Campus News & Events

J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, professor and chair of American studies, recently presented her research at a conference in Loughborough University on Decolonizing Anarchisms. The gathering was the fifth annual conference of the UK Anarchist Studies Network. The purpose of the conference was “to stimulate discussion of colonialism and racism as forms of oppression that anarchists oppose, but which continue to be felt in anarchist organizing; and to welcome individuals, groups and communities who have not previously participated in ASN events. By recognizing the legacy of non-western and anti-colonial thought and action in the anarchist tradition, we want to strengthen the ties…

The United Nations has named Ahmed Badr ’20 to the 17 Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), class of 2018. The UN Young Leaders, a flagship initiative of the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, recognizes young people for their exceptional leadership and contributions to a more sustainable world. “It's an absolute pleasure and privilege to be selected for this program,” said Badr, who is the second youngest UN Young Leader ever and the only Iraqi and American in this year's class. “It's an immense honor and responsibility to be a representative of these multiple identities and…

Wesleyan hosted its annual Homecoming celebration Oct. 20 on campus. The Cardinals took on Little Three rival Amherst College during this year's Homecoming game. Other highlights included: Athletics Hall of Fame Ceremony and Dinner Alumni Volunteer Leaders Meeting Team Tailgates hosted by baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball, football, lacrosse, softball, and swimming and diving. Reception Honoring Leadership Donors and Volunteers Alpha Delta Phi Reception and Banquet Dinner Guided Gallery Tour: Kahlil Robert Irving Exhibition View the photo gallery below or on Wesleyan's Flickr Album. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wesleyanuniversity/sets/72157696770950170

More than 2,000 parents, family members, friends, and alumni attended Family Weekend 2018 Sept. 28–30 on campus. Activities included campus tours, WESeminar lectures, panel discussions, performances, a Wesleyan Summer Grants showcase, an Alumni and Student of Color Celebration, the 8th Annual Stone A Cappella Concert, the 26th Annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium presenting "Black Phoenix Rising," and much more. In Family Weekend athletic news, all four home contests (football, field hockey, and men’s and women’s soccer) saw hard-fought battles against Hamilton. Hamilton blocked a Wesleyan punt and recovered it in the end zone with just 1:34 to play in regulation as the Continentals…

Wesleyan's volleyball team won its second consecutive Little Three Championship Sept. 30 following a 3-0 sweep over archrival Amherst College on the road. The Cardinals (10-2) remain perfect in NESCAC play with a 5-0 mark. Shortly after, they saw their 10-match win streak come to an end as they fell to non-conference foe Endicott College, 3-1. With Wesleyan's win over Williams earlier this year, 3-1, the Cardinals claim the Little Three title for the second year in a row and third all-time. (more…)

Two Wesleyan graduate students and two faculty members presented posters at the GSA Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting held at Stanford University on Aug. 22–26. This meeting, which is held once every two years, is organized by the Genetics Society of America (GSA). The meeting brings together hundreds of scientists making groundbreaking discoveries in the field of genetics and gene regulation using the innovative power of yeast genetics. Both students received a travel grant through Wesleyan’s Melnick Fund to support travel to the conference. Lorencia Chigweshe presented a poster titled “Interactions between histone variant H2A.Z and linker histone H1…

Joseph Weiss, assistant professor of anthropology, is the author of Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii: Life beyond Settler Colonialism, published by the University of British Columbia Press in September 2018. Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii shows how an indigenous nation in British Columbia not only continues to have a future but is at work building many different futures—for themselves and for their non-indigenous neighbors. The project emerges from an almost decade-long relationship between Weiss and the citizens of the Haida Nation of Haida Gwaii, a series of islands off the west coast of Canada. Weiss explores these possible futures…

Wesleyan faculty Stephen Angle and Megan Glick are participating in a Global Human Rights Teach-Out Oct. 17–20, hosted on Coursera. The Teach-Out will address the various dimensions of human rights. Participants will join citizens from all over the world to contribute to an online discussion on various human rights with scholarly input in the form of podcasts from over 20 academic instructors, including some contributions from advocacy groups addressing the urgency of issues. The event will end with a live-streamed discussion, hosted in The Hague by Leiden University, where participants can ask questions of some of the speakers as well as…

Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair. In a new article,Suzanne O'Connell, professor of earth and environmental sciences, writes about the important findings that have resulted from 50 years of scientific drilling on the ocean floor—and how much is still unknown. Scientists have been drilling into the ocean floor for 50 years – here’s what they’ve found so far It’s stunning but true that we know more about the surface of the moon than about the Earth’s ocean floor. Much of what we do…

Artwork by Artist-in-Residence Keiji Shinohara is on display at the Deerfield Academy's von Auersperg Gallery in Deerfield, Mass., through Oct. 29. The exhibit, titled Whispers of the Infinite, features multiple woodcuts and monotypes that Shinohara created while participating in residencies in Denmark over the past two summers. Shinohara was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. After 10 years as an apprentice to the renowned Keiichiro Uesugi in Kyoto, he became a Master Printmaker and moved to the U.S. Shinohara's natural abstractions are printed on rice paper with water-based inks from woodblocks in the Ukiyo-e style–the traditional Japanese printmaking method dating to 600 CE.…

Like planet Earth, the geology of Venus is diverse; consisting of areas of flat plains and deformed, mountain-like terrains called tesserae. And like Earth, Mars, and the Moon, Venus is checkered with hundreds of craters. “What's odd about Venus's craters, is that craters we do see are relatively young, indicating the surface of Venus has been covered by planet-wide volcanic flows," says Martha "Marty" Gilmore, George I. Seney Professor of Geology, professor of earth and environmental sciences. “The tesserae are the only terrains older than these volcanic flows and thus our only hope at accessing rocks from the first billion…

Since his filmmaking debut at the age of 11, Ishan Modi '22 has directed more than 20 short films. And the prospective film and history major has yet to call his creative talent "a wrap." On Sept. 22, Modi's short film Just Stories (2017) was shown at the LA Film Festival's 2018 Future Filmmakers Showcase, a special screening of films made by talented high school students from across the globe. The film features a senior couple who—after a lively visit with their grandchildren—experience the isolation and uncertainty of old age. In addition to screening at the LA Film Festival, Just Stories also…

Kauanui Presents Paper at Decolonizing Anarchisms Conference

Badr ’20 Named UN Young Leader for Sustainable Development Goals

2018 Homecoming Game Features Cardinals vs. Amherst on Oct. 20

Athletic Contests, WESeminars, and Other Highlights of 2018 Family Weekend

Volleyball Wins 2nd Consecutive Little Three Title

Graduate Students, Faculty Attend Yeast Genetics Meeting

Weiss Pens Book on Indigenous Peoples’ Futures on Canadian Islands

Angle, Glick to Speak at Human Rights Teach-Out

O’Connell in The Conversation: What Scientists Have Found by Drilling into the Ocean Floor

Shinohara’s Woodcuts, Monotypes on Exhibit

Gilmore, Greenwood Recipients of NASA Grant to Map Venus’s Craters

Film by Modi ’22 Screened at LA Film Festival’s Future Filmmakers Showcase