Arts & Humanities

Since the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, legal scholars, political pundits, professors of history, and others have debated whether the United States has taken a turn from democracy toward fascism. Some say it has. Others argue it has not. The very uncertainty about what has or has not happened gave rise to Assistant Professor of History Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins’ new book, “Did it Happen Here? Perspectives on Fascism and America.” It’s an anthology of texts from thought leaders from certain periods in the 20th and 21st centuries who take positions on the state of fascism in America. Many of the…

By Anya Kisicki ’22 Dante, dinosaurs, and geopolitics mingled at the opening of Assistant Professor of Art Tammy Nguyen’s newest art exhibition, A Comedy for Mortals: Purgatorio, at the Lehmann Maupin’s London gallery on March 12. Nguyen, a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in fine arts, masterfully weaves disparate concepts together to create a new world of meaning that plays out on massive canvases, works on paper, and the intricate pages of her artbooks. A Comedy for Mortals is the second installment in an ongoing trilogy of exhibitions by Nguyen. Each iteration of A Comedy for Mortals maps geopolitical themes onto Dante’s…

Donald Berman ’84 tried not to be musician, but couldn't help himself. “I think that's the only reason to do it,” Berman said of becoming a musician. “It's because you can’t not do it.” Berman studied Music at Wesleyan, and has gone on to work as a pianist, teacher, and scholar, adding over 200 commissioned musical works to the contemporary canon. Nearly 40 years after he finished his undergraduate studies, Berman will return to campus on April 5 at 8 p.m. to perform a solo piano program. In the concert, Berman will pair two works by composer Charles Ives in…

Loren Yuehan Wang ’25 is one of four student-curators whose projects about the history of student artistic practice at Wesleyan, “SUM OF ITS PARTS,” are on display in the Class of 1928 Vitrines, located on the first floor of the Library through April 21. And Wang’s mixed media artwork is on display in the exhibition "Exploding and Netting: A Somatic Archive of Transpacific Movement" in the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center through May 25. “These two feel quite connected,” Wang said of their work in the two archives. “It’s a new possibility for the future.”…

Wesleyan’s open curriculum lets students forge their own paths to the lives and careers they want, whether through continuing education or direct employment following graduation. A plethora of on-campus resources and a wide-ranging alumni network are available to students seeking their desired careers. “The world and the workplace are changing at a faster pace than any specific form of preparation will get you ready for,” Dean of Arts and humanities Roger Grant said after Humanities in Action Week, Feb. 12 to 16. “Instead, I’d encourage you to dig deep, find out what speaks to you, and devote your time to…

On Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, the Forum of the Frank Center for Public Affairs buzzed with discourse on higher education, civic engagement, and art as students, alumni, parents, and community members gathered for the second day of the Democracy in Action convening, sponsored by the Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns. Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies Tracy Heather Strain led a session titled “Art and Activism” where she discussed the impact of Black mentorship on her journey as a filmmaker, the importance of mentors for all artists, and activism through art. “Sometimes activism for Black artists is just practicing one’s art…

Wesleyan University will open a new art venue in the center of campus, built to highlight the Davison Art Collection, on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Two exhibitions will showcase works from the collection for the first time in over four years. The Pruzan Art Center, located at 238 Church Street in Middletown, between Wesleyan’s Olin Memorial Library and the Frank Center for Public Affairs, will be open Monday through Friday from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 4:30 p.m “We have been waiting for this moment for a long…

The Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism launched a podcast in partnership with the New York Review of Books and Literary Hub called “The Critic and Her Publics.” The podcast gives the public access to a series of talks between Merve Emre, Shapiro-Silverberg University Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism and director of the Shapiro Writing Center, and a lineup of writers from major publications. New episodes debut every Tuesday, starting Jan. 30, with guest Andrea Long Chu. Six episodes were recorded in the fall and six more will be recorded this semester as the Shapiro Center continues its…

The 50th-anniversary exhibition in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, “Always Being Relation: 50 Years of the Gallery at the CFA”, which will feature the works of more than 30 artists, will be on display at the Center for the Arts (CFA) from January 30 through March 3. With this exhibition, Associate Director of Visual Arts Benjamin Chaffee ’00, and Exhibitions Manager Rosemary Lennox have pushed the boundaries of the usual “alumni” show format, putting in dialogue work by artists who studied at Wesleyan University with artists who have exhibited their work in the gallery since its opening in the…

Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts (CFA) continues the celebration of its 50th birthday with a spring semester, featuring an anniversary exhibition and live performances by alumni, plus staged readings and workshops on campus. Director Joshua Lubin-Levy ’06 said that he and his staff are spending time rethinking the legacy of artists who have touched the spaces since the buildings opened in the fall of 1973, the impacts they’ve had, and how it all might guide the choices they will make for the CFA. “From an alumni exhibition in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery that rethinks the very concept…

Assistant Professor of Education Studies Alisha Butler will launch a new study exploring the ways that families and young people can (and don’t) influence school and citywide education-related decision-making processes. “How is it that non-system policy actors are attempting to include the decisions that affect what happens day-to-day in school?” Butler said. Butler’s study, a collaborative effort with Kristin Sinclair, Assistant Teaching Professor of Education Advocacy and Policy in the Education Transformation Program at Georgetown University, is funded through a Spencer Foundation Small Grant, a program that supports “rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the…

Wesleyan’s faculty has been hard-at-work in 2023 sharing their scholarship with the world. Here are some of the books written by Wesleyan’s faculty over the past year. Homesick Blues: Politics, Protest, and Musical Storytelling in Modern Japan by Scott Aalgaard Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies Scott Aalgaard explores how people in Japan have used “musical storytelling” as a means of expressing themselves in their everyday life and as a political practice from the late 1940s to 2018. Within the book, he challenges assertions that political upheavals in the 1960s and 70s in Japan were the climax and end of…

Did It Happen Here?

Wesleyan Professor’s Art on Display in London Gallery

Berman ’84 to premiere new work for piano at Wesleyan on April 5

Art Comes to Life through Student Partnership with the Center for the Arts

Students Engage with Career Possibilities During Humanities in Action Week

Strain Praises Mentorship at Art and Activism Panel

New Pruzan Art Center to Showcase Two Exhibitions from Davison Art Collection

Shapiro Writing Center Launches Podcast

CFA Exhibit Celebrates 50 Years of History

Center for the Arts Continues 50th Birthday Celebration

Grant to Fund Study on School Decision Making Processes

Wesleyan Faculty Publications 2023