Olivia DrakeTwo faculty members and two graduate students co-authored a paper published in the July 18 edition of the academic journal, Biochemistry. Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies; Manju Hingorani, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry; chemistry graduate student Daniel Czyzyk; and molecular biology and biochemistry graduate student Shreya Sawant wrote the paper, "Escherichia coli Heptosyltransferase I: Investigation of Protein Dynamics of a GT-B Structural Enzyme." It appears online here. Biochemistry is a publication of the American Chemical Society.
Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of history, is the author of Ancestral Intelligence, published by Antrim House Books in 2013. She signed copies of her book and read selected poems at Broad Street Books on July 22. Photos of her book signing are below: (Photos by Eki Ramadhan '16) (more…)
Lisa Cohen, assistant professor of English, was recently shortlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography for her book, All We Know: Three Lives. For more than 50 years, the PEN awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across such diverse fields as fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, sports writing, biography, children's literature, translation and drama. With the help of its partners and supporters, PEN will confer 16 distinct awards, fellowships, grants, and prizes in 2013, awarding nearly $150,000 to writers, editors and translators. The final winners and runners-up will be announced later this summer…
Lauren RubensteinGina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, associate professor of African American studies, wrote a review of artist Robert Pruitt's Women, currently on exhibit at the Studio Museum of Harlem, in the Huffington Post. The exhibit features 20 portraits of contemporary black women drawn on brown butcher paper with conté-crayons. Ulysse writes: "Although, Pruitt's Women may be warriors, they are not embattled. They may be of and in struggle, yet they are not fighting. Their serenity is too often denied to black women. They are 'keepin' it surreal' inhabiting Suzanne Césaire's state of permanent readiness for the Marvelous."
Ann Burke, professor of biology, spoke on “The origin and evolution of Turtles” during the 10th International Congress of Vertebrate Morphologlogy in Barcelona, Spain July 7- 12. The International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM) has emerged as the premier conference for scientists researching the morphology of vertebrate animals at all levels of organization. The Congresses are held typically every three years with the broad goal of providing an opportunity for interaction, integration, and interfacing. Through a mixture of symposia, workshops, and open platform and poster sessions, everyone from senior scholars to students share ideas in an informal and genial setting. More…
Assistant Professor of Dance Hari Krishnan has been nominated for the Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer for his solo performance of "The Frog Princess," which he performed as part of the La Mama Moves! Dance Festival in New York City in June and July. Forty nominees for the 2012-13 Bessies, formally known as The New York Dance and Performance Awards, were announced at a press conference at the Gina Gibney Dance Center in New York on July 17. The 29th Annual Bessie Awards will be held on Oct. 7 at the Apollo Theater in New York. Krishnan was one of…
Sumarsam, the University Professor of Music, is the author of Javanese Gamelan and the West, published by the University of Rochester Press on July 1. In Javanese Gamelan, Sumarsam examines the meaning, forms and traditions of the Javanese performing arts as they developed and changed through their contact with Western culture. The book traces the adaptations in gamelan art as a result of Western colonialism in 19th century Java, showing how Western musical and dramatic practices were domesticated by Javanese performers creating hybrid Javanese-Western art forms, such as with the introduction of brass bands in gendhing mares court music and West Javanese…
Natalie Robichaud ’14A paper co-written by Professor of Biology Ann Burke, “Body wall development in lamprey and a new perspective on the origin of vertebrate paired fins,” was published in the July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Burke and her colleagues investigated the sea lamprey and the Japanese lamprey, comparing “the embryonic development of both these jawless fish to jawed animals — a shark, the catshark, and a salamander, the axolotl.” The abstract of the paper states, “Classical hypotheses regarding the evolutionary origin of paired appendages propose transformation of precursor structures (gill arches and lateral fin folds) into…
Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of history, is the author of Ancestral Intelligence, published by Antrim House Books in 2013. In Ancestral Intelligence, Schwarcz depicts the cultural landscape of contemporary China by creating “renditions” of poems by a mid-20th century dissident poet, Chen Yinke, and by adding a group of her own poems in harmony with Chen Yinke’s. Like his, her poems show a degradation of culture and humanity, in this case through comparison of classic and modern Chinese logographs. In the tragic yet inspiring story of Chen Yinke, Schwarcz finds her own powerful…
Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, and Katy Wyman MA '11, recently co-authored a paper that will appear in the Aug. 10 Astrophysical Journal, detailing several hundred spectral line measurements out to bright stars within 326 light years of our sun. Wyman is now employed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The study also appeared in the July 28 edition of Forbes in an article titled "Looking In The Sun's Rear-View Mirror: A New Map Of The Local Interstellar Medium." The first comprehensive map of the local interstellar medium — the gas drifting between the nearest stars — "will not only help theorists…
Composer, saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, pianist and music educator Anthony Braxton was named a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master for his unique approaches to jazz. The award is considered the nation's highest honor in the field. Braxton, the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, will receive a $25,000 award along with the honor. According to the NEA, Braxton's compositions "almost defy categorization through his use of the improvised and rhythmic nature of jazz but moving it in a more avant-garde direction, such as in his Ghost Trance Music compositions." Braxton, who was born in Chicago, Ill. has redefined…
Nine Wesleyan faculty members received promotions on July 1. In its most recent meeting, the Board of Trustees conferred tenure to Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera, associate professor of psychology. (Seven faculty members were tenured in 2012-13; Rodriguez Mosquera joins four faculty members who were awarded tenure earlier this spring, and two who received tenure in the fall.) Additionally, the following eight faculty members are being promoted to full professor: Michael Calter, professor of chemistry; Manju Hingorani, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry; Scott Holmes, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry; Elizabeth McAlister, professor of religion; Masami Imai, professor of economics; Suzanne O’Connell, professor of…