In Brief: Spring 2025
The design of the Pruzan Art Center, an exhibition space featuring the Goldrach Gallery and situated between Olin Memorial Library and the newly renovated Frank Center for Public Affairs, was spotlighted in the publications Architectural Record and Art & Object. Nathan Rich ’02, who founded the design practice Peterson Rich Office alongside former visiting professor Miriam Peterson, told Art & Object that “the project was an opportunity to bring this long hidden and impressive art collection”—namely, the historic prints by Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt as well as contemporary photography by Duane Michals and Cindy Sherman—“to the center of campus to be experienced by a wide range of students and community members.”
The Wesleyan Media Project, which received significant media attention throughout the presidential election season, hosted its 2024 Post-Election Conference at the Frank Center for Public Affairs in December. The all-day event took place with the participation of more than a dozen scholars from institutions across the country, featuring four panels moderated by 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.
Professor of Music and dean of the arts and humanities Roger Grant received an Outstanding Publication Award from the Society of Music Theory for his paper “Colonial Galant: Three Analytical Perspectives from the Chiquitano Missions.” Combining music theory with history and postcolonial studies, Grant examines European-style galant music created in 18th-century Chiquitania (part of modern-day eastern Bolivia) by indigenous musicians in the local language. Grant’s current book project, Colonial Galant, expands on these themes.
In January, Center for the Arts Artist in Residence Anna Deavere Smith Hon. ’97 worked with 12 undergraduates in a five-day workshop, “Performance as a Way of Knowing,” with the goal of exploring how the arts are essential to being agents of change in the world. The workshop culminated in a rehearsal with musicians Samora Pinderhughes, Nio Levon, Zane Rodulfo, Lucas Pino, and Marcus Shelby, and choreographer Michael Leon Thomas.
The 2024–2025 Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns was organized by film studies professors Mirko Rucnov and Yared Zeleke, and took place November 8–9, 2024. The seminar—titled “Black Voices and Visionaries in Cinema”—bridged decades of filmmakers who have explored the fundamental predicaments of the Black experience in the United States and around the world, and featured screenings of The Annihilation of Fish (1999) and Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) as well as Q&A sessions with filmmakers Charles Burnett and Shaka King.
Professor of Philosophy Lori Gruen was named the 2024 Distinguished Philosopher of the Year by the Eastern Division of the Society for Women in Philosophy for her work on ethical and political issues that impact those often overlooked in traditional philosophical investigations, such as women and other marginalized genders, people of color, incarcerated people, and non-human animals. Gruen was honored in January at a session of the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association.
In late January, Afia Fosu ’28, Abdiasis (Siiso) Daauud ’27, Leonard Zheve ’27, and Deborah Abayie ’28—all members of the Wesleyan African Scholars Program—traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate as a team in the 2025 Hoya Hacks hackathon at Georgetown University. Inspired by the student-run WesThrift store, in less than 24 hours the team developed an online platform aimed at easing the process of connecting thrifting buyers and sellers, taking first place in the competition’s sustainability track.
Professor of the Practice in Letters Charles Barber was a finalist for PENAmerica’s 2024 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, honoring works that communicate complex physical or biological concepts to a lay audience. Barber’s book In the Blood: How Two Outsiders Solved a Centuries-Old Medical Mystery and Took On the US Army (2023), tells the story of QuikClot, an emergency product that transformed trauma medicine and became a valuable medical tool in the Iraq War.
Andrea Negrete, assistant professor of psychology and integrative sciences, who specializes in adolescent development, received a Fulbright Scholar Award under the Community Psychology specialization to conduct research in Mexico for the 2024–2025 academic year. Her project “Understanding the Role of Return Migration on the Well-being of Mexican-Origin Adolescent Children” explores the well-being and educational experiences of Mexican-origin youth who return with their families to Mexico after living in the United States.
