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For two hours every Saturday—and any early morning or late night shift available—Middletown resident Franco Liseo fills the airwaves of WESU 88.1 FM, with Italian music. His specialty is the sounds from the ’60s and ’70s; "Love songs," he says. "When I left Italy, I left with the music”—and he's been doing this for 30 years. The Saturday show is special; he broadcasts with a co-host, Lucilla Caminito, the daughter of a childhood friend, who Skypes in from Melilli. These shows feature contemporary music that Caminito chooses and sends to Liseo (whose DJ name is "Francaccio") via the internet, YouTube,…

"Pattern recognition was a constant in my explorations at Wesleyan—and what I focused on afterwards," says Benjamin Fels ’06, explaining the unity behind a seeming diversity of interests. The Bill and Melinda Gates Organization is interested, also, in what Fels finds intriguing. The company Fels co-founded, macro-eyes, is one of 20 that the foundation selected to be a Grand Challenges Explorations winner. The project that macro-eyes proposed seeks to use their own breed of statistical machine learning, trained on supply chain and immunization data at health facilities in Tanzania. The goal is to maximize the number of children who get vaccinated and minimize vaccine…

Last fall, 19 students enrolled in the Earth and Environmental Sciences 280 course, Introduction to GIS, assisted a local organization while learning data analysis skills. At the start of the semester, the class teamed up with community partner Emma Kravet, education director at the Connecticut Forest & Park Association (CFPA). Kravet expressed a need for a mapping tool that shows the location of schools and other community resources near the CFPA's blue-blazed hiking trail system. If such a map existed, she could facilitate more meaningful connections to schools and organizations near the trails. The class broke into five thematic groups to…

Recognize the Wesleyan faculty who have had a lasting impact on your academic and personal development by nominating them for the 2018 Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching! Juniors, seniors, graduate students and Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) are invited to nominate up to three professors for 2018 Binswanger Prizes, which will be awarded during Wesleyan's Commencement Ceremony on May 27. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 12, 2018. NOMINATE NOW. The Binswanger Prize is made possible by gifts from the family of the late Frank Binswanger Sr. Hon. ’85 and underscores Wesleyan’s commitment to its scholar-teachers who are responsible for the university’s…

Peter Rutland, the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, recently spoke on a panel of political economy experts at The Gaidar Forum 2018, held at the Presidential Academy of Economics and Public Administration in Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave the keynote address at the forum. "How can Russia get onto a more knowledge-intensive, non–resource-based economic sustainable growth path? How can it escape from the middle income trap?" asks Rutland in his talk. "You could look across the continent to China," which has been amazingly successful in recent years, he says. Russian companies do not invest at…

"The title character is, of course, a Wesleyan graduate," says author Heidi Mastrogiovanni ’79, of her debut comic novel, Lala Pettibone's Act Two (Amberjack Publishing, 2017). The novelist herself is also a comic actor, an animal welfare advocate and a screenwriter—and her second novel, sequel Lala Pettibone: Standing Room Only, will be available in August. To celebrate, she and a fellow Amberjack author—with similarly titled books, both with a reference to a second act—visited bookstores and venues across the country to talk about the writer's life and the ways in which a book written by a female is perceived, welcomed and marketed. In…

J. Kehaulani Kauanui, professor of American studies and anthropology, chair of American studies and director of the Center of the Americas, spent part of winter break in Qatar. She was there to present her research on “Settler Colonialism and the Politics of Occupy Wall Street: Indigeneity and the 'Other' 1%” for a panel on "Against Exceptionalism." Kauanui joined a global roster of leading scholars in American studies, Middle Eastern studies and other closely related fields who were invited to speak as part of a conference held Jan. 8–11 at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies with support from the Qatar…

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. President Michael Roth publishes op-eds in The Washington Post titled, "We can't let cynics ruin college," and "What is college for? (Hint: It's not just about getting in.)." He also sat for an "On Leadership" interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2. The Conversation: "The dangerous belief that white people are under attack" Assistant Professor of Psychology Clara Wilkins writes about her research on perceptions of reverse discrimination in light of recent societal trends. 3. Marketplace: "Here comes the tax bill…

Assistant Professor of Music Tyshawn Sorey MA '11, a MacArthur "Genius" Award-winner, and Distinguished Fellow in the College of the Environment Allison Orr, artistic director of Forklift Danceworks, have been chosen as 2018 fellows by United States Artists (USA), an organization that illuminates the value of artists to American society. Sorey and Orr will each receive a $50,000 unrestricted award as part of the honor. Read more about Tyshawn Sorey's MacArthur "Genius" Award Read more about Allison Orr's work teaching dance and movement to local children A total of 45 recipients were announced for the annual awards, which recognize achievements and innovation across nine disciplines,…

In this Q&A, we speak to Jasmine Cardi, who joined the Access Services staff at Wesleyan's Olin Library on Jan. 7, 2013 (“Five years already!” she says). Now the weekend and evening supervisor, she provides support to the departments of Interlibrary Loan (ILL), Olin Reference, Reserves/E-Reserves, and Olin Circulation. With her arrival, the ILL office was able to lengthen their hours until 10 p.m. some evenings, offering availability for those geared to later study nights in the library. Q: What do you like best about working for Interlibrary Loan? A: I love seeing all the books we get from around…

In 2017, the Wesleyan Library began overseeing two programs. The Wesleyan Museum, which houses the university's archaeology and anthropology collection, has moved under the library's oversight. These materials, located in the Exley Science Center, contain a broad variety of unique items, including Middle Eastern artifacts, historical materials from 18th- and 19th- century Middletown, missionary-collected objects from South America and Native American pieces including pottery and jewelry. Jessie Cohen is the manager of the collection. The collection will eventually be discoverable through the library’s online catalog (OneSearch) so students and faculty will have the opportunity to find and physically work with…

Wesleyan’s operating budget in the last fiscal year included a total of $206 million in expenditures, with $210 million in revenue. Most of the university’s revenue (68 percent) comes from student charges, while the endowment, private gifts and government grants account for most of the rest. The operating budget lies behind everything Wesleyan does, and we’ve asked Nate Peters, vice president for finance and administration, to explain some of its highlights: Q: What is Wesleyan’s projected total operating expenditure in the current fiscal year, and what has been our annual rate of increase? What are the primary drivers of that…

Liseo, Hardigg ’90 Share WESU Connection Spanning 3 Decades

Fels ’06 Wins Gates Grand Challenges Explorations with macro-eyes Health Care Initiative

Students Use Mapping Skills to Collaborate with Community Partner

Nominate Faculty for the 2018 Binswanger Prize

Rutland Speaks at Gaidar Forum in Moscow

Mastrogiovanni ’79, Lala Pettibone and the Writing While Female Tour

Kauanui Presents “Politics of Occupy Wall Street” Research in Qatar

Wesleyan in the News

Sorey MA ’11 and Orr Awarded Artistic Fellowships

Library Access Services Assistant Jasmine Cardi: International Books and Local Clients

Library Oversees Wesleyan’s Archaeological Collections, Visual Resource Center

Peters Discusses Highlights of Wesleyan’s Operating Budget