Reading by Patrick Phillips of his book, Blood at the Root — 11/2

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The writer and translator Patrick Phillips will read this Wednesday, November 2, 2016, at 8pm at Russell House.

Phillips’ most recent book, Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, is an urgent and meticulously researched text about racist violence in early twentieth century Georgia. It has been named a Best Book of 2016 by Publisher’s Weekly and an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review. It is a finalist for the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal. 

Phillips is the recipient of Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships. He is the author of several books of poetry, and his most recent collection of poems, Elegy for a Broken Machine, was a finalist for the National Book Award.

A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

“Continuing Conversations:” Talk and Dinner with Prof. Tony Hatch on “Carceral Technologies of Jim Crow” — Nov. 1

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Professor Tony Hatch will facilitate a dinner workshop next Tuesday as part of our “Continuing Conversations” series.  This series follows the Class of 2020 Common Reading of The New Jim Crow, and is open to ALL STUDENTS.  Details below.  Please RSVP (link below) so that we can plan an appropriate amount of food.

Continuing Conversations

To sign up for this workshop, click here.

10/27 Note from Dean Brown

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Hey 2017’ers,

Hope you all had a good fall break, getting caught up on work & sleep and enjoying some down time. 

Having just passed the mid-point of the semester, we will be moving into pre-registration for the spring semester, beginning next week with Planning from Nov. 1-14, Scheduling on Nov. 15, and Adjustment from Nov. 16-22.   

As you choose your courses, make sure to check your credit analysis for oversubscription in a subject or category so that you can be sure to meet the graduation requirements of 32.00 useable credits with no oversubscription, a minimum of 16.00 Wes credits, and completion of one major (track with your major certification form).  You also need to meet the minimum GPA of 74.00 and the residency requirement appropriate to your entry (first-years=6 semesters, first-semester soph transfers=5, and second-semester soph & junior transfers=4).  You may have gotten a letter from me if you are already oversubscribed, at the limit or near the limit for oversubscription, so be sure to check your email and see me with any questions. 

Also check the Senior Packet on the sidebar of this blog for  more info and FAQs about graduation requirements and oversubscription, etc. 

December Completions:  Make sure that your Major Certification form is completed and approved by your faculty advisor as it must be certified by your department and submitted to the Registrar’s Office by November 18. 

Need to add or drop a second-quarter course?  You have five days from the first class to do so. 

 As you think ahead, the full-semester course withdrawal deadline is Dec. 2.  If you are considering that route, make sure to first go to the instructor’s office hours, use the TA sessions, and the math or writing workshops.  Talk with your faculty advisor or me about strategies for success.  If you could use some additional help deciphering course material, get a peer tutor by requesting one through the class blog, right side bar.  If you could use some help with organization, time management, note-taking, study strategies, or test-taking tips, check out the peer advisor website, where you can also request a peer advisor or a peer tutor. 

 Family Weekend begins tomorrow, Fri., Oct. 28 through 30.  There are a lot of great events, including two panels of 2017’ers talking about their research on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m. in Judd Hall 116.  Check out all the events!

 As always, if you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Send an email, come to drop-in hours (below), or give my office a call at x2758 to schedule a convenient time to meet.   Please note that this Friday’s drop-in hours are only from 2-3 p.m.

 Best, Dean Brown

 

ANTH & #BlackLivesMatter — Nov. 1, 4:30 p.m.

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Anthropology & #BlackLivesMatter

A Discussion of research, activism in relation to the Decolonizing Anthropology Project

Panel featuring:  Dawn Elissa Fischer (SFSU), Bianca Williams (UofC-Boulder) and Gina Athena Ulysse (Wes U)

Tuesday, November 1st, 4:30-6:00pm, Beckham Hall

About the speakers:

Dawn-Elissa Fischer (Africana Studies, San Francisco State University) is completing two manuscripts entitled Blackness, Race and Gender Politics in Japanese Hiphop and Methods to Floss, Theories to Flow: Hiphop Research, Aesthetics and Activism (an introductory textbook).  Her work has been published in Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Transforming Anthropology, FIRE!!! The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies and The Western Journal of Black Studies. Dr. Fischer has co-produced a short film, Nihon Style, with Bianca White, which documents an annual Hiphop festival and its related organizations in Japan. She co-directs the BAHHRS (the Bay Area Hip Hop Research and Scholarship) project with Dave “Davey D” Cook, which was awarded the Cesar Chavez Institute’s Community-University Empowerment Grant.  Dr. Fischer is a founding staff member of Dr. Marcyliena Morgan’s Hiphop Archive as well as a co-founder of the National Hip Hop Political Convention.

