David PesciMay 24, 20112min
"Keep the habits of critical analysis you've learned at Wesleyan. This may sound like an austere and overly-sober message," said Dr. Paul E. Farmer. "But by critical I don't mean you should be contrarian...By being critical I mean taking an extra moment to interrogate accepted wisdom." This observation was the cornerstone of the address delivered by Dr. Farmer at the 179th Commencement Ceremonies at Wesleyan University, on Sunday, May 22. Farmer, a physician-anthropologist and author, founded Partners in Health, an international nonprofit organization that provides direct health care services to the sick living in poverty. Partners in Health also undertakes…

David PesciMay 24, 20112min
“Let’s pass around the brains, but please be careful,” Jennifer Cheng '11 says. “They break easily.” Maryann Platt ’11 and Mandela Kazi ’12 hand out the brains, detailed plastic models with interlocking, removable pieces that allow anyone picking them up to study the organ’s specific areas. “I don’t think you need to use the stands,” says Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior.  “I think you can just give them the brains.” The students nod and make a note and return to their presentation, titled “The Human Connectome Project,” which focuses on the brain, connectomes and the new…

David PesciMay 24, 20112min
By Margot Boyer-Dry Early in our time at Wesleyan, we witnessed a student-led campaign to ‘Keep Wesleyan Weird’. At that time, the movement’s language struck me: What does it mean to ‘keep Wesleyan weird’? Surely, there is no shortage of unusual happenings here. You’d be hard-pressed to find another place where people are so excited about raw milk coops, acro-yoga, and entrepreneurial peer haircutting. Still, I don’t think the campaign’s philosophy was so simple. As I have experienced Wesleyan’s bounty of oddities, I have carried with me the words of that early campaign, ‘Keep Wesleyan Weird’; and now, years later,…

David PesciMay 24, 20111min
Mary Jane Rubenstein, assistant professor of religion, assistant professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, presented the "Senior Voices" baccalaureate address: Dawn points, and another day Prepares for heat and silence Out at sea the dawn wind Wrinkles and slides. I am here Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning. T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets all cycle around the theme of beginning with a kind of solemnity that’s both attentive and introspective. He looks out as the dawn points—out to the almost-day to feel the wind wrinkle and slide. He looks in and finds himself here, or there, or elsewhere.…