Every academic year, the Fries Center for Global Studies collaborates with the Office of Graduate Student Services, the College of East Asian Studies, and the Department of Romance Languages to welcome a cohort of international language teaching assistants. These Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, or FLTAs, come to Wesleyan as non-degree seeking graduate students to foster…
Global South Asian Studies: A New Major
South Asia encompasses a large region of the world and includes more than a quarter of the world’s population. Wesleyan’s new major, Global South Asian Studies, explores the cultures of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives, and the Tibetan cultural world in a worldwide context. GSAS offers insights into these cultures through…
Add/Drop’s Saviors: Six Fall 2023 Courses with Seats Available
This fall, six courses with seats available are being offered in collaboration with the Center for Global Studies. These courses are part of the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) Initiative, which employ the use of languages other than English to explore and discuss topics in their original context. Two classes are half-credit “lab”…
Gringa Goes Abroad📍Santiago, Chile
Nicki Klar Seated awkwardly in the middle of thesidewalk on Erasmus, the notorious all-day party spot lining the block just outside my university, I made a comment to some friends I’d made minutes prior.“Que bacán” I said, which meant “How cool” inChilean speak. I continued to comment on how I could feel the metro just…
A Green Political Economy Conference
Professor Basak Kus organized a conference in cooperation with scholars from Freie University in Berlin on the topic of green political economy. Throughout the three-day conference, panelists from various universities worldwide engaged in discussions on theories of degrowth and post-growth, green new deals, the politics of decarbonization, and the involvement of governments, labor, and business…
Thank You and Sendoff for Dr. Henry Meriki, Scholar At Risk, Visiting Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
This past Tuesday evening, a slightly unlikely congregation of Wesleyan community members gathered at Archaeology professor Kate Brunson’s home. Dr. Henry Meriki, Wesleyan’s current Scholar At Risk, will be leaving us after two years of teaching Public Health courses in our Molecular Biology and Biochemistry department, and Kate and her partner, Ezra, generously hosted the…
Wesleyan’s Newest Fulbright Cohort Shares Application Tips and Plans for Year Abroad
Three of Wesleyan’s recently selected Fulbrighters from the Class of 2023, Anna Tjelveit, Ben Levin, and Nick Bowman, gathered in Fisk Fall on May 3 to share their experiences with other students planning a Fulbright application. They talked about their experiences with the application process and their expectations and goals before departing the US this…
Fulbright Spotlight: Lexie Prendergast, ‘20, English Teaching Assistant in Belgium
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State designed to expand the perspectives of recent graduates, graduate students, and young professionals. Fulbright recipients conduct research, teach English, or pursue graduate studies in 140 partner countries each year. Lexie Prendergast, a Wesleyan graduate in the class of 2020, generously shared…
Hindi-Urdu FLTA Priyanka Chakraborty Rediscovers Indian Classical Dance at Wes
Priyanka Chakraborty, our Fulbright Foreign language Teaching Assistant for Hindi-Urdu 2022-2023 participated in the Spring Semester Concert of ‘World of Dance’. She performed Swarajathi, an 18th century piece and a popular form of Carnatic music. This 21st century rendition was choreographed by Professor Hari Krishnan of the Wesleyan Dance Department and performed with live music by students of the Music department. Coming…
Interstride Podcast Interviews Wesleyan Faculty Dr. Sharon Castonguay on Supporting International Students
It’s no secret that our international students face a unique set of challenges when it comes to beginning their career preparation strategies. Fortunately, Wesleyan has resources in place that are geared towards supporting students as they navigate these, at times, complex hurdles. It turns out learning more about these resources can benefit all of us! …
Migrant/Queer Youth Space in Shanghai Questions What Education Actually Means Outside of Institutional Structures
“We all know what kind of education we don’t want, but what kind of education do we want?” Yuqing, the initiator of Temporary Park and a queer Chinese sculptor, opened with this question I was too afraid to ask. Yuqing, along with their fellow artist Yufan, visited Wesleyan on Sunday, April 30th, to hold a…
Wesleyan Students Attend Yale Hindi Debate
The Yale Hindi debate is a prestigious event in the realm of Hindi language scholarship anddiscourse; and for every Hindi learner, speaker and language enthusiasts in USA. Establishedin 2008, the Yale Hindi Debate has been a platform for Hindi speakers—natives, heritage,and non-native students—to wrestle with timely and profound issues of importance. TheDebate has a 15-year…
2023 Davis Project for Peace to Improve Technology Access in Rwanda
For Eugene Gato Nsengamungu ’23, his homeland of Rwanda is everything. Guided by the example of his late father, a soldier who fiercely loved his country, it’s only natural that when Nsengamungu thinks of a problem to be solved, he thinks of how he can do so back home. “This is a spirit I got…
Senior Thesis: Chen ’23 Studies HIV/AIDS and STD Stigma in Jamaica
By amplifying the personal experience of women in Jamaica who are living with HIV/AIDS, Nilukshi Chen ’23 hopes to explore the rampant fear and stigma surround the disease in the island nation. Chen interviewed four women for her senior thesis on the stigma surrounding HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Jamaica. Her thesis, titled…
Logoh ’23 to Start Up Aquaponics Farm in Togo
Keleki Logoh ’23 lived in Togo, located in West Africa, until she was seven years old. In 2021, she went back home for the first time since she was a little girl. “I was shocked by the state of the country,” Logoh said. Food scarcity was an issue since over 60 percent of the citizens…
Watson Fellow Jocelyn Velasquez Baez to Explore Ethical Understandings of Traditional Medicine in 6 Countries
Thomas J. Watson Fellow Jocelyn Velasquez Baez ’23 will travel to at least six countries in a year’s time to explore how the integration, adaptation, and practice of traditional medicine is perceived in diverse Indigenous and ethnic communities around the world. The Watson Fellowship, sponsored by the Watson Foundation, allows recent graduates from 41 partner institutions…