Obama’s “Auto Czar” Rob Bloom ’77 to Speak on Campus April 8

The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life welcomes "auto czar" Ron Bloom '77 to campus April 8. Bloom will speak on "We almost lost Detroit: A hopeful tale about cars, crises, cities and America," at 7:30 p.m. in PAC 001. After graduating from Wesleyan with a BA in history in 1977, Bloom received an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1985. After working as the assistant to the president for United Steelworkers, Bloom was appointed by President Obama be the senior advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the President’s Task Force on…

Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, and Jeremy Arnold ’91 will hold a public talk on "Films and Facts: Whose Responsibility?" at 12:30 p.m. March 27 at the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Classic Film Festival. The schedule of the film festival can be found here. Hollywood's alleged disregard for the facts of history is year after year the subject of heated media debate. From the early days of the silent era to this year's Oscar race, charges of historical inaccuracy have fueled great conversations about factual reproduction, creative license, propaganda and audience responsibility. Jeanine Basinger and Jeremy Arnold will continue the tradition by discussing the fascinating question…

Stephen Devoto, professor of neuroscience and behavior; Rosemary Doris, visiting assistant professor of biology; Ph.D. candidate Steffie Windner; and neuroscience and behavior major Chantal Ferguson ’13 are the co-authors of a paper that is the culmination of three years of research. The paper, titled "Tbx6, Mesp-b and Ripply1 Regulate the Onset of Skeletal Myogenesis in Zebrafish" is published in the March 2015 edition of Development, Vol. 142, No. 6, pages 1,159-1,168. The paper is a collaboration between Wesleyan, Kings College London and the National Institute for Medical Research (MRC). Devoto highlights the importance of the paper: The paper identifies three new regulators of muscle development,…

Laura Kurash ’13, a chemistry and Hispanic literature and culture major at Wesleyan—as well as women’s soccer standout with NESCAC Player of the Year honors—was highlighted in a “Meet a Wesleyan Student” video as an undergraduate. Now a second-year medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Kurash responded to a request for an update—what she enjoys now, what she misses from the Wes campus, assessing new academic rigors, and the ways that Wesleyan prepared her for these challenges: “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss Wes soccer almost every day,” Kurash said, although, ever positive,…

The Board of Trustees and volunteer leaders attended a reception Feb. 27 in the Career Center. About 100 alumni, students, faculty, staff and other guests participated in the event. (Photos by John Van Vlack) (more…)

Phil Resor, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, and Gus Seixas '10 are co-authors of "Constraints on the evolution of vertical deformation and Colorado River incision near eastern Lake Mead, Arizona, provided by quantitative structural mapping of the Hualapai Limestone," published in the February 2015 issue of Geosphere, Vol. 11, pages 31-49. The paper includes research from Seixas's honors thesis at Wesleyan. In this study, the authors quantify the structural geometry of Hualapai Limestone, which was deposited in a series of basins that lie in the path of the Colorado River. The limestone was deformed by by a fault pair…

On Feb. 6, recent Wesleyan graduates returned to campus and shared their experiences in finance. The conference, titled "Finance — Theory and Applications: A Conversation with Alumni," covered mergers and acquisitions, value investing, trading and case study analysis. Attendees also had an opportunity to ask questions. Anand Gopalan ’09, James Hounsell ’11 and Eugene Wong ’09, all of whom have relevant experience in the field of finance, spoke at the event. Joyce Jacobsen, professor of economics, also gave remarks at the conference. The event was hosted by Abigail Hornstein, associate professor of economics, with support from the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life…

Michael Whalen '83, who returned to his alma mater as head football coach and associate athletics director in 2010, has stepped down as head football coach, effective Feb. 1, to devote his full attention to his post as athletics director. He assumed that position in July 2012. Dan DiCenzo, who has been associate head football coach and defensive coordinator at Wesleyan the last five years, is taking over the head coaching position, succeeding Whalen. “Coach Whalen has dramatically improved Wesleyan’s football program,” said Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth, “and I am grateful for his remarkable service as coach. Now it’s…

Wesleyan will honor three remarkable leaders in their fields with honorary degrees at the university’s 183rd Commencement on May 24, 2015. Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, an award-winning composer, lyricist, writer and actor, will present the Commencement Address. Wesleyan also will award honorary degrees to Beverly Daniel Tatum ’75, president of Spelman College and an expert in race relations and higher education, and Michael Price, the longtime executive director of Goodspeed Musicals. Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02 Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Tony and Grammy-winning composer-lyricist of Broadway's In the Heights, which received four 2008 Tony Awards, with Miranda receiving a Tony Award for Best…

Ron Jenkins ’64, professor of theater, published a review of Lempad of Bali: The Illuminating Line in the Jan. 19 edition of the Jakarta Post. Jenkins had high praise for the book, which contains pictures of the works of Balinese architect and artist I Gusti Nyoman Lempad. Jenkins wrote, "the aptly titled volume illuminates not only the exquisite lines of Lempad’s artwork, but also the intangible elements of Balinese identity that those lines represent." In addition to describing some of the noted works, Jenkins also commended the depth and insightfulness of the essays that accompanied each work. The essays were written by a team of…

Writing at Wesleyan announces the Spring 2015 Russell House Series on Prose and Poetry. Writer/authors in the Spring 2015 series include Ron Padgett on Feb. 25, Millett Fellow Caryl Phillips on March 4, Sadia Shepard on March 25, Rowan Ricardo Phillips on April 1 and Ruth Ozeki on April 8. All events are free and open to the public. For more information on these talks visit the Writing at Wesleyan website. Support for this series is provided by Writing at Wesleyan, the English Department, the Annie Sonnenblick Fund, the Joan Jakobson Fund, the Jacob Julien Fund, the Millett Writing Fellow Fund,…

A chapter titled "Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)" by Charles Sanislow, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, was published in the Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology in January. Kevin Quinn of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Isaiah Sypher ’13 co-authored the chapter. Sypher worked in Sanislow’s lab at Wesleyan and then went on to a research position at the NIMH Intramural Program in Affective Neuroscience. He is currently in the process of applying to clinical science programs in psychology. Sanislow and Quinn are both charter members of the NIMH Working Group for the RDoC, a project that is developing…

Obama’s “Auto Czar” Rob Bloom ’77 to Speak on Campus April 8

Basinger, Arnold ’91 Talk About Classic Movies on TCM

Faculty, Students, Alumna Co-Author Paper on Skeletal Myogenesis in Zebrafish

Kurash ’13: Update from Medical School

Board of Trustees, Volunteers Mingle at Reception

Resor, Seixas ’10 Co-Author Paper on Structural Mapping of Hualapai Limestone

Alumni Return to Wesleyan to Share Their Experiences in Finance

Whalen ’83 to Devote Full Attention to Athletic Director Position; DiCenzo Becomes Head Football Coach

Miranda ’02, Tatum ’75, Price to be Honorary Degree Recipients at Wesleyan’s 183rd Commencement

Jenkins Reviews Book on Famed Artist Lempad in Jakarta Post

Writing at Wesleyan Announces Spring Series on Prose and Poetry

Sanislow, Sypher ’13 Published in Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology