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By Maia Dawson '24 Ivanie Cedeño '22, a lauded entrepreneur, remembers a metal container her grandmother, Eurania, used to have. Cedeño recalls how she would watch her sew. “When she would put clothes away they were all pressed and everything had its spot, everything fit perfectly,” Cedeño said. She is cautious about the precision of the memory, though. Perhaps her love for her grandmother has idealized her recollection. Cedeño’s startup, Sol Blossom Crochet, honors these memories. The company won first place at a presentation to Middletown’s Board of Commissioners, the final stage for a Startup Incubator class she took this…

As the recipient of a Chicken & Egg Pictures award, lauded filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain will continue telling the stories of ways underrepresented people experience life in the United States. Strain, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, associate professor of film studies, and co-director of the Wesleyan Documentary Project, is one of only six documentary film directors to receive the Chicken & Egg award in 2022. The honor comes with an unrestricted $50,000 grant. "The Chicken & Egg Award makes bold investments in the personal and professional wellbeing of visionary women and gender nonconforming documentary makers,” said Chicken & Egg Pictures…

Richard "Dick" T. Vann, professor emeritus of history and letters, died on Feb. 1 at the age of 90. Vann received bachelor's degrees from Southern Methodist University and Oxford University and an MA and PhD from Harvard University. He arrived at Wesleyan in 1964 and taught in the College of Letters and History Department until his retirement in 2000. “Dick was an intellectual force at Wesleyan for decades—a gentle and persistent force for creative, interdisciplinary work across the humanities and social sciences,” recalled President Michael Roth '78. “A gifted teacher, his History and Prophecy seminar was already legendary when I…

Michele Roberts '77 retired at the end of 2021 after seven and a half years as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). To honor her leadership and legacy, the NBPA Foundation has endowed a financial aid scholarship at her alma mater, Wesleyan University. Named for Roberts’ mother, the Clara Johnson Roberts Scholarship Fund is a fitting tribute to the woman who sparked her daughter’s law career by bringing her to observe trials at their local courthouse in the South Bronx. Like many of the players she worked with, Roberts came from very modest beginnings and rose to…

David Morgan, professor of history, emeritus, passed away on Jan. 20 at the age of 83. Morgan received his BA from Haverford College and his DPhil from Oxford University. He arrived at Wesleyan in 1966 and taught history for 37 years until his retirement in 2003. During those years he served numerous terms as the chair of history and chair of the College of Social Studies (CSS), and he served one term as dean of the social sciences. “My first memories of David Morgan are of classical music and opera pouring out of his office, with the door open, much…

It is not every day that an academic history book inspires a film by one of the world’s leading directors, especially when its author is former provost and professor emerita of history, Judith C. Brown. Brown’s widely-praised book, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (Oxford University Press, 1986) was recently adapted into a film, Benedetta (2021). The book tells the story of Benedetta Carlini (1590-1661), an abbess in Tuscany, who was imprisoned for claiming false visions and for allegedly having sexual relations with one of her nuns, Sister Bartolomea. Benedetta’s story remained undiscovered until Brown,…

Although Kati Koerner majored in government, she spent the majority of her career working in the theater arts. The Class of 1990 Wes alumna now teaches a graduate seminar on the pedagogy of drama at the Juilliard School and serves as director of education at Lincoln Center Theater. And she's more than happy to talk about her experience with other budding theater-makers. On Jan. 14, as part of the Gordon Career Center's WEShadow Externship Program, Koerner met with a dozen current Wesleyan students on Zoom to discuss her experience in arts education, applied theater, arts integration, and also grant-writing and budgeting. She's…

Looking back over Martin Luther King Jr.’s four visits to Wesleyan between 1962 and 1966, one is struck by how many of his concerns still exist today. He saw hatred on the march throughout the country, and believed that the only way to combat it was through non-violent means. “Moral ends will be achieved by moral means,” King told the Wesleyan crowd during his first visit to Wes, 60 years ago. King, who received an honorary degree from Wesleyan in 1964, spoke about the injustice of racial segregation. He urged people to move away from materialism towards a higher plain…

Wesleyan University has begun the process of constructing a new home for Neighborhood Preschool (NPS), located at 60 Long Lane near the softball fields. Work on the project, designed by Patriquin Architects of New Haven, began in December and should be complete by the end of 2022. The current facilities, located on Lawn Avenue and High Street, will be demolished to make way for the new science building. “Our new NPS is a significant upgrade on our current facilities and will accommodate 52 youngsters in multiple classrooms and outdoor play yards. The approximately 7,000-square-foot facility was designed in consultation with a committee…

For his efforts in creating a public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, health care, science, and technology, Anthony Ryan Hatch has been awarded a Hastings Center Fellowship. He's among only 24 new fellows elected this year from six countries and a range of disciplines, including medicine, nursing, philosophy, law, American studies, and theater. The Hastings Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created from multiple disciplines, including philosophy, law, political science, and education. It's the oldest, independent, nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research institute in the world. Hatch, associate professor and chair of the science and society program, teaches, conducts research, and lectures…

Anna Nguyen ’22 believes that if you want to have a local impact, your thinking and decision making can’t be divorced from considerations of the wider world. Time spent in the United States, England, and China – as well as her home country of Vietnam – taught her to be a true global citizen. “That is why I chose not to stay in my own country, as much as I love it. I need to be able to see it from a zoomed-out perspective before I know what the problems are. By being in so many countries, I see issues…

Haley Brumberger BA/MA ’21 captured an image through a microscope of tiny crustaceans called ostracods in sediments of a volcanic lake in Oregon during the 2019 program for Wesleyan Summer Research in the Sciences, which she participated in as a summer research fellow through the College of Integrative Sciences. The image first won the Summer Research in the Sciences Image Competition for 2019 before winning this year’s image competition for The Micropalaeontological Society (TMS). They announced her win on Twitter, as well as through the RedBubble merchandise they’re selling of the image. Brumberger, who majored in earth and environmental sciences…

Solarpunk, Operation Bootstrap, and Cedeño’s ’22 Sol Blossom Crochet

Strain Honored with Chicken and Egg Pictures Award for Documentary Filmmaking

Vann Remembered for Being a Bold Thinker and Demonstrating Respect

NBPA Foundation Honors Michele Roberts ’77 Retirement with Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship

Professor Morgan Remembered for Teaching History at Wesleyan for Almost 4 Decades

Brown’s Book on “Lesbian Nun” Inspires the Creation of Benedetta

Students, Alumni Make Career Connections through WEShadow Program

MLK Left Influential Impact on Wesleyan Community

Construction Begins on New Neighborhood Preschool at Long Lane

Hatch Named Hastings Center Fellow for His Efforts with Health Inequality

Nguyen ’22 Named Schwarzman Scholar

Microscopic Image Taken By Brumberger ’21 Wins Multiple Science Contests