Wesleyan in the News: February 2026
William Armstrong Professor of the Humanities and Professor of French Andrew Curran’s new book, Biography of a Dangerous Idea: A New History of Race, from Louis XIV to Thomas Jefferson, was featured on NPR’s February edition of “The Book Ahead.” “In this new history, Curran, a scholar of the Enlightenment, offers a fascinating reassessment of that heady era of Western philosophy: how its towering thinkers came to invent the very idea of race as we know it today, and how that biological balkanization of humanity came to be passed down, quite misleadingly, as some sort of eternal truth,” NPR wrote.
Victoria Pitts-Taylor, professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, spoke with The 19th about the expectations of modern beauty, including the proliferation of cosmetic procedures and weight-loss medication. “70 is the new 50,” Pitts-Taylor said. “As women are aging, what’s happening is that the celebrities we grew up with don’t seem to be aging along with us, and we’re also immersed in a social media culture that still privileges youth and still privileges the highly curated image, so we’re pressured to filter ourselves—whether it be through sort of careful curating of our photos or literally using filters on our phones and our apps or getting fillers and Botox.”
For The New Yorker, Kim-Frank Postdoctoral Fellow in Criticism Zachary Fine reviewed Liminals, an artwork by Pierre Huyghe showing in Berlin. “No art institution, no matter how avant-garde, wants someone to die on its premises, but in the pitch-darkness all I could imagine were disused boilers and turbines waiting to mangle my legs,” Fine wrote. “This is to say that the first emotion I felt in ‘Liminals’ was fear.”
On CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Scott Gottlieb ’94, Hon. ’21, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), spoke about the rise in measles cases domestically and abroad, the impact of the COVID-19 era on current pediatric vaccination rates, and the anti-vaccine movement at large. “I don't think we should be worried about mass gatherings at this point. I think that this is going to get worse unfortunately, before it resolves,” Gottlieb said. “As these children who aren't getting vaccinated age into school age settings, they’re going to start spreading broader and larger outbreaks. So I think this is a long cycle, especially now that this has gotten embedded in political psyche in this country. I think this is a generational change.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, Hon. ’15 talked about his college experience during an appearance at Lafayette College on Feb. 12, according to The Morning Call. “I think that you find your people in college,” he said. “You find the people who are swimming in the same direction as you, who want to make their mark on the world in the same way you do.”
Annabelle Singer ’00, associate professor and biomedical engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, and her work studying Alzheimer’s disease were featured in a recent article by CNN Health. “We are taking a really different approach to Alzheimer’s,” Singer said. “We’ve determined how neural activity that is essential for memory fails in Alzheimer’s disease. We’re then using that information to develop brain stimulation that could improve brain health.”
Katherine Kuenzli, chair of Art and Art History and professor of German, co-wrote The Belgian Friendship Building as well as a Platform article focusing on how the eponymous building, constructed originally for the 1939 World’s Fair, found its way to a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Richmond, Virginia. “Vann Memorial Tower and the Belgian Friendship Building remain proudly emblematic of the aspirations of mid-century African Americans for educational excellence and political empowerment—and powerful rejoinders to Richmond’s White monument culture and to histories of modern architecture that rarely venture to the American South,” Kuenzli and her co-authors wrote.
Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought Peter Rutland wrote a piece for The National Interest about a documentary on the Russian military’s experience during the war in Ukraine that has drawn criticism. “While Ukrainian complaints about the film are understandable, it remains a valuable piece of journalism,” Rutland wrote. “Few viewers will come away with a more positive opinion of Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Unfortunately, the film will not be shown in Russia anytime soon. That is the one place where it could have had a real impact.”
Deadline recently reviewed the movie See You When I See You, which was written by Adam Cayton-Holland ’02 and is based off his 2018 memoir, Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir, following his journey with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after the suicide of his younger sister: “This is a family looking for closure who can’t agree on how to get there. Ultimately, Cayton-Holland’s smart screenplay, an outstanding cast and the sensitive direction of Duplass show us the way.”
Molly Biklen ’00 was named the legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), after serving as deputy legal director since 2020. Biklen has led landmark cases in her time at the NYCLU, including a first-in-the-nation agreement overhauling how the New York Police Department polices protests. “The NYCLU has worked for decades to defend and advance the civil rights and civil liberties of New Yorkers,” said Biklen. “This work has been especially vital over the last year as we face unprecedented challenges to our rights, including due process, freedom of speech, and equality.”
Eric Simonelli ’19 has been hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers as their offensive quality control coach under Head Coach Mike McCarthy. Most recently, he served as the assistant linebackers coach at Texas Christian University in 2025, which was preceded by six years with the Dallas Cowboys.
