Olivia DrakeNovember 30, 20091min
Johan Varekamp, the Harold T. Stearns Professor in Earth Science, and Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, presented papers at the Estuaries and Coasts in a Changing World conference of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation in Portland, Ore. Nov. 1-5. Their talks were titled "Proxies for Eutrophication in Long Island Sound" and " Hypoxia in Long Island Sound - Since When and Why."

David PesciNovember 16, 20091min
Priscilla Meyer, professor of Russian language and literature, was awarded the University of Southern California Book Prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) during their annual conference. The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the field of literary and cultural studies. Meyer is the author of How the Russians Read the French. She speaks about her book online here. More than 2,100 scholars attended the conference.

Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20091min
Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, is a recipient of the C. Newton Shenck III Award for a "lifetime achievement in and contribution to the arts." Alejandro received the award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven board of directors. He was mentioned in a Nov. 9 article in The Hartford Courant. Alejandro was featured in The Wesleyan Connection in May 2008.

David PesciNovember 12, 20098min
As the College of Letters (COL) celebrates its 50th anniversary, we asked Ethan Kleinberg, associate professor of history and letters, director of the COL, about his life in two departments, his views on interdisciplinary teaching, how this impacts his own scholarship, and the future of the COL. Q. How did you end up with a joint appointment in the College of Letters and History Department? EK: As an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley I created my own curriculum combining philosophy, history and religion as a “Humanities Field Major.” In graduate school at UCLA I combined work in History and Comparative Literature…

Corrina KerrNovember 12, 20097min
From its beginnings in 1959, Wesleyan’s College of Social Studies (CSS) has grown into a well-respected program and is celebrating its 50th year in 2009. The multidisciplinary program allows students to explore the subjects of government, history, economics and philosophy concurrently. Many attended lectures and celebrations for CSS during Homecoming/Family Weekend last weekend. The first event of the weekend was a CSS Public Lecture by John Goldberg (CSS 1983, professor of Law, Harvard Law School) on Friday, Nov.  6. His talk was titled “John Locke on Tort Reform (Really!): A CSS Parable.”  John Goldberg was introduced by Brian Fay, the…

Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20091min
Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, dean of the Arts and Humanities and coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, translated the new book, Don Juan: His Own Version, written by Peter Handke. The 128-paged book is published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.  It will be released in February.

Corrina KerrNovember 12, 20092min
Deb Olin Unferth has joined the Department of English as assistant professor. She specializes in fiction writing, innovative literature, the short story and the novel. She says she was attracted to Wesleyan because of its well-known writing program. “Wesleyan is a fantastic liberal arts school,” Unferth says. “I am very excited to be here. I am enjoying my classes immensely. The students are excellent—in ability, focus, creativity, intelligence, and temperament.” Unferth has a B.A. in philosophy with distinction from the University of Colorado, where she was Phi Beta Kappa. In 1998, she earned her M.F.A. in creative writing from Syracuse…

Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20093min
Several Wesleyan faculty, graduate students and alumni participated in the 2009 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting Oct. 18-21 in Portland, Ore. Suzanne O'Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, director of the Service Learning Center, presented a research poster and delivered a presentation titled "Techniques and Tools for Effective Recruitment, Retention and promotion of Women and Minorities in the Geosciences." She spoke about the grant-funded organization Geoscience Academics in the Northeast (GAIN), which was established to build a community of academic geoscience women within a small geographic area. Johan Varekamp, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science,…

Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20091min
Fred Cohan, professor of biology, delivered a presentation titled "Darwin vs. Mayr on the Origin of Bacterial Species," during a Darwin conference, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. The event was held Oct. 29-31 at the University of Chicago. Cohan joined other evolutionary biologists, historians and philosophers who connected their work directly with Darwin. 2009 also marks the 150th anniversary of Darwin's The Origin of Species.

Corrina KerrNovember 12, 20091min
Joel Pfister's book The Yale Indian: The Education of Henry Roe Cloud was published by Duke University Press in June 2009. Pfister is the chair of the English Department and the Kenan Professor of the Humanities, along with being professor of American studies.