Olivia DrakeNadja Aksamija, associate professor of art history, is spending her 2012-13 year abroad in Florence, Italy as a Robert Lehman Fellow at the Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. She is one of 15 scholars to receive the fellowship. I Tatti Fellows are selected by an international and interdisciplinary committee that welcomes applications from Italian Renaissance scholars from all nations. While abroad, Aksamija is researching the Bolognese villa in the age of Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti. "My project investigates the Bolognese villa culture at the end of the 16th century, a period marked by Catholic reform…
Hannah Norman '16It’s that time of year: crunchy fall leaves and the long awaited end to the summer harvesting season. Long Lane Farm’s ninth annual Pumpkin Fest, held on Oct. 6, celebrated this culmination with free vegetarian food, face painting, live music from student bands, farm tours, yoga, and more. Middletown residents and Wesleyan students and faculty alike came together in what farm enthusiast Josh Krugman '14 called “a celebration of the farm as a student-run project that makes amazing things happen, and also the farm as a community and the possibility the farm has of creating community even outside of the…
Brian KattenMatt Long '14 a tight end on Wesleyan's Football Team, hopes to make a new friend in about a year. Why would a 6-foot 5-inch, 240 pound scholar-athlete at a prestigious college like Wesleyan who was named an academic all-NESCAC choice in 2011 need to wait 12 months to make a new acquaintance? One very special reason. This past spring, Long, of Williston, Vt., was coaxed by a schoolmate to enlist in a bone marrow donor program during a drive on campus. It was sponsored by DKMS, the world's largest bone marrow donor program. Thus, Matt was on a donor matching…
Lauren RubensteinThe 11th Annual Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns, featuring keynote speaker, ethnomusicologist Anthony Seeger, will be held on Nov. 8-9. Endowed by James J. Shasha '50 P'82, the seminar is an educational forum for Wesleyan alumni, students, faculty and friends that provides an opportunity to explore issues of global concern in a small seminar environment. The focus of this year's seminar is Music and Public Life. It is part of a year-long celebration of Music and Public Life taking place at Wesleyan over the 2012-13 academic year. The full schedule is online here. Seeger's keynote address, to be delivered at 8…
In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we ask “5 Questions” of Michael Dorsey, visiting professor of environmental studies. In September, he was reappointed to the Environmental Protection Agency's National Advisory Committee. Q: Professor Dorsey, you're a visiting professor of environmental studies and a fellow in the College of the Environment's Think Tank. What is the 2012-13 Think Tank theme, and what is your role in the year-long exploration? A: The 2012-2013 College of the Environment's Think Tank theme is: environmental justice and global health. Despite growing awareness of the problems of environmental injustice and related impacts on health and sustainability,…
Cynthia RockwellAt Wesleyan's Neighborhood Preschool on Lawn Avenue, a 23-year-old wooden playscape with safety issues needed to come down. Mark Woodworth ’94, father of current NPS student Dylan, and head coach of Wesleyan's baseball team, signed up to help. On Oct. 5, Woodworth and his team set aside the baseball bat and took swings with sledge hammers and mallets, wielding tools, and lifting timbers between their Friday morning classes. During playtime, the NPS students looked on in amazement, repeating to each other what their teacher, Karyn Hurlbert reminded them, "Stay out of the sandbox"—where the baseball team was dismantling their old climber. The…
Need a nap? Newly installed in both Olin and the Science Library are what appear to be lounge chairs enclosed by white spheres of plastic. These sleek, futuristic-looking machines are built for the sole purpose of squeezing in that midday, mid-study power nap—a recharging center for the mind. The EnergyPod, as it’s called, is the brainchild of a company called MetroNaps and the very first of its kind. Donated by co-founders and Wesleyan alumni Christopher Lindholst ’97 and Arshad Chowdury ’98, these pods are designed to create the ideal energy enhancing environment. "There is a tremendous amount of research that…
Assistant Professor of Government Logan Dancey started teaching at Wesleyan this semester—the perfect time, he says, to be teaching a course on Campaigns and Elections. “The unfolding presidential and congressional elections continually give us new events to think about as we read and discuss broader theories about the importance and meaning of campaigns and elections,” Dancey says. And though Congress has mostly ground to a halt this election season—meaning a dearth of current events to discuss in his Congressional Policymaking class—the increasing polarization in Congress has led to many interesting and important discussions in that course nevertheless. Dancey describes the…
Jennifer Tucker will serve as interim director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, beginning immediately through the end of the fall 2013 semester. Tucker has accepted this position in order to enable the faculty and the university to formulate a vision for the Allbritton Center that will engage the curriculum and faculty scholarship, and enhance the intellectual life of the university. Her work this year will provide a framework for strategic planning and guide the search for a new director. Tucker is chair and associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of history,…
Robert Schmidt, senior project manager for Physical Plant - Facilities, and Anne Marcotty, senior designer in the Office of University Communications, each received a Cardinal Achievement Award in October. Schmidt and Marcotty were honored for demonstrating extraordinary initiative or providing outstanding service with regard to specific tasks in their departments. This special honor comes with a $150 award and reflects the university’s gratitude for those extra efforts. The award recipients are nominated by department chairs and supervisors. Nominations can be made anytime throughout the year. For more information or to nominate a staff member for the award, visit the Human…
For her exemplary service assisting an organization that improves astronomy research opportunities for undergraduates, Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium (KNAC) recently honored Linda Shettleworth with a certificate of achievement. KNAC is an organization of eight colleges and universities in the northeast that have banded together to improve astronomy research opportunities for undergraduates. The members are: Colgate, Haverford, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams. The group's activities are supported by the National Science Foundation through a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant to Wesleyan. Since 2004, Shettleworth has administered the grant and assisted with the administration of a previous grant from…
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