Campus News & Events

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…

Three Wesleyan music graduate students and two faculty were accepted to present at the Society for Ethnomusicology's 2018 Annual Meeting Nov. 15–18 in Albuquerque, N.M. Bianca Iannitti will present a case study on the queer Indian-American DJ, Bianca Maieli, in order to explore the queer female identity within Desi music and virtual spaces. Gene Lai, MA '16, will present a study titled "Disdained at Home Embraced by Motherland: The Revitalized Tamil Folk Drumming Ensemble in Singapore." And Douglas Kiman will present a study titled "Mapping Klezmer Music in Contemporary Europe: A Case Study of the Jazz’n Klezmer Festival." He will also be presenting at the Society…

More than 2,000 parents, families, friends, and alumni are attending Family Weekend, a three-day celebration of the Wesleyan experience, Sept. 28-30 Highlights include: WESeminar lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and performances Gordon Career Center Open House and Wesleyan Summer Grants Showcase Tailgating Friends of the Wesleyan Library Book Sale Campus tours Football, soccer, and field hockey vs. Hamilton College Lunches and brunches with families and friends The 26th Annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium presenting Black Phoenix Rising Alumni and Student of Color Celebration The 8th Annual Stone A Cappella Concert For a full schedule of events, visit www.wesleyan.edu/fw2018. View the photo gallery…

Next summer, Wesleyan will assume leadership of the Center for Creative Youth (CCY), a precollege residential program that offers four weeks of intensive study in the arts. CCY, a program created by the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), has been hosted on the Wesleyan campus since its inception in 1976. Wesleyan will oversee the noncredit program for camps beginning in summer 2019. (more…)

Adrian Peter Standaart, private lessons teacher of flute, passed away Sept. 16 at the age of 70. Standaart was born in Richmond, Va., and grew up in Asheville, N.C. He was of Dutch descent and came from a musical family; his father was an organ builder and his mother an organist. He was educated at Duke University, the North Carolina School for the Arts, and Yale University. Standaart came to Wesleyan in 1975 and continued to teach flute until shortly before his death. "His knowledge of the flute literature was encyclopedic, and his influence as a pedagogue and a champion of…

For her ongoing contributions to the philosophical foundations of psychology, Jill Morawski, Wilbur Fisk Osborne Professor and professor of psychology, is the recipient of two distinguished awards. Morawski was most recently honored with the American Psychological Association Division 24 Award for Distinguished Theoretical and Philosophical Contributions to Psychology. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the APA, at which Professor Morawski delivered an invited address, “Chasing Psychology’s Objects: The Quest for Ontological Certainty.” It is the division's highest award and recognizes one of its members each year for lifetime scholarly achievement. Morawski also received the American Psychological Foundation’s 2017 Joseph B.…

On Sept. 20-21, core members of the Grammy-nominated Haitian "roots" band Boukman Eksperyans, along with the band leaders’ son Paul Beaubrun (band leader of Zing Eksperyans), engaged with several groups on campus. Boukman, founded in 1978, is one of Haiti’s best-known bands and performs traditional Vodou rhythms with pop, reggae, and blues. After learning that the group was touring between Brooklyn, N.Y., and Montreal, Canada, faculty from African American Studies and the Music Department invited and coordinated their visit at Wesleyan. On Thursday, band members led a workshop for students enrolled in the West African Music and Culture course, taught by John Dankwa, adjunct…

Suicide and Resilience: Finding the Words was the topic of the 2018 Shasha Seminar, held Sept. 14-15 on campus. Endowed by James Shasha '50, P'82, the Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns supports lifelong learning and encourages participants to expand their knowledge and perspectives on significant issues. The educational forum provides Wesleyan alumni, parents, and friends with an opportunity to explore issues of global concern in a small seminar environment, The seminar was codirected by Karl Scheibe, professor of psychology, emeritus, and Jennifer D’Andrea, director of Wesleyan’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), the seminar, held Sept. 14-15, (Photos by Olivia Drake, Rebecca Goldfarb…

On Thursday, Sept. 20, Wesleyan University launched a new home page, part of a broader core messaging effort to update and strengthen University-wide communications. The home page design process was driven by rigorous analysis of usage statistics and by examining best practices for websites. The home page’s state-of-the-art functionality is intended to differentiate Wesleyan in an increasingly crowded and competitive higher education landscape, and to highlight the University’s distinctive qualities. (more…)

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

Graduate Students, Faculty to Present Studies at Society for Ethnomusicology’s Annual Meeting

Campus Community Celebrates Family Weekend Sept. 28-30

Wesleyan to Assume Leadership of Center for Creative Youth (CCY)

Standaart Remembered for Teaching Flute at Wesleyan for 43 Years

Morawski Honored for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology Research

Haitian Musicians Lead Drumming Workshop, Performance for Students

Shasha Seminar Explores Suicide, Resilience through Film, Narrative, Community, Research

Wesleyan Launches New Home Page