Editorial Staff

By Maia Bronfman ‘24 As the male love interest in Olivia Snow’s ’25 neo-Shakespearean drama, Lena Weiman ’25 said she had to learn to be a rake, and then to be a dead rake. Having never before in her life been a rake or dead, Weiman said she relied on the dialogues with her co-actors to inhabit the character of Claudio de’Bossi. Masquerade, the five act play which premiered in the 92 Theatre on November 11, was first imagined by Snow in her freshman year of high school. She read King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and other Shakespeare…

On a picturesque Homecoming out on Andrus Field, the Wesleyan football team put forth a dominating showing to defeat the reigning NESCAC Champion Williams, 35-21, on Saturday. Combined with the Cardinals' 13-7 overtime win at Amherst last week, Wesleyan (6-2) takes home the 2022 Little Three Championship, marking the second Little Three title in the past three seasons for Wesleyan. In a game the Cardinals never trailed, the yardage totals tell the story as Wesleyan piled up 496 yards of total offense compared to just 215 for the Ephs. Wesleyan held the ball for over 36 minutes, picking up 27…

Homecoming and Family Weekend 2022 was a joyful time to celebrate all things Wesleyan - from the success on the athletic fields and classrooms to the lifelong friendships made. Photographer John Hassett captured the feeling of the weekend.

Updated November 28, 2022 Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 is the top Hot 100 Songwriter of 2022. Eight of the songs he wrote for the Disney film Encanto landed on the Billboard charts. Assistant Professor of the Practice in African American Studies Jesse Nasta '07 participated in a Veteran’s Day ceremony recognizing the service of Jesse Sips Caples of Middletown, an African American Revolutionary War veteran. Wesleyan University is cited by the New York Times as one of the reasons Middletown is a desirable place to live in a tight job market. Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation professor of Economics and Environmental…

Outside group advertising on television in federal races is breaking records, according to a new analysis released by the Wesleyan Media Project on October 20. Since the 2010 election cycle, the Wesleyan Media Project has provided real-time information on the extent of corporate and union spending in federal election campaigns across the country, who specifically is doing that spending, and which candidates are benefiting. The project releases a detailed report addressing the current political advertising landscape every two weeks during election season. In just the last two weeks alone, the Republican super PAC, Congressional Leadership Fund, has targeted ads in 42 different…

By Maia Bronfman '24 It is important, if you are improvisationally accompanying a silent film on an organ, to not detract from the theme on screen. Peter Krasinski, a renowned secular and sacred organist, taught this and other lessons on Thursday night at Memorial Chapel during a masterclass with students of Alcee Chris, assistant professor of music. Chriss had his students each choose silent films to accompany during the masterclass. The silent films organists accompany are rarities in themselves, with 75 percent of the genre having been lost, according to the Library of Congress. Chriss, also an organist but inclined…

(Updated October 31, 2022) Len Bergstein ‘67 passed away October 17th. Bergstein worked as a longtime political consultant to Oregon Governors, Supreme Court Justices, and Commissioners. He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Betsy, two brothers, three children, and four grandchildren. Zachariah Ezer, a 2015 Wesleyan University Olin Fellow was chosen as one of 7 playwrights for Theater J’s Expanding the Canon initiative. The program seeks to correct and broaden the historically limited portrayals of Jewishness on U.S. stages and around the world. Jennifer Finney Boylan ‘80 was interviewed about the book she’s written with Jodi Picoult, “Mad…

The Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery has a climate problem. “The airflow is not democratic,” said Ben Chaffee, associate director of visual arts and the curator for this fall’s exhibit by artists Renee Gladman and Nick Raffel, running through October 16. In the wing that is favored by airflow, Raffel installed a fan. In the other wing is Gladman’s collection. Her lines of prose and lines of drawing are neglected by the ventilation system. Raffel’s installation, called airfoil, explores how the aesthetics of utilities express historic understandings of energy usage. Gladman’s exhibit, called THE DREAM OF SENTENCES, is the…

(Updated September 28, 2022) President Michael S. Roth '78 published a piece in the September 26 Boston Globe urging educators at all levels to speak out to defend democracy. "We in higher education must energetically cultivate democratic values — including freedom of expression, rights to representation, and the protection of the vulnerable — at home on our campuses. And we must take a stand against the would-be strongmen who threaten these values in our country and beyond. As educators, we should encourage our students and colleagues to join us in fighting for basic democratic rights. And should that fight be lost…

By Maia Bronfman '23 “How much do Americans know about the kitchens and the bathrooms and the marriages of places anywhere else in the world?” Bernardo Antonio Gonzales, professor of Spanish and founder of the Center for Global Studies, asked the question to pose a self-admittedly trivial but thematic backdrop for the annual Contemporary Cinema from the Hispanic World Film Series. Along with María Ospina, associate professor of Spanish and Latin American studies, Gonzales has curated a series of films by young directors from Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. “These films have little chance of making the…

This fall, Wesleyan welcomes 60 new faculty members to campus. The group contains 24 new visiting faculty members, 20 assistant professors, four Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral fellows, three Distinguished Writers in Residence, six teaching fellows, one university and one associate professor, and a Van Vleck post-doctoral fellow. The new faculty bring a diverse skill set to campus. Among them are experts in art, multi-lingual ASL, astronomy, biology, chemistry, dance, digital storytelling, economics, education, environmental studies, fiction, French, German, government, Italian, mathematics, media literacy, music, philosophy, physics, poetry, psychology, public history, public policy, religion, Spanish, and theater. Bios of the new…

By Amy Albert Dr. Kinari Webb, author of “The Guardians of the Trees,” held out a crayon to Wesleyan’s class of 745 first-year students at the First Listening event in Freeman Gymnasium. “This is a magic wand,” she announced playfully. “Actually, it’s my son’s crayon, but we’re going to pretend it is a magic wand.” She asked students to find something they could use as a magic wand (one student used a bottle of lotion) and asked them to close their eyes. “Make a wish” she asked. “Make one wish for yourself. What would you wish for if you…

Olivia Snow’s ’25 neo-Shakespearean drama premieres in the 92 Theatre

LITTLE THREE CHAMPS! Football Leads Wire-to-Wire in 35-21 Triumph over Williams on Homecoming

Photo Gallery: Homecoming and Family Weekend 2022

Wesleyan in the News, November 2022

Wesleyan Media Project Political Advertising Update: October 20

Students Learn to Improvise Music For Silent Films

Wesleyan in the News, October 2022

Lines of Prose, Drawing, and HVAC Systems at the Zilkha Gallery Fall Exhibition

Wesleyan in the News, September 2022

Contemporary Cinema from the Hispanic World Film Series Launches in September

Wesleyan Welcomes New Faculty

The Three Wishes of Kinari Webb: Common Read Author Speaks to the Class of 2026