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…
The second academic semester kicked off on January 26 with Wellness Week, Middlesex’s annual program of events, workshops, and activities designed to introduce new and proactive ways for students to support their physical and mental health. From all-school assemblies to small group gatherings, the daily offerings varied widely, with some providing opportunities for quiet reflection, while others were more active…
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,…
Opened on September 13, 2022, the first exhibition of the new academic year – “What Our Bodies Taught Us” – is also the first formal collaboration between visiting artists Angela Drakeford and Samantha Fields. Using embroidery, crochet, personal ephemera, live plant material, and assemblage, their works examine the distinction between art and craft, at the same time questioning similar hierarchies…
Having successfully navigated all the usual trials of high school – and then a few more, thanks to a pandemic and the many adjustments it has entailed – this year’s senior class could at last enjoy a graduation ceremony free of both social distancing and dismal weather. On a hot, sunny Memorial Day, they processed across the Circle from the…
When artist Fritz Horstman last visited Middlesex in 2018, the Bass Pavilion and the Danoff Center for the Visual Arts were under construction, and his unique work exploring the concepts of time and space had to be shared through photographs. In 2022, however, he could fill the Ishibashi Gallery with more recent pieces in his exhibition Glacial Movements, which opened…
Problems that seem too daunting in complexity to many people are apparently not beyond tackling by MIT Professor Desiree Plata, the Gilbert W. Winslow Professor in Civil Engineering. Taking a positive approach to difficult challenges, she works on devising innovative solutions to engineering problems that include environmental objectives. Speaking on May 3, 2022, Dr. Plata gave the sixth Bendheim Lecture,…
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…