Olivia DrakeQ: Sandy, you are a 2006 alumna and now an assistant director of alumni relations. What did you major in, and why did you decide to stay at Wes after you finished your degree? A: I majored in psychology and loved it. I took as many psych courses as I could and 'overenrolled,' which I didn’t even know was possible. I had a particular interest in cognitive and developmental psych. I loved my four years at Wesleyan and spent two summers working on campus as an undergrad. When it came time to look for a job my senior year, it…
David LowJenny He ’02 is the co-author, along with Ron Magliozzi, of a new book Tim Burton, published by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to accompany a major career retrospective that is currently on view at the museum. The publication considers Burton's career as an artist and filmmaker, the evolution of his creative practices and the influence of popular culture and Pop Surrealism on his work. The book traces the path of his visual imagination from his earliest childhood drawings through his mature works, which includes his films Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas,…
Joss Whedon ’87 will be honored by the Producers Guild of America with its Vanguard Award, which recognizes achievements in new media and technology. He will receive the award at the 21st Annual PGA Awards ceremony on Jan. 24 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Previous Vanguard Award recipients include George Lucas, James Cameron, John Lasseter, MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe and president and co-founder Tom Anderson, and YouTube founders Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Will Wright. Whedon is a producer, writer, director, and creator for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse. He…
Bill HolderThe freshly minted Wesleyan Lawyers Association (“WLA”) hosted a successful kickoff event Nov. 7 during Homecoming /Family Weekend at the Woodhead Lounge in the Exley Science Center. Approximately 100 attorney alumni, undergraduates, and friends attended a talk given by Ted Shaw ’76, currently the Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University Law School and of counsel at the international firm of Fulbright and Jaworski. Shaw, who was director-counsel and president of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 2004 through 2008 and served as a Wesleyan Trustee for 15 years, addressed how his experience at Wesleyan affected his legal career as one of…
Cynthia RockwellCaroline Little ’81, the North American CEO for the U.K.-based Guardian News and Media, was the subject of the most recent, “So What Do You Do” Q-and-A for Mediabistro.com. Previously CEO at The Washington Post.com, where she led the web sites for the Post, as well as for Newsweek, Slate, and The Root, Little had begun her career as a lawyer. She says that she made the jump in 1997 to digital media because, “when something's new, there's a lot of opportunities” and her background had given her an overview of the business. Asked about the Guardian’s goals in the…
Brooklyn, N.Y. resident Bridget Palardy ’05 has received the inaugural JT3 Artist Award of Distinction for emerging filmmakers for her short film Middletown B-Boys, a compelling dance-filled documentary that was shot in Middletown, Conn. Palardy and four other innovative young filmmakers from Brooklyn were honored at the first-ever JT3 Artist Awards at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Oct. 22 in a celebration with director Adam Brooks (Definitely, Maybe) and hosted by Tony-award nominated actor Brandon Victor Dixon. A nonprofit foundation created in memory of the dynamic young writer/director/producer Jesse Thompkins III, who died in a tragic traffic accident last year,…
In his third poetry collection, Tourist (NYQ Books, 2009), Sanford Fraser ’54 reveals a mastery of the lyric form and plainspoken language. The collection is divided into three sections: Strangers, Roles and Connections. In the first section, the narrator and/or characters in the poems are strangers isolated from and emotionally detached from others; in the second, they play various roles in the world beyond themselves; and finally in the last section, they experience emotional attachments with others. Frasier shares the following observations about his new book: “The busloads of tourists who ride and walk through the streets of my neighborhood…
John Bonin, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science, tutor in the College of Social Studies, delivered the keynote address titled "From Reputation Amidst Uncertainty to Commitment Under Stress: A Decade of Foreign-Owned Banking in Transitioning Economies" at the conference 20 Years of Transition in Central and Eastern Europe: Money, Banking and Financial Markets at London Metropolitan University sponsored by the Center for International Capital Markets at London Metropolitan Business School on Sept. 18.
John Bonin, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science, tutor in the College of Social Studies, is the author of two book reviews. The first review is of Malcolm Cook's “ Banking in Southeast Asia: The Region’s Decisive Decade,” Pacific Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Fall) 2009, pp. 555 – 557. The other review is of Janos Kornai's “From Socialism to Capitalism: Eight Essays,” Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XLVII, No. 3 (September) 2009, pp. 853 – 856. The journal is published by the American Economics Association.
Daniela Ivanova ’10, a CSS senior, has published an article on "Velvet cinema" in the web-based publication Transitions Online, for their 20 years after the Berlin wall special.
Ernest Heau P’12 and his son, Noah Heau ’12, are the authors of a novel-length fantasy adventure for young teens called The Lost Rubies of Fennwann. Ernest and Noah wrote the book together while Noah was in middle and high school. The father and son self-published the 268-page book through iUniverse, Inc. in 2009. According to the website, "Co-authors Ernest and Noah Heau are father and son. Their story-telling career began when Noah was 4, when they made up stories on the spot. Over the years they created many hand-written and hand-illustrated stories. The Lost Rubies of Fennwann is their…
Norm Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, is the author and translator of the book Labiche & Co: Fourteen One-Acts by a French Comic Master, published by Performing Books. The book will be released in December 2009. Among the plays included are Bosom Friends, The Brat, A Bee or Not a Bee, It's All Relative, The Unshakeable Suitor, A Nest-Egg Well Scrambled, and A Slap in the Farce, which is currently being performed at Harvard University. In addition, Yale University Press has accepted Shapiro's recent collection of translations from the poetry of French Romantic poet Théophile Gautier to appear in…