Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20101min
Rob Rosenthal, the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, will serve as interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs for the 2010/2011 academic year.  Rosenthal brings to this position experience gained as chair of the faculty, as director of the Service Learning Center, and as a celebrated scholar-teacher. Rosenthal's appointment is effective July 1.

Olivia DrakeJune 7, 20102min
John W. Hickenlooper ’74, MA ’80; Ruth J. Simmons; Stanley Cavell; and Richard Winslow ’40 received Honorary Degrees at the 2010 Commencement Ceremony May 23. John W. Hickenlooper received a Doctor of Laws, presented by Rob Rosenthal, the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology. A geologist turned entrepreneur who had never run for political office (not even student council), Hickenlooper was elected mayor of Denver in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. In April 2005—less than two years into his first term—Time Magazine (more…)

Olivia DrakeJune 7, 20102min
Wesleyan faculty members Peter Rutland, Stephanie Kuduk Weiner and Jeremy Zwelling received the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching during the 2010 Commencement Ceremony May 23. The Binswanger Prize was inaugurated in 1993 as an institutional recognition of outstanding faculty members. The standards and criteria for the annual prizes shall be excellence in teaching, as exemplified by commitment to the classroom and student accomplishment, intellectual demands placed on students, lucidity and passion. Peter Rutland, the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, has a B.A. in politics, (more…)

Olivia DrakeJune 7, 20101min
Mathematics major Joel Specter ’11 is ahead of the program. Despite only finishing his junior year at Wesleyan, he’s already completed all first-year graduate courses for the department’s Ph.D. program. “When discussing mathematics with him it becomes clear that he is already thinking like a mathematician in a very serious way that one rarely sees in students until well into their graduate careers,” says Specter’s advisor David Pollack, associate professor of mathematics. For Specter’s achievements in mathematics, he was awarded with a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2010-11 year. Congress established (more…)

Olivia DrakeJune 7, 20103min
Recent graduate Anne Rosenthal’s years of taking French and environmental science classes will come in useful next year as she studies Belgium’s efforts to stimulate market demand for environmentally friendly products. Rosenthal '10 is one of four Wesleyan alumni selected to participate in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program in 2010-11. Fulbright scholars conduct research abroad or teach English in foreign countries. Rosenthal, who double majored in French studies and environmental science, will enroll in graduate-level environmental management courses at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), while examining Belgium’s role within the European Union framework for green product certification, and Belgium’s promotion of…

Olivia DrakeJune 7, 20102min
Although Japan lacks large national environmental advocacy organizations, it has one of the best records of environmental policymaking in the world.  Japan is one of the top producers of clean energy technology and hosted the global Kyoto Protocol that has set the standard for climate change policy worldwide. For the next 12 months, Mary Alice Haddad will use Japan’s experience of environmental activism to build a broader theory of civic participation. She will test and refine a theory through the examination of environmental politics and civic participation in China, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore. Her research is supported by the…

Olivia DrakeJune 7, 20102min
For two years, music graduate student Garrett Field will live in Sri Lanka studying the lives, music, poetry and writing of three composers who influenced Jatika Gi, the Sinhala nationalist poetry-song. As a 2010 recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) fellowship, Field will have the opportunity to complete his dissertation on Sunil Santha, W.D. Amaradeva, and Ananda Samarakone - whose careers, music, and poetry articulated different strands of Sinhalese nationalist thought. The fellowship comes with a $26,000 award. “The Jatika Gi artists played a significant role in the development of Sinhala cultural nationalism and thus served as…

Olivia DrakeJune 7, 20102min
The Greek Titan Metis was considered the goddess of wisdom and deep thought. Her name in Greek also means “wisdom combined with cunning,” a highly desirable personality trait to the ancient Athenians. This year, a group of Wesleyan students with a knowledge and interest in Classical studies, released their own collection of “cunning wisdom” in a publication titled Wesleyan Metis. The Metis editorial board draws on the abilities and creativity of Wesleyan students to showcase their best examples of undergraduate Classics writing. “Classical studies go far beyond ancient languages and, as evidenced by the essays in the journal, include studies…