faculty achievements

Hirsh Sawhney, assistant professor of English and coordinator of South Asian Studies, recently participated in Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest. The ninth annual event was held Nov. 15–18 in Mumbai and was attended by more than 100 participants from around the world. At the festival, Sawhney participated in a panel discussion about the way in which outsiders write about India, and how outside perspectives have shaped both Euro-American and South Asian perspectives on India. "A lot of this conversation focused on the undying legacy of empire, and we had a nuanced conversation about issues of representation and authenticity, a discussion…

Four poems, translated by Distinguished Professor of Literary Translation and Poet in Residence Norman Shapiro, appear in the November 2018 Vol. III edition of the international esoteric journal, Better Than Starbucks!. This poetry magazine is edited by American poet and translator Michael Burch. The poem below, titled "You ..." is translated from the French of Cécile Périn and appeared in The Gentle Genius of Cécile Périn. (Copyright © 2016 by Norman Shapiro and Black Widow Press.) You … When you were but the merest tot, Babbling in cowering awkwardness, When you were only fresh-begot, Flesh of my flesh, I loved you less…

For his contribution to the field of ethnomusicology and music scholarship, Sumarsam, the Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, was recently named an honorary member of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM). The encomium was presented by Wesleyan alumna Maria Mendonca MA '90, PhD '02, during the 63rd SEM General Membership Meeting, Nov. 17, in Albuquerque, N.M. Sumarsam was commended for his scholarship on gamelan and wayang performance traditions, which inspired the SEM membership, explained Gregory Barz, president of the Society for Ethnomusicology. "Your mentorship of countless students and colleagues, both directly and by example, is held in high esteem, and the ways that…

As an inaugural Onassis Foundation Teaching Fellow in Culture and Humanities, Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, the Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek, will have the opportunity to teach Greek history to incarcerated students through Wesleyan's Center for Prison Education (CPE). Starting during the spring 2019 semester, Szegedy-Maszak will teach an adapted version of his Wesleyan course CCIV 231: Greek History to men at the Cheshire Correctional Institution. "I was surprised and very honored when I heard that I was awarded the fellowship," said Szegedy-Maszak. "This class will be a survey of ancient Greek civilization over about 1,000 years, from the Bronze Age to the…

Lori Gruen, William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, is the editor of the book Critical Terms for Animal Studies, published by the University of Chicago Press in October 2018. Gruen also wrote the book's introduction and a chapter on empathy. In addition, she invited Kari Weil, University Professor of Letters, to write a chapter on difference. Animal studies is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field devoted to examining, understanding, and critically evaluating the complex relationships between humans and other animals. Scholarship in animal studies draws on a variety of methodologies to explore these multifaceted relationships in order to help us understand the ways…

A play translated by Elizabeth Jackson, adjunct associate professor of Portuguese, was performed at Yale Cabaret Oct. 25–27. The play, titled "Agreste (Drylands)," is a Brazilian tale of love and loss, desire and death, ignorance and violence, written by Brazilian playwright Newton Moreno. Based on true events, "Drylands" is a poetic narrative set in Brazil’s suffocating and desertified northeast. Three storytellers share with the audience their accounts and reenactments of a moving love story between two young farm workers that unravels in perplexing ways, as their intimacy becomes the subject of local gossip, and the memories of their relationship are ransacked by…

On Oct. 20, Wesleyan held its inaugural Liberal Arts + forum in Shanghai, China. This year, the forum focused on film education and U.S.-China film collaborations, and featured discussions between three alumni in the entertainment industry; President Michael Roth; and Scott Higgins, director of the College of Film and the Moving Image. Each year, the forum will highlight a different area of liberal arts education for an audience of prospective families, alumni, and the general public in China. The centerpiece of this public event, which was attended by approximately 80 people, was a panel discussion featuring Jon Hoeber '93 and…

Richard Slotkin, Olin Professor of English, Emeritus, is the author of a new book, Greenhorns: stories, published Oct. 10 by Leapfrog Press. Slotkin writes more personally in Greenhorns than in his past nonfiction books, in a series of linked semifictional stories based on his ancestors' immigration from Eastern Europe early in the 20th century. A kosher butcher with gambling problems; a woman whose elegant persona conceals unspeakable horror; a Jewish Pygmalion who turns a wretched orphan into a “real American girl”; a boy who clings to his father’s old-world code of honor on the mean streets of Brooklyn; the “little man who wasn’t there,”…

J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, professor and chair of American studies, recently presented her research at a conference in Loughborough University on Decolonizing Anarchisms. The gathering was the fifth annual conference of the UK Anarchist Studies Network. The purpose of the conference was “to stimulate discussion of colonialism and racism as forms of oppression that anarchists oppose, but which continue to be felt in anarchist organizing; and to welcome individuals, groups and communities who have not previously participated in ASN events. By recognizing the legacy of non-western and anti-colonial thought and action in the anarchist tradition, we want to strengthen the ties…

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Joseph Weiss, assistant professor of anthropology, is the author of Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii: Life beyond Settler Colonialism, published by the University of British Columbia Press in September 2018. Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii shows how an indigenous nation in British Columbia not only continues to have a future but is at work building many different futures—for themselves and for their non-indigenous neighbors. The project emerges from an almost decade-long relationship between Weiss and the citizens of the Haida Nation of Haida Gwaii, a series of islands off the west coast of Canada. Weiss explores these possible futures…

Wesleyan faculty Stephen Angle and Megan Glick are participating in a Global Human Rights Teach-Out Oct. 17–20, hosted on Coursera. The Teach-Out will address the various dimensions of human rights. Participants will join citizens from all over the world to contribute to an online discussion on various human rights with scholarly input in the form of podcasts from over 20 academic instructors, including some contributions from advocacy groups addressing the urgency of issues. The event will end with a live-streamed discussion, hosted in The Hague by Leiden University, where participants can ask questions of some of the speakers as well as…

Sawhney Speaks at Tata Mumbai LitFest

Shapiro Featured in Poetry Magazine Better Than Starbucks!

Sumarsam Named Honorary Member of the Society for Ethnomusicology

Szegedy-Maszak Receives Onassis Fellowship to Teach Greek History to Incarcerated Students

Gruen Edits, Weil Contributes to Critical Terms for Animal Studies Book

Jackson Translates Second Play from Brazilian Playwright Newton Moreno

Inaugural Liberal Arts + Forum in Shanghai Focused on Film Education, Collaborations

Slotkin Authors New Book of Semifictional Stories

Kauanui Presents Paper at Decolonizing Anarchisms Conference

Hatch Speaks on Black Phoenix Rising for 2018 Dwight Greene Symposium

Weiss Pens Book on Indigenous Peoples’ Futures on Canadian Islands

Angle, Glick to Speak at Human Rights Teach-Out