Lauren RubensteinWriting for Inside Sources, President Michael Roth made the case for a broad, contextual education, in a counterpoint to an essay by Eastern Kentucky University President Michael Benson, arguing for education that provides "a transferable set of skills." Roth writes that the types of contentious debates currently raging over the value of a college education are as old as America itself, something he explores in-depth in his book, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters. He writes: Several of the Founding Fathers saw education as the road to independence and liberty. A broad commitment to inquiry was part of their dedication…
Ahead of the centennial celebration of Wesleyan's Van Vleck Observatory, The Hartford Courant explored a bit of observatory history, including some recent discoveries of rare artifacts. A team of Wesleyan professors and students, together with the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford, is preparing for an exhibit this spring, "Under Connecticut Skies: Exploring 100 Years of Astronomy at Van Vleck Observatory in Middletown, Connecticut." "We've been looking into every nook and cranny to see what we have here," Associate Professor of History Paul Erickson told the Courant. One exciting find: a rare early mechanical model of the solar system, long believed to be lost, known as "Russell's Stupendous and…
Seventy years later, it is widely believed that President Harry S. Truman made a decision to authorize the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The truth, writes William Johnston in the Hartford Courant, is that he never did, at least not explicitly. Johnston, professor of history, professor of East Asian Studies, examines in an op-ed how history has been rewritten surrounding the bombings. In fact, Truman's first explicit decision about atomic bombs was to later order that their further use be stopped without his "express authority." But in summer 1946, Johnston explains, the need arose to write an alternative narrative, as the bomb's…
Writing for Africa is a Country, Professor of Anthropology Gina Athena Ulysse reflects on the story of Sandra Bland, an African-American woman who was arrested by a state trooper during a traffic stop in Waller County, Texas and was later found dead in her jail cell. Video footage from a dashboard camera found the trooper had threatened Bland with a Taser after she refused to put out her cigarette and the encounter escalated. Her death was found to be a suicide, though her family has doubts. Ulysse writes that she identified with Bland, and responded strongly to images and videos of the…
When Psyche Loui first heard Rachmaninov's Piano Concert No. 2 on the radio as a college student, she still remembers the chill that went down her spine, the fluttering in her stomach and the racing heart. Now an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and behavior at Wesleyan, Loui studies this phenomenon--which she refers to as "frissons" or "skin orgasms"--in her lab. She recently co-authored a paper with Luke Harrison '14 in Frontiers in Psychology reviewing the evidence and theories in this area, and spoke to the BBC about their findings. Loui, also an accomplished pianist and violinist, points out that the sensations…
Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, curator of the Cinema Archives, spoke with The Huffington Post about why today's television is so good. TV has come a long way since 1961 when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow proclaimed television "a vast wasteland" in an address to the National Association of Broadcasters. The article explores how advances in technology and television production have vastly improved the experience for viewers. One of the biggest changes was the introduction of DVR and streaming services, which mean we're no longer slaves to the television schedule, required to sit on the couch for an hour when…
WNPR's "Where We Live" explored college prison programs, a dwindling resource that has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to prevent recidivism, in a conversation featuring Dara Young, program manager for Wesleyan's Center for Prison Education, and Michael McAlear, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, who teaches in the program. Young was asked why teaching the liberal arts is effective in prison programs. "The type of thinking that we hope to encourage through a liberal arts education is particularly important when we're talking about people who are incarcerated," said Young. "We regularly hear from our…
University Protestant Chaplain Tracy Mehr-Muska and Lydia Ottaviano '17 were interviewed on the WESU 88.1 FM show "Reasonably Catholic" about a new interfaith organization on campus that is working to build ties between the various faith traditions. Ottaviano is a member of the new interfaith council, which planned the first Faith Shadowing Week this spring. During the week of April 19, students attended regularly scheduled meetings of various religious and spiritual groups other than their own, including several Christian fellowship group meetings and bible studies, Shabbat services, Buddhist Faith Fellowship, Wesleyan Mindfulness Group, Quaker Meeting, Catholic Mass, Muslim Jumma Prayers and Vespers. The week concluded…
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,…
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…
With the first official cohort of students following a three-year path a BA having graduating this spring, The Chronicle of Higher Education checked in on the program, which was first announced in 2012. Fifteen of Wesleyan's 799 graduates last month finished their degrees in six semesters. While a few students have always graduated early, the university announced in 2012 that it would provide support for students who wanted graduate in three years, which could reduce the price of a degree by about 20 percent. "I just wanted to make the three-year path more visible and more normal," President Michael Roth told the Chronicle. While he expects the program to…