The Singing Professor

At least three times a month, Beth DeSombre, Frost Professor of Environmental Studies, looks out into a group that is not Wellesley students taking notes on environmental policy. She spends her days in the classroom, but she’s out nights and weekends in coffeehouses and concert venues around the Northeast, guitar in hand. This fall, the well-known folk singer-songwriter released a new album, I Was Here. It is her third, a compilation of favorite songs she has written over the last five years. Her songs have been described as “quietly political.” “My background as a political scientist,” DeSombre says, “means that even when telling a story, as many of my songs do, it’s a story in which people are living in a world affected by politics.”

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

It can take some doing to get Wellesley students to slow down and breathe. So Religious and Spiritual Life, the Stone Center, and Physical Education and Recreation are joining forces to bring students 30 minutes of calm every day at 12:30 p.m. There’s yoga, contemplative coloring, mindfulness meditation, and moving meditation available on different days at the Lulu. And in a sign of the times, Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life Tiffany Steinwert is leading “A Place for Peace” each Wednesday in the Multifaith Center. The student body has felt the impact of the many tragedies around the world, she says, often asking to hold vigils in response. “A Place for Peace” will allow students to give voice to “what is weighing on their hearts” and may include prayers or scripture, but will be as religious or not religious as students wish. “It is a chance to cultivate community and get to know each other,” Steinwert says.

Award-Winning President

In September, Boston’s Museum of Science presented its prestigious Walker Prize to President Paula A. Johnson. Established in 1864, the prize honors “meritorious published scientific investigation and discovery” in any scientific field. Later in the fall, Johnson received the Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award from the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine. This award is given to a woman who has “furthered the practice and understanding of medicine” and who has also made significant contributions outside the field.