For Starters

1. A Path to Inclusion

“What stories are missing from Bryn Mawr College?” This is the question that lies at the heart of the Art Remediating Campus Histories (ARCH) Project, a multiyear collaboration with students, staff, faculty, and alumnae/i to commission a lasting campus monument that responds to the legacy of exclusionary practices at the College.

Informed by a year of on-campus research led by Monument Lab, this commission builds on ongoing grassroots and College-supported efforts to reveal and repair harm from Bryn Mawr College’s history with the hope of providing a path to a future of inclusion and reconciliation.

Five finalists have been selected to share their final proposals with the campus community in a public presentation in late March. Informed by community feedback, the Artist Advisory Committee will make recommendations to Bryn Mawr College’s president and Board of Trustees, with a final decision expected by late April.

The finalists are: mixed-media artist Nekisha Durrett, conceptual artist Amanda D. King ’11, sculptor and installation artist Risa Puno, public art creator Jean Shin, and the multidisciplinary artistic team of Michelle Lopez and Sharon Hayes.

 

2. Welcome to the New Dean

In July, Karlene Burrell-McRae will join Bryn Mawr as the next dean of the undergraduate college.

As President Kim Cassidy noted in a message to the community announcing the appointment last fall, Burrell-Mcrae, who currently serves as dean at Colby College, brings deep expertise in “the creation of a fully integrated student experience that puts student well-being at the center and ensures equity.” Cassidy also noted her commitment to transformative justice practices for managing organizational change and conflict resolution.

In previous leadership roles, Burrell-McRae has headed up the Center for Identity + Inclusion at the University of Chicago, the Black Cultural Center at Swarthmore College, and Makuu, the University of Pennsylvania’s Black cultural center.

On a personal note, Cassidy shared, “Karlene is a great communicator, listening to others with real respect and care. She is enthusiastic, warm, kind, and has a spirit of joy and fun that is contagious. She brings great energy, excitement, and commitment to this position.”

 

3. The Tao of K-Drama

Dr. Mindy Fullilove ’71, professor of urban policy and health at the New School and a board-certified psychiatrist, will hold the Mary Flexner Lectureship at Bryn Mawr in fall 2023. She is the first alumna of the College to hold the lectureship.

Fullilove’s Flexner Lectures will lead to completion of a book tentatively titled The Tao of K-Drama: Perspectives on Moving from Displacement to Empowered Collaboration.

Fullilove’s research on the psychology of place and the collective trauma of displacement and healing dates from the mid-1990s, when she began studying the desertification of poor and minority neighborhoods across the U.S. and the alienation and disorientation that followed the disruption of the bonds of place.

Her Flexner Lectures emerge from her encounter with K-drama at the beginning of the pandemic, which she argues sheds distinctive light on the trauma of displacement and modes of healing.

While careful to acknowledge that she approaches this project as a social psychiatrist and not as a Korean culture or media studies scholar, Fullilove has been working with a project team of interdisciplinary scholars. She has also engaged in intensive study of the Korean language and will spend the coming semester in South Korea.

 

4. Talons Out!

The Bryn Mawr field hockey program proved a force to be reckoned with in the fall 2022 season. Filled with Player of the Week nominations, regional rankings, and program records, the momentous season ended with Bryn Mawr reaching the finals of the Centennial Conference championship for the first time in program history.

As a team, the 2022 crew earned the strongest season in program’s history with an overall record of 15-5 (7-3 in the conference). Their record earned Bryn Mawr the third spot in the 2022 conference field hockey standings, below nationally ranked Johns Hopkins and Franklin & Marshall. The team’s strength and overall depth resulted in three wins against nationally ranked teams.

 

5. Meet the New Dean of Undergrad Admissions

Nichole Reynolds joined Bryn Mawr last semester as the College’s new dean of undergraduate admissions. Prior to coming to Bryn Mawr, Reynolds spent a decade at her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, in marketing and
admissions roles.

What are you most excited about as you start here at Bryn Mawr?

I am ecstatic that the next step in my career is unfolding at a Sister College; I believe so very deeply in the shared mission of our institutions. And I’m excited to collaborate with my team of talented admissions colleagues to tackle the many enrollment challenges of the modern era.

Any advice for high school students as they apply to colleges?

Think fit, not reputation. You don’t just want to be happy with the branding on the college sweatshirt; you want to be happy with your four-year experience! Choose the campus that will see you for who you are while challenging you to become a better version of yourself.