Olivia Drake
Lauren RubensteinThe American Studies Department will host the inaugural lecture in the annual Richard Slotkin American Studies Lecture Series from 4:15 to 6 p.m. in the Powell Family Cinema in the Center for Film Studies. Slotkin, the Olin Professor of American Studies and English, emeritus, will speak on "Thinking Mythologically: Black Hawk Down, Platoon, and the War of Choice in Iraq." In his more than 25 years at Wesleyan, Slotkin helped establish both the American Studies and the Film Studies programs. He is regarded as one of the preeminent cultural critics of our times, and is the author of an award-winning trilogy on…
Mike SembosThe U.S. Air Force has taken a keen interest in the recent work of Tsampikos Kottos, the Douglas J. and Midge Bowen Bennet Associate Professor of Physics. Kottos, along with Graduate Research Assistant Eleana Makri, Hamidreza Ramezani Ph.D. '13 (now a postdoc at U.C. Berkeley) and Dr. Ilya Vitebskiy (AFRL/Ohio), has come up with a theoretical way to build a more effective, reusable power limiter. Generally speaking, the function of a power limiter is to protect a sensor — be it the human eye, an antenna, or other sensitive equipment — from high-intensity radiation, like that generated by high-power lasers. Kottos, Makri, Ramezani…
Kate CarlisleAssistant professor of music Paula Matthusen has won a prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy, which will allow her to spend the next year in the Eternal City working on the compelling compositions that distinguish her career. Matthusen is a composer of acoustic and electronic music who, among other things, teaches Laptop Ensemble at Wesleyan, and records sound in historic structures and architecture. The resulting work reflects the character of these spaces, which include the Old Croton Aqueduct in New York. As an American Academy fellow, she will visit the paths of the Roman aqueducts. “I’m elated,” Matthusen said.…
Wesleyan faculty and staff participated in a College Readiness Summit March 19 in Usdan. Throughout the day, the participants developed a detailed inventory of all on-going initiatives that improve college readiness of Wesleyan students, youth in Middletown or Middlesex County, or youth in the United States. Several participants who are involved in college readiness-related programs at Wesleyan made short presentations. They discussed their program’s mission, goals, target population, program approach and content and staffing. The event was coordinated by Ruth Weissman, vice president for academic affairs and provost; and Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Center for Community Partnerships.
Ishita Mukerji, dean of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics division, is one of 50 local scientists to be elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Mukerji also is professor of molecular biology and biochemistry and is an expert on fluorescence and vibrational spectroscopy. Mukerji is the 10th Wesleyan faculty to be elected into the academy. She will be introduced at CASE's 39th annual meeting and dinner on June 5 at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell, Conn. Election to the Academy is on the basis of scientific and engineering distinction achieved through significant contributions in theory or applications, as…
Four Wesleyan faculty and five alumni participated in the annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) in Boston, Nov. 21-24, 2013. Wesleyan attendees included Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic thought, professor of government, professor of Russian and Eastern European studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies; Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, assistant professor of history, assistant professor of Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies; Priscilla Meyer, professor of Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian studies; Bill Trousdale, associate professor of physics, emeritus; and Russian…
Historians will tell you that the past can often have a direct and profound effect on the present age. Take Magda Teter, for example. A scholarly probe into post-Reformation Europe recently led the professor of history and director of Jewish Studies at Wesleyan to an event that may have changed the course of Jewish and Christian relations in Poland. “This is how scholars can sometimes play a role in getting people to talk to each other,” she said. “It didn’t start that way, but that was the good result.” Sandomierz, a sleepy Renaissance town in southeast Poland, (now known in…
On 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…