Steve Scarpa

Each year A. George Bajalia, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, presents a multidisciplinary arts festival in Tangier, Morocco that is more than just a performance—it’s a gathering place for artistic exploration. Bajalia, along with cultural programmer Zakaria Alilech and theatre producer Tom Casserly, founded the Youmein Festival in 2015. Several years before, the trio had worked on a Moroccan Arabic take on West Side Story, Romeo and Juliet, and the story of Tislit and Isli. Around the same time an old factory space in Tangier became available. Bajalia knew the local artistic scene was multidisciplinary it its approach and he began…

As Wesleyan University comes up on the final moments of its most recent round of campus improvements, eyes are already turning towards the future. Staff and faculty members are working alongside members of the Board of Trustees to chart the future course of the University’s infrastructure. “Every other month we are meeting to talk about the progress of our campus planning … we are in the very early stages of this work,” said Alan Rubacha, Assistant Vice President, Construction and Infrastructure. Rubacha said the committee is working in three different areas—energy and infrastructure, academic and administrative facility needs, and residential…

Showing camaraderie and spirit, the first students participating in the African Scholars Program are growing acclimated to the unique experience offered at Wesleyan. The exceptional group of 13 students from across Africa assembled at a welcome dinner on Thursday, Sept. 7 in the Daniel Family Commons. The scholars and their mentors shared a meal, remarks, poetry, songs, and a shared sense of purpose. Amin Abdul-Malik Gonzalez ‘96, vice president and dean of admission and financial aid, encouraged the students to see their time at Wesleyan as an opportunity to empower and uplift themselves. While he asked that they give of…

Wesleyan University will be participating in a research project to explore the potential—and pitfalls--of generative artificial intelligence as a teaching and research tool. Wesleyan joins 19 other universities, including Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, University of Connecticut, Stony Brook University, Temple University, Bryant University, Duke University, Concordia University, and Yale University on the two-year research project led by Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit organization that helps the academic community evaluate and use digital technologies. “Together the partners in the Making AI Generative for Higher Education will assess the immediate and emerging AI applications most likely to impact teaching,…

Merve Emre, Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism, believes the function of criticism is to model a passionate form of thinking. Her new lecture series will put that passion on display through a series of conversations with writers working at the top of their profession. The series, called “The Critic and Her Publics,” features writers from The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, N+1, and other leading publications. The lineup includes Andrea Long Chu, Maggie Doherty, Moira Donegan, Hannah Goldfield, Lauren Michele Jackson, Jo Livingstone, Anahid Nersessian, Sophie Pinkham, Doreen St. Felix, Parul Sehgal, Carina del Valle Schorske, and…

Andrus Field turned into a forum of ideas on August 31 with the return of the yearly Academic Fair, held on August 31. The fair was a staple of university life before the pandemic, offering new students the chance to peruse Wesleyan’s array of academic classes. “I’ve definitely seen a lot of wonderful academic opportunities that I want to pursue,” said Keith Do ’27, who is interested in computer science. Under a large white tent near Usdan, faculty enthusiastically explained their offerings to first year students less than 24 hours into their Wesleyan experience. The students moved from table to…

The interests and accomplishments of Wesleyan’s current cohort of Fulbright Fellowship recipients is diverse, ranging from education to translation to refugee reception to tracing ancient trade routes across the Mediterranean. “This reflects something that I’m not sure people realize about the Fulbright program: with hundreds of distinctly different grants available across more than 140 countries, there’s no one cookie cutter Fulbrighter,” said Erica Kowsz, Associate Director for Fellowships. Nick Bowman ’23, Margalit Katz ’22, Ben Levin ’23, Emily McDougal ’23, and Anna Tjeltveit ’23 will fan out across the globe for their Fulbright years starting this Fall. “With two…

You might expect that a pregnant person at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic would’ve rested easily being fully compliant with public health measures aimed at keeping them safe. Not so, according to a new study by Assistant Professor of Psychology Royette Dubar published in Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation. Dubar and her colleagues looked at perceived current and anticipated postpartum sleep duration and quality among a nationally representative sample of pregnant people. Dubar believes that the quality of sleep a person experiences can be a strong indicator of their mental health. “Findings from the present study…

Every day, when Charles Barber comes home from teaching at Wesleyan, he starts what he calls “his second shift.” After a short nap, he settles down to reading, research, and writing, a disciplined practice that has allowed him to be, over the past several years, a prolific nonfiction author. Since 2019 Barber has published three substantive works and has more ideas in the pipeline. “I wish I’d started (writing) earlier. I had done some other things—I was working in the mental health world, and I was proud of what I did. I am now trying to get as much done…

Assistant Professor of Art Tammy Nguyen will follow her recently won Guggenheim Fellowship with her first museum solo exhibition, taking place at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston from Aug 24, 2023 to Jan 28, 2024. Nguyen was recognized with the Guggenheim for her work intersecting the disciplines of painting, drawing, printmaking, and bookmaking. She’s bringing the same wide-ranging approach to her newest show, inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s book-length essay Nature, written in 1836 in Concord, Mass. “I am thinking a lot about some of the essential ideas in Nature, like how does man create and extend his…

Three Wesleyan students’ in-depth analysis of the causes of and possible solutions for the problem of child marriage in Indonesia won the University of Oxford’s 2023 “Map the System” Challenge. The team of Sida Chu ‘26, Sun Boonbhati ‘26, and Valensia Tandeas ‘26 were among 900 that participated in the challenge, and were chosen as one of 12 finalists to present at the University of Oxford’s Global MTS Finals. The Wesleyan team became global champions for their project “No Longer Daughters: Child Marriage in Indonesia.” “‘No Longer Daughters: Child Marriage in Indonesia’ stands out both for its depth of research, as well as the team's…

A chance encounter with a scarlet tanager, a migratory songbird that travels from North to South America on a yearly basis, prompted Associate Professor of Spanish María Ospina to consider the larger topics of what animals think and feel and, ultimately, how human beings define their own concept of home. Ospina has recently released a novel written in Spanish entitled “Solo un poco aquí,” published by Random House in Latin America, where she explores how animals move across the landscapes that humans transform. Ospina’s novel has been reviewed in Spain’s most important newspaper, El País, by the renown Mexican author Emiliano…

Professor Creates Arts Festival in Tangier

Campus Construction Updates: Fall 2023

Wesleyan Welcomes Inaugural Class of 13 African Scholars

Wesleyan to Participate in Generative AI Research Project

New Lecture Series Explores the Passion of Criticism

Academic Fair Returns

2023 Wesleyan Fulbright Fellows Begin Their Work

New Study Released on Impact of COVID on Pregnant People’s Sleep

New Book Tells of Most Successful Medical Development of the Iraq War

Guggenheim-Winning Professor To Hold Solo Art Show in Boston

Wesleyan Team Wins Global “Map the System” Challenge

New Novel Explores Animal Life