Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. In The Conversation, Benjamin Elling, assistant professor of chemistry, explains why Bisphenol A, or BPA, is so widely used to make plastics, despite its reputation for causing adverse health effects. Elling, a synthetic polymer chemist, says BPA-derived polycarbonates "are transparent, incredibly strong, light, and don’t begin to melt or lose structural integrity until they reach high temperatures." Polycarbonates, he says, are a ubiquitous part of modern life. "A major concern with designing new plastics is…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. The U.S Post Office reports via Cison that Elizabeth Milroy, professor of art history, emerita, attended an official stamp dedication ceremony. The new stamps feature competitive rowing as a synchronized, graceful and demanding sport. (May 13) In Outside, Stephen Talbot '70 discusses how he got into acting. Talbot made his acting debut as Gilbert on the hit classic TV sitcom “Leave It to Beaver” in 1959. "[His parents] said, ‘OK, we’ll get you a good agent…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Andy Curran, Wesleyan’s Willian Armstrong Professor of the Humanities, recently appeared at “Politics and Prose,” on Diane Rehm’s NPR show, On My Mind, and on Louis Lapham’s podcast “The World in Time.” The two professors discussed the history of race and their newly released book, Who’s Black and Why? A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race, which was published by Harvard University Press in March 2022.…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. Victoria Smolkin, associate professor of history and a scholar of communism, speaks in The Los Angeles Times about Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is trying to defend the war in Ukraine with a spiritual defense. “What they are after is salvation,” Smolkin says. “Not just of the Ukrainians, but of themselves. They see it as their mission to establish unity.” (March 29) In The Hartford Courant, Suzanne O'Connell, Harold T.…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. In The Washington Post, Wesleyan President Michael Roth '78 reviews Colette Brooks' new book Trapped in the Present Tense: Meditations on American Memory. "Brooks is drawn to what she has called 'American darkness' and the seemingly bottomless capacity of our country to forget its horrific relationship with violence," he writes. (March 4) Peter Rutland, professor of government and the Colin and Nancy Campbell Chair for Global Issues and Democratic Thought, shares an op-ed titled "Putin's…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. Due to the recent Russia-Ukraine crisis, this media roundup will mention related content first: In Meduza, Victoria Smolkin, associate professor of history, discusses the historical claims Putin made in his speech before invading Ukraine. "Fantasy is not history, and it’s not politics. One can lament—as Putin does—that Soviet politics was not 'cleansed' of the 'odious' and 'utopian' fancies 'inspired by the revolution,' which, in part, made possible the existence of contemporary Ukraine." (Feb. 24) And…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. A sampling of recent media hits is below: On MSN and Yahoo! News, Marc Eisner, Henry Merritt Wriston Chair in Public Policy and professor of government, speaks on how states across the country are ramping up efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. "Much depends on funding that [Gov. Ned] Lamont can’t control (for example, resources needed to replace diesel buses with electric vehicles, the building of charging stations),” Eisner said of the Connecticut governor’s recent…