Lauren RubensteinAssociate Professor Jennifer Tucker has been selected for a Fulbright-U.S. Scholar Award, through which she will spend eight months at the University of York in England. Tucker is a historian of British science, technology and medicine, specializing in the study of the connections among British science, photography and the visual arts from 1850 to 1920. At the University of York, she will complete work on her second book, tentatively titled, Facing Facts: The Tichborne Cause Célèbre and the Rise of Modern Visual Evidence. She also plans to begin preliminary research toward her next book project, which will trace the social…
Olivia DrakeWhat do you get when you cross Wesleyan student-athletes with four racket sports? The answer: the first American team to represent the U.S. in racketlon! In racketlon, a player challenges his/her opponent in each of the four biggest racket sports: table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis. The sport is a cousin of the triathlon and decathlon. Each team plays their opponents in all four sports. Shona Kerr, head squash coach teaches racketlon at Wesleyan and coaches the Wesleyan team. Last summer, Wesleyan team represented America in the Racketlon World Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria. They placed 11th overall. Team members included Ethan Moritz '14;…
At its March meeting, Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees voted to increase tuition and residential comprehensive fees by 2.9 percent for the 2013-14 academic year, a rise equal to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation. This increase is significantly less than those for recent years, which have ranged from 3.8 percent to 5.0 percent. “We are committed to reining in over time the price of a Wesleyan education and to meeting the full financial need of students who enroll,” said Wesleyan President Michael Roth. “By tying tuition increases to the rate of inflation, we are seeking to moderate the…
All students, staff and faculty are invited to the Spring 2013 "In Theory" lecture series presented by the Certificate Program in Social, Cultural and Critical Theory. Each week, Wesleyan faculty will lead a discussion on social, cultural and critical theory or on a well-known theorist. Lectures take place in Downey House 113 from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m. On March 26, Matthew Garrett, assistant professor of English, will speak on V.I. Lenin, founder of the Russian Communist Party and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. Lenin’s political theories, derived from interpretations of Marxism, revolved around the establishment of a vanguard party to…
Bill HolderLaurel Appel, adjunct associate professor of biology and senior research associate, died on March 4. She is survived by her husband, Michael Weir, and her children, Rebecca and Nathaniel. The following announcement was made by Provost Rob Rosenthal, the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, in an all-campus e-mail. "Laurel Appel's passion was equality of opportunity, and she developed and ran the Ronald E. McNair Program at Wesleyan for many years. This program provides support and nurturing of first generation college students and students in underrepresented groups for entry into graduate programs. In Laurel's words, working with the program 'was…
Wesleyan has announced the establishment of a new College of Film and the Moving Image, which includes the Film Studies Department, the Center for Film Studies, the Cinema Archives and the Wesleyan Film Series. "We're excited to bring together all the great things we've been doing around film—the Film Studies major and minor, the Cinema Archives and the Wesleyan Film Series—under the umbrella of the College of Film and the Moving Image,” said President Michael Roth. “The film curriculum is already so very strong, anchored in liberal learning and connected with the making of new work for cinema, television, and…
For people suffering in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, from head injuries or other conditions that impair memory, a special trip to the seashore or a visit with family may be just a blur by the end of the day. With assistance from a simple device known as a ViconRevue memory camera, Professor John Seamon and his students are studying whether it’s possible to help these patients remember more of their lives. While the studies are ongoing, early results are promising. They also suggest that our current understanding of how these patients’ brains are malfunctioning may be wrong, or…
On a chilly January morning in 1978, Jesse Jackson delivered a rousing keynote address to a large group of political leaders. Energized from a recent meeting with President Jimmy Carter at the White House, the civil rights activist dazzled his audience with nearly an hour of political "gospel rock." At the end of Jackson’s fiery speech, his audience launched a five-minute standing ovation. Oddly, his audience was a group of white Republicans. Why would a liberal civil rights activist – with ties to the Democratic Party – engage a political party that had a reputation for turning its back on…
Wesleyan's 41 Wyllys Avenue building is now among the most elite recognized projects in the world. On Feb. 5, the U.S. Green Building Council certified the former squash facility with a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) "Platinum" designation. LEED certification is a recognized standard for measuring building sustainability. LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. (more…)
This summer, high-achieving high school students from around the world will have the opportunity to delve into the Wesleyan experience by enrolling in online courses. Wesleyan's Office of Continuing Studies will launch a pilot project offering non-credit online courses featuring some of Wesleyan’s areas of strength such as psychology, creative writing, environmental studies, and music as part of the new Pre-College Study program. "These subject areas are in high demand, but difficult for many high school students to find," said Rob Rosenthal, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "These online courses, characterized by small class size and personal interaction between faculty…
Kate CarlisleYou’d be surprised by what people don’t know about Wesleyan’s community engagement and service programs. Or, what people think they know. “Students and others think that community service at Wesleyan is an individual, versus a university effort, or just one semester for one student, on their own,” said Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Center for Community Partnerships. A new publicity campaign launched by the CCP last month aims to fix those misimpressions. The reality is that Wesleyan has a broad community engagement plan that ranges from hiring local contractors and sourcing local food to providing volunteers to Middletown service agencies,…
Gun laws in the United States need to be changed to protect thousands of lives, but meaningful change is not a sure thing, even in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, three experts told a packed house at Wesleyan on Feb. 6. The seminar, “Guns and Gun Violence: Crisis, Policy and Politics” featured three specialists in the legal, social and political aspects of firearms regulation, and drew a capacity crowd at the Center for the Arts Hall. “The United States is not more violent, but more lethally violent (than other developed nations who have stricter gun…