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In 1870, Orange Judd bequeathed Wesleyan $100,000 to build Judd Hall, which was designed as a building for the study of natural sciences. Included with this building was the Wesleyan Museum, which housed a prominent natural history collection containing over 300,000 specimens. In 1957, the museum was closed and specimens were donated to other museums, put into storage in various places on campus, or "temporarily" loaned to local schools. In 1970, before the current museum reopened in Exley, the collection stored in the tunnels under Foss Hill was found to have been severely vandalized, with many specimens lost, stolen, or…

New Student Orientation for the Class of 2022 concluded Aug. 31 with the annual Common Moment, an event where members of the incoming class are brought together through music and performance. This year, the students worked with choreographer Heidi Latsky to create her installation ON DISPLAY, a performance art investigation of the body and the gaze. In a large-scale, participatory version of Latsky’s touring work, the first-year students performed the roles of both seer and seen on Andrus Field and discussed their personal experiences of these roles. Students were challenged to commit to the exercise without judgment, to trust both…

This fall, Wesleyan welcomes 71 new faculty, including 15 tenure-track faculty, 10 professors of the practice, 1 adjunct, and 45 new visiting faculty. "Academic Affairs, in conjunction with a number of departments and centers, ran successful searches for a number of new professor of the practice positions this year in order to expand the curriculum in particular areas such as writing, education studies, physics, and others, where these faculty could be of great value," explained Joyce Jacobsen, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Bios of the new ongoing and full-time visiting faculty are below: Anthropology Joseph Weiss, assistant…

Wesleyan's Center for the Arts announces the highlights of the 2018–2019 season, including two world, two New England, and four Connecticut premieres. "This season we are taking a cue from CONTRA-TIEMPO, whose new work 'joyUS justUS' posits that the expression of joy is the greatest act of resistance,” said Sarah Curran, director of the Center for the Arts. "During the 2018–2019 season, we claim joy and expressive freedom, through which we represent, create, and expand our community. We are particularly excited about presenting the first solo exhibition in New England by up-and-coming multimedia artist Kahlil Robert Irving, including a number…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News The Wall Street Journal: 'The Lost Education of Horace Tate' Review: Civil Rights for Schoolchildren President Michael S. Roth reviews Emory Professor Vanessa Siddle Walker's new book on a previously "unseen network of black educators" across the South, who fought heroically "over many decades for equality and justice." 2. Forbes: Top 25 Liberal Arts Colleges 2018 Wesleyan is featured among Forbes' annual list of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. 3. Hartford Courant: Connecticut Had Significant Role in Tumultuous 1968…

David Kuenzel, assistant professor of economics, is the coauthor of a new paper published in the September 2018 Journal of Macroeconomics titled, “Constitutional Rules as Determinants of Social Infrastructure." In the paper, Kuenzel and his coauthors, Theo Eicher from the University of Washington and Cecilia García-Peñalosa from Aix-Marseille University, investigate the link between constitutional rules and economic institutions, which are a key driver of economic development and economic growth. Kuenzel and his coauthors find that the determinants of economic institutions (or social infrastructure) are much more fundamental than previously thought. In addition to constitutional rules that constrain the executive, highly detailed…

Ian Boyden ’95 received an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship of $12,500, one of only 25 such grants for 2019, to support the new translation of poetry and prose from 17 countries into English. Boyden’s fellowship will support his work translating from the poetry collection Minority, written in Chinese by Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser, considered one of China’s most respected living Tibetan writers. In 2013, John Kerry of the U.S. State Department honored Woeser with an International Women of Courage Award. In 2010, the International Women's Media Foundation had given her a Courage in Journalism Award. Boyden, an artist, writer, curator, and…

This summer, bad things happen here, a play directed by Lila Rachel Becker ’12, was featured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. An MFA student at the University of Iowa, Becker has been paired to work with Eric Marlin—whom she calls “an incredible playwright, a brilliant collaborator”—since she began her graduate work in 2017. She is drawn, she says, to “incendiary” plays—and after producing this one in Iowa last November, a few professors encouraged the partnership to take it around to festivals. Noting that the spare design of bad things happen here made it easy to bring across the ocean to…

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On Aug. 29, members of the Class of 2022 said farewell to their families at an emotional gathering and later gathered on Denison Terrace for a class photo. Wesleyan President Michael Roth '78; Vice President for Student Affairs Mike Whaley; and student orientation leaders taught the first-years the Wesleyan fight song and emphasized the song's "Go Wes!" ending. (Photos by Olivia Drake) Prior to the farewell, President Roth “A good liberal education empowers you to figure out what you love to do, learn how to do it better, and then how to share that talent with the rest of the world.”…

Peter Gottschalk, professor of religion, and history major Gabriel Greenberg ’04 are the coauthors of Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Sentiment: Picturing the Enemy, Second Edition, published in July 2018 by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. The duo released Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy in August 2007. Islamophobia explores anxieties surrounding anti-Muslim sentiments through political cartoons and film. After providing a background on Islamic traditions and their history with America, it graphically shows how political cartoons and films reveal a casual demeaning and demonizing of Muslims and Islam from both sides of the political aisle. Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Sentiment offers both insights into American culture’s…

Associate Professor of Economics Abigail Hornstein, together with Minyuan Zhao of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, has coauthored an article on corporate philanthropy published in the Aug. 1 issue of Strategic Management Journal. Corporate philanthropy has long been recognized as an important part of multinational strategy, but little is known about how it is allocated across different countries. Using data from a sample of more than 200 U.S.-based corporate foundations from 1993 to 2008, Hornstein and Zhao examined how foundation giving is associated with the funding firm’s need to navigate the local business environments. They found that foundations give more…

Wesleyan’s Natural History Collection and Curiosities Featured in Usdan

Students Go “ON DISPLAY” During Common Moment

Wesleyan Welcomes 71 New Faculty in 2018-19

Center for the Arts 2018–2019 Events Feature Urban Latin Dance, Court Dancers and Musicians of Yogyakarta

Wesleyan in the News

Kuenzel Coauthors Paper in the Journal of Macroeconomics

Boyden ’95 Awarded NEA Fellowship for Poetry Translations

Director Becker ’12 Brings bad things happen here to Edinburgh Fringe

Peer Advisors Offer Advice, Answer Questions from New Students

Class of 2022 Gathers for Group Photo, Says Farewell to Families

Gottschalk, Greenberg ’04 Release Second Edition of Islamophobia

Hornstein Coauthors Article on Corporate Philanthropy Strategy