Slobin Honored for 45 Years at Wesleyan

Mark Slobin, the Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, was honored April 16 with “Ideas on the Move,” a conference celebrating his career and many accomplishments. Slobin will retire from Wesleyan June 30. Slobin is an ethnomusicologist who has written extensively on the subject of East European Jewish music and klezmer music, as well as the music of Afghanistan. The daylong event featured talks by alumni from as far back as 45 years. Topics included “Mark’s Metaphors: Visual Poetics, Pedagogy and Theoretical Clarity;” “ONCE Upon a Time: Mark Slobin’s Experimental Ethnomusicology;" “How Mark Slobin Became an Ethnomusicologist;" and “Growing Up With Mark." A concert, featuring Irish,…

On the weekend of April 15-16, the CFA theater was home to the spring faculty dance concert, Storied Places. In addition to the dance, which was choreographed and directed by Chair and Associate Professor of Dance, Associate Professor of African American Studies, and Environmental Studies Nicole Stanton, the performance also featured original compositions and musical direction by Adjunct Professor of Music and African American Studies Jay Hoggard ’76. Adding a further layer of texture was narrative text, written and performed by Chair and Class of 1958 Distinguished Professor of African American Studies, Professor of English and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and…

Lisa Dierker, professor of psychology, director of pilot programs for the Center for Pedagogical Innovation, and Ishita Mukerji, the Fisk Professor of Natural Science, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, professor of integrative sciences, were both honored at the 12th annual Women of Innovation Awards. Presented by the Connecticut Technology Council, the awards celebrate the energy, creativity and success of women and students from Connecticut's science and technology community. Both professors were honored in the category of Academic Innovation and Leadership. The celebration was held April 6 in Plantsville, Conn. Dierker was honored for her work developing a curriculum to introduce students to…

The 74th annual Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) conference in Chicago April 7-10 was attended by several Wesleyan faculty members, students and recent alumni. The conference, held every April, is one of the largest political science conferences with more than 5,000 presenters from throughout the United States and around the world. It is traditionally held in Chicago's historic Palmer House Hilton. Assistant Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, Assistant Professor of Government Logan Dancey, and Assistant Professor of Government Yamil Velez all presented research at the conference. They were accompanied by Joli Holmes '17, John Murchison '16, Grace Wong '18,…

Katja Kolcio, associate professor of dance, associate professor of environmental studies, and a group of students attended the Ukraine in Washington forum at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on March 30, where Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivered the keynote address. Poroshenko was in Washington for President Barack Obama's Nuclear Summit. The trip was funded by the Dean of Social Sciences and the Dean of Arts and Humanities. According to Kolcio, the highlight of the trip occurred when Poroshenko responded to a question posed by Misha Iakovenko '18 about the president's efforts to deal with corruption, and a recent article that appeared in the Kyiv Post by gas company…

Professor of Music Sumarsam was named as a fellow in the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) 2015-2016 fellowship competition. He was chosen as one of 69 fellows from a pool of nearly 1,100 applicants through a rigorous, multi-stage peer review process. As a fellow, Sumarsam will receive the opportunity to spend six to 12 months researching and writing full time on the project of his choosing, the support of the ACLS’s endowment. The ACLS is dedicated to supporting scholars in the humanities and related social sciences at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels. Matthew Goldfeder, director of fellowship programs at…

The Atlantic education writer Alia Wong turned to President Michael S. Roth for his perspective in a three-part series on "Where the College Admissions Process Went Wrong." One critical problem is that the intense focus on the college application process means that rather than preparing themselves for college or for life, students are preparing simply for the "moment of admission." “What we want is to have students who want to come and work hard because they can leverage their experience at the university and do something after they leave,” said Roth. “One of my predecessors used to say to students, ‘If these turn…

Three Wesleyan students, faculty and several alumni recently attended the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. This conference brings together international specialists in petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, geology and astronomy to present the latest results of research in planetary science. The five-day conference was organized by topical symposia and problem-oriented sessions. Earth and environmental sciences graduate students Ben McKeeby and Shaun Mahmood, and earth and environmental science major Melissa Lowe ’17 presented their ongoing planetary science research at the conference. Lowe received a NASA CT Space Grant travel award to attend the conference. McKeeby shared his research titled, "An investigation…

Assistant Professor of Economics Karl Boulware recently presented research at the 24th Symposium of the Society of Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics, held March 10-11 at the University of Alabama. Boulware presented a paper titled, "Monetary Policy Surprises and the Shadow Bank Lending Channel: Evidence from the Fed Funds Futures Market" during a session on Monetary and Government Policy. The project is a refinement of research started by Kota Uno '16 during a QAC Summer Apprenticeship with Boulware.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Psyche Loui has long been interested in studying the intersection of music and emotions. In her latest study, published March 10 in Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, she identified specific connections in the brain between the auditory processing regions and regions for social and emotional processing. The article is titled, "Brain connectivity reflects human aesthetic responses to music." Loui, who also is assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, assistant professor of integrative sciences, has previously studied how music can cause chills, or similar strong physiological reactions in people when listening to music. Together with former thesis student…

Manju Hingorani, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, was featured in the “Coordinates” section of ASBMB Today, the monthly publication of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Here, Hingorani briefly reflected on her marriage and career through a haiku. Her haiku read: Home is where the lab is, was, will be, my partner he’s home too – elsewhere. She added, “I’m a professor of biochemistry, and my husband is a pharmacologist in the industry. We’ve lived under the same roof for about seven of our 19 years as a married couple. But it has been a fabulous life,…

Slobin Honored for 45 Years at Wesleyan

Stanton, Hoggard, Brown: ‘Storied Places’ Unites Dance, Music, Text of Collaborative Cluster

Siry Speaks on Energy and Modern Architecture

Dierker, Mukerji Honored as Women of Innovation

Faculty, Students, Alumni Attend Political Science Conference

Kolcio, Students Attend Ukraine in Washington Forum

Sumarsam Named Fellow in the American Council of Learned Societies

President Roth Comments in The Atlantic on College Admissions Process

Students, Faculty, Alumni Present Research at Planetary Science Conference

Boulware Presents Research at Symposium of the Society of Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics

Loui Studies How Brain Connectivity Reflects Aesthetic Responses to Music

Hingorani Reflects on Marriage, Career in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Journal