Campus News & Events

Richard Ohmann, Benjamin Waite Professor of the English Language, Emeritus, died Oct. 8 at the age of 90. Ohmann received his BA from Oberlin College and his MA and PhD from Harvard University. He arrived at Wesleyan in 1961 and, until his retirement in 1996, served in many roles and helped to shape the future of Wesleyan. Joel Pfister, Olin Professor of English, sketched Ohmann’s trajectory: “He was promoted rapidly to full professor; was appointed vice president and provost; protested on national TV against the Vietnam War; was elected vice president of the Modern Language Association (MLA) on an antiwar…

Malik Booker '25 isn't the average first-year student. At age 26, the potential computer science and College of East Asian Studies major has already served four years with the U.S. Navy as a petty officer third class officer in San Diego, Calif. and the island of Guam. As a former hull technician, he's a trained welder, pipefitter, and carpenter, and has experience firefighting, repairing boats, maintaining marine plumbing, operating ballast control systems, and inspecting nuclear-level materials. But honing these skills wasn't enough for an ideal post-military career. "I didn't want to be trapped into [working in the] trades forever," Booker…

The grand finale of Jeanine Basinger’s storied career at Wesleyan took place in late September with the naming ceremony in her honor of the new Center for Film Studies. The event, held Sept. 25, celebrated the completion of the third and final phase of the center. The 16,000 square-foot addition includes a state-of-the-art production studio, a cyclorama and green screen, a 50-seat screening room, additional indoor and outdoor classroom spaces, a three-story house dedicated to on-site film shooting, and increased archival research space. Basinger, Corwin-Fuller Emerita Professor of Film Studies and founder of The Ogden and Mary Louise Reid Cinema…

Since 2012, Associate Professor of Spanish Maria Ospina has worked with the Wesleyan Film Board to organize an annual film series titled Contemporary Cinema from the Hispanic World and celebrate Hispanic cultures following Hispanic Heritage Month. The series has run every year since then, except for in 2020 (during the pandemic). This year, the series will occur in the Goldsmith Family Cinema on Thursdays at 8 p.m. from Oct. 7 to Nov. 4, with five recent award-winning films from Latin America and Spain featured in the span of a month. “This film series aims to showcase cultural, social and political…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. A sampling of recent media hits is below: Forbes ranks Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John '99 as the world's most influential CMO. Saint John, who also is a member of Wesleyan's Board of Trustees, took the helm of Netflix’s marketing department last year following her leadership roles at powerhouse brands including Endeavor, Apple and Uber. More than half of the honorees on this year’s list are women and around 20 percent of the list are…

One day, back in 2019, three armed men came to Henry Dilonga Meriki’s house. He knew why they were there—they needed money to keep the fight against the Cameroon government going, or, they'd resort to kidnapping him. Anticipating the worst, Meriki put on warm clothes and shoes that would allow him to walk miles into the bush to their camps. They were separatists, a group of English-speaking fighters who have been battling with the government of Cameroon for over five years. He gave them about $180—down from $1,100 they asked for—to let him go. “We had to negotiate, and it’s better…

A team of researchers at Wesleyan has discovered new strains of bacteria—located on the University's campus—that may have the ability to break down microplastics and aid in the world's ongoing plastic waste crisis. Microplastics, which measure less than .20 of an inch, enter the ecosystem— and our bodies— largely through the abrasion of larger plastic pieces dumped into the environment. According to a study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, the average person consumes at least 50,000 particles of microplastic a year and inhales a similar quantity. "Plastic is typically classified as a non-biodegradable substance. However, some…

Like every other part of the campus community, Wesleyan’s student activity organizations are learning to adapt to the realities of the pandemic. The biggest change for many of those groups is a simple one—having the ability to get back together again. Hundreds of students attended the university’s annual Student Involvement Fair (view photos) in early September, and the excitement was, understandably, quite high. Wesleyan’s wide array of activities are always an opportunity for students to expand their intellectual and cultural horizons. For many, stuck in a pandemic stasis for almost two years, the Involvement Fair is a chance to interact…

As a newly-selected non-resident adjunct fellow for the Washington Research Consortium on Korea, Joan Cho hopes to showcase South Korea’s democratization through a new scholarly book tentatively titled, Dictator’s Modernity Dilemma: Development and Democracy in South Korea, 1961-1987. Cho, assistant professor of East Asian Studies, will participate in the multi-year laboratory research project until 2024 through the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The project, titled “The South Korean Pathway: Understanding the Theoretical and Policy Significance of Korean Democracy and Foreign Policy,” will conduct an in-depth analysis of South Korea’s democracy and foreign policy to fill an important gap in…

The ongoing demolition of the 1954 wing of the Public Affairs Center (PAC) yielded a touch of history on Sept. 17 when crews unearthed a time capsule sealed into the concrete entry slab on the east side of the building. A demolition contractor found a partially damaged copper box that had been encased in concrete. The outside of the box was green and brown with oxidation and dirt, but the inside retained its original bright sheen and color. This particular contractor had seen time capsules on other building projects and knew what he was dealing with. (more…)

Unspun wool. Silver-spray painted stones. A worn leather suit. Sketches from an iPad. A video of children studying. Each object offers its own narrative. Set again the viewers’ assumptions and impressions, a whole new set of meanings are created. A new art exhibition titled "The Language in Common," curated by Benjamin Chaffee, associate director of visual arts, attempts to offer more questions than answers. The exhibition, featuring installation, sculpture, video, sound, drawing, poetry and performance, brings together five international and intergenerational artists, including Cecilia Vicuña, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Julien Creuzet, Jasper Marsalis, and Alice Notley. It opened to the public…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. A sampling of recent media hits is below: Kari Weil, University Professor of Letters, authors a commentary titled "How to read your dog's mind" in Salon. "For the early 20th-century biologist/ethologist Jacob von Uexküll, the fact that all animals (humans included) have the capacity to be affected by things in their particular environment or world and to respond to them, is evidence that they (like humans) are subjects of their worlds and not merely objects…

Ohmann Remembered For Transforming University Life and Culture

Posse Veteran Scholars Program Bring Diverse Backgrounds to Campus

Basinger Celebrated at Center for Film Studies (with Photos)

Hispanic Heritage Month Celebrated with Contemporary Cinema Series

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan Participates in Efforts to Protect Visiting Scholars

Student Researchers Discover Potential “Plastic-Eating” Bacteria on Campus

Student Activity Groups Excited to Get Back to Normal

Cho to Join Washington Research Consortium on Korea

67-Year-Old Time Capsule Discovered during PAC Renovation

“The Language in Common” on Exhibit in Zilkha Gallery

Wesleyan in the News