Wes in the News

Kirk Swinehart, assistant professor of history, reviews the new book by New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend titled, Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor. Writing for The Chicago Tribune, Swinehart says Friend” has written the memoir of the season–and one for all time. ‘Cheerful Money’ doubles as a bittersweet family portrait and deceptively subtle ethnography.”

In an article in Science, Gary Yohe, the Sysco/Woodhouse Professor of Economics, discusses how the risk factors for global warming and adverse climate change have increased significantly in recent years. The story cites a recent paper for The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) which Yohe co-authored.

In a recent piece for The Huffington Post, Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth shares a heartfelt story about the vote on Maine’s gay marriage initiative.

Gary Yohe, Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, is quoted in a New York Times piece on Obama Administration’s assessment of costs versus benefits of climate change action – or inaction. Yohe is also quoted in a USA Today story saying that most economists recognize that humans are to blame for global warming and that inherent risks increase if it is not addressed.

Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth reviewed Daniel Goldhagen’s Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the the Ongoing Assault on Humanity recently for The San Francisco Chronicle. In the book, Goldhagen attempts to show that  “that genocide is an extension of the politics of ‘eliminationism,’ which is decisively shaped by political leaders and fueled by profound and widely shared hatred. However, Roth found Goldhagen simple-minded in many of his conclusions and proposed solutions.

Claire Potter, professor of history, professor of American studies, is quoted through her blog in a piece from The Week on President Obama’s all male basketball games. Potter says who the president plays pick-up basketball with has nothing to do with women or women’s issues and castigates The New York Times for legitimizing this issue by doing a story on it.

Mary Jane Rubenstein, assistant professor of religion, assistant professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, discusses some of varying attitudes among Episcopalians regarding the Vatican’s recent offer to join the Roman Catholic Church. Episcopalian have been fractured by their church’s recent acceptance of women and gays into leadership positions, with some dioceses reacting by splitting off and forming the Anglican Church of North America.

Edward Moran, chair and associate professor of astronomy, director of the Van Vleck Observatory, took time to explain what black holes are – and are not – on WNPR’s Colin McEnroe Show.

Jeanine Basinger, chair and Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, curator Cinema Archives, is quoted at length in a story in the Vancouver Sun about film roles that take actresses outside of Hollywood stereotypes.

This semester, Wesleyan has begun offering a linked major program for Environmental Studies. Barry Chernoff, the Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies, Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, professor of biology and director of the Environmental Studies Certificate Program, explained the new major to interested students during a recent campus event.

The linked major program is the second major to a primary major. Students must complete all the requirements for graduation from their primary major in addition to those of ENVS as their second major. The basic information about the program can be found here.