Theme: Breaking Boundaries

This is a passionate, student-run effort driven to spark deep discussion, cross-disciplinary, and cross-generational connection. By featuring local and innovative individuals drawn from the diverse and dynamic nature of our liberal arts community, TEDxKalamazooCollege envisions ideas that will inspire action bound to change the world.

Kalamazoo College
1200 Academy Street
Kalamazoo, Michigan, 49006
United States

Kalkidan, Kat, Aunye, and Monét

Kalkidan Amare, Kat Russel, Aunye Scott-Anderson, and Monét Foster are all first year students at Kalamazoo College. While society, in the forms of media, marketing, statistical messages, and memes, continues to disrobe the humanity of the black female identity, there are those who sing the poetry of a royal identity to voice not only the message of #blackgirlsrock but indeed #blackgirlsarequeens.

Dr. Carol Anderson

Carol has been chair of the department of religion at Kalamazoo College since 2005. She received her Ph.D from University of Chicago in 1994, and continues to teach courses in feminism, same-sex, and post-colonial approaches to the study of religion. Her perspective re-examines the purpose and power behind studying religion in our society today.

Jan Tobochnik

Jan is a distinguished professor of natural science at Kalamazoo College and has worked in the Physics and Computer Science program since 1985. He received his bachelor's degree at Amherst College and received his PhD in Physics from Cornell University.. He has co-authored multiple undergraduate textbooks, including Statistical and Thermal Physics with Computer Applications (2010), and An Introduction to Computer Simulation Methods: Applications to Physical Systems (2007). A past co-editor at the American Journal of Physics, Jan has been a fellow of the American Physical Society since 1999. At Kalamazoo College, his primary research interests are in condensed matter physics.

Ladislav Hanka

Artist, beekeeper, and naturalist Ladislav Hanka, or 'Lad', was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to immigrants escaping Stalinist Czechoslovakia. He earned his B.A. from Kalamazoo College in 1975, an MFA in printmaking from Western Michigan University, and an MS in zoology from Colorado State University. He often serves his guests traditional Turkish coffee with stories of times he chose to hang up the lab coat and discontinue his work at a nuclear power-plant, his documentation of native Michigan trees, or on creating a museum in Belize. More recently, his work emerged as one of 25 finalists in the 2014 Global Art Prize, an annual art showcase in Grand Rapids. The piece entitled "Great Wall of Bees: Intelligence of the Beehive" involved close collaborations with honeybees by placing his etchings and work into living hives.

Robert Batsell

Robert 'Bob' Batsell, Jr., is a biopsychologist who started his teaching career at Kalamazoo College in 1999. His research focuses on learning mechanisms that underlie taste and odor aversion in humans and nonhumans. A Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, Dr. Barsell is a recipient of the Kurt D. Kaufman Professorship here at Kalamazoo College. While co-directing the Neuroscience program at Kalamazoo College, he has also served as Chair of the Department of Psychology, and teaches in the fields of physiological psychology, learning psychology, and experimental psychology.

Tibin John

Tibin John is a senior at Kalamazoo College majoring in Biology, Mathematics, and Chemistry. His experience in neuroscience research includes two publications. He has worked as a Biology Supplemental Instructor, a Chemistry and Math tutor, and has served as teaching assistant for the Computational Neuroscience class at K for the past two years. In the summer of 2013, he completed an internship in Computational Neuroscience at K with Dr. Péter Érdi, which solidified his passion for neuroscience. He is a member of the K-College golf team and likes to sing with the Bach Festival Chorus in his spare time.

Tim Kailing

Tim has been an instructor in biology for the last six years at Kalamazoo College. He was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Princeton University, where he completed his masters degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, with a concentration on the computer modeling of complex ecological, evolutionary and physiological systems. He now lives in Kalamazoo with his partner Binney Girdler, a professor at Kalamazoo College, along with their two children and an epically lazy cat.