CLASS OF 1998 | 2024 | SUMMER ISSUE
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Hello classmates,
There is still snow on the ground as I write this (with a bit more falling), though I know we’re well into spring for most of you and it will be summer by the time you read this. Time certainly goes by differently these days, and I don’t know about you all, but for me, my time at Wesleyan feels like both yesterday and a million years ago. Though I finally just watched the first episode of How I Met Your Father last night and sure enjoyed hearing the Wes reference! A(n extremely) belated congrats to Carter Bays ’97 and Craig Thomas ’97 for the empire you have built. I still remember you from our earliest freshman year and it makes me smile.
Devin Robel wrote in to say that she is living her best bicoastal life, traveling from her home in Oregon to spend winters in Florida. She and her little horse, Gillou, are competing at the intermediate and international three-star level in three-day eventing, a triathlon combining dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. With a successful start to the season, Gillou is currently ranked first in the nation at the intermediate level.
Adam Borden (an art history major himself—thanks yearbook!) says that although he and his wife never expected his children to follow in their footsteps, he is pleasantly surprised their daughter has fallen in love with Williams. She and his wife visited a few weeks, and the aspiring art history major loved the offerings. Yay for more chances to visit beautiful New England!
Finally, I am very sorry to say that we lost Shani Tahir Mott this year, far too soon, on March 12, 2024. She was a Black studies scholar and lecturer in the Center for Africana Studies and Department of History at Johns Hopkins University. Her work on race and power focused not only on the academic—how institutions such as universities and publishing houses shape (and limit) our conversations and understanding of race and racial experiences through their choices around publication, funding, etc.—but also daily reality and lived experience. She sued the mortgage and appraisal companies that allegedly used racial bias in their appraisal and loan offering for Mott’s own house, and she received a settlement that included policy changes to hopefully improve the process for others. At Johns Hopkins she was the co-principal investigator of the Housing Our Story Project that worked to include Black voices from Hopkins workers who had been left out of previous archiving projects at the university, and she helped launch the university’s first social justice and equity collective. I can’t think of better ways to exemplify the Wesleyan spirit I remember than Dr. Mott’s career bringing awareness to the race and power injustices all around us and putting that work into meaningful action. You can read more about her and her work here and here.
I do love hearing from all of you, so please send in any sightings, thoughts, experiences, or anything else you want to share.
ABBY ELBOW | aelbow@gmail.com