Other headlines
President Michael S. Roth ’78 wrote an opinion piece for MS NOW celebrating the bravery of U.S. District Judge William G. Young and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who criticized President Trump in January for his “authoritarian” efforts to suppress dissent in institutions across the country. “[T]he price of allowing the preferences of any president to dictate the policies and practices of organizations that depend on freedom and autonomy is to destroy the legitimacy of those organizations,” Roth wrote, urging his fellow higher education leaders to challenge the administration’s efforts to reform colleges and universities to fit its agenda. “The price of letting any president rule over the country with no limitations but his own mind is the destruction of our democracy.”
The New York Times spoke to Victoria Pitts-Taylor, chair of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, about the fashion industry’s trend towards an increasingly corseted and manufactured feminine form. “The rise of right-wing gender politics has paralleled, not coincidentally, the shrinking of waists and the embrace of the hourglass,” Pitts-Taylor said.
Space.com spotlighted new research by Meredith Hughes, chair and associate professor of astronomy, and her team into the chaotic period between early planet formation and mature systems around adult stars. Using the world's largest radio telescope project, ALMA, the researchers were able to capture new snapshots of this ‘adolescent’ phase, which is shaped by collisions between bodies of various sizes. “We've often seen the 'baby pictures' of planets forming, but until now, the ‘teenage years’ have been a missing link,” Hughes said. “This project gives us a new lens for interpreting the craters on the moon, the dynamics of the Kuiper Belt, and the growth of planets big and small. It’s like adding the missing pages to the Solar System's family album.”
Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, assistant professor of history in the College of Social Studies, spoke with political philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah about the religious origins of the social sciences for his ongoing interview series at The Nation.
Van Vleck Visiting Professor of Mathematics Alex Margolis wrote about Holocaust educator Eva Schloss, Margolis’ late grandmother and stepsister to Anne Frank, for The Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum called comparisons between ICE aggression and the Holocaust “deeply offensive.” “Remembering the Holocaust does not mean waiting for gas chambers before we speak,” Margolis wrote. “It means recognizing how ordinary policies—immigration bans, detention regimes, and mass deportations—prepare the ground for mass violence. These are through lines in history. My grandmother spoke because she recognized these patterns as they emerged.”
Sharon Belden Castonguay, executive director of the Gordon Career Center, joined UConnect’s Career Everywhere podcast to discuss the value of a liberal arts education in a changing job market. “I feel very firmly that the safest education you can have right now is a liberal arts education,” Castonguay said. “Because if you don’t know what the jobs are going to be so that you need to be flexible and you need to be able to learn new things quickly and you need to be able to connect the dots, this is in fact the safest thing that you can do.”
Oona Metz ’89, author of Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women, spoke to CBS News and wrote a TIME article on the reasons why many women initiate divorce. “Women tend to be more actively engaged than men in initiating, maintaining, and, when necessary, ending marriages,” Metz wrote. “Many of the women who attend my support groups deeply value the institution of marriage, but ultimately leave because, despite years of effort, they are unable to engage their spouses in improving their partnerships.”
Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Gary Yohe analyzed the legal history of climate regulations in The Conversation as the Trump administration attempts to rescind the 2009 "endangerment finding" that underpins much of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s work in the years since. “As an economist who has studied the effects of climate change for over 40 years, I am concerned that the EPA rescinding the endangerment finding on the basis of faulty scientific assessment would lead to faster efforts to roll back U.S. climate regulations meant to slow climate change,” Yohe wrote.
Authority Magazine interviewed Visiting Professor of Music Pete Ganbarg, two-time Grammy award-winning music executive, who shared stories from different points in his career and offered advice for those pursuing a career in live performance. “Don’t wait for permission for anything. If you believe in your idea, do it,” Ganbarg said. “If it’s successful, you may get a slap on the wrist but hopefully it’ll be while they’re handing you a bonus.”
Christine Clarke ’18 wrote about her journey from working on Wall Street to becoming a content creator for HubSpot.
The Andover Townsman spotlighted a key play by Wesleyan men’s basketball player Zach Wolinski ’28 in a close win over No. 1 Trinity on Jan. 24, ahead of a matchup against No. 9 Tufts. “One of the great things about Wesleyan is our fans travel and our alumni always come out,” Wolinksi said. “We expect a big crowd at Tufts. Their team and their fans are great, too. Our league is so good. Every game is so much fun to prepare for and play.”
Associate Vice President for Information Technology Karen Warren was awarded NERCOMP’s Mark Berman Community Outreach Award, which “recognizes a person who demonstrates excellence in nurturing relationships and bringing people together within higher education, regardless of who they are, where they are in their career, or their personal or professional identity.”
