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In July, three faculty will begin new appointments at Wesleyan. Katja Kolcio will succeed Peter Rutland as director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life; Stephanie Weiner will succeed Sean McCann as director of the Shapiro Center for Writing; and Krishna Winston will succeed David Beveridge and Alex Dupuy as director of the Wasch Center for Retired Faculty. Katja Kolcio, associate professor of dance, received certificates from Free Ukrainian University and from Kyiv Institute of Art and Culture; and her PhD from The Ohio State University. Her work specializes in the role of creative physical engagement in…

Eighty-one seniors have been elected into Wesleyan University’s Gamma Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society during the 2020 spring semester. They join 15 other seniors elected during the 2019 fall semester. To be elected, a student must first have been nominated by the department of his or her major. The student also must have demonstrated curricular breadth by having met the General Education Expectations and must have achieved a GPA of 93 or above. The emblem contains the three Greek letters “Phi,” “Beta,” and “Kappa,” which are the initials of the Greek motto, Philosophia Biou Kybernetes, or “the love…

Abigail Chabitnoy’s debut poetry collection How to Dress a Fish, published by Wesleyan University Press in December 2018, has been shortlisted for the 2020 International Griffin Poetry Prize. The prize is given by The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. In addition to the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Griffin Trust initiates and supports projects and ventures consistent with the mandate of the prize to further promote appreciation of Canadian and international poetry. The judges read 572 books of poetry from 14 countries prior to narrowing their selection down to seven shortlisted finalists. The two winners will each be awarded $65,000,…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78 announced that Wesleyan will delay its 188th Commencement Ceremony, originally scheduled for May 24, 2020. Wesleyan’s reunion gatherings, typically held during the same weekend, will be celebrated in alternate formats. “Although I’d been delaying this decision in hopes that we might still have an opportunity to gather together in late May, I’m writing now to let you know that we will have to find another time and place to celebrate the 2020 graduation. There is so much uncertainty about what the next few months will hold, and we don’t think…

Wesleyan's Athletic Department is celebrating student athletes' recent achievements and is honoring members of the Class of 2020. They include: Men’s Lacrosse Senior Day Women’s Lacrosse Senior Day Six Men’s Lacrosse Players Named Maverik DIII Media All-Americans Wrestling Earns Several All-NEWA Awards Walker Harris '20 Named Third Team All-American Walker Harris '20 Honored with Joe Concannon Award Field Hockey Places Nation-Leading 25 on NFHCA National Academic Team

To help medical personnel safeguard themselves during the coronavirus outbreak, two makerspace labs on campus are manufacturing much-needed protective masks using 3D printers. On April 1, Wesleyan donated its first set of 100 face shields to medical personnel at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, and others to Wesleyan staff who must work on campus to support the remaining students. The mask, which offers a barrier from the spray of liquids, can be used with or without additional medical masks that cover the nose and mouth. "Our 3D printers have been running at full speed," said Francis Starr, professor of physics and…

Katerina Ramos-Jordán '21 is the recipient of a Beinecke Scholarship, which will support her graduate career and her academic goal of becoming a cultural studies scholar. She's among 18 college undergraduates nationwide to receive the honor, and she's the first Wesleyan student to receive the award in 13 years. Ramos-Jordán will use her Beinecke Scholarship to explore the connection of nature, literature, art, and community in the Caribbean. "Today, in a moment of ecological, racial, and political crisis, I envision my artistic, scholarly, and community projects to cultivate understandings and be a part of Caribbean creolité ways of reading," she said.…

Now that many students, faculty, staff, and alumni are working, teaching, or taking classes from home, several have opted to use the software Zoom for online video conferencing and virtual group meetings. The Office of University Communications is offering an array of cropped-to-size, virtual backgrounds featuring campus images and Wesleyan graphics, all available for download. Missing Wesleyan? The images also can be used for computer desktop backgrounds. To save an image: Double-click an image on the page to open it, then right-click on the image. Select "Save As" to save the file to your computer. Insert background into Zoom: Open…

Associate Professor of Government Logan Dancey’s research and teaching interests include the United States Congress, campaigns and elections, and public opinion. We spoke to him about the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. As a scholar of legislative decision-making, can you describe how the workings of the United States Congress look different during a time of crisis? It’s still early, but the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic shows that even this gridlocked and polarized Congress—which doesn’t seem to accomplish much in normal times—is still fairly quick to respond to crises. We’ve seen large bipartisan majorities agree on fairly large-scale…

Joy Cote PhD ’18, Cody Hecht '18, MA'19, and Erika Taylor, associate professor of chemistry, are the co-authors of a study that explores how opposite charges on our substrate and enzyme cause a protein to change shape when the substrate binds. The study, titled "Opposites Attract: Escherichia coli Heptosyltransferase I Conformational Changes Induced by Interactions between the Substrate and Positively Charged Residues," appears in the February 2020 issue of Biochemistry. "If you can imagine how the opposite charges of magnets are attracted toward each other, then you understand the results of this paper," Taylor explained. "The enzyme uses positively-charged amino…

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In the eighth of this continuing series, Sara McCrea ’21, a College of Letters major from Boulder, Colo., 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. Christina Pugh ’88, Stardust Media (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020) In this time of social distancing, I find myself surrounded by media more than ever. My Wesleyan friends, thousands of miles away, flicker on all my screens; I watch from my…

Kolcio, Weiner, Winston to Serve as New Directors

81 Students from the Class of 2020 Elected to Phi Beta Kappa

Wesleyan University Press Book by Chabitnoy Shortlisted for Griffin Poetry Prize

2020 Commencement Ceremony, Class Reunions Postponed

Student Athletes Celebrated, Honored

Wesleyan Labs Create, Donate Face Shields to Local Hospital

Ramos-Jordán ’21 Named Beinecke Scholar

Download Wesleyan Virtual Backgrounds to Use with Zoom

Dancey on the Government’s Response to the Coronavirus Crisis

Cote PhD ’18, Hecht MA ’19, Taylor Co-Author New Paper in Biochemistry

Wesleyan’s Campus Remains Quiet During COVID-19 Pandemic

“You Just Have to Read This…” Books by Wesleyan Authors: Pugh ’88, Tupper ’95, and Pompano CAS’95