About this Event
What if failure could be our greatest teacher? Join us at our TEDxBoulder Salon as we embark on a journey to redefine failure with the help of four insightful talks based on research and philosophy of failure from CU Boulder - each delving into unique perspectives on failure. From exploring the privilege and identity interplay in failure to understanding the crisis of confidence in high-achieving individuals, our speakers will offer profound insights into how failure shapes us and what we can do to overcome it. Come together to redefine your relationship with failure, turning it into a tool for growth and self-discovery. This event will allow you to learn, share, and connect with others on a journey toward embracing failure.
Join us at Kiln on June 20th at 7:30pm to be in community and conversation!
Sandhya Krishnan
Bio: Sandhya Krishnan is a dog-mom and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies undergraduate experiences of failure in science courses. Her interest in studying failure stemmed from her own experiences of failing exam after exam in medical school. An extensive period of reflection following that experience led to her reconstructing her life goals, which subsequently led to a whole new career trajectory in science education research and immeasurable happiness in her life and work.
Talk Title: The Privilege to Fail
Talk Description: In this talk, Sandhya integrates some of the findings from her work with undergraduate students from around the country, who speak of how their identities impact their experiences of failure. Based on this research, Sandhya will speak to how we approach and respond to big and small failures through the multiple identities we use as lenses to experience the world, and offer some suggestions for mitigating the negative emotional consequences of our failures.
Beatriz Salazar
Bio: Beatriz "Bea" is a PhD Candidate in Learning Sciences & Human Development at the University of Colorado Boulder. Bea grew up in Colorado and has worked in education and entrepreneurship spaces. Her research explores failure amongst people of color. In her work with youth, Bea has served as a college counselor, academic coach and supported youth activists. Bea has spoken about her work in failure at several national conferences and has presented with youth on the importance of allowing young people to experience failure.
Talk Title: Who Has the Social Capital to Fail?
Talk Description: In this talk, Bea will speak to her research, which seeks to explore the question: "Who has the social capital to fail?". Learning scientists have explored the importance of failure in learning, yet, we also know that although valuable, failure is often something that is less accessible to some more than others. Bea will share with us the experience young people have while navigating failure, and the ways adults and systems can hinder the opportunities of learning from failure.
Tim O’Neil
Bio: Tim O’Neil is the Director of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he helps students engage with the academic and creative life of the campus—and experience the benefits of mentorship. In Boulder, Tim leads The Curiosity Lab workshop series to enable students with experiential learning and works broadly throughout campus. He’s also an active Division Representative on the national Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) and Co-Chair of CUR’s Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Tim is passionate about the empowering potential of storytelling and curious about the ways they can recalibrate expectations.
Talk Title: Rewriting the Stories We Tell Ourselves about Success
Talk Description: Moving along our individual journey in life, it’s easy to imagine others’ paths to success as linear, assuming that successful people have always known who they wanted to be. This common misconception can lead to self-doubt that encumbers curiosity and stunts growth. In these crises of confidence, Tim sees the distorted legacy of outcomes-oriented education and proposes a critical revision to the stories we often tell ourselves about success. With this corrective lens, we can discover new ways forward and develop confidence to pursue our goals. Whether we’re deciding on a major, our next career move, or just find ourselves feeling lost, we can learn to overcome internal barriers and find ways around obstacles that block our paths.
Anna Pillot
Bio: Anna is a dance and aerial artist, educator, technical director, lighting designer, and adventurer. A dance artist at her core, Anna’s practice and work unfurl across a collage of experiences, disciplines, and fields. These experiential realms (both lived, and interdisciplinary) create a vivid landscape of active, charged, and physical expression. Often present is a fusion of dance, running, technology, aerial apparatus work, humor, grit, and vulnerability brought to you by failure, misdirection and the refusal to give up. Anna’s work is steeped in effort, failure, disorientation, trajectory, and nonarrival, and she is captivated by creating works that push physical limits in performance. Anna holds an MFA in Dance with s Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from CU Boulder.
Talk Title: The Practice of Sustainable Failure
Talk Description: In "The Practice of Sustainable Failure," Anna Pillot asks: is it possible to fail without incurring injury, and if so, how can we achieve this delicate balance? What motivation leads to failure in the first place? What can this journey teach me/us about my/ourselves and our capacities for resilience? How can I/we construct supportive frameworks for evolution into the best versions of ourselves?
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
2101 Pearl St, 2101 Pearl Street, Boulder, United States
USD 0.00