her A Comedy for Mortals: Purgatorio exhibit at the Lehmann Maupin art gallery in London, which will be on display through April 20.

Nina Vazquez-Rosa, Upward Bound coordinator, spoke about Connecticut’s influence in shaping Reggaetón at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, according to the Record Journal. “Reggaetón has so much history,” she said. “And it’s important to educate people on what it truly means for Puerto Ricans.”

Ryan McLaren ’08 competed in his fourth Boston Marathon as a hand cyclist, just seven years after suffering a spinal cord injury from a skiing accident, according to a piece by in NBC5 in Essex, Vermont.