Olivia DrakeThe American Physical Society awarded Chia Wei "Wade" Hsu ’10 with its prestigious LeRoy Apker Award for his achievements while at Wesleyan. The American Physical Society awards the Apker Award to only one student from a Ph.D-granting institution each year. Reinhold Blümel, the Charlotte Agusta Ayres Professor of Physics, calls it a "mini-Nobel Prize." The award provides encouragement to young physicists who have demonstrated great potential for future scientific accomplishment. “This means that Wade out-competed students from MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and CalTech,” says Wade's former advisor Francis Starr, associate professor of physics. “He’s the best of the best.” On…
David Pesci[youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcsyJORXEUg&[/youtube] This issue we ask “5 Questions” of Peter Gottschalk, chair and professor of religion and co-author, with Gabriel Greenberg '04, of the book Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy (Rowman & Littlefield). Q. How did you become interested in studying Islam? A: My interest arose entirely by serendipity. While in college, I hadn’t any interest in studying Islam but, because I was planning on visiting my parents who had just moved to Saudi Arabia, I took an introductory course on Islam. Fortunately, John Esposito, one of the few American specialists in Islam at the time, taught the class.…
Wesleyan's Green Street Arts Center continues its Fall 2010 Sunday Salon Discussion Series with talks by J. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor of American studies and anthropology on Oct. 24, and Stephanie Weiner, associate professor of English, on Nov. 21. The Sunday Salon Discussions are informal lectures by Wesleyan's faculty. The Wesleyan and local communities are invited to attend. David Beveridge, the Joshua Boger University Professor of the Sciences and Mathematics, professor of chemistry, hosts the event. Each salon includes opportunity for socializing as well as a reception with light refreshments. On Oct. 24 from 2 to 3:30 p.m., J. Kehaulani Kauanui will…
Wesleyan University is launching the Wesleyan Media Project, a non-partisan initiative designed to perform comprehensive tracking and analysis of federal and state political advertisements by candidates, parties and special interest groups. The project launches at the onset of a political election season poised to break advertising records. Throughout the course of the 2010 election cycle, the Wesleyan Media Project will provide real-time, public information on the content and targeting of advertising in federal election campaigns across the country. In light of the Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision, the Project will also provide systematic evidence on the extent of corporate…
Wesleyan University and the Animals and Society Institute (ASI) have formed a partnership and will offer the "ASI-WAS Human-Animal Studies Summer Fellowship" in 2011 through Wesleyan’s recently-launched College of the Environment. The ASI-WAS Human-Animal Studies Summer Fellowship marks the launch of Wesleyan Animal Studies (WAS), which will advance the rapidly growing field of Animal Studies and foster scholarship on human-animal relations from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. The fellowship will be hosted by Wesleyan faculty Lori Gruen and Kari Weil. Gruen is chair and associate professor of philosophy, associate professor of environmental studies, associate professor of feminist, gender…
[youtube width="640" height="480"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBlX-CsFVJQ&f[/youtube] After three years of engineering, implementing structural and electrical upgrades, and navigating the FCC, Wesleyan’s listener supported community radio station WESU 88.1FM, is now broadcasting at a newly assigned power of 6,000 watts of effective radiated power (ERP). “This is a major milestone for WESU since we have been broadcasting at a power of 1,500 watts for the past three decades,” explains station general manager Ben Michael. “This ‘once in a generation’ power upgrade makes our radio signal available to twice as many potential listeners in Connecticut and Massachusetts.” Michael estimates the potential listening audience of close…
The issue we ask "5 Questions" of Assistant Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, the director of the newly-launched Wesleyan Media Project, a non-partisan initiative designed to perform comprehensive tracking and analysis of federal and state political advertisements by candidates, parties and special interest groups in every media market in the nation. Q: What can you tell us about the Wesleyan Media Project? A: The Wesleyan Media Project will provide nonpartisan, publicly-available, real-time tracking and analysis of all political ads aired on television across the U.S. during the 2010 election campaign. It's a collaborative effort lead by me and two…
This fall, students have the opportunity to work towards one of four certificates, in addition to their degree. The new certificate programs include South Asian Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Writing; and Social, Cultural and Critical Theory. “These are outstanding endeavors by the faculty to keep the curriculum fresh and innovative, and to help students study across the disciplines but with a road map for curricular coherence,” says Karen Anderson, associate provost. South Asian Studies Certificate Wesleyan already offers courses and resources for all students interested in studying the cultures of Bangladesh, (more…)
The Center for the Arts (CFA) has launched the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP), which brings arts professionals together to examine curatorial practices from the fields of visual arts and performance, in order to better understand and improve upon the ways in which performance is managed, produced and presented in this country. Starting in summer 2011, the ICPP will offer a professional certificate program in Curatorial Practice in Performance. Students will study artistic and curatorial practice, social and cultural context, and entrepreneurial strategies and complete an independent project in consultation with an advisor. Through a close examination of…
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Nathan Repasz ’14 of Erie, Pa. arrived on Wesleyan’s campus Sept. 1 in a Jeep loaded with the all the necessities for the year. “He brought all 40 of his t-shirts … and a trillion socks. He probably just doesn’t want to do any laundry,” jokes Nathan’s mother, Lenore Skomal. “It’s a good thing that he only brought a third of his instruments. Just three drums, a pan flute and harmonica. He left behind the guitar and Egyptian oud.” Nathan, an aspiring music and environmental science major, joined more than 750 new and transfer students who moved into their campus residencies on…
An $800,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support Wesleyan’s College of the Environment (COE) for the next four years. Wesleyan’s faculty and administration approved the COE in 2009 to graduate students who have engaged with critical environmental issues from a variety of disciplinary perspectives; who are sensitive to how those issues are connected to social and political concerns; who can interpret scientific information correctly; and who can communicate conclusions effectively and honestly. The Mellon Foundation grant will support funding for post-doctoral teaching fellows, visiting COE fellows, (more…)