Olivia DrakeKrishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, will attend a translators working meeting with Günter Grass Feb. 10-14 in Lübeck, Germany. Grass, 85, is novelist, poet, playwright, artist and sculptor. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. Winston has translated several of Grass's works, including his 1990 diary, From Germany to Germany, which was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in November 2012. This will be Winston's fourth meeting with Grass and fellow translators. The group will focus the discussion on Grass's poetry, autobiographical writings and artwork. "It's a pretty special thing when translators can sit down with the author for several…
Lauren RubensteinThe New York Times on Jan. 25 published an op-ed by Andrew Curran, dean of the arts and humanities and professor of romance languages and literature, on the legacy of Enlightenment era philosopher and novelist Denis Diderot. Curran writes of Diderot: "His message was of intellectual emancipation from received authorities — be they religious, political or societal — and always in the interest of the common good. More so than the deists Voltaire and Rousseau, Diderot embodied the most progressive wing of Enlightenment thought, a position that stemmed from his belief that skepticism in all matters was 'the first step toward truth.'…
On Jan. 11, Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies, reviewed a new book, Hollywood Sketchbook, by Deborah Nadoolman Landis in The Wall Street Journal. Landis, a costume designer herself, “defines the difference between the designer’s costuming goal and the role of the sketch artist. Costume sketches were never intended to be fashion drawings: Kinetic, emotional and drawn for a specific personality or character, they were about much more than clothes,” writes Basinger. The book contains commentaries and reproduced sketches for 61 designers, including such famous names as Adrian (known for The Wizard of Oz, Camille, and Marie Antoinette, among…
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) named Assistant Professor of English Lisa Cohen’s book, All We Know: Three Lives, a "2012 Finalist" in the biography category. Founded in 1974 in New York City, the NBCC is the sole award bestowed by working critics and book-review editors. A finalists’ reading will be held at 6 p.m. on Feb. 27 at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium. Winners of the National Book Critics Circle book awards will be announced on Feb. 28. In All We Know: Three Lives, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Cohen revives the forgotten lives of three women. Esther Murphy, an heiress whose…
Gabe Rosenberg '16A group of Wesleyan students was featured in the Fall 2012 "Education Special" issue of the magazine German World. Shu Zhang ’13, Afi Tettey-Fio ’13, Oscar Takabvirwa ’14, Taylor Steele ’14, and Julius Bjornson ’14 were photographed in Berlin, while they studied abroad in Germany during the Spring 2012 semester. German World is distributed to classrooms across the United States.
During Wesleyan's winter recess, Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, worked on a paratroopers' reservist base in Israel through Volunteers for Israel. The 30-year-old program seeks volunteers to promote solidarity and goodwill among Israelis, American Jews, and other friends of Israel. Each day, Schwarcz and 13 other volunteers in her group, reported for work in a warehouse overseen by a female officer, the mother of two young children. "We, the American volunteers worked alongside young soldiers (mostly 19-year-old girls) and male reservists in their late 20s - all sent to this base to help out with…
The Hartford Courant on Dec. 7 published an op-ed by Assistant Professor of Sociology Daniel Long about a new pilot program in Connecticut and four other states to increase time that children spend in school. Long responded skeptically to the program, writing that past experiments with increased learning time have shown mixed results, and are an expensive, unproven way to improve student learning. At a time when Connecticut school districts face increasingly tight budgets, the state should focus on reform efforts backed by research, Long writes. On Dec. 20, Long also participated in a discussion on the impact of increased class time…
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) named Carol Wood and Wis Comfort to its inaugural class of AMS Fellows. Wood is the Edward Burr Van Vleck Professor of Mathematics. She is an expert in mathematical logic and applications of model theory to algebra. Comfort is the Edward Burr Van Vleck Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus. He's an expert on point-set topology, ultrafilters, set theory and topological groups. The Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics.
Professor of Psychology John Seamon has been appointed to a three-year term as associate editor of Memory, an international journal published by Taylor and Francis and focusing on empirical research on all aspects of human memory. As associate editor, Seamon will be responsible for handling approximately a dozen submitted manuscripts each year, soliciting outside reviews and making recommendations regarding publication in the journal. According to the journal's website, Memory publishes academic papers in all areas of memory research, including experimental studies of memory, as well as developmental, educational, neuropsychological, clinical and social research on memory.
John Bonin, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science, participated in the annual American Economic Association meetings in San Diego, Calif. from Jan. 3-6. He chaired two panel sessions and was a discussant for papers in two different sessions. Three generations of Wesleyan economists were present in the first morning session of the meetings: Bonin was the chair and Assistant Professor of Economics Melanie Khamis presented a joint paper with her student Romaine Campbell '13 on informal employment in Jamaican firms. Campbell has completed his course work and is finishing his honors thesis to fulfill the requirements…
Two book reviews by President Michael Roth recently were published in The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. For the Post on Dec. 28, Roth reviewed Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks, a "graceful and informative" study of hallucinations caused by "neurological misfirings that can be traced to disease, drugs or various changes in neurochemistry." Drawing upon descriptions of hallucinations experienced with Parkinsonian disorders, epilepsy, migraines, and narcolepsy, "Sacks explores the surprising ways in which our brains call up simulated realities that are almost indistinguishable from normal perceptions," Roth writes. He adds: "As is usually the case with the good doctor Sacks, we are prescribed no overarching theory or even a…
In an op-ed published Jan. 15 in The New York Times/ International Herald Tribune, Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Cambell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, professor of government and professor of Russian and Eastern European studies, contradicts the popular narrative that the current conflict in Mali is caused by militant Islam. Rather, he writes, “the core of the conflict is the nationalist secession movement of the Tuareg people — one that in recent months has been hijacked by Islamist radicals.” Rutland reminds readers: “In the Cold War, the West had a hard time separating out communism from nationalism. That failure…