August 19, 1947 – May 29, 2024 Alice Berliner Hadler arrived at Wesleyan in 1995, where she spent the following 25 years collaborating and cultivating international, multicultural, and transnational communities on Wesleyan’s campus and beyond. As a professor of English, she inspired clear written expression of ideas, and celebrated stories and their tellers across geographies…
by Oleksandra Volakova Striving to be a multicultural community, Wesleyan, in collaboration with the Fries Center for Global Studies, offers a classes taught in a language other than English in a variety of disciplines. The topics are focused on various aspects, from environment to history and literature, and the list of courses offered changes every…
As we bid a grateful farewell to Dr. Steve Angle, the esteemed director of the Fries Center for Global Studies, we also extend a warm welcome to Dr. Masami Imai, who will be stepping into this pivotal role. This moment of transition provides an opportunity to reflect on Dr. Angle’s remarkable contributions and to look…
by Diana Zhumalieva During the 2023-2024 academic year, four Wesleyan students were nominated for the were nominated for the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, which supports college sophomores and juniors planning research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering. Before the results were in, in Spring 2024, Diana Zhumalieva ‘24, Fellowships Assistant, talked with Adin…
The Fries Center team was busy at the end of the last academic year creating and refining tools that the campus can use going forward. Decentering Europe. As a complement to our listing of units with a regional or area-studies approach, we have added a list of academic units that have taken steps to decenter the…
by Anita Deeg-Carlin, Director of Intercultural Learning Iracambí, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is a rainforest research center that is becoming steadily more familiar to our community as Wes students spend their summers interning there. Minas Gerais literally translates to “General Mines” and is an area historically known and mined for its mineral wealth.…
by Serena Plage Students in Prof. Nadja Aksamija’s seminar Eloquent Forms: Topics in Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture went on a 12-day, faculty-led study trip to Rome and Florence over spring break (March 9-21, 2024). Some of the highlights in Rome included the Capitoline Museums and the Roman Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums, the Villa Borghese, and…
This past year (2023-24), the Wesleyan community was enriched by the presence of our first-ever Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence (S-I-R), Dr. Pawan Sharma from Kurukshetra University in India. The S-I-R program aims to promote campus internationalization by bringing scholar-teachers to campus for either a semester or a whole academic year; as Fulbright explains on its website, “S-I-Rs…
by Tasmiah Akter Wesleyan faculty’s collective expertise spans the globe, and the Office for Intercultural Learningat the Fries Center for Global Studies is pleased to celebrate their international and oftenmultilingual work here in the Wes and the World newsletter. This is the last part of the four partseries where we spent time highlighting different topics…
by Tasmiah Akter The Global Engagement Minor (GEM) at Wesleyan is a unique opportunity for Wesleyan students to explore their academic interests, extracurricular activities, and language skills in learning how to navigate the world! The GEM provides immense flexibility by allowing students to select courses that provide a global perspective according to their interests, continue…
by Oleksandra Volakova Last weekend, dozens of singers, musicians, and bands from different countries performed in the Grand Final of Eurovision, an annual international song competition. It unites people of various countries who are overwhelmed and inspired by emotions and is meant to create a politics-free safe space. Each country of the European Broadcasting Union…
Registration for the Language Buddies program is open for the summer break! Coordinated through the Fries Center for Global Studies, Language Buddies is a program that matches Wesleyan students, faculty, or staff members with one another to practice their language skills over academic breaks through a series of self-paced, online conversational activities. This initiative was…
Wesleyan is one of 41 partner institutions whose graduating seniors are eligible to apply for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This fellowship, often known on our campus simply as “The Watson,” provides $40,000 in funding for fellows to engage their unique individual interests on the global scale. Fellows create their own original projects, execute them…
by Oleksandra Volakova Traveling to ten different countries in four continents in less than two hours sounds impossible, but not for those who visited Russell Library on Saturday, April 27. At the “Adventures Around the World” event, children got a chance to get acquainted with different cultures, listen to other languages, and taste various international…
The Critical Language Scholarship is an opportunity for university students from the United States to interact with new languages and cultures to promote intercultural and global engagement, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Every summer, students take part in an immersive eight-to-ten week program at intensive CLS study abroad institutes. Students have the option…
by Mike Mavredakis Student-veteran Desaree Edwards ’25 was one of 60 student leaders selected as Truman Scholars in 2024, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation announced on April 12. Truman Scholars demonstrate outstanding leadership potential, a commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence. Each Truman Scholar receives funding for graduate…
