Campus News & Events

Following the principles of permaculture, the student group WILD Wes (Working for Intelligent Landscape Design at Wesleyan) has transformed the West College Courtyard — once an eroded hillside with compacted soil and diseased trees — into complex ecosystems that provide food, attract insects and requires minimal resources and maintenance. The students also are working on a terraced garden near Summerfields. Follow the group's progress on their blog. Pictured are summer blooms, berries, bees and other bugs thriving in the garden on July 8. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)

"Hollywood Icons: Audrey Hepburn" is the theme of Wesleyan's Summer Film Series, sponsored by the College of Film and the Moving Image (CFILM). All four films, featuring Oscar-award winning actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays in July. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the accompanying "Posters From the Collection" exhibition in the Rick Nicita Gallery. All films will begin with an introduction by Marc Longenecker, CFILM programming and technical director. All films are open to the public and are free of charge. The films include: Roman Holiday on July 8; Sabrina on July 15; Breakfast…

In March, the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship awarded three student-led social ventures with a Seed Grant. Student representatives from each group received $5,000 in unrestricted startup funds as well as trainings, advising, mentoring, incubator workspace, and other resources from the Patricelli Center. This summer, the students are putting their grants to good use. (more…)

Wesleyan staff and the Green Street Arts Center are helping to make a dream come true for a Middletown girl with a life-threatening illness. Hannah Vecchitto, 14, is passionate about photography and received a brand new camera for Christmas. Her dream, which she shared with Make-a-Wish Connecticut, was for the opportunity to learn the camera and the art of photography, as well as have the technology to work on her own photography as a true artist. Make-a-Wish Connecticut grants wishes for children between 2-1/2 and 18 years old who are suffering from life-threatening medical conditions. This year, the Connecticut chapter,…

This month, five Wesleyan students received Summer Experience Grants, supported by the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship. The honor comes with a $4,000 stipend to supplement costs associated with a summer internship experience. The grants are available for Wesleyan sophomores and juniors currently receiving need-based financial aid who plan to do socially innovative or socially responsible work during summer break. The recipients include Theodora Messalas ’15, Dara Mysliwiec ’16, Keren Reichler ’16, Geneva Jonathan ’15 and Jared Geilich ’15. In addition, film major Aaron Kalischer-Coggins ’15 received a Priebatsch Internship Grant. All grantees report on their experiences on the Patricelli Center's ENGAGE blog. Sociology major Theodora Messalas is working with…

Grandmothers used to warn youngsters against being “a jack of all trades, and a master of none,” and with good reason, at least in the animal kingdom, according to research by Mike Singer, associate professor of biology, associate professor of environmental studies. Singer’s decade of research in the ecosystems of Connecticut forests reveals that caterpillars with finicky feeding habits avoid predation from birds, whereas those that feed generally on many plants become meals for baby birds. The “specialist” bugs are much better at survival. Singer and five collaborators published these findings in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of…

Francis Starr, professor of physics, and Paul Hanakata ’14 are the co-authors of a new article published in the journal Nature Communications on June 16. The article, titled "Interfacial Mobility Scale Determines the Scale of Collective Motion and Relaxation Rate in Polymer Films,” is based off Hanakata’s senior thesis research at Wesleyan. Thin polymer films are ubiquitous in manufacturing and medical applications. Their chemical and mechanical properties make them suitable as artificial soft biological tissue and there has been intense interest in how film thickness and substrate interactions influence film dynamics. The nature of polymer rearrangements within these films determines their potential applications. However, up to now, there has been no way to readily…

Philip Resor, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, is taking his knowledge of petroleum down under. Between June 18-26, Resor, a Distinguished Lecturer for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), is delivering six lectures in Australia. The talks are geared toward members of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA) and a general petroleum industry audience. While abroad, Resor will speak on "Syndepositional Faulting of Carbonate Platforms" and "Revisiting the Origin of Reverse Drag." He'll be lecturing in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. A specialist in structural geology, Resor's work integrates field mapping, remote sensing, and numerical modeling to better understand the…

As a recent recipient of an undergraduate research fellowship, Jack Singer '15 is spending his summer at Wesleyan studying the geochemical evolution of the moon. The fellowship, supported by the Connecticut Space Grant College Consortium, comes with a $5,000 award. Grantees are expected to work on research related to space/aerospace science or engineering under the guidance of a faculty member or a mentor from industry. For the next three months, Singer will work on various research projects with his advisor James Greenwood, assistant professor of earth and environmental science. Singer will first prepare a fragmented lunar sample (Apollo 12035,76) for…

In the fall of 2008, Andrew Olivieri felt like he was staring down four years of uncertainty, dissatisfaction and "wasting my parents' money." A senior at the Bronx High School of Science, where most graduates are expected to attend college, Olivieri just didn’t feel ready. But the Army life had always attracted him, as a path that led to maturity, a work ethic, and an opportunity to be part of something larger than himself. "I wanted to be a part of history, and contribute to it," Olivieri said. "I never wanted to be one of those people who just say,…

Next summer, Wesleyan's Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) will offer a new Master of Arts in Performance Curation degree program, in addition to the permanent establishment of the Certificate Program in Performance Curation. The Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance was founded in 2010, and introduced as a pilot initiative in 2011, by Wesleyan graduates Samuel Miller '75 and Pamela Tatge, director of the Center for the Arts, in partnership with Judy Hussie-Taylor and New York’s Danspace Project. ICPP is the first institute of its kind, a center for the academic study of the presentation and contextualization of…

The Board of Trustees recently conferred tenure to two Wesleyan faculty and promoted five faculty to full professor. Their promotions take effect July 1. Victoria Pitts-Taylor, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, and Charles Sanislow, associate professor of psychology, will receive tenure. Pitts-Taylor will join Wesleyan as a new faculty members and chair of the FGSS program on the same date. They join four other faculty members who were awarded tenure earlier this spring. Those promoted to full professor are Martha Gilmore, professor of earth and environmental sciences; Yuri Kordonsky, professor of theater; James Lipton, professor of mathematics and computer sciences; Brian Stewart,…

Summer Blooms, Berries, Bees in West College Courtyard

Audrey Hepburn Stars in July’s Summer Film Series

Patricelli Seed Grant Winners Share Project Progress

Wesleyan Partners with Make-A-Wish Foundation to Grant Teen’s Wish of Becoming a Photographer

Students Receive Patricelli Center Grants, Priebatsch Summer Internship

Singer’s Study Reveals that Finicky Feeders Avoid Bird Predation

Starr, Hanakata ’14 Co-Author Paper on Polymer Films, Published in Nature Communications

Resor Delivering 6 Lectures to Petroleum Geoscientists in Australia

Singer ’15 to Study Moon Rocks as Connecticut Space Grant Fellow

Army Veteran Olivieri to Join Class of 2018 through Posse Foundation

ICPP Offers New Masters Degree in Performance Curation

2 Faculty to Receive Tenure, 5 Promoted to Full Professor