All News – Page 239

Psyche Loui, assistant professor of psychology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, was awarded a grant of $20,000 in March from the GRAMMY Foundation Grant Program to study a musical biofeedback-based intervention for epilepsy. The grant will fund three different studies that combine EEG sonification, translational research and basic neuroscience for this type of intervention. Loui anticipates that the results will apply music technology as a possible solution to a neurological disorder affecting 65 million people worldwide. Loui noted that for the approximately one-third of patients with epilepsy who don’t respond well to seizure medication, (more…)

Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, Brittany Delany ’09 and Sarah Ashkin ’11 are collaborating on a new choreography project in New Mexico. The project titled “Chancy Dancing” will premier at 8 p.m. April 11 at the Railyard Performance Center in Santa Fe. Marcela Oteiza, assistant professor of theater, is developing the visual design of the work. The first half of the performance features Ashkin and other local choreographers’ most recent works spanning a spectrum of modern dance, dance theater and improvisational systems. (more…)

Psyche Loui, assistant professor of psychology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, discussed the phenomenon of tone-deafness on Radio Health Journal. Millions people go through life thinking they're hopelessly tone-deaf when they are not--they can distinguish between correct and incorrect notes, yet they're just unable to sing them properly. Ironically, those who are truly tone-deaf cannot hear such distinctions, and thus may be unaware of their condition. "You'll see some people who don't really know that they're tone-deaf," said Loui. Identifying tone-deafness can be done by having people listen to, rather than sing, music. Many people who are tone-deaf don't enjoy music. "Some people think it all sounds the same,…

Professor of Theater Ron Jenkins wrote in The Jakarta Post about recent performances of Rateb Meuseukat, a form of Acehnese dance from Indonesia, at Wesleyan and a few other New England colleges, which gave American audiences "an eye-opening introduction to an aspect of the Muslim world that is rarely seen in the West." The group "Tari Aceh" performed at Wesleyan's Crowell Concert Hall on Feb. 27. The day after the performance, some audience members returned for a workshop in which they learned how to do the movements they had seen onstage. Jenkins writes: Images of Muslim women in Western media often focus on the restrictive nature of…

Alive: New and Selected Poems, a new volume of poetry by Elizabeth Willis, the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing, professor of English, was recently published by New York Review Books. The book contains poems spanning more than 20 years. According to the publisher's website, with these poems, Willis "draws us into intricate patterns of thought and feeling. The intimate and civic address of these poems is laced with subterranean affinities among painters, botanists, politicians, witches and agitators. Coursing through this work is the clarity and resistance of a world that asks the poem to rise to this, to speak its fury." Willis is…

Students, faculty and alumni involved in planetary science attended the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 16-20 in Houston, Texas. Jim Greenwood, assistant professor earth and environmental sciences, gave a talk titled "urCl-KREEP? Cl-rich glasses in KREEP basalts 15382 and 15386 and their implications for lunar geochemistry." Martha Gilmore, chair and professor of earth and environmental sciences and the George I. Seney Professor of Geology, met with the Venus Exploration Analysis Group as a member of its Executive Committee. Jack Singer '15 and Lisa Korn MA '15 presented posters. Several Wesleyan alumni also made presentations at the conference including James Dottin ’13 (E&ES), now a PhD…

#THISISWHY Kai Blatt ’17 has been selected to take part in the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington. This eight-week, all expenses paid “classroom-in-the-field” program helps students develop their vision for conservation, and gives them the natural and social science skills to become a conservation change-maker. The program is just entering its second year of existence, and this will be the second year a Wesleyan student has participated. Blatt, who is from Los Angeles and plans to major in studio art and biology, learned of the program from her friend Joseph Eusebio ’17, (more…)

Wesleyan has accepted a second cohort of Posse Foundation Veteran Scholars into the Class of 2019. The group, which includes three women and seven men, come from all over the United States, and have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Italy, South Korea and Germany. Seven served in the Army, one in the Marine Corps, one in the Air Force, and one in the Connecticut Army National Guard. The group's faculty mentor will be Giulio Gallarotti, professor of government, professor of environmental studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies. In 2013, Wesleyan became only the second institution, after Vassar, to partner with the…

On April 2, Wesleyan will host the 1,443rd meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (the third oldest learned society in the Unites States, chartered in 1799) on campus. To honor the proud occasion, Joseph Siry, professor of art history, the Kenan Professor of the Humanities will give a public lecture presentation about his research. Siry's talk, titled "Air Conditioning in the United States Capitol: Architecture, Technology and Congressional Life," will take place at 5 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Hall. The U.S. Capitol offers an illuminating case study of how modern architecture developed mechanically before…

Wesleyan's Office of Sports Information provided the following athletic highlights on March 24: Holding Pomona-Pitzer to seven hits and two runs with five strikeouts, Gavin Pittore ’16 upped his record to 2-1 on the season, while giving baseball a win in its final game out west. Pittore was named NESCAC Pitcher of the Week. Jon Dennett ’15 added four hits during the final four games to join the 100-hit club as the 49th Cardinal to do so. Andrew Yin ’15 hit .438 over the week with seven safeties as he rose to No. 5 on the all-time Cardinal hits list…

On March 5, the Certificate in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory supported a discussion on "Tragedy and Revolution." Matthew Garrett, assistant professor of English, assistant professor American studies and director of the Certificate, moderated the discussion. Assistant Professor Matthew Garrett, visiting distinguished guest David Scott and Assistant Professor Lily Saint led a discussion on "Tragedy and Revolution" March 5 in the Russell House. David Scott, professor of anthropology at Columbia University and editor of the journal Small Axe, spoke about his recent book, Omens of Adversity: Tragedy, Time, Memory, Justice (Duke University Press, 2014). Lily Saint, assistant professor of English, provided a response to Professor Scott's…

GRAMMY Foundation Grant Supports Loui’s Research on Epilepsy Intervention

Alejandro, Alumnae Collaborate on Choreography Project

Loui Talks Tone-Deafness on Radio Health Journal

Kaus Investigates Protein Structure by Using X-Ray Crystallography

Jenkins Writes About “Eye-Opening” Performance of Indonesian Dancers

New Volume of Elizabeth Willis’ Poetry Published

Students, Faculty, Alumni Attend Planetary Science Conference in Texas

Blatt ’17 Selected As a Doris Duke Conservation Scholar

Wesleyan Welcomes Second Cohort of Posse Veteran Scholars

Siry to Speak at Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences Meeting April 2

Basketball, Softball, Lacrosse Play Opponents Out of State during Spring Recess

Faculty, Distinguished Guest Discuss Tragedy and Revolution