Arts & Humanities

Three Wesleyan professors—Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, Associate Professor of Government Logan Dancey, and Assistant Professor of Government Justin Peck—made sense of this year’s election results and the potential path forward during a talk, “The 2024 Election: What Happened and What’s Next?” on Nov. 7. Fowler, co-director the Wesleyan Media Project, said that there would be careful analysis of the year’s election once all the votes are fully counted. Fowler also cautioned against reading too much into the results or focusing on identity politics until those analyses are completed. She said that many political scientists were able to predict…

To hear Nicholas Whittaker tell it, horror movies are greater than the sum of their terrifying, putrid parts. “[Horror] allows us to sit in that feeling that the world is something you could never fully understand—and that’s also the place where philosophy is born,” says Whittaker, assistant professor of philosophy. “Philosophy happens when you recognize that your ways of making sense of the world—whether with science, with history, with psychology—aren’t cutting it anymore. When it feels like there’s an excess of unintelligibility in the world, that’s [also] where horror thrives.” This semester, Whittaker is digging beneath the gore and the…

Images of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 are still shocking. What had historically been a ceremonial procedure turned riotous and deadly. The peaceful transfer of power between administrations was a point of national pride taught in history books, but today it is mired in uncertainty. Robert Cassidy, assistant professor of the practice in government, gathered four scholars with different perspectives on what may happen this election cycle at a panel on Oct. 17. Logan Dancey, associate professor of government, offered insight into political developments and election reforms passed since the 2020 election. David Aaron ’95, visiting professor of…

What do Christian, Jewish, and Hindu Americans have in common? They all have someone representing their faith on the national political stage in the 2024 presidential campaign. That intersection of religion and politics was the focus of a talk, “The Fluidity of American Faith: Real Talk about Religion and the 2024 Presidential Race,” by investigative journalist and author Sarah Posner ’86 on Oct. 17 at the Frank Center for Public Affairs. In introducing Posner, Department of Religion Chair Andrew Quintman said, “religion informs our understanding of so many aspects of our human life and that's especially true of our current…

“What is Political About Art?” was the question posed at the Theater Department’s fall Talk It Out and Long Table conversation on October 10. The event was organized by Assistant Professor of Theater Katie Pearl, Associate Professor of Theater and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Katie Brewer Ball, and included the student cast of Of Government in the Theater Studios. Pearl will be directing four performances of Agnes Borinsky’s play Of Government in the CFA Theater Nov. 7 to Nov. 9. The work deals with the connected processes of making theater and making society. “Every time we do a play, we…

Guns are a pervasive, complex feature of modern life. All too often, however, the debate over firearms is reduced to simple, adversarial shouting matches. “If we just think of [the subject of guns] as a tug of war between two groups, that reinforces artificial binarism and both-sides-ism,” says Jennifer Tucker, professor of History and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society. On Oct. 18 and 19, Wesleyan’s Center for the Study of Guns and Society (CSGS) will foster a broad, nuanced, and multidisciplinary discussion — encompassing both historical and contemporary perspectives on guns and…

On October 2, Saidiya Hartman ’83, Hon. ’19 joined Kaneza Schaal ’06 in a conversation about their collaborative process of creating the new performance work Litany for Grieving Sisters. Moderated by Kiara Benn ’20, the event was hosted by Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts and convened in the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. Based on Hartman’s essay of the same name, which was originally published in the journal Representations in 2022, the work explores themes of collective grief, love, and resilience. The three Wesleyan alumnae discussed the evolution of the project as they collaborate in a democratic process…

The Wesleyan Javanese Gamelan Ensemble and guest artists, including Indonesian vocalist Peni Candra Rini, will perform a free retrospective concert of compositions by University Professor of Music I.M. Harjito on Friday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. in Crowell Concert Hall. They will perform under the direction of the composer and Sumarsam MA ’76, Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music. Since 1983, Wesleyan has owned a set of gamelan instruments from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a donation to the University from Louise Ansberry. The use of some of the instruments in the gamelan date back to the 12th century. Today, the magnificent orchestra includes colorful…

Computer-generated characters and animations have long been a part of film and promotional productions like music videos and commercials. Motion capture, a technology that records the movement of people or objects, is used widely in the entertainment industry to bring characters to life. Now Wesleyan has a space outfitted with this technology at the Digital Design Commons, which officially opened on Sept. 27 at an event with student performances and a visual effects demonstration. The Digital Design Commons (DDC) now offers students an OptiTrack motion capture studio, complete with a dozen 3-D motion capture cameras, that can accurately track movement…

Last year, 12 dynamic critics appeared at Wesleyan for a year-long speaker series through the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. The wildly successful series will return this academic year, this time with an array of editors across the creative landscape. The critics series was meant to highlight different aspects of how literature is produced and consumed, whereas this year’s series aims to show students how the objects of this criticism are made, said Merve Emre, Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Literature and Criticism and director of the Shapiro Center. The Center’s mission is to teach students at Wesleyan how the…

Patricia Beaman didn’t always know that she could be successful as a professional dancer. But after four decades, she’s made her mark reviving a lesser-known form of art: French Baroque dance. A University Professor of Dance at Wesleyan, Beaman has made a name for herself in the Baroque dance world, specializing in French dances from that era, which spans the years 1600 to 1750. In addition to dancing professionally for 40 years, she has also been teaching dance for more than three decades. “It's nice to have that balance,” Beaman says of working in academia and on creative projects. Commuting…

Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts (CFA) opens the 2024-25 season with a wide range of special exhibitions and performances that encourage interactions and exchanges between visiting artists and the campus community. The CFA’s season also features artists in residence who integrate themselves into campus life as they incubate new work. CFA Director Joshua Lubin-Levy ‘06 and his curatorial team create opportunities for audiences to explore the way art can build new points of connection between otherwise discrete aspects of life and learning. “I invite students, faculty, and visitors to consider the CFA as more than a space, but rather…

Wesleyan Faculty on Election Results, Path Forward

The Gory Details: Nicholas Whittaker on Philosophy and Black Horror Cinema

Peaceful Transfer of Power? Scholars Discuss the Possibilities

Alumni Author Talk on Religion and the Presidential Race

Students, Faculty Explore Intersection of Art and Politics

Center for the Study of Guns and Society to Host Annual Fall Conference

Democracy in Action: Three Alumnae Discuss Collaboration on New Performance Work

Javanese Gamelan Ensemble to premiere works by I.M. Harjito

New Motion Capture Studio Opens at Digital Design Commons

Visionary Editors to Speak at Shapiro Center Series

Faculty Member Revives French Baroque Dance Style in New Choreography

Center for the Arts ’24-’25 Season Examines Art as a Way of Knowing the World