Cynthia RockwellThe New England First Amendment Coalition presented Wesleyan English major Jenifer McKim ’88 with a 2016 Freedom of Information Award. McKim is senior investigative reporter and trainer at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR), a nonprofit based out of Boston University and WGBH. The Freedom of Information Award is presented annually to New England journalists who protect or advance the public’s right to know under federal or state law. McKim’s award-winning series, “Out of the Shadows—Shining Light on State Failures to Learn from Rising Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths,” first published by the Boston Globe, examined the effectiveness…
“What Does It Take to Launch a Successful Career?” Two notable members of the Wesleyan community tackled that question in a career workshop titled Your Career Playbook, sponsored by the WESpeaker Series, the Athletics Advantage Program and the Wesleyan Career Center on Feb. 26. Julie Bennett ’00, former captain of the women’s basketball team and member of the Athletic Advisory Council and now in sales and trading in equity derivatives at Citigroup (her “dream job”) joined Wesleyan trustee Jim Citrin P’12, P’14, leader of Spencer Stuart's North American CEO Practice, and author of The Career Playbook: Essential Advice for Today’s Aspiring Young Professional in…
Olivia DrakeFour Wesleyan academic departments, from psychology to dance to chemistry to biology, are competing for grant funds through a new crowdfunding site specifically designed for research project fundraising. Experiment.com's Challenge Grant for Liberal Arts Colleges asked scientists to define a scientific research question for the crowd with a prize for the project with the most backers. The pilot launched on Feb. 24 and concludes March 25.During this 31-day period, the goal is to reach $4,000 in funding. If so, the team is granted the money. If not, they receive nothing and no one's pledges are charged. By backing a project, participants will receive updates, results and data from project creators. Wesleyan research include how the…
Lauren RubensteinThree hundred faculty and staff filled Beckham Hall for a feast of food and drink provided by 18 vendors at the fifth annual Taste of Middletown on March 9. Offerings ranged from empanadas, a macaroni and cheese bar, salads, chicken tikka masala and vegan spring rolls to a wide assortment of pastries and desserts and a variety of beverages. Wesleyan welcomed six new vendors to the event this year, including La Piastra, Red Fox, Iguanas Ranas, Taino Smokehouse, Fiore II, Mi Argentina and Mondo. (more…)
The following employees received Cardinal Achievement Awards during the last few months for their efforts in demonstrating extraordinary initiative in performing a specific task associated with their work at Wesleyan University. This special honor comes with a $250 award and reflects the university’s gratitude for their extra efforts: Dawn Alger, administrative assistant, Theater Department Mike Conte, associate director, Physical Plant - Facilities Steven Jacaruso, art director, University Communications Darrell Lawrence, analyst programmer, Information Technology Services Kathleen Logsdon, library assistant, Olin Library Anne Marcotty, senior designer, University Communications Liz Tinker, administrative assistant, English Department Maureen Zimmer, coordinator, Academic Affairs
Students who are enrolled in the E&ES 397/398 Senior Seminar and Senior Field Research Project Capstone spent eight days conducting research in Hawaii. Pictured, the students gather on a lava tree field.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has published an excerpt from a new memoir by Christina Crosby, professor of English, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies. The book, A Body, Undone: Living On After Great Pain, is due out later this month from NYU Press. Crosby tells the story of how her life changed after a bicycle accident in 2003, just after her 50th birthday, left her paralyzed. According to the publisher, "In A Body, Undone, Crosby puts into words a broken body that seems beyond the reach of language and understanding. She writes about a body shot through with neurological pain,…
Three social ventures started by Wesleyan students were recently awarded $5,000 seed grants in the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship's annual Seed Grant Challenge. They are Kindergarten Kickstart, TRAP House and Walking Elephants Home. The last weekend in February, all six finalists for the seed grants presented pitches for their ventures before the Board of Trustees, Patricelli Center Advisory Board and Seed Grant judges, as well as representatives of CT Innovations and the State of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, fellow students, and others. The event was also livestreamed. One of the other finalists, <Zim/Code>, chose to withdraw from the…
Are the liberal arts still relevant? President Michael Roth answered this question and more as a guest on "Essential Pittsburgh," a show on Pittsburgh's NPR station. As he argues in his book, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters, Roth explains, "There's an American tradition of liberal education that goes back as far as the origins of the country and emphasizes the pragmatic dimensions of broad, contextual study. It's not so much that you take Latin and Greek or that you study religion rather than, let's say, biology, it's that whatever you study, you study it in connection to other things, understanding how what you're focused on…
The Office of Human Resources reported the following new hires, transitions and departures for the month of February 2016: Newly hired Laura Paul was hired as interim director, Center of the Arts on Feb. 1 Robert Perdo was hired as plumber in Physical Plant on Feb. 1 Marla Zubel was hired as acquisitions editor at Wesleyan University Press on Feb. 1 Kelly Miller was hired as dispatcher in Public Safety on Feb. 6 Transitions Amy Bello was hired as administrative assistant in AFAM-CAAS/Mellon Mays on Feb. 1 Mary-Ann Matthews was hired as officer in Public Safety on Feb.15 Departures Robin Bogda, medical billing specialist in the Davison…
Bill HolderWesleyan will present three honorary doctorates at the University’s 184th Commencement on May 22, 2016. Bryan Stevenson, a staunch advocate for racial justice who has fought against inequities in our judicial system, will deliver the Commencement address. Wesleyan will also honor Patti Smith, a legendary singer and writer celebrated for her path-breaking music and powerful memoirs, and Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher known for his compelling work on cosmopolitanism, identity and ethics. The Baldwin Medal, the highest award of the Wesleyan Alumni Association, will be presented to John Usdan ’80, P’15, P’18, P’18.
Frederic Wills '19Hilary Barth and Andrea Patalano, associate professors of psychology, recently co-authored a paper in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review along with two former Psychology Department undergraduates, Laura Machlin and Jason Saltiel. The paper is titled, “The Role of Numeracy and Approximate Number System Acuity in Predicting Value and Probability Distortion.” When people make “risky decisions” like choosing between two gambles with different values and different probabilities of success, their choices appear to be based on distorted versions of both the values and probabilities. Although there are many theories attempting to explain the distortion, we don’t know exactly why it happens. This study…