May 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — What advice do you hear to help you avoid making mistakes? Slow down. Take it easy. Double-check your work.

How about — Go for a jog?

An Illinois Wesleyan University faculty member has been gaining attention for his studies connecting higher levels of fitness to improvements in correcting mistakes.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Jason Themanson has been studying the idea that fitness levels can affect the area of the brain that detects mistakes.

His study, which was originally published last year in Neuroscience, caught the attention of Men’s Health magazine. In a June 2009 Men’s Health article titled “Win the Mind Games,” Themanson is quoted as saying study subjects with higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness could better identify and correct more mistakes than those in the study who were less fit. “Fitter people can absorb more oxygen into their blood,” said Themanson, noting fitness was related to the improved function of the part of the brain that detects errors, known as the anterior cingulate cortex. “When you make a mistake, the cingulate cortex sends a signal, letting you know,” he said.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – When Mark Yakich entered Illinois Wesleyan in 1988, he never imagined becoming an award-winning poet with four published books and another on the way. The political science major, who later earned multiple graduate degrees and is currently an associate professor of English at Loyola University, New Orleans, did not enjoy English studies and notes that he only read two novels — Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye — before age 25.

Yakich is a multi-focused artist who, according to Susan Larson of The Times-Picayune, “makes the reader re-evaluate what a word can do, what a word can mean, even what history as we know it is all about.” Here, Yakich explains via e-mail Illinois Wesleyan’s integral role in his winding path to poetry and how he became an actor, of sorts.

When you were selecting your undergraduate university, what drew you to Illinois Wesleyan?

My mother drew me to IWU. Mom didn’t want me to go far away from home, so it was either the University of Illinois or Illinois Wesleyan. I believe she liked the brochure we got in the mail. We took a visit to IWU, a day trip, and I thought it was nice and not too big. I liked the idea of a small, liberal arts university and I didn’t want to be a number [like I could have been] at the University of Illinois even though I had a small plan to go there to major in architecture. I still love architecture and have kept many of the drawings I did of cotter pins, flywheels and one of a fireplace inlaid with black marble and bordered by stained glass in a tool chest in my closet for many years.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A newly formed organization devoted to the works of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Updike will be headed by Illinois Wesleyan University English Department Chair James Plath.

At the American Literature Association’s annual conference in Boston May 24, Updike scholars formed The John Updike Society. The group, which includes 40 scholars from five countries, plans to publish a journal of Updike studies and to host conferences in places where the author worked and lived, like Pennsylvania and Boston. Illinois Wesleyan will host the society’s Web site.

“What John Updike has done for American literature is astounding,” Plath said. “His work connects us with our American literary past, and he is forever a part of that now.” Plath has studied Updike for more than 20 years. His interest in the novelist was first piqued during an English class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Plath began a correspondence with the author, and eventually wrote his dissertation on “The Painterly Aspects of John Updike’s Fiction.” He also worked closely with the novelist while editing the book Conversations with John Updike in 1994.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Inspiring students to discover self-confidence is one of the keystones of a liberal arts education. Illinois Wesleyan University is meeting that need in students with groups such as the Council for IWU Women, which was created to instill confidence in female students with the help of a plentiful resource – successful alumnae.

Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, a 1978 Illinois Wesleyan graduate and founding member of the council, recalled her own experiences at Illinois Wesleyan as a female in the male-dominated major of biology in the 1970s. “A sense of self was a gift I received from Illinois Wesleyan,” she said, noting former Professor of Biology Dorthea Franzen as one of her strongest mentors. “I was embedded with a great sense of courage and a magnificent mentorship from Dorthea. She opened doors for me she didn’t even know she opened.”

At Illinois Wesleyan, a task force was created to explore whether female students’ attitudes reflected the national studies. The task force reported its findings to the Alumni Council Executive Board in 2005. “The Board heard data which implied Illinois Wesleyan women come to the University with talent and unending potential, but have less confidence than their male counterparts,” said Guenzler-Stevens.

“It’s a balancing act for women in leadership,” said Pat Wilson, another founding member of the Council for IWU Women and the wife of University President Richard F. Wilson. “If women have a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude and exhibit traits typically thought of as tough, it can be received as abrasive. It can be confusing to women, which is why it is so important for women to have other female role models.”

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Upon hearing the phrase “anthropological study,” images of professors traveling to remote villages or isolated mountain regions might come to mind. Yet there is an anthropological study being conducted here at Illinois Wesleyan University – a study looking at the ways students study.

“We’re trying to get a very detailed and close-up understanding of how students approach information gathering with an eye toward how the library can better facilitate those processes,” said Andrew Asher, the resident anthropologist hired to conduct the ethnographic study for The Ames Library titled “Anthropologist in the Library: Helping Librarians Support Student Success.”

Asher, who comes to Illinois Wesleyan from the University of Illinois, was hired last October through a two-year grant, which comes from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) under the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office. The grant is shared by five Illinois universities. This month, the library received word the state is continuing the second year of funding at $160,000 for the five institutions.

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