Campus News & Events

As students settle into a fully-residential fall semester with more than 95 percent of the student body vaccinated for COVID-19, the University continues to mandate the wearing of masks inside all university buildings. Wearing masks outdoors is optional. "Because of your hard work and diligence thus far, we have taken important steps towards creating a healthy campus environment," said Wesleyan Medical Director Dr. Tom McLarney in a recent campus-wide health update. "We will continue to monitor our situation and adjust accordingly." View the latest updates and campus guidelines on Wesleyan's Keep Wes Safe website. Photos of student activities during the…

This fall, Wesleyan welcomes 43 new faculty to campus of which 24 are ongoing members of the campus community. Fourteen are tenure-track, eight are professors of the practice, two are adjunct, and 19 are visiting (read about the new visiting faculty in this story). In addition, two new members of the Wesleyan faculty are graduates of Wesleyan. Wesleyan's new scholar-teachers bring diverse skills, passions, and research interests to the university including Indian sectarian violence, costume design, animal behavior and neurophysiology, Japanese pedagogy, post-structural semiotics, structural inequalities in education, digital media analysis, and more. Bios of the new, ongoing faculty are…

The first time Ethan Kleinberg, the Class of 1958 Distinguished Professor of History and Letters, immersed himself in the world of the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas 20 years ago, he wrote a book. “It was written as a traditional intellectual history and I found that what that I had done was to completely deactivate the aspects of Levinas’ thought where he believes that there are ethical guidelines that come to us from outside our own history, these transcendent ethical guidelines puncture any historical or contextual moment,” Kleinberg said. He didn’t like what he’d written, so he took an unprecedented step—he…

Nineteen visiting faculty, including fellows, scholars, and postdoctoral researchers, join Wesleyan for the 2021-22 academic year. Their academic interests include high altitude ecosystems, Muslim political masculinities, Indigenous cultural studies, epidemiology and public health, 20th-century continental philosophy, pharmacoengineering, social media's effects on adolescent development, and more. Their bios are below: Alisha Butler, Provost Equity Fellow in the College of Education Studies, is a mixed-methods researcher whose work draws on interdisciplinary perspectives to interrogate the overlapping ecologies of schools, neighborhoods, and cities that shape students’ and families’ experiences in schools. This work includes studies of school-family and school-community partnerships. Her dissertation leveraged…

Rob Borman, Wesleyan’s grounds manager, watched as Wesleyan and Emerson’s soccer teams went through warmups on a beautiful late summer day. It was warm and the sun shined as the players went through passing drills and stretched on the perfect turf. Emerson’s players shouted through their drills. Wesleyan’s goalies bounded from side to side as they practiced knocking away shots on goal. Borman, though, wasn’t looking at the players. He was checking out his brand-new field, installed in May. “That is 100 percent Kentucky bluegrass,” he said. “The ball should roll awesome.” For the first time in two years, Jackson…

Richard Bennet Morales '24 is what you'd call a "third culture kid." By definition, the term refers to a child who grows up in a culture different from the one in which his or her parents grew up. And Bennet Morales fits the description. Born in Puerto Rico to Spanish and American parents, he moved to Paris at the age of 3, and to Barcelona 11 years later. After graduating from a French-speaking high school, he resided in Madrid, briefly, with his family. And now, he's among 392 international students studying at Wesleyan this fall. "I was really interested in…

Wesleyan President Michael Roth '78 participated in a Newsweek podcast debate titled "Is Higher Education Broken?" "I think the idea that only rich people should be able to experience the benefits of learning—whether that's about math and science, or whether it's about literature and philosophy—that's a huge mistake. (Aug. 31) President Roth also wrote a book review of Allan V. Horowitz's A History of Psychiatry's Bible for The Washington Post. "In this history ... Horwitz emphasizes the social construction of scientific concepts. This account underscores the economic incentives in play as psychiatrists tried to reach consensus on how to describe…

Wet weather couldn’t dampen the feelings of excitement, anticipation and, above all, hope that abounded on Wesleyan University’s new student Arrival Day. Over 900 students in the Class of 2025 - the second largest in Wesleyan’s history - as well as transfer students and students who deferred admission, moved in Wednesday morning. Many of this diverse group of young people from across the country and the globe navigated their entire application process through the complications of a global pandemic, demonstrating resilience in addition to intellectual and social acumen. On this rainy morning, harnessing and shaping all of that nascent energy…

After an unusual 18 months of hybrid teaching, working remotely, and navigating university life during a pandemic, Wesleyan's faculty and staff are eager for some normalcy this fall. In this News @ Wesleyan piece, we speak to several employees about what they are most looking forward to during the fall 2021 semester. Morgan Keller became director of international student affairs on Aug. 23 after stints at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of California-Santa Cruz, and Clemson University. He learned of Wesleyan through his cousin, Adam Keller '14, who spoke favorably of the university during his time here as a film…

Edward Torres, an assistant professor of the practice in theater, can’t help but be moved when he performs the words of L.D. Barkley, a prisoner who played an important role during the 1971 Attica Prison riot, raising morale for incarcerated men protesting their mistreatment. “We are men! We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such,” Barkley said in 1971 shortly before he was killed by police. For Torres, the most devastating part of performing the new play Echoes of Attica is to know that every word is real. “This is a piece…

This October, Wesleyan will present a multidisciplinary dance project titled “WesWorks” that transforms the ordinary, mundane, and skillful movements of facilities and custodial employees into a performance accompanied by live, original music and stories told in the workers’ voices. Led by Allison Orr, the choreographer and artistic director of Forklift Danceworks, a distinguished fellow in the College of Environment, "WesWorks" will teach students techniques of community art practice through performance. In these Q&As, we speak with Forklift Danceworks employees and Wesleyan alumnae Gretchen LaMotte '18 (click to read), choreographer and programs manager and Penny Snyder '16 (click to read), communications manager…

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: The Wall Street Journal features Fidelity Investments' Joel Tillinghast '80 regarding the meme-stock craze. "Mr. Tillinghast’s tastes in stocks are eclectic. His main mutual fund holds more than 900 names, and some 34% of his assets are in international stocks. His largest concentration is in retailers and consumer-goods stocks beaten down by expectations that e-commerce would crush bricks-and-mortar stores." (Aug. 4) On CNBC, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott…

Students Continue to Wear Masks Indoors, Keep Wes Safe

New, Ongoing Faculty are Experts on Japanese Pedagogy, Costume Design, Immersive Media

Kleinberg Authors New Book on Levinas’ Cultural Legacy

New Visiting Faculty Bring Vast Academic Interests from High Altitude Ecosystems to Pharmacoengineering

Student-Athletes Return to Regular Play Following 2-Year Hiatus

New International Students Hail from 26 Countries

Wesleyan in the News

New Students Arrive at Wesleyan Full of Hope (with Video, Photos)

Faculty, Staff Prepare for a New Semester at Wesleyan

New Play Revisits 1971 Attica Prison Riot

Alumni Share Experiences with Forklift Danceworks; Prepare for ‘WesWorks’

Wesleyan in the News