Shereen Marisol Meraji, a journalist and former co-host of NPR’s Code Switch podcast, is slotted to deliver the keynote address at Boston College’s first fully in-person Women’s Summit in two years.
“I think something we definitely want to emphasize this year is how activism can look different and how people like Shereen can bring about different stories and experiences through her use of a different platform as an activist,” said Maimouna Sarr, a summit planning committee member and LSEHD ’23.
The summit, which was held virtually in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will take place this year on Feb. 4.
“You know, through Zoom, we [were] definitely able to make it work and adapt to the changes we needed to,” Sarr said. “But I think there’s something that’s really special about being in a room full of other women or students of all gender identities.”
Beyond co-hosting, Meraji was also a senior producer for Code Switch, which is primarily centered on issues of race and identity and won Apple Podcasts’ “show of the year” in 2020. Meraji is also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and currently teaches at the University of California, Berkeley as an assistant professor of race in journalism, according to the summit’s website.
“It’s not just Shereen’s success that we wanted to highlight at the summit,” said Caroline Frantz, another planning committee member and MCAS ’23. “It’s really her desire to empower others and fight for those who are oppressed based on their identities.”
After the keynote address, the summit’s attendees will break into workshops that feature topics including self-advocacy in the workplace, feminist spirituality, and restorative justice after sexual trauma, among others.
“We want to have a sort of a breadth of topics for the workshops because we want the most amount of students to feel included and feel like they are welcome at the summit,” Frantz said.
Frantz said she hopes the summit will serve as an opportunity for BC students to explore how they can enact change in their daily lives.
“Even if you’re not involved in the Women’s Center, even if you’re not a woman, even if you don’t have any gender identity that you care to share with other people, it’s still a welcoming space for you to come and feel empowered and figure out how we can fight social injustice that we see around us,” Frantz said.
