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A play translated by Elizabeth Jackson, adjunct associate professor of Portuguese, was performed at Yale Cabaret Oct. 25–27. The play, titled "Agreste (Drylands)," is a Brazilian tale of love and loss, desire and death, ignorance and violence, written by Brazilian playwright Newton Moreno. Based on true events, "Drylands" is a poetic narrative set in Brazil’s suffocating and desertified northeast. Three storytellers share with the audience their accounts and reenactments of a moving love story between two young farm workers that unravels in perplexing ways, as their intimacy becomes the subject of local gossip, and the memories of their relationship are ransacked by…

Wesleyan University has announced the addition of women's golf to its list of varsity sports beginning in the fall of 2019. Women's golf will become the 30th varsity sport and the 15th for women at Wesleyan, which will become the eighth school in the NESCAC to sponsor the sport. Jon Wilson, a PGA professional at Lyman Orchards, has been named the head coach of the program. "There have been ongoing discussions for several years about adding women's golf," said Director of Athletics Mike Whalen '83. "We feel now that we have enough interest on the part of our student-athletes that…

Fifty years ago, Richard Slotkin, Olin Professor of English, Emeritus, founded American studies at Wesleyan University. As he recounted last year while speaking on campus, “We were doing what was not yet called cultural criticism: studying all the manifestations of American culture to understand the ideological fictions through which American nationality had historically been constituted. We were part of a revisionist wave that departed from the established form of American studies, which tended to celebrate American exceptionalism.” American Studies at Wesleyan sponsored the first courses in women’s studies, cosponsored some of the first African American studies courses, and supported the…

On Oct. 20, Wesleyan held its inaugural Liberal Arts + forum in Shanghai, China. This year, the forum focused on film education and U.S.-China film collaborations, and featured discussions between three alumni in the entertainment industry; President Michael Roth; and Scott Higgins, director of the College of Film and the Moving Image. Each year, the forum will highlight a different area of liberal arts education for an audience of prospective families, alumni, and the general public in China. The centerpiece of this public event, which was attended by approximately 80 people, was a panel discussion featuring Jon Hoeber '93 and…

Students who are enrolled in the fall semester Introduction to Design and Engineering course presented their midterm projects on Oct. 17 and 18. At the beginning of the semester, the students were given a box of materials and tasked with creating a "hopper"—an object that would spring into the air but only after a delay of 8 seconds (and less than 60 seconds) from when the student released the object. After designing the hopper, and (often) creating multiple prototypes, students used laser-cut wooden pieces, rubber tubes, ball bearings, capacitors, balloons, wire, and other equipment to fabricate their final ideas. The Introduction…

Six Wesleyan alumni were inducted into the 2018 Athletics Hall of Fame class on Oct. 19 during Homecoming festivities. The ninth class features James Carrier '42, Philip Rockwell '65, Allison Palmer '95, Jed Hoyer '96, Flo Stueck '96, and Herb Kenny. Wesleyan’s Athletics Hall of Fame (HOF), both online and on campus, is filled with entertaining and enlightening accounts of Cardinals past. It features exciting stories of accomplishment, character, perseverance, courage, loyalty, teamwork, and generosity. The HOF was founded in 2006 through the collaborative work of the Athletics Advisory Council, the Athletic Department, and the Office of University Relations and…

Melissa King, a PhD student in chemistry, and Michelle Personick, assistant professor of chemistry, are the coauthors of a study titled "Iodide-induced differential control of metal ion reduction rates: synthesis of terraced palladium–copper nanoparticles with dilute bimetallic surfaces," published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, August 2018. In this paper, King and Personick report the use of low concentrations of iodide ions as a means of differentially controlling the reduction rates of a noble metal (palladium) and a non-noble metal (copper). The iodide in this system increases the rate of reduction of palladium ions while concurrently slowing the rate of…

On Oct. 15, Seth Redfield, associate professor and chair of astronomy, gave a lecture at the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences. He was invited to speak as part of the Benjamin Dean Astronomy Lecture series. The title of his talk was, "Exploring Our Galactic Neighborhood." The talk will be posted to the Academy's iTunes University site. Redfield is also associate professor, integrative sciences, and co-coordinator, planetary science.

Alumni joined students, faculty, staff, and friends for Wesleyan's Homecoming celebration Oct. 19–20. This year, Wesleyan athletics took on Little Three rival Amherst College. Football lost 33–3; women's soccer won 3–2; men's soccer lost 3–0; and women's field hockey lost 3–0. In addition, women’s crew Varsity 8 placed 6th of 28 boats at Head of the Charles and men’s crew Varsity 8 placed 12th of 36 and bested all NESCAC boats at Head of the Charles. Other Homecoming highlights included an Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony and dinner, an alumni volunteer leaders meeting, team tailgates, a reception honoring leadership donors and…

There’s a certain sense of effortlessness that Alex Levi ’90 remembers from his rowing days at Wesleyan—that feeling of being perfectly in sync and in so doing achieving something better and greater than any individual effort could reach alone. That feeling came back to inspire Levi in a recent project, designing a collective office space that serves as the administrative hub for four sports-based youth development (SBYD) nonprofits in New York City. The 10,000-square-foot open workspace in the middle of Manhattan’s Garment District is home to the offices of VitaSports Partners, the collective umbrella under which Row New York (rowing),…

The campus and local community celebrated the fall season during the College of the Environment's annual Pumpkin Fest on Oct. 13. Held at the student-run, Long Lane Organic Farm, participants enjoyed farm tours, farm produce and baked good sales, crafts, face painting, local vendors, free veggie burgers and apple cider, a pie eating contest, prizes from Wesleyan University Press, and musical performances. Wesleyan performers included Brien Bradley ’19, Phie Towle ’20, Rebecca Roff ’20, Dreamboat (May Klug '19), Slavei, Long Lane Gourdchestra, and Anna Marie Rosenlieb [’20] Collective Dance Improv. In addition, the student groups Veg Out, Outing Club, Climate…

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Jackson Translates Second Play from Brazilian Playwright Newton Moreno

Women’s Golf Joins Wesleyan Varsity Sports

American Studies Celebrates 50 Years with Series of Speakers

Inaugural Liberal Arts + Forum in Shanghai Focused on Film Education, Collaborations

Students “Hop” into Midterms with Design and Engineering Project Presentations

6 Alumni Inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame

King Coauthors Paper and Is Elected to Chair Research Seminar on Noble Metal Nanoparticles

Redfield Speaks at California Academy of Sciences

Alumni Gatherings, Athletic Contests Highlights of 2018 Homecoming

Levi ’90 Creates Meaning and Connection through “SLO” Architecture

Fall Harvest, Music, Gatherings at 2018 Pumpkin Fest

Directors from 18 Institutions Participate in Administrative Computing Conference at Wesleyan