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Monday, September 23, 2024 – LGBTQ Rights in Africa

Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m.
RSVP: By Wednesday, September 18 to clarkeforum@dickinson.edu. Space is limited. More information will be sent once we receive your RSVP.

Several African countries consider homosexuality a crime, and it is punishable by death in these four: Mauritania, Nigeria, Uganda, and Somalia. Over ten countries have prison sentences ranging from one year up to a life sentence. South Africa is the only country on the continent in which there are protections for LGBTQ individuals’ sexuality and/or gender expression; it is the first and only African nation to legalize same-sex marriage. Today, many African cultures believe that queerness is a “Western and American import” because of the generational trauma their society has experienced due to colonization. In 2023, the Ugandan parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Law, an updated, stricter version from 2014. “Aggravated homosexuality,” consensual sex between two adults where one has HIV, is punishable by death. Those known or suspected of helping (providing housing or employment) or not reporting an LGBTQ person to police can face up to 20 years in jail. This has led to queer Ugandans being evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, denied proper healthcare as well as harassed and blackmailed. Harmful legislation Read more

Monday, November 18, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Reinventing Germany, Again and Again

Thea Dorn, writer, public intellectual and TV host
Janine Ludwig, cultural historian of East Germany
Anne Rabe, playwright and novelist
Matthias Rogg, historian and colonel in the German army

The history of modern Germany has forced continuous reorientations. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany and the 35th anniversary of
the fall of the Berlin Wall the panelists will discuss today’s Germany and its global position.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s annual theme, Alternative Models.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Thea Dorn (biography forthcoming)

Janine Ludwig (biography forthcoming)

Anne Rabe (biography forthcoming)

Matthias Rogg (biography forthcoming) Read more

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Stern Center, Great Room, 12:00 p.m.

***Lunch provided, please RSVP to clarkeforum@dickinson.edu by 11/7/24 and mention any dietary restrictions.

This event is in-person only. It will not be livestreamed or recorded.

International Perspectives on 2024 Election

Panelists

Willibroad Dze-Ngwa, Yaounde, Cameroon
Hilary Sanders, representing Toulouse, France
Konstantin Sonin, representing Moscow, Russia
Neil van Siclen, representing Bremen, Germany
Sarah Niebler (moderator), Dickinson College

The US presidential election is being watched closely throughout the world. Colleagues from Dickinson’s global programs will discuss the effects the results have for their countries and beyond.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Willibroad Dze-Ngwa (biography forthcoming)

Hilary Sanders (biography forthcoming)

Konstantin Sonin (biography forthcoming)

Neil van Siclen (biography forthcoming)

Sarah Niebler (biography forthcoming) Read more

Monday, November 11, 2024 – The Molly and Wayne Borges Memorial Lecture

Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The Molly and Wayne Borges Memorial Lecture

Danger, Purity and the Holy Land Past and Present

Robin Darling Young, Catholic University of America

To the holy city of Jerusalem and the land that surrounds it, three new and distinct assemblies laid claims of territorial and devotional holiness. This lecture explores the expression of those claims in discourse, in construction, and in demolition.

This joint event is sponsored by St. John’s Episcopal Church in Carlisle and the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Religion.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Robin Darling Young is Ordinary (Full) Professor of Church History at the Catholic University of America, and affiliated faculty of the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages. Her most recent publications are (as editor in chief) an annotated commentary and translation, from Greek and Syriac, of the Gnostic Trilogy of Evagrius of Pontus, and a translation of the Armenian Letters of Evagrius (CSCO, 2023) with Hovsep Karapetyan. She is at work on an interpretive study of that author as a philosopher in the Alexandrian tradition, and is co-translating the Contra Celsum of Origen of Alexandria for the Graphai series of Read more

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This event is in-person only. It will not be livestreamed or recorded.

