Campus News & Events

Scott Rohde will become Wesleyan's new director of Public Safety on Oct. 1. Since 1998, Rohde has served as director of Police Services at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse where he managed safety and security operations for a campus population of 10,000 students, faculty and staff. Prior to working in higher education, he worked for 10 years in municipal policing in a small town in Wisconsin. Rohde holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and a BS from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, where he majored in criminal justice and minored in sociology. "After an extensive search, I’m confident…

Writing at Wesleyan announces the Spring 2015 Russell House Series on Prose and Poetry. Writer/authors in the Spring 2015 series include Ron Padgett on Feb. 25, Millett Fellow Caryl Phillips on March 4, Sadia Shepard on March 25, Rowan Ricardo Phillips on April 1 and Ruth Ozeki on April 8. All events are free and open to the public. For more information on these talks visit the Writing at Wesleyan website. Support for this series is provided by Writing at Wesleyan, the English Department, the Annie Sonnenblick Fund, the Joan Jakobson Fund, the Jacob Julien Fund, the Millett Writing Fellow Fund, the Center…

Wesleyan head women's volleyball coach Gale Lackey, the senior athletics department member with 37 years of service, will retire in June. In her 30th year coaching volleyball, Lackey is also the senior woman administrator in athletics and an associate athletics director. Lackey began coaching at Wesleyan in 1978, handling both field hockey and women’s lacrosse and leading the field hockey squad to its only undefeated campaign — and a subsequent berth in the Wes Athletics Hall of Fame — in 1980. She took over as volleyball coach in 1985. “The time is right,” Lackey said. "Coaching and teaching here has…

David Rabban '71 will speak on “Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and the American University” during Wesleyan's annual Constitution Day Lecture. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 in the Smith Reading Room inside Olin Memorial Library. The lecture, hosted by the Friends of the Wesleyan Library is free of charge and open to the public. This talk will cover the judicial treatment of free speech and academic freedom at American universities from the 1950s to the present. It will explore the First Amendment rights of professors, students and universities as institutions, and the tensions that arise when these rights conflict. (more…)

Over the past decade, a new approach to the study of mobilities has emerged involving research on the combined movement of peoples, animals, objects, ideas and information. This can be viewed through the lens of complex networks, relational dynamics, and the redistribution or reification of power generated by movement. This fall, Wesleyan's Center for the Humanities will offer 10 lectures on the theme of "Mobilities" as part of its lecture series. Five of the speakers are from Wesleyan. All talks begin at 6 p.m., are open to the public, and are held at Daniel Family Commons. The dates, topics and…

Assistant Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, Project Manager in the Government Department Laura Baum, and four students presented a paper titled, "A Messenger Like Me: The Effect of Ordinary Spokespeople in Campaign Advertising" at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association Conference, Aug. 30 in Washington, D.C. The student authors are P. Marshal Lawler '16, Michael Linden '15, Eliza Loomis '15 and Zachary Wulderk '15. The paper considers the effects of using non-elite spokespeople (ie. "the everyman") in political advertising. The authors draw upon the Wesleyan Media Project's vast database of political advertising, as well as original…

The work of Keiji Shinohara, artist-in-residence of art, artist-in-residence of East Asian studies, will be exhibited at a gallery in Plantsville, Conn., Oct. 4-31. The exhibition at Paris in Plantsville Gallery, titled, "Whispers of the Infinite: The Art of Keiji Shinohara," represents the first time that Shinohara's monotypes will have been exhibited in the United States. An opening reception will be held Oct. 4 from 6-9 p.m. Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Shinohara trained for 10 years as an apprentice under the renowned artist Keiichiro Uesugi, and became a Master Printmaker. Shinohara then moved to the U.S., and has…

This summer, 13 students had an opportunity to work closely with a faculty mentor to conduct research, as well as get a leg up in the grad school application process, through the McNair Program. For 10 weeks, they studied topics in psychology and neuroscience, earth and environmental science, biology, physics, and science in society. The McNair Fellows, all rising juniors and seniors, are either low-income, first-generation college students or members of a group traditionally underrepresented in graduate school. The fellows may be engaged in research in any field, though the vast majority focus their studies in the sciences. This summer, eight fellows were fully…

Jean Redpath, a Scottish-born singer who delighted audiences worldwide and was described by The Boston Globe as “something very close to Scotland’s folk singer laureate,” died Aug. 21 at age 77. She brought her musical talent and extensive knowledge of Scottish history to Wesleyan and the Middletown community as an artist-in-residence in the 1970s. According to her official website, Redpath arrived in the United States in 1961 with $11 in her pocket. (more…)

Registration is open through Sept. 12 for Family Weekend, Sept. 27-28, when Wesleyan families are invited to attend classes and WESeminars, take in concerts and sporting events, enjoy meals, tour campus and learn about student programs and services. Breaking from tradition, this year Family Weekend will be separate from Homecoming Weekend, because Homecoming occurs during Fall break. Register for Family Weekend here. A full schedule of the weekend’s events is available here. Highlights include a South Indian vocal performance as part of the Navaratri Festival at the Center for the Arts; the 22nd annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium, featuring a movie screening…

Steven Greenhouse ’73, P’08, will bring his years of experience in journalism back to Wesleyan this semester as the Koeppel Journalism Fellow. The longtime New York Times reporter, who covers labor and workplace issues, will teach “Journalism, Nonfiction Writing and the Search for Truth.” “It's an honor to be invited to teach at Wesleyan, but it also feels a little daunting because I've never taught a full course before,” Greenhouse said. “But I imagine that I've learned a thing or two about journalism and writing and editing since once upon a time, when I was editor of the Argus eons…

Two graduate students and two faculty attended the 248th national meeting of the American Chemical Society Aug. 10-14 in San Francisco, Calif. Chemistry graduate students Duminda Ranasinghe delivered a poster presentation on her research titled "Efficient extrapolation to the (T)/CBS limit" and an oral presentation on "Density functional for core-valence correlation energy." Chemistry graduate student Kyle Throssell presented two poster presentations on "Potential curves of selected radical thiol double additions to alkynes" and "Assessing weak interactions in small dimer systems with PM7." The students were accompanied by George Petersson, the Fisk Professor of Natural Science, professor of chemistry; and Michael…

Rohde Hired as Wesleyan’s New Director of Public Safety

Writing at Wesleyan Announces Spring Russell House Series on Prose and Poetry

Volleyball Coach Lackey to Retire After 37 Years, Hundreds of Victories

Rabban ’71 to Deliver Constitution Day Lecture Sept. 17

Center for the Humanities Explores “Mobilities” in Fall Lecture Series

Fowler, Baum, Students Present Paper at Political Science Association Meeting

Shinohara’s Monotypes to be Exhibited at Plantsville Gallery

McNair Summer Fellows Perform Research, Prepare for Grad School

Former Artist-in-Residence Redpath Remembered for Teaching Folklore

Registration for Family Weekend Open Through Sept. 12

New York Times‘ Steven Greenhouse ’73 Teaching Journalism as Koeppel Fellow

Graduate Students, Faculty Attend American Chemical Society Meeting