Campus News & Events

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News 1. Science Magazine: “India Plans Tricky and Unprecedented Landing Near Moon’s South Pole” James Greenwood, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, comments on India’s plans to unleash a rover into previously unexplored territory near the moon’s south pole. 2. Newsweek: “Putin Keeps His Foot Firmly Pressed on Europe’s Windpipe” Matthew Finkel ’18 writes that Moscow will likely be able to leverage its enormous energy exports to project soft power in Eastern Europe for years to…

Sustainability Across the Curriculum, a Jan. 23 workshop organized by Wesleyan's Sustainability Office and the Center for Pedagogical Innovation, provided faculty and instructors with the opportunity to discover ways to integrate sustainability into a variety of courses across academic disciplines. The workshop featured a panel highlighting work by faculty who participated in the first year of Sustainability Across the Curriculum and had integrated sustainability into their own courses, followed by small-group sessions offering brainstorming opportunities. The focus of the SATC program is to amend an existing course to include sustainability, explained Jennifer Kleindienst, Wesleyan's sustainability director, "The groups were divided into individuals…

Wesleyan's Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) received a two-year, $150,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. The award will support a new leadership fellowship program; three curatorial mini-intensives for prospective students; and two global curatorial forums designed to bring an international perspective to the discussion and dissemination of best practices and forge a global network of performing arts curators. This funding will further ICPP's efforts to advance diversity among participants and to amplify the graduate program's impact on the field of performance. "The Ford Foundation funding allows ICPP to support diverse perspectives in the field of performance curation, both…

Four former students who enrolled in the service-learning course AMST 250: Decolonizing Indigenous Middletown: Native Histories of the Wangunk Indian People—taught in fall 2015—are now co-authors of articles published in the Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut, No. 79, 2017. Iryelis Lopez ’17, Tiana Quinones '17, Abigail Cunniff ’17 and Yael Horowitz ’17 partnered with the Middlesex County Historical Society and spent their semester examining 17th- and 18th-century Middletown records that focused on the Algonquian peoples of the lower Connecticut River known as Wangunks. The Wangunks lived near the Connecticut River primarily in present-day Middletown and Portland, Conn. In February 2016, self-selected students…

The Wesleyan Media Project’s research is resonating in our nation’s capital and beyond. Associate Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, together with a team of Wesleyan students and colleagues at several institutions across the United States, conducts research on campaign advertising and health media, which is informing work in government, nonprofits and the private sector. In January, the Bipartisan Policy Center released a major report, The State of Campaign Finance in the U.S., which relied heavily on data and research from the Wesleyan Media Project. The task force that developed the report, led by a Stanford law professor and top…

Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, "Academic rigor, journalistic flair." Lori Gruen, the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, has written a piece explaining how philosophers determine what is the right, or ethical, thing to do. Gruen also is professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, professor of science in society, and coordinator of animal studies. Read her bio in The Conversation. How should we decide what to do? How many times do we wonder, "What’s the right thing to do?" Most of us are faced with ethical…

Care to brush up on your French? Learn Japanese? Or perhaps acquire a language that isn’t commonly taught at colleges, such as Danish? Wesleyan is offering alumni and members of the on-campus community free access to the Mango Languages platform, says Antonio Gonzalez, professor of Spanish and director of the Fries Center for Global Studies. The platform provides high-quality online instruction in 72 languages, with an excellent blend of conversational language and cultural study. Gonzalez says that reception of Mango as a teaching and learning tool "has been very positive on campus" and that it is an attractive means for…

On Jan. 27, the Athletic Department hosted its third annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration at the Freeman Athletic Center. As part of the celebration, more than 50 female Wesleyan student-athletes and coaches led a sports clinic for local grade-school children. Seventy-three girls participated in seven sports sessions on softball, field hockey, tennis, lacrosse, crew, volleyball and soccer. (more…)

For two hours every Saturday—and any early morning or late night shift available—Middletown resident Franco Liseo fills the airwaves of WESU 88.1 FM, with Italian music. His specialty is the sounds from the ’60s and ’70s; "Love songs," he says. "When I left Italy, I left with the music”—and he's been doing this for 30 years. The Saturday show is special; he broadcasts with a co-host, Lucilla Caminito, the daughter of a childhood friend, who Skypes in from Melilli. These shows feature contemporary music that Caminito chooses and sends to Liseo (whose DJ name is "Francaccio") via the internet, YouTube,…

Last fall, 19 students enrolled in the Earth and Environmental Sciences 280 course, Introduction to GIS, assisted a local organization while learning data analysis skills. At the start of the semester, the class teamed up with community partner Emma Kravet, education director at the Connecticut Forest & Park Association (CFPA). Kravet expressed a need for a mapping tool that shows the location of schools and other community resources near the CFPA's blue-blazed hiking trail system. If such a map existed, she could facilitate more meaningful connections to schools and organizations near the trails. The class broke into five thematic groups to…

Recognize the Wesleyan faculty who have had a lasting impact on your academic and personal development by nominating them for the 2018 Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching! Juniors, seniors, graduate students and Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) are invited to nominate up to three professors for 2018 Binswanger Prizes, which will be awarded during Wesleyan's Commencement Ceremony on May 27. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 12, 2018. NOMINATE NOW. The Binswanger Prize is made possible by gifts from the family of the late Frank Binswanger Sr. Hon. ’85 and underscores Wesleyan’s commitment to its scholar-teachers who are responsible for the university’s…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News 1. President Michael Roth publishes op-eds in The Washington Post titled, "We can't let cynics ruin college," and "What is college for? (Hint: It's not just about getting in.)." He also sat for an "On Leadership" interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2. The Conversation: "The dangerous belief that white people are under attack" Assistant Professor of Psychology Clara Wilkins writes about her research on perceptions of reverse discrimination in light of recent societal trends. 3. Marketplace: "Here comes the tax bill…

Wesleyan in the News

Sustainability Workshop Sparks Discussions, New Ideas

Ford Foundation Supports Wesleyan’s Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance

Research by Service-Learning Class Published in Archaeological Society Bulletin

Wesleyan Media Project Research Informing Work in Government, Private Sector

Lori Gruen in The Conversation: How Should We Decide What to Do?

Leverage Language Skills with Free Mango Platform

Student-Athletes Teach Sport Clinic for Girls

Liseo, Hardigg ’90 Share WESU Connection Spanning 3 Decades

Students Use Mapping Skills to Collaborate with Community Partner

Nominate Faculty for the 2018 Binswanger Prize

Wesleyan in the News