Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20102min
Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of history, was selected by the United States’ Department of State to serve in the Speakers Program Oct. 20-24. She lectured at several universities in Chongqing and Beijing—on the subject of the 150th anniversary of the destruction of the old summer palace of Yuan Ming Yuan, in 1860. Having been selected by the State Department as a member of the very first group of American exchange scholars to live and study in China in 1979, Schwarcz has been returning regularly to China for the past three decades. This was…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20102min
(submitted by Ella Doo P'12) Rachel Cross '12 and Alicia Castagno '12 participated as panel members in a session of the Critical Mixed Race Conference sponsored by dePaul University in Chicago Nov. 5-6. The conference was attended by academicians and students (primarily graduate students) from across the country. Cross and Castagno co-taught a Wesleyan student forum on mixed race last year and were on a panel discussing the development and teaching of this topic as students. In the question and answer period someone asked how many student-taught classes on mixed race there were in the country. A member of the…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20101min
Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry and environmental studies, has received a $193,809 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project called “Imaging Lignin Degradation." Taylor will collaborate with colleagues at Penn State University and the University of Tennessee. Taylor hopes to use fluorescence imaging and isotope trace experiments to develop probes for finding organisms that can break down lignin. She plans to test complex biological samples. "Think going to the forest and bringing home a bucket of dirt containing small insects and lots of microorganisms and then figuring out which ones can break down lignin. This is…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20102min
Running back Shea Dwyer ’10 became the second Wesleyan player to receive the distinction of Gagliardi Trophy finalist when the 10 players still eligible for Division III's version of the Heisman Trophy were announced Nov. 23.  In total, 26 players were nominated for the coveted award before the Gagliardi committee narrowed the choice to 10.  Dwyer joins Wesleyan receiver Matt Perceval '00, who was a Gagliardi Trophy finalist during the 1999 season. To see the breakdown of the 10 Gagliardi Trophy finalists on d3football.com and find out how to become a part of the voting for the winner, click  here.…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20103min
Every day, The Huffington Post highlights one ‘Greatest Person‘ — an exceptional individual who is confronting the country’s economic and political crises with creativity, generosity and passion. On Nov. 9, the Post featured Jessica Carso, managing director of University Relations and the Green Street Arts Center, ”who has made a career out of giving back to the small Connecticut town where she grew up.” According to the article, Carso “struck us as a prime example of someone truly making a difference in her community. She is currently the managing director of the Green Street Arts Center, a community-based organization that works to make the…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20101min
John Paoletti, the William R. Kenan Professor of the Humanities emeritus, spoke on “‘Learn My Language: Strategies of Medici Patronage in Renaissance Florence” Nov. 24 at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Paoletti is currently a Macgeorge Fellow at The University of Melbourne. Co-author of Art in Renaissance Italy, a standard text on the subject (now in its third edition), he has also published widely on issues of patronage and on Michelangelo, and is currently completing a book on Michelangelo’s David. He co-edited a benchmark collection of essays – Renaissance Florence: A Social History (Cambridge University Press, 2006/2008) – which Bill…