Olivia Drake(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…
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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…
Lauren RubensteinWesleyan 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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David PesciWhat would you get if you took the feel of the famous "TED" talks but gave them a distinctly Wesleyan flavor? Wesleyan Thinks Big. Wesleyan Thinks Big is a new type of lecture series designed to give audiences presentations by popular faculty in a never-before seen format. According to the event's website, Wesleyan Thinks Big will feature fun and exciting faculty presentations with no slides, no handouts, and no Moodle. It will be an evening of "six faculty members, nominated by students, delivering nine-minute lectures on topics that excites and inspires the professors, even if it’s not something they talk…
In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection we ask 5 Questions of Daniel Long, assistant professor of sociology. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has made education reform a major priority this year. He has proposed a sweeping package of reforms, including overhauling teacher tenure, increasing Education Cost Sharing grants to struggling districts, funding more preschool slots for low-income children, and requiring districts to contribute additional money for students to attend charter schools. Q: Connecticut suffers from the highest black/white and poor/non-poor achievement gap in the country. What can be done to address this? A: In Connecticut—as well as nationwide—longitudinal studies have shown…
Rob Rosenthal, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, has announced that Ellen Nerenberg, chair and professor of romance languages and literatures, was named the Hollis Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, and Alex Dupuy, chair of the African American Studies Program, professor of sociology, was named the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology. Ellen Nerenberg has been at Wesleyan since 1994. She is a specialist in 20th-century Italian literature and contemporary Italian cultural studies. She received the Modern Language Association’s Howard R. Marraro prize for Prison Terms: Representing Confinement During and After Italian Fascism (University of Toronto Press, 2001) and was awarded the…
Bill HolderFour 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…
Rob Rosenthal, provost and vice president for academic affairs, the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, announced a change of title for several faculty members. These new titles take effect July 1, 2011. New University Professors Ronald Kuivila, University Professor of Music, has been teaching at Wesleyan since 1981. He creates sound installations, performs experimental music, and integrates computer programming with music composition. More than 50 of his sound installations have been exhibited internationally, more than 40 works of his concert music have been given major performances, 12 of his works of music for dance have been performed in dance…