Campus News & Events

On April 21, Dione Longley '82 spoke about her new book, Heroes for All Time: Connecticut Civil War Soldiers Tell Their Stories, co-authored by Buck Zaidel (Wesleyan University Press), in the Davison Rare Book Room at Olin Memorial Library as part of the 2015 Friends of the Wesleyan Library Annual Meeting Talk. The book uses soldiers’ letters and diaries, and written accounts by nurses, doctors, soldiers’ families, and volunteers on the home front to vividly portray the war. Hundreds of period photographs (most, previously unpublished) add to the narrative. Longley was director of the Middlesex County Historical Society in Middletown for 20 years. Now a…

On April 28, Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, spoke on a panel at the CUNY Graduate Center on Nobel Prize–winner Günter Grass, one of Germany's best-known contemporary writers, who died earlier this month. Winston, Grass's translator, is also professor of German Studies, professor of environmental studies, and coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. She spoke alongside Professor Friedrich Ulfers of New York University and Breon Mitchell, professor emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington. The event, which was standing-room only, was moderated by Ralph Bunche Institute Director John Torpey, a professor at the CUNY Graduate…

#THISISWHY In this issue of News @ Wes, we speak to Laura McIntyre from the Class of 2017. Q: Laura, please tell us where you're from and what you're majoring in. A: I'm a sophomore here at Wes. I'm majoring in sociology and am thinking about the film minor. I'm from New York City. Q: I understand the "Before I Die" public art project has been installed in locations all over the world. When and how did this project come to be? A: The project was started by an artist named Candy Chang as a personal project after someone close to her…

#THISISWHY Claudia Kahindi ’18 and Olayinka Lawal ’15 have received a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant to launch KIU, an English education project, in Kahindi’s home area of coastal Kenya this summer. Named for the Swahili word for “thirst,” KIU will serve more than 100 fourth-grade students at Kahindi’s alma mater, Kilimo Public Primary School, in Kenya’s Kilifi County. (more…)

#THISISWHY In this video, meet Brooklee Han '18 of Redding, Conn., a figure skater who has been competing internationally since 2010. She competed in Sochi, Russia in 2014 as a member of the Australian Olympic Team.

Long Lane Farm will host its annual May Day Festival from noon to 5 p.m. on May 2. The rain date is May 3. The event is open to the community, and will feature food, live music, face painting, crafts and activities, a bake sale, and a small farmer's market. A yoga class will be offered at 2 p.m., and a contra dance held at 3 p.m. Long Lane Farm is located at 281 Long Lane in Middletown at the corner of Long Lane and Wadsworth Street.

WESU 88.1 FM is holding its annual Spring Pledge Drive to support another season of community-driven radio. The station aims to raise $20,000 this spring to close out a capital campaign that started at the beginning of 2014, when the station kicked off its 75th anniversary year. Meeting its pledge goal this spring will allow WESU to complete some much-needed studio updates, including an audio mixing console in the air studio, as well as other technical improvements that will strengthen infrastructure and better accommodate live in-studio performances. These upgrades will also enable WESU to broadcast from remote locations. (more…)

Wesleyan welcomed about 450 admitted students and their families to campus April 15-17 to experience life at Wesleyan first-hand. Visitors had an opportunity to explore all that Wes has to offer through tours of campus, film studies, science facilities, the Center for the Arts, and the theater department; parent-to-parent and student-to-student panels; departmental and center open houses; and a student activities fair, as well as lectures, performances and film screenings. (Photos by Dat Vu '15, Hannah Norman '16, Gabe Rosenberg '16, Dena Matthews and Lauren Rubenstein.) (more…)

#THISISWHY On April 15, faculty and staff met to share their service- and project-based learning stories during an Academic (Technology) Roundtable lunch at the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. A(T)R lunches are designed to promote conversation, cooperation and the sharing of information, ideas and resources among faculty members, librarians, graduate students and staff. Barbara Juhasz, director of service-learning, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, led the session, providing an overview of service-learning at Wesleyan as well as the variety of ways that service can be used as a pedagogical tool. Other speakers included Rob Rosenthal, director of…

Beginning July 1, Marc Eisner will serve as Dean of the Social Sciences, Ellen Nerenberg as Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Joseph Knee as Dean of the Sciences and Mathematics. Eisner's appointment was announced April 17, while the appointments of Nerenberg and Knee were made at the faculty meeting in November 2014. Eisner will succeed Joyce Jacobsen; Nerenberg will succeed Andrew Curran; and Knee will succeed Ishita Mukerji. (more…)

#THISISWHY Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Center for Community Partnerships, was one of six people honored with a 2015 Community Service Award by the Connecticut Commission on Community Service and the Office of Higher Education. The winners--drawn from college students, campus programs and faculty and staff--were recognized at a ceremony April 14 at the Connecticut State Capitol. This was the 23rd annual awards ceremony conducted by the Connecticut Commission on Community Service. More than 50 students, faculty and staff attended the ceremony. "I am humbled by the recognition and grateful to work with an incredible team of people at Allbritton,…

#THISISWHY Wesleyan students Selin Kutlu ’16, Jacob “Jack” Lashner ’16 and Aaron Young ’16 have been chosen for honorable mention by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program for the 2015-2016 academic year. The award is presented annually to U.S. sophomores and juniors for excellence in mathematics, science and engineering. This year’s recipients were selected from a field of more than 1,200 students nominated by faculty from more than 420 colleges and universities nationwide. Less than half the students nominated each year are selected as a scholar or for honorable mention. Kutlu, a molecular biology and biochemistry and…

Longley ’82 Speaks at Friends of Wesleyan Library Event

Winston Speaks at Retrospective for Günter Grass

McIntyre ’17 Brings “Before I Die” Public Art Project to Wes

Students Receive Davis Projects for Peace Grant to Launch English Education Project

Figure Skater Han ’18 Competed in 2014 Olympics

Long Lane Farm to Host Annual May Day Festival

WESU Holding Spring Pledge Drive

WesFest Gives Admitted Students, Families a Taste of Campus Life

Faculty, Staff Share Service- and Project-Based Learning Stories

Wesleyan Announces Appointment of New Deans

Lechowicz Honored with State Community Service Award

3 Students Receive Goldwater Honorable Mentions