Michael O'BrienWesleyan, in partnership with PrestoSports, has launched a new athletics' website, http://athletics.wesleyan.edu. The platform will serve as the home for all news, information, scores and schedules for the college's 29 varsity athletics teams. PrestoSports has crafted a website that features not only a modern look, but also improved fan amenities. The website host has designed and built over 2,000 successful websites for college athletics, conferences, high schools and other sports organizations. The new website will provide fans, parents, alumni and media with easy access to game stories, press releases, video features, live statistics, photos and email sign-up, as well as…
Olivia DrakeWesleyan welcomed more than 140 international students and U.S. citizens living abroad to campus this week. On Aug. 30, they gathered for a group photo, dinner and skits. Sixteen percent of the entire Class of 2020 hail from 34 other countries including Austria and Belgium to Tanzania, Tunisia and the Ukraine. “This is the most truly global class in Wesleyan history with students of more than 50 nationalities who bring an incredible range of international, multicultural backgrounds and experiences to the Wesleyan community," said Nancy Hargrave Meislahn, dean of admission and financial aid. After arriving on campus Aug. 27-28, the Office of…
This fall, Wesleyan welcomes 32 new PhD and MA students, 22 new BA/MA students, nine foreign language teaching assistants and two new writing fellows to campus. Wesleyan offers Graduate Studies programs leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Anne Burke, professor of biology, is the 2016-17 director of Graduate Studies, and Cheryl-Ann Hagner is director of Graduate Student Services. On Aug. 30, the new graduate students mingled with former graduate students and Wesleyan faculty at a welcome picnic held at Exley Science Center. Graduate Student Orientation was held Aug. 29-30. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)
Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history, is organizing a conference titled "Firearms and the Common Law Tradition" to be held at the The Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., Sept. 14-15. Topics will include "The Uses of Guns," "Laws Regulating Carriage of Guns," "Guns and the Supreme Court: The Influence of History," and "Guns and Constitutional Rights." Focused on the ways in which historical arguments have become important for the judicial debate about guns in America, the discussion will feature Darrell Miller, professor of law at Duke University School of Law and Eugene Volokh, the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA…
Norman Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, and Wesleyan's Distinguished Professor of Literary Translation, is one of the poets featured in the August 2016 "The Hyper-Texts," a prestigious website honoring individual American poets with chosen examples from their work. Shapiro's poetry translations include "Innocents We," translated from the French words of Paul Verlaine; "To the Reader," translated from the French of Charles Baudelaire's Au Lecteur; "Invitation to the Voyage" translated from the French of Charles Baudelaire's L'Invitation au Voyage and "End of the Day" translated from the French of Charles Baudelaire's La Fin de la Journée. Among Shapiro's many translations…
Cynthia RockwellThe list of athletes who ran on Elmer Swanson's teams over the 30 years he served as Wesleyan's track and cross-country coach "reads like a 'Who's Who' in elite running," observed Hartford Courant Sports Columnist Lori Riley. She remembered Swanson, who died Aug. 12, at the age of 92, in an piece rich with comments from some of his well known—and fleet-footed —alumni. Riley's roundup notes: "He coached [Amby] Burfoot [’68], who won the Boston Marathon in 1968, his senior year, and went on to become the editor of Runners World magazine. He coached Bill Rodgers [’70], who won four Boston marathons and…
Laurie KenneyThis fall, the Office for Equity and Inclusion will coordinate five Wesleyan cohort programs: the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, the Wesleyan Math and Science Scholars Program (WesMaSS), the Upward Bound Math-Science Program, and the Posse Veteran Scholars Program. The initiative is called Pathways to Inclusive Excellence (PIE). "It makes sense organizationally to place these programs under the same umbrella, in order to increase a sense of community amongst students, faculty and staff,” said Antonio Farias, vice president for equity and inclusion/Title IX officer. “Our vision is to increase the flow of students in grades 9…
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Lauren RubensteinUniversity Professor of Music Sumarsam and several PhD students and alumni recently presented papers at the 4th Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on the Performing Arts of Southeast Asia (ICTM PASEA). The symposium was hosted by Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia, from July 31 to Aug. 6. Sumarsam presented a paper titled, "Religiosity in Javanese Wayang Puppet Play," and demonstrated puppet movements. (more…)
This month, the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center is once again hosting its K-8 Math Institute for 29 school teachers from Vernon and Hamden, Conn. The 80-hour program aims to increase teachers' mastery of math concepts as well as their confidence with math. Wesleyan Associate Professor of Mathematics Christopher Rasmussen is teaching the institute along with Sharon Heyman, a mathematics education specialist from the University of Connecticut. This is the fifth time the pair has taught the course together. The institute includes the content-intensive, 80-hour Intel Math course over the summer as a foundation for teachers, several follow-up workshops during the school year…
Two Wesleyan faculty received National Endowment for the Humanities grants on Aug. 9. Katherine Kuenzli, associate professor of art history, received a $250,000 Scholarly Editions and Translations grant. She and project co-directors Michael André and Kathleen James-Chakraborty will use the funds to prepare a critical edition and translation of a selection of writings by the Belgian artist and essayist Henry van de Velde titled Henry van de Velde: Selected Essays, 1889–1914. Scholarly Editions and Translations grants support the preparation of editions and translations of pre-existing texts of value to the humanities that are currently inaccessible or available in inadequate editions. Typically,…
On June 1, the Office of Human Resources hosted an Ice Cream Social for faculty, staff and employed students to provide an opportunity for employees to mingle and celebrate the end of spring semester. As part of the day's activities, employees were invited to create a tie-dye t-shirt. On Aug. 10, Human Resources invited the tie-dye shirt makers to gather at Usdan's Huss Courtyard for a brief meeting and photo opportunity. "We thought this would be a fun way for employees to show off their 'art work' to the Wesleyan community," said Julia Hicks, co-director of Human Resources. "It's a…