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Lyricist for the Grateful Dead and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow ’69 died Feb. 7, 2018. He was 70. A College of Letters major as an undergraduate, he collaborated with his friend from high school, Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, on lyrics for songs that included "Cassidy," "Mexicali Blues" and "Black-Throated Wind." In the 1980s Barlow was active in an early online community. Then in 1990, with John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor, founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In the summer 1994 issue of Wesleyan, an article, "Cognitive Dissident," written by Lisa Greim ’81, profiled his journey. "To…

On the basketball court, there really is nothing that Maddie Bledsoe cannot do. The senior captain on the Wesleyan University women's basketball team averaged 7.5 points and 5.4 rebounds during her junior campaign, but during the 2017-18 season, she has taken the next step and become a truly elite, game-changing type of player for the Cardinals. The evolution began with the versatile athlete becoming a dominant rebounder on both ends of the floor, increasing her boards per game to 10.8, which is the most in the NESCAC. Bledsoe corralled a career-high 21 rebounds, to go along with 18 points, during…

Award-winning author Amy Bloom '75, Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing, will release her latest novel, White Houses, on Feb. 13. The book centers on First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s love affair and friendship with reporter Lorena “Hick” Hickok. Told from Hickok’s point of view, White Houses covers everything from the inner workings of the Roosevelt administration to Hick’s own brutal upbringing in rural South Dakota. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, says, “Bloom elevates this addition to the secret-lives-of-the-Roosevelts genre through elegant prose and by making Lorena Hickok a character engrossing enough to steal center stage from Eleanor Roosevelt.” While Publishers…

On the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Wesleyan is celebrating his legacy with several commemorative events focused on the theme "Black Agency: Finding Freedom." "Dr. King, of course, spoke on our campus on several occasions and had a profound impact on efforts here to promote equity and inclusion," wrote Demetrius J. Colvin, director of the Wesleyan Resource Center, in an all-campus email. "I encourage you to take advantage of the powerful programs developed for Black History Month. Students have put a lot of work into these programs, providing us all with the opportunity to…

When President Michael Roth speaks about the purpose of college, he frequently boils it down to three key things: students should find what they love to do, get better at it, and learn to share what they love with others. This semester, Wesleyan is adding to its curriculum to help students develop this third critical skill. Wesleyan recently received a 3-1/2 year grant for over $600,000 to pilot on campus the Calderwood Seminars, which train students in translating complex arguments and professional jargon from their academic disciplines into writing that can be understood and appreciated by the general public. The seminars, developed by…

During Winter Session, 14 Wesleyan students studied live, site-based theater performances in Santiago, Chile. The course, THEA 357: Space and Materiality, was taught by Marcela Oteíza, assistant professor of theater, and took place during the Festival Internacional Santiago a Mil (FITAM), the most renowned theater festival in Santiago. This was the first abroad course offered by Winter Session. “It was a wonderful experience for students and myself; particularly, to be able to share in situ with them the social and cultural history of Santiago within the framework of the festival,” Oteíza said. “Students learned about performance and reception theories, while…

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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. Science Magazine: “India Plans Tricky and Unprecedented Landing Near Moon’s South Pole” James Greenwood, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, comments on India’s plans to unleash a rover into previously unexplored territory near the moon’s south pole. 2. Newsweek: “Putin Keeps His Foot Firmly Pressed on Europe’s Windpipe” Matthew Finkel ’18 writes that Moscow will likely be able to leverage its enormous energy exports to project soft power in Eastern Europe for years to…

Sustainability Across the Curriculum, a Jan. 23 workshop organized by Wesleyan's Sustainability Office and the Center for Pedagogical Innovation, provided faculty and instructors with the opportunity to discover ways to integrate sustainability into a variety of courses across academic disciplines. The workshop featured a panel highlighting work by faculty who participated in the first year of Sustainability Across the Curriculum and had integrated sustainability into their own courses, followed by small-group sessions offering brainstorming opportunities. The focus of the SATC program is to amend an existing course to include sustainability, explained Jennifer Kleindienst, Wesleyan's sustainability director, "The groups were divided into individuals…

Kyla Donnelly Pearce ’08, a government major at Wesleyan with a certificate in international relations, is now senior director of the LoveYourBrain yoga program, an outgrowth of the work her husband and the Pearce family are doing for those who suffer from traumatic brain injury. Their journey began after snowboarder Kevin Pearce, Kyla's brother-in-law, was injured in a training accident in Utah on Dec. 31, 2009, as he prepared for the Olympic trials. The previous year he had won three medals at the 2008 Winter X Games XII in Aspen, Colo. He spent the first six months of 2010 in rehabilitation hospitals…

Wesleyan's Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) received a two-year, $150,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. The award will support a new leadership fellowship program; three curatorial mini-intensives for prospective students; and two global curatorial forums designed to bring an international perspective to the discussion and dissemination of best practices and forge a global network of performing arts curators. This funding will further ICPP's efforts to advance diversity among participants and to amplify the graduate program's impact on the field of performance. "The Ford Foundation funding allows ICPP to support diverse perspectives in the field of performance curation, both…

Four former students who enrolled in the service-learning course AMST 250: Decolonizing Indigenous Middletown: Native Histories of the Wangunk Indian People—taught in fall 2015—are now co-authors of articles published in the Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut, No. 79, 2017. Iryelis Lopez ’17, Tiana Quinones '17, Abigail Cunniff ’17 and Yael Horowitz ’17 partnered with the Middlesex County Historical Society and spent their semester examining 17th- and 18th-century Middletown records that focused on the Algonquian peoples of the lower Connecticut River known as Wangunks. The Wangunks lived near the Connecticut River primarily in present-day Middletown and Portland, Conn. In February 2016, self-selected students…

Grateful Dead Lyricist, Internet Rights Advocate John Perry Barlow ’69 Dies

Student-Athlete Bledsoe ’18 Says Rebounding Is about Positioning, Luck and “Wanting the Ball More than the Other Team”

Bloom ’75 Goes Behind Closed Doors in “White Houses”

Black Agency: Finding Freedom Topic of Black History Month

Students Learn to Translate Academic Knowledge for Public in Calderwood Seminars

Students Study Theater in Chile over Winter Session (with Photo Gallery)

A Body in Fukushima: Recent Work Exhibition on Display in Zilkha Gallery

Wesleyan in the News

Sustainability Workshop Sparks Discussions, New Ideas

Pearce ’08 Directs LoveYourBrain Yoga for Patients with Traumatic Brain Injuries

Ford Foundation Supports Wesleyan’s Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance

Research by Service-Learning Class Published in Archaeological Society Bulletin