Wesleyan in the News: March 2026
President Michael S. Roth ’78 will receive the 2026 Virtues & Vocations Award from the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Social Concerns for his book The Student: A Short History. Roth will conduct a fireside chat at the Virtues & Vocations conference on Higher Education & Human Flourishing from June 1 to 3.
Roth wrote about a new nationwide effort to engage students throughout the summer and fall leading up to the midterm elections for The New York Times. “Higher education has thrived in the ecosystem of freedoms provided by our democracy,” said Roth. “Today that ecosystem is under enormous strain, and as teachers and students we must now rise to its defense.”
Roth also wrote a letter to The Chronicle of Higher Education emphasizing the impact of the Mellon Foundation and its support of intellectual research and curiosity. “The arts and humanities… flourish when they open new fields for study, and when they redirect our attention to enduring questions and text,” Roth wrote. “I expect the Mellon Foundation will continue to do its best to support that flourishing, even if it occasionally incites the spleen of irate Senators, eager journalists, and the current occupant of the White House.”
Dean of the Social Sciences and Professor of Religion Mary-Jane Rubenstein wrote an article for The Revealer focusing on a controversy surrounding “space burials”—a service offered by several private companies promising to disperse loved ones’ ashes on the Moon’s surface. She focuses particularly on the debate between these companies and the Navajo Nation, which views these “burials” as desecration of a sacred spiritual space. “Rather than trying to homogenize the species under one worldview, different kinds of humans need to determine how, from their different perspectives, any of us ought to behave toward that shared province,” Rubenstein wrote.
Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, wrote about the ways Russia has benefitted from the war in Iran for The National Interest. “The increased revenue from oil could not have come at a more opportune time for Russia,” Rutland wrote. “A stagnant GDP and low oil prices meant that revenue from oil and gas fell to $5 billion in January, and the federal government ran a budget deficit of $21 billion that month. The price spike will mean an additional $3-4 billion monthly revenue for Russia. Moscow had been planning serious budget cuts, but these have now been postponed to later in the year.”
For The Miami Herald, William Armstrong Professor of the Humanities Andrew Curran discussed his new book, Biography of a Dangerous Idea: A New History of Race, which centers on 13 figures who helped create the modern idea of race. “This book shows how culture, authority, ambition and financial interest can make speculative and destructive ideas seem natural and logical,” Curran said. “Understanding how race was made helps us understand how evil is rationalized.”
Matthew Kurtz, professor of psychology and neuroscience and behavior, investigated a recent claim made by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that a ketogenic diet could cure schizophrenia for Psychology Today. “This is not to say that changes in diet for specific people with severe mental illness can’t be helpful in their healing journey,” Kurtz wrote. “But to generalize from case studies to prescription creates an expectation of a simple, quick cure that is unwarranted based on years of study of these complex disorders.”
Rachel Besharat Mann, associate professor of the practice in education studies, appeared on WNPR’s Where We Live on March 17 to discuss her recent research into how teens interact with social media algorithms. “In terms of the algorithm, we noticed something that we coined ‘reciprocal algorithmic manipulation,’ where [teens] were exercising a lot of agency, a lot of choice in [saying] ‘I’m going to ignore this, I don’t want to see this about whatever news is happening... I don’t want to see this opinion anymore,’” Besharat Mann said, “so [their algorithm is] very curated based on content and whatever viewpoints they don’t want to see.”
Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, assistant professor of history in the college of social studies, spoke with historian Sophia Rosenfeld about how choice became an integral part of our understanding of freedom—the subject of her recent book The Age of Choice—for his ongoing interview series with The Nation.
German-language magazine Der Speigel spoke to Victoria Pitts-Taylor, chair and professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, for an article about the rise of the “Barbie Waist” silhouette in women’s fashion.
Hunger, a production created by the collective Radical Evolution—which includes Joya Powell, assistant professor of the practice in dance and African American studies—was featured in American Theatre as part of a new play cycle centering around the theme of sustenance in contemporary life. “With this project, we dive deep into the meaning of hunger in all its forms, how it informs and is informed by the myths and fables we tell ourselves, and what it can look like for the many different versions of ourselves to seek satisfaction,” said Hunger creators Powell, Anooj Bhandari, Jei Lawrence, and Meropi Peponides in a joint statement.
