Faculty – Page 64

Stanley Scott, private lessons teacher in music, authored a chapter titled “Modernism in South Asian Art Music,” published in the The Modernist World, part of the Routledge Worlds series, in 2015. Scott traces modernism in South Asian art music from its 18th century roots to the 21st century. The examples, drawn from Pakistan, North India and Bangladesh, represent parallel developments throughout South Asia. The seeds of South Asian modernism were sown in 18th century Calcutta, with the emergence of British orientalist scholarship and the development of the urban South Asian intelligentsia. The orientalist discovery of India’s “golden age” allowed Hindu nationalists to find inspiration in an…

In recognition of their career achievements, five faculty members are being appointed to endowed professorships, effective July 1: Stephen Angle, professor of philosophy and East Asian studies, is receiving the Mansfield Freeman Professorship in East Asian Studies, established in 1986. Lisa Cohen, associate professor of English, is receiving the Douglas J. and Midge Bowen Bennet Chair. The Bennet Chair, endowed in 2007, is awarded for a five-year term to a newly tenured associate professor exhibiting exceptional achievement and evidence of future promise. Andrew Curran, professor of French and outgoing Dean of Arts and Humanities, is receiving the William Armstrong Professorship…

Seventy-five years after Sigmund Freud's death, the father of psychoanalysis' couch has remained a powerful symbol in our culture. The public radio show 99% Invisible interviewed President Michael Roth, a Freud historian, for an episode exploring the history and cultural significance of Freud's couch. Freud, and others of his time, used a couch as part of hypnosis--a cutting edge but controversial treatment. One of Freud's patients, a wealthy woman named Franny Moser who was struggling from multiple ailments, proved difficult to hypnotize. "He wasn't a very good hypnotist. He was kind of a clumsy hypnotist," explained Roth. "Freud would say, 'You're getting sleepy,…

Richard Grossman, professor of economics, recently presented a talk titled, "An historical perspective on regulatory competition versus cooperation: the view from economics" at the third annual Conference of the University Research Priority Program. The conference, held June 1-2 at the University of Zurich Institute of Law, was titled, "International Aspects of Financial Regulation: Competition vs. Coordination." Grossman's talk focused on cross-border cooperation between international bank regulators in the wake of the U.S. subprime and European debt crises—an effort to enhance banking stability. Examples include the Basel capital accords and European Stability Mechanism. Grossman put these into historical context by looking at…

In a blog post on Africa is a Country, Professor of Anthropology Gina Athena Ulysse reflects on two horrific stories in the news: the mass deportation of thousands of migrant workers and their families of Haitian background from the Dominican Republic, and the killing of nine people in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. The "ethnic purging" taking place in the Dominican Republic, writes Ulysse, "is a rejection of a certain kind of Black. Blackness that is too African." She continues: Despite our somatic plurality and the color gradations we encompass, Haiti and Haitians have always been portrayed and understood as that…

Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, wrote in The Hartford Courant about Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change--"a very valuable and much needed injection of morality into the scientific and economic discussions on climate change — it is quite likely a game-changer." While scientists, economists and other professionals have long made a case for taking action to reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change, Yohe writes, "The pope's encyclical adds a moral dimension to this case with nearly 200 pages of inspiring text about man's pollution and the immorality of emissions. He notes that the…

Tom Morgan, the Foss Professor of Physics, is spending the month of June as a visiting professor at Seikei University in Tokyo, Japan. He is collaborating with Professor Tomoyuki Murakami on modeling the evolution of plasma (an assembly of ions and electrons) created by injecting energy into water, "a substance with many interesting properties and applications," Morgan explained. The work focuses on water in both the vapor phase and as a liquid. Morgan also is collaborating on this experimental work with Professor of Physics Lutz Huwel at Wesleyan. Huwel uses a pulse of laser light to provide the energy input to the water. "The…

Katja Kolcio, associate professor of dance, associate professor of environmental studies, was invited to attend White House Ethnic Day on June 2. The event brought together about 160 leaders from various ethnic communities for a discussion on immigration reform and foreign policy. The foreign policy discussion dealt predominantly with Ukraine, Kolcio’s area of interest.

On June 15, Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies, received a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (part of the National Institutes of Health) to support her research on “Inhibition of (the enzyme) HeptosyltransferaseI for the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infection.” Gram-Negative bacteria include things like E. coli, Salmonella, and V. cholerae (the cause of Cholera) that are common causes of food-bourne illnesses. The grant, worth $492,000 will enable her to engage multiple graduate and undergraduate students in the proposed work through June 2018. Preliminary results for this project were obtained…

The Wesleyan Writers Conference celebrated its 59th year by welcoming more than 60 new and seasoned writers and others interested in the writer’s craft to the Wesleyan campus June 10-14. Headed by Wesleyan Writers Conference Director Anne Greene, adjunct professor of English and director of Writing Programs, the conference featured seminars, workshops, readings, panel discussions and manuscript consultations led by Wesleyan faculty and other nationally known writers, editors and agents. Conference topics included the novel, short story, poetry, nonfiction, memoir, biography, journalism, writing for film and TV, new media, writing about food and travel, writing about science and medicine, preparing your work for…

Fifth graders from Snow Elementary School in Middletown toured Wesleyan’s astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics departments on June 8. (more…)

Professor of Anthropology Gina Athena Ulysse was recently invited to guest edit a double issue of the journal e-misférica on the theme of Caribbean rasanblaj, to which three of her Wesleyan colleagues also contributed. The journal e-misférica is an online publication of New York University's Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, a "collaborative, multilingual and interdisciplinary network of institutions, artists, scholars, and activists throughout the Americas. Working at the intersection of scholarship, artistic expression and politics, the organization explores embodied practice-performance as a vehicle for the creation of new meaning and the transmission of cultural values, memory and identity." For several years, Ulysse has been involved with the…

Scott Published in Routledge’s The Modernist Reader

5 Faculty Receive Endowed Professorships

President Roth Discusses the History of Freud’s Couch

Grossman Presents Papers in Switzerland, Norway

Ulysse Reflects on Violence Against Blacks in Charleston, Dominican Republic

Yohe: Pope’s Encyclical on Climate Change ‘Quite Likely a Game-Changer’

Morgan Models the Evolution of Plasma as a Visiting Professor in Tokyo

Kolcio Attends White House Event, Presents Research in Ukraine

NIH Grant will Support Taylor’s Drug Treatment Research

Conference Teaches Participants about New Media, Fiction Writing, Journalism

Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Astronomy Departments Teach Fifth Graders About Science

Ulysse Guest Edits Double Issue of Journal e-misferica