Olivia DrakeMichael Armstrong-Roche, associate professor of romance languages and literatures, associate professor of medieval studies, is the author of Cervantes' Epic Novel: Empire, Religion, and the Dream Life of Heroes in Persiles, published by the University of Toronto Press in May 2009. The 384-page study sets out to help restore Persiles to pride of place within Cervantes's corpus by reading it as the author's summa, as a boldly new kind of prose epic that casts an original light on the major political, religious, social, and literary debates of its era. At the same time it seeks to illuminate how such a…
The following promotions and appointments have been made to the Office of Diversity and Strategic Partnerships in July. Trisha Gordon has been promoted to the position of affirmative action specialist/administrative manager. She will oversee the Office of Affirmative Action and specifically work with Human Resources on staff issues, diversity and sexual harassment prevention trainings, and work with me to develop a campus-wide affirmative action plan. She will oversee the Office of Diversity and Strategic Partnerships and manage all strategic initiatives. She will also continue to assist me in day-to-day operations, meetings, and special project. Gordon has been with Wesleyan since 2001 and…
The following recent Wesleyan employees have announced their retirement: Carol Kosloski, Rosalind Eastaway, Rene Rinaldi, David Boule, Lisa Davis, Dianna Dozier, Linda Secord, Jane Tozer and Janice Guarino. Alan Nathanson will retire on July 17.
Evan Perkoski ’10 is a recipient of a 2009-10 Undergraduate Research Program grant sponsored by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). Perkoski, who is majoring in government, will study "Counterterrorism and ETA in Spain." His faculty advisor is Erica Chenoweth, assistant professor of government. Undergraduate Research Program recipients are actively engaged in critical research related to the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism, consistent with the mission of START. Each recipient is paid $3,000 to enhance his/her START research and professional development and receives funds to attend the 2010 START Annual Meeting in College…
Richard Grossman, chair of the Economics Department and professor of economics, appeared on Fox Business Radio on May 22, 2009. In the news segment, Grossman speaks on the historical recession and offers his views on how the country got to this point, how we will emerge from the problem and where are the opportunities.
Claire Potter, professor of history, chair and professor of American studies, director of the Center for the Americas, is featured in a June 24 Inside Higher Ed article titled "Fifty Years After Stonewall." Police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwhich Village in June 1969 and drag queens fought back. In the article, Potter says the GLBTQ liberation "is unfinished and becoming more complex as the research emerges that takes us on beyond Stonewall. What I would like for transgender studies in 10 years is what is happening already in gay and lesbian history: placing the emergence of identities and the emergence of liberation…
Extra-solar planets was the theme of StarConn, an all-day convention and astronomy celebration held at Wesleyan on June 4. The event was an outreach effort presented by the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford with the help of the university. The event featured lectures and a two-hour observing session with the 20-inch Clark refractor at Wesleyan's Van Vleck Observatory. Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, was one of the speakers at the event. He is featured in a June 4 Meriden Record Journal article about StarConn. The article is online here.
A book review by Kirk Swinehart, assistant professor of history, was published in the June 27 edition of The Chicago Tribune. Swinehart writes about the novel, Tall Man, written by Australian author Chloe Hooper. According to the review, Hooper has written an account of life and death on Australian's Palm Island "as fast paced as it is horrific. Australians long ago consigned Palm Island to the bin of places best forgotten. And there it stayed until November 2004, when a 36-year-old Aboriginal man named Cameron Doomadgee died in police custody. Overnight, Palm Island became the epicenter of a wrenching national…
Wesleyan's Green Street Art Center was the lead story in the July 9 issue of The Middletown Press. The article featured the GSAC's North End Nights, series of four consecutive Thursday evenings that feature free concerts and arts workshops. North End Nights will continue for the next three Thursdays. On July 16, an African drumming workshop at Green Street Arts Center at 5:30 p.m. will precede a concert in the herb garden featuring the Wesleyan African Drummers. Roslyn Carrier-Brault, administrative assistant in the Chemistry Department, is a photojournalism teacher for the program and is quoted in the article.
It's one mean, green machine and it's saving Wesleyan up to $5,000 a day in energy costs. Wesleyan's new Cogeneration system - or CoGen, - uses natural gas to simultaneously generate electricity, heat and steam for university use. It began operation in February after an 18-month installation process. "Buying electricity from the grid is expensive and non-efficient,” says Peter Staye, associate director of utilities management. “With CoGen, we are generating 81 percent of our own power. It should pay for itself in five years." CoGen operates similar to a vehicle with an extreme super-duty engine. The natural-gas fired, turbo-charged, four-stroke…
Novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Quindlen P'07 did not apologize for her generation leaving the Class of 2009 with a failed economy, poor job market and uncertain housing market. Instead she charged the graduates with the opportunity to remold the nation and its spirit. "On behalf of your elders and the entire country, I was expected to say I was sorry," Quindlen said. "I’m not going to do that. I think, perhaps more than any generation in memory, all of you have an unparalleled opportunity to remake this nation so that it is stronger, smarter and makes more sense."…