Be the Senior Speaker at Commencement

2017’ers–

Would you like to share your Wesleyan experience at graduation?  If so, simply submit a 200-250 word essay answering the following question:

What has your Wesleyan experience meant to you?

The essay should be roughly equivalent of the speech you wish to deliver at graduation. Completed essays should be emailed to Dean Brown (lsbrown@wesleyan.edu) by 12:00 noon on Wednesday, April 5.

All essays will be reviewed anonymously by the Senior Commencement Speaker Selection Committee, which will select several finalists for interviews from the pool.  Interviews will be conducted in mid-April, after which the speaker will be announced.

Speaking at Commencement is a unique responsibility that should be taken seriously.  If you are interested in becoming the senior speaker for Commencement, please do not hesitate to submit an essay!

Good luck and all the best!

Why Foreign Language Study is a Good Idea for Every Student

If you are a senior who has engaged with foreign-language study while at Wesleyan, the rationale below will help you explain to prospective employers the skills you have gained through such a course of study.

Why Foreign-Language Study is a Good Idea for Every Student  

We assume if you have reasons to learn a particular language (to study, work, travel, or live abroad or for resources not fully available in English translation), you already know why it is important. Here are reasons to study any language besides English or whatever you regard as your native language:

  1. Many employers, professional schools, and graduate schools see serious study of a second language (potentially, a double-major) as evidence that you can (a) put yourself more easily in others’ (colleagues’, clients’) shoes and (b) communicate more effectively even in English.
  2. You will never know your own language and culture more deeply than by studying another–by looking at it from the outside. Learning to thrive with the unfamiliar is often linked to creativity in many intellectual and professional contexts.
  3. Language learning teaches you to think more clearly and sharpens your brain’s ability to make sense of the world.
  4. Deep study of another culture through its language brings home how much of value will never be made available in English.
  5. Puzzling out another language and culture will help you understand (and empathize with) the difficulties of non-anglophone immigrants, colleagues, clients, and travelers in the U.S., even if you never leave American shores.
  6. Learning another language well makes it easier to learn any language in the future. Even if you never need this, the experience–especially if you study abroad–will make you far more confident in your ability to face any intellectual or professional challenge.  
  7. Foreign-language courses fit easily into study plans: offered on highly varied schedules, they provide a stimulating (and fun!) break from problem-set driven, heavy-reading or arts courses.

Wesleyan offers:

Arabic language and culture: http://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/aaissa/profile.html

American Sign Language: http://www.wesleyan.edu/lctls/courses.html

Classics (Greek and Latin): http://wesleyan.edu/classics/

East Asian Studies (Chinese, Japanese, Korean): http://wesleyan.edu/ceas/

German studies: http://wesleyan.edu/german/

Hebrew language and culture: http://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/dkatz01/profile.html

Romance Languages & Literatures (French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish): http://wesleyan.edu/romance/

Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies program: http://wesleyan.edu/russian/

Any other language: http://www.wesleyan.edu/lctls/silp.html

Do not hesitate to contact any faculty teaching these above language(s).

 

Gordon Career Center Launches New Funding Initiative for Students

The Gordon Career Center Launches a New Funding Initiative for Students 

The Gordon Career Center has announced their launch of a new student funding initiative called the Career Development Grant. This serves as an expansion (and replacement) of the old SuitUp fund. Students can still ask for funding to cover interview attire, but they may now also request funds for things like graduate exam fees, career-related travel expenses, and professional conferences. Students may request up to $500 over their time at Wesleyan. In general, students must be on need-based aid to qualify, though exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

You can read more here. Interested students are asked to contact Jacquie Fought (jfought01@wesleyan.edu) for an application or Anne Santaniello (asantaniello@wesleyan.edu) for questions about the fund itself.

Friends of the Library Undergraduate Research Prize–Apps due March 10

Friends of the Wesleyan Library Undergraduate Research Prize

The Friends of the Wesleyan Library are happy to announce the launch of an undergraduate research prize. The research project, widely conceived, can be from any undergraduate course taken in Spring 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016, or Winter 2017 from currently enrolled Wesleyan students. Honors theses are not eligible.

Projects will be evaluated based on the use of Wesleyan’s library collections and resources as well as on the quality of writing and research. We are particularly interested in receiving applications that show evidence of learning about research techniques and the information-gathering process itself.

There will be two cash awards: a 1st-place prize worth $500 and a 2nd-place prize worth $250.

Instructors and librarians are encouraged to nominate students’ work; students may also self-nominate. Please send nominations to: libfriends@wesleyan.edu. 

