Cynthia RockwellFor a four-week period in January and February, the Office of University Relations surveyed BA alumni to understand attitudes and preferences around key areas, including communications, Wesleyan events, and philanthropy. Of the 27,000 alumni contacted via email, more than 5,400 participated. This 20-percent response rate far exceeded expectations. The average U.S. college survey response rate is closer to 5–10 percent. “We are thrilled with the level of engagement shown by our alumni in responding to our most recent survey,” reports Thomas Diascro ’89, director of alumni and parent relations, “and I cannot thank them enough for taking the time to participate.”…
Rapture, a new eight-part docu-series on hip-hop that premiered on Netflix March 30, features Ben Selkow ’96 as executive producer, showrunner, and one of the directors. It is art with an overarching purpose: "We hope to bring audiences and fans closer to the artists' experience by sharing their biography and showing the perseverance, talent, and luck that helped each transform and transcend their situation," says Selkow, a film studies and African American studies major while at Wesleyan, who previously directed Reza Aslan’s CNN series Believer. After returning from the SXSW film and music festival in Austin, Texas, where the team showcased several episodes…
Olivia DrakeAfter temperatures reached nearly 60 degrees on Sunday, April 1, students trudged through snow on Monday heading to classes. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)
Dan Greenberger ’81 attended the Writers Guild Award as a nominee in the category of On-Air Promotion ("the TV equivalent of movie trailers," he explains) on Feb. 11, 2018. As an award veteran (he'd already won twice previously), Greenberger had done his homework: checked who was presenting his category and prepared an acceptance speech in case he won. Just before the ceremony, as people milled around the dinner tables, he ran into his Wesleyan senior-year housemate, Bradley Whitford ’81, who had news: the scheduled presenter in the on-air promotion category had canceled. Instead, "I'm presenting in your category," Whitford told…
On March 28, the Archaeology Program and the Department of Classical Studies invited Ian Roy of Brandeis University to Wesleyan to discuss ways new technologies are used to study the past. Roy is the founding head of Brandeis MakerLab and director for research technology and innovation at Brandeis University's library. Roy first visited the Archaeometry: How to Science the Heck out of Archaeology class taught by Andrew Koh, visiting assistant professor of archaeology. There, he demonstrated how to scan objects in 3-D using an Artec Space Spyder, a tool that uses structured light to capture incredibly high-resolution scans of objects. The class produced multiple models of artifacts, including a…
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News Hartford Courant: "Extraordinary Life: He Had an Outsized Influence on Wesleyan, and Math" This article celebrates the life and accomplishments of Bob Rosenbaum, who has been called "the most influential and constructive faculty member at Wesleyan in the second half of the 20th century." In addition to teaching mathematics, he served as dean of students, provost, vice-president of academic affairs, and acting president. 2. WNPR's Where We Live: "Election Security, Prison Education, and an Explanation for 'Hyped' Winter Storms" Kristen Inglis, Wesleyan…
Brendan McGlone '18, who's on track to graduate in May with a triple major in classics, medieval studies and the College of Letters, will continue his post-Wesleyan education in Rome as a Paideia Institute for Humanistic Study Fellow. The Paideia Institute is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting the study and appreciation of the classical humanities, with a focus on Latin and Ancient Greek languages and literature. Paideia Fellows are selected on the basis of academic merit, personality, and potential as a future teacher of classics. Fellows teach American high school students Latin, and lead them on classics-themed tours around…
(more…)
Lauren RubensteinIn the Language of My Captor, a much-lauded book of poetry by Shane McCrae published by Wesleyan University Press, is the recipient of the 83rd Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in the category of poetry. This is the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity. According to the Cleveland Foundation, which presents the award, McCrae "interrogates history and perspective" with In the Language of My Captor, "including the connections between racism and love." "He uses historic persona poems and prose memoir to address the illusory freedom between both black and white Americans," according to the foundation's press release. "These…
On March 27, Professor Ethan Kleinberg, director of the Center for the Humanities, presented a lecture to the École Doctorale on "The Specters of the Past," as a distinguished visiting professor at University of Bordeaux Montaigne in Pessac, France. Kleinberg also is professor of history, professor of letters, and editor-in-chief of History and Theory. He is an expert on the intellectual history of Europe in the 20th century, the history of philosophy, as well as the philosophy and theory of history. Kleinberg's lecture focused on the theme of his latest book, Haunting History: for a deconstructive approach to the past…
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Professor Manju Hingorani and graduate student Bo Song are coauthors of two studies published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry and Nucleic Acids Research in February 2018. The papers are titled "Positioning the 5'-flap junction in the active site controls the rate of flap endonuclease-1-catalyzed DNA cleavage" and "Missed cleavage opportunities by FEN1 lead to Okazaki fragment maturation via the long-flap pathway." The research is related to Song’s PhD dissertation, which he plans to defend in April 2018. Song examined the mechanism of action of human FEN1, an enzyme that cleaves extra single-stranded segments of DNA before they can…
(more…)