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Twenty Wesleyan students spent the first week of spring break volunteering in New Orleans to help with rebuilding and repairing homes in the community. The students, who were accompanied by Justin Marks, visiting assistant professor of mathematics, bused as a group to to New Orleans as part of ServeUp, a project organized by InterVarsity New England. Wesleyan's group joined volunteers from Boston College, Boston University, Clark University, Fairfield University, Northeastern, Rhode Island College, University of Vermont, among others. Wesleyan's group stayed at an old elementary school site and partnered with two organizations, Rebuilding Together New Orleans and Greenlight New Orleans. Students worked on priming, painting and screening a local home and…

Writing in The Washington Post, President Michael S. Roth decries the push for students to turn away from "college as exploration" and toward "college as training." "Everywhere one looks, from government statistics on earnings after graduation to a bevy of rankings that purport to show how to monetize your choice of major, the message to students is to think of their undergraduate years as an economic investment that had better produce a substantial and quick return," he writes. This movement is understandable, given the "scourge of student indebtedness" in our country, yet parents, pundits and politicians are misguided in their insistence that students…

On March 22, President Michael Roth will participate in a discussion at the 92nd Street Y in New York City with Mark Edmundson of the University of Virginia. The discussion, titled, "Unorthodox: On Philosophy," will cover Sigmund Freud's most valuable contributions, why his work matters, why it has faded from view, and whether his thoughts will make a comeback. The talk starts at 7 p.m. The event is part of a series of programs that take place both at the Jewish Museum and at the 92nd Street Y in conjunction with the exhibition Unorthodox. According to the website, "The accompanying public…

On April 8, the Center for the Americas will host the Americas Forum 2016, "A Hemispheric Conversation on Violence and Memory," in the Russell House. The Americas Forum is an annual symposium that brings into dialogue scholars and artists from "north" and "south" around a common theme. This year's forum features three panelists and a performance artist who will engage in a conversation over the roles that colonialism, settler colonialism, and nation-building continue to play within the complex dialectic between memory, the archive (writ broadly), and the State. The panel starts at 2:30 p.m., and the event ends around 6:30 p.m. after…

On March 15, Wesleyan's Posse Veteran Scholars program was spotlighted on PBS Newshour, in an episode featuring interviews with President Michael S. Roth and several students. Wesleyan is first mentioned around 3 minutes with Michael Smith '18 speaking. According to the show, more than 1 million vets are using GI benefits, but most attend public or for-profit schools. The number of veterans attending top-tier colleges "is so small, it's not even known." A few years ago, the Posse Foundation—which has a long history of sending groups, or posses, of talented students "who don't fit the mold" to top colleges—started a program focused on…

Franklin Sirmans ’91, director of the Pérez Art Museum of Miami (PAMM), was credited for his “star power” that drew a crowd to the museum’s reception and fundraiser. The first African-American director of this publicly funded museum, Sirman was previously curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. An article in the Miami Herald quoted Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen ’66, who attributed the rise in attendance—double that of last year—to previously successful celebrations, as well as to Sirman’s arrival: “There is no getting around the fact that people are excited about Franklin Sirmans; they’re…

A PhD candidate in chemistry will spend two years in Germany working on microwave spectroscopy research. As a recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, Dan Obenchain will continue his studies at the University of Hanover. He will start his fellowship in August 2016 after taking two months of intensive German language classes. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation brings young and senior scientists from around the world to Germany to conduct research in many different fields of science. "Thankfully, working at Wesleyan has given me many great opportunities to publish my work. The faculty of both the chemistry and physics departments have been very supportive throughout…

Anita Wells MA ’96, PhD, assistant professor at Morgan State University’s Department of Psychology in Baltimore, was appointed to the state’s behavioral health advisory council by the governor. The Council was established to enhance behavioral health services in the state, with a coordinated a system of care that integrates prevention, recovery and cost-effective strategies. The council also has an advocacy component, seeking a culturally comprehensive approach to publicly funded services, including early intervention for those with behavioral health issues and their families. Wells, who earned her bachelor’s at Yale, her master’s in psychology at Wesleyan, and her PhD in clinical psychology…

Two visiting faculty members from Wesleyan visited the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center in March to teach AfterSchool Program children about dance. (more…)

Assistant Professor of Psychology Psyche Loui has long been interested in studying the intersection of music and emotions. In her latest study, published March 10 in Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, she identified specific connections in the brain between the auditory processing regions and regions for social and emotional processing. The article is titled, "Brain connectivity reflects human aesthetic responses to music." Loui, who also is assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, assistant professor of integrative sciences, has previously studied how music can cause chills, or similar strong physiological reactions in people when listening to music. Together with former thesis student…

Manju Hingorani, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, was featured in the “Coordinates” section of ASBMB Today, the monthly publication of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Here, Hingorani briefly reflected on her marriage and career through a haiku. Her haiku read: Home is where the lab is, was, will be, my partner he’s home too – elsewhere. She added, “I’m a professor of biochemistry, and my husband is a pharmacologist in the industry. We’ve lived under the same roof for about seven of our 19 years as a married couple. But it has been a fabulous life,…

A research paper co-authored in 1995 by Johan Varekamp, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science; Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental science; and Wesleyan alumnae Koren Nydick ’95 and Alyson Bidwell ’95 has returned to the spotlight. The paper, “A Sea-level Rise Curve from Guilford, Connecticut, USA,” originally published in Marine Geology, was cited last month in another paper on sea-level rise in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Professor Varekamp admits that the “paper has done remarkably well, with 93 citations, not bad at all for a senior thesis-based…

Students Volunteer to Improve Community Conditions in New Orleans

President Roth: Jefferson Would Not Have Liked This College Trend

President Roth to Discuss Freud at 92Y March 22

Americas Forum 2016 to Focus on Violence, Memory

PBS Newshour Features Wesleyan’s Posse Veteran Scholars

“Star Power” of Sirmans ’91 Draws Crowd to Miami Museum

PhD Candidate Obenchain Recipient of Humboldt Research Fellowship

Wells MA ’96 Appointed to Behavioral Health Advisory Board

Faculty Teach Dance, Creative Movements to Local Children

Loui Studies How Brain Connectivity Reflects Aesthetic Responses to Music

Hingorani Reflects on Marriage, Career in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Journal

Paper on Guilford, Conn.’s Sea Level by Varekamp, Thomas, 2 Alumnae Receives 93 Citations