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Olivia DrakeAugust 26, 20184min
Kyungmi Kim, assistant professor of psychology, is the coauthor of a paper published in the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review on Aug. 8. Jenne Johnson '18 and Danielle Rothschild '19 also contributed to the article. The paper is titled "Merely presenting one’s own name along with target items is insufficient to produce a memory advantage for the items: A critical role of relational processing." Many studies have shown that information processed in relation to our “self” vs. someone else has an advantage in memory, termed the self-reference effect (SRE). Early studies of the SRE used tasks in which participants made explicit…

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Olivia DrakeAugust 20, 20183min
Peter Kilby, professor of economics, emeritus, died Aug. 2, 2018, at the age of 83. Kilby received his BA from Harvard University, his MA from Johns Hopkins University, and his DPhil from the University of Oxford. He worked with USAID as an Industrial Economist in Nigeria for two years before arriving at Wesleyan in 1965. He was an economist whose work focused on economic development, particularly in Africa. Over his career, Kilby held appointments as a Fulbright Fellow, a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Fellow, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He was a Senior Advisor of the ILO…

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Olivia DrakeAugust 20, 20184min
Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” In a new article, Peter Gottschalk, professor of religion, discusses "Who are Pakistan's Ahmadis and Why Haven't They Voted in 30 Years?" Gottschalk also is professor of science in society, director of the Office of Faculty Career Development, and coordinator of Muslim studies. Who are Pakistan’s Ahmadis and why haven’t they voted in 30 years? Pakistani cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, is all set to be the country’s new prime minister. His party emerged the single largest…

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Olivia DrakeAugust 17, 20183min
This summer, three Wesleyan students and one faculty member attended a field workshop in Basilicata, Italy, where they presented research, collected data, and visited an extinct volcano containing two bubbling crater lakes. The International Summer Meeting on Volcanic Lakes, hosted by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior, took place June 25–29 and focused on the theme “Different perspectives and approaches to studying a volcanic lake." Basilicata is home to the 3,350-foot-high Mount Vulture (pronounced "Vool-tor-eh"), which last erupted 40,000 years ago. The Wesleyan attendees included Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (E&ES) graduate students Christina…

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Olivia DrakeAugust 17, 20182min
Four girls squint one eye and with the other eye gaze intently into a microscope. One says she sees caterpillars or string or pink spaghetti. Another says she sees small frogs. "You're actually looking at tissue that's been smashed," says Ruth Johnson, associate professor of biology. "Do you see those dark spots? Those are chromosomes." Johnson, a developmental biologist who studies how tissues and organs are shaped during development, is one of five Wesleyan faculty who taught workshops during the fifth annual Girls in Science Summer Camp, Aug. 6–10. The camp is open to all girls in grades 4, 5, and…

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Olivia DrakeAugust 9, 20182min
This summer, three Wesleyan students are helping local children prepare for a successful transition into kindergarten. Through the five-week Kindergarten Kickstart program, Cara Bendich ’19, Amy Breitfeller ’19, and Emma Distler ’19 are working with area youth at four locations to improve their school readiness skills through the research-based, high-impact, low-cost innovative and nurturing preschool program. Associate Professor of Psychology Anna Shusterman and three of her students first launched Kindergarten Kickstart in summer 2012. For the summer 2018 session, students are hosting the Kickstart program at Middletown’s Bright and Early Children's Learning Center, Town and Country Early Learning Center, and the Middlesex…

Olivia DrakeAugust 8, 20182min
Wesleyan faculty and staff volunteers are needed for the 2018–2019 Connections Mentoring Program. This is an informal program that connects first-year students (Class of 2022) with Wesleyan staff and faculty to form casual networks of support. Although most mentors meet infrequently with their student mentees throughout the year, some mentoring pairs establish friendships and meet more frequently over coffee or lunch. Many mentors and students have characterized their experiences with the program as fun and inspirational. In addition, anyone interested in mentoring students who are the first in their families to attend college can indicate that preference on the registration…

Olivia DrakeAugust 8, 20184min
The Office of Human Resources announces the following hires, transitions, and departures for May through July 2018: HIRES Nicole Potestivo, administrative assistant in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies, on May 7 Lucas Fernandez, postdoctoral research associate in physics, on May 22 Alex Kavvos, postdoctoral research associate in mathematics, on May 29 Miya Tokumitsu, curator at Davison Art Center, on June 14 Lilibeth Soto, public safety dispatcher, on June 18 Edward Morehouse, postdoctoral research associate in mathematics, on July 1 Zeyad Abdulkareem, desktop support specialist in ITS User Services, on July 2 Andrew White, Caleb T. Winchester University Librarian, on July…

Olivia DrakeAugust 8, 20183min
(By Christine Foster) Imagine being chosen to oversee a vast treasure trove, including more than a million items ranging from art and music to government documents and—oh, yes, books. Such is the job set before Andrew White, who was chosen in April to be the University’s next Caleb T. Winchester Librarian. Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Joyce Jacobsen wrote in a campus-wide email announcing White’s appointment that the search committee was drawn to his experience working collaboratively with different groups of people. The previous librarian, Dan Cherubin, died suddenly last September, after having made an outsized impact…

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Olivia DrakeAugust 8, 20182min
A magnified image of a fruit fly's eye took first place in the third annual Wesleyan Scientific Imaging Contest in August. The Wesleyan Scientific Imaging Contest recognizes student-submitted images—from experiments or simulations done with a Wesleyan faculty member—that are scientifically intriguing, as well as aesthetically pleasing. This year, 21 images were submitted from eight departments. The contest is organized by the College of Integrative Sciences as part of the summer research program. The entries were judged based on the quality of the image and the explanation of the underlying science. The judges, a panel of four faculty members, were Brian Northrop,…

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Olivia DrakeAugust 7, 20181min
On June 8, the Office of Human Resources hosted the fourth annual Faculty and Staff Ice Cream Social. Attendees were treated to ice cream sundaes, soft pretzels, popcorn, and refreshments. Activities included a tie-dye station, lawn games, board games, volleyball, and dancing. Photos of the event are below: (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)