Olivia DrakeJuly 25, 20111min
Bill Herbst, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, is the co-author of "The Highly Dynamic Behavior of the Innermost Dust and Gas in the Transition Disk Variable LRLL 31," published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 732, Issue 2, article id. 83 in 2011, and "Preliminary Analysis of MOST Observations of the Trapezium," published in American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #96.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43 in 2011. Herbst and his graduate student Holly Capelo are the authors of "Optical And Infrared Monitoring Of KH 15D," published in the American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #226.08; Bulletin…

Olivia DrakeJuly 25, 20111min
Charles Sanislow, assistant professor of psychology, is the co-author of a study published in the summer issue of the Journal of Personality Disorders that reports findings from the Collaborative Personality Study. The study dissociates severity and style of trait ratings and results suggest that severity plays a key role in predicting dysfunction. The work is helping to inform the organization for classifying personality pathology in the soon to be published DSM-5. The article is online here.

Olivia DrakeJuly 25, 20111min
Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera, assistant professor of psychology, published a Special Issue on Social Image for the European Journal of Social Psychology. The 13 papers included in the special issue reflect the centrality of social image in a wide array of psychological processes. Five major themes integrate the diverse selection of papers: (i) self-presentation of social image; (ii) culture-specific conceptions of social image; (iii) the role of social image in emotion; (iv) respect and status as reflections of social image; and (v) the influence of social image on ingroup and outgroup perceptions. The Special Issue is online here.

Olivia DrakeJuly 25, 20111min
Margot Weiss, assistant professor of American studies and anthropology, received a $22,372 Post-Ph.D. Research Grant (with Osmundsen Initiative funding) from The Wenner-Gren Foundation, and a $6,250 grant from the Joan Heller-Diane Bernard Fellowship in Lesbian and Gay Studies from The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. Both grants will support Weiss's ethnographic research project titled "Visions of Sexual Justice Among Contemporary Queer Activists" during the 2011-12 academic year.

Eric GershonJuly 25, 20114min
This issue we ask "5 Questions" of Vera Schwarcz, who spent the spring semester as a Lady Davis Fellow at Hebrew University in Israel. Schwarcz is the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of history, professor of East Asian studies.  She returns to campus this fall. Q: What will you remember most about your recent sojourn in Israel? A: What lingers most in mind is the vibrant commitment to live fully the values of Jewish tradition. In Jerusalem, each day I witnessed some act of kindness, some conscious effort to reach out to strangers in a way that pays homage…

Bill HolderJune 22, 20116min
Four faculty members have received promotions incurring tenure effective July 1. Additionally, six faculty members were promoted to full professor, and eight adjunct faculty were promoted. Newly tenured faculty: Mary Alice Haddad, associate professor of government, has taught at Wesleyan since 2004. Her scholarship studies comparative politics, with a focus on civil society, and a regional specialization in East Asia. She is the author of Politics and Volunteering in Japan: A Global Perspective (Cambridge, 2007), Building Democracy in Japan (Cambridge, forthcoming in 2012), numerous articles and book chapters, and has delivered more than 25 invited talks and conference presentations. She is currently…

Olivia DrakeJune 22, 20116min
This issue we ask “5 Questions” of Eric Charry, associate professor of music. Charry, an expert on African music, is currently directing the Ethnomusicology and Global Culture Summer Institute at Wesleyan. Q: Professor Charry, as an associate professor of music, what are your areas of musical expertise and what classes do you teach at Wesleyan? A: Most of my research and writing until recently has been in the area of African music, specifically, the West African region where Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea and Mali meet. I spent two years in the region learning to play the kora (harp), balafon (xylophone), and…

Olivia DrakeJune 22, 20112min
Khachig Tölölyan, professor of letters, professor of English, has been actively involved in the launching of the University of Oxford's Diasporas Programme in June. Tölölyan is the editor/founder of Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies and an internationally known expert on diasporas and transnationalism. On June 2, Tölölyan delivered the inaugural lecture titled "Diaspora Studies: Past, Present and Promise" at the program's launch. He is a scholar in residence at Wolfson College (one of the 40 colleges and halls that make up the university), where he is a tutor and consultant to various graduate students, postdoctoral faculty and researchers at several…

Olivia DrakeJune 22, 20112min
Khachig Tölölyan, Typhaine Leservot, Ashraf Rushdy and Indira Karamcheti were invited to speak at a conference hosted by the Universite Paul Valery, Montpellier III June 20-23. The event is titled "Diasporas and Cultures of Mobility." Rushdy and Karamcheti are invited visiting professors. Tölölyan, professor of letters, professor of English, editor/founder of Diaspora will be the keynote speaker. He will speak on "Twenty Years of Diaspora Studies: Success through Confusion." Typhaine Leservot, associate professor of letters, associate professor of romance languages and literatures, will speak on ""Maghrebo-Quebecois and Franco-Maghrebi: towards Distinct Identities?" Ashraf Rushdy, professor of English, professor of African American…

Olivia DrakeJune 22, 20112min
Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, and a faculty fellow in the College of the Environment, and was named a vice chair of the National Climate Assessment Development and Advisory Committee by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Jerry Melillo '65 was named chair of the committee. Melillo is a distinguished scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass As a vice chair, Yohe will lead the advisory committee that will produce the next National Climate Assessment. The Global Change Research Act of 1990 requires a National Climate Assessment at least every…

Olivia DrakeJune 22, 20111min
Stephen Angle, professor of philosophy, professor of East Asian studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies, participated in a one-day Book Symposium on his book, Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy (Oxford, 2009), at the Institute for Chinese Philosophy and Culture, Academia Sinica, in Taipei, Taiwan, in early June. Altogether, nine papers were delivered by Taiwan-based philosophers, roughly half in English and half in Chinese. Angle had an opportunity to respond and participated in a general discussion. The symposium was timed to coincide with an intensive, two-week class that he's been teaching at Taipei's Soochow University, also on the…