TEDxMarshallU returned to campus for its seventh annual event with the topic “Beyond Borders,” which featured speakers from across the country on Saturday, March 8, at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center.
The event hosted eight speakers, ranging from students at Marshall University to a professor and digital artist from Washington State University, who shared their perspectives on going beyond borders.
This year’s topic enabled speakers to challenge global ideas and help the audience understand how going beyond borders can inform, shape and redefine human experience.
Dr. Jessica Frey, neurologist and assistant professor of neurology at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, contributed her knowledge on “Synesthesia: A Superpower for Us All.”
“Synesthesia is a different way of perceiving the world, and we may be unaware of how many different perceptions of the world there are,” Frey said.
“It can actually be a tool or, in this context, a superpower to go beyond that border, so we can all realize the beauty and how our differences are in perceiving the world.”
Cabell County lawyer Jonathon Stanley presented on “Transcending Death and Culture with Tolkien and Homer.”
Stanley said the process of writing his speech “began with the concept of death transcendence, which I studied as an undergraduate.”
“This idea of human desire to transcend death led me to think about death as a border that we are trying to break,” Stanley said.
Rajia Hassib, author and creative writing professor, spoke on “Beyond Magic: How Immigrants Redefine Opportunity.”
She explained how people should stop looking for their big opportunity and embrace the discomfort for growth, which immigrants do anyway.
Hassib said if people prioritize comfort, opportunity will not come. She said discomfort is the key to opportunity.
Glen Midkiff, academic affairs chief of staff, opened his discussion on “F.L.I.P the Script: Empower yourself to Drop Your Baggage by singing ‘Ain’t No Grave.’”
His talk emphasized the importance of emotional baggage being buried deep and how we need to let it go. The acronym F.L.I.P Midkiff used to further his point symbolized face it, label it, interrupt it and pivot.
Other speakers at the event included Dene Grigar, digital artist and professor; doctoral student Hannah Moore; behavioral health specialist Jim Harris and Rafael Alfonso, Yeager scholar undergraduate student at Marshall.
TEDxMarshallU was organized by Brian Kinghorn alongside several students from the Honors College as well as other faculty and staff from Marshall University.
Videos and more information from the event will be uploaded on tedxmarshallu.com.
Ella Bumgardner can be contacted at [email protected] and Wade Sullivan can be contacted at [email protected].
Note: Baylee Parsons, managing editor for The Parthenon also works as the communications director and designer for the TEDxMarshallU staff.
