Olivia DrakeThree 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.…
Gabe Rosenberg '16(more…)
Benjamin Travers(more…)
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…
(Story contributed by Jim H. Smith) Its official name was the Century 21 Exhibition, but it was better known as the Seattle World Fair, and it seemed to be an unambiguous statement about America’s aspirations for its future. Boasting a futuristic monorail and an iconic Space Needle whose elevators were piloted by female attendants wearing excessive blue eye shadow and costumes out of a Hollywood sci-fi feature, it came to hold totemic significance for a nation whose philosophical differences with the Soviet Union were being sorted out against the majestic backdrop of outer space. One of the first visitors to the…
Hannah Norman '16(more…)
Wesleyan hosted the 2012 Northeast American Society for 18th Century Studies Conference Oct. 11-14 with a theme of "The Social Individual." Scholars from universities and colleges throughout the country presented papers and participated in panels. Topics included Haiti’s Circum-Atlantic Roots and Routes; The Image and Occupations of the Social Individual; Questions and Experience of Temporality in 18th-Century France; Translation and the Public Good; Rethinking the Early American “Social Individual;" Lunatics, Lice, Mad Doctors, and Assassins; Shakespeare and 18th Literary Criticism; The Social Animal: Humans and Nonhumans; British Narratives; Social Science and the Science of the Social; among many others. Photos of…
Wesleyan announced on Sept. 19 a new partnership with Coursera, a company offering the public access to free online courses from top colleges and universities. Wesleyan was one of 17 new institutions to sign on this month, and is the very first liberal arts institution focused on the undergraduate experience to do so. Other partners among Coursera’s 33 participants include Stanford, Princeton and Brown; public research universities such as the University of Florida; and specialized schools such as Berklee College of Music. Coursera was founded by two Stanford University professors seeking to expand educational opportunities through technology. Since its launch…
In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we ask "5 Questions" of Professor of Economics Richard Grossman. In July, Grossman spoke to the Canadian news magazine Maclean's about the Libor scandal rocking the global financial industry. Grossman's 2010 book, Unsettled Account: The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World since 1800, reviews banking crises over the past 200 years in North America, Europe and other regions, and considers how they speak to today's financial crises around the world. He blogs at Unsettledaccount.com. Q: Professor Grossman, what is the Libor, and what is this scandal all about? A: “Libor” is the London InterBank…
Assistant Professor Courtney Weiss Smith is finishing up her first year in the English Department, where she shares with students her enthusiasm for 18th century English poetry, literature and culture. A native of St. Louis, Mo., Smith earned a B.A. from the University of Dayton and received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. She originally intended to study the 19th Century novel in graduate school, but became increasingly drawn to earlier literature of the 17th and 18th Centuries. “I was curious where these 19th Century novels came from,” Smith remarks. “I became fascinated by the novelistic…
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