All materials must be submitted electronically, preferably as PDF files. Applications will include:

  1. Application form: https://tinyurl.com/WesLibFriendsPrize
  2. Statement on the use of the Wesleyan libraries (maximum 600 words)
  3. Paper/Project
  4. Bibliography

The jury will be comprised of members of the Friends of Wesleyan Library board, Wesleyan librarians, and Wesleyan faculty from Arts & Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences, and Natural Sciences & Mathematics.

Deadline: 5pm, March 10, 2017.  Awards will be announced in April 2017.

For inquiries, contact the Friends of Wesleyan Library, at libfriends@wesleyan.edu.

Red Cross Blood Drive — Feb. 7 & 8

It’s that time of the semester: Wesleyan’s Red Cross Blood Drive Committee is hosting this semester’s annual blood drive on Tuesday, February 7th and Wednesday, February 8th from 11:45-5:45 in Beckham Hall.

To schedule an appointment, go to the Red Cross website or email lconte@wesleyan.edu.

Fun Facts about blood donation:

  • Someone needs blood every two seconds.
  • One pint of blood (one donation) can save up to three lives.
  • About 1 in 7 people entering a hospital need blood.
  • More than 4.5 million patients need blood transfusions each year in the U.S. and Canada.
  • If only one more percent of all Americans would give blood, blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future.

With all the tragedies that are occurring everyday in the US, blood is constantly in need to save lives. It would be great if you could help out!

International Fellowship Opportunities–Info Session Schedule

Check these workshops out: 

Have you heard of grants, fellowships and scholarships like the Fulbright? Or Marshall and Rhodes? Want to move to New Zealand after graduation? Join Kate Smith, Associate Director of Fellowships, Internships and Exchanges to learn more about graduate school and international opportunities for after graduation by attending one of the following upcoming events: 

Fulbright Information Session |Thursday February 2nd @ 12PM OR Friday February 17th @ 12PM
USDAN 110 – PLEASE BRING YOUR LUNCH!

All students are invited to attend an information session to learn about Fulbright grants – the many options, best practices in preparing your application and a timeline.

Exploring International Opportunities? | Thursday February 9th @ 12PM
USDAN 110 – PLEASE BRING YOUR LUNCH!

Interested in going abroad after graduation or for an internship? Join Kate to Explore International Opportunities!

Graduate School Abroad | Monday February 13th @ 12PM
USDAN 110 – PLEASE BRING YOUR LUNCH!

Interested in going to graduate school abroad? Join Kate Smith, Associate Director of Fellowships, Internships and Exchanges to learn about funded opportunities for graduate study through scholarships and fellowships, such as: Marshall Scholarship, Mitchell Scholarship, Rhodes Scholarship, Churchill Scholarship, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Fulbright Grants and more! Learn best practices for graduate school admissions abroad and resources to identify the best programs for your academic interests. Attend the information session to learn tips, best practices and how to prepare your application.

For more on fellowships, to set-up an individual appointment or check fellowship deadlines, please visit: 
http://www.wesleyan.edu/cgs/fellowship/nomination.html

 

New Course Offering: FIST/COL/ITAL/MDST 224 (in English)

FIST 224 – COL 224 – ITAL 224 – MDST 223

Prof. F.M. Aresu – faresu@wesleyan.edu | Monday and Friday, 10:50 AM – 12:10 PM | FISK210

Foundations of Modernity:  The Cultures of the Italian Renaissance

In this course we will critically explore the intellectual achievements of the Italian Renaissance through a detailed analysis of some of its literary masterpieces. We will inquire into the rediscovery and emulation of classical literatures and civilizations. We will examine the revalidated notions of beauty, symmetry, proportion, and order. We will analyze the ways in which this rebirth fundamentally changed the languages, literatures, arts, philosophies, and politics of Italy at the dawn of the modern era. We will also approach often-neglected aspects of Renaissance counter-culture, such as the aesthetics of ugliness and obscenity, and practices of marginalization (misogyny, homophobia). In a pioneering quest for the fulfillment of body and soul, self-determination, glory, and pleasure, Italian scholars, philologists, poets, playwrights, and prose writers contributed to the development of new and increasingly secular values. Through a close reading of texts by authors such as Francesco Petrarca, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti, we will investigate continuities and ruptures between their quest for human identity and ours.

* Fear not! Course conducted in English. All primary and secondary sources in English.

For more information: https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse=014560&term=1171 and do not hesitate to contact Professor F. Marco Aresu <faresu@wesleyan.edu>.

