The sixth annual TEDx event at Bellarmine University took place on March 15, 2024, with the theme Community Resilience. Speakers examined the conditions under which communities endure, adapt, and recover in the face of adversity—whether environmental, economic, or social. Resilience, in this context, extends beyond infrastructure; it encompasses the preservation and regeneration of shared values, cultural memory, and collective spirit.
Among the featured talks, Professor Michael Kopp (MFA) presented a critical examination of AIDS activism within the broader framework of U.S. queer political history. His talk positioned the HIV/AIDS crisis not only as a public health emergency, but also as a site of extraordinary communal resilience and political mobilization. By recovering the narratives of those who resisted silence, erasure, and marginalization, the talk emphasized the necessity of confronting historical truths. Accurate representation of the past enables communities to locate themselves within longer arcs of struggle, survival, and transformation—an essential step in cultivating sustainable, just, and resilient futures.
