Bill HolderWesleyan will honor three extraordinary alumni at the University’s 181st Commencement on May 26. Joss Whedon ’87, film and television director, writer and producer, will deliver the commencement address. Honorary degrees also will be presented to environmental and social justice leader Majora Carter ’88 and Jim Dresser ’63, whose many years of service to Wesleyan include having chaired the Board of Trustees. Joss Whedon ’87 is an award-winning writer, director and producer. He is the force behind such popular television shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and the 2012 superhero blockbuster film, The Avengers. The son and grandson of successful television writers,…
Olivia DrakeAll Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff now have access to lynda.com, an online subscription library that teaches the latest software tools and skills through high-quality instructional videos taught by recognized industry experts. Using your Wesleyan username and password, (see instructions for accessing Lynda.com) the campus community can access more than 1,400 training videos on a broad range of subjects, including photography, design, music and video, home computing, animation, and web design and development. Acquire comprehensive training in popular applications such as Microsoft Office for both PC and Mac and Adobe Acrobat Professional. New courses are added every week. Wesleyan students,…
Lauren Rubenstein“Climate Change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present.” This is the message in the draft version of the Third National Climate Assessment, which was released on Jan. 11. Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, is vice chair of the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee (NCADAC), a 60-member committee that includes representatives from academia, state and local governments, non-governmental organizations, business and industry, and others, and the committee that issued this draft. Since this is a “review draft,” Yohe encouraged the Wesleyan community and their friends (along…
The Wesleyan Board of Trustees recently awarded tenure to two faculty members. They are: Lois Brown, professor of African American studies, professor of English, came to Wesleyan last fall from Mount Holyoke College where she was Elizabeth Small Professor of English. At Mount Holyoke, where she began teaching in 1998, she was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004, and was director of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts for five years. A literary historian, she focuses on culture, identity, race and gender in 18th and 19th century African American writing. She is author of three books…
Wesleyan's Center for the Arts announces the creation of the Madhu Reddy Endowed Fund for Indian Music and Dance at Wesleyan University. Reddy, a real estate agent with William Raveis based in Glastonbury, Conn., established the fund with a pledge of $100,000. During a ceremony on Dec. 14, Reddy presented an initial check for $50,000 to Pamela Tatge, director of the Center for the Arts, and David Nelson, artist in residence. “For more than 50 years, Wesleyan’s Music and Dance Departments and the Center for the Arts have been presenting the music and dance of India to the campus and…
This spring, the Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning (WILL) will host courses on opinion writing, Shakespeare's history plays under Elizabeth I, the basics of personal finance, experiencing eldership, exploring the Housatonic Valley and Middletown's architectural heritage. Now in its fifth semester, WILL's objective is to use the talents of current and retired faculty and qualified community members to present a set of short, intellectually stimulating and lively courses to the Wesleyan community and area residents. These courses are offered at minimal cost, are not part of a degree-granting program, and are designed to offer topics of particular interest to members of the…
Two book reviews by President Michael Roth recently were published in The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. For the Post on Dec. 28, Roth reviewed Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks, a "graceful and informative" study of hallucinations caused by "neurological misfirings that can be traced to disease, drugs or various changes in neurochemistry." Drawing upon descriptions of hallucinations experienced with Parkinsonian disorders, epilepsy, migraines, and narcolepsy, "Sacks explores the surprising ways in which our brains call up simulated realities that are almost indistinguishable from normal perceptions," Roth writes. He adds: "As is usually the case with the good doctor Sacks, we are prescribed no overarching theory or even a…
Three Wesleyan students joined hundreds of climate change activists from around the world to strategize with fellow youth, discuss climate change policy, engage with delegates and participate in a climate change march during the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Doha, Qatar. The convention began Nov. 26. Sophie Duncan '13, Samantha Santaniello '13 and Chloe Holden '15, accompanied by Michael Dorsey, fellow of the College of the Environment, visiting professor of environmental studies, obtained entry badges and jumped right into a panel discussion on equitable climate policies with representatives from…
In May 2010, the Board of Trustees adopted "Wesleyan 2020" as a fundamental tool for strategic decision making at Wesleyan. Designed to be flexible, this framework for planning will assist the university in making decisions about the allocation of resources in the next five to 10 years. It reflects the input of faculty, trustees, staff, alumni and students and begins with an introduction that gives a sense of some of the recent achievements that have shaped the Wesleyan of today. Each fall, Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth sends an update on the university's progress in meeting the goals set out…
Fifteen students from the Class of 2013 were elected to early-decision membership in Phi Beta Kappa during an initiation ceremony Dec. 5. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest surviving Greek letter society in America, dating back to 1776. The organization’s Greek initials signify the motto, “Love of learning is the guide of life.”To be elected, a student must first have been nominated by his or her major department. He or she also must have demonstrated curricular breadth by having met the General Education Expectations, and have achieved a grade-point average of 93 percent. Members of the Fall 2012 class all…
(Story contributed by Jim H. Smith) Its official name was the Century 21 Exhibition, but it was better known as the Seattle World Fair, and it seemed to be an unambiguous statement about America’s aspirations for its future. Boasting a futuristic monorail and an iconic Space Needle whose elevators were piloted by female attendants wearing excessive blue eye shadow and costumes out of a Hollywood sci-fi feature, it came to hold totemic significance for a nation whose philosophical differences with the Soviet Union were being sorted out against the majestic backdrop of outer space. One of the first visitors to the…
In this edition of The Wesleyan Connection, we ask "5 Questions" of Richard "Rick" Elphick, professor of history and co-chair of the College of Social Studies. Elphick is the author of The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa, published by the University of Virginia Press in September 2012. Q: What do you think is the main message, or the main achievement, of your new book? A: For decades, historians of South Africa have struggled to trace how a white minority, starting in the 1650s, established a system of stark inequality among the races in the…