Olivia DrakeAfter wearing through four pairs of shoes and speaking to hundreds of people in 12 states about war solutions, Wesleyan student Ashley Casale '10 returned briefly to campus after a 3,000-mile cross-country trek to promote world peace. Casale walked from San Francisco, Calif. to Washington D.C. this summer to raise peace awareness and discuss ways to take action nonviolently. Her March for Peace concluded Sept. 10 in front of the White House. "Overall, this was a great, eye-opening experience," Casale said to peers, deans and President Michael Roth during campus visit Sept. 21. "This walk was about peace, and (we…
Miri Nakamura, assistant professor of Japanese language and literature, teaches Japanese horror films and fiction. Posted 10/02/07 Miri Nakamura has joined the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures as an assistant professor of Japanese language and literature. Her primary research interests are modern Japanese fantastic fiction and gender theory. She is also interested in the dialogue between science and literature in the prewar era. Her dissertation, titled Monstrous Bodies: Gender and Reproductive Science in Modern Japanese Literature, examined how the classical image of monstrous women came to be modified and developed in the modern period. By situating fantastic writings…
Former Ohio State Ph.D colleagues Wai Kiu Billy Chan, associate professor of mathematics, and Maria Ines Icaza of Universidad de Talca in Chile, met for two weeks in September at Wesleyan to collaborate on planning a mathematics conference. Posted 10/02/07 A Wesleyan mathematics faculty member is helping to organize an international conference in Chile that will be only the second of its kind ever held. Wai Kiu Billy Chan, associate professor of mathematics, is co-organizing the International Conference on The Algebraic and Arithmetic Theory of Quadratic Forms 2007. The event will be attended by elite mathematicians from around the world…
Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, says his Wesleyan colleagues have encouraged him to pursue his research. Posted 10/02/07 Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, is the recipient of a major international award for his "many outstanding contributions in the field of nonlinear physics and quantum chaos. In March 2008, he will be presented with the Stephanos Pnevmatikos International Award for Research in Nonlinear Phenomena, which is given to an outstanding young researcher in the fields of nonlinear physics, mathematical physics and nonlinear disordered systems. The award, worth $10,000, is presented to only one researcher or scientist every two years.…
Anna Milardo, administrative assistant for the Department of Physics, has worked at Wesleyan 36 years. Posted 10/02/07 Q: Anna, rumor has it that youve been here a long time.A: I started in November of 1971 and lo and behold, 2007 comes and it seems that just a moment has gone by, and Im still in the Physics Department. You can see that I am very adventuresome -- job-wise that is.Q: Something had to keep you here for 36 years. A: Wesleyan has allowed me to be expressive and creative, and be appreciated for who I am as a person…
Daniela Viale, adjunct instructor of romance languages and literatures, is fluent in four languages. Posted 10/02/07 Daniela Viale has joined the Romance Languages and Literatures Department as an adjunct instructor. She is teaching elementary and intermediate Italian this semester. Viale, who is fluent in Italian, French, English and Spanish, also has basic knowledge of German and Latin. She comes to Wesleyan from the University of Pennsylvania, where she taught elementary and intermediate Italian and French for eight years. An Italian native, Viale completed her master of liberal arts in 2007 from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was titled…
Posted 10/02/07 Wesleyan's campus has been captured on camera and bound in a book. Wesleyan University Press has released Welcome to Wesleyan: Campus Buildings in October 2007. The 64-page, full-color book features numerous photographs of Wesleyan's diverse structures captioned with historical notes. Leslie Starr, the assistant director and marketing manager at Wesleyan University Press, is the book's author and editor. Photographs in the book were contributed by a number of university staff members and professional photographers. Weve felt that Wesleyan has needed a book like this for a long time an informative and inexpensive memento of campus, Starr says.…
Posted 10/02/07 A free flu vaccination is available for Wesleyan faculty, staff and their dependents this month. Influenza is a highly contagious viral illness marked by fevers, muscle aches, cough, headache and fatigue. Influenza is at best a miserable experience for which we are all at risk every year, says Dr. Davis Smith, medical director at the Davison Health Center. An annual flu shot is very likely to confer protection against this years strains of influenza and is highly recommended for all members of the Wesleyan community. When flu season comes around, better to know you got the flu shot…
Posted 10/02/07 Wesleyans Mathematics and Computer Science Department will host The Wesleyan Dynamical Systems Conference, Oct.13-14 at the Exley Science Center. The conference is being held in honor of Ethan Coven, professor of mathematics, emeritus. Dynamical systems, an extremely broad and central field of mathematics, is, at its core, the quantitative study of systems evolving over time. Scientists in many disciplines have come to realize and use geometric and quantitative techniques that have been the outgrowth of this field of study, says Edward Taylor, associate professor and one of the conference organizers. It cross cuts such major areas of mathematical…
FIRST DAY FOR FROSH: Members of the Class of 2011 arrived on campus Aug. 28 during New Student Arrival Day. President Michael Roth welcomed new students to campus. nformation packets were distributed in front of Exley Science Center. A week-long New Student Orientation program followed Arrival Day, which is designed to introduce the incoming class to the Wesleyan community and assist with the transition to university life. New students were immersed in information sessions, meeting with faculty and peer advisors, campus tours, arts events, field trips, dances and a barbecue. Jack Stewart, right, helps his daughter, Lia Stewart '11, unpack…
Posted 09/19/07 For the past three years, Ron Jenkins has shared his office with a 10-foot-long Balinese dragon. But recently, his fire-breathing friend has found a temporary home inside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The professor of theater, who uses the dragon as a teaching tool on Balinese theater, lent his mythological model, pictured at right, to the museum last May. The dragon is part of an exhibit titled Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, which is on exhibit in New York through January 6, 2008. The dragon is a mythical creature that embodies the…
Sarah Croucher, assistant professor of anthropology, comes to Wesleyan from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, where she directed several archeological excavations. Posted 09/19/07 Sarah Croucher has joined the Department of Anthropology as an assistant professor. She is teaching Introduction to Archaeology and Historical Archaeology of the Modern World this fall. Croucher comes to Wesleyan from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, where she was a teaching fellow in the Archeology Department. There, she taught courses which included the theory and philosophy of archaeology and archaeological field practice. Croucher grew up in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Wesleyan…