In early 2025, Wesleyan University’s website will unveil a reimagined presence—a result of more than a year of innovative work to redefine this front door to the University. Led by University Communications in partnership with a newly formed web governance committee and collaborators across campus, this ambitious project is set to deliver a completely overhauled "core" website, including new sections for Admission and Aid, news, and events. “As a university that prides itself on having an ‘impact disproportionate to our numbers,’ it is important that we continually look for ways to enhance our capacity to connect with current and future…
By: Phuc Ngo ’26 Each semester, The Connection shares highlights, including faculty fellowships, awards, publications and other achievements, with the community. Read more about the research and accomplishments that define the intellectual life of the University. Fellowships and Awards Professor of Dance, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Global South Asian Studies Hari Krishnan was awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship for Choreography. His work explores the postcolonial complexities and queer themes at the intersection of traditional South Asian and global contemporary dance forms in the North American diaspora. Professor of Philosophy Lori Gruen has been named the 2024 Distinguished Philosopher…
A month after one of the most momentous national elections in recent memory, the Wesleyan Media Project hosted their 2024 Post-Election Conference at the Frank Center for Public Affairs on Dec. 6. The all-day event featured four panels, moderated by Government department faculty members: Associate Professor of Government Logan Dancey, Associate Professor of Government Alyx Mark, Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, and Assistant Professor of Government Justin Peck. More than a dozen scholars from institutions across the country presented their research to the audience of faculty and students. The topics of panel presentations ranged from political advertising in 2024…
This fall season was full of excitement, and for some, championships, across the Cardinals’ athletic fields. Wesleyan’s student-athletes also performed academically as the University had 98 student-athletes named to 2024 NESCAC Fall All-Academic teams, including 42 members of the football program. Here is a quick look at this season’s athletic action: Football It was an historic, championship-winning season for the 8-1 Wesleyan football team, punctuated by several late-game wins. One of those wins came after a last-second diving touchdown reception by defensive back turned wide receiver Luke LaSaracina ’25, which secured Wesleyan a third straight Little Three Championship at Homecoming…
On Wednesday, Dec. 4, 15 students were formally inducted into Wesleyan’s Gamma chapter of Phi Beta Kappa Society. This impressive group were early-decision inductees, meaning they met the rigorous criteria before they are expected to graduate. At the start of the event, Nadja Aksamija, associate professor of Art History and president of the Phi Beta Kappa Committee, shared that these high-achieving students joined an estimated 525,000 society members from across the country. Aksamija went on to explain that Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776, is the oldest surviving Greek letter society in America. To receive this honor, the latest group…
By Phuc Ngo ’26 Director of the University Jazz Ensemble Noah Baerman appeared on WNPR’s “The Colin McEnroe Show” to discuss the musical inspiration he received from the myth of Sisyphus. “For me, it is the same boulder every day, in the macro sense,” said Baerman. “Love, justice, trying to facilitate transcendent experiences through art, basic humanity… the core mission I expect is going to be the same for each day that I’m fortunate enough to draw breath.” Architectural Record featured the new Pruzan Art Center, located between Olin Memorial Library and the newly renovated Frank Center for Public Affairs.…
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous in day-to-day life. From predictive text to virtual assistants to video games, AI is now embedded in most technologies we use. Its impact on research, though, is yet to be seen. Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society Tsampikos Kottos and researchers from five other universities aim to explore that impact. Researchers will attempt to create a physics-based generative AI platform, referred to colloquially as “Physics-GPT.” The purpose of the platform would be to control chaos by, paradoxically, introducing a bit of randomness to the systems. To develop Physics-GPT, Kottos and his collaborators…
By Eliana Fiore In an engaging lunchtime talk on Nov. 21, Matt Motta ’13, assistant professor of health law, policy, and management at Boston University’s School of Public Health, presented research findings indicating that one in three Americans harbor some degree of resentment towards scientists and other public health experts. Not only do anti-intellectual attitudes exist to that degree, but his research shows that Americans with these views may act on them. Motta, whose new book entitled Anti-Scientific Americans: The Prevalence, Political Origins, and Political Consequences of Anti-Intellectualism in the U.S. was published in September, defines anti-intellectualism as “the distrust and…
For 85 years, WESU, Wesleyan’s campus radio station, has offered a mix of music and public affairs programming. This year, the station launched a new program, Engage Radio, to shine a light on the community-engaged work of its university partners and residents from across the greater Middletown community. Broadcast bimonthly on Friday afternoons, Engage Radio has featured a blend of stories that has included artist in residence Sunny Jain talking about his music and the experience of South Asians globally; Center for Prison Education (CPE) Director Tess Wheelwright sharing the history and milestones of CPE; and community partner Donna Hylton,…
Playwright, actor, and educator Anna Deavere Smith Hon. '97 launched her yearlong residency at Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts (CFA) on Oct. 27 with the first public staged reading of her new work This Ghost of Slavery. The cast featured 15 actors, including Associate Professor of Theater, African American Studies, and English Rashida McMahon, along with students Connor Wrubel ’25 and Raimi Bagwell ’26. First published in The Atlantic, the work blends contemporary interviews with activists and social justice workers with her research into the archives of American slavery, revealing how historical trauma shapes present-day behavior. The play depicts events…
Legendary director Charles Burnett paved the way for generations of African American filmmakers in his work, including director Shaka King who made the recent Academy Award-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah. Burnett and King spoke and screened their work at Wesleyan during the 2024 Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns, titled “Black Voices and Visionaries in Cinema,” on Nov. 8 and 9. The two filmmakers were joined by international film producers Ama Ampadu and Tamara Dewit for presentations and a panel discussion. Endowed by James Shasha '50, P'82, the Shasha Seminar supports lifelong learning and encourages participants to expand their…
At the age of 27, Valentina Ramia received an urgent call from a friend in Ecuador, where she was born, to join a newly formed government. With her master’s degree in public policy analysis and management, Ramia left her work at a think tank in New York to return home and assist with governing in the new administration. The year was 2007. In her role as an under secretary, Ramia was put in charge of social policy in a newly formed department, and asked to help resolve a crisis in the prison system. Working with the prisoners’ unions and other…