Michael Roth – Page 3

Two Wesleyan alumni were hired in key roles at the White House by the Biden-Harris Administration in September. Ed Siskel ’94 started his new role as White House Counsel and Rob Wilcox ’01 joined the administration as a Deputy Director of the new Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Siskel, the nation’s top attorney, was called a seasoned lawyer who could “hit the ground running as a key leader on my team,” by President Joseph R. Biden in a statement, according to The New York Times. Siskel will be tasked with guiding Biden through an impeachment inquiry spearheaded by Speaker of the…

As a historian, author, and lifelong teacher, Michael S. Roth ’78, President of Wesleyan University, has dedicated much of his career to understanding how people make sense of the past, so when he was approached by his editor at Yale University Press to consider what it meant to be a student, he decided to start at the beginning—the very beginning. Beginning with the followers of Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus and moving to medieval apprentices, students at Enlightenment centers of learning, and learners enrolled in twenty-first-century universities, in his newest book, The Student: A Short History, President Roth explores how students…

Open trunks as far as the eye could see. Open eyes wandering all over—up into the rainy sky above, out past Andrus Field and up Foss Hill toward the Van Vleck Observatory, and down toward Usdan where Wesleyan’s newest attendees would eat their first meals as students. The new students arriving in Middletown on Aug. 30 for their first day on campus had an air of openness and curiosity about them. For many of the students moving in, it was that same openness that drew them to Wesleyan in the first place. An open-minded community, an open curriculum, being open…

Wesleyan's esteemed faculty, staff, and alumni often appear within media coverage to provide their expertise and experience. This was the case in July as Wesleyan voices were included in the coverage of the Supreme Court of the United State's decision on Affirmative Action by several outlets. Media Coverage on the Supreme Court's Decision on Affirmative Action The Supreme Court of the United States voted to strike down 45 years of court precedent allowing for race-informed admissions—often referred to as affirmative action—on June 29 in the case of a 6 to 3 vote along ideological lines. Following the decision, Wesleyan President…

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence—a document written by a group of five men. Five months later, five different people gathered at the College of William & Mary to form Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the United States. Now 246 years later, 93 new and current members from Wesleyan’s student body—78 nominated from the spring semester and 15 inducted last fall—packed into the Memorial Chapel on May 27 to be inducted into the honor society. They join an estimated total of over 500,000 living members. Throughout Phi Beta Kappa’s history,…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 wrote a review of an anthology of the late Hayden White’s works titled The Ethics of Narrative: Essays on History, Literature, and Theory, 1998-2007 for the Los Angeles Review of Books. Roth said White “was a consistently intelligent and engaging postmodern advocate for thinking about history as a form of imaginative reconstruction that could either constrain people or inspire their liberation.” Roth also penned an op-ed in The Boston Globe drawing parallels between education and democracy. “We must be on our guard against those who are afraid of that exploration; we must stand up against…

In his Commencement Address to the Class of 2023, President Michael S. Roth ’78 spoke about the power of education in fostering civic engagement, building community, and beating back the tides of fear and division. “By exploring the complexities of the world, students and teachers practice making connections that are intellectual and emotional,” Roth said. “And today, when crude parochialism is encouraged under the guise of group solidarity, it is more important than ever for schools like Wesleyan to promote citizenship by helping students increase their powers of aversive thinking, critical feeling, and the sympathetic imagination.” Roth made the following…

A new scholarship program will offer a group of exceptional students from Africa the opportunity to join the Wesleyan University community. Beginning fall 2023, the newly announced Wesleyan African Scholars Program will welcome a select group of students from Africa each year, providing each with a four-year 100 percent cost of attendance scholarship. “As part of the University’s ongoing efforts at internationalization, we will be bringing more talented students from Africa into the stimulating and supportive world of Wesleyan,” said President Michael S. Roth ’78. Students in the African Scholars Program will find support at the Fries Center for Global…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 spoke about “Safe Enough Spaces” and their place in the debate around free speech at a symposium on Speech and Expression on College Campuses at Skidmore College on April 15. President Roth wrote a book review of “The Age of Guilt: The Super Ego in the Online World” by Mark Edmundson for The Washington Post. The book examines online judgementalism through a Freudian lens, Roth writes. He called Edmundson’s writing “engaging” with a “friendly yet incisive” tone. The Chronicle of Higher Education’s The Review newsletter quoted a tweet from Roth in a piece about scholars…

The ability to explore, open-mindedness, diversity of thought, the culture, the community, an emphasis on the arts—these were all reasons that prospective students gave for why they were considering enrolling at Wesleyan in the Fall. “We try to create a culture where people can listen to each other; because by listening to each other, we discover things about ourselves and about the world that we wouldn't otherwise,” President Michael S. Roth ’78 said at WesFest 2023 on April 14. For Elizabeth Littell, 18, of Portland, Maine, the community at Wesleyan is the main attraction, she said. “Everyone is just so…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 authored a review of “Unearthed: A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust” by Meryl Frank for The Wall Street Journal. The memoir details her research into her family’s history and a book inherited from her aunt, Mollie, which depicts the brutal murder of Jewish performers by Nazis—including one of her cousins. Roth told The New Yorker that reading storied texts with specific lens’ geared toward re-affirming your own beliefs is like “shooting fish in a barrel.” He spoke on the topic for a piece on Hillsdale College’s…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 has announced that Wesleyan University will recognize four inspiring leaders during the 191st Commencement on Sunday, May 28, 2023. The honorary degree recipients will be Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard, who will also deliver the Commencement address; Jennifer Finney Boylan ’80, award-winning author, transgender activist, and professor at Barnard College; Larry McHugh, recently retired president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce and longstanding community leader; and Donna S. Morea ’76, P’06, an internationally recognized technology executive and Wesleyan University Board Chair Emerita. “At a time when…

Wesleyan in the News: September 2023

Finding Freedom Through Learning, President Roth Explores the History of Being a Student

Class of 2027 Arrives at Wesleyan with Open Mind

Wesleyan in the News: July 2023

Students Inducted Into Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society

Wesleyan in the News: June 2023

President Michael S. Roth ’78: Effective Teachers Empower Students to Become Better Citizens

Wesleyan Announces New African Scholars Program

Wesleyan in the News: May 2023

WesFest 2023: Wesleyan’s Community, Culture at the Top of Mind for Prospective Students

Wesleyan in the News: April 2023

Wesleyan to Honor Annette Gordon-Reed, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Larry McHugh, and Donna S. Morea at 191st Commencement