Olivia DrakePhiladelphia Mayor Michael Nutter named Katherine Gajewski '02 as the new director of the Mayor's Office of Sustainability. According to a July 18 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Mayor Nutter interviewed several candidates as he searched for someone with political savvy and operational experience who was also a team player. Ultimately, the mayor said, "we found that person and she was just across the hall." Gajewski was a current staff member in the office. As an aide to the chief of staff, Gajewski oversaw two citywide "spring cleanups" and advised Nutter on appointments to city boards and commissions. Before joining…
More than 1,700 incoming University of Dayton (UD) students are required to read Melody Moezzi's ’01 book, War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims, before they arrive on campus Aug. 22 for first-year orientation, according to a July 26 Dayton Daily News article. The book is an award-winning collection of essays about young American Muslims, Moezzi is an American Muslim of Iranian descent. UD is a Marianist Catholic university. Moezzi’s book will serve as the basis for a series of student dialogues on the issue of diversity and differences. “I hope that they’ll be able to see a human side…
According to Variety, Ray Tintori '06 is slated to direct Shane Jones' debut novel "Light Boxes." Spike Jonze has acquired feature rights. "Light Boxes," published earlier this year by Genius Press, is centered on a mysterious town that endures a deadly 1,000-day winter. Tintori's directed numerous music videos plus short films "Jettison Your Loved Ones" and "Death to the Tinman," the later of which was completed while he was a student at Wesleyan and later featured at the Sundance Film Festival.
Brian Northrop has joined the Chemistry Department as the assistant professor of chemistry. His research focuses on the design, synthesis and analysis of new organic materials utilizing molecular recognition, self-assembly and dynamic covalent chemistry. "I wanted to work at a school that has a strong emphasis on teaching and the liberal arts, but I also really enjoy doing high-level research in chemistry and Wesleyan allows me to do both," Northrop says. "Wesleyan is unique in it’s size and strengths, and I’m very excited to be here." Northrop graduated from Middlebury College in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and…
The Etherington Scholarship Program received a grant worth $2,000 from the Liberty Bank Foundation on July 6. The Etherington Scholarships offer outstanding students from Connecticut community colleges a chance to attend Wesleyan.
Alvin Lucier, professor of music, Iván Naranjo MA ’09, and Katherine Young MA '08 are mentioned in a July 19 New York Times article titled "Where Bows Tap and the Cello Travels." The Flux Quartet, which performed an American contemporary music program at Bargemusic near the Brooklyn Bridge, performed music that grew from their association from Wesleyan. For several years the quartet has participated in Wesleyan’s graduate seminar for composers, playing new pieces by students. Along with an experimental work by composer Lucier, who has been on the Wesleyan faculty for nearly 40 years, there were recent scores by two…
David PesciStanley Lebergott, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Sciences, Emeritus, died July 24 after a long illness. He was 91 years old. Lebergott began his career as a public servant, working for 20 years in the U.S. Department of Labor, the International Labor Office, and the U.S. Bureau of the Budget. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1962 as a professor of economics, becoming University Professor in 1970. He was a pivotal scholar in his field, and a prolific author. In addition to more than 50 articles, his books include: Manpower in Economic Growth: The American Record…
Jeanine Basinger, Chair and Cowrin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, Curator, Cinema Archives, discusses the new film Julie and Julia, which is about the life of famed Chef Julia Child and a writer Julie Powell, who decides to try to cook every recipe in Child's best-selling cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and then blog about her experiences. Among the movie's producers is Lawrence Mark '71.
Marie Mencher '12 and Lindsay Keys were both featured in the lastest Education Life issue of The New York Times. Mencher contributed to the "Your Story" section, which features short first person essays on elements of college life. Mencher's essay is titled "Romance Crushed." Keys was featured in a photo essay titled "College Life."
Kirk Swinehart, assistant professor of history, has a reivew for The Chicago Tribune of Edmund Morgan's latest book, American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America. Swinehart says: "as so many times before, Morgan proves himself one of our deftest thinkers about race -- what he once called 'the American paradox, the marriage of slavery and freedom.'"