Wesleyan University Magazine

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008May 16, 2014

MUSIC

Cantonese Pop Songs of 1960s Hong Kong. Czech Bluegrass Gospel. Spectacle and Performance in the New York City Subway. The Function of Song in Egyptian Musical Film. These were four of more than 400 subjects presented, dissected, and discussed during the 53rd annual Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)…

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008May 16, 2014

ALUMNI ESSAY

When I first met Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02 in 2006, he hadn’t won a single Tony. I was writing a story for the Wesleyan Argus about a theater industry panel at the Career Resource Center, and he was a presenter. He radiated…

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008May 16, 2014

ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME

Born in Brest, France, before coming to the United States in 1940, Henri Salaun ‘49 graduated from Wesleyan as a two-time All-American on the soccer field while he also captured regional titles in tennis. But it was his …

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008May 16, 2014

A WEB STARTUP

Chris Meade and Matt Wheeler are both members of the class of 2005. After graduation, Meade worked as an associate at Cushman & Wakefield in a group representing top financial clients, and Wheeler worked as a senior …

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008May 16, 2014

TEN NEW COURSES

Political Theologies: Contemporary Christian Engagement In The Public Sphere (Mary-Jane Rubenstein, religion) The Past on Film (Michael Roth, president) Biomedicinal Chemistry (Erika Taylor, …

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008May 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

I spent a significant part of my first year as president planning changes to the economic foundation of the university so as to ensure that we develop the capacity for enhancing our leadership position in higher educatio…

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008April 28, 2014

Inclusive Baking

WHEN IS A BIRTHDAY CAKE NOT JUST A BIRTHDAY CAKE? The question sounds like a child’s silly riddle. To Jill Greenwald Robbins ’83, a clinical psychologist and the mother of a child with multiple food allergies, the quest…

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008April 28, 2014

Microscopic Puzzle

WELL BEFORE CHARLES DARWIN WROTE THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, the concept of “species” seemed clear enough. Put simply, species don’t interbreed. Oak trees beget other oak trees with, at most, minor genetic changes over long p…

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008April 28, 2014

Rise of Retail, Thai Style

BY ERIC GERSHON ’98 THE STORY STARTS WITH BOOKS AND MAGAZINES, as it did for Tos’ father, Samrit, the eldest of the 26 children of Tiang Cheng, who emigrated in 1927 from the Chinese island of Hainan to Thailand, then k…

2008 Issue 4December 20, 2008April 28, 2014

More Than a Blip

BY TOM MATLACK ’86 BALTHAZAR RESTAURANT, A FRENCH BISTRO ON SPRING STREET IN THE SOHO SECTION OF MANHATTAN, buzzes at 11 o’clock on a Thursday morning as waiters in white aprons serve espresso, a sprinkling of tourists …