Bianca C. Williams’s (Ethnic Studies and Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder) research centers on theories of race and gender within African diasporic communities, particularly the emotional aspects of being “Black” and a “woman” in the U.S. and Jamaica. She is at work finishing an ethnography, The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism (under contract with Duke University Press) and an edited volume titled, “’Do You Feel Me?’: Exploring Black American Gender and Sexuality through Feeling and Emotion,” co-authored with Jennifer A. Woodruff. Essays in Transforming Anthropology and Cultural Anthropology explore questions of race and gender in ethnographic research and pedagogical practices. She has also edited two collections of essays on #BlackLivesMatter, one for Cultural Anthropology and one for Savage Minds. She is a member of Black Lives Matter 5280 and the AAA Working Group on Racialized Police Brutality and Extrajudicial Violence.

Gina Athena Ulysse is Professor of Anthropology at Wesleyan University.  A feminist artist-academic-activist and self-described Post-Zora Interventionist, she is the author of Downtown Ladies: Informal Commercial Importers, A Haitian Anthropologist and Self-Making in Jamaica (UChicago Press, 2008), Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post-Quake Chronicle (WesPress, 2015) and Because When God is too Busy: Haiti, me & THE WORLD, a collection of poetry, performance texts and photographs (WesPress, 2017). She is Guest Editor of Caribbean Rasanblaj (2015), a double issue of e-misférica— NYU’s Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics journal. Her performance works include: I Am Storm: Songs & Poems for Haiti,  VooDooDoll What if Haiti Were A Woman: On Ti Travay Sou 21 Pwen Or An Alter(ed)native in Something Other Than Fiction and Contemplating Absences & Distances.  A committed public intellectual, when the mood strikes, she blogs for AfricaIsaCountry, Huffington Post, MsBlog and Tikkun Daily.

Long Lane Farm Pumpkin Fest! Oct. 8 — Noon-4 p.m.

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The College of the Environment in partnership with Long Lane Farms,

hosts the annual Pumpkin Festival on the farm

(located at Wadsworth St and Long Lane Farm) 

Saturday, October 8, 2016 from NOON to 4pm

(raindate will be on Sunday; same time)

 The event is free for all to attend.

There will be tours of the farm, live music, activities and crafts

(ie: face painting, tie dying, letterboxing, paper making, creating fringy scarves from upcycled t-shirts) and much more. 

Local vendors like The Board Room, Cinder + Salt and The Yarn Store will be there.

Pumpkins, apples and bake goods will be for sale.

Free veggie burgers and hot apple cider will be provided.

Grab a friend or two and join us!

The annual event is hosted by the College of the Environment, Long Lane Farms, and Bon Appetit

Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

Thesis Writer Roundtables — Apply by 10/3

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Attention all thesis writers! This year, the Writing Workshop is looking into offering a new resource that would support YOU as you write your thesis, and help the process seem less isolating.  We want to gauge interest in monthly roundtable discussions at the DFC with a writing tutor and four other students to discuss thesis topics, practice your “elevator pitch,” ask questions of others who might be able to offer useful suggestions, and even just VENT about how things are going for you as you’re planning and writing.  The costs of lunch would be covered by the Writing Workshop, and the time commitment is only one lunch hour each month over the course of October, November, and December.

For those of you who might be interested, topics of Thesis Roundtables could include: Preparing for thesis presentations; how to talk about your thesis with your friends, professors, family, etc; “Does my research question make sense?”; what to do when your advisor doesn’t email you back; how to get the most out of thesis advisor meetings; how to make the most of the library resources; how to keep track of citations and sources; where to work if you don’t get a carrel; etc.

If this sounds like an opportunity that you’d benefit from, please fill out the interest here no later than October 3rd.  As long as there is sufficient interest, we’ll then group you with four other students so you can set up your October lunch date. We want to help you enjoy the thesis-writing process!  Please contact Ford Fellow Gabriel Borelli or Interim Director of Academic Writing Meg Furniss Weisberg at writingworks@wesleyan.edu if you have any questions or concerns.

