Academics

A photo portrait of Deana-Rae Weatherly ’22
Summer 2022
At this year’s Ruhlman Conference, the first held in person since 2019, Deana-Rae Weatherly ’22 gave a presentation titled “Icon of a Nation: Black Womanhood in Jamaican Visual Culture,” based on her art history thesis.More
A photo portrait of Joy St. John
Summer 2022
Joy St. John, dean of admission and financial aid, is moving on. When announcing St. John’s decision to leave Wellesley this spring to serve as director of admission at Harvard College, President Paula Johnson said, “Under her leadership, Wellesley has recruited its most diverse classes, which has deeply enhanced the student experience.”More
Secretary Albright's pin depicts a globe with the continents in silver and gold on a blue background.
Summer 2022
When Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59 created the Albright Institute at Wellesley, she hoped the fellows would support each other in the fight to establish women as leaders in the world. “The secretary really emphasized that you always leave the door behind you open for others to follow,” says Albright fellow Amal Cheema ’17.More
A photo portrait of Rodney Morrison, professor of economics
Spring 2022
Rodney J. Morrison, emeritus professor of economics at Wellesley College, passed away on Dec. 16, 2021, in Chicago at the age of 87. Throughout his career, Rod was a productive and internationally recognized scholar. He was a NATO Fellow in economics and published many articles in respected journals and several influential books, including Portugal: Revolutionary Change in an Open Economy (1981), a work that synthesized economics, international relations, and history.More
Black-and-white photo portraits of professors Lilian Armstrong and Peter Fergusson
Spring 2022
With sadness, the Art Department announces the deaths of our beloved colleagues Lilian Armstrong ’58, Mildred Lane Kemper Professor of Art emerita, and Peter J. Fergusson, Theodora L. and Stanley H. Feldberg Professor of Art emeritus. For more than 40 years, their gift for making others feel welcome made them the collegial center of the Art Department. But for generations of Wellesley students, they will be especially remembered as dedicated and inspiring teachers.More
A headshot photo of Sheron Fraser-Burgess '87.
Spring 2022
As a professor in the philosophy of education, Sheron Fraser-Burgess ’87 has spent the past 17 years as a “teacher of teachers,” training teachers, administrators, and doctoral candidates about the philosophical foundations of education.More
Sarah Frances Whiting examines the bones in her hand using a fluoroscope in Wellesley’s physics laboratory in 1896. A Crookes tube is on the table in front of her.
Spring 2022
One night in 2019, packing up to move out of Sage Hall before its demolition, John Cameron, now professor emeritus of biological sciences, found a box labeled as containing film, But it held something unique. And historic—15 cyanotype prints from some of the first X-ray experiments done in the U.S.More
Students make themselves at home in the Chao Foundation Innovation Hub.
Spring 2022
In January, Wellesley welcomed students, faculty, and staff into the transformed Science Complex, which encompasses more than 275,000 square feet of sustainably designed space and combines renovations to the College’s historic structures with new spaces for research, collaboration, and teaching. The students quickly made the space their own.More
A photo portrait of D. Scott Birney, professor of astronomy
Winter 2022
D. Scott Birney died on Aug. 15, 2021, at age 95. Scott joined the astronomy department in 1968, and throughout his 23 years at the College, his good cheer, wry wit, and self-effacing demeanor made the Whitin Observatory a congenial and supportive home to both students and faculty.More
A photo portrait of Miriam Butt ’87
Winter 2022
Miriam Butt ’87, a professor of general and computational linguistics at the University of Konstanz in Germany, chose to attend Wellesley in part because it was one of the only American colleges at the time where she could study both Latin and computer science.More