A year after a new lecture was established to honor Middlesex’s first Black faculty member, the Kenneth E. Whitlock, Jr. Black History Month Speaker Series brought its second guest, educator and author Ric Sheffield, to campus on February 28, 2023. A professor emeritus of sociology and legal studies at Kenyon College, Professor Sheffield reviewed the current traditions that have become…
Gathered on January 16 for the School’s annual commemoration of the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Middlesex community considered some of the inequities that persist today, decades after his death, particularly within the criminal justice system. Illustrating these disparities through telling his personal account of wrongful conviction was guest speaker Kevin Richardson, whose…
Sharing concern about the increasing incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times columnist Bret Stephens ’91 addressed the Middlesex community on November 29, initially reviewing several of the blatant, often violent acts that have occurred in recent years. Among them were the murder of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018…
To hear a noted, contemporary writer read aloud and discuss his own work is a rare opportunity – one that the Middlesex community was treated to on October 4, when English Professor Tomás Morín addressed the School. As a featured speaker during the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Professor Morín shared four of his poems and the inspiration behind them,…
To continue the effort to discern and address the ways in which Middlesex could be a more welcoming, inclusive place for all students and adults, this year’s Community Life Symposium focused on the topic of gender identity, giving special consideration to how assumptions about gender are often built into everyday language, practices, and policies. Invited to guide the morning program…
Growing up in New York City as the child of creative and supportive parents, artist Tak Toyoshima aspired to draw Marvel characters, like the Hulk or Spiderman, or to imitate the style of the Japanese cartoons his father brought with him from Tokyo. In adulthood, he found his own style and success with his comic strip Secret Asian Man, created…
As she addressed the school community on April 2, 2022, Pua-Noa Higginson ’09 found it a bit strange to be back at Middlesex, giving a formal speech in front of teachers who “once taught me and helped me navigate what was ultimately a transformational high school experience.” Now a graduate student pursuing a career in biotechnology, she admitted that the…
As Gabby Dixon ’22 noted while introducing Dr. Keisha Blain on February 11, it was fitting that the inaugural lecturer for the Kenneth E. Whitlock, Jr. Black History Month Speaker Series should be an educator and American historian. Since 1986, when he became Middlesex’s first Black faculty member, Ken Whitlock has readily shared his passion for history with his students;…
In remembering and honoring the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 17, the Middlesex community welcomed to campus Professor Anthony Jack, holder of the Shutzer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A sociologist and the author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges…
In recognizing inspirational individuals during Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, Middlesex welcomed State Street’s Yvonne Garcia to campus on October 5, 2021. Currently the chief of staff to State Street’s CEO, Ms. Garcia recently served as senior vice president and global head of client solutions there and previously held executive posts at Liberty Mutual and Bank of America. An active…