Tyshawn Sorey

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News 1. The Washington Post: "How One College Is Helping Students Get Engaged in Elections—and, No, It’s Not Political" President Michael Roth writes about Wesleyan's initiative to engage students meaningfully in work in the public sphere ahead of the 2020 elections, and calls on other colleges and universities to do the same. He writes: "Now is the time for higher education leaders to commit their institutions to find their own paths for promoting student involvement in the…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News CNN: "What the ‘Woke Student’ and the ‘Welfare Queen’ Have in Common" "Every age seems to need a bogeyman, some negative image against which good people measure themselves," writes President Michael Roth '78 in this op-ed. Roth compares today's bogeyman, the "woke" college student, with those of past eras—the "welfare queen" and "dirty hippie"—and seeks to build understanding and dispel negative misperceptions of activist college students. "The images of the welfare queen and of the woke…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News 1. The Nation: "Edward Snowden Deserves to Be Tried by a Jury of His Peers, Just Like Everyone Else" In this op-ed, Associate Professor of Government Sonali Chakravarti argues against the Justice Department's decision to deny Edward Snowden's request for a jury trial. She contends that in Snowden's case, in which he is accused of leaking classified information from the National Security Administration in 2013, a jury trial "is not only a viable alternative to a hearing…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News The New Yorker: "The Shapeshifting Music of Tyshawn Sorey" "There is something awesomely confounding about the music of Tyshawn Sorey [MA '11], the thirty-eight-year-old Newark-born composer, percussionist, pianist, and trombonist," begins this profile of Sorey, assistant professor of music. Sorey was recently featured in the Composer Portraits series at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. 2. The Register-Mail: "Video Slots Take Heavy Toll on Some Players" In this article exploring the expansion of video slot gaming in a region…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Wesleyan in the News 1. The Middletown Press: "Wesleyan Students Helping Former Prisoners to Gain Job Skills" Wesleyan Students for Ending Mass Incarceration (SEMI) is a group of students working to help formerly incarcerated individuals acclimate back into society by providing them with job skills. The goal, according to member Asiyah Herrero '22, is “making re-entry into the workforce a little bit easier. There are usually a lack of resources when people get out of prison, and starting to look for work,…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News Inside Higher Ed: “Career Path Intervention–Via a MOOC” An open online course by Gordon Career Center Director Sharon Belden Castonguay, which helps young people explore their interests and career options, is featured. 2. NPR: “Midterm Election Could Reshape Health Policy” Associate Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, explains why Democrats are “laser-focused on health care” this election season. Fowler also recently was quoted on advertising in the midterm elections in The Washington Post and USA Today, and interviewed…

Assistant Professor of Music Tyshawn Sorey MA '11, a MacArthur "Genius" Award-winner, and Distinguished Fellow in the College of the Environment Allison Orr, artistic director of Forklift Danceworks, have been chosen as 2018 fellows by United States Artists (USA), an organization that illuminates the value of artists to American society. Sorey and Orr will each receive a $50,000 unrestricted award as part of the honor. Read more about Tyshawn Sorey's MacArthur "Genius" Award Read more about Allison Orr's work teaching dance and movement to local children A total of 45 recipients were announced for the annual awards, which recognize achievements and innovation across nine disciplines,…

Tyshawn Sorey MA '11, who joined Wesleyan's faculty this fall as assistant professor of music, has been awarded a fellowship—better known as a "genius" grant—from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The announcement was made Oct. 11. The fellowship is a "$625,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative and creative individuals as an investment in their potential," according to the MacArthur website. Fellows are selected based on "exceptional creativity," "promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments" and "potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work." (more…)

Tyshawn Sorey MA '11, assistant professor of music, is called a "preternaturally talented multi-instrumentalist who has built a career in the territory between standard definitions" in an extensive profile in The New York Times. "In some circles, he’s thought of as a jazz drummer; in others, he fits in more as an avant-garde composer," the article says of Sorey, who is about to release his sixth album, "Versimilitude." The article discusses Sorey's background, from his modest upbringing in Newark—where his public schools offered little in the way of arts education and his father "helped foster his affinity for music"—to his study…

"Tyshawn Sorey Defeats Preconceptions," proclaims the The New Yorker headline on a profile of Wesleyan's newest assistant professor of music, Tyshawn Sorey MA '11, who will join the Wesleyan faculty this fall. "The prodigious multi-instrumentalist and composer transcends the borders of jazz, classical, and experimental music." (more…)

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan in the News

Wesleyan in the News

Sorey MA ’11 and Orr Awarded Artistic Fellowships

Assistant Professor of Music Sorey MA ’11 Wins MacArthur “Genius” Award

Sorey Is ‘Obliterating the Lines,’ According to New York Times Profile

The New Yorker Profiles New Wes Faculty Member Sorey MA ’11