Open Forum on the 2024 Election

Dickinson Community Forum with Faculty Panel

Russ Bova, political science & international studies
Katie Marchetti, political science
Ed Webb, political science & international studies
Sarah Niebler (moderator), political science

Dickinson Faculty will discuss observations and analyses of the recent US Presidential election and take questions.

The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

  Read more

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Puerto Rico – The 51st State? Explaining the Diminished Prospects for Puerto Rico Statehood

Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Director for Public Policy, External and Media Relations, and Development at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College

This lecture discusses the territorial condition of Puerto Rico in relation to the United States and the unlikely prospects in the near future that Puerto Rico will be admitted into the Union as member on equal standing with other states. In order to address this narrower topic, I will address more broadly the nature of the relation of Puerto Rico and the United States, the historical process of incorporation of the U.S. territories into the Union, the partisan reasons why Congress may not want to incorporate Puerto Rico as a state, the political reasons why a solid majority of residents of Puerto Rico may still not want Puerto Rico  to become a U.S. state, the economic, racial and cultural obstacles for Congress to admit Puerto Rico as a state, and the international context that provides little incentive for Puerto Rico’s decolonization.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments Read more

Tuesday, October 8, 2024 – The Morgan Lecture

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 6 p.m.

The Morgan Lecture

The Black Birthing Crisis: Why Understanding Slavery & Gynecology Helps Us All

Deirdre Cooper Owens,  associate professor of history and Africana studies at the University of Connecticut

For decades, the United States has been the most dangerous high-income earning nation for pregnant Black women and birthing people. The current birthing crisis didn’t originate in a vacuum. With roots in colonial America, medical doctors and surgeons exceptionalized Black women’s medical experiences and lives throughout slavery and Jim Crow. Cooper Owens will present on the layered history of American slavery, the birth of gynecology, and the current U.S. birthing crisis offering insights and possible solutions to end this state of emergency. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of Africana studies, history, women’s, gender & sexuality studies and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center. This program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s annual theme, Alternative Models.

Topic overview written by Shayna Herzfeld ’25

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Deirdre Cooper Owens is an Read more

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Program is Part of the Dialogues Across Differences Project 

A New Divide – The Possibility for Dialogue

Manu Meel, CEO of BridgeUSA

Since its founding in 2018, BridgeUSA has become the largest and fastest growing student movement in the country empowering young people to engage in constructive dialogue and healthy disagreement to improve our democracy. With over 60 college and 20 high school chapters and a network engaging 10,000 students, the journey of building BridgeUSA has led Manu to uncover some hidden truths about the possibility for constructive dialogue at one of the most divided times in American history.

This lecture will outline how students, faculty, and administrators can leverage BridgeUSA’s learnings to facilitate constructive dialogue and difficult conversations on campus. The possibility for a more pluralistic and open-minded future is strong- this lecture will posit how Dickinson College can help lead the way.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is part of the Dialogues Across Differences Project, which is funded by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. In addition, it is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series Read more

Thursday, September 19, 2024 – The Bechtel Lecture

Poster for Pascaline DupasAnita Tuvin Schlechter, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Boosting Human Capital in Africa: Why It’s Needed, and How to Get It Done

Pascaline Dupas, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University

Boosting Africa’s human capital—the health, knowledge, skills, and resilience of its people—is key to the fight against world poverty amidst climate change, but also to Africa’s ability to harness its demographic potential . The lecture will discuss evidence-based policies that governments and international organizations can put in place to do a big push on human capital on the continent. 

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Bechtel Lectureship Fund and the departments of international studies and economics.

Topic overview written by Georgia Schaefer-Brown ’25

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Pascaline Dupas is Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She joined the Princeton faculty in July 2023. She was previously the Kleinheinz Family Professor of International Studies at Stanford University, where she spent 12 years on the faculty. She has also held faculty positions at Dartmouth College and UCLA.   

Dupas is a development economist studying the challenges facing poor households in lower income countries and their root causes. Read more

Tuesday, September 17, 2024 – Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation

Picturing the Constitution PosterAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Light refreshments available in the lobby prior to the program from 6 – 6:50 p.m.

