Thesis Writer Roundtables — Apply by 10/3

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

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

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

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

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

Two New ANTH courses Fall ’16

Here are two new courses in ANTH this fall:

** ANTH297 Pure Filth: Anthropology in a World of Waste (Doherty, Jacob) This course examines what the world looks like from the vantage point of its diverse waste streams. Waste is all around us. A product of everyday life, of economic activity, of regimes of bodily care and hygiene, waste is an inescapable aspect of contemporary culture and a central element in the constitution of cultural difference. Taking up classic and contemporary anthropological approaches to waste, the course asks where is “away” when we throw things away? How does the production, disposal, and management of waste contribute to the construction of social differences of race, class, and gender? Waste has also captured the imagination of contemporary artists, film-makers, journalists, activists, and humanitarians, becoming the subject of Oscar-winning films and large scale urban reforms. The course explores case stories–from the waste pickers in Rio de Janeiro and Delhi, to Food Not Bombs activists in New York, from Environmental Justice in the US South, to the Pacific garbage patch, from the sewers of 19th-century London to wastelands at the edge of empires–to animate the core concepts of discard studies: disposability, pollution, body-burdens, and externalities. Through readings, films, and independent research, students will explore and learn to critically analyze the diverse and dramatic worlds of waste. **

ANTH316 Critical Global Health (Worthington, Nancy Hayden) What does it mean to approach global health as not an applied science but an ethnographic object? This course will explore this question by bringing critical, social science perspectives to bear on global health issues and interventions. It covers three areas of scholarship. First, we will examine the processes by which social inequalities produce patterns of health and disease in globalizing contexts. This will be followed by an interrogation of the term “global health,” in which we will trace its emergence as a discourse and enterprise and unpack its contested meanings. While some view global health as a clinical practice, others conceptualize it as a business, security concern, charitable duty, or human right; yet another camp probes the term’s ideological construction. We will consider how such vantage points are underpinned by cultural assumptions and ethical agendas that, in turn, can determine how, and to whom, care is delivered. As a third area of inquiry, we will investigate the implications and unintended effects of doing global health by probing such questions as, When are good intentions not good enough? How useful is biomedicine for alleviating locally-defined problems? Under what conditions does global health exacerbate the social inequalities it seeks to overcome?

New GOVT Courses Fall ’16

Here are two new GOVT courses being offered this fall semester:

GOVT345    Citizenship and Immigration    Prof. Liza Williams  Tues & Thurs, 1:20 – 2:40 PM  Allbritton 103 This course examines the concept of citizenship and explores its connection to immigration, ideas of membership, political rights, and processes of incorporation as well as integration. Some of the core questions we will pursue include: What responsibilities do liberal democracies have to immigrants? How should we conceive of citizenship? Should we think of citizenship as a formal political and legal status? As an entitlement to a set of rights? As active participation in self-governance? As an identity? Or, something else entirely? How have racial, ethnic, gender, and class identities and hierarchies shaped the access people have to rights and formal membership? Finally, we will evaluate how political thinkers have argued for the inclusion and exclusion of immigrants into the political community. Most of our readings for the term will be drawn from legal theorists and political philosophers; we will also read some work by historians, political scientists, and sociologists for historical context and background.

GOVT383-01    Democracy and Development in India    Prof. Susan Ostermann   Tuesdays, 7:10 – 10:00 PM, PAC 422 Much has been written and said about the link between democracy and religious/ethnic fragmentation. When India gained independence from British Rule in 1947, many observed that the likelihood of the new country remaining democratic was limited. Yet, democracy has thrived in India for almost 70 years. Other South Asian countries have recently followed suit. How do countries with multiple social, economic, ethnic, and linguistic cleavages manage democracy and what is the connection between their successes (and failures) in this area and the persistence of widespread poverty? This course focuses on the “politics of accommodation” in South Asia, examining institutions, elite bargaining, the deployment of force, accommodation of regional leaders and their political aspirations, and the constant reconfiguration of caste, party, and religious alliances to explain why Indian politics in particular is often dominated by social accommodation rather than the amelioration of poverty. In addition to focusing on India, we will examine a number of comparative cases from elsewhere in South Asia.