All News – Page 130

For his contribution to the field of ethnomusicology and music scholarship, Sumarsam, the Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, was recently named an honorary member of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM). The encomium was presented by Wesleyan alumna Maria Mendonca MA '90, PhD '02, during the 63rd SEM General Membership Meeting, Nov. 17, in Albuquerque, N.M. Sumarsam was commended for his scholarship on gamelan and wayang performance traditions, which inspired the SEM membership, explained Gregory Barz, president of the Society for Ethnomusicology. "Your mentorship of countless students and colleagues, both directly and by example, is held in high esteem, and the ways that…

Ronald Kelly '19, who is majoring in the College of Letters and classical studies, presented a paper at the first Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Conference on the Ancient World at Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College on Nov. 9–11. He attended the conference with his Mellon Mays mentor, Tushar Irani, associate professor of philosophy and letters. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) Program is the centerpiece of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s initiatives to increase diversity in the faculty ranks of colleges and universities. The program operates from the foundational principle that encouraging a diverse range of scholarship and scholars…

While 94 percent of children from wealthy Filipino households attend high school, only 69 percent from poor households continue to get a high school education after graduating from grade school (UNESCO). Through a nonprofit venture called SALIN Ed., Frederick Corpuz '20 is working to create an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to classroom learning that enables 10- to 12-year-olds in the Philippines to become independent, successful learners through an online program. To advance his social entrepreneurial skills and better his venture, Corpuz applied to participate in the 11th annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) conference, held Oct. 19–21 in Chicago, Ill. (more…)

Students in Assistant Professor of Government Logan Dancey’s GOVT 232 Campaigns and Elections course got a real-world lesson in the subject matter this Election Day. On Nov. 6, the students stood out in the rain to field an exit poll—a survey of voters as they’re leaving their polling locations—in Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District. The students conducted the surveys at nine different polling places spread out across six different towns in the district. In order to generate a diverse sample that reflected the demographics of the congressional district, the precincts were intentionally selected to provide a balance of more Republican-leaning, Democratic-leaning, and…

At its recent annual meeting in Buffalo, N.Y., the American Folklore Society (AFS) named prominent American folklorist Maggie Holtzberg '79 of Boston, Mass., as the 2018 recipient of its prestigious Benjamin A. Botkin Prize. The Botkin Prize is given each year by the American Folklore Society and its Public Programs Section in the name of Benjamin A. Botkin (1901–1975) to recognize lifetime achievement in public folklore. Botkin—eminent New Deal–era folklorist, national folklore editor of the Federal Writers' Project in 1938–1939, advocate for the public responsibilities of folklorists, author and compiler of many publications on American folklore for general audiences, and…

(By Bill Holder) When a progressive marketing and communications agency that has major Democratic organizations as clients—and ran the digital marketing operations for Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton—decides to expand into the corporate world, one company you might not expect to be on the list is McDonald’s. Yes, that’s the purveyor of hamburgers founded by the famously conservative Ray Kroc. But times change, and when McDonald’s wanted to tell the world about its new practices to improve environmental sustainability, the company turned to Bully Pulpit Interactive and founding partners Andrew Bleeker ’07 and Ben Clark ’99. In doing so, McDonald’s…

On Nov. 14, Wesleyan celebrated geography, mapping, and spatial data analysis at the annual GIS Day. GIS Day provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society. The first formal GIS Day took place in 1999. During GIS Day, the Wesleyan community was invited to participate in multiple activities, including a hands-on humanitarian map-a-thon, a seminar on digital storytelling with maps led by Sam Raby '17, and games involving "Fun with GIS." The events were led by students taking the E&ES 281: GIS Service Learning course…

Assistant Professor of Psychology Kyungmi Kim, Youngbin (Amabel) Jeon ’19, Alexis Banquer ’20, and Danielle Rothschild ’19 are coauthors of a study published in the October 2018 volume of Consciousness and Cognition. In the paper, "Conscious awareness of self-relevant information is necessary for an incidental self-memory advantage," Kim and her students examine the relative contributions of conscious vs. unconscious self-processing to the incidental self-reference effect. The incidental self-reference effect refers to a memory advantage for items simultaneously presented with self-relevant information (e.g., one’s own name) over those presented with other relevant information (e.g., someone else’s name) when the task at…

(more…)

Wesleyan recently kicked off a strategic partnership with Eversource Energy that will support the University's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Wesleyan President Michael Roth and Eversource Vice President of Government Affairs Margaret Morton signed an agreement on Oct. 30 before receiving a tour of the Freeman Athletic Center's recent energy efficiency upgrades. The new strategic partnership supports a three-year energy efficiency plan that will save an additional 3.2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. (more…)

Claudia Kahindi ’18 is a recipient of the 2019 Rhodes Scholarship for Kenya. Established in 1903, the Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest, and one of the most prestigious, international scholarship programs in the world. It offers about 100 fully funded scholarships each year to students around the world for post-graduate study at the University of Oxford in the UK. Recipients are selected based on their “outstanding intellect and character” as well as their motivation to “engage with global challenges,” serve others, and become “value-driven, principled leaders for the world’s future.” “For me, receiving the Rhodes Scholarship means that even the…

Barry Chernoff, director of the College of the Environment, was one of eight scientists recently honored with a new musical composition based upon his research—part of a concert and album titled "The Sound of Science, performed in New York City on Nov. 10. The project aims to build "bridges between the musical and scientific worlds, celebrating their shared culture of inquiry," according to the website. The pieces were written by seven celebrated composers for amplified cello and electronics, and were all recorded and performed by world-renowned cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, longtime member of Kronos Quartet and several other groups. The Grammy…

Sumarsam Named Honorary Member of the Society for Ethnomusicology

Kelly ’19 Presents Paper at Mellon Mays Ancient World Conference

5 Students Attend Clinton Global Initiative University Conference in Chicago

Campaigns and Elections Class Conducts Real-World Exit Poll Research

Holtzberg ’79 Honored by American Folklore Society

Clark ’99, Bleeker ’07: Bully Pulpit Markets for a Better World

Wesleyan Celebrates GIS Day with Hands-on Activities

Kim, Students Coauthor Paper on Self-Memory Advantage

Alumni, Parents Attend Wesleyan on Broadway Event Featuring Play Produced by Richards ’69

Wesleyan, Eversource Begin 3-Year Strategic Partnership

Kahindi ’18 Awarded Rhodes Scholarship

Chernoff Honored at “Sound of Science” Musical Premiere