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“Barbenheimer” became an accidental double feature because of the comical dissonance between atomic blondes and atomic bombs, but the two films share a key aspect: They’re allegories about the power and pitfalls of condensing cities into small, specialized utopias. Los Alamos and Barbie Land are campuses — call them MIT and Wellesley — with self-selected populations that are capable of extraordinary achievements. But these places can become segregated, out of touch, and even destructive to the outside world. As university campuses across America come to life for the fall, Americans might have something to learn from this summer’s movies.

Can Boston spur new development and economic activity in its struggling downtown while preserving its historic character? A new plan from the Boston Planning and Development Agency aims to do just that by streamlining a mishmash of building height restrictions, highlighting areas best suited for new development, updating design and architecture guidelines, and suggesting ways to re-energize public spaces left quiet after the COVID-19 pandemic. “Unless we want our iconic buildings to be continually covered in scaffolding and boarded up because masonry is crumbling off them, then we have to take action,” said Martha McNamara, board chair of Revolutionary Spaces — the steward of both the Old South Meeting House and the Old State House — and an architectural historian at Wellesley College specializing in 18th- and 19th-century New England.

With the opposition claiming victory in the recent Zimbabwe election and contesting the president's re-election, FRANCE 24's Nadia Massih is joined by Dr. Chipo Dendere, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies & Political Science at Wellesley College.

Jennifer Chudy, a professor of political science at Wellesley College and author of the forthcoming book "With Sympathy: Rethinking American Racial Politics", notes in her op-ed that even Republicans reported strong support for Black Lives Matter after Floyd’s murder: “For a party often characterized by its racial insensitivity and antagonism toward racial minorities, this increase in support was striking. But perhaps even more striking is its rapid decline.” After Black linguistic innovations armed the country with terms and ideas that situated Floyd’s death within a wider, structural plight, Republicans swiftly entered negrophobic revulsion, becoming locked into the “wokeness” obsession they claimed to despise.

The presidential election in Zimbabwe last week that kept the governing party in power and was widely criticized as dubious is likely to isolate the country further from the United States and other Western nations. But it has also exposed Zimbabwe to increased scrutiny and pressure from a surprising place: its neighbors in southern Africa...  Chipo Dendere, a political science professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, said she saw a broader shift among regional bodies across the continent that want to promote stability. They are acknowledging that “the impact of colonialism is there, but we also have to look inward and think, ‘What are we doing as African governments to move the continent forward?’” said Ms. Dendere, who has researched Zimbabwe extensively.

In a era marked by rapid technological advancement, we are seeing everything from artificial intelligence to robots slowly seep into our everyday lives. But now, this technology is increasingly making inroads into a realm that has long been uniquely human: religion...  It’s a concept referred to as orthopraxy, according to Wellesley College anthropology lecturer Holly Walters. “In short, the robot can do your religion better than you can because robots, unlike people, are spiritually incorruptible,” she explained. “Modern robotics might then feel like a particular kind of cultural paradox, where the best kind of religion is the one that eventually involves no humans at all.”

Assistant professor of Africana studies Chipo Dendere writes for The Conversation about the Zimbabwe election: Can Nelson Chamisa win? He appeals to young voters but the odds are stacked against him.

Ifeanyi Menkiti, poet, philosopher, and longtime professor at Wellesley College, bought the Grolier Poetry Bookshop in Harvard Square in 2006, saving the storied spot from closure, and he ran it until his death in 2019. His family keeps the place running now, with its high shelves lined with poetry collections, and the ghosts of poets past hovering in the air. On Thursday, Aug. 24, the Grolier is hosting the third annual Ifeanyi Menkiti Memorial Reading, taking place on what would’ve been Menkiti’s 83rd birthday.

Wellesley police took a boat out into Lake Waban at Wellesley College to rescue a disoriented dog that ran into trouble during a swim. The dog was scooped from the water by the Wellesley Fire Department boat and returned safely to its family.