lfranklin

nimura explores women writing about the natural world

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In spring 2024, Janice Nimura will be teaching ENVS272/Knowing Their Place: Two Centuries of Women Generating Wonder in the Natural World, exploring the history of women writing about the natural world. The course runs in conjunction with Professor Nimura’s newest book project.

This year as part of the 20th Annual Robert F. Schumann Where On Earth Are We Going symposium, Janice Nimura, this year’s Menakka and Essel Bailey ‘66 Distinguished Visiting Scholar and finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Biography, delivered the opening talk entitled, “Knowing Their Place: Rachel Carson and the Women Who Came Before Her.” The talk was inspired by a book Nimura is currently researching that will dive deep into the life and thinking of Rachel Carson and explore the 19th-century women naturalists who preceded her. 

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gray skies, warm cider, huge crowd: pumpkin fest 2023!

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The leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and the smell of apple cider is wafting. You know what that means… time for Pumpkin Fest 2023! 

Long Lane Farm is an organic student-run farm that provides healthy and fresh foods to the Middletown community and Wesleyan facilities. Long Lane’s Pumpkin Fest tradition dates back to 2004, and has a legacy of being a highlight of the Wesleyan fall semester. This year’s event, held under mostly gray skies on Saturday, October 14, was no different! Sponsored by the Bailey College of the Environment, with help from the Office of Student Involvement and Bon Appetit, and organized and hosted by Long Lane Far, the day was a massive undertaking that came to fruition perfectly! Even the afternoon rain didn’t stop hundreds and hundreds of people from flooding in and enjoying the day!

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pumpkin fest returns on sat, oct 14!

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This year’s annual Pumpkin Fest will take place at Long Lane Farm on October 14th from 12 – 4 pm. There you will be able to find a plethora of fun activities, open to both the Wesleyan and  Middletown communities, as well as live music and free food. You can check out a tour of the farm or just hang with friends and sip some (free) hot apple cider. Either way we can’t wait to see you there! That feeling especially holds true for Isaac Moss ‘25, one of the student organizers of the event, who I was lucky enough to sit down and talk with about the plans for the event.

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meet bailey visiting scholar janice nimura

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Janice P. Nimura is the Menakka and Essel Bailey ‘66 Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Bailey College of the Environment for the 2023-24 academic year. She is a writer, finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in biography, and a member of this year’s COE Think Tank. Her work is based on groundbreaking 19th-century American women, and she is currently working on a project studying Rachel Carson and the women who came before and after her.  Janice will be giving a talk on this subject, entitled Knowing Their Place: Rachel Carson and the Women Who Came Before Her,  at the annual “Where on Earth Are We Going?” symposium on Saturday, October 28, here on campus. I  had the pleasure of talking with her about her upcoming discussion.

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chicken-keeping course creates community

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In Spring 2023, a chicken-keeping course for Middletown residents taught by Amy Grillo, associate professor of the practice in the Allbritton Center for Public Study and Environmental Studies, was held at the College of the Environment. The Chickens 101 project was started by Diana Martinez, assistant director of the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships, along with Lorenzo Jones, co-founder and co-executive director of the Katal Center for Equity, Health and Justice, as part of the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships’ Cultivating Justice initiative. Jones is the Jewett Center’s Re-Imagining Justice Mentor-in-Residence this year.

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