Faculty – Page 57

Tom Morgan, Foss Professor of Physics, recently attended the 68th Gaseous Electronics Conference of the American Physical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii and presented a poster dealing with the behavior of giant atoms with an electron far from the nucleus in phase space. Andrew Murphy '11 and Jace Haestad '11 contributed to the study. Phase space is a momentum-velocity space that provides a different perspective on atomic behavior. Looking at atoms from this viewpoint provides a mechanism to uncover new insight into their quantum nature. Morgan also took the opportunity to reconnect with a Japanese colleague, Professor Tomoyuki Murakami, at Seikei University, Tokyo,…

Richard Grossman, professor of economics, and Masami Imai, professor and chair of economics, professor of East Asian studies, are the authors of an op-ed published in The Guardian about House Speaker John Boehner's likely next move when he retires from Congress. The op-ed is titled "Whoever hires John Boehner post-Congress will make a terrible investment." They anticipate that, like most former members of Congress and high ranking members of the executive branch, Boehner is likely to have his pick of lucrative job offers—to become an investment banker, lobbyist or corporate adviser. "But for any of these companies, John Boehner would be…

This election cycle, those presidential candidates who use the simplest language are performing best in the polls, an analysis by The Boston Globe found. "There's no time to explain in modern politics," Elvin Lim, associate professor of government, told the Globe. On the Republican side, front-runner Donald Trump's speeches, with short, simple words and sentence, could be understood by a fourth grader, according to the Flesch-Kincaid readability test. In comparison, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore, who are struggling in the polls, communicate with voters at a 10th grade level. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's speeches are "just right for eighth graders," while Bernie Sanders…

During the Society for Neuroscience's (SfN) annual meeting Oct. 17-21, Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, received the Louise Hansen Marshall Special Recognition Award. The Louise Hanson Marshall Special Recognition Award honors individuals who have significantly promoted the professional development of women in neuroscience through teaching, organizational leadership, public advocacy and more. Naegele shares the 2015 Louise Hansen Marshall award with Paul Greengard P'77, P'79, GP '08, the Vincent Astor Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York. Naegele began her career studying the characteristics of cortical neurons and more recently has performed pioneering studies of transplantation of inhibitory…

NPR's "Hidden Brain" program took a look at the science of compassion in a program featuring Professor of Psychology Scott Plous and the "Day of Compassion" exercise that he leads in his social psychology courses at Wesleyan and in his Social Psychology MOOC on Coursera. "Scott radiates kindness," said host and science correspondent Shankar Vedantam in introducing Plous. More than 250,000 students from around the world signed up for the first run of Plous' MOOC. The course capstone was the Day of Compassion exercise in which "students had to spend one day being deliberately kind and generous toward others. Scott asked them to notice how these actions…

Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies will host its annual symposium on Nov. 6. This year’s topic is “Mass Incarceration: Feminists Respond.” The event is free and open to the public. "As Angela Davis has written, state punishment is not marginal, but central, to feminist concerns," said Victoria Pitts-Taylor, professor and chair of Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, of the program's theme. "To begin with, the number of incarcerated women has been growing rapidly, with over one million women in the U.S. in jail, prison, on probation or on parole, and with black women the fastest growing group of those imprisoned.…

Eugene Klaaren, associate professor of religion, emeritus, died Oct. 18 at the age of 78. Klaaren taught at Wesleyan from 1968 until he retired in 2006. Klaaren's courses introduced students to central Christian thinkers in the history of theology and philosophy, from Martin Luther to Soren Kierkegaard, John Calvin to David Hume and Jonathan Edwards, and Friedrich Schleiermacher to Friedrich Nietzsche. (more…)

Joyce Jacobsen has accepted an appointment as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs through June of 2019. Jacobsen joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1993 as an assistant professor of economics and in 2003 became the Andrews Professor of Economics. More recently, she served as Dean of Social Sciences and Director of Global Initiatives. A scholar of the economics of gender and employment, she is the author or co-editor of three books, including The Economics of Gender, Third Edition (2007), as well as numerous journal articles, book chapters, reviews and essays. Her outstanding contributions as an inspiring scholar-teacher were recognized…

Associate Professor of Economics Abigail Hornstein presented a paper at the 2015 American Financial Management Association Meeting, held in Orlando, Fla. Oct. 14–17. Hornstein's research paper, titled "Board Overlaps in Mutual Fund Families," is co-authored with Elif Sisli Ciamarra of Brandeis University. Hornstein also was a discussant on a paper titled "Mutual fund home bias and market uncertainty" by Nicole Choi of the University of Wyoming and Hilla Skiba of Colorado State University.

Norman Shapiro, professor of French and the Distinguished Professor of Literary Translation, collected and translated a book, Fe-Lines: French Cat Poems through the Ages. The collection was published by University of Illinois Press in October 2015. The French have long had a love affair with the cat, expressed through centuries of poetry portraying the animal's wit and wonder. Spanning centuries and styles, Shapiro reveals a remarkable range of French cat poems, with most works presented for the first time in English translation. Scrupulously devoted to evoking the meaning and music of the originals, Shapiro also respects the works' formal structures. Pairing Shapiro's…

This month, Lori Gruen accepted a three-year appointment as a Faculty Fellow at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine's Center for Animals and Public Policy. Gruen is the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, and professor of environmental studies at Wesleyan. She also coordinates Wesleyan Animal Studies. The mission of the Tufts University's Center for Animals and Public Policy (CAPP) is to conduct and encourage scholarly evaluation and understanding of the complex societal issues and public policy dimensions of the changing role and impact of animals in society. As a Faculty Fellow, Gruen will explore human-animal relationships with Tufts…

Professor of Economics Richard Grossman provided an "expert view" on the question "Will Japan's economy rebound under Abenomics and resume its growth?" in an issue of SAGE Business Researcher on "Doing Business With Japan." Japan's economy has performed poorly during the past two decades, and many wonder if it will ever "recover its former glory." Grossman took the affirmative view, arguing "there is good reason to believe that Japan will emerge from its funk and achieve growth rates similar to those of its counterparts in the developed world." He writes that the prospects for success depend on the effectiveness of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's…

Morgan Presents Phase Space Research at Gaseous Electronics Conference

Grossman, Imai Write About Boehner’s Next Move

Elvin Lim Talks to Globe About Presidential Candidate Rhetoric

Naegele Honored by Society for Neuroscience

Plous and the Science of Compassion Featured on NPR

“Mass Incarceration: Feminists Respond” Focus of FGSS Symposium Nov. 6

Klarren Remembered for Introducing Students to Religious Thinkers

Jacobsen Appointed Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Hornstein Presents at American Financial Management Association Meeting

Shapiro Translates Collection of French Cat Poems

Gruen Named Faculty Fellow at Tufts’ Center for Animals

Grossman Has Optimistic Outlook for “Abenomics”