Olivia DrakeOn Jan. 30, Wesleyan faculty hosted an informal discussion on “How to Get Your Book Published" inside Downey House. Faculty, students and staff from Wesleyan University Press shared advice. The event was organized by Andy Curran, dean of the Arts and Humanities Division, director of curricular initiatives, professor of French; and Joyce Jacobsen, dean of the Social Sciences Division, director of global initiatives, the Andrews Professor of Economics and interim director of the Allbritton Center. (more…)
Which professor has made the biggest impact on your Wesleyan education? If you're a junior, senior, graduate student or Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD), then you're eligible to nominate your favorite faculty member for the prestigious Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching honor. The Binswanger Prize was inaugurated in 1993 as an institutional recognition of outstanding faculty members. These prizes, made possible by gifts from the family of the late Frank G. Binswanger Sr., HON ’85, underscore Wesleyan’s commitment to its scholar-teachers, who are responsible for the university’s distinctive approach to liberal arts education. Prize winners are announced at…
Bill HolderQuiara Alegría Hudes, a Pulitzer Prize recipient, will be the new Shapiro Distinguished Professor of Writing and Theater for three years beginning in the fall of 2014. The appointment marks a return to campus for Hudes, who taught as a visiting playwright in 2012. Hudes’s most recent publication is The Elliot Cycle, three standalone plays written over an eight-year period. Each play uses a different kind of music – Bach, Coltrane, and Puerto Rican folk music¬ ¬– to trace the coming of age of a haunted young man from Puerto Rico. Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, the first play, was a…
In this Q&A we speak with Cameron Donnay Hill, assistant professor of mathematics. Hill joined the Wesleyan faculty this fall. Q: Professor Hill, welcome to Wesleyan! What attracted you to the University and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science? A: Wesleyan provides a wonderful balance between teaching and research that can be found almost nowhere else, and I can only think of a few additional places where the "average" undergrad is remarkably clever and curious. Q: What are your research interests? A: I'm mostly interested in questions about "finite and discrete" mathematical objects, but my research program is to…
Wesleyan welcomes 13 new faculty to Wesleyan this fall. They include: Rachel Ellis Nyera, assistant professor of English. Megan Glick, assistant professor of American studies. Cameron Hill, assistant professor of mathematics. Daniel Licata, assistant professor of computer science. Psyche Loui, assistant professor of psychology. Nadezda "Nadya" Potemkina, adjunct assistant professor of music. Lily Saint, assistant professor of English. Olga Sendra Ferrer, assistant professor of romance languages and literatures. Joslyn Trager, assistant professor of government. Laura Ann Twagira, assistant professor of history. James Greenwood, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences. Marcela Otéiza, assistant professor of theater. David Nelson, adjunct assistant…
Four Wesleyan faculty and staff members completed the Litchfield Hills Olympic Triathlon held July 14 in New Hartford, Conn. The triathlon featured a 1.5K swim, a 40K bike course, and a scenic, rural back road 10K run. Wesleyan participants included Mike McAlear, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry; Tom DiMauro, analyst programmer in ITS; James Taft, assistant director of technology support services in ITS; and Brian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry. Northrop came in third place overall.
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…
Three Wesleyan faculty members received endowed professorships for the 2013-14 academic year. Tsampikos Kottos, associate professor of physics, is being honored with the Douglas J. and Midge Bowen Bennet Chair. The Bennet Chair, endowed in 2007, is awarded for a five-year term to "a newly tenured associate professor exhibiting exceptional achievement and evidence of future promise." Ashraf Rushdy, professor of English, professor of African-American studies, is being awarded the Benjamin L. Waite Professorship in English Language, first appointed in 1911. Philip Scowcroft, professor of mathematics, is receiving the Edward Burr Van Vleck Professorship in Mathematics. The Van Vleck chair was…
David LowIn this issue of the Wesleyan Connection, we speak with Kit Reed, resident writer in the English Department. Reed recently published two new books, Son of Destruction (Severn House), in which a reporter searches for his father and winds up investigating cases of human spontaneous combustion; and The Story Until Now (Wesleyan University Press), a rich collection of 35 stories that displays the range and complexity of her work. In a recent review of Reed’s two books in The New York Times, thriller writer Chelsea Cain wrote: “Reed finds humanity in the most fantastic places. She does it without pretension.…
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Lauren RubensteinProfessor of Economics Richard Grossman had an op-ed in The Hartford Courant on Jan. 5 about negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" in Washington. He writes that though reasonable people may disagree over what top marginal tax rate is ideal for the economy, the stubborn resistance of Congressional Republicans to any tax increases is the product of ideology, not reason. Looking back over history, he writes, the "abdication of sound economic reasoning in favor of ideology" has resulted in numerous policy mistakes with long-lasting economic impacts. As an historical example, Grossman cites Britain's decision to return to the gold standard following…