Cromwell Day

Rest Practice(s) for World Changers

With Professor Benita Jackson

9:30–10:30 a.m. in Weinstein Auditorium
You want to help create a world that works for more and more people. And…you’re tired. When you do manage to pause, it doesn’t always feel good. Your body might crash from exhaustion, but your mind keeps racing. What to do?

Some of us fear that if we truly pause to attend to our internal experiences, we’ll crumble under the weight of our exhaustion and despair—and never make it back to “doing the work.” But what if we have it backward when we say, “I’ll rest once the work is done”? Like dishes and laundry, the work is never really finished.

What if this is the real work: to imagine a different way of being, and to take the next imperfect, right-sized step toward embodying it? To rest not as a reward, but as a resource for the world we wish to create?

In this workshop, we will practice resting. Just like you might go to the gym to practice strengthening your muscles, here we will “put in the reps” toward being a better-rested you. Toward creating a better-rested world for all.

Change happens from cell to society. Drawing from multiple perspectives on transformation, you will be guided to explore intentional rest practices, and start integrating into your daily life those that you want to play with in this season. If you believe that small changes can have outsized positive outcomes, this workshop might be just the container for seeding your next big win.

Benita Jackson is Chair and Professor of Psychology at Smith College, co-parent of teen twins, founder of the project Resting to Rise, and bass ukulele fledgling. Her mission is to support personal development for social transformation.

Fireside Chat

With Farah Pandith ’90 and Associate Professor Loretta Ross

10–11:30 a.m. in the Campus Center Carroll Room
In a fireside chat co-moderated by students, global strategist Farah Pandith ’90—this year’s Cromwell Day keynote speaker—and activist-scholar and professor Loretta Ross will share insights on leading with compassion and curiosity. Join us for a dynamic dialogue on listening across differences and building your toolkit to navigate challenging conversations. This event is co-sponsored by the Wurtele Center for Leadership, Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, and the Jandon Center for Community Engagement. 

How to Have Challenging Conversations Across Differences

With Leaders for Equity-Centered and Action-Based Design (LEAD) Scholars

10:45 a.m.–noon on the first floor of Seelye Hall
LEAD Scholars will be celebrating Cromwell Day by facilitating workshops for students focusing on the theme: “How to Have Challenging Conversations Across Difference.” Participants will engage in peer-facilitated workshops designed around a range of topics, all with the goal of teaching participants the tools necessary to have hard conversations.

Black Spirituality

With the Center for Religious & Spiritual Life

3:15–4:45 p.m. in the Bodman Lounge, Helen Hills Hills Chapel
Description forthcoming.

What’s Working, What’s Not: Exploring DEI, Belonging, & Institutional Culture at Smith College

With Lisa Johnson and Sierra Fraser ’24

3:15–4:45 p.m. (Location forthcoming.)
 This session will present findings from a participatory action research study at Smith College examining how students, faculty, and staff perceive and experience diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Co-facilitators Sierra Fraser ’24 and Lisa Johnson will highlight how student, faculty, and staff voices and lived experiences can inform more equitable and inclusive institutional practices. 

Through reflective and interactive exercises, participants will explore how assessment can serve as a tool for connection, accountability, and change rather than compliance. Through small-group discussions and data-sharing activities, attendees will collectively consider the question: What’s working—and what’s not—when it comes to building belonging in a predominantly white institutional context?

Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of DEI assessment as a pathway toward resilience and transformation—recognizing how belonging and mattering emerge (or falter) across campus dynamics—and strategies for grounding DEI work in lived experience, shared values, and sustainable action.

Celebration of the Cromwell Family Papers

3:15–4:45 p.m. in Neilson Library 204
Visit the archives and explore materials from the Cromwell Family papers, including recent additions that offer a glimpse into the everyday lives of Otelia and Adelaide Cromwell and their families, including relics from their undergraduate days at Smith College, essays, family scrapbooks, and photographic gems that showcase Black culture and fashion of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Spoken Word/Interactive Workshop

With Lyrical Faith

5–6 p.m. in Hallie Flanagan Theatre
Description forthcoming.

After graduating from the Miner Normal School, Otelia Cromwell taught in the Washington, D.C., public schools for several years. She transferred to Smith College in 1898 and graduated in 1900. She returned to teaching for a number of years and then resumed her education, receiving a master of arts from Columbia University and a doctorate from Yale University in 1926; Cromwell was the first African American woman to receive a Yale doctorate. She soon became professor and chair of the department of English language and literature at Miner Teachers College in Washington, D.C.

Cromwell remained at Miner Teachers College until her retirement in 1944. A distinguished scholar and teacher, she authored three books and numerous articles including Readings From Negro Authors, for Schools and Colleges, the result of collaboration with Eva B. Dykes and Lorenzo Dow Turner. It was one of the first collections of its kind. She received an honorary degree from Smith College in 1950.

After her retirement from teaching, Cromwell accomplished her most significant scholarly work, The Life of Lucretia Mott, the Quaker abolitionist and women's rights activist. It was published in 1958 by Harvard University Press and continues to be cited by contemporary scholars. Cromwell passed away in 1972 at the age of 98.

Adelaide Cromwell was also a leader and activist in Africa, convening the first conference of West African social workers in Ghana in 1960, and serving on a commission to assess the state of higher education in what was then called the Belgian Congo. A member of the executive council of the American Society of African Culture, the American Negro Leadership Conference in Africa and the advisory council on Voluntary Foreign Aid, among others, she also maintained active membership in the Council on Foreign Relations and a number of professional organizations.

She is the author of several books, including Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories: The Cromwell Family and Slavery and Segregation, 1692–1972, and An African Victorian Feminist: The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford, 1868–1960.

Cromwell earned a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in sociology from Radcliffe College. A recipient of the Smith Medal in 1971 and an honorary degree in 2015, she was the niece of Otelia Cromwell, class of 1900. Adelaide Cromwell passed away in 2019 at the age of 99.