Olivia Drake(more…)
Michael Meere, assistant professor of French, and Sophie Dora Tulchin '20 are the co-authors of “Filling In the Gaps: Identity, Exile, and Performance in 1962 and Babel Taxi by Mohamed Kacimi,” published in the Journal of the African Literature Association, Vol. 14, Issue 3, on Nov. 12, 2020. This article explores issues of identity, exile, and performance in 1962 (1998) and Babel Taxi (2004), two foundational plays by the Algerian-born author Mohamed Kacimi. 1962 is an autobiographical play written during Algeria’s “black decade” about the effects of Algeria’s independence on two particular characters, while Babel Taxi allegorically retells the legend…
With the holiday season approaching, Wesleyan's Pandemic Planning Committee (PPC) reminds students, faculty, and staff to remain vigilant and safe. "We have made it past the election and the Thanksgiving holiday is in sight," wrote Wesleyan's Medical Director and PCC member Dr. Tom McLarney in an email to the campus community on November 16. "As you are undoubtedly aware, the coronavirus pandemic has entered an alarming new phase, with cases rising sharply in most parts of the country and moderate increases in Connecticut. Despite the rigorous testing and safety protocols the University put in place, we are not immune from…
As a dancer and choreographer, Wesleyan's Visiting Dance Artist-in-Residence Eiko Otake spent the past 45-plus years of her career presenting her work in theaters, universities, museums, galleries, outdoor sites, and festivals worldwide. But like other artists navigating through the crisis, Otake was forced to find creative ways to re-focus, re-imagine, and share her work during the ongoing pandemic. In March 2020, the Center for the Arts invited Otake to begin a Virtual Creative Residency, during which she began shifting her performance-based art to an online venue named Eiko Otake’s Virtual Studio. Here, Otake posts her new creations, dialogues, and reflections.…
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Two Wesleyan University Press music titles garnered four awards, from the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and the American Musicological Society (AMS) this month. Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine, by Maria Sonevytsky, received the 2020 Lewis Lockwood Award from the AMS. The Lockwood Award honors a musicological book of exceptional merit published during the previous year in any language and in any country by a scholar in the early stages of his or her career who is a member of the AMS or a citizen or permanent resident of Canada or the United States. Music and Modernity among First…
Hilary Barth, professor of psychology; Andrea Patalano, professor of psychology; Liana Mathias '17; and former lab coordinators Alexandra Zax and Katherine Williams are the co-authors of an article titled "Intuitive symbolic magnitude judgments and decision making under risk in adults," published in Cognitive Psychology, 118, in May 2020. Barth; Williams; postdoctoral fellow Chenmu Xing; Jamie Hom '17, MA '18, Meghana Kandlur '18, Praise Owoyemi '18, Joanna Paul '18, Elizabeth Shackney '17, and Ray Alexander '18 are the co-authors of "Partition dependence in financial aid distribution to income categories," published in PLoS ONE 15, in April 2020. Barth; Patalano; Williams; Zax;…
This fall, the introductory-level course PSYC 105: Foundations of Contemporary Psychology is being taught entirely online to 200 students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After six weeks of remote lectures and interactive breakout sections via Zoom, Professors Steve Stemler and Sarah Carney who are team-teaching the course, hoped to break the "Zoom fatigue" routine and get their students physically interacting. So working together with the eight course TAs, they created a campus-wide psychological scavenger hunt. With the first wave of students participating on Oct 27, and other waves participating subsequently, more than 110 students participated in the activity in person,…
Teresita Padilla-Benavides, assistant professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, is the recipient of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (National System of Researchers) Award. Mexico established Sistema Nacional de Investigadores as a governmental agency in 1984 to promote the quantity and quality of research, especially in the sciences. SNI noted that Padilla-Benavides has 31 original manuscripts published, of which 15 were from the past four years, and she also taught several courses for high school and undergraduate students in Mexico and the U.S. Padilla-Benavides investigates the biological roles of transition metals in the development of mammalian cells. This fall, Padilla-Benavides is…
Alumni and staff who have met with success in the November 2020 elections include: Amy Bello, administrative assistant for the African American Studies Department, won her first term as a State House representative for Connecticut's 28th District. Bello, a Democrat, is serving on the Wethersfield Town Council and is the former mayor. Read more in this Nov. 5 Hartford Courant article or in this past Wesleyan Connection article. Michael Demicco ’80 won his second term serving as a State House representative for Connecticut's 21st District. Demicco, a Democrat, represents Farmington and Unionville, Conn. Read more here. Former two-term Democratic Colorado…
Associate Professor of Spanish María Ospina's collection of short stories, Azares del Cuerpo (Variations on the Body), was published in Spain in September 2020, after being previously published in Colombia, Chile, and Italy. The book also is forthcoming in the U.S. next summer by Coffee House Press. Azares del Cuerpo was reviewed in one of Spain’s most important national newspapers (El Mundo) on Oct. 30. Read more here. Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Smith Curator of Paleontology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History, and University Professor in the College of Integrative Sciences, is the…