Olivia DrakeThe following employees received Cardinal Achievement Awards during the past few months for their efforts in demonstrating extraordinary initiative in performing a specific task associated with their work at Wesleyan. This special honor comes with a $250 award and reflects the university’s gratitude for their extra efforts: NAME TITLE DEPARTMENT Noreen Angeletti Assistant Director Student Accounts Office Jennifer Bomar Faculty Resource Specialist Academic Affairs Marianne Calnen Associate Director of Gift Planning University Relations Jennifer Curran Director, Continuing Studies and Graduate Liberal Studies Program Graduate Liberal Studies Program Matthew Elson Unix Systems Administrator Information Technology Services Gladys Fountain Payroll Administrator, NRA…
Himeka CurielIn this Q&A, we speak with Amy Bello, administrative assistant for the Center for African American Studies and newly elected mayor of the Town of Wethersfield. Q: How long have you been at Wesleyan? A: Five years. I started in November 2012 as a temp at the Wasch Center for Retired Faculty. Q: What do you do here now? A: I work as an administrative assistant for the Center for African American Studies (CAAS), the African American Studies Program (AFAM) and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF). I have a beautiful office on High Street and am lucky to be…
The Human Resources Advisory Group, formed in November 2017, is the voice between administrative staff and senior leadership. It is a consultative body in which members share ideas and provide input on issues of importance to staff. The members of the Human Resources Advisory Group discuss and provide feedback on institutional policies and practices and broader issues related to numerous work/life topics. The group solicits and expresses opinions, represents staff ideas, makes suggestions and recommendations for change. Members include: Luigi Solla, associate dean of admission; Michelle Jarvis, associate director of financial aid; Rachel Ludwig, deputy director of athletics; Joy Vodak,…
Sami JensenFresh off the digital presses! Check out the new Social Media website from University Communications. This site was created as a resource for social media usage tips + best practices, for guidelines and policies on using social media on behalf of Wesleyan University and as a place to find tools to help you manage and measure your social accounts. You can also request a new social media account, a strategy session or a social share from the main Wesleyan University channels.
The Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning provides educational opportunities outside of formal degree-granting programs to members of the broader community. Wesleyan University has been devoted to liberal learning since its founding in 1831. This program is an extension of that mission—a dedication to the improvement of human well-being by means of education throughout the course of life. "Curiosity is ageless! This new year promises to be a fascinating one, with another intriguing round of WILL course offerings," says Richard Friswell, associate director of the Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning. "Delve into the work of literary icons like Chekhov, Shakespeare and…
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During University Relations' Jammin' Holiday Party on Dec. 13, staff collected more than 1,000 items for Puerto Rico residents affected by Hurricane Maria. Items included: 128.5 lbs. of pet food 795 diapers and baby wipes 13 gallons of water 186 cans/boxes of food 41 towels 12 blankets/pillows 99 books/toys 4 solar lights 248 oz. of hand sanitizer 5 can openers 3 power strips 5 first aid kits 3 sunscreens 12 insect repellents
Cynthia RockwellYaniv Feller is the Jeremy Zwelling Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and assistant professor of religion. Feller specializes in Jewish philosophy, Jewish-Christian relations, post-Holocaust theology, material culture and museum studies. His current book project is titled "Leo Baeck and the Tradition of Dialogical Apologetics.” Prior to Wesleyan, Feller worked as an exhibition curator for the new permanent exhibition project at the Jewish Museum Berlin. In this Q&A, Feller speaks about his time working at a renowned Jewish museum, the importance of incorporating the lives and histories of objects into his courses and woodworking. Q: You just joined the faculty at Wesleyan this year.…
Whether you live in Middletown or elsewhere in the region, commuting to work is often time-consuming, stressful and costly. Setting up a carpool—an arrangement between people to travel together in a single vehicle—is a great way to save money, connect with coworkers and cut your carbon footprint, explains Sustainability Director Jennifer Kleindienst. The Wesleyan Sustainability Office, in conjunction with CT Rides (a service of CT DOT), is hosting an Employee Commuter Event in February for Wesleyan faculty and staff. This will be a chance to meet other faculty and staff who live near you and potentially find a carpool buddy. CT…
An article by Barbara Juhasz, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, has been published in the January 2018 edition of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. The study, titled "Experience with compound words influences their processing: An eye movement investigation with English compound words" appears in Issue 71, pages 103–12. Recording eye movements, Juhasz explains, provides information on the time-course of word recognition during reading. Eye movements also are informative for examining the processing of morphologically complex words such as compound words. In this study, Juhasz examined the time-course of lexical and semantic variables during morphological processing.…
Melanie Khamis, assistant professor of economics and assistant professor of Latin American studies, has co-authored a new paper published in the December 2017 issue of Labour Economics. The paper, titled "Women make houses, women make homes," examines the effects of historical labor market institutions and policies on women’s labor market outcomes. To conduct the research, Khamis and her colleagues studied the “rubble women” of post–World War II Germany, who were subject to a 1946 Allied Control Council command that required women between the ages of 15 and 50 to register with a labor office and to participate in postwar cleanup and…
A new article by Visiting Assistant Professor in Computer Science Kelly Thayer and students in her Spring 2017 Scientific Computing class is challenging conventional metrics used in allosteric signaling—the regulation of an enzyme by a binding molecule at a site other than the enzyme's active site. “What’s special about allostery is that a molecule called an allosteric effector binds at one location, and the change happens somewhere else,” Thayer explained. “What we were trying to understand was: How does that signal get across?” (more…)