Olivia DrakeMarch 23, 20112min
Faculty, alumni and students from the Biology Department and Neuroscience and Behavior Department have an article titled “STEP regulation of seizure thresholds in the hippocampus,” published in Epilepsia, Volume 52, Issue 3, March 2011. Epilepsia is the journal of the International League Against Epilepsy. The paper’s co-authors include Gloster Aaron assistant professor of biology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior; Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior; Stephen Briggs BA ’07, MA ’08, Jeffrey Walker BA ’08, MA ’09, and biology Ph.D. candidate Kemal Asik. Paul Lombroso, a professor at Yale University, contributed to the report. This…

Olivia DrakeMarch 23, 20113min
Magda Teter is the author of Sinners Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege after the Reformation, published by Harvard University Press in March 2011. Teter is the Jeremy Zwelling Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, associate professor of history, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of medieval studies. In post-Reformation Poland—the largest state in Europe and home to the largest Jewish population in the world—the Catholic Church suffered profound anxiety about its power after the Protestant threat. According to Harvard University Press, Teter reveals how criminal law became a key tool in the manipulation of the meaning…

Olivia DrakeMarch 23, 20112min
Lisa Dombrowski, associate professor of film studies, is the editor of the book, Kazan Revisited, published by Wesleyan University Press in March 2011. According to WUP: A groundbreaking filmmaker dogged by controversy in both his personal life and career, Elia Kazan was one of the most important directors of postwar American cinema. In landmark motion pictures such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden, and Splendor in the Grass, Kazan crafted an emotionally raw form of psychological realism. Arriving in the wake of his centenary, Kazan Revisited engages and moves beyond existing debates regarding Kazan’s contributions…

Olivia DrakeMarch 23, 20111min
Matthew Kurtz, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, received a $104,338 grant from the National Institute for Health on Feb. 8. The grant, titled "Cognitive Remediation for Nicotine Dependence" involves adapting cognitive training procedures developed for use in schizophrenia, for addressing the temporary deficits in memory that often accompany smoking cessation in long-term users and that also predict relapse. The project, part of a collaboration between Wesleyan and the University of Pennsylvania, is lead by Dr. Caryn Lerman, director of the Tobacco Use Research Center at Penn's School of Medicine.  It will help support Kurtz's work…

Bill HolderMarch 23, 20111min
University Photographer Bill Burkhart retired in early March after two decades of service to Wesleyan. Known particularly for his portraiture work, he was the principal photographer for Wesleyan magazine and provided images of classrooms, faculty and staff, students at work and play, alumni across the country, and just about every aspect of campus life one could imagine. His work contributed to the magazine’s receiving several national awards. “If you’ve seen images of Wesleyan and its people on the web or in print, you’ve almost certainly seen a Burkhart image,” says William Holder ’75, director of university communications. “He did a…

Olivia DrakeMarch 23, 20111min
Sean Martin is serving as acting director of Financial Aid. Martin joined the Wesleyan staff in the financial aid office in December 2004 and has been associate director since July. He is managing the day-to-day operations and supervising the office while working closely with the staff in Student Accounts.