Olivia Drake한국말 하실 줄 아세요? (Can you speak Korean?) Judy Her '13 can. And by the end of this summer, she hopes to be fluent. As recipients of a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship, Her and Daniel Witkin '13 are spending 10 weeks in intensive language institutes this summer. The CLS Program provides fully-funded, group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences. Her is currently studying the Korean language in Jeonju City, South Korea at Chonbuk National University, and Witkin is studying the Russian language in Kazan, Russia at the Kazan Institute of Social Science and Humanities. "I…
This issue we ask “5 Questions” of Eric Charry, associate professor of music. Charry, an expert on African music, is currently directing the Ethnomusicology and Global Culture Summer Institute at Wesleyan. Q: Professor Charry, as an associate professor of music, what are your areas of musical expertise and what classes do you teach at Wesleyan? A: Most of my research and writing until recently has been in the area of African music, specifically, the West African region where Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea and Mali meet. I spent two years in the region learning to play the kora (harp), balafon (xylophone), and…
Fifth-grade students from Snow Elementary School in Middletown toured Wesleyan science labs June 10. They visited the Physics Department, Chemistry Department, Biology Department and the Scientific Imaging Lab. Pictures of their visit are below: (more…)
Q: Jennifer, you will be appointed the new director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) on July 1. How do you describe your new role? A: It’s such an exciting time for me to join CAPS in a director role. Our office will be undergoing many changes over the upcoming months, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. I will be facilitating a changeover to a community mental health model that continues to prioritize therapy while simultaneously expanding the role of education, prevention, and outreach. All of us in the office are excited about new opportunities to collaborate…
Q: Sheryl, you're currently the director of Continuing Studies and Graduate Liberal Studies. Your office also oversees the Wesleyan Summer Session. What is your role with the program, and how are you able to wear three hats!? A: The programs we run all have a lot of logistical processes in common, so many of our roles are similar for Summer Session and the other programs. We are involved with recruitment of students and faculty, admissions, enrollment, student services, billing and payroll,etc., so it’s not too difficult to work on similar functions for different programs. Q: This is Wesleyan's second semester…
Khachig Tölölyan, professor of letters, professor of English, has been actively involved in the launching of the University of Oxford's Diasporas Programme in June. Tölölyan is the editor/founder of Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies and an internationally known expert on diasporas and transnationalism. On June 2, Tölölyan delivered the inaugural lecture titled "Diaspora Studies: Past, Present and Promise" at the program's launch. He is a scholar in residence at Wolfson College (one of the 40 colleges and halls that make up the university), where he is a tutor and consultant to various graduate students, postdoctoral faculty and researchers at several…
Steven Horst, professor of philosophy, attended several conferences on Cognitive Science of Religion during the 2010-11 academic year. In July, he attended a summer workshop on "Cognition, Religion, and Theology" at Oxford University. In August, he attended the International Association for Cognitive Science of Religion, meeting in Toronto. At both conferences, he presented his paper titled, "Whose Intuitions? Which Dualism?" Horst also presented a paper titled, “What is Unity of Knowledge, and Are We Really Missing Anything Without It?” at the Ian Ramsey Conference held at St. Anne's College, Oxford, in July.
Ron Jenkins, professor of theater, was featured in the June 9 edition of The Jakarta Post in an article titled "From Hell to Heaven at Kerobokan Prison." In January, Jenkins started running a theater project at the Kerobokan Correctional Institution in Bali, where he taught 20 men and women inmates about acting. After six months of practice, the group performed Dante's Divine Comedy," a story about taking a personal journey through hell and purgatory to heaven. "It is a story that anyone who has experienced hard times can understand,” Jenkins explains in the article. “But people in prison unfortunately have…
Wesleyan boasts yet another 2011 Dell Social Innovation Competition semifinalist. The group Bitone Troupe, led by Branco Sekalegga MA '11, Allana Kembabazi '11 and AhDream Smith '12, will work with the Bitone Children's Center in Kampala, Uganda this summer on a project titled "Enlightenment Uganda: Disease Control and Prevention." The troupe, made up of young adult performers, represent the promise and potential of Uganda’s youth, 2.5 million of whom are orphans of HIV/AIDS, civil war and acute poverty. According to the group's project description, the lack of knowledge on disease control and prevention has negatively impacted Ugandan communities, mostly children and pregnant…
Khachig Tölölyan, Typhaine Leservot, Ashraf Rushdy and Indira Karamcheti were invited to speak at a conference hosted by the Universite Paul Valery, Montpellier III June 20-23. The event is titled "Diasporas and Cultures of Mobility." Rushdy and Karamcheti are invited visiting professors. Tölölyan, professor of letters, professor of English, editor/founder of Diaspora will be the keynote speaker. He will speak on "Twenty Years of Diaspora Studies: Success through Confusion." Typhaine Leservot, associate professor of letters, associate professor of romance languages and literatures, will speak on ""Maghrebo-Quebecois and Franco-Maghrebi: towards Distinct Identities?" Ashraf Rushdy, professor of English, professor of African American…
Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, and a faculty fellow in the College of the Environment, and was named a vice chair of the National Climate Assessment Development and Advisory Committee by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Jerry Melillo '65 was named chair of the committee. Melillo is a distinguished scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass As a vice chair, Yohe will lead the advisory committee that will produce the next National Climate Assessment. The Global Change Research Act of 1990 requires a National Climate Assessment at least every…