Roth on Wesleyan

When I was a student here in the mid 1970s, I remember all those the smart kids who hung around Richard Slotkin, a young faculty member teaching literature, film, history, anthropology, cultural studies….or so it seemed to me from the buzz I heard about his classes and his scholarship. I remember sitting in the audience […]

I originally wrote this op-ed for the McClatchy-Tribune, and it has appeared in various newspapers over the last week. I then read Arianna Huffington’s new book, “Thrive,” which argues for a different “metric of success” — something harder to quantify than traditional measures, but potentially much more fulfilling. Might there also be such metrics that […]

At Beckham Hall tonight many Wesleyans will join in the first Seder meal that marks the beginning of Passover. You can find out more information about the holiday on campus here. Our family gathered at my brother’s house yesterday for an early Seder, which was filled with the pleasures of breaking matzot together (and eating […]

This weekend the senior theses shows keep coming. I missed the opening this week because of NESCAC meetings, but I’m eager to see the work of the studio art seniors at the Zilkha Gallery (up through Saturday). There are recitals (e.g., Simon Riker’s ’14 musical in Beckham, Jeffrey Berman ’14 and Molly Balsam ’14 in […]

The happy emails and web links have gone out (replacing those thick envelopes), and all those fortunate enough to have choices about what college to attend will make a big decision: picking the college that is just right for them. They are trying to envision where they will be most likely to thrive. Where will […]

I sent the message below to the entire campus community a short time ago. I am looking forward to conversations in the coming weeks with students who are involved in sexual violence prevention work, students involved in bystander intervention, and an open session with the WSA on Sunday, April 13th. There are also education and […]

As many of you know, the Long Lane Farm has been very successful at selling organic vegetables to our food services vendor, Bon Appetit. This means we are eating local, and we are eating healthy! Furthermore, students are gaining valuable experience in managing a farm and understanding how a small operation can make a big […]

Wesleyan has received a $300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to support our Center for Prison Education. This is an important infusion of support to a program that has made a powerful, positive difference in the lives of incarcerated people and the faculty and students on campus who work with them. As a recent Connection […]

The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life has created a great opportunity for interdisciplinary study next year. Dean Joyce Jacobsen, in collaboration with Professors John Finn (Govt) and Richard Adelstein (Econ), has organized a cluster of courses on Centralization and Decentralization. Here are some excerpts from the Allbritton website: Two of the courses […]

This past weekend I reviewed Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BCE -1492 AD for the San Francisco Chronicle. When I lived in the Bay area I reviewed for this paper frequently, and I very much enjoyed reading Schama’s book, a companion volume to a Public Television series. Check your […]