Mike Mavredakis

The Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism launched a podcast in partnership with the New York Review of Books and Literary Hub called “The Critic and Her Publics.” The podcast gives the public access to a series of talks between Merve Emre, Shapiro-Silverberg University Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism and director of the Shapiro Writing Center, and a lineup of writers from major publications. New episodes debut every Tuesday, starting Jan. 30, with guest Andrea Long Chu. Six episodes were recorded in the fall and six more will be recorded this semester as the Shapiro Center continues its…

The Earth’s present-day atmosphere has a carbon concentration that’s 50 percent higher than it was before industrialization, a rapid escalation that is a contributing factor to widespread climate changes, according to experts across the field of paleoclimatology. To further understand the potential effects of climate change and other important aspect of Earth’s climate history, Dana Royer, George I. Seney Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and over 80 other paleoclimatologists published a comprehensive charting of 66 million years of atmospheric CO2 data. Their seven-year effort, dubbed the Cenozoic Carbon Dioxide Proxy Integration Project (CenCO2PIP), was…

On the Freakonomics Radio Hour, Jan. 24, Stephen J. Dubner spoke with President Michael S. Roth ’78 about the difficulty of being a college president in a moment of political pressure on higher education. “I realize that you can’t please everyone, but I don’t think that that’s an excuse for trying to say nothing,” Roth said. “And the fact that you can’t speak about everything doesn’t mean you should stay silent all the time.” Roth was quoted in a Boston Globe story on the challenges university president’s face in the modern political climate that has some colleges facing frequent public attacks,…

When he came to Wesleyan University’s campus on January 14, 1962, many people thought Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Hon. 64, was in a moment of defeat. Uncharacteristically for King, the Albany Movement, which he helped lead after it was started by protestors, struggled to gain a foothold in the media. But if King were feeling defeated, no one could tell by the impassioned address he gave before interested students and faculty. In December of 1961, many protesters were arrested in Albany, Georgia and intentionally declined bail to attempt to crowd jails and spotlight inhumane conditions. However, Albany…

Wesleyan’s Public Safety collected over $2,000 worth of donations and a full cruiser of toys at the sixth annual week-long Holiday Toy Drive. The toys and proceeds were delivered to eight families in need, including 29 children, on Dec. 17. Public Safety collaborated with the Middletown Fire Department and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) to sponsor the drive. “The Wesleyan Community has been so generous during our Stuff-a-Cruiser event, we are humbled by the outpouring of support we have received from the students and staff on campus,” a representative from Public Safety said. “Without the students, support from the department, and…

Wesleyan’s faculty has been hard-at-work in 2023 sharing their scholarship with the world. Here are some of the books written by Wesleyan’s faculty over the past year. Homesick Blues: Politics, Protest, and Musical Storytelling in Modern Japan by Scott Aalgaard Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies Scott Aalgaard explores how people in Japan have used “musical storytelling” as a means of expressing themselves in their everyday life and as a political practice from the late 1940s to 2018. Within the book, he challenges assertions that political upheavals in the 1960s and 70s in Japan were the climax and end of…

It has been a consequential year at Wesleyan. The University announced the end of legacy admissions and loans, policy changes aimed at improving the access and affordability of its liberal arts education. It also launched the largest fundraising initiative in school history. While Wesleyan was focused on its mission to provide a diverse group of students with an expansive and broad education, its students continued to learn and create and faculty continued to make significant contributions in their fields of study. Throughout the year, the Wesleyan Connection has documented this creative and compassionate community hungry to have an impact on…

In a time when campus dialogue is front page news as violence continues in the Middle East, Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth ’78 has spoken and written extensively on the topic over the last few days, providing his perspective and insight into the environment at Wesleyan. Roth appeared on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” on Dec. 5 to discuss the campus conversation surrounding the war and student’s perception of safety during times of rising religious interpersonal conflict. “On our campus, we have seen that people have the ability to sit together in the same room and listen to…

Professor of Astronomy Seth Redfield was one of several collaborators who recently published the discovery of a six-planet system around a nearby bright star within the Milky Way Galaxy, according to a paper in Nature. Not only are the planets within our galaxy, but they are in perfect resonance, a rare and potentially highly important discovery for humanity’s understanding of planet formation, Redfield said. A planetary system in resonance means that the orbital periods—how long it takes a planet to complete a single orbit around its star—are in ratio with one another. Redfield said that in this case all six…

Wesleyan’s newest Phi Beta Kappa Society members plan to impact the world through service, research, policymaking, music, literature, and art. There were 15 high-achieving Wesleyan students inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society at a ceremony in the McKelvey Room on Dec. 6, joining over 500,000 members from 293 campuses across the country. They join former presidents, members of Congress, and Nobel Laureates as part of the nation’s oldest scholastic honor society. “It is really an impressive honor,” said Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth ’78, who is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. “It's not just your grades, it's not…

When given the option to control how their data is being collected and distributed with a simple click on a button, 94 percent of participants in a study from researchers at Wesleyan University said they would use the tool. The new opt out mechanism, called Global Privacy Control (GPC), promises to allow people to universally exercise their right to opt out of data sharing and selling through a simple click in their browsers to communicate their preferences to websites across the internet. “The opt out right is especially important because it controls whether or not people’s data enters the online…

Newly published research on cognitive remediation’s impact on those with mood disorders calls for public health officials to consider assessing and treating cognitive deficits. Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Behavior Matthew Kurtz said offering those people with mood disorders and cognitive deficits some type of behavioral treatment may help mitigate their difficulties. Kurtz, Zoey Goldberg ’21, and Brina Kuslak ’21 published “A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive remediation for mood disorders: Efficacy and the role of study quality, sample and treatment factors” in the June edition of the Journal of Affective Disorders. By meta-analyzing 22 unique, controlled studies with nearly…

Shapiro Writing Center Launches Podcast

Wesleyan Professor Charts Atmospheric CO2 Back 66 Million Years

Wesleyan in the News: January 2024

Revisiting Martin Luther King’s First Visit to Wesleyan

Wesleyan Public Safety, Middletown Fire Stuff a Cruiser, Raise Money for Those in Need

Wesleyan Faculty Publications 2023

Wesleyan’s Year in Review 2023

Wesleyan in the News: President Roth on ‘Safe Enough’ Campuses

Wesleyan Professor Collaborates on Discovery of Six Planets

Fifteen Students Inducted to Phi Beta Kappa

Privacy Controls Important For Users, Study Says

New Research Calls For Public Health Officials to Consider and Treat Mood Disorders