TEDx Comes to Campus

Organized by Jaime Tracewell ’23 around the theme of coalescence, Wellesley’s third TEDx was held on Feb. 25, sponsored by the Office of Residential Life and Housing. Featured speakers were: alums E. B. Bartels ’10 and Sarah Wells-Moran ’22; students Anne Jiang ’23, Isabel Flessas ’24, Eleanor Dunne ’25, Lucy Goldberg ’25, and Jasmine Lunia ’26; and faculty members Kellie Carter Jackson, Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies (pictured above), and Liseli Fitzpatrick, lecturer in Africana studies. Topics included “Why Everyone Should Talk About Pet Death,” by Bartels, author of Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter; Carter-Jackson’s “Why Black Abolitionists Matter,” on the overlooked role of Black abolitionists in the Civil War era; and Wells-Moran’s analysis of Antarctic ice melt in “Glaciers and Climate Change: How Doomed Are We Really?”

50 Years of Welcome

In March, the Slater International Center celebrated its 50th anniversary as the focal point for welcoming international students and sponsoring activities on global issues on the Wellesley campus. At the event, which celebrated International Women’s Day, Xiaoning Ding, Slater’s program coordinator, met the granddaughter of Priscilla Allen Slater, class of 1916, who originally established the center. “I find it so amazing that we can still see the legacy [through her family members],” Ding said. The celebration was a time to pause and think about the next 50 years for Slater, which during the pandemic provided crucial help for Wellesley’s international students and scholars as they navigated the changing rules surrounding travel and immigration. “It is important that we talk about global factors that are impacting all of us, no matter what nation we are from, no matter what kind of a passport we carry,” said Tara Ruegamer, director of the center.