On Thursday, April 4th, Wesleyan alum and acclaimed film director Alek Lev ’97 joined the Center for the Arts’s Film Series screening of “WHAT?”, a movie about a Deaf actor who is trying to thrive in his Hollywood career as he takes the proper representation of a Deaf character in a film into his own hands. The film uses…
Journey into Exile – Capturing Life Through the Lens of a Refugee
by Oleksandra Volakova As of September 2023, more than 114 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide, which is rapidly increasing. You and your friends have probably always lived in one place, leaving it mostly for traveling. Because of this, it is complicated to understand the daily hardships and problems refugee people face. Unless you will…
Celebrating and Embracing Diversity: Redefining Spanish Identity in the 21st Century
by Nataly Huyhua Earlier this week, on Monday, April 15th, a thought-provoking lecture titled “Spain is Not OnlyWhite: National Identity in the 21st Century” provided an exploration of Spain’s evolvingidentity in the modern era. Dr. Jeffrey Coleman’s lecture discussed Spain’s demographic shifts, particularly the profound impact ofmass migration since the 1990s. While Spain has long…
Watson Fellowship: Info session and Virtual Visit from Jocelyn Velasquez Baez ’23, Watson Fellow
At this event, we will introduce the Watson Fellowship and hear directly from Jocelyn Velasquez Baez ’23, who will be Zooming in from her world travels as a Watson Fellow. Her project, “Ethical Understandings of Traditional Medicine,” focuses on how traditional medicine is perceived within indigenous and ethnic communities. Engaging with traditional medicine practitioners, knowledge keepers, and community…
How Is It Being a Freshman at Wes? International Student Perspectives
by Oleksandra Volakova Summer break is around the corner, finally bringing warm weather and plenty of pastime. For international students, it is also the time to finally meet with faraway family and friends and observe how their hometown changed over the year of their absence. Over a year, students were getting used to a new…
Finding Community in Kenya
by Luke Chávez Sun has given way to gray clouds as I peer over the roof of a Land Cruiser. What seems like endless herds of zebra and cape buffalo graze right in front of me, framed by the epic plains and acacia trees of Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya. The other students in…
Watson Fellow Livia Cox ’22 Studies Pain
by Miki Lynch What is pain? Why do we experience pain? Is pain perceived the same way across different cultures? To answer these questions one might ask Livia Cox ‘22, a Thomas J. Watson awardee who spent her fellowship year studying the connection between cultural, political, and social definitions of pain. The Watson fellowship is…
Learn and Advocate: The Journey Into Exile Simulation Experience
Are you interested in antiracism? Climate change? Culture? Politics? International Affairs? Health? Communications? Languages? Science? Education? Forced migration is a highly interdisciplinary, international, complex, and rapidly intensifying problem all over the world. All of us here at Wesleyan have the power to be informed and make an impact! Join us for a Journey Into Exile session to…
Celebrating Faculty Research on International Topics 2023-24 Part II: Economics & Environment
by Tasmiah Akter Wesleyan faculty’s collective expertise spans the globe, and the Office for Intercultural Learning at the Fries Center for Global Studies is pleased to celebrate their international and often multilingual work here in the Wes and the World newsletter. This is the second of a four part series to be highlighted in the…
Power of Language Week: A Week Around the World
by Oleksandra Volakova Power of Language Week is an annual event aimed to bring together multilingual students worldwide and help them share their cultural experiences with peers, staff, and faculty. This year, the second annual weeklong initiative took place from February 16 to February 23, successfully hosting 28 unique events, organized and led Wesleyan students…
Congratulations to our 2024 Critical Language Scholarship Finalists and Alternates!
The Fries Center for Global Studies is proud to announce that six Wesleyan students have been selected as Finalists, with one more student being selected as an alternate, for the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for the summer of 2024. This year’s cohort is made up by Eli Siegel-Bernstein ’25 and Mohammad Hasib ’24, who were…
Full-Scale War Anniversary: Why Continuing to Help Ukraine Matters
by Oleksandra Volakova On February 24, 2022, Ukraine shuddered with the bombing, shootings, crying, and screaming. A real war, usually practiced in history books and movies, was witnessed by civilians the hard way, with their habitat destroyed along with the dreams and hopes they held for the future. For the past two years, Ukraine has…
Celebrating Faculty Research on International Topics 2023-24 Part I: World Literature
by Tasmiah Akter Wesleyan faculty’s collective expertise spans the globe, and the Office for Intercultural Learning at the Fries Center for Global Studies is pleased to celebrate their international and often multilingual work here in the Wes and the World newsletter. This is the first of a four part series to be highlighted in the…
Wesleyan Celebrates Black Art and Artists at Jubilee
By Rose Chen ’26 A long running campus tradition during Black History Month, students, faculty, and other community members came out for Jubilee, Wesleyan University’s celebration of Black art and talent. “I knew that Jubilee was an event I wanted to plan because the legacy of Black expression through music is really important to me,”…
Annual Fulbright Webinar, March 7, 2024 at 2pm (Zoom)
Register ahead to attend our annual webinar with Fulbright US Student Program alumni and national program staff. It’s a great way to learn about Study/Research Grants and English Teaching Assistantships through the Fulbright US Student Program. Juniors and seniors who are US citizens or nationals are eligible to apply this year, and sophomores are welcome to join the Zoom to…
Wesleyan Named Fulbright Program Top Producing Institution for Fifth Year in a Row
The U.S. Department of State has released its list of Fulbright Program Top Producing Institutions for the 2023-2024 academic year and Wesleyan University has earned a spot for the fifth consecutive year. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international academic exchange program. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists,…