Olivia DrakeMay 19, 20091min
A photography book featuring contributions by Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history, associate professor of science in society, chair and associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, was shortlisted for the 2009 And/or Book Awards, the UK’s leading prizes for books published in the fields of photography and the moving image. The book, Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible, 1840-1900 , was written by Tucker, Corey Keller, Tom Gunning and Maren Gröning. It is published by Yale University Press. The book received the And/or Book Award during an awards ceremony April 23 in London.

Olivia DrakeMay 19, 20091min
Andrew Curran, associate professor of French, has been awarded the 2009-2010 Paul Klemperer Fellowship at the New York Academy of Medicine. This fellowship is awarded to support summer research in history and the humanities as they relate to medicine, the biomedical sciences and health. Curran is currently completing a book titled The Anatomy of Blackness, an interdisciplinary study related to the status of the African in the Enlightenment-era life sciences.

Olivia DrakeMay 19, 20092min
Award-winning writers Amy Bloom, Andre Aciman, Katha Pollitt, Peter Cole and Roxana Robinson will join more than 20 writers, editors and agents at the 53rd annual Wesleyan Writers Conference, June 14-19 on campus. The conference offers advice for writers at every stage of their careers, featuring classes, workshops, manuscript advice, guest speakers, readings, publishing advice and talks with editors and agents. It welcomes new writers, experienced writers, and everyone interested in the writer’s craft. "Attending the conference gave me incredible confidence,” says past participant Dr. Mara Berkley, psychologist from Providence, R.I. who came to the conference to work on her…

Olivia DrakeMay 19, 20093min
Norm Daniels, who coached five sports in almost 40 years at Wesleyan, died May 11 at the age of 102. He coached baseball, football, basketball, wrestling and squash. Daniels, born March 25, 1907 in Detroit, Mich., came to Wesleyan as an instructor in physical education in 1934 and retired in 1973. He spent 33 years coaching baseball, and 19 years coaching football, which included a 25-game winning streak from 1945-1948. The Hillsdale, Mich. native graduated in 1932 from the University of Michigan, where he played football, basketball and baseball. He also earned a master's degree at Michigan in 1941. Among…

Olivia DrakeMay 19, 20091min
The Connecticut League For Nursing Board has requested Wesleyan students enrolled in the class, "Making the Science Documentary," show and display samples of their films during the board's annual convention June 4 in Portland, Conn. The science and film hybrid class, designated a Service Learning Course, was designed to introduce students to topics in the life sciences and the basics of documentary filmmaking, in order to teach students the skills and art of communicating science-related issues through visual media. The class was co-taught by Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, and Jacob Bricca, adjunct assistant professor of…

Olivia DrakeMay 19, 20091min
Jules Verne's The Kip Brothers, published in English by Wesleyan University Press in 2007, was mentioned in a May 11 Huffington Post article titled "Jules Verne's Kip Brothers Translated into English after 100 Years." The Wesleyan University Press book features original black and white illustrations. The article says: "The book, a crime drama, celebrates the fraternal bonds of brotherhood, written shortly after the death of Verne's brother and best friend, a French sailor. The bond between the two heroes is so close it raised the question in this writer's mind whether gay relationships could have been written about openly in…

David PesciMay 18, 20091min
In a New York Times piece examining some of General McChrystal's more austere habits, William Pinch,  professor of history, discusses from a martial perspective McChrystal's habits of sleeping little, eating one meal a day, working out to exhaustion and yet maintaining the energy and focus to run the Afghanistan campaign. Pinch says such methods of "self-denial as...a cultivation of power" are consistent with the warrior ethos of the past.

David PesciMay 18, 20091min
Writing a piece for The Moscow Times, Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, professor of government, points out how Japan and Russia are strengthening economic ties, moving forward on a variety of partnerships, and in general acting like long-standing allies. Yet one thorny territorial issue remains that has precluded the countries from signing a peace treaty with each other dating back to the end of World War II.