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Cynthia RockwellApril 2, 20184min
Dan Greenberger ’81 attended the Writers Guild Award as a nominee in the category of On-Air Promotion ("the TV equivalent of movie trailers," he explains) on Feb. 11, 2018. As an award veteran (he'd already won twice previously), Greenberger had done his homework: checked who was presenting his category and prepared an acceptance speech in case he won. Just before the ceremony, as people milled around the dinner tables, he ran into his Wesleyan senior-year housemate, Bradley Whitford ’81, who had news: the scheduled presenter in the on-air promotion category had canceled. Instead, "I'm presenting in your category," Whitford told…

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Cynthia RockwellApril 1, 20186min
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News Hartford Courant: "Extraordinary Life: He Had an Outsized Influence on Wesleyan, and Math" This article celebrates the life and accomplishments of Bob Rosenbaum, who has been called "the most influential and constructive faculty member at Wesleyan in the second half of the 20th century." In addition to teaching mathematics, he served as dean of students, provost, vice-president of academic affairs, and acting president. 2. WNPR's Where We Live: "Election Security, Prison Education, and an Explanation for 'Hyped' Winter Storms" Kristen Inglis, Wesleyan…

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Lauren RubensteinMarch 19, 20181min
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News USA Today: "Indiana Senate Race Generates Most Advertising in the Nation" A new Wesleyan Media Project report on early campaign advertising in the 2018 midterm elections is featured. 2. WNPR: "Wesleyan Remembers Its Poet Laureate, Richard Wilbur" (more…)

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Cynthia RockwellMarch 16, 20184min
Connecticut Public Radio tapped Joshua Boger ’73, P’06, ’09, chair emeritus of the Wesleyan Board of Trustees, for his recollections of a historic flight he had taken back in 2007 with noted physicist Stephen Hawking, who died March 14 at the age of 76. The flight had been sponsored by Zero Gravity Corporation and provided, for those on board, eight zero-G opportunities—or "eight brief windows of weightlessness," as WNPR correspondent Patrick Skahill described them in his story, “Remembering The Flight Where Stephen Hawking Went Weightless.” Boger had written in detail about the experience of this zero-G flight with Hawking in  "Weightless But Weighty" in Wesleyan magazine, 2007…

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Lauren RubensteinMarch 15, 20182min
Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” Janice Naegele, the Alan M. Dachs Professor of Science, writes about the implications of a controversial new neuroscience study from the University of California, San Francisco. Naegele also is professor of biology and professor of neuroscience and behavior. Read her bio on The Conversation. Scientists have known for about two decades that some neurons—the fundamental cells in the brain that transmit signals—are generated throughout life. But now a controversial new study from the University of California, San Francisco, casts doubt…

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Lauren RubensteinMarch 5, 20186min
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. Inside Higher Ed: "Against Conformity" President Michael Roth '78 reflects on the questioning of liberal education—both in China and the United States. 2. China Daily: "Stephen Angle: Practicing the Confucianism He Preaches" A top Chinese newspaper profiles Stephen Angle, Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of philosophy, from his early embrace of Confucianism and Chinese culture through his successful academic career. He was recently named Light of Civilization 2017 Chinese Cultural Exchange Person of the Year. 3. New…

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Lauren RubensteinMarch 1, 20182min
Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” Ahead of the 2018 Oscars ceremony that celebrates the best in film, The Conversation explores some of the worst film innovations of years past. Scott Higgins, director of the College of Film and the Moving Image, writes about Interfilm, a "choose your own adventure" theater technology that flopped in the early 1990s. Higgins is also the Charles W. Fries Professor of Film Studies, chair of Film Studies, and curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives. Read his bio on The Conversation.…

Lauren RubensteinFebruary 26, 20183min
Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” In a recent article, Professor of Government Giulio Gallarotti debunks the myth that Trump's protectionist tendencies fly in the face of America's tradition of free trade. Gallarotti is also co-chair of the College of Social Studies and professor of environmental studies. Read his bio in The Conversation. Trump's Protectionism Continues Long History of U.S. Rejection of Free Trade Free traders have vilified President Donald Trump as a pernicious protectionist because of policies such as hiking tariffs, abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership…

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Lauren RubensteinFebruary 16, 20187min
In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News Rolling Stone: "Bethesda Founder Christopher Weaver on the Past, Present and Future of Video Games" Christopher Weaver MALS '75, CAS '76, the Distinguished Professor of Computational Media in the College of Integrative Sciences, is profiled. 2. Transitions Online: "The Search for a New World Order, Then and Now" Peter Rutland, the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, writes that a century after President Woodrow Wilson promulgated his "14 points" to guarantee world…

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Lauren RubensteinFebruary 13, 20183min
Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” Amid a flood of accusations against public figures for sexual misconduct and other improprieties, Ashraf Rushdy, the Benjamin Waite Professor of the English Language, writes a piece exploring "the art of the public apology." Rushdy is also professor of English, professor of African American studies, and professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies. Read his bio in The Conversation. The art of the public apology Ashraf Rushdy, Wesleyan University Just prior to his sentencing, former USA…

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Cynthia RockwellFebruary 9, 20183min
Lyricist for the Grateful Dead and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow ’69 died Feb. 7, 2018. He was 70. A College of Letters major as an undergraduate, he collaborated with his friend from high school, Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, on lyrics for songs that included "Cassidy," "Mexicali Blues" and "Black-Throated Wind." In the 1980s Barlow was active in an early online community. Then in 1990, with John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor, founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In the summer 1994 issue of Wesleyan, an article, "Cognitive Dissident," written by Lisa Greim ’81, profiled his journey. "To…

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Cynthia RockwellFebruary 5, 20186min
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…