Olivia DrakeBorn and raised in Africa's largest slum, Kennedy Odede ’12 witnessed abuse, rape, domestic violence and general mistreatment of school-aged girls in his community. His own sister, at age 17, gave birth to a baby recently as a result of rape. Sadly, this is the norm. Without access to education, many of the girls are forced into commercial sex work at early ages. The Kenyan Government views the slum, named Kibera, as an illegal settlement and therefore does not provide any services or government-funded schools. "Girls in my community lose their hope of ever attaining an education and ever leaving…
Bill HolderLong known for producing writers of great variety and distinction, Wesleyan will open the Shapiro Creative Writing Center in the fall, and with it two programs that further signal the importance the university attaches to writing. The English Department has established a concentration in creative writing for English majors who wish to pursue writing intensively at a high level. The university also is developing a certificate in writing, now in the planning stage, open to undergraduate students in any field of study who wish to establish writing as an area of concentrated academic work. “Nothing is more essential to a…
David PesciNext to the Sundance Film Festival, the annual South By Southwest (a.k.a. SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, may be the most prestigious forum for new independent films in The United States. So when Noah Hutton ’09 had his film Crude Independence accepted by SXSW in the documentary category he couldn’t help feeling excited. “It was a huge honor,” he says. “The festival has evolved so quickly in the past few years to be one of the top US film festivals with an international spotlight and it was a perfect place to show our work. The exposure you receive there is…
Pulitzer Prize winning writer Edward P. Jones will offer a reading and commentary April 17 as the 2009 Annie Sonnenblick guest lecturer. The annual lecture series brings distinguished writers to campus to discuss their work and participate in discussion with members of the Wesleyan community. Widely regarded as one of the nation's most distinguished contemporary fiction writers, Jones also is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for his novel, The Known World, an epic story examining the complexities of slavery. The novel won the 2004 Pulitzer…
Corrina KerrLori Gruen, associate professor of Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, associate professor of philosophy, was recently awarded the William A. Robinson Visionary Award for 2007-2008 for her work with captive chimpanzees at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La. Gruen has donated her time and provided her expertise in ethics to the organization for the past three years. The chimpanzees that arrive at Chimp Haven have spent time as either research subjects, performers or pets. Although the chimps are primarily from laboratories, when Gruen was last there she observed a recently rescued chimp named named Henry who had been kept as…
Through film, eco-activist, and reality television star Shalini Kantayya will speak about the global water crisis during Wesleyan's Earth Day Celebration April 15. "Water is life," says Kantayya, the event's keynote speaker. "We are facing a world water crisis. A world in which nations are at war for water and every drop is for sale." The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Cinema. Kantayya will discuss her film, “a DROP of LIFE”, which will be viewed following her presentation. "a DROP of LIFE," is a futuristic sci-fi flick about the mounting global water crisis. It…
The 2009 Olla Podrida yearbook staff is making award-winning memories this year. The book, which focuses on the theme, "Expressions of Memory," is adhering to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's award guidelines. Since 1935, the CSPA has sponsored annual contests to honor best practices in student writing, editing and yearbook publishing. "In the past, our yearbooks have been more like scrapbooks of students' senior year, but this year, we're more structured and we're creating a more professional book," says the yearbook's editor-in-chief Luz Burgos '09. "We're building a new foundation so yearbooks after this one will constantly improve." The Olla…
An award-winning best-selling author, a pioneering entrepreneur and philanthropist, and two dedicated members of the Middletown community will be the honorary degree recipients at the 177th Wesleyan Commencement on May 24, 2009. Anna Quindlen P’07, who will also give the Commencement Address, is a novelist, a journalist, and a champion of higher education. She currently writes the “Last Word” column on the back page of Newsweek and serves as chair of the board of Barnard College, where she received a degree in English literature. Quindlen has published five novels, all of them bestsellers. Her most recent, Rise and Shine, debuted at…
Errors in genomic DNA can lead to tumors and other diseases. By probing specific DNA structures, Ishita Mukerji hopes to gain an understanding of how such medical conditions can be prevented or possibly cured. Mukerji, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, studies how different proteins recognize and bind to DNA. Specifically, she examines four-stranded DNA structures, known as "Holliday junctions," which are involved in DNA repair and recombination. These are different from the common, two-stranded DNA. On April 1, Mukerji will receive a four-year grant worth $798,368 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund her research project, "Structure and…
Joss Whedon ’87, writer, director and executive producer of such popular TV shows as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Firefly,” and the new series “Dollhouse,” will give the May 30 keynote address for the seventh annual Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns. The unique seminar scheduled for May 29 through 31 will focus on “Defining American Culture: How Movies and TV Get Made.” Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, Chair of the Film Studies Department, and curator of the Cinema Archives will be the facilitator for this seminar. Other presenters include successful Wesleyan alumni who work as film and…
During a "Who Done It? A DNA Investigation," elementary school aged children sported white lab coats and became "detectives" hoping to solve a crime. The students learned about DNA structure by isolating DNA from wheat germ and comparing DNA samples from a 'crime scene' with the DNA from five suspects. They learn how DNA forensics actually works – just like on the television show "CSI." (more…)
Wesleyan’s Social Justice Leadership Conference (SJLC) will provide participants an opportunity to learn more about social justice and how to apply it in their lives. The free, all-day March 28 event is open to all members of the Wesleyan community and to anyone who may be interested. The SJLC, which is co-sponsored by the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) and the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development (SALD), grew out of the previously held WSA-sponsored Social Justice Day and SALD’s WesLead emerging leaders conference events. “I think what we saw was that both events could be more successful if they were…