David LowAriel Rubissow Okamoto ’81 is co-author (with Kathleen M. Wong) of the fascinating Natural History of San Francisco Bay (University of California Press), which also explores its human history and how each affects the other. While the bay is home to healthy eelgrass beds, young Dungeness crabs and sharks, and millions of waterbirds, it also is marked by oil tankers, laced with pollutants, and crowded with 46 cities. The guide explores a number of subjects relating to this unique body of water—including fish, birds and other wildlife, geography and geology, the history of human changes, ocean and climate cycles, endangered…
Olivia DrakeA book written by Deb Olin Unferth, assistant professor of English, was named a 2011 finalist in the National Book Critics Circle. Olin Unferth's Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War (Henry Holt) is one of five finalists in the autobiography category. In the memoir, Unferth describes the year she ran away from college with her Christian boyfriend and followed him to Nicaragua to join the Sandinistas. Winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards will be announced at the awards ceremony on March 8 at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium in New York.…
Su Zheng, associate professor of music, associate professor of East Asian studies, will speak on "150 Years of Chinese Music" during a Year of the Dragon Festival Feb. 26. From 1 to 2:30 p.m., she will address her audience in English and from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Mandarin. Her lecture will take place at Flushing Town Hall in Flushing, N.Y. Each lecture will be followed by a signing of her book, Claiming Diaspora. The year 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, which comes once every 12 years; and is also a Year of the Water Dragon, which occurs…
An article written by three Wesleyan faculty and two alumni was published in the January 2012 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, 32(1): pages 46-61. In "Differentiation and functional incorporation of embryonic stem cell derived GABAergic interneurons in the dentate gyrus of mice with temporal lobe epilepsy," the authors describe embryonic stem cell derived neuronal transplants for treating temporal lobe epilepsy. The authors include Jan Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior; Gloster Aaron, assistant professor of biology, assistant professor of neuroscience; Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society, professor of biology; Xu Maisano Ph.D. '11; and Elizabeth…
Ruth Striegel, the Walter A. Crowell University Professor of the Social Sciences, professor of psychology, is the co-author of Developing an Evidence-Based Classification of Eating Disorders: Scientific Findings for DSM 5, published by the American Psychiatric Association Press in 2011. The culmination of several years of collaborative effort among eating disorders investigators from around the world, this volume provides summaries of the research presentations and discussions of the conceptual and methodological issues involved in diagnosing and classifying eating disorders. The mission of the DSM-5 Eating Disorder Work Group was to improve the clinical utility of eating disorder diagnoses by recommending revisions based…
Mark Slobin, the Richard K. Winslow Professor of Music, is the co-editor of Emily's Songbook: Popular Music in 1850s Albany, published by A-R Editions, 2011. This publication is the first-ever facsimile edition of a “binder’s volume” a personal collection of sheet music, in this case that of a nineteenth-century young woman, Emily Esperanza McKissick of Albany, N.Y,, who must have actively used her volume with her friends and family and who became a long-lived music teacher.Essays by leading American-music specialists illuminate the general themes of this unique volume and also provide detailed information (with copious reference to period source materials)…
We live in a world of germs; multitudes of them live in our own bodies. While some cause many infectious diseases, they also help digesting and processing the food and fight off tooth decay. How is this possible? During the Spring 2012 semester, William Firshein, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry emeritus, will discuss the myths and realities of these pathogens as part of the Wesleyan's Institute for Lifelong Learning (WILL). Germs are Us, is just one of the seven courses offered this spring by the institute, housed in the Wasch Center for Retired Faculty on Lawn Ave. WILL provides…
Lauren RubensteinAn article by Steven Stemler, assistant professor of psychology, is published in Vol. 47, Issue 1 of Educational Psychologist. In the article, “What Should University Admissions Tests Predict?" Stemler argues that because colleges and universities emphasize the development of a broad range of capabilities in their students—beyond just mastery of specific academic content—admissions tests should also capture a range of essential student qualities. The article includes a review of these common capabilities, such as cultural competence and ethical reasoning, which colleges and universities purport to seek and develop in their students. It then presents a conceptual model outlining what outcomes admissions tests…
Courtney Fullilove, assistant professor of history, wrote an article titled "Dead Letters—By a Resurrectionist: Liberty and Surveillance in the Tombs of the U.S. Post Office," published in the January 2012 issue of Common-Place.org. In the article, Fullilove describes a history of the 19th century Division of Dead Letters. Until World War I, all undeliverable letters were processed through the central office in Washington. By law, unclaimed letters were burned, pulped, or otherwise destroyed. But Fullilove discovered this wasn't the case. "Here was a riddle," she writes. "In a non-existent box were four letters that should have been destroyed. Their presence was evidence…
A translation titled "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats," written by Kevin Wiliarty, academic computing manager, was published Jan. 31 by The Other Press. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is a translation of Jan-Philipp Sendker's Das Herzenhören, originally published in 2004. A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never…
Nadja Aksamija, assistant professor of art history, is the co-author of the book, La Sala Bologna nei Palazzi Vaticani: Architettura, cartografia e potere nell’età di Gregorio XIIIpublished by Marsilio Editori, 2011. The Sala Bologna is one of the most inaccessible and fascinating spaces in the Vatican Palace, located between the Pope’s private apartments and the Secretariat of the Vatican State. Originally used for ceremonial purposes, it was built and decorated for the Jubilee of 1575 for the Bolognese pope Gregory XIII, Ugo Boncompagni, and precedes by five years the more famous Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Belvedere. It was conceived…
The Center for Faculty and Career Development announce the Spring 2012 Academic (Technology) Roundtable lunch series. A(T)R lunches are designed to promote conversation, cooperation and the sharing of information, ideas and resources among faculty members, librarians, graduate students and staff. Meetings take place at noon in Olin Library's Develin Room (unless specified otherwise) and include a buffet lunch. The Spring A(T)R Schedule is below: Feb. 20 "Using Digital Media in Place of the Traditional Academic Paper," a videoconference with Hisa Kuriyama of the Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History, Harvard University. Feb. 27 "Writing History in the Digital Age," with…