In the same year that Wellesley celebrates its 150th anniversary and the Tanner Conference celebrates its 25th, the Ruhlman Conference hits its own milestone of 30 years. Named after co-founder and donor Barbara Peterson Ruhlman ’54, the conference encourages collaboration among students and faculty dedicated to research, theses, and other academic projects.
Ruhlman worked with Lee Cuba, now professor emeritus of sociology, to create and shape the conference. “Barbara was really interested in doing something different,” Cuba says. “At the time, interdisciplinary studies were just starting to be more popular at Wellesley and other places. And one of the things we [discussed] was a student conference at the end of the year, where students from all across the different disciplines of the College would come together and talk about what they’ve been doing.”
The Ruhlman Conference, held on April 15 this year, is one of the biggest events of the academic year for Wellesley students, but that wasn’t always the case. “We started the first year by doing a half-day conference, and classes were held that day,” Cuba says. “So, it kind of conflicted with students who had afternoon classes.” But once the conference became popular, the College started canceling classes on the day of Ruhlman.
Now an entire day is dedicated to Ruhlman, and the Wellesley community turns out for it with approximately 1700 attendees at this year’s event.
“It’s the students really shining, and I think that’s important,” says Beth Robichaud, assistant director of academic conferences. “All of these activities, whether it’s research or an internship, are getting out in the world and taking risks, dreaming, and just trying on different hats, to see what fits and having the freedom to do that and flexibility to do that.”
The day of the conference is as important to faculty as it is to students. Cuba, who taught at Wellesley for 41 years, returned to the conference this year along with many of his former colleagues. “We invited retired faculty to come back to Ruhlman, to have lunch together, but also to go and see students present in their fields,” Cuba says. “So it’s a wonderful way in which those of us who are no longer teaching at Wellesley can stay connected, both to ourselves and to what students are doing.”
For students who present at the conference, Ruhlman is the culmination of hours of hard work and dedication. Shadia Suha ’27, a cognitive and linguistics sciences major, presented on an ongoing research project in the EvLab at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “I’ve never been to a conference like this before at Wellesley,” Suha says. “[I was] excited to hear about everyone else’s work and have the opportunity to present mine.”
Ruhlman isn’t just about highlighting STEM or scientific research; the projects at Ruhlman showcase the diverse education offered at Wellesley. Stella Chiari ’26, a French cultural studies and philosophy double major, presented her senior thesis on the meaning and value friendships bring into our lives.
Chiari’s thesis is a prime example of the classroom sparking students’ passions. “I took a seminar called the Philosophy of Friendship, and I was like, wow, this is really interesting,” Chiari says. She created an independent study on the topic, which was the subject of her Ruhlman presentation. “One of the great things about philosophy and my thesis topic in particular is that I think it’s very accessible to an audience without a philosophical background.”
Chiari, Suha, Jade Kuan ’26 and Chinaza Aham-Neze ’26 participated in the Jacqueline Loewe Fowler ’47 Public Speaking Contest. They were preselected for the final round of the competition on the day of the conference. Kaun won the event.
“Public speaking has been a defining part of my Wellesley experience,” says Chiari, who is president of the mock trial team.“It’s been really great to translate those skills from sort of speaking in a courtroom, with a fake scenario, and putting that into presentation skills for Ruhlman. I’m excited to make that connection, and build on the skills or put them in a new context.”
Suha says Ruhlman helps spotlight every student’s work. “It’s a real opportunity to have more of a close-knit community and have people come up to you and ask about your work,” Suha says. “I think it is really important at a small liberal arts college to have opportunities like that, because it’s easy to feel washed out in those much larger conferences, but at a small conference like this, people have the opportunity to really digest where it is that you’re working on and make one-on-one connections.”
Claire Ren ’28, an economics major, presented for the first time at this year’s conference and thought it went well. “I didn’t have as much time to practice as I’d like to, but I think the audience was really receptive, and I saw a lot of my friends here, so it helped me feel better about today.” She says it’s important for students to share the work they’ve spent a lot of time on: “When you get to talk about it, you’re not only framing your work in a way that the audience can learn from, you’re also receiving feedback and [learning about] gaps you might have had in your research.”
The 30th Ruhlman Conference marked the end of Beth Robichaud’s tenure as the assistant director of academic conferences. She is set to retire after organizing the Tanner Conference for 18 years, the Albright Institute for 17, and Ruhlman for 11, events she says are pillars of the Wellesley experience.
“It’s just fantastic that Wellesley supports these internships and this research, and that the faculty are so enthusiastic about working with the students,” Robichaud says.