 

 

 

Five Course Offerings with seats available in the Center for Public Life

 

This spring, the Center for the Study of Public Life (CSPL) is showcasing several classes taught by some exciting and unusual visitors, in addition to some wonderful classes taught by Wesleyan professors. The following courses still have seats available:

  • Community Research Seminar (SOC 316), cross-listed with ENVS, the Civic Engagement Certificate, and the Environmental Studies Certificate
  • Taught by Rob Rosenthal (1.5 credit, meets M/W 10:50 am-12:10 pm) – contact Course Assistant Maddie Scher for the application and with any questions Teams of students learn the theory and practice of doing community research while carrying out research for local nonprofits, community organizations, and activist groups.  1.5 credits.  Highly challenging, highly rewarding. This year’s projects include research on how institutional and systemic racism effects of Communities of Color in Middletown (for the Middlesex Coalition for Children) and the long-range effects of service-learning courses (for the Wesleyan Service-Learning Program).
  • Group Psychology in Politics: Local, State, and National Perspectives (CSPL 206)
  • Taught by Middletown’s Mayor Dan Drew (0.5 credits, meets Friday 1:20-4:10 pm) – open to first-years! This course is an introduction to the use of group dynamics to understand the deep personal and systems-level issues at play in the body politic. This framework is applicable at the local, state, national, and international levels. Often, if not most of the time, these issues play an outsized role in any public policy initiative, debate, vote, action, deliberation, and discourse, though they are rarely acknowledged. This class will examine group dynamics as it is practiced in the field of organizational development (OD), a branch of organizational psychology used to implement cultural changes across social systems. The application of OD to politics is not widespread, but its tools are useful in understanding the dynamics in political situations and in the understanding of how power is exercised. The course will introduce concepts in open systems theory and will introduce three models to hold the data in our case studies: the Burke-Litwin Model, BART, and GRPI.
  • Topics in Journalism: Writing, Wit, and the Natural World (CSPL/WRCT 250K)
  • Taught by Koeppel Fellow Richard Michael Conniff (1 credit, meets T/R 2:50-4:10 pm) This course will engage students as readers and writers of essays, opinion pieces, and long form articles about the natural world. We live in the shadow of climate change and the sixth great extinction event. So when is outrage effective, and when does wit or irony allow a writer to find a more persuasive voice? What’s the role of objectivity in a world where everybody seems to be shouting? We’ll consider the work of such writers as Gerald Durell, David Quammen, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Peter Matthiessen. Students will also write regularly and collaborate together in class to critique and improve one another’s work.
  • Collaborative Cluster Initiative Research Seminar II (CSPL 321)
  • Taught by Sean McCann and Charles Barber (0.5 credit, meeting time TBA) – POI (open to any interested students) Students participating in the Collaborative Cluster Initiative will take this course in the spring semester. They will continue with projects started in the fall semester. This is a continuation of CSPL320. This course will supplement the seminars providing historical and cultural background of the prison system in the United States. The emphasis will be on the practical application of topics engaged in the other seminars and contemporary concerns related to the prison system in the U.S. We shall follow current debates at both the national and state level, including legislation, media, and university initiatives. Students will also visit local sites. Speakers will visit the class to share their experiences and expertise. Students will conduct individual research projects and present them in workshop fashion.
  • Music Movements in a Capitalist Democracy (CSPL 333)
  • Taught by singer/songwriter Dar Williams (1 credit, meets Wednesday 1:20-4:10 pm) This course will focus on music movements that have used the presentation, expression, and production of music and music events to facilitate sociopolitico transitions. The vital context of these movements is the United States in particular, where the speed and power of commerce, as well as the concentration of capital, present unique opportunities for progressive values and goals in music. We will look at huge events, like the Newport festivals, Woodstock, Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Lillith Fair, and Bonnaroo, and examine how these movements have both evolved and spread their tendrils into the world (if they have). We will also spend some time on smaller, grassroots venues and music series in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and New York and see how blues, folk, punk, and “Americana” venues have affected and interacted with their communities. We will look at how music scenes evolved and grew and sometimes became institutions, like the Chicago Old Town School of Music.
  • Topics in Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Social Entrepreneurship in Education (CSPL 341B)
  • Taught by Harber Fellow Bernard Dean Bull (1 credit, meets T/R 10:20-11:40 am) This seminar focuses upon educational innovation and entrepreneurship as a form of social entrepreneurship, some of society’s greatest challenges in education. Learners will survey critical issues in contemporary education and explore innovative and entrepreneurial efforts to address these issues. Learners will explore how diverse education startups, non-profit organizations and NGOs, individuals and grassroots groups, K-12 schools, Universities, foundations, professional associations and others are responding to these issues in innovative ways. As the course progresses, learners will explore the roles of foundations, corporations, and government policies and regulations upon educational innovation and entrepreneurship. As part of this course, learners will work individually or in groups to research solutions to a pressing contemporary educational challenge and propose/pitch a means of addressing that challenge through social entrepreneurship.

