Theme: What's Past Is Prologue

The Theme For TEDxConnecticutCollege 2016 Is What's Past Is Prologue. We Are Defined By Our Collective History. What In Our Collective Past Has Given Us This Present? Faced With The Choices In Front Of Us, How Will We Shape Our Future? At This Year's Conference, We Will Be Diving Head First Into These Questions And Many, Many More. The Full Day Event Will Take Place On April 16, 2016 From 10am-5pm At The Cummings Art Center In New London, Connecticut. We Will Be Providing Breakfast And Lunch In Addition To A Post Event Soiree.

Evans Hall, Connecticut College
270 Mohegan Avenue
Connecticut College
New London, Connecticut, 06320
United States

Chase Brooks and Mark Finnegan

Chase and Mark are the self-proclaimed youngest alcohol producers in America. They are the co-founders of Harvard Cider Company.

Johanna Marks and Susanna Mathews

Joanna Marks is a senior at Connecticut College. She likes running, coffee, feminism, and food. In May, she will graduate with a degree in psychology and French. Susanna is a senior Government major, History minor and scholar in the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy where she just completed a project on United States food aid and international food security. She enjoys reading and attempting to learn how to watercolor in her spare time. Her favorite things are Twizzlers and Mount Everest.

Sal Bigay and Rachel Maddox

Sal Bigay is a painter, an advocate for queer students of color, and an aspiring math teacher. Sal grew up in Northern New Jersey as a soccer star and prom king, and then studied Government and Art at Connecticut College, where he came to be known on campus for his fearless fashion, booming voice, and tireless work in student government. Rachel Maddox is a recent graduate of Connecticut College, where she studied theater and education. She is the author of "Destructive Behaviors", a play based on her experiences as a queer student of color.

Aleksandr Chandra

Aleksandr Chandra is currently a senior at Connecticut College studying Psychology and English. He is the outreach director of Sages & Seekers, a non-profit organization designed to bridge the generational gap between seniors and teenagers in order to generate the exchange of valuable wisdom, strengthen community, and diminish ageism.

Bradford Lingham

Bradford Lingham started at a young age on the path of nonconformity. Wanting to be a farmer, he raised chickens, sheep, pigs and horses in a suburban town west of Boston. At 13 he was a very young Eagle Scout; at 17 he built a raft for an 1100 mile journey; at 19 he left college to live in Sweden and work on the largest privately owned pig farm. A true Yankee who can make do with anything by resorting to ingenuity. He graduated from Brown University as a Latin and history scholar and from Harvard University with a business certificate; he then pursued a 17-year career in business management. In 2001 he left corporate business to become a carpenter and now has his own successful contracting business in Metrowest Boston. Bradford is a Renaissance Man. When not cooking, making all kinds of things out of birch trees, sailing, traveling and hiking, he and his family built a post-and- beam home in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire with his wife and three daughters.

David Canton

David Canton is the Interim Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion and an Associate Professor of History at Connecticut College. He graduated with a B.A. in History from Morehouse College, received his M.A. in Black Studies from The Ohio State University and earned his PhD in history from Temple University. Professor Canton is the author of "Raymond Pace Alexander: A New Negro Lawyer Fights for Civil Rights in Philadelphia." His new book project is titled “What are You Going To Do About It” the memoirs of Joe Madison, an African American talk show radio host and civil rights activist. He has been on National Public Radio in Connecticut and his African American history class was featured on C Span American History Television.

David Jaffe

David Jaffe is associate professor and chair of theater at Connecticut College. after earning his his M.F.A. in acting at Yale University School of Drama, Jaffe served as Visiting Professor of Theater at Wesleyan University, and Director of the O'Neill Theater Center's National Theater Institute.

Dr. David Gleason

Dr. David Gleason is a clinical psychologist with over 25 years of providing counseling, consulting and neuropsychological assessment services within independent and international schools. Dr. Gleason has taught psychology courses at the secondary, undergraduate and graduate levels and has presented professional workshops and seminars at numerous schools, national conferences in the US, and at many international conferences in Asia.

Ella Dawson

Social media manager by day and sex writer by night, Ella Dawson's work has been published by Women’s Health, Femsplain and on her blog (www.ellacydawson.wordpress.com). She got herpes and just kind of ran with it, professionally speaking. Find her on Twitter as @brosandprose.

Hari Nef

Hari Nef is an actor, model, and activist. Named the "tumblr-age Chloë Sevigny" by Vogue, Hari signed with IMG Models in May 2015 as the first openly transgender woman in history to sign an international modeling contract.

Joe Lentini

Mountains are in Joe's blood. He has been a professional climbing guide since 1976 and is a member of the American Mountain Guides Association. He's conquered mountains on four continents, racking up five hundred winter ascents of Mt Washington in New Hampshire. In addition, he is a certified emergency medical technician, and served as Vice President of the New Hampshire Mt Rescue Service and the Eastern Mt Sport Climbing School (1976-2006), and on the Board of Directors American Mountain Guides Association.

Leise Trueblood

Leise recently graduated from Connecticut College, where she studied theater and American Studies. Her all time favorite show is The Lion King.

Maya Goldberg Safir

Maya Goldberg-Safir is a freelance radio producer & active organizer in the Chicago audio scene. She is a social media strategist & licensed Podcast Therapist at the Third Coast International Audio Festival, billed as a "Sundance for audio stories."

Nathalie Etoke

Nathalie Etoke is an Associate Professor of French and Africana Studies, Connecticut College. She is the author of two books, a documentary and several articles published in academic journals. In 2012, her book Melancholia Africana received the Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Association of Philosophy.

Spencer Lutvak

Spencer Lutvak is a graduating senior with a major in Theater and minors in Dance and Mathematics. Born and raised in New York City, he has fostered over 280 kittens since April 2005. In addition to rolling around his home covered in kittens, he plays guitar, teaches dance classes with toddlers, and does long-form improv.