Campus News & Events

Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history and chair of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, gave a virtual talk titled “Adventures of Victorian Aeronauts” on March 28. The lecture focused on the way balloon travel changed the landscape of Victorian aviation. The talk was hosted by Profs & Pints, an online platform for professors to give lectures that reach a wide virtual audience. Tucker began with a historical panorama of ballooning from its origins in Enlightenment science and Romanticism, to its uses for various purposes in the 19th century. She also explored balloon fashion and follies, accidents and mishaps,…

On March 30, more than 150 students gathered outside Usdan University Center for a community vigil to mourn the victims of the March 16 Atlanta spa shootings and to create a safe space for Asian and Asian-American students to discuss the rise of anti-Asian violence and be heard by the community. The vigil was organized by Emily Chen ’23, Kevin Le ’22, and graduate student Emily Moon, in conjunction with members of the Asian American Student Collective. Students read poems, played music, and shared their reflections during the event. Towards the end, the organizers gave anyone moved to speak the…

On March 28, Victoria Smolkin, associate professor of history and chair, Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies, was featured on the radio station Echo of Moscow. Smolkin spoke on Soviet atheism on Irina Prokhorova's program "Culture of Everyday Life." The podcast is available in Russian online here. Smolkin is the author of A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism, which was recently translated into Russian. Atheism prevailed in Soviet ideology, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. However, religion never fully disappeared from the life of Russia and the Soviet republics. In the broadcast, Smolkin and fellow panelists…

Richard Grossman, professor of economics, recently co-authored an article titled “Before the Cult of Equity: the British Stock Market, 1829-1929” in European Review of Economic History, published on March 24, 2021. According to the paper's abstract, the co-authors "analyze the development and performance of the British equity market during the era when it reigned supreme as the largest in the world. By using an extensive monthly dataset of thousands of companies, we identify the major peaks and troughs in the market and find a relationship with the timing of economic cycles. We also show that the equity risk premium was…

As a recipient of a Fulbright Specialist Award, Professor Lisa Dierker hopes to connect with academic partners across the world sharing her expertise and excitement in support of data analytics. “High quality, accessible and manageable data have never been so critical to the well-being of people around the world,” Dierker said. “Increasing capacity to identify, gather and analyze relevant data is a key pathway for better-informed decision-making and will create a larger, more diverse workforce.” Dierker, Walter Crowell University Professor of Social Sciences, professor of psychology and education studies, is a co-creator of Wesleyan's "Passion-Driven Statistics" model, a data-driven, project-based…

Several Wesleyan faculty, students, alumni, parents, and staff have recently been featured in the news: March 23 The Island Now - Earth Matters - A Brief History of Long Island Sound. Mentions that in 1892, 23 students at Wesleyan came down with typhoid, with four deaths, from eating contaminated oysters. Morning Star via PR Newswire - College Consensus Publishes Aggregate Ranking of the 100 Best Colleges & Universities for 2021. Mentions Wesleyan. Sugarcane Magazine - Incarcerated Poets Laureate: Recognizing Unseen Creators in Florida. Mentions that through his nonprofit, O, Miami, P. Scott Cunningham '00 builds community through literature. March 24…

Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology, emeritus, and his wife, Lina Fruzzetti, a professor of anthropology at Brown University, co-produced six films that are now being included in a retrospective hosted by the Smithsonian’s Recovering Voices Initiative for the annual Mother Tongue Film Festival. The festival features diverse films which explore language and knowledge around the world. This year’s theme is “The Healing Power of Storytelling.” While the festival must take place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, each film is available to stream throughout the spring for a certain window of time. Östör and Fruzzetti also participated in a virtual…

Ten students majoring in earth and environmental sciences (E&ES) have completed their senior capstone projects. Each year, seniors in the major embark on a capstone experience that starts with a seminar in the fall (E&ES497) in which students design an original research project, go on a field trip to carry out the research and complete their fieldwork, and then analyze their results and present them in written reports and oral presentations. In past years, students have ventured across the globe for their field trips. However, the pandemic caused this year’s projects to look a little different. This time, the field…

When Emily McEvoy '22 began her college career at Wesleyan in 2018, she felt a deep sense of detachment from the local environment. At a campus in the middle of her home state, how could this be? The insularity, she says, was jarring, and she decided to dedicate her time to combat this issue. McEvoy immediately became involved with several local organizations, including Middletown's North End Action Team, and the student cohort of volunteers who helped staff their office. Most recently, McEvoy has been an organizer with the Middletown Mutual Aid Collective, which has raised close to $70,000 to support…

Wesleyan’s 189th Commencement will take place in person on Wednesday, May 26. "This year’s Commencement was previously planned for May 30; however, due to a number of factors, including current pandemic conditions and cancellation of an in-person reunion weekend, we have decided to move up the date," Wesleyan President Michael Roth '78 said in a campus-wide email. The University is hoping that conditions will allow for two guests per graduate to attend the ceremony. Wesleyan is pursuing plans to accommodate the seniors and other graduates who have been studying remotely to return to campus for Commencement exercises. As with all…

Martha Gilmore, George I. Seney Professor of Geology and professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of seven new papers and articles. These include: “Distinct Mineralogy and Age of Individual Lava Flows in Atla Regio, Venus Derived From Magellan Radar Emissivity,” published in the March 2021 issue of JGR: Planets. Gilmore's former postdoc Jeremy Brossier, Katie Toner '20 and Avi Stein '17 co-authored this paper. “The Venus Life Equation,” published online in the January 2021 issue of Astrobiology. “Variations in the radiophysical properties of tesserae and mountain belts on Venus: Classification and mineralogical trends,” published in the February…

Suzanne OConnell, professor of earth and environmental sciences, is featured on Vox Media’s podcast Unexplainable in a March 17 episode titled “Journey Toward the Center of the Earth.” The podcast explores unanswered scientific questions about mysterious aspects of the world and examines what scientists are doing to find answers. The episode with OConnell delves into a 20th-century quest to drill into the Earth’s layers through the ocean, specifically to learn more about a very dense region between the crust and the mantle called the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or the Moho. “Project Moho was a bust, but it lay a foundation for…

Tucker Lectures on Victorian Aeronauts and the History of Ballooning

Students Gather to Honor Atlanta Victims, Combat Anti-Asian Violence

Smolkin Speaks about the History of Soviet Atheism on Moscow Radio Station

Grossman Co-Authors Article on British Stock Market

Dierker to Teach Passion-Driven Statistics As Fulbright Specialist

Wesleyan in the News

Östör Celebrates 6 Films Featured at Smithsonian Festival

E&ES Seniors Conduct Capstone Research at Wesleyan’s Long Lane Forest

McEvoy ’22 Named 2021 Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellow

Wesleyan’s 189th Commencement to Be Held May 26 In Person

Gilmore, Alumni Author Papers in 7 Journals

OConnell Talks Ocean Exploration in Vox Podcast