 

 

Biological & Biomedical Sciences Graduate School Preparation and Career Options Advising Session–10/1

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Harvard University: “Biological and Biomedical Sciences Graduate School Preparation and Career Options Advising Session”

WHEN: Saturday, 1 October 2016

WHERE:  Boger Hall, Rm 112

TIME: 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

PRESENTED BY:David Van Vactor, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Director, Curriculum Fellows Program;  Jason Heustis, PhD, Lecturer, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Graduate Curriculum, Professional Development and Evaluation Specialist 

Members of the Harvard Medical School community will be visiting to connect with students interested in discussing graduate school applications, graduate training and professional development, and the expanding range of career options for PhDs.

For decades, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education has followed very traditional models of training and career preparation.  These models are now undergoing change to better prepare graduates for a rapidly evolving career landscape.

We will examine this landscape and open a dialogue with the audience to explore how students can effectively navigate portfolio development, graduate school applications and training.

Please come and join the conversation!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mildred Rodriguez, PhD, Health Professions Advisor, mrodriguez01@wesleyan.edu

 

 

 

 

Note from Dean Brown

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2017’ers,

I hope you are getting into your classes and the rhythm of the semester—and are enjoying being a senior!  

With drop/add over, CHECK YOUR CREDIT ANALYSIS to make sure you are all set to meet degree requirements by the end of the spring semester so that you can walk in the ceremony and graduate on May 28!!! 

Update Your Major Certification Form (MCF)

December Completions should submit a completed form by September 30; May Completions should do so early in the spring semester.  This tool both tracks your progress in the major and is used by your department to confirm that you have completed major requirements. 

 Grading Option/Schedule Confirmation Deadline

September 30 is the deadline for choosing a grading mode for courses that offer the option.  It is also the deadline for confirming the accuracy of your schedule so be sure to check!

Thesis & Essay Writers

The library is offering workshops on research sources and interlibrary loan and other services for seniors writing a thesis or an essay. Sessions will be offered on Mon. 9/26, Tues. 9/27, Wed. 9/28, and Thurs. 9/29 at 11 a.m, 1 p.m and 3 p.m. each day. No need to sign up ahead of time. Choose a date and time convenient for you and join a group for a 45-minute info session at Olin Library’s Reference Office. Attendees will be granted expanded interlibrary loan privileges. Contact Kendall Hobbs, Reference Librarian, at khobbs@wesleyan.edu with questions.  

Work at Homecoming and Family Weekends
This year’s Homecoming (Oct.21-22) and Family Weekends (Oct. 28-30) are fast approaching, and we need student employees! Aside from getting paid, you’ll also have the unique opportunity to help out with one of Wesleyan’s most important events, make lasting connections with alumni, and represent the student body to hundreds of visitors and guests. Fill out and submit the student worker application by Wed., Oct. 5 at 5 PM, and we will notify you of your employment status no later than Mon., Oct. 10.  Note: Homecoming is during fall break.  There will be a mandatory student employee meeting on Wed., Oct. 26 at 5 PM. If you are hired, you must attend this meeting to receive your work schedules, event staff T-shirt, and other important event information.  If you have any questions, please contact us at aprinterns@wesleyan.edu.  Best, Nisha Grewal ’17, Avva Saniee ’17, Amanda Yeoh ’19 & Maxine Gibb ’19 

I have loved seeing so many of you already this semester.  Don’t hesitate to drop in, make an appointment, or email me with questions or concerns.  Best, Dean Brown

 

New Intro DANC Section

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Introduction to Dance

DANC 111 Fall 2016 Section:  02  
This is an introduction to dance as an educational, technical, and creative discipline for students with no previous formal dance training. Classes will introduce the basic components of dance technique–stretching, strengthening, aligning the body, and developing coordination in the execution of rhythmic movement patterns. Through improvisation, composition, and performing, students will develop a solid framework applicable to all forms of dance.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA DANC
Course Format: Studio Grading Mode: Graded
Instructor(s): Kolcio,Katja P.         Times: ..T.R.. 08:40AM-10:10AM;       Location: SDC;
Total Enrollment Limit: 36 SR major: 0 JR major: 0
Seats Available: 20 GRAD: X SR non-major: 9 JR non-major: 9 SO: 9
Prerequisites: None

Three New HIST/LAST Courses

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Check them out!

HIST 112 (FYS): Living the Latin American City: Urban History, Politics, and Culture  (T/R, 2:50-4:10) https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse=014748&term=1169

HIST 245 (survey) Survey of Latin American History (M/W, 8:20-9:40)  https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse=004878&term=1169

HIST 297 (seminar) Mexican History and Visual Culture from Conquest to Present (T/TH, 8:50-10:10)  https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse=014749&term=1169