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…
Announcement
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…
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…
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…