Senior Speaker: Social Thought & Political Economy

A message from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences:

Each year, our graduating students in every major select a student to speak on behalf of their area of study. Because we are a large college, the time allotted to our ceremony does not allow for each speaker to appear on stage. However, these speeches have been recorded for your viewing pleasure. 

At its core, our College supports open and free inquiry and debate about the most weighty and consequential subjects that face us all. Each student was given a minute to speak on whatever topic they think will be meaningful to their peers. Some of the contributions are lighthearted, others are serious, and some may inspire some people and conflict with the values and beliefs of others. But that is the nature of free inquiry and debate: it should challenge us and make us think. We are proud of every one of our graduates, whether or not we agree with the views they express here. 

Transcript: 

My name is Sonya Epstein and I am so honored and excited to congratulate the STPEC Class of 2025! We have made it to the end of our undergraduate journeys, and I hope every single one of you is incredibly proud of yourself.

It is not an easy task to study for 120 credits of courses while confronted by the extreme escalation of political and institutional violence we are experiencing. The genocide of Palestinians through the brutal attack on Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. The deportations of friends, family, and community members for speaking out for Palestine, or their detainments in places that amount to concentration camps.

It is especially difficult when we study at a university that profits off of and is built on the very structures and corporations that have made those assaults possible. A university in partnership with weapons manufacturers that is willing to arrest and subject its students to police violence that has failed to support those who need it most and live up to its values of “being revolutionary.”

However, through it all, I am constantly grateful to witness, and be a part of, the extraordinary resilience and collective power on this campus, and for the light that provides.

In STPEC, we have studied countless movements that have transformed our realities, we have brought in our own experiences, the stories of our friends, and the other revolutionaries around the world who are incarcerated, under occupation, and persecuted. And from these discussions we have been able to grow systems of mutual aid, organize divestment campaigns against fossil fuels and the Military Industrial Complex, build up resources and support for actions, and, most importantly, to create spaces of radical love and care for one another as we do this work.

I know that each of you will take all of this knowledge and experience with you into whatever is next. I hope you are also able to take the joy and care we have cultivated in our department and organizing.

These are not easy times. There is a lot of work left to do. But I am so honored to get to be in this fight alongside each and every one of you.

Congratulations Class of 2025 & Free Palestine!