Faculty – Page 32

On Oct. 16, Richard Grossman, chair and professor of economics, discussed the latest unemployment numbers and current state of the economy with Todd Feinburg at WTIC in Hartford. This month, the national unemployment rate has fallen to a new low—3.5%. "Historically, and certainly for the last 10 years, the number peaked at 10% after the financial crisis, and it's been working its way down ever since," Grossman said. "That doesn't mean all is wonderful if you're in the labor force. There's a lot of other things going on ... people working part-time who would like to be working full-time ...…

On Oct. 3, Christiaan Hogendorn, associate professor of economics, presented a paper titled "Unequal Growth in Local Wages: Rail versus Internet Infrastructure" for the City College of New York's Economics Department. David Schwartz ’17 co-authored the paper. And on Oct. 12, Hogendorn presented a paper titled "The Long Tail of Online News Visits” at the 17th Media Economics Workshop in Braga, Portugal. The paper was co-authored by Hengyi Zhu ’15 and Lisa George of Hunter College. He also served as a discussant for a panel on Network-Mediated Knowledge Spillovers in ICT/Information Security.

Charles Barber, writer-in-residence in letters, is the author of a new book that tells the dramatic story of William Juneboy Outlaw III. Formerly the head of a major cocaine gang in New Haven, Outlaw turned his life around and now is an award-winning community advocate, leading a team of former felons who negotiate truces between gangs on the very streets that he once terrorized. Barber wrote Citizen Outlaw: One Man's Journey from Gangleader to Peacekeeper, published Oct. 15 by HarperCollins, in collaboration with Outlaw. The two gave a WESeminar and book signing on Nov. 1 at Russell House as part…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News 1. The Nation: "Edward Snowden Deserves to Be Tried by a Jury of His Peers, Just Like Everyone Else" In this op-ed, Associate Professor of Government Sonali Chakravarti argues against the Justice Department's decision to deny Edward Snowden's request for a jury trial. She contends that in Snowden's case, in which he is accused of leaking classified information from the National Security Administration in 2013, a jury trial "is not only a viable alternative to a hearing…

For the second time, an author whose work Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, Emerita, translated, has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Austrian author Peter Handke on October 10 "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience," according to the Nobel committee. Handke has become "one of the most influential writers in Europe after the Second World War," the committee said. Winston, who specializes in literary translation, began translating Handke after his long-time English…

Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Suzanne O'Connell has written a new article for The Conversation's "Curious Kids" series answering the question "How deep is the ocean?" The article is based on her research studying the sea floor. Curious Kids: How deep is the ocean? Explorers started making navigation charts showing how wide the ocean was more than 500 years ago. But it’s much harder to calculate how deep it is. If you wanted to measure the…

With support from a $2 million John Templeton Foundation National Sciences grant, Professor of Biology Sonia Sultan will spearhead a multi-institution evolutionary biology research project over the next three years. The project, titled "Agency in Living Systems: How Organisms Actively Generate Adaptation, Resilience and Innovation at Multiple Levels of Organization," developed from Sultan's research on how individual organisms respond to their environments. Sultan and her Wesleyan research group study this question through experiments with the common plant Polygonum. Sultan's previous findings have shown that genetically identical Polygonum plants can develop very differently depending on their growth conditions, allowing adaptive adjustments…

On Sept. 26, the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore hosted a public discussion between Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78 and Roxanne Coady, founder of RJ Julia Booksellers, on Roth’s new book and the crises facing higher education today. Roth's new book, Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist's Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses, was published Aug. 20 by Yale University Press. In the book, Roth takes a pragmatic and empathetic approach to the challenges facing higher education. He offers important historical, sociological, and economic context, as well as firsthand observations from his decades as a higher ed…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News The Hill: "Analysis: 2020 Digital Spending Vastly Outpaces TV Ads" The Hill reports on a new analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project, which finds that 2020 presidential hopefuls have spent nearly six times more money on Facebook and Google advertising than on TV ads. President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee lead the way in digital advertising, having spent nearly $16 million so far. All told, Facebook and Google have raked in over $60 million…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News The Washington Post: "How the NRA Highjacked History" In this op-ed, Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker writes about the history of the legal debate over the Second Amendment, and explains how the court's understanding of that history may shape the nation's response to the current gun violence epidemic. Her op-ed was reported on in The Trace. 2. The Hill: "A Tragic Misperception About Climate Change" Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental…

This fall, Wesleyan welcomes 48 new faculty to campus. Of those, there are 16 tenure-track, 10 professors of the practice, one artist-in-residence, one adjunct, and 20 new visiting faculty members. The new faculty bring a diverse skill set to campus. Among them are experts in international political economy; Indian cinema and film; environmental archaeology and ancient DNA; German poetry and aesthetic theory of the 18th century; music and expressive culture in Kazakhstan; politics in the African diaspora; Russian and Anglo-American literature; physiological and psychological effects of alcohol; and digital video production. In addition, three are Wesleyan alumni. Bios of the…

On Sept. 3, during the first faculty meeting of the fall semester, three Wesleyan professors were honored with the Wesleyan Prize for Excellence in Research. The faculty-nominated prize is presented to members of the faculty who demonstrate the highest standards of excellence in their research, scholarship, and contributions to their field. Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for academic affairs Rob Rosenthal acknowledged the recipients during the faculty meeting. Each winner received a plaque and funding for his or her research. This year's recipients include: Natasha Korda, professor of English, plays a highly visible role in keeping scholarship on Renaissance…

Grossman Discusses Latest Unemployment Trends on WTIC Radio

Hogendorn Presents Economics Papers in New York and Portugal

Barber Authors New Book on ‘One Man’s Journey from Gangleader to Peacekeeper’

Wesleyan in the News

Author Translated by Winston Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

O’Connell in The Conversation: How Deep is the Ocean?

Sultan to Lead $2M Evolutionary-Developmental Biology Project

President Roth Discusses New Book, Higher Education

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan Welcomes 48 New Faculty, Postdocs, Scholars

3 Wesleyan Faculty Honored with Prizes for Excellence in Research