Olivia DrakeHilary Barth, assistant professor of psychology, is the co-author of “Non-Bayesian Contour Synthesis” published in Volume 21, Issue 6 of Current Biology, March 2011. The authors studied how our visual system 'fills in the gaps' when looking at interrupted or partially obscured shapes. The research is featured in a Dispatch article in Current Biology titled "Visual Perception: Bizarre Contours Go Against The Odds". The reports presents new motion displays that depict simple occlusion sequences. These displays elicit vivid percepts of illusory contours. Unlike most illusory contours, the contours in these displays are "unnecessary": they don't help us make sense of the information…
David LowThe first comprehensive mid-career retrospective devoted to pioneering New York–based artist Glenn Ligon ’82 will be held at the Whitney Museum of American Art (45 Madison Ave. at 75th Street, 212-570-3600) in New York City from March 10 through June 5. The exhibition, Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, features about 100 works, including paintings, prints, photography, drawings, and sculptural installations, as well as striking recent neon reliefs, one of them newly commissioned for the Whitney’s Madison Avenue windows. Over the course of his career, Ligon has created a body of work that has explored American history, literature, and society as it…
Planned Parenthood presented Wesleyan Uncut, a student group that promotes sexual dialogue on campus, with this year's prestigious "Walk the Talk" award at their annual gala in Washington D.C. April 7. The students created a video titled “I Have Sex,” to speak out against an ideological attack against Planned Parenthood. Uncut members Jacob Eichengreen ’13, Su Park '12, Melanie Hsu '13, Katya Botwinick '13 and Laura Lupton ’12 attended the ceremony. Planned Parenthood funded their travel expenses to D.C. Wesleyan Uncut conceptualized the film with filmmakers Eric Byler ’94 and Annabel Park. The video has more than 286,000 views on…
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, director of private lessons, chamber music and ensembles received the 2010 Wammie Award for Classical Conductor / Director by the Washington Area Music Association for his efforts directing the Post-Classical Ensemble, a Washington, D.C.-based orchestra co-founded by Gil-Ordóñez. The Washington Area Music Awards recognize significant career achievements by area musicians. Nominations and balloting come from the WAMA membership. Past show participants include Emmylou Harris, Joan Jett, The Clovers, The Orioles, Bo Diddley, Jorma Kaukonen, Jimmy Dean, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Two psychology seniors and a recent alumnus were recognized in the National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship competition. Dominic Gibson '10 was awarded a fellowship, and Hannah Nam '08 and Christian Hoyos '11 received Honorable Mentions. Gibson will be attending the University of Chicago and Hoyos will attend Northwestern next year. Nam is currently in a social psychology Ph.D. program at New York University.
Jennifer Tucker received a Huntington-British Academy Fellowship for study in Great Britain in summer 2011. Tucker is associate professor of history, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of science in society. In cooperation with the British Academy, the Huntington offers a limited number of one-month exchange fellowships in any of the fields in which the Huntington collections are strong and where the research will be carried out in the United Kingdom. These fellowships are awarded to postdoctoral scholars. The Huntington is an independent research center with holdings in British and American history, literature, art history, and…
Andrew Curran, professor of romance languages and literatures, is the co-winner of the 2010-11 James L. Clifford Prize. The prize is awarded annually by the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies to the author of the best article regarding any aspect of eighteenth-century culture. Receiving the award is Curran’s Rethinking Race History: The Role of the Albino in French Enlightenment Sciences. The Clifford Fund was originally established to support an annual prize in honor of James L. Clifford. Clifford founded The Johnsonian News Letter in 1940, was Secretary to the English Institute, twice a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of…
Elizabeth McAlister, associate professor of religion, associate professor of American Studies, associate professor of African American Studies, gave the keynote presentation in collaboration with her daughter, Lovely Nicolas, at a conference at Harvard University on March 25 titled “African Dance Diaspora: A Symposium on Embodied Knowledge. McAlister and Nicolas presented an academic performance combining dance, memoir, and dance theory in a piece titled “Move Your Words.”
Ruth Nisse, associate professor of English, and Matthew Garrett, assistant professor of English, received a 2011-12 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. The ACLS is a competitive fellowship for scholars in all disciplines of the humanities and humanities-related social sciences. Applications are peer reviewed by scholars in the applicant's field. The fellowship is designed to provide scholars with devoted time for their research and writing. Seventy national scholarly organizations below to the ACLS. Nisse will use her fellowship to complete her book called Jacob's Shipwreck. “The book focuses on Jewish-Christian relations and the transmission of ancient texts into both medieval…
Anna Shusterman, assistant professor of psychology; Hilary Barth, assistant professor of psychology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior; and Emily Slusser, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology, received a grant worth $25,000 from Mattel Philanthropy Programs. The grant was awarded on March 24. The grant allows the group to explore children's ability to learn from independent play with toys. Children will receive one of four kinds of toys for a period of two months, and their parents will be asked to bring the toys out daily. At the beginning and end of the study, children will participate in a series of brief measures, many of which…
Suzanna Tamminen, director of Wesleyan University Press, received a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts on March 21. The grant will support Wesleyan University Press’s poetry program. The funding will support publication of 12 books of poetry in 2011 and 2012, including the new volume by Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout and the collected poems of Joseph Ceravolo. In addition to helping support publication costs, the funding will be used to help authors travel to give readings from their new Wesleyan books.
Pam Tatge, director of the Center for the Arts, received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the Breaking Ground Dance Series July 2011-June 2012. The series features cutting-edge choreography and virtuosic dancing by world-renowned companies. This is the 11th anniversary season of the Breaking Ground Dance Series at Wesleyan.