All News – Page 40

During the annual Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression, keynote speaker Keith Whittington discussed how free speech has been a politicized issue since early America, and he expanded on early conceptions of free speech as it developed. “Rather than simply seeing how many people will follow you to the battlefield to beat up or kill the other side, wouldn't it just be easier if we just counted up how many people were willing to go to the battlefield, resolve those issues that way and skip the beating up part?” Whittington asked the audience. The lecture, which has been…

By Maia Dawson '24 On March 31, International Transgender Day of Visibility, the Resource Center hosted Kat Blaque, a transgender rights activist, for an open dialogue with students. Demetrius Colvin, the Director of the Resource Center, described the event as “dedicated to raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide as well as celebrating their contributions to society.” It’s important, too, to “make sure that we’re not just highlighting the challenges and the struggles and the violence which is very real, but also… people are thriving, people are pushing things changing things, allowing more people to be free,” Colvin…

Girls who grow up in the patriarchal Massai community in Kenya are often impoverished, voiceless, and undermined by men. Although Kenya offers free public education, less than 5 percent of Kenyan women end up attending college. Diana Naiyanoi Kimojino '25, however, was determined to continue her education, even if it meant going against her family's wishes and her cultural norms. Now an economics major at Wesleyan, she's feels "an immense call of duty" to bring awareness to her Kenyan community about the benefits of college access for women. "Growing up, my education is always a point of contention with my…

It isn’t often that watching late night comedy would be considered preparation for an environmental studies senior capstone project, but that turned out to the case for Belle Brown ‘22. Regular viewing of John Oliver’s commentary on environmental issues helped inform Brown’s upcoming stand-up comedy set about the absurdities of the Monsanto Company. “Belle decided to do the comedy act as her capstone project as a way of presenting research about policy and politics related to big-agriculture in a format that might be more accessible to people. I just saw a preview, and it is hilarious as well as informative,”…

After four years of developing and honing their artistic skills, 30 art studio majors from the Department of Art and Art History have completed senior thesis projects this spring and are sharing their final works with the public. The annual Senior Thesis Exhibition, held in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, is the culmination of a two-semester thesis tutorial. The exhibition is critiqued by the faculty advisor and a second critic, and must be passed by a vote of the faculty of the art studio program. The senior thesis allows the art studio majors to engage in a solo, rigorous, self-directed…

Calling the attacks in Ukraine "a war" is against the law in Russia, and all media organizations there must use the term "special military operation (SMO)." "If anybody with a newspaper [doesn't use SMO], next day, you're in in jail," said activist Frantsuaza Li of Moscow during Wesleyan's fourth Ukraine-Russia Crisis: Livestream Conversations series event on March 25. "Russian propaganda works. Not because Russian people are devils, and they think that [the war] is a good thing. Because there [is] no information in the internet. The government blocked many newspapers. The government blocked Facebook, YouTube, and people . . .…

Silloway Gymnasium was pretty dead in the early days of the pandemic. The men’s basketball team had cancelled its season. Because of social distancing requirements, even playing one-on-one was prohibited. For the few players remaining on campus, there was nothing but drills. Lots and lots of drills. In those mundane practice sessions, the seeds were planted for a NESCAC championship. “We were practicing a new offense this year. We wanted to really get out and push the ball and just be faster than teams offensively and defensively,” said Sam Peek ‘22. And, just maybe, all that time in the gym…

Author Amy Bloom’s home office overlooks a lovely section of Long Island Sound, with rocky islands in the distance, boats drifting by, and sunlight playing off the harbor. When the time comes to put pen to paper, she has a magnificent view from her window. The great view doesn’t make the work any easier. “The job is, you’ve got to go to the office. You have to sit in the chair. You’ve got to make the effort. These things don’t sprout by themselves. It’s not magic and it’s not the muse. The muse shows up when she will but my…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. Victoria Smolkin, associate professor of history and a scholar of communism, speaks in The Los Angeles Times about Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is trying to defend the war in Ukraine with a spiritual defense. “What they are after is salvation,” Smolkin says. “Not just of the Ukrainians, but of themselves. They see it as their mission to establish unity.” (March 29) In The Hartford Courant, Suzanne O'Connell, Harold T.…

By Maia Dawson '24 Study Abroad offices are basically logistics hubs. There are the regular nightmares, like visa acquisitions. Then there are the less regular nightmares, like earthquakes or tsunamis. There are even the unique nightmares; lore has it that two Georgetown students were imprisoned in Cairo during the Arab Spring and then repatriated by their study abroad officers. Wesleyan's Office of Study Abroad has had its hands full during the global pandemic. When the first wave of the coronavirus hit Italy in March 2020, there were twenty-eight Wesleyan students in Bologna. Emily Gorlewski, director of the Study Abroad program at…

Eleven years ago, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami battered the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, Japan, resulting in radioactive material spewing into the air, ground, and ocean. About 16,000 residents were killed from the explosions, and another 165,000 were forced to evacuate. "I should not be here," Eiko Otake shares in her most recent film, A Body in Fukushima (2021). But she keeps returning—for a total of five visits to the nuclear disaster site. Otake, visiting dance artist-in-residence, began her solo work there in January 2014. Her only audience is William Johnston, John E. Andrus Professor of History, who…

In April 2019, Middlesex County EMT Livia Cox '22 recalls responding to a medical call where she encounters an unconscious and pale-faced patient. She eyes a pill bottle in the room, and although the man is dead, she begins chest compressions anyway "with every joule of energy and every compassionate bone in me," she says. Cox had met this patient before. They've discussed his comorbid chronic physical and mental pain and substance dependency at length. A former military man, he has frequent PTSD episodes. He's been prescribed opioids to ameliorate his joint pain, but help more with his insomnia. "On…

Princeton’s Whittington Delivers Annual Hugo L. Black Lecture

Resource Center Hosts Talk on International Transgender Day of Visibility

3 Students to Conduct “Projects for Peace” in Africa

Brown ’22 Uses Comedy to Make Serious Point About Big Agriculture

Art Studio Majors Display Senior Theses at Zilkha Gallery

Students from Wesleyan, Belarus, Russia Discuss Crisis in Ukraine

Peek ’22 Named Division III All-American in Men’s Basketball

Bloom’s New Book Explores How ‘Love Can Reveal Itself in Life’s Most Difficult Moments’

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan’s Study Abroad Program Going Strong

Otake’s Body in Fukushima Film Debuts at MoMA, Duet Project Premiers in New York

Watson Fellow Cox ’22 to Explore Pain Management in Various Cultures