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“She was known as a very charming, witty, mischievous woman,” says Lisa Graham, music professor and director of the choral program, of Katherine Kennicott Davis, "The Little Drummer Boy" composer.

American studies professor Michael Jeffries on 100 years of James Baldwin: “He was unapologetic in talking about not only love, but also about violence. He refused to sanitize the violence in this country.”

For young queer pop fans, this summer was a dream come true. As Kaleb Goldschmitt, ethnomusicologist and popular-music scholar, says: “Boy, I wish I had something like that when I was young.”

Americans agree politics is broken − surveys show Americans do not believe the political system is serving them. Wellesley College professor Ismar Volić, a mathematician of democracy, highlights evidence-based changes that could improve matters without tearing the nation apart.

Phil Levine, a professor of economics at Wellesley College, said that the decreases in Indiana state aid are likely to be especially felt by lower-income students, who saw no substantial increases to their Pell awards with the changes to FAFSA. Meanwhile, the increases to Pell for middle-income students will essentially be canceled out by the proposed cuts.

“It’s OK to work for a dream, and it’s OK to cry and lament when that dream is deferred. But we never stop working toward a goal of justice and liberation,” writes Africana studies professor Kellie Carter Jackson about talking to her kids about the election.

Jocelyn Benson '99, Michigan’s secretary of state, fought to restore trust in an election system Trump attacked, only to see it lead to the restoration of a man and a movement that seemed the opposite of almost everything she believes in. As disappointed as she might have been by the national result, her faith in democracy compelled her to accept it. “The will of the people will stand,” she said. “Whatever it is.”

4B is a radical feminist movement that started in South Korea and encourages the rejection of heterosexual dating, marriage and sex, as well as childbirth. According to Katharine Moon, a political science professor emerita at Wellesley College, the biggest difference between budding ideas for what the 4B movement could look like in the United States and what has already existed in South Korea is the centrality of marriage.

At the intersection of education and democracy, college presidents are leading efforts to empower the next generation of engaged citizens... This fall, Wellesley College will offer all sophomores a yearlong program focused on active citizenship and global challenges through the College’s new Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship, Leadership, and Democracy.