David PesciKennedy Odede '11 grew up in Kibera, Kenya's worst slum, taught himself English and made it to Wesleyan. Now, Odede and Jessica Posner '09 have received a Projects for Peace Grant and is going back to Kibera to build a school for girls. Odede and Posner were also featured on a show on WNPR's "Where We Live" that focused on "Responding to Needs in Africa." Their part starts at roughly the 49 minute mark.
Susan Christensen from Fox61 did an extensive feature on her "Fox Focus" segment on the Green Street Arts Center and its educational offerings.
Writing a piece for The Moscow Times, Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, professor of government, points out how Japan and Russia are strengthening economic ties, moving forward on a variety of partnerships, and in general acting like long-standing allies. Yet one thorny territorial issue remains that has precluded the countries from signing a peace treaty with each other dating back to the end of World War II.
Olivia DrakeOri Sivan, visiting instructor in religion, is the head writer and co-producer of the HBO series In Treatment. In the series, a psychotherapist questions his abilities and gets help by reuniting with his old therapist, whom he has not seen for 10 years.The show is based off the Israeli series BeTipul. Sivan hosted two screening of BeTipul with subtitles April 23 and April 30 in the Center for Film Studies. He gave presentations at the screenings. It was featured in The Hartford Courant April 23.
Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth reviews the book A Human Eye: Essays on Art in Society, 1997-2008 by Adrienne Rich in The San Francisco Chronicle. The book, a collection of essays and book reviews written by Rich during the last 12 years, displays Rich's on-going dialogue on art, politics and social justice.
Melanye Price, assistant professor of government, was a featured guest speaker for the University of Nevada's College of Liberal Arts on April 23. She was broadcast on 88.9 KNPR Nevada Public Radio. In a lecture titled "Dreaming Blackness: Black Nationalism and African-American Public Opinion," Price spoke about ways African-Americans have come to understand Black Nationalism, an ideology important to the Black Power movement of the 1960s.
The April 27th New Yorker has a piece that in part profiles Ron Bloom '77 who is one of two "Auto Czars" appointed by President Obama to preside over the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler as the government attempts to bail-out both companies. Bloom had previous success helping to right U.S. Steel. There is a link to a synopsis of the story here (the full text is subscriber only).
According to CBS Sports, New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick has one major advantage over his peers in the NFL coaching community: a brilliant mind. According to the story, this is especially true when it comes to selecting and managing personnel and will be particularly advantageous as the annual NFL draft (April 25-26) approaches.
In a oped piece for The New Haven Register, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen '09, suggests that Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd can start to re-burnish his bruised public image by, among other things, coming up with a more folksy nickname.
Wesleyan University is the cover feature in the Spring 2009 edition of River & Shore Magazine. In an article titled "College by the River: Memories Cut in Brownstone," the author, Erik Hesselberg, writes about the history of Wesleyan, College Row's brownstone buildings, the crew team, Wesleyan's first president Wilbur Fisk, the former Judd Hall of Natural Science Exley Science Center, the Geology Department and more. Jelle de Boer, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, emeritus, also is mentioned in an article titled "Reading the Rocks." The article focuses on De Boer's interests in plate tectonics and mentions his theory on…
Jelle Zelinga de Boer, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, emeritus, was cited in April 3 edition of The Hartford Courant. In an article titled " Remnants Of Old Mine In Middletown Date to Revolutionary Times," de Boer explains why an abandoned silver mine in Middletown, Conn. played a supporting role in the history of the country's industrial past. According to de Boer, the Middletown mine was originally opened to mine lead and was one of only two sites in New England that produced the metal for the Continental Army during the early stages of the Revolutionary War. The…
Michael Singer, assistant professor of biology, is the author of “Self-Medication as Adaptive Plasticity: Increased Ingestion of Plant Toxins by Parasitized Caterpillars," published in PLoS ONE, March 2009. PLoS ONE is an open access, online scientific journal from the Public Library of Science. This new article rigorously demonstrates that caterpillars can self-medicate, following up on a previous publication in Nature in 2005. This is the first experimental demonstration of self-medication by an invertebrate animal. This paper also represents the first publication to arise from research funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant awarded to Singer in December 2007. Kevi Mace…