Cynthia RockwellJane Goldenring '77 produced the upcoming Disney Channel original movie, Radio Rebel. It airs at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 (7 p.m. Central). The film stars Debbie Ryan (Jessie) and was directed by Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors). Radio Rebel, which is based on the book, Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph, tells the story of Tara, a shy 17-year-old, who has another identity: DJ Radio Rebel. As her popularity as a radio DJ skyrockets, Tara finds it harder to keep her alter ego a secret and learns to take her own advice and embrace who she is. “The movie is a lot…
David LowPeder Zane ’84 has co-written a new book Design in Nature (Doubleday) with Professor Adrian Bejan of Duke University, which describes Bejan’s groundbreaking discovery, the constructal law, a principle of physics that governs all design and evolution in nature. The constructal law holds that all shape and structure emerges to facilitate flow. Rain drops, for example, coalesce and move together, generating rivulets, streams, and the mighty river basins of the world because this design allows them to move more easily. The question to ask is: Why does design arise at all? Why can't the water just seep through the ground?…
Performer, educator, and writer Una Aya Osato ’04, premieres LOL: The End, a three-person production (with her father and sister), at FRIGID NY Theater Festival in February. In her Kickstarter blog, Osato describes the production as “a funny and physical look at natural and human-made disasters through the eyes of three clowns: a place where tragedy meets comedy meets stupid.” The creator of several award winning one-woman shows, JapJAP, Recess, and Keep It Movin’, Osato has performed in theaters, classrooms, community organizations, prisons, and universities. Additionally, she has taught performing arts in elementary, middle, and high schools over the past…
In Giving Women: Alliance and Exchange in Victorian Culture (Oxford University Press), Jill Rappoport ’00 explores the literary expression and cultural consequences of English women’s giving from the 1820s to the First World War. During a period when most women lacked property rights and professional opportunities, gift transactions allowed them to enter into economic negotiations of power as volatile and potentially profitable as those within the market systems that so frequently excluded or exploited them. Rappoport shows how female authors and fictional protagonists alike mobilized networks outside of marriage and the market by considering the dynamic action and reaction of…
Paul Halliday ’83, a professor of history n the University of Virginia's College of Arts and Sciences, recently received the Inner Temple Book Prize for his publication, Habeas Corpus: From England to Empire, published by Harvard University Press. He received the prize in December 2011 in London from Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, in a ceremony at the Inner Temple, one of four unincorporated associations that have existed since the 14th century to recruit and train barristers. Presented every three years, the prize of £10,000 is awarded by the royally chartered Inner Temple and is intended to encourage…
Olivia DrakeA review of Laura Stark's new book, Behind Closed Doors: IRBs and the Making of Ethical Research, appears in the January 2012 issue of Science, Vol. 335, no. 6065 p. 170. Stark is an assistant professor of science in society, assistant professor of sociology, assistant professor of environmental studies. The review states: "How did we get here? Seeking to answer that question for institutional review boards (IRBs), Laura Stark's Behind Closed Doors challenges the historical mythology of bioethics. ... The most important contribution of this interesting, slim book is Stark's demonstration that the conventional version of the origin of IRBs is a very partial…
Lauren RubensteinRichard Grossman, professor of economics, was a discussant at the Research Group on Political Institutions and Economic Policy at Harvard University on Dec. 3. Grossman commented on a paper, “Trade shocks, mass movements and decolonization: Evidence from India’s independence struggle,” written by Assistant Professor of Political Economy Saumitra Jha of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. David Stasavage, professor of politics at New York University, served as co-discussant on the paper along with Professor Grossman.
Sivan Battat '15 is mentioned in the Jan. 19 edition of The Jewish Ledger for being "Onward . . . and Upward." Battat and seven other Ezra Academy alumni visited their alma mater to chat with students about their experiences since graduating from high school. The article is online here.
Peter Rutland, professor of government, authored an opinion piece in the Dec. 29 Moscow Times titled "A Cold War Could Turn Hot in the Korean Peninsula." Rutland writes: "Much of the commentary about North Korea after the death of Kim Jong Il has sidestepped the question of reunification. While the nations of Germany and Vietnam were united, Korea remains split into two. In this part of the world, the Cold War is not over, and there is a real danger that it might turn into a hot war. North Korea is committed to unifying the nation by military means. Its…
David PesciThe New York Times explores the increasing attention being paid to Animal Studies at universities across the country, and features two Wesleyan faculty in the piece: Lori Gruen, chair and professor of philosophy, professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies, and Kari Weil, University Professor of Letters. Both have researched, published, and lectured widely in the field. The article, dated Jan. 2, also mentions Wesleyan's Human-Animal Studies Fellowship Program.
Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, presented a paper on Jan. 20 titled "To Honor the Language of Truth: Reflections on F. Nietzsche, H.N. Bialik, Chen Yinke and Zhang Longxi" at the City University of Hong Kong. Schwarcz, who also is a professor of history, professor of East Asian Studies, was an invited speaker at the international conference on "Cross Cultural Studies: China and the World." Schwarcz's essay will be published as part of a book on 2012. (more…)
Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, received a grant worth $65,932 from the Space Telescope Institute to support a project titled, "Cool Star Winds and the Evolution of Exoplanetary Atmospheres." The grant expires in October 2014. Redfield is observing stars that are host to their own planetary systems. These "exoplanets" were only discovered in the last decade or so, and since their discovery, astronomers are very interested in learning more about the properties of these planets and their atmospheres. "Invariably, the study of exoplanets is really an exercise in putting life on Earth into a cosmic context. How common are planets?…