Randi Alexandra PlakeNajeeba Hayat ’13, entrepreneur and designer, is gaining attention in the fashion industry for her designer shoe company, Liudmila Footwear, most recently in Vogue, which hailed her shoes as "stunning" and "fantastical." Produced in Italy, Liudmila shoes are designed with Victorian influences in mind. Hayat’s shoes are also praised for being comfortable to walk in, disregarding the cultural norm that women should suffer for fashion. Hayat, who is originally from Kuwait, was a government major at Wesleyan, but found herself dreaming of designing shoes. In an interview with the Wesleyan Connection, Hayat said, “The Russian literature classes I took at Wesleyan…
Andrew Logan ’18Wesleyan Associate Professor of Psychology Barbara Juhasz and alumna Jennifer Brewer ’13 recently coauthored an article titled “An Investigation into the Processing of Lexicalized English Blend Words: Evidence from Lexical Decisions and Eye Movements During Reading” in the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. Their work examines the process of blending, through which a new word or concept develops from the synthesis of two source words. Some examples of common blended words include "smog," "brunch" and "infomercial." Though previous research on blending has inspected the structure of blends, Juhasz and Brewer examined how common-blended words are recognized compared to other kinds of words. Pairing…
Olivia DrakeThroughout the month of April, Wesleyan is celebrating Earth Month with an array of activities. Events include film screenings, lectures, concerts, a festival on Foss Hill and more. For a full list of on-and-off campus events, visit the editable Earth Month 2017 calendar. For more information email sustianability@wesleyan.edu. Featured events are below:
Lauren RubensteinOn March 31, Wesleyan hosted #BeTheChange, Connecticut's annual Campus Sustainability Conference, featuring former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy as the keynote speaker. Organized by the Connecticut Alliance for Campus Sustainability, the theme of the day-long conference was "Engagement and Empowerment around Climate Change: Fostering Inspiration and Action at the Local Level." About 150 students, staff and faculty from the state's public and private colleges attended the conference, which also included workshop sessions on climate and sustainability action; empowerment on campus; engaging in state policy and legislation; engaging in community and municipal action; and engaging at the grassroots level. Several…
Cynthia RockwellMuzzy Rosenblatt ’87, president and CEO of The Bowery Residents Committee (BRC), a nonprofit offering services to people who are homeless in New York City, caught the attention of Crain's New York for his organization's recent foray into affordable housing development. In the article by Judy Messina, Rosenblatt explains the reason for this new focus: "In our workforce program, we were seeing more and more people finding jobs, but in the shelters that we run for the Department of Homeless Services, fewer people were moving out, and they were coming back at a higher rate. ... We had to find a way to…
Editorial Staff(By K Alshanetsky '17) Film and TV producer Sydney Lowe ’13 is the founder of Art Girl Army (AGA), an organization that generates networking opportunities and fosters community among young women with creative careers. The collective originally started in Lowe's small New York City apartment as a space for her and her friends to collaborate, provide support to one another and share their experiences as women working in creative fields, which largely lack gender, sexual and racial diversity. Since 2014 it has developed into an online global community of nearly 3,500 artists, including illustrators, comedians, dancers and more. Lowe enjoyed ample opportunities to connect and collaborate with her…
(By K Alshanetsky '17) Brooklyn-based director Jess Chayes ’07 has recently won the Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), which annually recognizes an aspiring woman in theatre who shows creative promise in the field. As a founding co-artistic director of The Assembly, a collective of multi-disciplinary performance artists, Chayes has co-created and directed eight original productions. These include I Will Look Forward To This Later and HOME/SICK, which is a NY Times Critics’ Pick. Chayes founded The Assembly Theater Project with three other Wesleyan alumni: Stephen Aubrey ’06, Edward Bauer ’08, and Nick Benacerraf ’08. Together they created a collaborative and…
How does one convert a shipyard into a cinema? “With a lot of gumption and very little sleep,” reports Nathaniel Draper ’12, the technical director of the Syros International Film Festival (SIFF). For five days in July, Draper and his colleagues Cassandra Celestin ’13, Aaron Khandros ’13 and Jacob Moe will transform the small Greek island of Syros into a multifaceted cinema space. Projectors hauled over three hours by boat from Athens will be erected on Syros’s docks, beaches and quarries to screen a variety of films, from art house to Hollywood. Musicians and filmmakers will gather for all-night multimedia performances…
Peter Gottschalk, professor of religion, professor of science in society, was featured in a CBS special on March 28, "Faith in America: A History." The program covered a history of Catholic, Jewish and Muslim intolerance in the U.S. "The very understanding of who is acceptable in American society goes to the very heart of who Americans are, and who Americans can be,"said Gottschalk in his opening appearance. "So issues like excluding immigrants based on a religion test, which is against various laws in our country, not only threaten those who would like to come to the United States, but it threatens those who are…
Frederic Wills '19Every two years, the Whitney Museum of American Art showcases some of the most talented young artists from around the country in an exhibition filled with purpose and passion. This year, the 2017 Whitney Biennial, the 78th installment of the longest-running survey of American art, features work by Wesleyan alumnus Cameron Rowland ’11. View the project online here. “Arriving at a time rife with racial tensions, economic inequities, and polarizing politics, the exhibition allows the artists to challenge us to consider how these realities affect our senses of self and community,” according to the Whitney. “The Biennial features 63 individuals and collectives…
Anjali Tamhankar, associate director of human resources, received a Cardinal Achievement Award for her efforts in demonstrating extraordinary initiative in performing a specific task associated with her work at Wesleyan University. This special honor comes with a $250 award and reflects the university’s gratitude for her efforts.
Wes SquirrelsPresident Michael S. Roth announced today that Wesleyan University will be saying goodbye to the Wesleyan cardinal and hello to Wes Squirrel! Due to the overwhelming presence of squirrels on campus, and the decided lack of cardinals, the move just seemed to make sense. Plus, have you heard cardinals sing? “Conn College’s mascot is the camel. Middlebury is the panthers. Bates is the bobcats. Colby is the mules,” said Kate Mullen, Associate Director of Athletics and Head Women’s Basketball Coach. “No offense to the lovely red bird, but Wesleyan needs a more ferocious mascot. Like the squirrel.” Not everyone is…