Alumni – Page 19

Alumni—especially those whose class years ended in 4 or 9—joined the families of graduating Class of 2019 seniors for a campus-wide series of celebrations, WESeminars, thesis exhibitions, and festivities. Wesleyan's Class of 1969, celebrating their 50th Reunion, began with a dinner on Thursday to gather the group and kick off the weekend. View photos below or on Wesleyan Tumblr. (more…)

On May 25, in conjunction with Reunion & Commencement Weekend events, hundreds of Wesleyan alumni and their families participated in the annual Parade of Classes to the tune of a Dixieland band. (Photos by Tom Dzimian and Rich Marinelli) (more…)

On Feb. 21, 1969, black students, faculty, and staff staged a historic takeover of Fisk Hall, Wesleyan's main academic building at the time, to protest racism and advocate for increased administrative support for people of color at the University. Dubbed the "Vanguard Class" for their place at the forefront of that movement, several members of the Class of 1969 reconvened at Fisk Hall on Saturday, May 25, 2019, to reflect on what being a part of that momentous event 50 years earlier has meant for them and for Wesleyan since. Speaking to more than 100 attendees in a standing-room-only crowd,…

Earlier this semester Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies Swapnil Rai invited Matt Sienkiewicz ’03 to be a guest lecturer in her class, FILM 328: Beyond the West. The course “examines the role that film…and other media play in shaping our sense of global, national, and local cultures and identities.” Sienkiewicz, associate professor of communication and chair of the department at Boston College, teaches courses in global media cultures and media theory. One of his eclectic areas of research looks at the West’s investment in Middle Eastern broadcasting initiatives. In 2011 he produced a peer-reviewed documentary film, Live: From Bethlehem,…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News Inside Higher Ed: "The Need for a Recovery of the Humanities" In this essay, President Michael S. Roth responds to the "flood of negativity" in public discourse about higher education, in general, and the humanities, in particular. He suggests that "in order to recover the trust of students and their families, we must overcome our cultivated insularity." 2. NBC News: "Carbon Dioxide Hits a Level Not Seen for 3 Million Years. Here's What That Means for…

In the third of this continuing series, Sara McCrea '21, a College of Letters major from Boulder, Colo., reviews alumni books and offers this selection for those in search of knowledge, insight, and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University's collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. Alex Kotlowitz ’77: An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago (Penguin Random House, 2019) “Let me tell you what this book is,” Alex Kotlowitz ’77 writes. “It’s not a policy map or a critique. It’s not about what works or doesn’t…

In the second of this continuing series, Sara McCrea '21, a College of Letters major from Boulder, Colo., reviews alumni books and offers this selection for those in search of knowledge, insight, and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University's collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. Sarah C. Townsend ’90 writes with an urgency that comes not from the saltwater of her tears, but directly from her pen. In Setting the Wire: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis, which was released from The Lettered Street Press earlier this…

A book coauthored by Wesleyan alumni Kennedy Odede ’12 and Jessica Posner ’09 was unanimously chosen as the Common Reading selection for the Class of 2023. The Common Reading is part of Wesleyan's First Year Matters Program, which serves as an introduction to intellectual life at Wesleyan. All Class of 2023 students will receive an electronic copy of the book, Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, and Hope in an African Slum (2016). As their first Wesleyan "homework assignment," the students are expected to read it prior to New Student Orientation. The book will serve as a tool for spearheading discussions throughout…

Hannah Dreier '08, a journalist with ProPublica, was announced the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing on April 15. The New York Times reported: "Ms. Dreier’s detailed portraits of Salvadoran immigrants were cited for exposing how their lives had been destroyed 'by a botched federal crackdown on the international criminal gang MS-13.’ After Ms. Dreier, 32, heard President Trump tie immigration to gang violence, her reporting revealed that immigrants were often victims of the crime groups. 'What was so cruel was that this population was being preyed upon,' she said. The series was published jointly with The New…

Bob Yorburg ’77, a master woodcarver renowned for his antique restorations of turn-of-the-20th-century carousels and calliopes, notes that the Jewish immigrant carvers of that era “raised the art of carousel carving to a new level.” “Their realism and extraordinary ornamentation defined the Coney Island style of carousel carving,” he writes. Additionally, these brilliant carvers translated their secular art into ornamentation that graced the historic synagogues of Brooklyn. Offering a photographic journey into the workshops of some of these artists—Marcus Charles Illions, Charles Carmel, along with Solomon Stein and Harry Goldstein—Yorburg will be speaking on "Coney Island Jewish Immigrant Carvers" at…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News 1. The Middletown Press: "Wesleyan Students Helping Former Prisoners to Gain Job Skills" Wesleyan Students for Ending Mass Incarceration (SEMI) is a group of students working to help formerly incarcerated individuals acclimate back into society by providing them with job skills. The goal, according to member Asiyah Herrero '22, is “making re-entry into the workforce a little bit easier. There are usually a lack of resources when people get out of prison, and starting to look for work,…

In the first of a continuing series, Sara McCrea '21, a College of Letters major from Boulder, Colo., reviews alumni books and offers this selection for those in search of insight and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University's collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. In 2004, Susan Lanzoni ’85 read an O Magazine interview of then U.S. Senator Barack Obama, in which he said that, more than America’s budget or trade deficit, he was concerned about an “empathy deficit” in our country. The use of the…

Alumni Celebrate with Old Classmates at 2019 Reunion

Alumni Walk in Annual Parade of Classes

The Vanguard Class of 1969 Offers Reflections After 50 Years

Q&A: Sienkiewicz ’03 on Dual Interests: Comedy and Global Media Studies

Wesleyan in the News

“You Just Have to Read This…” 3 Books By Wesleyan Authors

“You Just Have to Read This…” 3 Books By Wesleyan Authors

Book by Odede ’12, Posner ’09 Chosen for First Year Matters Program’s Common Reading

Dreier ’08 of ProPublica Wins Pulitzer for Feature Writing

Woodcarver Yorburg ’77 to Speak on Jewish Immigrant Carvers

Wesleyan in the News

“You Just Have to Read This…” 3 Books By Wesleyan Authors