Politics+Society

An illustration shows a figure running across a field through the rain toward a warmly lit cottage.
Summer 2023
In September 2022, Monica Byrne ’03 gave most of her possessions away and put the rest in storage. “The pandemic had erased my life,” she writes, “and I had to start over.”More
A collage illustration depicts protest signs saying "Women, Life, Freedom," and showing Masha Amini. The images evoke the red, green, and black of the Iranian flag.
Summer 2023
The “woman, life, freedom” movement shares the language and struggle of other uprisings worldwide, writes anthropologist Narges Bajoghli ’04.More
A photograph of Wellesley’s lightweight four at the 1977 Philadelphia nationals. Pictured are Polly Munts Talen ’77, Kim Cooke Himmelfarb ’77, Eleanor Horrigan Spyropoulos ’80, Karen Cunningham Van Adzin ’79, and Elizabeth “Ping” Pingchang Chow ’79
Summer 2023
Lessons in Privilege A huge mazel tov from my heart to Peggy McIntosh (“ Unpacker of Privilege ,” spring 2023). In 1987, I was a new teacher at Groton School, where there was one other…More
A photograph of a yellow tassel from a graduation cap
Summer 2023
This year, sitting at the media table in the big white tent on Severance Green, I was especially nostalgic. My classmate Jocelyn Benson ’99, secretary of state of Michigan, delivered the commencement address to the class of 2023—another yellow class, serendipitously.More
Ann Velenchik, associate professor of economics and writing
Spring 2023
Ann Velenchik, associate professor of economics and writing, drew on her own experience as a working mother to teach a first-year writing class, Having It All? The Problem of Women and Work. In it, her students grappled with questions about the economic and social roles they will face as they move into the world and decide how, when, or whether to start families of their own.More
A photo portrait of Peggy McIntosh in Cheever House
Spring 2023
In January, Peggy McIntosh, a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) and its former associate director, received an exciting call from Jean Kilbourne ’64. “Welcome to the National Women’s Hall of Fame,” Kilbourne told McIntosh, notifying her that she would be inducted in September.More
A photo portrait of Nina McKee '16
Spring 2023
Perhaps Nina McKee ’16 was fated to be involved with the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs. “Madeleine Albright was always this figure in my life because I was a young redhead who liked negotiating and wanted to be a diplomat,” says McKee, who became the Albright Institute’s program director in December 2022.More
The cover of Alzheimer’s Fantasy in the Key of G by Kirsten Critz Levy ’74 shows a hazy photo of the backs of  four children who are looking into the distance.
Spring 2023
Alzheimer’s Fantasy in the Key of G by Kirsten Critz Levy ’74 is no traditional medical memoir. Levy embraces past, present, and future, mixing reality and imagination, to explore the confusing nature of her mother’s illness.More
An all-text cover of this book by Jennifer Caplan '01 reads Funny, You Don't Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials
Spring 2023
The relationship between Judaism and humor has been analyzed extensively over the years, including by none other than Sigmund Freud. In the years since then, of course, Jewish humor has evolved dramatically. Just imagine what Freud would have made of Seinfeld or Broad City .More
A photo shows Nancy Stearns '61 in her New York City apartment.
Spring 2023
After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, “I basically just didn’t sleep,” says Nancy Stearns ’61. She vividly remembers what she has called “the bad old days” before Roe, when she was on the front lines of the fight to make abortion legal.More