Olivia DrakeJ. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor of American studies, associate professor of anthropology, was a distinguished guest panelist at the 2014 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in the Humanities Conference at the University of California - Los Angles on March 7. She spoke on “Hawaiian Indigeneity, (Same-Sex) Marriage, and the Racial Politics of Colonial Modernity." She also spoke on “Till death Do Us Part? Settler Colonialism and (Same Sex) Marriage in Hawaii,” at the Women’s Studies and Consortium for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies on Feb. 20 and “New Directions in American Studies: Settler Colonialism and Critical Indigenous Studies,” at the Circuits of Influence: U.S. Israel, and Palestine Symposium…
Mike SembosDavid Westmoreland, associate professor of chemistry, and chemistry graduate student Breanna Craft presented a paper titled, “pH-Dependent Mechanisms of 1H Relaxivity in a Series of Structurally Related Mn(II) Cyclen Derivatives” at the 245th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held in New Orleans, La. in April 2013. Westmoreland, Craft and chemistry graduate student Sarah Hensiek also presented a paper titled, “Solution Dynamics of Transition Metal Complexes of Cyclen Based Ligands Containing Amide and Carboxylate Functional Groups."
Eirene Visvardi, assistant professor of classical studies, gave three talks in 2013 including “Afraid, They Judge. Afraid, They Act: Collective Fear in Greek Tragedy and Democratic Politics," at Texas Tech University on May 6; "Emotional Acts: The Case of Pity," at Yale University on Sept. 28; and "Teaching Euripides' Medea," at Columbia University on Oct. 13.
Michael Roberts, chair and professor of classical studies, spoke about “Pompatic Poetics: Claudian’s Epithalamium for Honorius and Maria and Some Features of Late Latin Poetry," at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign on March 21. He also presented a paper titled “Venantius Fortunatus on Poetry and Song,” at the annual meeting of the International Society for Late Antique Literary Studies at Brown University, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2013. Roberts also is the Robert Rich Professor of Latin and professor of medieval studies.
Bill Firshein, the Daniel Ayers Professor of Biology, emeritus, is the author of the book, The Infectious Microbe, published by Oxford University Press in January 2014. Firshein is the founding faculty member of the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department. In The Infectious Microbe, Firshein uses six different critical diseases to illustrate how viruses and bacteria are spread. He discusses the relationship between man and virus, and how to defeat viruses. The book will help non-scientific readers better understand the issues surrounding the spread of disease. Thomas Broker '66, professor of biochemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, described the book as an “engaging journey…
Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies; Manju Hingorani, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry; molecular biology and biochemistry graduate student Shreya Sawant and chemistry graduate student Daniel Czyzyk co-authored "E. coli Heptosyltransferase I: Exploration of Protein Function and Dynamics" published in Biochemistry, 52, 5158–5160 in 2013. They presented the paper at the 23rd Enzyme Mechanisms Conference held in Coronado Bay, Calif. in January 2013 and at the 57th Biophysical Society Conference held in Philadelphia, Pa. in February 2013.
Kate CarlisleA curious mix of dust and gas surrounding a distant star presents a unique mystery – and possibly a front-row seat to planet formation, according to Assistant Professor of Astronomy Meredith Hughes and colleagues, whose paper on the star appears in the March 6 edition of the journal Science. The group of astronomers, including Hughes and 13 others, were the first to identify the asymmetry and “lumpy” quality of the gas surrounding beta Pictoris, using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. The discovery leads to two possible explanations: There may be a giant "exoplanet" lurking nearby…
Ishita Mukerji, dean of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics division, is one of 50 local scientists to be elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Mukerji also is professor of molecular biology and biochemistry and is an expert on fluorescence and vibrational spectroscopy. Mukerji is the 10th Wesleyan faculty to be elected into the academy. She will be introduced at CASE's 39th annual meeting and dinner on June 5 at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell, Conn. Election to the Academy is on the basis of scientific and engineering distinction achieved through significant contributions in theory or applications, as…
Several Wesleyan faculty and graduate students attended the 68th Ohio State University International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy held in Columbus, Ohio in 2013. Stewart Novick, Herbert Pickett and Stephen Cooke, and graduate students Smitty Grubbs Ph.D '10, Daniel Obenchain and Brittany Long made presentations. Novick, chair and professor of chemistry, and Grubbs presented a talk on “Microwave Spectra and Structure of H2 - CuF: Overview of the Complexes of Hydrogen with Metal-Containing Diatomics." Novick, Grubbs and Obenchain presented “Observation of a Moderate Strength Interaction of Hydrogen with a Coinage Metal Halide: The Rotational Spectrum and Structure of the p-H2-CuCl and o-H2-CuCl Complexes." Novick,…
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor American studies, associate professor of anthropology, participated in two recent conferences. During the Transnational American Studies Conference, held at the Center for American Studies and Research, American University of Beirut, Jan. 6-9, Kauanui co-organized a roundtable on “Pinkwashing and Transnational Alliance: Challenging Settler Colonialism in Palestine/Israel, the United States, and Canada." She also organized a panel on “Redwashing: Israeli Claims to Indigeneity and the Political Role of Native Americans," and presented a paper on “The Politics of Recognition: Indigeneity, Sovereignty, and Redwashing." During the American Studies Association annual meeting held in Washington, D.C., Nov. 21-14,…
Elizabeth Willis, the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing, professor of English, recently presented several poetry readings and talks. She read poetry at Hobart & William Smith College on Feb. 28; Ithaca College, Feb. 25; Maison de la Poesie, Paris, Jan. 22; the University of Toulouse, Jan. 16; at "Oh Sandy!: A Remembrance," Industry City in Brooklyn, N.Y on Nov. 10, 2013; and at Naropa University, July 9, 2013. Willis spoke on "Everybody's Autodidacticism: American Poetry and the Democratic Ideal" at the Conference on "Modernist Revolutions: Paradigns of the New and Circulations of the Word in American Poetry" at the University of Toulouse Jan. 16-17; and on "Notes on…
Lauren Caldwell, assistant professor of classical studies, presented a paper on rhetoric and paternal authority in the Roman Empire at the conference "Lire la déclamation latine," Feb. 14 at Université Paris IV - Sorbonne. She also gave a lecture on Roman ideas about justice and natural growth at "Ancient Law, Ancient Society: A Conference in Honor of Bruce W. Frier," Oct. 26, 2013 at the University of Michigan.