New Course Offering: FIST229–Political Turmoil

**NEW AND TIMELY COURSE FOR THIS COMING SEMESTER!**

FIST229: POLITICAL TURMOIL: “What just happened? What’s going to happen? What do we do now?”

Prof. Meg Furniss Weisberg <mweisberg@wesleyan.edu>

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:20-2:40pm

https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse=014857&term=1171

Political turmoil, while disconcerting to say the least, is nothing new. This course will look at case studies from different times and regions (the creation of the US; the 1960’s in the US, France, Italy, and elsewhere; Brazil’s and Chile’s dictatorships; Italy in the 90s; the Arab Spring; post-Revolution Iran; the Great Leap Famine in China; contemporary Mali and D. R. Congo; and the U.S. just before the Civil War, among others) to see how others have responded to periods of political oppression and upheaval. After an initial period of discussion based on readings, we will hold conversations with members of our campus community who have experienced various forms of political turmoil.

The goal of the course is ultimately project-based: as we gain perspective on the issues, we will turn what we learn into well-informed, measured, concrete action. In particular, we will workshop several writing exercises related to the topic and destined to make an impact (letter to the editor, letter to an elected official, public service announcement for the radio, etc). All students (including those whose first language is not English) are welcome in the course and will receive individualized attention to their writing.

The structure of this course will be somewhat unusual: after the first few meetings, the first session of each week will be devoted to discussing the week’s reading and collectively brainstorming questions; during the second session, we’ll ask those questions of the week’s invited guest (often, but not always, another faculty member). We will write and workshop pieces related to the topic and/or destined to make an impact (letter to the editor, letter to an elected official, public service announcement for the radio, etc). We are also going to make a radio program interviewing our guests, so that the course can reach a wider audience.

This course is going to be an experiment: it will operate more like a working group than a regular academic course, and I will be learning beside you, rather than imparting information. My role will be to teach about effective writing, deepen your critical thinking and analytical abilities, solicit guest speakers who will suggest readings, and facilitate discussions. The class will be graded CR/U, and would likely be fine to take in addition to a normal course load—though it goes without saying that you should check with your advisor.

More info,  contact:  Meg Furniss Weisberg, Visiting Assistant Professor of French and Interim Director of Academic Writing,

“Ukrainian Sheriffs” Screening–Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m.

You are invited to a screening of an Oscar longlisted Ukrainian feature documentary ‘Ukrainian Sheriffs’. Film director Roman Bondarchuk and producer Darya Averchenko will present the film and will be available for Q&A after the screening.  It is a very special film that is currently getting the best reviews in top American film media.

Tuesday, December 6, 7:30pm       Powell Family Cinema

College of Film and the Moving Image

FREE

The screening is co-sponsored by College of Film and the Moving Image with, Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities, Department of Russian and Eastern European Studies, The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, The Department of Government, and Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts.

“Ukrainian Sheriffs” got the Special Jury Prize in the main competition of IDFA – 2015 (A+). The International documentary film festival in Amsterdam well-known as central documentary world forum and called ‘documentary Cannes’.  The festival record of the movie is great: it was screened at more than 40 festivals from South Korea to Toronto and continues to travel worldwide. TV-premier was on ZDF/ARTE, on Saturday prime-time, in March 2016. ARTE has coverage of 120,000,000 viewers in total.

Ukrainian Sheriffs is a real life story about two local sheriffs and the villagers of a remote village near Crimea, Stara Zburievka. Following the sheriffs on their everyday duties, the story gives us a look beyond the war and the ongoing political events inside the everyday life of the villagers, foregrounding the tension between personal survival and political justice. What was meant to be a film about a few people from the Ukrainian countryside and their everyday struggles, portrays the faith of a whole nation during the turning period in its history.

Here you’ll find trailer of the movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u81rnJG6ym4

Following this links you’ll find news about the movie and interview with film-director Roman Bondarchuk:

http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/ukrainian-sheriffs-review/5097445.article?blocktitle=REVIEWS&contentID=40296

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/ukrainian-sheriffs-idfa-review-846198

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3406/

http://www.vimooz.com/2016/09/10/ukrainian-sheriffs-ukraine-2017-oscars/