All News – Page 127

Amy Bloom, the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing, recently launched a new nonfiction writing course housed on the Coursera platform. This is Wesleyan's 21st free massive, open, online course (MOOC) offered through Coursera. Launched on Jan. 14, Bloom's Memoir and Personal Essay: Write About Yourself Specialization shows participants how to write with confidence. Taught by award-winning essayists and memoirists, this specialization provides tips, prompts, exercises, readings, and challenges that prepare students to write compelling nonfiction. Bloom, author of two New York Times best-sellers, also is professor of the practice in creative writing and professor of the practice, English. In this Q&A,…

The Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore's grown cafe has added plant-based menu items from New York Times bestselling author Marco Borges’s new book, The Greenprint. Owned by Shannon Allen and her husband, two-time NBA Champion Ray Allen, grown is already a USDA organic–certified fast food restaurant, offering multiple vegan menu items. A plant-based diet is a revolutionary lifestyle program and a movement for the world that empowers people to consume more plants and reap the myriad benefits plant-based living can provide. “I am elated to have official Greenprint menu items as a part of grown’s carefully crafted menu,” said Shannon Allen. “Marco…

During the Annual Meeting for the Society for Classical Studies, Michael Roberts, the Robert Rich Professor of Latin, Emeritus, served as a respondent in a session devoted to commemorating the 30th anniversary of the publication of his book, The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity. The meeting took place in San Diego, Calif., Jan. 3–6, and included numerous paper and panel presentations; roundtable discussion sessions; performances by the Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance; meetings and receptions of affiliated groups; and more. In The Jeweled Style (1989), Roberts offers a new approach to the Latin poetry of late antiquity, one…

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Andrew Curran, the William Armstrong Professor of the Humanities, is the author of Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely, published by Other Press on Jan. 15. According to the publisher: "Denis Diderot is often associated with the decades-long battle to bring the world’s first comprehensive Encyclopédie into existence. But his most daring writing took place in the shadows. Thrown into prison for his atheism in 1749, Diderot decided to reserve his best books for posterity—for us, in fact. In the astonishing cache of unpublished writings left behind after his death, Diderot challenged virtually all of his century’s accepted truths,…

For four Wesleyan students, creating a mobile platform–based business that helps people with financial literacy just made sense. Their business pitch for "MakingCent$: Creating [in]Dependence" landed them the grand prize the Entrepreneurship Foundation's Best Online Submission competition. The Entrepreneurship Foundation is a Connecticut-based organization that provides resources to help both educators and entrepreneurs. Eunes Harun '20, Sanya Bery '21, Joey Ellis '19, and Marcia Saetang '19 created the app during their GOVT 326: Political Consulting for International Business course last spring. "We found that financial illiteracy is, unsurprisingly, rampant in underdeveloped areas; however, what astounded us is that it's even common within developed communities as…

Neely Bruce, the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, was named Music Ambassador for the City of Middletown in 2019. He received the honor during a reception Jan. 10 at the Municipal Building in Middletown, Conn. Bruce, a composer, pianist, conductor, and scholar of American music, was previously an artist-in-residence at Middlebury College, Bucknell University, the University of Michigan, and at Brooklyn College. He is the chorus director for Connecticut Opera and music director at South Congregational Church in Middletown. His compositions include three full-length operas; five one-act operas; works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, and wind ensemble; about 300 solo songs;…

Lewis Robertson, professor of mathematics, emeritus, passed away Dec. 22, 2018, at the age of 80. Robertson received his BS and MS from the University of Chicago and his PhD from the University of California—Los Angeles. He came to Wesleyan with tenure in 1970 after serving as an assistant professor at the University of Washington, and he remained at Wesleyan for 28 years until his retirement in 1998. Robertson’s scholarly research focused on Lie groups, topological groups, and representation theory. His PhD thesis was on algebra, influenced by topology, and that remained his primary interest throughout his career. He published 23…

Michael Lovell, Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Sciences, Emeritus, passed away Dec. 20, 2018, at the age of 88. Lovell received his BA from Reed College, his MA from Stanford University, and his PhD from Harvard University after serving in the Korean War. He came to Wesleyan as a professor of economics in 1969 and remained at Wesleyan for 33 years, until his retirement in 2002. (more…)

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“Herb Kelleher, who turned conventional airline industry wisdom on its head by combining low fares with high standards of customer service to build Southwest Airlines into one of the nation’s most successful and admired companies, died on Thursday. He was 87,” wrote Glenn Rifkin in The New York Times. An English major who graduated from Wesleyan in 1953, Kelleher also earned a bachelor of laws from NYU in 1956, and a little more than a decade later he founded Southwest Airlines, a small Texas commercial aviation company. With a larger-than-life personality—he notably settled a dispute over the company's name by…

On Dec. 18, approximately 100 Wesleyan alumni and family members as well as staff gathered at The Bushnell in Hartford to celebrate the Connecticut debut of Hamilton: An American Musical, the Tony Award-winning musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 and directed by Thomas Kail '99. Hamilton is currently touring the U.S., with a run at the Bushnell Dec. 11-30, 2018. Photos from the event are below: (Photos by Rich Marinelli) (more…)

Bloom Creates New Memoir and Personal Essay Specialization on Coursera

Wesleyan’s R.J. Julia Bookstore to Offer Plant-Based Menu Items at Cafe

Roberts’s Book Revisited by Society for Classical Studies

Guest Evaluators Critique QAC Poster Session

Curran’s Diderot Biography Touches on Affairs, Tormented Relationships, Social Beliefs

Students Win Entrepreneurship Foundation Business Pitch Competition

Bruce Named Music Ambassador for the City of Middletown

Robertson Remembered for His Love of Mathematics

Economics Professor Emeritus Lovell Dies at 88

Fog Rolls through Campus in January

Southwest Airlines Founder Kelleher ’53, Hon. ’90, Remembered for Reshaping Industry

Alumni, Family Members Gather for Hamilton Performance in Hartford