Wesleyan in the News: March 2025

By: Phuc Ngo ’27

President Michael S. Roth ’78 was interviewed on MSNBC’s “The Beat” on Feb. 28 in a segment about the Trump administration’s call for colleges and universities to end diversity, equity, and inclusion-related programs. Roth implored viewers to continue to have conversations with those who disagree with them and to practice democracy. “We will learn more from each other if we have different points of view and different life experiences,” Roth said.  

The Washington Post spoke with Roth about the new administration’s ‘race-neutral policies.’ “It is a time of intense fear throughout the entire sector,” commented Roth. 

Roth also spoke with The Hill for a piece on threats to diversity initiatives. Roth argued against policies of institutional neutrality that some schools have adopted in recent years. “As educators, we need to say what we believe in,” Roth said.  

In an article on academia’s reactions to President Donald Trump, Inside Higher Ed highlighted Roth among the more outspoken university leaders. 

Roth also appeared on a recent episode of the “What Rough Beast” podcast to discuss the Trump administration’s “authoritarian coup” against universities. 

Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Willette Burnham-Williams appeared in a Chronicle of Higher Education-curated compilation of responses from universities affected by Trump’s policies. “There is a truth that isn’t being spoken right now—that this [DEI] work has always benefited everyone,” Burnham-Williams said. “I am thinking about how we communicate that more effectively.” 

Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler co-wrote a piece for ABC News outlining five years of research by the Wesleyan Media Project tracking how media coverage of structural racism has changed since 2020. 

Renée Green ’81 will have her first major solo museum exhibition, “Renée Green: The Equator Has Moved,” in New York at the Dia Beacon, starting on March 7, according to the Dia Foundation. The exhibition will include her paintings from the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as newly commissioned works. 

Sotheby’s profiled art dealer, curator, and gallerist Jeffrey Deitch ’74 on his 50th anniversary in the art business. After studying economics and art history at Wesleyan, Deitch “managed to talk his way into a job at the influential John Weber Gallery,” before pursuing an MBA from Harvard Business School. On the future of art in “uncertain times,” Deitch said, “More than ever, we need the moral stance, the openness to change, the diversity of opinion that you get with art. I’m a total believer.” 

The newest episode of Shapiro Writing Center Director Merve Emre’s LitHub and New York Review of Books–sponsored podcast The Critic and Her Publics features Emre in conversation with poet, memoirist, and critic Meghan O’Rourke. They discussed O’Rourke’s career as an editor, as well as the future of print, and of magazines more generally. On her ongoing work at the Yale Review, O’Rourke said, “Universities once valued these magazines […] as a real instantiation of all that’s excellent about the academy.” 

ArtDaily reported on two new exhibitions at the Pruzan Art Center. Engraving after 1900: A Technique in Its Time features artwork made through copperplate engraving, a rare and costly technique that, according to Donald T. Fallati and Ruth E. Pachman Curator of the Davison Art Collection Miya Tokumitsu, “has continued to be a source of novelty and creative exploration for modern and contemporary artists.” Meanwhile, The Fascination of Sugar highlights the social and cultural role that sweetness and sweeteners have played throughout history through an eclectic array of mediums. 

Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, wrote about Trump, Putin, and the Ukraine War for Transitions, a magazine dedicated to political coverage of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, Turkey, and Eurasia. In the article, Rutland chronicles Trump and Putin’s Feb. 12 meeting and discusses the possible paths by which Trump could fulfill his promise of ‘swiftly’ ending the war in Ukraine. 

Rutland spoke with San Francisco radio station KCBS on their Ask an Expert program to unpack the recent meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as the Kremlin’s subsequent comment that U.S. foreign policy now ‘aligns’ with Russia’s vision. 

Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies and Co-Director of WesDocs Tracy Heather Strain and University Professor of Film Studies and Co-Director of WesDocs Randall MacLowry received a Ford Foundation JustFilms grant to produce their documentary Survival Floating. The project, to be directed by Strain, uses archival materials to explore Black peoples’ complex relationships with water and the impact of racial discrimination on swimming.