Wes in the News

Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth reviewed the new book by Louis Breger A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis for The Los Angeles Times.

Jeanine Basinger, Chair and Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, discussed in The Los Angeles Times the recent reappearance of gigolo-type characters in feature films and television. Basinger talks about the social and economic implications of such characters and what they may imply about current times.

Deb Olin Unferth, assistant professor of English, has won the 2009 Cabell First Novelist Award for her book Vacation. The award is presented by Virginia Comonwealth University and was the result of votes by readers as well as members of the Cabell award board.

Jeanine Basinger, Chair and Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies, discusses in The Los Angeles Times what films Hollywood offered during the last great economic crash and how they contrast with what studios are screening now.

President Michael S. Roth reviews Denis Dutton’s new book The Art Instinct,examining the author’s proposition that art arises out of humanity’s biology as much as our intellect.

Mount Redoubt, an active volcano southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, is giving indications that it may erupt soon (the last time was 1989-90). Johan Varekamp, Herald T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, who analyzed the ash fall created by the volcano’s last eruptions discusses in The Los Angeles Times the possible environmental hazards to the surrounding landscape, people and animals that could be produced if the mountain erupts again.

Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth comments in The Los Angeles Times on David Maisel’s new book, Library of Dust. The book, which The Times calls a ‘haunting memorial,’ contains series of photographic images that ‘depict canisters containing the cremated remains of the unclaimed dead from an Oregon psychiatric hospital.’ Some of the canisters date from the 19th Century and their exteriors have undergone tremendous change through chemical interactions and aging throughout the decades. President Roth also contributed an essay to the book.

Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth reviews Annie Leibovitz’s new book “Annie Leibovitz at Work” in the Los Angeles Times.

Jonathan Cutler, an associate professor of sociology, wrote this OpEd for the L.A. Times that says that by failing to unionize workers of foreign car companies in the U.S., the UAW has “cut its own throat.”

In a Los Angeles Times article, Jeanine Basinger, Chair and Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, discusses television shows that focus on characters and plots revolving around financial scandals and greed.