faculty achievements

Professor of Anthropology Gina Athena Ulysse received the Haitian Studies Association's Excellence in Scholarship award during the organizations' 27th annual conference Oct. 24. The conference centered around the theme "Haiti in the Global Environment: Presence, Representations, Performances" and took place at the Université de Montréal in Québec, Canada. Previous anthropologists awarded this honor include Paul Farmer (2001) and Michel-Rolph Trouillot (2003). While in Québec, Ulysse presented a talk on "Successfully Individuating Within Academia: Thoughts on Rebel Mentoring and Your Voice” at the Emerging Scholars pre-conference. Ulysse also will be recognized by her peers at the American Anthropological Association meeting next month for…

During the Society for Neuroscience's (SfN) annual meeting Oct. 17-21, Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, received the Louise Hansen Marshall Special Recognition Award. The Louise Hanson Marshall Special Recognition Award honors individuals who have significantly promoted the professional development of women in neuroscience through teaching, organizational leadership, public advocacy and more. Naegele shares the 2015 Louise Hansen Marshall award with Paul Greengard P'77, P'79, GP '08, the Vincent Astor Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York. Naegele began her career studying the characteristics of cortical neurons and more recently has performed pioneering studies of transplantation of inhibitory…

Associate Professor of Economics Abigail Hornstein presented a paper at the 2015 American Financial Management Association Meeting, held in Orlando, Fla. Oct. 14–17. Hornstein's research paper, titled "Board Overlaps in Mutual Fund Families," is co-authored with Elif Sisli Ciamarra of Brandeis University. Hornstein also was a discussant on a paper titled "Mutual fund home bias and market uncertainty" by Nicole Choi of the University of Wyoming and Hilla Skiba of Colorado State University.

This month, Lori Gruen accepted a three-year appointment as a Faculty Fellow at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine's Center for Animals and Public Policy. Gruen is the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, and professor of environmental studies at Wesleyan. She also coordinates Wesleyan Animal Studies. The mission of the Tufts University's Center for Animals and Public Policy (CAPP) is to conduct and encourage scholarly evaluation and understanding of the complex societal issues and public policy dimensions of the changing role and impact of animals in society. As a Faculty Fellow, Gruen will explore human-animal relationships with Tufts…

On Oct. 3, Joseph Siry, the Kenan Professor of the Humanities, professor of art history, received the Wright Spirit Award in the Professional category from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy at its annual conference this year in Milwaukee, Wis. A prolific scholar of the venerable architect, Siry has written several books and scholarly articles about Wright. He also has contributed to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in many ways over the years, as a lecturer, panelist and contributor to the group's magazine. A citation read at the ceremony by Scott Perkins, a conservancy board member and director of preservation for…

For her outstanding contributions to Milky Way research by observational methods, Meredith Hughes, assistant professor of astronomy, received the 2015 Bok Prize in Astronomy from Harvard University. The prize, named in honor of Astronomer Bart Bok (1906–1983), is awarded to a recent holder of a PhD degree in the physical sciences from Harvard or Radcliffe who is under 35 years of age. Hughes received her PhD from Harvard in 2010, and a MA in astronomy from Harvard in 2007. Hughes is an expert on planet formation, circumstellar disk structure and dynamics, gas and dust disk evolution and radio astronomy. She studies planet formation by observing…

Wesleyan vibraphonist and composer Jay Hoggard was named the Music Ambassador for the City of Middletown on Aug. 31 at the Mayor’s Office. In addition to being recognized for his valuable artistic and creative contributions, the Music Ambassadors’ music becomes the featured ‘music on hold’ for all City of Middletown phones. Hoggard, who is a member of the Class of 1976, is an adjunct professor of music and adjunct professor of African American studies. City of Middletown Mayor Dan Drew also proclaimed that August 31 is Jay Hoggard Day. Read more in The Middletown Press. The Music Ambassadors' program is sponsored by…

On March 12, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) aired an episode of The Nature of Things called "Safe Haven for Chimps" in which host David Suzuki and his crew follow the efforts of the staff at Chimp Haven in Louisiana. The compound is a place where chimps, who have been used in biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are retired and allowed to live our their lives in a sanctuary. Lori Gruen, chair and professor of philosophy, professor of environmental studies, professor of feminist gender and sexuality studies, first appears about 10 minutes into the episode. She speaks about…

Christina Crosby, professor of English, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, was honored at an event March 10 at Barnard College. Several Wesleyan faculty and alumnae participated in the discussion. The event, titled "Body Undone: A Salon Honoring Christina Crosby," was hosted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women and NYU's Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies. It focused on Crosby's forthcoming memoir of living with disability, Body Undone: Living on After Great Pain. The memoir will be published by NYU Press in the "Sexual Cultures" series. In 2003, Professor Crosby broke her neck in a bicycle accident. "Spinal cord injury…

Johan "Joop" Varekamp, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, professor of earth and environmental sciences, was elected to be chair of the Geology and Public Policy Committee (GPPC) of the Geological Society of America (GSA). The group prepares position statements for GSA (e.g., on fracking, climate change). Varekamp has already made six congressional visits in March, visiting the offices of Senators Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Representative Rosa DeLauro. He does similar work as chairman of the board of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment / Save the Sound. Varekamp also was elected to be the chair of the LimnoGeology (‘lakes’) division…

Johan "Joop" Varekamp, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the author of two chapters in Volcanic Lakes, published by Springer Science+Business Media, 2015. He worked on the chapters during his sabbatical in Bristol, U.K., in 2013. Varekamp's chapters are titled "The Chemical Composition and Evolution of Volcanic Lakes" and "Volcanic Lakes." Five other authors also contributed to the "Volcanic Lakes" chapter. Volcanic lakes are natural features on the planet. The changing water compositions and colors of these lakes over time provide insights into the volcanic, hydrothermal and degassing processes of the underlying…

Lori Gruen, professor and chair of philosophy, discussed her new book, Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals, with University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Mark Bekoff in The Huffington Post. Bekoff calls the book "a wonderful addition to a growing literature in the transdisciplinary field called anthrozoology, the study of human-animal relationships." Gruen defines "entangled empathy" as "a process whereby we first acknowledge that we are already in relationships with all sorts of other animals (humans and non-humans) and these relationships are, for the most part, not very good ones. We then work to figure out how to make them better and that…

Ulysse Honored with Excellence in Scholarship Award

Naegele Honored by Society for Neuroscience

Hornstein Presents at American Financial Management Association Meeting

Gruen Named Faculty Fellow at Tufts’ Center for Animals

Siry Honored by Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy

Hughes Recipient of 2015 Bok Prize for Astronomy

Hoggard Named Middetown’s Music Ambassador

Gruen Discusses Chimpanzees Used in Research on Canadian Nature Show

Crosby Honored at Barnard College Event

Varekamp Elected Chair of Geology, Public Policy Committee

Varekamp Authors 2 Chapters in Volcanic Lakes Book

Gruen Discusses Her New Book Entangled Empathy