For The Conversation, Antonio Machado Allison, university professor in the Bailey College of the Environment and Latin American studies, warns about risks to Venezuela’s fragile natural environments and indigenous communities as the United States pushes for increased oil and critical mineral mining. “Illegal mining that accelerated under former President Nicolás Maduro over the past decade is tearing up one of the most biodiverse regions of the world, with little sign of stopping,” Machado wrote. “Now, the Trump administration is pushing to ramp up critical minerals mining and oil drilling in Venezuela, where the industry has a long history of oil spills and neglected equipment, with little discussion of protecting the environment.”
Tobin Anderson ’95 was named head coach of men’s basketball at Tennessee Tech on March 13. His five-year agreement with Tennessee Tech was widely reported by media outlets like ESPN and The Athletic. Anderson was formerly a head coach at Iona, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Division II St. Thomas Aquinas. Most recently, he was special assistant to head coach Bryan Hodgson at South Florida.
Jonathan Sonnenfeld ’25 wrote an op-ed for the Portland Press Herald about Janet Mill’s participation in the Maine senate race this year. “Pundits love to point out Platner’s faults but rarely discuss why Mills holds barely more than 50% favorability among the Democratic base,” wrote Sonnenfeld. “Gov. Mills has consistently enacted policies that hurt working people.”
Other Headlines
The New York Times published a reflective essay on the impact of Jeff Galloway ’67, creator of the run-walk-run method, following his passing on Feb. 25. Galloway was an All-American athlete during his time at Wesleyan and represented the United States in the 1972 Olympic Games. “Mr. Galloway’s discovery that taking strategic walk breaks during runs could allow people of all fitness levels to accomplish otherwise insurmountable athletic feats has propelled me across three marathon finish lines,” Times contributor Danielle Friedman wrote. “Perhaps more important, it has taught me how to endure, both on and off the race course.”
Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, executive director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and Rob Rosenthal Distinguished Professor of Civic Engagement, reflected on the life and work of the late civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. in a piece for Washington Monthly. “As a scholar of civic engagement and voting rights, I believe democracy is strongest when those historically excluded claim their voice and participate,” Brown-Dean wrote. “Reverend Jackson embodied that truth long before it was widely embraced. He understood that expanding the electorate is not a partisan act. It is a democratic imperative.”
Bloomberg quoted Gary Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environment, emeritus, in a story on a new public tool in Connecticut that shows residents the estimated risk their property is exposed to from climate disasters like flooding, wildfire, and windstorms. “There’s always tension when information changes how people perceive risk,” said Yohe, who also noted the tool is an important step in leveling out the information available to homeowners and insurers. “Suppressing information doesn’t make the underlying risk disappear.”
For Responsible Statecraft, Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, analyzed Ukraine’s position as it heads into a fifth year of the full-scale war with Russia. “Ukrainians are losing so much—a true, fair negotiated peace will ensure they don't lose more,” Rutland wrote. “Four years into the war neither side has won, and both have all the incentive right now to stick with negotiations to end it.”
Rutland also co-authored an article for The Conversation discussing the Russian public’s response to the continued conflict, particularly in light of recent polls showing steady rates of approval. “Polling has consistently placed Putin’s approval rating above 80% since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict,” said Rutland and co-author Elizaveta Gaufman. “Of course, the validity of the results of polls in an authoritarian society at war cannot be taken at face value. Yet, one shouldn’t rule out that some of that support is genuine and rests not just on a stable economy but also on popular endorsement of Putin’s pledge to restore Russia’s power and influence on the world stage.”
Carycruz Bueno, assistant professor of economics, spoke with The Cap Times about test scores for students at virtual charter schools in Wisconsin. “Even if you want to attribute (lower scores) to some of these things that the school can’t control, that we can’t see in the data … we still have these large (negative) impacts,” said Bueno. “These numbers are much lower than what we would expect for quality education for students.”
Zachary Fine, postdoctoral fellow in criticism, visited the collection of Noah Davis’s works at Philadelphia Museum of Art and wrote about the experience for The New Yorker. “The work is light and dark, solid and liquid, empty and busy, earnest and tongue in cheek,” Fine wrote. “Don’t be surprised if you leave the show feeling both healed and brokenhearted.
Blue Man Group, a live drumming trio founded by Chris Wink ’83, was featured in the Hartford Courant as it returns to Connecticut for three shows in March as part of its current North American tour.
