Eric GershonMacArthur award winner Sarah Ruhl begins a two-day residency at Wesleyan on Feb. 10, the fifth by a playwright in the university’s “Outside the Box” theater series, which brings distinguished playwrights to campus. Ruhl, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and author of the widely praised “Euridyce, ” “The Clean House,” and “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play),” among other works, has been described by The New York Times as “among the most acclaimed and accomplished young playwrights on the contemporary scene.” At Wesleyan she will visit an acting class, dine with both playwriting students and faculty…
Olivia DrakeThe Wesleyan community participated in the 2011 Social Justice Leadership Conference (SJLC) Jan. 21-22 on campus. The SJLC provides an opportunity for students, student groups, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to learn about creating change through the application of a variety of skills. Sessions focused on the many manifestations of injustice, leadership skills that may be applied to social movements, and how participants can be involved in creating change. The conference’s keynote speaker was Geoffrey Canada from the Harlem Children’s Zone. Photos of the event will appear in a future issue of The Wesleyan Connection.
This issue, we ask "5 Questions" of Krishna Winston, Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, dean of arts and humanities, on the art of literary translation. Winston has been the principal English-language translator for the works of the Nobel Prize-winning German author Günter Grass since 1990. Here Winston talks about the art of translation and working with a giant of 20th-century literature. Q: How did you come to be the English-language translator of Günter Grass’s books? A: I should explain that from 1960 until his death in 1992, the distinguished literary translator Ralph Manheim was responsible for…
David PesciHosting a symposium to discuss new research findings is a rather common event for universities today. However, the symposium “Rethinking Insurgency” held at Wesleyan this fall was unique in one important way: the vast bulk of research was done by undergraduates. Their research was the final product of an intensive 10-week summer internship held under the auspices of Wesleyan’s Program on Terrorism and Insurgency Research (PTIR), which is directed by Assistant Professor of Government Erica Chenoweth. Chenoweth says that undergraduates are often overlooked in many research institutions, but that Wesleyan’s tradition of embracing undergraduates as participants in active research helped…
Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, and Jacob Bricca, adjunct assistant professor of film studies, explained their experimental cross-disciplinary course on science documentary filmmaking at Wesleyan in a December 2010 article published in American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Today. In the article, Hingorani and Bricca wrote about their course, "Making the Science Documentary," which they co-taught together, starting in 2007. The course was designed to introduce undergraduate students to the life sciences and to documentary filmmaking (more…)
The Gamma chapter of Phi Beta Kappa welcomed 15 seniors into the honor society Dec. 8 at the Office of Admission. The honorees are pictured above (two were absent). Fifteen graduating seniors were elected into the Gamma chapter of Phi Beta Kappa during a ceremony Dec. 8. PBK is the nation’s oldest academic honor society. Students elected to the society must have completed Stage I and II of the General Education Expectations by the end of the junior year and have a grade point average of 93 or above. (more…)
Will Dubbs ’14 arrived at Wesleyan from Manhattan in September as part of the frosh class. Next month he’ll return to New York as an off-Broadway playwright. Manhattan Repertory Theater has selected Dubbs’ first and only play, “Dead Sharks,” for production as part of its Winterfest 2011 festival of original theatrical works. The first of three scheduled “Dead Sharks” performances at the Rep’s 42nd Street theater is Jan. 29. Dubbs, who is a minute older than his twin sister, Katie, a student at Princeton, wrote the one-act “Dead Sharks” for an all-freshman (more…)
"Histories of Race" is the topic of the 9th annual Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns to be held April 8-10, 2011. During this weekend retreat, participants will examine the many histories of race, both past and present, with a group of internationally renowned scholars. The Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns, endowed by the generosity of James J. Shasha ’50, P’82, GP’14, is an annual forum for alumni, parents, students and friends that provides an opportunity to explore issues of human concern (more…)
This issue, we ask "5 Questions" of Elijah Huge, assistant professor of art. Huge returned to Wesleyan this fall after a sabbatical spent at the University of California-Berkeley. He teaches architecture. Q: What’s your favorite building, or group of buildings, at Wesleyan, and why? A: There are a number of outstanding buildings on campus, but my favorite group of buildings is the Center for the Arts, without question. The CFA is invested with a highly refined and clearly articulated architectural identity and reflects an amazing level of cultural ambition on the part of the university. On the one hand, the buildings…
This story has been reposted at: https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2010/12/16/scholastic-honor-society-welcomes-15-seniors-2/
In the remote village of Gitwe, Rwanda, 6-year-old children ascend mountains, or make the journey by foot along dusty roads – more than 3.5 miles each way – to fetch water for their families. They fill plastic motor oil jugs or any other container they can find. Barefoot and often in intense heat, they lug the 40-pound containers of water back home. “The bins that the children carry are just as big as they are,” says Carina Kurban ’14, who witnessed the daily procession of thirsty children during a fact-finding missionary trip in August 2010. “And many of the children…
David Low[youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLu1ukpooyA[/youtube] Wesleyan scored a winning touchdown with a Nov. 16 benefit presentation of the new Broadway play Lombardi before a sell-out crowd of nearly 700 alumni, staff, faculty, students and friends at Manhattan's Circle in the Square Theater. The event, part of the Wesleyan on Broadway series, raised $312,000 for financial aid and athletics. View the entire Lombardi photo album online here. Directed by Thomas Kail '99, Lombardi portrays key moments in the life of legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Kail previously directed the Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights, which was created and composed by Wesleyan contemporary Lin-Manuel…