Olivia DrakeA book written by Deb Olin Unferth, assistant professor of English, was named a 2011 finalist in the National Book Critics Circle. Olin Unferth's Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War (Henry Holt) is one of five finalists in the autobiography category. In the memoir, Unferth describes the year she ran away from college with her Christian boyfriend and followed him to Nicaragua to join the Sandinistas. Winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards will be announced at the awards ceremony on March 8 at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium in New York.…
Su Zheng, associate professor of music, associate professor of East Asian studies, will speak on "150 Years of Chinese Music" during a Year of the Dragon Festival Feb. 26. From 1 to 2:30 p.m., she will address her audience in English and from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Mandarin. Her lecture will take place at Flushing Town Hall in Flushing, N.Y. Each lecture will be followed by a signing of her book, Claiming Diaspora. The year 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, which comes once every 12 years; and is also a Year of the Water Dragon, which occurs…
An article written by three Wesleyan faculty and two alumni was published in the January 2012 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, 32(1): pages 46-61. In "Differentiation and functional incorporation of embryonic stem cell derived GABAergic interneurons in the dentate gyrus of mice with temporal lobe epilepsy," the authors describe embryonic stem cell derived neuronal transplants for treating temporal lobe epilepsy. The authors include Jan Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior; Gloster Aaron, assistant professor of biology, assistant professor of neuroscience; Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society, professor of biology; Xu Maisano Ph.D. '11; and Elizabeth…
Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, received a grant worth $65,932 from the Space Telescope Institute to support a project titled, "Cool Star Winds and the Evolution of Exoplanetary Atmospheres." The grant expires in October 2014. Redfield is observing stars that are host to their own planetary systems. These "exoplanets" were only discovered in the last decade or so, and since their discovery, astronomers are very interested in learning more about the properties of these planets and their atmospheres. "Invariably, the study of exoplanets is really an exercise in putting life on Earth into a cosmic context. How common are planets?…
Joe Siry, professor of art, is the author of the book Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture, published by the University of Chicago Press in December 2011. Beth Sholom Synagogue provides the first in-depth look at the synagogue’s conception and realization in relation to Wright’s other religious architecture. Beginning with his early career at Adler and Sullivan’s architectural firm in Chicago and his design for Unity Temple and ending with the larger works completed just before or soon after his death, Siry skillfully depicts Wright’s exploration of geometric forms and structural techniques in creating architecture for…
Jeff Rider, professor of Romance languages and literatures, professor of medieval studies, is the co-editor of the book The Inner Life of Women in Medieval Romance Literature: Grief, Guilt and Hypocrisy, published by Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2011. The essays explore medieval, romance emotional communities through both fictional and non-fictional narratives in French, Spanish and Italian texts ranging from the 12th through 15th centuries. By following these women characters in their considerations, readers can hope both to learn something about the times the women were writing in, while to enriching and enlarging their own "emotionologies." More information on the book is available…
Michael Roberts, the Robert Rich Professor of Latin, professor of classical studies, professor of medieval studies, is the co-author of the book, The Letters of Symmachus, Book 1. The book was published by the Society of Biblical Literature, in 2011.
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences is the co-author of "End-Cretaceous Marine Mass Extinction not Caused by Productivity Collapse," published in (PNAS) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; "Blake Outer Ridge: late Neogene variability in paleoenvironments and deep-sea biota," published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 302: 435-451; "Seawater calcium isotopic ratios across the Eocene-Oligocene Transition, published in Geology, 39: 683-686; "A core-top calibration of B/Ca in the benthic foraminifera Nuttallides umbonifera and Oridorsalis umbonatus: reconstructing bottom water carbonate saturation," published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 310: 360-368; "Ocean deoxygenation: past, present and future," published in EOS Transactions AGU, 92: 409-410, all in 2011.
David PesciThis issue, 5 Questions talks about the connections between the Moneyball and biology with Fredrick Cohan, professor of biology. Q: Fred, you’ve been talking about how the data mining revolution in baseball, championed by the Michael Lewis book Moneyball and the recent movie of the same name starring Brad Pitt, can change science in general and biology, specifically. Really? A: Absolutely! On the surface, Moneyball is the story of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s, who found a way to lead his poverty-stricken team to success against teams with many times the payroll of Oakland. But Moneyball is…
Bill HolderThe Marietta College Board of Trustees has elected Joseph Bruno, formerly vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at Wesleyan, as the 18th president of Marietta, effective July 1, 2012. The college is located in Marietta, Ohio. Bruno is considered an effectual and collaborative higher education leader who has worked with four Wesleyan presidents in his 27 years and has helped to shape academic initiatives at the university, according to an announcement issued by Marietta. A graduate of Augustana College and Northwestern University, Bruno is currently a professor of chemistry at Wesleyan. He also completed a thesis parts appointment at Argonne…
A high profile auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s estate provides a definitive moment to discuss the film icon’s life and work. Jeanine Basinger, Chair and Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies, is featured on Southern California Public Radio (KPCC) and brings a historical perspective to Taylor’s body of work and her life as one of the last true movie stars. More than 2,000 of Taylor's items are being auctioned online. "With Elizabeth Taylor, you're operating at at a level of stardom, it's cosmic really," Basinger says in the show. "Whether anyone was a fan of hers or not, they would want something of…
Ron Cameron, professor of religion, is the co-editor of the book Redescribing Paul and the Corinthians. The 340-page book was published by the Society of Biblical Literature in 2011. This second volume of studies by members of the SBL Seminar on Ancient Myths and Modern Theories of Christian Origins reassesses the agenda of modern scholarship on Paul and the Corinthians. The contributors challenge the theory of religion assumed in most New Testament scholarship and adopt a different set of theoretical and historical terms for redescribing the beginnings of the Christian religion. They propose explanations of the relationship between Paul and…