Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20101min
Elizabeth McAlister, associate professor of religion, associate professor of African American studies, associate professor of American studies, is a member of the Social Science Research Council’s working group on Spirituality, Political Engagement and Public Life. Comprising both younger and well established scholars representing anthropology, political theory, religious studies, and sociology, the working group plans workshops to further elaborate and articulate the project's overarching goals and key commitments. In addition, McAlister participated in a  conference titled, “States of Devotion: Religion, Neoliberalism and the Politics of the Body in the Americas” conference Nov. 4-5  at The Hemispheric Institute of New York. McAlister…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20101min
Charles Sanislow, assistant professor of psychology, is the co-author of an article titled "Developing constructs for Psychopathology Research: Research Domain Criteria," published as the lead story in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, pages 631-639 in 2010. His colleagues from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) contributed to the article. The article describes the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), a new approach to diagnosing mental disorders for research purposes. Sanislow is a member of the NIMH working group that is spearheading this effort.

Olivia DrakeNovember 15, 20102min
Wesleyan, in conjunction with the Price Carbon Campaign, an umbrella organization of climate-policy advocates, is convening a conference to discuss and develop new approaches to pricing carbon emissions that are destabilizing Earth’s climate and driving global warming. “Pricing Carbon: The Wesleyan Conference” will be held Nov. 19-21 at Wesleyan. Headline speakers include climatologist and Columbia University Professor James Hansen, author-activist Bill McKibben, and environmental-justice lawyer and advocate Angela Johnson Meszaros. “Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment was established in 2009 to help students become better stewards of our fragile Earth,” says Barry Chernoff, director of the College of the Environment and professor of biology. “We…

Olivia DrakeNovember 5, 20102min
[youtube width="640" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGlPlEEmZlE[/youtube] This issue, we ask "5 Questions" of Eric Aaron, assistant professor of computer science. His article, "Action Selection and Task Sequence Learning for Hybrid Dynamical Cognitive Agents," was recently published in Robotics and Autonomous Systems. Aaron has a bachelor of arts in math from Princeton University; a master of science and Ph.D in computer science from Cornell University. Q: How did you become interested in computer science, and specifically artificial intelligence? A: I’ve always been interested in logical problem solving and how people think. As an undergraduate, I majored in mathematics and took courses in psychology and philosophy, but each…

Olivia DrakeNovember 5, 20101min
The Wesleyan Alumni Crew partipated in the 46th Head of the Charles Regatta, Oct. 22 in Boston, Mass. This is the second year in a row that the alumni have rowed in this event.  The race takes place on the Charles River. The Founders of Wesleyan Crew, circa Class of 1968, also rowed in the race. This was their 18th time participating in the Head of the Charles. Rowers included David Myers '82; Mike Greenstein '82; Bill Davies '79; Dave Gruppo '79; Anthony Phaigian '82; Alex Thomson '82; Paul Slye '84 and Kevin Foley '82.

Olivia DrakeNovember 5, 20101min
Several distinguished alumni have been declared the winners of their elections this week. They include: John Hickenlooper ’74  – elected Governor of Colorado; Michael Bennet ’87  – elected Senator from Colorado; Peter Shumlin ’79 – elected Governor of Vermont; Kathleen Clyde ’01 – elected to the Ohio State House of Representatives; Matt Lesser (in-process) – re-elected to Connecticut House of Representatives; and Dan Wolf ’79  – elected to state senate in Massachusetts representing the Cape and Islands.