Olivia DrakeCampus is bursting with fall colors this October. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)
Go HOME(coming), dogs! Many canine companions joined their humans for Wesleyan’s Homecoming football game Oct. 18. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)
Wesleyan welcomed about 150 local residents to campus for the second annual Middletown Day on Oct. 18. Families enjoyed a day of fun — including face painting, balloon art, and a bounce house for kids — food and football, as Wesleyan battled Amherst College in the Homecoming game. The Middletown High School marching band played at halftime, and Middletown residents were offered free admission to the game. View photos of Middletown Day below, and in the Homecoming 2014 photo gallery. (Photos by John Van Vlack and Olivia Drake) (more…)
On Oct. 19, members of Wesleyan's Jewish community gathered to celebrate a fundraising effort spearheaded by David Rabban '71 to raise gifts in memory of Rabbi George Sobelman. Sobelman was Wesleyan's first Jewish Chaplain from 1969-1973. In addition, the Sobelman family is donating 43 volumes of the Babylonian Talmud with translation and commentary by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz to Olin Library. Rabbi Sobelman died Sept. 11, 2010 in Rehovot, Israel. During his time at Wesleyan Sobelman taught Modern Israeli Literature. The event was hosted by University Relations. (Photos by John Van Vlack) (more…)
WESU 88.1 FM will host a Fall Record Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 26 in Beckham Hall. Dozens of vendors from across the Northeast will be selling vinyl records, CDs, posters, T-shirts and more. WESU DJs will sell WESU gear and records to support the station. The station also is seeking donations to be sold at the event. (more…)
Wesleyan faculty Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock and Susanne Fusso are the co-authors of “The Confession of an Atheist Who Became a Scholar of Religion," published in Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 15, Number 3, Summer 2014. The paper is based on an interview Smolkin-Rothrock completed on Russian atheist Nikolai Semenovich Gordienko. Smolkin-Rothrock is assistant professor of history; assistant professor of Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies; Faculty Fellow Center for the Humanities; and tutor in the College of Social Studies. Fusso is professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies. Among the most prominent professors of “scientific atheism” in the Soviet Union, Gordienko also was the author…
The Office of Human Resources reported the following new hires and departures for September 2014: Newly hired Janani Iyer was hired as a research assistant/lab coordinator in the Psychology Department on Sept. 2. Ilona Bass was hired as a research assistant/lab coordinator in the Psychology Department on Sept. 2. Paul Wilson Cauley was hired as a researcher in the Astronomy Department on Sept. 8. Franklin Huynh was hired as a senior budget analyst in the Office of Financial Planning on Sept. 15. Michael Schramm was hired as assistant director of the Wesleyan Fund on Sept. 15. Luigi Solla was hired an associate…
On Oct. 15, Wesleyan and City of Middletown officials met at City Hall in downtown Middletown to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on dealing with sexual assault. The document details the responsibilities and procedures of the university, the city, and state law enforcement in handling assault cases. This document officially codifies long-standing campus and community cooperation around the issue of crime, sharing of training resources, and enhanced communication designed to support survivors of sexual assault. "This memorandum is an important step toward even greater cooperation between Wesleyan, the State’s Attorney’s office and the City of Middletown," said President Michael Roth."On…
Laura Ann Twagira, assistant professor of history, is the author of an article titled, "‘Robot Farmers’ and Cosmopolitan Workers: Technological Masculinity and Agricultural Development in the French Soudan (Mali), 1945–68," published in the November issue of Gender & History, Volume 26, Issue 3, pages 459-477. In 1956, Administrator Ancian, a French government official, suggested in a confidential report that one of the most ambitious agricultural schemes in French West Africa, the Office du Niger, had been misguided in its planning to produce only a ‘robot farmer’. The robot metaphor was drawn from the intense association between the project and technology. However, it was…
On Oct. 24, the Dance Department and Center for the Arts present "To Not Forget Crimea: Uncertain Quiet of Indigenous Crimean Tatars," a panel discussion and the Fall Faculty Dance Concert by Associate Professor of Dance Katja Kolcio. While international media and political leaders are ignoring the situation in Crimea, this event draws public attention to the widespread violation of the Tatars' human rights and the degree to which the Russian Occupation has forced them out of their ancestral homeland. The evening will begin with a free panel discussion, "Indigenous Ukrainian Perspectives of Crimea Post Russian-Invasion," from 6 to…
Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, participated in "Imagining and Imaging the Caribbean,” the inaugural conference of Columbia’s Greater Caribbean Studies Center, on Oct. 18. Ulysse discussed "Writing in the Caribbean Diaspora" with fellow panelists Cuban writer and artist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (Brown University) and Kittian-Brittish novelist Caryl Phillips (Yale University). Other topics included "The Greater Caribbean as a Geo-Historical and Cultural Region," "Writing about the Caribbean from National Perspectives" and "Photographing the City in the Greater Caribbean." The event concluded with a Caribbean concert.
Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of history, is the author of a new book titled Colors of Veracity: A Quest for Truth in China, and Beyond, published by the University of Hawai'i Press in November 2014. In Colors of Veracity, Schwarcz condenses four decades of teaching and scholarship about China to raise fundamental questions about the nature of truth and history. In vivid prose, she addresses contemporary moral dilemmas with a highly personal sense of ethics and aesthetics. Drawing on classical sources in Hebrew and Chinese (as well as several Greek and Japanese texts), Schwarcz…