Olivia DrakeSeptember 10, 20131min
Ronald Ebrecht, artist-in-residence and university organist, performed a "Bach to School" organ concert Sept. 6 in Memorial Chapel. Ebrecht performed major works composed for the organ in various styles during the 19th century by Marco Enrico Bossi, Cesar Franck, Franz Liszt and Felix Mendelssohn. The event kicked off the Center for the Arts' Music Department Events for the 2013-14 academic year. View upcoming performances here. (more…)

Olivia DrakeSeptember 6, 20132min
Jelle Zelinga de Boer, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, emeritus, is the author of New Haven's Sentinels: The Art and Science of East Rock and West Rock, published by The Driftless Connecticut Series and Garnet Books in July 2013. John Wareham, video production coordinator for Information Technology Services, provided photographs for the book. East Rock and West Rock are volcanic entities that were emplaced in voluminous sandstone formations some 201 million years ago. Their presence facilitated the introduction of modern (European) geologic concepts in America by Yale University Professor Benjamin Silliman and his disciples. Furthermore, more than…

Olivia DrakeAugust 28, 201310min
Watch this video of Arrival Day: [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://youtu.be/RoY0k4kisv8[/youtube] (Story by Olivia Drake and Cynthia Rockwell) After touring 12 colleges and universities, Hannah Wolfe Eisner '17 stopped looking after visiting Wesleyan. "I fell in love with Wesleyan on a campus tour," Eisner said. "Wesleyan students are passionate, but they also love to share their passions with each other and interact and share ideas with one another, and that's the educational philosophy that I was looking for in a school." On Aug. 28, Eisner, who hails from New York City, moved a car-load of belongings into her new home-away-from-home at the…

Olivia DrakeAugust 28, 20134min
Fifty years ago, political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) published Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, a work she completed while she was a Fellow at Wesleyan’s Center for Advanced Studies (now the Center for the Humanities). On Sept. 26-28, Wesleyan will host a conference to honor this achievement and reflect on the reverberating repercussions of Arendt's work, a trial report that asks important and abiding questions about personal responsibility under dictatorship, the moral judgment of evil, the juridical prosecution of genocidal crimes of an international nature, and, more broadly, the historical conditions that shape our understanding of the Holocaust. The…

Olivia DrakeAugust 28, 20132min
Chair of the Russian Language and Literature Department Priscilla Meyer and her daughter, Rachel Trousdale, an associate professor at Agnes Scott College, co-authored a paper. The paper, “Vladimir Nabokov and Virginia Woolf,” will appear in the coming issue of Comparative Literature Studies. A Penn State Press publication, Comparative Literature Studies “publishes comparative articles in literature and culture, critical theory, and cultural and literary relations within and beyond the Western tradition.” Vladimir Nabokov was a Russian-born novelist, most known for his book, Lolita (1955). He also founded Wellesley College's Russian Department and was a distinguished entomologist. In July, Meyer and Trousdale presented two sections of…

Olivia DrakeAugust 28, 20134min
Anya Morgan is a member of the Class of 2014. Q: Anya, happy senior year to you! What are you majoring in, and why did you decide on these majors? A: Thank you! I'm majoring in English and French. I think I always knew I was going to be an English major, since my mom is an English teacher and raised me on books – it's in my blood. I've also got some serious French Canadian roots on both sides of my family, so I'm able to practice speaking French with my grandparents. I guess both majors were predetermined! Q:…

Olivia DrakeAugust 28, 20132min
On Aug. 25, Wesleyan welcomed 92 international students to campus. Of these, 71 are foreign nationals and 21 are U.S. citizens living abroad. International students represent about 13 percent of the entire Class of 2017. Students come from more than 50 countries around the world including Portugal, Macedonia, Singapore, Jamaica, Bosnia, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, Argentina, Spain, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Nepal, Iran, Kuwait, Mongolia and others. International Student Orientation began Aug. 25 when orientation leaders helped move the new students into their residence halls. International students received a campus tour, a welcome dinner, shopping trips and multiple educational programs sessions that…

Olivia DrakeAugust 28, 20134min
While students are away, there's no time for play, if you're on the Physical Plant – Facilities staff. "The day students move out of their campus residences, we get to work," said Roseann Sillasen, associate director and project manager for Physical Plant - Facilities. "We get as many projects done as possible while students and faculty are away for the summer." Summer projects began early with replacement of the 22-year-old Andersen track at the Freeman Athletic Center. The project included an installation of a new synthetic turf field for inclement-weather games and practice field, taking pressure off the grass practice fields…