Annual Ruhlman Conference Highlights Student Achievement at Wellesley

Wellesley’s 22nd annual Ruhlman Conference, on May 2, will feature students’ research from a wide range of disciplines within the humanities, science and technology, and the social sciences. Presentation formats will include papers, musical performances, panel discussions, and literary readings on topics ranging from water sustainability at Wellesley to the ethics of refugee migration.

Made possible by the Barbara Peterson Ruhlman Fund for Interdisciplinary Study, the conference is intended to foster collaboration among students and faculty across the disciplines and to enhance the intellectual life of the College. It will take place in various buildings on the Academic Quad: Founders Hall, Green Hall, Pendleton Hall, the Jewett Arts Center, and Collins Cinema.

The conference will also feature presentations by finalists for the Maurer Public Speaking Program’s annual Jacqueline Loewe Fowler ’47 Prize in Public Speaking. The prize honors Fowler’s support of public speaking at Wellesley through her substantial contributions to the public speaking program established by Ann E. Maurer ’51 and her husband, Gilbert, in 2012. The presentations will be available for live streaming.

The following are this year’s Fowler Prize finalists and the titles of their presentations:

Hans Han ’18, “A Map of Exquisite Meanings: Urban Transportation as a Language of Spatial Equity and Layered History”

Danielle Heims-Waldron ’18, “Getting at the Heart of Inherited Arrhythmia: A New Approach to the Treatment of CPVT—catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia”

Hannah Jacobs ’19, “Computational Prediction of miRNA targets in a Brain Specific Cluster”

Maryam Khan ’18, “The Sweet Life of American Muslims: Resilience and Community Building through Muslim Student Associations ( MSAs)”