Wesleyan in the News: December 2024

By Phuc Ngo ’26

Director of the University Jazz Ensemble Noah Baerman appeared on WNPR’s “The Colin McEnroe Show” to discuss the musical inspiration he received from the myth of Sisyphus. “For me, it is the same boulder every day, in the macro sense,” said Baerman. “Love, justice, trying to facilitate transcendent experiences through art, basic humanity… the core mission I expect is going to be the same for each day that I’m fortunate enough to draw breath.”

Architectural Record featured the new Pruzan Art Center, located between Olin Memorial Library and the newly renovated Frank Center for Public Affairs. The Pruzan project was headed up by the Peterson Rich Office architecture firm, founded by alumnus Nathan Rich ’02 and former Visiting Assistant Professor Miriam Peterson. 

Professor of the Practice in Letters Charles Barber was a finalist for PENAmerica’s 2024 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, for works that communicates complex physical or biological concepts to a lay audience. Barber’s book In the Blood: How Two Outsiders Solved a Centuries-Old Medical Mystery and Took on the US Army, published in May 2023, tells the story of QuikClot, an emergency product that the army had resisted using. 

In an article on the National Education Equity Lab, an education justice nonprofit which seeks to prepare low-income students to enroll and succeed in college, Forbes mentioned President Michael S. Roth ’78 among the university presidents who had praise for the lab. 

BroadwayWorld and Hartford Courant reported on the upcoming world premier of their new show ROWDIES IN LOVE, choreographed and performed by Professor of Dance, Global South Asian Studies, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Hari Krishnan’s inDANCE company. To facilitate the creation of ROWDIES IN LOVE, Krishnan was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim and National Dance Project awards and a residency at Jacob’s Pillow. The show premieres December 6th and 7th at the Center For the Arts Theater. 

George I. Seney Professor of Geology Dana Royer spoke with Thomas Christopher for a piece in the Daily Gazette on the necessity of human intervention in averting the looming mass extinction of fauna and flora. Royer and Christopher discussed previous mass extinction events on Earth (of which there have been five), nature’s recovery from said events, and the differences between plant and animal resilience. A more comprehensive audio version of their conversation will soon be available on the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Growing Greener podcast. 

Deadline reported the appointment of Maddy Barket ’24 as the Head of Development for Paris-based talent agency Elevate Management’s newly opened New York office. Elevate co-founders Florent Lamy and Daniel Blanc said of Barket, “a young leader, passionate and deeply rooted in the culture of New York entertainment. Her energy and strategic intuition have been instrumental in building bridges between the United States and Europe.”