rob rosenthal

At the University’s 188th Commencement on May 24, Wesleyan will present the Baldwin Medal, the highest award of the Alumni Association, to Rob Rosenthal, John Andrus Professor of Sociology, Emeritus. The Baldwin Medal pays tribute to the late Judge Raymond E. Baldwin ’16, the only man to have held the offices of Connecticut governor, U.S. senator, and chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. First awarded Sept. 20, 1981, during the opening convocation of Wesleyan's Sesquicentennial, the Baldwin Medal is the highest honor Wesleyan's alumni body presents for extraordinary service to Wesleyan or for careers and other activities that have…

The summer of 1964 saw thousands of young people — many from colleges and universities in the North - mobilize to register voters, educate citizens, and support other civil rights work in the Jim Crow South. What came to be known as "Freedom Summer" is credited with ending the isolation of states where racial repression and discrimination was largely ignored by news media and politicians, despite the the landmark Civil Rights Act passed that July. Wesleyan students joined the struggle. "Five Wesmen to Fight Voter Discrimination in Mississippi," said a front-page headline in the Argus. That May, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had given…

Wesleyan Provost, Vice President of Academic Affairs and John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology Rob Rosenthal got to know Pete Seeger rather well while interviewing and spending time with him for two books he authored: Playing for Change: Music and Musicians in the Service of Social Movements and Pete Seeger: In His Own Words. The latter is a large collection of letters, drafts, poetry, notes and such that had been stored en masse in Seeger’s barn. Seeger allowed Rosenthal and his son Sam to sift through and publish selections — over the course of a year — provided he didn’t try to make…

Rosenthal to Receive Baldwin Medal

“Freedom Summer” Commemoration to Feature Concert, Speakers

Rosenthal Shares his Pete Seeger Expertise with the Press