Livestream Link

Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation

Picturing the Constitution: Curators, Artists and Scholars in Conversation

Katherine Gressel, Curator
Bang Geul Han, Artist
Steven Mazie, Constitutional Expert

How can artists help enhance our understanding of the United States Constitution, its interpretations throughout history, and our own political participation? Join Katherine Gressel, curator of the 2023 Picturing the Constitution exhibition at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn, participating artist Bang Geul Han, and Supreme Court correspondent and political scientist Steven Mazie for a joint presentation and panel discussion focused on artists’ responses to the United States Constitution, including its origins, contents, and interpretations. All artists are engaged in interpreting the world around them. This panel will explore the value of creatively applying interpretive tools to the Constitution as a document of ever-evolving meaning. 

Picturing the Constitution featured artists’ responses to the United States Constitution, including its origins, contents, and interpretations. Installations, workshops and performances in diverse media by 17 artists and art teams asked: to what extent do these founding documents still serve us (equitably)? What could we add Read more

Snapshot of Fall 2024

While we work on our programming for the fall semester, there are a few ways to stay connected to the Clarke Forum. You can enjoy our content by viewing past programs and listening to guest interviews conducted by our talented student project managers.

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where our previous programs are available for viewing.

Snapshot of Fall 2024

Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 7 p.m.
Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation
Picturing the Constitution: Curators, Artists and Scholars in Conversation
Panel Discussion

Thursday, September 19, 2024, 7 p.m.
The Bechtel Lecture
Boosting Human Capital in Africa: Why It’s Needed, and How to Get It Done
Pascaline Dupas, Princeton University

Thursday, September 26, 2024, 7 p.m.
Puerto Rico – The 51st State? Explaining the Diminished Prospects for Puerto Rico Statehood
Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Hunter College

Tuesday, October 1, 2024, 7 p.m.
A New Divide – The Possibility for Dialogue
Manu Meel, BridgeUSA

Tuesday, October 8, 2024, 6 p.m.
The Black Birthing Crisis: Why Understanding Slavery & Gynecology Helps Us All
Deirdre Cooper Owens, University of Connecticut

Thursday, November 7, 2024, 7 p.m.
Open Forum on the 2024 Election
Dickinson Community Forum with Faculty Panel

Monday, November 11, 2024, Read more

Our Programming is Completed for the Spring 2024 Semester

Check back with us periodically to see what it is planned for Fall 2024.

While we work on our programming for the fall semester, there are a few ways to stay connected to the Clarke Forum. You can enjoy our content by viewing past programs and listening to guest interviews conducted by our talented student project managers.

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where our previous programs are available for viewing.

Snapshot of Fall 2024

Thursday, September 19, 2024, 7 p.m.
The Bechtel Lecture
Boosting Human Capital in Africa: Why It’s Needed, and How to Get It Done
Pascaline Dupas, Princeton University

Thursday, September 26, 2024, 7 p.m.
Puerto Rico – The 51st State? Explaining the Diminished Prospects for Puerto Rico Statehood
Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Center for Puerto Rico Studies

Tuesday, October 1, 2024, 7 p.m.
A New Divide- The Possibility for Dialogue
Manu Meel, BridgeUSA

Monday, November 11, 2024, 7 p.m.
Wayne and Molly Borges Memorial Lecture
The True Gnostic in Alexandrian Christian Philosophy
Robin Darling Young, Catholic University of America

Monday, November 18, 2024, 7 p.m.
Reinventing Germany, Again and Again
Panel Discussion

  Read more

Tuesday, April 24, 2024 – Leveling the Playing Field – The Inclusion of Transgender Athletes

Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m.
RSVP: By Thursday, April 17 to clarkeforum@dickinson.edu. Space is limited. More information will be sent once we receive your RSVP.

