Olivia DrakeAfter visiting Israel several times to lecture about Chinese and Jewish history, Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of history, decided to do something different during her next trip abroad. "I wanted to let go of the 'specialness' of my training and skills and do something more basic, something more grounded and more urgently needed at the moment," she says. On Dec. 16, Schwarcz will begin a two week service trip with “Volunteers for Israel," a 30-year-old program that promotes solidarity and goodwill among Israelis, American Jews, and other friends of Israel. Since 1982, more than 30,000…
Anthony Braxton, the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, received a New Music USA award in the Letters of Distinction category for 2013. This honor has been awarded annually since 1964 and recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary American music. Braxton is the founder of The Tri-Centric Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that cultivates and inspires the next generation of creative artists to pursue their own visions with the kind of idealism and integrity Braxton has demonstrated throughout his long and distinguished career. The foundation also documents, archives, preserves and disseminates Braxton’s scores, writings, performances…
Michael Dorsey, fellow of the College of the Environment, visiting professor of environmental studies, was one of four panelists who discussed "Climate Change and the World Court: The Role of Law" during the Doha Sustainability Expo, held Dec. 3 in Qatar. The panelists questioned, "What is a state’s responsibility to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions under international law?" Dorsey also reviewed a campaign founded by the Ambassadors for Responsibility on Climate Change that sought an emissions-related advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice. The expo was part of the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) of the United Nations Framework…
Wesleyan University Press's Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music by Alvin Lucier was named an "Overlooked Book" of 2012 by the Slate Book Review. Lucier is the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, emeritus. In the article published Nov. 28, the Slate Book Review critics suggested "20 great books you never heard about—but should’ve." Slate editorial assistant J. Bryan Lowder writes, "Gleaned from Lucier’s long-taught contemporary music course (No. 109) at Wesleyan, Music 109 is, indeed, Lucier’s notes, clippings from a lifetime spent making, performing, and, most importantly, listening to the 'classical' music of our era. For John Cage and other…
Publishers Weekly named Assistant Professor of English Lisa Cohen’s book, All We Know: Three Lives, as one of the "Best Books of 2012." In All We Know, Publishers Weekly says "Cohen ... fully delineates the conventional biographical matters of ancestry, parents, schooling, marriages, affairs, friendships, breakups, work, and death. This well-researched, gossipy, informative, and entertaining biographical triptych is also a thoughtful, three-part inquiry into the meaning of failure, style, and sexual identity." The New York Times also named the book one of the "100 Notable books of 2012." In a book review, the NYT says "Cohen’s own idiosyncratic hybrid doesn’t disappoint. She builds a rich picture…
Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth is featured in Hartford Magazine's "50 Most Influential People" list for 2012. His biography, published in the magazine's cover story, reads: Michael S. Roth, historian, curator, author and president of Wesleyan University in Middletown, remembers the flexibility the school showed him when he wanted to explore “how people make sense of the past.” He designed his own cross-discipline major at Wesleyan, earning a degree summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1978. He received a Ph.D. in history from Princeton in 1984. Roth curated a celebrated exhibit on Freud at the Library of Congress.…
The Indiana University New Music Ensemble began its Nov. 29 concert with a piece written by composer Paula Matthusen, assistant professor of music. Matthusen's the art of disappearing for chamber orchestra premiered in the Netherlands in 2006. The electroacoustic work is scored for both conventional instruments and fixed media elements, also called tape. The fixed media uses electric guitar sounds, another contemporary influence that Matthusen draws on frequently.
Assistant Professor of Psychology Charles "Chuck" Sanislow, Liz Reagan '13 and Katie da Cruz '11 the co-authors of a chapter titled "Avoidant Personality Disorder, Traits, and Type," published in The Oxford Handbook for Personality Disorders, Oxford University Press, pages 549-565, in 2012. May Gianoli, formerly a postdoc in psychology and now at Yale, also was a co-author. Katie da Cruz is currently working on her Ph.D in school psychology at Michigan State. Read the abstract online here.
Wesleyan University Press received a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts on Nov. 27 to support the Wesleyan University Press Poetry Program in 2013-14. Works by such poets as Kazim Ali, Rae Armantrout, Heather Christie, Brenda Coultas, Annie Finch, Peter Gizzi, Brenda Hillman, and Yusef Komunyakaa will be published and promoted. The Press will promote the books through organized reading tours for each author and new digital initiatives including custom e-book and print-on-demand anthologies and free online teaching guides.
Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, assistant professor of history, assistant professor of Russian and Eastern European studies, received a $30,000 grant from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) to support her research on "Soviet Scientific Atheism and Socialist Rituals" through Aug. 31, 2014.