Olivia DrakeOn Dec. 8, Wesleyan received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and two grants from National Endowment for the Humanities. The grants will support a poetry program at Wesleyan University Press, a faculty fellowship, and electronic dance and theater publications. The NEA provided an Art Works award of $25,000 to Wesleyan University Press to support its poetry program. The Art Works category of the NEA supports the creation and presentation of both new and existing work — a goal that aligns with the mission of the Wesleyan University Press, a program that has already published an internationally renowned…
Laurie KenneyFifteen seniors were inducted to the university's Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa during a ceremony on Dec. 2. (more…)
Hannah Norman '16Arpita Vora ’16 clicks through a website that seeks to raise awareness about the hardships faced by low-income families in North Carolina. Middlesex United Way, the organization at which Vora was placed through the Center for Community Partnerships’ yearlong pilot Nonprofit Board Residency Program, is hoping to create a similar site using data from Connecticut. (more…)
Lauren RubensteinFour Wesleyan undergraduates and a faculty member received awards in the latest call for proposals from NASA's Connecticut Space Grant Consortium. Astronomy major Rachel Aronow '17 was awarded an Undergraduate Research Fellowship in the amount of $5,000 for her project, "Planet Formation and Stellar Characteristics in Tatooine-like Systems." She is working with Bill Herbst, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, studying Tatooine-like systems (named after the fabled home system of Luke Skywalker), which are planet-forming disks that surround a close pair of stars that are in orbit around each other. Aronow conducted research with Herbst last summer, and these funds will support further…
#THISISWHY The Wesleyan community joined together in an amazing show of support for students on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 1, raising more than $1 million. “I was awestruck by the generosity of the Wesleyan community,” said Wesleyan President Michael Roth. “We set an ambitious goal, and the Wesleyans blew right through it!” (more…)
Two evenings of theater will be presented by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures this month. Both events are free and open to the public and will take place at the department's common room at 300 High Street in Middletown, Conn. Students from French 281 and Theater 291 will present three plays in French on Dec. 9 at 6 p.m.: "Tu honoreras ton père et ta mère" or “You Will Honor Your Father and Mother," by Samira Sedira; "Ah! La belle vie" or “Oh! The Good Life," by Anne Giafferi; and “First Lady,” by Sedef Ecer. A reception will follow. The…
In this issue of News@Wesleyan, we speak with Assistant Professor of Mathematics Felipe Ramírez, who joined the Wesleyan faculty this fall. (more…)
Wesleyan Earth and Environmental Sciences students and faculty attended and contributed to this year’s Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting, held Nov. 1–4 in Baltimore, Md. (more…)
Jelle Zelinga de Boer, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, emeritus, was selected by the Geological Society of Connecticut (GSC) as the recipient of its 2015 Joe Webb Peoples Award, in recognition of de Boer's many contributions to the understanding of the geology of Connecticut. (more…)
With $7,000 additional dollars still needed to reach its goal, WESU 88.1 FM is continuing its annual Fall Pledge Drive. Listener contributions will allow the station to continue to offer its unique blend of programming, including The Moondog Matinee, playing “oldies” every Saturday morning for nearly 40 years, as well as to support locally produced public affairs shows like Think Twice Radio, a Connecticut “watchdog” media show, and new music shows like Black Music Matters. (more…)
The world is currently facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Concerned Wesleyan students are volunteering with community organizations, coordinating various speaker panels, fundraising for international NGOs and agencies, and engaging in advocacy efforts. This fall, Casey Smith ’17 and Cole Phillips ’16 founded the Wesleyan Refugee Project (WRP). Smith, a College of Social Studies major who is pursuing certificates in Middle Eastern studies and international relations, has worked with refugees since high school, advocated for refugees’ rights in Washington, D.C., and volunteered for refugee resettlement organizations. She is currently studying abroad in Jordan, where she helps refugees access…
On Nov. 17, several members of the Wesleyan community participated in the Conference for College and University Chaplaincy at Hartford Seminary. Protestant Chaplain Tracy Mehr-Muska, who is a doctor of ministry student at the seminary, worked with Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program Scott Thumma to organize the conference. Other participants from Wesleyan included Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and Jewish Chaplain David Leipziger Teva, Therapist/Sexual Assault Resource Coordinator Alysha Warren, and a student. Teva participated in a workshop on mindfulness, while Warren and the student participated in a workshop about responding to sexual assault on college campuses. More than 80 chaplains from…