Campus News & Events

With the holiday season approaching, Wesleyan's Pandemic Planning Committee (PPC) reminds students, faculty, and staff to remain vigilant and safe. "We have made it past the election and the Thanksgiving holiday is in sight," wrote Wesleyan's Medical Director and PCC member Dr. Tom McLarney in an email to the campus community on November 16. "As you are undoubtedly aware, the coronavirus pandemic has entered an alarming new phase, with cases rising sharply in most parts of the country and moderate increases in Connecticut. Despite the rigorous testing and safety protocols the University put in place, we are not immune from…

In this continuing series, Annie Roach ’22, an English and Italian studies major from Middletown, Del., reviews alumni books and offers a selection for those in search of knowledge, insight, and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University’s collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. Tejas Desai '03, The Dance Towards Death (The New Wei, 2020) In the third volume of his crime thriller trilogy The Brotherhood Chronicle, Tejas Desai delivers awe-inspiring narration that easily follows through in its mission to add a breathtaking final installment to the…

Two Wesleyan University Press music titles garnered four awards, from the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and the American Musicological Society (AMS) this month. Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine, by Maria Sonevytsky, received the 2020 Lewis Lockwood Award from the AMS. The Lockwood Award honors a musicological book of exceptional merit published during the previous year in any language and in any country by a scholar in the early stages of his or her career who is a member of the AMS or a citizen or permanent resident of Canada or the United States. Music and Modernity among First…

Hilary Barth, professor of psychology; Andrea Patalano, professor of psychology; Liana Mathias '17; and former lab coordinators Alexandra Zax and Katherine Williams are the co-authors of an article titled "Intuitive symbolic magnitude judgments and decision making under risk in adults," published in Cognitive Psychology, 118, in May 2020. Barth; Williams; postdoctoral fellow Chenmu Xing; Jamie Hom '17, MA '18, Meghana Kandlur '18, Praise Owoyemi '18, Joanna Paul '18, Elizabeth Shackney '17, and Ray Alexander '18 are the co-authors of "Partition dependence in financial aid distribution to income categories," published in PLoS ONE 15, in April 2020. Barth; Patalano; Williams; Zax;…

This fall, the introductory-level course PSYC 105: Foundations of Contemporary Psychology is being taught entirely online to 200 students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After six weeks of remote lectures and interactive breakout sections via Zoom, Professors Steve Stemler and Sarah Carney who are team-teaching the course, hoped to break the "Zoom fatigue" routine and get their students physically interacting. So working together with the eight course TAs, they created a campus-wide psychological scavenger hunt. With the first wave of students participating on Oct 27, and other waves participating subsequently, more than 110 students participated in the activity in person,…

Associate Professor of Spanish María Ospina's collection of short stories, Azares del Cuerpo (Variations on the Body), was published in Spain in September 2020, after being previously published in Colombia, Chile, and Italy. The book also is forthcoming in the U.S. next summer by Coffee House Press. Azares del Cuerpo was reviewed in one of Spain’s most important national newspapers (El Mundo) on Oct. 30. Read more here. Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Smith Curator of Paleontology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History, and University Professor in the College of Integrative Sciences, is the…

Taking place in a divided nation amidst a global pandemic, the 2020 election was marked by extraordinarily high levels of voting, with record-breaking early and absentee voting in many states. As of press time on the morning of Nov. 4, major news organizations were reporting that several battleground states still hung in the balance and neither candidate had secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the election. On campus Nov. 3, approximately 600 students, faculty, staff, and local residents voted at Middletown's Voting District 14, located inside Beckham Hall in Fayerweather, according to Diana Martinez, assistant director of…

By Annie Roach '22 and Olivia Drake MALS '08 After the whirlwind of 2020, Wesleyan students—many of them first-time voters—were particularly eager to exercise their right to vote in the presidential election. While several students cast absentee ballots in their home states weeks ahead of time, others voted in person on Nov. 3. Marangela James '24 decided to vote in person in Connecticut, here on campus at Beckham Hall. She registered at Wesleyan earlier this semester, when some students had set up a voter registration table in front of Usdan. “It was a little bit hard navigating how to vote…

Led by the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships (JCCP), the University launched its new Engage 2020 (E2020) Initiative last fall to deepen Wesleyan’s commitment to civic engagement. To date, 33 students have already received funding to support the development of their civic literacy and their preparedness to engage in political life through hands-on experiences such as working to register voters, issues advocacy, and volunteering on political campaigns. E2020 encourages participation regardless of political affiliation or stances on specific issues. Since the initiative's inauguration, Wesleyan has joined forces with colleges and universities across the U.S. to reaffirm the University's collective responsibility…

Four faculty, two alumni, and one graduate student participated in the virtual Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting held Oct. 22–31. As part of a panel addressing contemporary musical issues in Iran, Bridgid Bergin MA '17 spoke about the Iranian Female Composers Association (IFCA), which was established in 2017 by three female-identifying Iranian composers: Anahita Abbasi, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Aida Shirazi. IFCA supports Iranian female-identifying composers by encouraging organizers and ensembles in Iran and beyond to commission and engage these composers in collaborations, while also discovering and mentoring young female composers who are fighting against all odds to become contemporary classical…

Angie Makomenaw, mental health education and prevention coordinator, joined Wesleyan's Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) in January 2020. She talks about her goals in this new position, the uniquely challenging circumstances affecting students' mental health, and how CAPS is reaching and supporting students during the pandemic. You are Wesleyan’s first mental health education and prevention coordinator. Please tell us about your role and what needs on campus you were hired to address. This position was created out of an understanding of the importance of prevention in mental health. I am accountable for organizing initiatives for the Wes community in the…

As a lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships is sponsoring an Engage 2020 (E2020) Speaker Series featuring an array of public figures from diverse backgrounds, all with compelling messages about the urgency of this moment, and the power of students and young people to affect change. Topics for this ongoing series include voter education and registration in battleground states; elections under threat; post-debate conversations with Wesleyan faculty; religion, diversity, and democracy; strategizing politics; discussing the election and staying friendly; young voters; criminal justice and the 2020 elections; and more. The E2020 Speaker Series is…

Campus Urged to Stay Vigilant; COVID-19 Testing Site Moved Indoors

“You Just Have to Read This…” Books by Wesleyan Authors Desai ’03, Logan ’16, and Savarese ’86

2 Wesleyan University Press Books Win 4 Awards

Hot off the Press: Papers by Psychology Faculty, Alumni Published in Journals

Psychological Scavenger Hunt Helps Alleviate Zoom Fatigue

Hot off the Press: Short Stories by Ospina; Research Articles by Thomas

Wesleyan Community Participates in Historic 2020 Election

Students Reflect on Presidential Election Voting Experience

E2020 Experiences Shape Students’ Views of the Election

7 Wesleyan Faculty, Alumni, Graduate Student Make Presentations at SEM Annual Meeting

Makomenaw Focuses on Resilience Building, Prevention in Student Mental Health

Watch Engage 2020 Speaker Series Recordings