Olivia DrakeJanuary 17, 20162min
All of the following women were Jones Award winners—women who represent the very best of Wesleyan athletics. Here are a few of their stories: At Wesleyan, Christina Fedolfi ’90 (soccer) played soccer for four seasons, basketball for one season, and rugby for two seasons. "During these seasons, I made my lifelong friends- women who were dedicated, smart and fun. Athletics always provided structure to my college life- I knew I had to carve out time for my academics once practice and games were over. Playing sports made me a better student. I had my sports time and my academics time. I am trying…

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Laurie KenneyJanuary 14, 20163min
The latest book by Michael Fossel '73, The Telomerase Revolution: The Enzyme That Holds the Key to Human Aging . . . and Will Soon Lead to Longer, Healthier Lives, published by BenBella Books, was recently selected as one of the Best Books for Science Lovers in 2015 by the Wall Street Journal. Fossel has been writing about the telomerase theory of aging for 20 years and is considered the foremost expert on the clinical use of telomerase for age-related diseases. “As a doctor, my emphasis has always been on clinical results,” says Fossel in his introduction. “Understanding the nature of aging…

Cynthia RockwellJanuary 14, 20162min
Artist Ian Boyden ’95 presented a TEDx talk in September 2015 on his concept of “‘eradicate the self’ self-portraiture.” He expands our understanding of “self” beyond a single individual to include the environment. “Several years ago I was sitting around a bonfire with a bunch of artists and we were talking about self-portraiture when I rashly dismissed it as some sort of narcissistic folly,” he recalled in the talk. “I woke up later that night, sweating, wondering what on earth was I, a person who’d never made a self portrait, even talking about? “Of course, therein lay this challenge: to make…

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Olivia DrakeJanuary 12, 20164min
Recognize the Wesleyan faculty who had an enduring impact on your academic and personal development by nominating them for the 2016 Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Nominations are now open! The Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching was inaugurated in 1993 as an institutional recognition of outstanding faculty members. One to three Binswanger Prizes are presented each year and are made possible by the generosity of the family of Frank G. Binswanger Sr., Hon. ’85. Recent alumni up to 10 years out, seniors, juniors, and graduate students (including Graduate Liberal Studies) can nominate up to three professors for the award. Current faculty…

Cynthia RockwellDecember 11, 20154min
New York rapper and music producer Khalif Daoud ’11, known professionally as Le1f, was one of the musicians polled by WBUR-Boston and NPR’s Here & Now with the question “What is American music?” “Growing up, the idea of ‘Americana’ as a word was intimidating to me,” he told hosts Robin Young and Jeremy Hobson. “The patriotism behind it, and the American dream, I always related that to whiteness and I didn’t easily see how I fit into that category, that culture. But I came to understand that blues and jazz and rock and roll, and all these other genres, that’s…

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Laurie KenneyDecember 11, 20151min
Every year we review dozens of books and publish several author essays, and a book excerpt or two, by Wesleyan alumni in the pages of Wesleyan magazine. With the holidays upon us, 'tis the season to take another look at just a handful of the many selections made by Wesleyan magazine Arts and Culture Editor David Low this year. Happy reading! (more…)

David LowDecember 10, 20154min
Readers who are fans of urban history and planning or have a particular interest in New York should find City on a Grid: How New York Became New York (Da Capo) by Gerard Koeppel ’79 a fascinating read. Koeppel shares the story behind the Manhattan street grid, created in 1811 by a three-man commission featuring headstrong Founding Father Gouverneur Morris; the plan called for a dozen parallel avenues crossing at right angles with many dozens of parallel streets in an unbroken grid. When the grid plan was announced, New York was just under 200 years old, an overgrown town and…

Olivia DrakeDecember 9, 20154min
Tom Goodman’s (’69) career in photography has spanned many different mediums. From being a full-time photographer, an instructor, to operating an agency, Goodman has always been fascinated by the art of photography. After graduating Wesleyan with an honors degree in art, he went on to earn his MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico, which was the catalyst that launched his career. In 1975 he was hired by the University of Texas at San Antonio to develop the photography program. Three years later he moved to Philadelphia to teach at the University of the Arts (then the Philadelphia College…

David LowDecember 9, 20154min
In 2010, James Kaplan ’73 had a national bestseller with Frank: The Voice, an acclaimed biography which told the story of singer Frank Sinatra's meteoric rise to fame, subsequent failures, and reinvention as a star of live performances and screen. In his new book, Sinatra: The Chairman (Doubleday), Kaplan continues the singer’s story, starting with the day after Sinatra claimed his Academy Award for From Here to Eternity in 1954 and had reestablished himself as a top recording artist. After winning the Oscar, he was extremely busy with recording albums and singles, shooting several movies a year, and appearing on TV…

David LowDecember 9, 20153min
In his recently released debut film Mediterranea (IFC Films), director and writer Jonas Carpignano ’06 focuses on two friends from West Africa’s Burkina Faso (played by non-professional actors Koudous Seihon and Alassane Sy) who take a hazardous journey to Calabria, Italy, across the Mediterranean Sea, hoping to better their economic fortunes. Carpignano recently received two awards for his work: the Independent Film Project’s Gotham Award for Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director and the Best Directorial Debut Award from the National Board of Review. In his New York Times review of the film, Stephen Holden writes that Carpignano “has adopted a low-key neorealist…

Cynthia RockwellDecember 6, 20152min
Tricia Homer ’03 was selected as one of "40 under 40" by Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund. The co-founder of HGVenture, a management consulting firm that specializing in nonprofit capacity building and leadership development, she also is chairperson of the College Park Community Foundation Board of Directors, which supports local nonprofits in capacity building. Additionally, she is cochair of the City of College Park Education Advisory Board and is the assistant director of the Office of Community Engagement at the University of Maryland. To recognize her contributions to the lives of multi-ethnic students at the University of Maryland, last…