Olivia Adams, Student Fellow

“I'm excited for the conversations and discussions that will develop throughout the year and how we will all become stronger artists by learning from one another...I hope I will learn discipline in my craft and ways to draw inspiration during bleak times.”

Olivia Adams ’23 is a Film Studies and African American Studies major from Baltimore, Maryland. She looks at film as a way to express the emotional, theoretical, and practical applications of blackness in modern society. As part of the Writing Certificate, she has written essays that explore blackness through the lens of slavery, Afro-pessimism, Black optimism, and the contemporary moment. For her senior thesis, she is developing a fantasy drama television show about the origin story of Mother Nature. She hopes to work on the television show with other Fellows in the Embodying Antiracism Think Tank, and to create a network of creatives.

At Wesleyan, Adams helped to create the New England Small College Athletic Conference Coalition of Student-Athletes of Color, a space to connect, share information, and be in community with other student-athletes of color throughout the conference, while she was on the Softball team. She is a Head Resident for the 2022-2023 school year, working directly with Area Coordinators to maintain safe living learning communities for residents and their advisors. She is also on the leadership team for Wesleyan Christian Fellowship, and supports WOCOHO (the Womxn of Color House), a place where students can come together to share cultures and experiences, to learn about others, and to gain support; and initiatives from the Center for African American Studies.

Image by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.