Olivia DrakeT. David Westmoreland, associate professor of chemistry, attended the 39th Annual Sessions of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon June 16-18 in Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka. The theme was "Beginning of a new era: Challenges and Opportunities for Chemists on National Development.”
A book by Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento, associate professor of theater, received positive reviews in the March 2010 issue of Theatre Journal. The book, Crossing Cultural Borders Through the Actor's Work was published by Routlege in 2009. According to the review: "Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento asserts that much critical attention given to intercultural performance tends to appraise the production as a whole, typically assessing the work of the director— especially Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Brook, and Jerzy Grotowski—while discounting the role of the intercultural actor, her training, commitment, and contribution made in collaboration with the director. Shifting focus toward the intercultural…
Khachig Tölölyan, professor of letters, professor of English, editor of "Diaspora," was one of two keynote speakers at a conference on “Diaspora as a resource: Comparative Studies in Strategies, Networks and Urban Space.” The international event was held in Hamburg, Germany June 4-6. Tölölyan’s interests include diasporas, transnationalism, the world/globe polarity and the Armenian diaspora.
James Greenwood, visiting assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, was mentioned in a June 14 BBC News science article on “Much More Water Found in Lunar Rocks.” Greenwood and Professor Lawrence Taylor from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, have come up with evidence on the origins of lunar water: comets. According to the article, they believe there were a lot of comets flying around at the time of the Moon's formation, "hitting the little, nascent, early Moon some 4.5 billion years ago.”
Paula Paige, adjunct professor of romance languages emerita, won the online Gordon Award for Flash Fiction, sponsored by Our Stories Literary Magazine, for a story titled "Moshiach is Here." Although she’s been writing fiction for a long time, this is her first publication. She was long-listed for the Fish International Fiction Prize, and received Honorable Mentions in the “New Millennium Writings” winter competition of 2009 and in the 2010 Richard Bausch Short Story Prize. She was Writer in Residence at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, in 1991. A segment of the story follows: "The garage on 87th disgorged a big…
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg invited Wesleyan Soccer players Clare Colton '12 and Beth Kenworthy '10, both playing this summer for the New York Athletic Club, to a reception at the Mayor's Gracie Mansion June 9 as part of the World Cup Kick-off.
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.
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…
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…