Lauren RubensteinLori Gruen, professor and chair of philosophy, writes in Al Jazeera about the announcement this month by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey that it would phase out the use of elephants in circus shows by 2018 in response to a "mood shift among our consumers." Gruen explores how this public change in attitudes came to be. She credits, in part, "the tireless animal activists who appear regularly, rain or shine, to protest when the circus comes to town." These activists highlight the cruel and unhealthy living conditions imposed upon the elephants, such as having their legs chained, lacking adequate exercise, and withstanding…
Writing in Tikkun Magazine, government major Rachel Unger '15 offers a first-hand account of Israeli-Palestinian relations she witnessed during her two trips to the region, and how these experiences shaped her views of a "two-state solution" to the ongoing conflict. Unger describes watching "religious Jews marching through the Muslim quarter of the Old City celebrating the 'reunification' of Jerusalem while the authorities blocked Palestinians from the streets with barricades and prevented an old man from taking the bus to his home. I witnessed police knocking a Palestinian man to the ground while hordes of young Yeshiva boys cheered and sang 'Am Yisrael Chai!'" She…
Lori Gruen, professor and chair of philosophy, discussed her new book, Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals, with University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Mark Bekoff in The Huffington Post. Bekoff calls the book "a wonderful addition to a growing literature in the transdisciplinary field called anthrozoology, the study of human-animal relationships." Gruen defines "entangled empathy" as "a process whereby we first acknowledge that we are already in relationships with all sorts of other animals (humans and non-humans) and these relationships are, for the most part, not very good ones. We then work to figure out how to make them better and that…
An essay by Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker is included in The Five Photographs that (You Didn’t Know) Changed Everything, a five-part BBC radio series focusing on historically important yet little-known photographs. In her segment, The Tichborne Claimant, Tucker tells the story of how an 1866 photograph of a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, played a central role in a case that gripped Victorian Britain and had an enormous impact on our legal system, raising questions about what photography is for and how it should be used. Says Tucker: “Sometimes even a mundane photograph can have a powerful and…
President Michael S. Roth writes in The Wall Street Journal about the importance of exploring religious feelings and experiences in humanities education, and why these topics make students so uncomfortable.
Peter Rutland, the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thoughts, writes in the Mirror (U.K.) about the threat to the West by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He considers the comparison made by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon to the Islamic State. While "Putin's people are not beheading Christians or burning captives alive," writes Rutland, Russia has nuclear weapons — lots of them. "And is willing to use them if necessary," he writes. "Deterrence only works if both sides see each other as unwilling to risk war. And [Putin] believes the West will not risk nuclear conflict over where to…
Olivia DrakeRichard Grossman, professor of economics, is featured in a radio interview with Share Radio in London Feb. 19. In the interview, Grossman talks about the consequences of the European Central Bank's new quantitative easing (QE) policy, which may stimulate an economy when a standard monetary policy has become ineffective. The ECB's action follows in the footsteps of the central banks of Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which also have used quantitative easing in the 2000s. A concern that has been raised about the introduction of QE is that persistent low interest rates will lead to another boom-bust…
Early this year, Gary Shteyngart embarked on an experiment for The New York Times: For a week straight, he would "subsist almost entirely on a diet of state-controlled Russian television, piped in from three Apple laptops onto three 55-inch Samsung monitors in a room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan." Assistant Professor of Art Sasha Rudensky documented this experiment in a series of photographs that accompany the story. Here is Shteyngart lying in bed, feet encased in hotel slippers, while Russian President Vladamir Putin's stern face fills three towering television screens. Here Shteyngart is dining on Wagyu beef slices and sipping pinot noir…
The Hartford Courant and WNPR both featured stories on Wesleyan's "observatory nights," which began this month. Every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. during the Spring semester, the Van Vleck Observatory will open its doors to the public, rain or shine, for viewing of the sky through telescopes and presentations on the latest space-related research. According to the Courant, Research Assistant Professor of Astronomy Roy Kilgard said the department is seeking to supplement its outreach to groups already interested and involved in science with new sessions for people who may not have a high level of knowledge about space and astronomy. "We're really trying…
Giulio Gallarotti, professor of government, professor of environmental studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies, was a guest on the McAlvany Weekly Commentary to discuss his book, The Power Curse: Influence and Illusion in World Politics. Gallarotti discusses how power creates the seeds of its own destruction. The applications are explored both in the context of geo-politics and international finance. Listen to the interview here. Gallarotti's book can be found here.
Professor of Theater Ron Jenkins is part of a growing movement urging Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to spare the lives of two Australian drug smugglers currently on death row in Indonesia. Their executions are scheduled for later this month. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were part of a theater workshop Jenkins conducted at the Kerobokan Penitentiary in 2011. That workshop focused on adapting Dante's "Divine Comedy" for the stage. Jenkins is now teaching the same class at a prison in Connecticut through the Yale Divinity School. In connection with that course, on Feb. 7, Jenkins moderated a panel at the Yale Divinity School…
As controversy over the measles vaccine continues to grow, and prominent politicians weigh in with their views, Assistant Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler writes in The Washington Post's "Monkey Cage" blog about the dangerous consequences that politicization of vaccine issues in the news media can have on public support for vaccines in general. In an article co-authored with with Sarah Gollust '01, now an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, Fowler considers the the 2009 dust-up over mammography screening recommendations, and the 2006-07 debate over whether to require girls to get the HPV vaccine. Though neither started…