Olivia DrakeSeptember 26, 20122min
Wesleyan hired the following new employees in July, August and September: Alexis Sturdy joined the Office of Community Partnerships on July 2. Joseph Giaimo joined University Relations on July 2. Jennifer Kleindienst joined the Office of Finance and Administration on July 2. Nicola Bennett joined University Relations on July 16. Scott Houser joined the Financial Aid Office on July 16. Evan Carney joined the Office of Admission on July 23. David Baird joined Information Technology Services on Aug. 1. Rachel Ludwig joined the Physical Education Department on Aug. 1. Rachel Cross joined the Office of Admission on Aug. 1. Robert…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 26, 20121min
Elizabeth McAlister, chair of the Religion Department, received a grant worth $114,000 from an initiative funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and developed in conjunction with the Social Science Research Council’s program on Religion and the Public Sphere. McAlister plans to study the increase and globalization of what she terms “aggressive forms of prayer,” including evangelical spiritual warfare prayer and political forms of imprecatory prayer, in the context of increasing global militarization. Over the coming years, 28 grantees will participate in a series of interdisciplinary workshops and digital initiatives organized in conjunction with the project. McAlister also is associate professor…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 26, 20122min
Suzy Taraba, director of Special Collections and Archives, is the co-editor of Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives, published by the Association of College and Research Libraries Insider, 2012. In the age of ubiquitous access to information, library special collections and archives have received renewed attention through digitization projects designed to share collections with the world at large. Yet these materials also offer opportunities for student learning though direct engagement with rare or unique items. While special collections and archives have largely been used by advanced researchers and scholars, an increasing number of undergraduate courses…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 26, 20123min
Sonia Sultan, professor and chair of biology, professor of environmental studies, recently had several new articles published. "A resurrection study reveals rapid adaptive evolution within populations of an invasive plant," was published in Evolutionary Applications, September 2012. Wesleyan research students Tim Horgan-Kobelski BA '09/MA '10, Lauren Nichols BA/MA '09, Charlotte Riggs '08 and Ryan Waples '07 co-authored the study. The paper is part of a multi-year study of the introduced Asian annual Polygonum cespitosum, which has recently become invasive in North America. Also in September, Sultan had another paper published about the same invasive species at PLoS One (Public Library of Science One). This paper, titled, "Phenotypic…

Olivia DrakeAugust 30, 20127min
(NEW! Arrival Day video!) [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxAC03h8bg4[/youtube] At 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 29, Lorin Ferris '16 of Bellevue, Wash. arrived on Wesleyan's campus in a rented Jeep, packed with her West Coast belongings. "I brought my entire closet," she says, standing among disheveled heaps of half-unpacked suitcases and boxes in her Butterfield Residence room. "Most of this stuff is clothes and jackets … also bedding, sheets and towels. I did some shopping here (in Connecticut), but I brought a lot with me, too." "You couldn't have brought anything more," says her father, Frank. Lorin, who plans to major in mathematics,…