All News – Page 47

Members of the campus community played Italian Tombola Bingo, ate Spanish Polvoróns, learned how to pronounce their names in Chinese, savored snacks from South Korea, danced to Afrobeats, and learned about study abroad opportunities all during Wesleyan's annual International Education Week (IEW) celebration. "International Education Week is a dedicated time for students, faculty, and staff to recognize the many ways in which we can engage meaningfully in intercultural learning and understanding at Wesleyan," said Hannah Parten, assistant director, study abroad, for the Fries Center for Global Studies. "The 2021 event focused specifically on ways to emerge from the pandemic with…

Seventy-seven percent of Wesleyan students who were eligible voted in the 2020 presidential election, earning a Gold Seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, an increase of 10 percent from the previous presidential election. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a national, nonpartisan initiative of Civic Nation, which strives for a more inclusive democracy. While civic participation is embedded in Wesleyan’s DNA, this level of turnout is due to a sustained voter registration effort, said Diana Martinez, Assistant Director, Jewett Center for Community Partnerships. “We are always looking for ways to bring the students together,” Martinez said. In…

(By Madi Mehta '24) The crowd of students, nestled on the Exley patio, buzzed in anticipation to awaiting the start of the Dramathon, a performance of student-created 10-minute plays based on the prompt “the unknown persists.” The event, which took place on Nov. 7, is similar to MonoLogOn, which was performed last year on Zoom due to the pandemic. Dramathon began when the music faded and the audience watched intently as the first set was built: a couple of chairs, a spattering of empty food containers, and assorted plastic bags. As the actors entered and positioned themselves, Exley disappeared and…

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. A sampling of recent media hits is below: Glenn Ligon '82, Hon. '12 is prominently featured in New York Times Magazine's 2021 "Greats" issue, which celebrates those who have helped make and change the culture. For over 30 years, Ligon has been making work that speaks to American history—ambiguous, open-ended, existentially observant. "Ligon’s art is often both an indictment and a kind of reframing of American history. He has worked across a wide range of…

A 7-foot-long extinct marine crocodile has finally found a permanent home on Wesleyan's campus—exactly 150 years after it arrived. Known as a Teleosaur (Macrospondylus bollensis), the sea-dwelling lizard lived during the early Jurassic period, approximately 180 million years ago. A cast was gifted to Wesleyan in 1871 by chemist Orange Judd of the Wesleyan Class of 1847, and the namesake of the University’s Orange Judd Museum of Natural Sciences. When the museum closed in 1957, more than 900 animal casts, including the Teleosaur, were moved into storage in random locations throughout campus. Over sixty years later, the Teleosaur cast was…

(By Maia Dawson '24) For Josh Hinman BLS '21, an inmate at Cheshire Correctional Institution, Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education (CPE) program “felt like a gamble.” When he joined the program in there was no degree pathway and he remembers asking the pilot program directors Russel Perkins '09 and Molly Birnbaum '09, if it was a study. Now years later, Hinman is a college graduate and a member of the inaugural class of Wesleyan BLS degree recipients. Hinman and his classmates Michael Braham BLS '21 and Clyde Meikle BLS '21 shared their experiences with the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education…

"We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day. Keep smiling through just like you always do ‘til the blue skies drive the dark clouds away.” These lyrics, sung by Vera Lynn in the 1939 song "We'll Meet Again," are especially moving for Donna Brewer, director of employee benefits at Wesleyan. They'd be even more meaningful for her uncle Jim, an avid maple syrup maker and World War II vet, who died of COVID-19 in May 2020. "Uncle Jim passed away early on in the pandemic and at that time, we…

In this continuing series, Annie Roach ’22, an English and Italian studies major from Northampton, Mass., reviews alumni books and offers a selection for those in search of knowledge, insight, and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University’s collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. Daniel de Visé ’89, King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King, the First Guitar Hero (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2021) In what is the first comprehensive biography of the legendary blues musician B.B. King, Daniel de Visé takes readers on…

As we approach Election Day 2021 and look toward the 2022 midterm elections, Wesleyan continues its push to get students more civically involved. Wesleyan saw much success with its original Wesleyan Engage 2020 Initiative Fund and hopes to build on that momentum for next year, with enrollment for the Student Political Engagement Fund now open. Through Wesleyan’s ongoing support of student learning through engaging the electoral process, students have found a variety of ways to get involved in the political process. Working on a sheriff’s campaign in Georgia. Supporting a New York City Council race. Canvassing in small-town Connecticut elections. Registering…

Reinhold Blumel, Charlotte Augusta Ayres Professor of Physics, recently co-authored a paper in Nature called “Power-optimal, stabilized entangling gate between trapped-ion qubits.” Yunseong Nam, one of the other co-authors, worked with Blumel as a graduate student. Blumel’s contributions to this paper stem from his connections to IonQ, a technology company for quantum computing. Nam is now the company’s chief theorist.

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Raquel Bryant and Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Teresita Padilla-Benavides are two women in STEM whose work has recently been highlighted in national science journals. Bryant, who will join the Wesleyan faculty in July 2022, co-wrote a paper titled “Microfossil and geochemical records reveal high-productivity paleoenvironments in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway during Oceanic Anoxic Event 2” that will be in the December volume of Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Her work has also been featured as a Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. Padilla-Benavides recently co-wrote an article titled “The…

Intercultural Learning, Study Abroad Celebrated during International Education Week

Wesleyan Earns Top Honor in Campus Democracy Challenge

Students Perform a Series of 10-Minute Plays during Dramathon

Bite Off More than You Can Chew at the New “Wisdom Teeth” Exhibit

Wesleyan in the News

Sea Dwelling Teleosaur Restored and Displayed in Exley Science Center

For Participants in Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education, A Gamble Paid Off

Wesleyan Community Honors Pandemic Loss through Movement, Dance

“You Just Have to Read This…” Books by Wesleyan Authors de Visé ’89, Petre ’06, Rips ’72

Students Seek to Make Electoral Impact Through Political Engagement Fund

Blumel, Nam Write Paper on Quantum Physics

Papers by STEM Faculty Padilla-Benavides, Bryant Published