Fall 2024 Lecture Series

Lectures are held at 4:30pm in the Butterfield Room of the Wasch Center unless otherwise listed.

(Postponed) - Oleksandra Volakova, “Resilience and Hope: How the Ukrainians are Surviving and Supporting the War.”

With the support of a summer research grant, Sasha Volakova spent the summer visiting several towns and cities in Ukraine and conducting interviews with residents about how they are experiencing their country’s war with Russia. In her talk, Sasha will use transcripts and photos from three of these interviews, conducted in three different cities, to portray how three individuals are adapting to wartime conditions and doing what they can to keep hope alive.

October 16 - Amin Abdul-Malik Gonzalez, “Race in College Admission in a Post-SCOTUS World”

Abdul-Malik Gonzalez, VP and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid on “Race in College Admission in a Post-SCOTUS World.” Amin will offer reflections on the ruling in favor of Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard University and the UNC Chapel Hill, considering the impact of the decision on U.S. higher education in general, and on Wesleyan in particular. 

Amin, who graduated from Wesleyan in 1996, majored in history and was selected as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. His career before he returned to Wesleyan as VP and Dean included working as a Dean of Admission at Wesleyan for several years and holding leadership positions in admission at Choate Rosemary Hall and Yale. Among his important initiatives in recent years at Wesleyan are the discontinuation of “legacy” admission, the creation of a program that brings students from Africa (similar to the Freeman Asian Scholars program), and the elimination of loans from Wesleyan’s financial-aid packages.

November 13 - Roberto Saba, "American Mirror: The US and Brazil in the Age of Emancipation"

December 4 - John Bonin, “The Economics of the Business of Craft Beer”