The Allbritton Center’s Programs
The Allbritton Center, made possible by the generous support of Robert ’92 and Elena ’93 Allbritton, is home to two new programs that intersect prominently with the public sphere:
The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, which continues Wesleyan’s commitment to preparing students for lives as active citizens and for leadership. The Center reflects changes that have transpired across the social scientific disciplines. These include the creation of new multidisciplinary ventures, the growing number of studies employing multiple methodologies, and the rethinking of the idea of the public in a variety of intellectual and social movements. In addition, university–based intellectuals have been forging knowledge–seeking alliances with innovators and leaders in government and the corporate world. The Center enables Wesleyan to focus resources, encourage curricular innovation, new research and scholarship, and foster greater public understanding and responsibility.
The Shapiro Creative Writing Center, which provides a locus for students and faculty seriously engaged with writing. It houses offices for visiting writers teaching in the proposed certificate program or in the English Department’s concentration in creative writing, as well as an office for one of the Writing Workshop’s Ford Writing Fellows.
John Shapiro ’74 and Shonni Silverberg ’76, M.D., of New York City made this exciting writers’ space possible through their generous gift in 2009. It includes offices, a comfortable lounge with shelving for books of interest to writers, and a workroom for student literary publications. Receptions, readings, and other writing–connected events will take place in the gathering space at the top of the Allbritton Center. The Ford Writing Fellow and Writing Workshop tutors will hold office hours in the Center for students seeking assistance with their academic writing.
The Allbritton Center also houses the Quantitative Analysis Center, which provides support for quantitative analysis across the curriculum, as well as giving students opportunities to develop practical quantitative skills and appealing to new faculty engaged in quantitative research. The Center also houses the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies program; and Instructional Media Services. More information is available at www.wesleyan.edu/allbritton.