News

Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams brings Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s New York Times bestseller to the screen with Stamped From the Beginning. Published in 2016, Dr. Kendi’s National Book Award winner chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Africana studies professor Kellie Carter Jackson joins other leading female academics and activists such as Dr. Angela Davis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and Brittany Packnett Cunningham to guide viewers through a searing account of how racist tropes and imagery were developed and enshrined in American culture.

An accomplished cardiologist and the first Black woman president of Wellesley College, Dr. Paula Johnson’s life’s work is improving quality of care for women and women of color around the world.

Helena de Bres, professor of philosphy, was a guest on New York Public Radios' "All of It" podcast to discuss her new book: How to be Multiple: The Philosophy of Twins. 

Africana studies professor Selwyn Cudjoe wrote a review of Rebels at the Gate, a monograph on one of Trinidad and Tobagos' most powerful trade unions, The Oilfields Workers' Trade Union.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of Antonia Marie De Meo (Wellesley '89) of the United States as Deputy Commissioner-General (Operational Support) of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Currently Director of the United Nations Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Ms. De Meo brings to the position nearly twenty-five years of experience in executive leadership, strategic planning, representation, resource mobilization and all aspects of operational oversight in humanitarian, conflict, recovery and development contexts.

"Daddy Yankee es y seguirá siendo un ícono de la música y la cultura latina, un artista que ha dejado una marca en la historia de la música y que continuará inspirando a las generaciones futuras." (Petra Rivera-Rideau, professor of American studies, was featured in Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia in an article that covers the importance of reggaetón artist Daddy Yankee's career over the past 20 years. It is in honor of his retirement concerts he will play in the next few weeks there. In the print edition, it was part of an entire insert about him and his legacy.)

Michael and Denise Kellen '68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Kellie Carter Jackson, is interviewed in a segment on PBS NewsHour about Vice President Kamala Harris's historic tenure. Story begins at 40:15; Professor Carter Jackson's interview begins at 41:35.

A new book by Amy Yee (Wellesley '96) follows individuals who have fled Tibet, which has been controlled by China since 1951.

Being the president of anything takes vision, ambition, and leadership. Being the president of a leading academic institution takes courage (and a whole lot of smarts). Leading Wellesley College for almost 20 years while it ushered in the new millennium took President Emerita Dr. Diana Chapman Walsh.