Theme: Gaining the Edge

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

CFA Concert Hall
Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont, 05753
United States

Carolyn Finney

Storyteller

Carolyn Finney, PhD is a storyteller, author and cultural geographer. She is deeply interested in issues related to identity, difference, creativity, and resilience. Carolyn is grounded in both artistic and intellectual ways of knowing - she pursued an acting career for eleven years, but five years of backpacking trips through Africa, Asia and living in Nepal changed the course of her life. Motivated by these experiences, Carolyn returned to school after a 15-year absence to complete a B.A., M.A. and a Ph.D. (where she received a Fulbright). Along with public speaking, writing, media engagements, consulting & teaching, she served on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board for eight years. Her first book, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors was released in 2014 (UNC Press). She is currently doing a two-year residency as the Franklin Environmental Center Professor of Practice at Middlebury College.

Hawa Adam

Poet

Hawa Adam was born in Mombasa, Kenya and grew up in Burlington, Vermont. She is a sophomore at Middlebury College and chose Middlebury College because of the liberal arts component. She was excited to have the opportunity to try many different disciplines, and is currently an international and global studies major with a focus on African studies and a global health minor, which could potentially change because she is interested in so many other subject areas. Hawa like languages, dance, and spoken word, and created her own spoken word group in highschool. On Middlebury’s campus, she has helped to revitalize an old spoken word group. She is hoping to help bring an authentic social justice voice to the arts community here, and finds herself drawn to many different activities on campus including several cultural orgs and internship opportunities. She’s a very social person - you’ll most definitely see her around.

Jamie Withorne

Research Assistant

Jamie Withorne is a Research Assistant for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, an affiliate of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. With this position, Jamie conducts extensive research on emerging functions and applications of new technologies and communicates her findings to policy-oriented audiences. She also analyzes data to better understand North Korean sanctions evasion tactics and trends. Her research interests include missile technology and transatlantic affairs, with an emphasis on Nordic countries. Jamie is an advisor for Girl Security, wherein she works towards making national security issues more accessible to young women by providing training, education, and support. She is also a contributing author for Inkstick Media, a publication dedicated to “de-jargoning” national security issues. Independently, Jamie has developed and manages learnwmd.com, a website dedicated to creating a learning commons for WMD education.

Mona Haydar

Performance Poet

Mona Haydar is a young Syrian-American Muslim who spent her 20's as a performance poet. In 2015 she gained national and international press for her and her husband's Ask A Muslim project- a booth that invited dialogue and questions in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks. In 2017 she broke into the hip hop music scene with Hijabi (Wrap My Hijab) whose video- featuring Haydar seven months pregnant with her second son- went viral. Billboard Magazine named Haydar's track one of the top feminist anthems of all time (alongside hits by icons Beyonce, Christina Aguilera and M.I.A.). For the last four years, Mona has been performing her poetry and music, leading writing and activism workshops, and speaking at universities and colleges about art, Islam, feminism, hip hop, theology, and inter-faith dialogue.

Quinn Christopherson

Musician

Quinn Christopherson is an Inupiaq and Athabaskan songwriter born and raised in Alaska. He uses music to address his upbringing as well as his role in the current social landscape. Quinn won the 2019 NPR Tiny Desk Contest and is currently touring and writing music. Quinn’s background includes working as a counselor for Alaska Native youth as well as with Alaska’s at-risk youth at Covenant House, Alaska. He currently lives in Anchorage in a log cabin with his partner and their dogs.

Theodore Ho

Neuroscientist

Dr. Ho is a neuroscientist and stem cell biologist studying the mechanisms and causes of biological aging and potential strategies to slow or reverse them, in order to prevent the onset of age- associated diseases to help us live healthier and longer lives. He completed a four-year joint bachelor’s/master’s degree program in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology/Bioengineering at Harvard University, and he received his PhD in Biophysics from the University of California San Francisco, studying stem cell aging in the lab of Dr. Emmanuelle Passegue. In college he developed a nanoparticle drug delivery system, in graduate school he discovered previously unknown mechanisms of cellular and molecular aging of stem cells, and now in the Deisseroth lab he is using optical recording and perturbation of neuronal activity to study neural circuit dynamics that control behavior.