Olivia DrakeAnthony Braxton, professor of music, was featured in a Jan. 27 edition of The Globe and Mail. In an article titled "8 hours + 60 musicians = 1 sonic genome," Braxton explains how his 8-hour concert, Sonic Genome Project, held in Vancouver on Feb. 1, involved "synchronous starting points, target area space points, target strategic points. ... geometric trajectories from the music system, all the way to implanted and target-space objectives." For the Genome, Braxton employed 47 "resident players" from the Vancouver area, a mixture of creative music veterans and high-school students. These players joined Braxton and 12 of his…
A book published by Wesleyan University Press is a 2009 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Versed, by Rae Armantrout, was honored in the poetry category. The finalist reading will be held at 7 p.m. March 10 at The New School in New York, N.Y. The reading is free and open to the pubic. Rae Armantrout is a professor of writing and literature at the University of California, San Diego. Her book also is a National Book Award Finalist. For more information on the book click here.
A book review written by Kirk Swinehart, assistant professor of history, was published in the Dec. 18 issue of The Chicago Tribune. Swinehart reviewed Dorthea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, by Linda Gordon. The photographer Dorothea Lange " is such a figure, a woman whose quietly searing depictions of the American Dream gone awry reflect her own innermost struggles and resonate powerfully with our own," Swinehart writes. "Linda Gordon, a professor of history at New York University, shows how in her arresting new biography of Lange. In Gordon's telling, Lange emerges as something substantially greater than America's pioneering photo-chronicler of the Great Depression and…
Matthew Sellier ’11 was featured a Hartford Courant article titled "Pulling All the Stops to Help Homeless." On Jan. 29 Sellier performed an organ recital at Middletown's South Church to raise resources for and awareness of homelessness in the area. Sellier performed a composition by Neely Bruce, professor of music. The piece is based on the spiritual "Heaven Bell A-Ring." Performing a work by a composer present in the audience, Sellier says in the article, is "nerve-wracking" but also has its advantages in that he doesn't have to guess about a composer's intent. "I can ask Neely what he wants,"…
David Schorr, professor of art, and Keiji Shinohara, artist-in-residence of art and East Asian studies, are showing their artwork at the DFN Gallery, 64 East 79th Street in New York, N.Y. Their work is featured in an exhibit titled "Looks Good on Paper," which runs through March 6. Schorr has been a faculty member at Wesleyan since 1971 where he has taught printmaking, drawing, typography, book design, graphic design and calligraphy. Fifteen years ago he turned to canvas for a series of paintings about AIDS and early death so he could layer the backgrounds, dissolving the figures in the ether…
Steven Jacaruso, art director in the Office of University Communications, recently judged the 2010 Connecticut Libraries Publicity Awards Contest. As one of three judges, Jacaruso observed more than 75 imaginative bookmarks, brochures, newsletters, program flyers and innovative web sites, blogs, podcasts, videos and electronic newsletters. Awards in each category are based on the library’s total operating budget (less than $750,000 or $750,000 and over). The event was held at The Middletown Library Association in Middletown. "Considering the budget constraints and the fact that most of the submissions were by non-professional designers, some of the work was of a very high…
Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, received a grant from NASA on Jan. 28 for his research titled "Probing the Atomic & Molecular Inventory of the Beta-PicAnalog, the Young Edge –On Debris Disk of HD32297rp." The $48,334 grant, will be applied over two years.
Wesleyan's Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science (PIMMS) received a nearly $1M grant from the United Illuminating Company (UI) and The Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) to provide professional development workshops for eesmarts teachers regarding energy and energy-efficient behaviors and technologies. These new contracts provide funding for a fourth year of the program and are renewable for an additional two years. Read more on the grant here https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2010/02/02/pimms/.
Gay Smith, professor of theater, emerita, is the author of the book Lady Macbeth in America: From the Stage to the White House, published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2010. Lady Macbeth has haunted American history since the conflicts of Shakespeare’s England spilled over into New England’s real witch hunts. To reveal how Lady Macbeth entered American politics as an icon for the First Lady, this investigation focuses on the prominent actresses in the role, how they performed, and their effect on audiences anxious about the country’s First Lady and her influence over the President—especially at times of war. In this…
Carl Viggiani, professor of romance languages and literatures, emeritus, died suddenly on Jan. 16, 2010. He was 87 years old. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1954, teaching French language and literature. He was active in the Center for the Humanities in its early years, offered numerous colloquia for the College of Letters, founded the Wesleyan program in Paris which he directed or served as resident director in Paris over seven and a half years, and served frequently as chair of the Romance Languages and Literatures Department. Viggiani earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, master’s degree from Harvard University,…
David PesciSeth Redfield discusses a new way to search for extraterrestrial life.
Jeanine Basinger on the importance of Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar nomination for "The Hurt Locker"