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Olivia DrakeApril 1, 20212min
As a recipient of a Fulbright Specialist Award, Professor Lisa Dierker hopes to connect with academic partners across the world sharing her expertise and excitement in support of data analytics. “High quality, accessible and manageable data have never been so critical to the well-being of people around the world,” Dierker said. “Increasing capacity to identify, gather and analyze relevant data is a key pathway for better-informed decision-making and will create a larger, more diverse workforce.” Dierker, Walter Crowell University Professor of Social Sciences, professor of psychology and education studies, is a co-creator of Wesleyan's "Passion-Driven Statistics" model, a data-driven, project-based…

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Olivia DrakeMarch 31, 202122min
Several Wesleyan faculty, students, alumni, parents, and staff have recently been featured in the news: March 23 The Island Now - Earth Matters - A Brief History of Long Island Sound. Mentions that in 1892, 23 students at Wesleyan came down with typhoid, with four deaths, from eating contaminated oysters. Morning Star via PR Newswire - College Consensus Publishes Aggregate Ranking of the 100 Best Colleges & Universities for 2021. Mentions Wesleyan. Sugarcane Magazine - Incarcerated Poets Laureate: Recognizing Unseen Creators in Florida. Mentions that through his nonprofit, O, Miami, P. Scott Cunningham '00 builds community through literature. March 24…

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Rachel Wachman '24March 27, 20217min
Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology, emeritus, and his wife, Lina Fruzzetti, a professor of anthropology at Brown University, co-produced six films that are now being included in a retrospective hosted by the Smithsonian’s Recovering Voices Initiative for the annual Mother Tongue Film Festival. The festival features diverse films which explore language and knowledge around the world. This year’s theme is “The Healing Power of Storytelling.” While the festival must take place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, each film is available to stream throughout the spring for a certain window of time. Östör and Fruzzetti also participated in a virtual…

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Annie RoachMarch 27, 20212min
Ten students majoring in earth and environmental sciences (E&ES) have completed their senior capstone projects. Each year, seniors in the major embark on a capstone experience that starts with a seminar in the fall (E&ES497) in which students design an original research project, go on a field trip to carry out the research and complete their fieldwork, and then analyze their results and present them in written reports and oral presentations. In past years, students have ventured across the globe for their field trips. However, the pandemic caused this year’s projects to look a little different. This time, the field…

Annie RoachMarch 26, 20213min
In this continuing series, Annie Roach ’22, an English and Italian studies major from Middletown, Del., reviews alumni books and offers a selection for those in search of knowledge, insight, and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University’s collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. David Lee Garrison ’67, Light in the River (Dos Madres Press, 2020) Lately, many of us have been looking for small ways to escape from our screens and our worries. David Lee Garrison’s latest poetry collection is the perfect shelter for moments like…

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Olivia DrakeMarch 23, 20211min
Wesleyan students welcomed a two-day study hiatus during spring break, held March 23–24. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students remained in Middletown during the recess. Students continue to wear masks while participating in any indoor or outdoor activity. For more information, visit Wesleyan's Keep Wes Safe website. (Photos by Willow Saxon '24) (more…)

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Olivia DrakeMarch 23, 20212min
When Emily McEvoy '22 began her college career at Wesleyan in 2018, she felt a deep sense of detachment from the local environment. At a campus in the middle of her home state, how could this be? The insularity, she says, was jarring, and she decided to dedicate her time to combat this issue. McEvoy immediately became involved with several local organizations, including Middletown's North End Action Team, and the student cohort of volunteers who helped staff their office. Most recently, McEvoy has been an organizer with the Middletown Mutual Aid Collective, which has raised close to $70,000 to support…

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Editorial StaffMarch 23, 20211min
Wesleyan’s 189th Commencement will take place in person on Wednesday, May 26. "This year’s Commencement was previously planned for May 30; however, due to a number of factors, including current pandemic conditions and cancellation of an in-person reunion weekend, we have decided to move up the date," Wesleyan President Michael Roth '78 said in a campus-wide email. The University is hoping that conditions will allow for two guests per graduate to attend the ceremony. Wesleyan is pursuing plans to accommodate the seniors and other graduates who have been studying remotely to return to campus for Commencement exercises. As with all…

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Rachel Wachman '24March 22, 20213min
Martha Gilmore, George I. Seney Professor of Geology and professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of seven new papers and articles. These include: “Distinct Mineralogy and Age of Individual Lava Flows in Atla Regio, Venus Derived From Magellan Radar Emissivity,” published in the March 2021 issue of JGR: Planets. Gilmore's former postdoc Jeremy Brossier, Katie Toner '20 and Avi Stein '17 co-authored this paper. “The Venus Life Equation,” published online in the January 2021 issue of Astrobiology. “Variations in the radiophysical properties of tesserae and mountain belts on Venus: Classification and mineralogical trends,” published in the February…

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Rachel Wachman '24March 22, 20213min
Suzanne OConnell, professor of earth and environmental sciences, is featured on Vox Media’s podcast Unexplainable in a March 17 episode titled “Journey Toward the Center of the Earth.” The podcast explores unanswered scientific questions about mysterious aspects of the world and examines what scientists are doing to find answers. The episode with OConnell delves into a 20th-century quest to drill into the Earth’s layers through the ocean, specifically to learn more about a very dense region between the crust and the mantle called the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or the Moho. “Project Moho was a bust, but it lay a foundation for…

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Olivia DrakeMarch 22, 202114min
Several Wesleyan faculty, students, alumni, parents, and staff have recently been featured in the news: March 10 EIN Presswire - AcademicInfluence.com Announces the Top-Ranked Private Graduate Schools in the U.S. for 2021. Mentions Wesleyan. March 11 The Middletown Press - Wesleyan University: COVID tests essential for return to in-person learning. Focuses on Wesleyan employees' efforts in creating the COVID-19 testing site. Market Screener - Safari Energy Reaches 500th Commercial Solar Project. Mentions that Safari Energy's first project was a small, three-kilowatt (kW) solar system installed at Wesleyan and how "that project was quickly expanded with the addition of a 92…

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Rachel Wachman '24March 19, 20211min
Johan "Joop" Varekamp, Harold T. Stearns Professor in Earth Science, professor of earth and environmental studies, is the co-author of an article published in Geology, March 2021. The study, titled "Volcanic Carbon Cycling in East Lake, Newberry Volcano, Oregon," focuses on the bubbling East Lake, the site of the Newberry Volcano, and the geological implications of the carbon reactions happening there. Varekamp co-authored the article with graduate student Christina Cauley and former students: Hilary Brumberg '17, Lena Capece '16, Celeste Smith '19, Paula Tartell '18, and Molly Wagner MA '19. The team researched this geological phenomenon from 2015 to 2019,…