Recently, 22 states, including Texas, Tennessee, and Alabama, have enacted laws restricting trans athletes from competition based on gender identity. In Pennsylvania, a bill (HB 972) was proposed in 2022 and vetoed in the same year, banning transgender girls and women ranging from K-12 to college from participating on women’s sport teams. Being a leading organization in regulating college sports, the NCAA permits transgender women to participate in women’s sports events with the requirement of documenting their testosterone levels 4 weeks before the sport’s championship selections, at the beginning of their season, and 6 months after it.

Since 2022, the NCAA Board of Governors has delegated decisions on transgender policies to each sport’s national governing body. However, the lack of consistency in policies is evident, with some organizations adopting inclusive measures based on hormone levels or time on hormone therapy, while others maintain stricter regulations linked to biological sex at birth.

This salon will explore the impact of current policies on transgender athletes. The discussion will be facilitated by Phuong Hoang ’26 and Thomas Lee, the Read more

Monday, April 15, 2024 – Teaching Genocide: Holocaust Education and its Implications

Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m.
RSVP: By Wednesday, April 10 to clarkeforum@dickinson.edu. Space is limited. More information will be sent once we receive your RSVP.

In the 1960s, West-Germany saw large-scale student protests to change the education curriculum. At that time, the country and particularly the judiciary was still largely run, and many but the most egregious crimes of the Holocaust were ignored even under the occupation of the Allied Forces. The students’ activism confronted their parents’ avoidance and led to an entirely new German approach to the history of the Holocaust. As a result, a new critical curriculum was created that persists until today.

It is difficult for countries to carry a generational burden of genocide. Education often struggles with these issues in classrooms as they may contradict patriotic beliefs and undermine loyalty to the country. How can a perpetrator state educate its citizens on the inheritance of crimes? In Germany educational mechanisms that the student protesters fought for in the 1960s are still in place and have continually been adapted. For a country like the U.S. with a history rooted in indigenous genocide and slavery that has been disregarded for centuries, it should be interesting to compare its teaching Read more

Thursday, February 8, 2024 – Women in Sports

Time: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
RSVP: By Wednesday, February 7 to clarkeforum@dickinson.edu. Space is limited. More information will be sent once we receive your RSVP.

At the 2023 World Cup medal ceremony, Former President of Spain’s Soccer Federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed player Jennifer Hermoso without consent. The fallout that ensued brought issues of sexism in women’s sports to a global stage. Prior to the World Cup, the Spain women’s national team had complained of subpar training facilities and transportation, as well as a hostile and monitored work environment, leading 15 players to withdraw from World Cup consideration in protest. These accusations were not taken seriously before the medal ceremony media fallout. Even now Hermoso is experiencing repercussions from speaking out about her experience, such as being excluded from the national team’s recent roster.

Additionally, in 2022, following a six-year legal battle, the United States women’s national team received a fairer contract regarding pay. Tensions rose when the United States men’s national team earned an overall higher salary than the women’s team, specifically in regard to international tournament payments (like the World Cup). Even though the women’s team had performed consistently and comparatively better than the men’s team they received Read more

Wednesday, October 25, 2024 – Politicization of Banned Books

Time: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: Stafford Reading Area, Waidner-Spahr Library

Since 1982, the American Library Association has been tracking book bans and challenges in both school and public libraries. Book bans in the United States are not new, but starting in 2021 book bans and challenges, especially in K-12 schools, increased in striking numbers. Prior to this time, concerns over content in libraries would be brought to light by individual parents concerned about what their child was reading. However, the current wave of challenges is now organized by groups of parents, rather than individuals, and not only that, but they are also politicized.

Organizations like Moms for Liberty have a mission to ban books they deem inappropriate for school libraries. Many of these titles contain racial and LGBTQ+ themes. Diverse reading lists are weaponized; without ever reading these books in their entirety or at all, groups of parents go to their school board, demanding that these titles be removed from their children’s classrooms and libraries. This phenomenon did not happen in isolation or overnight. Conservative groups feel empowered by Florida’s governor—Ron DeSantis—and his hateful legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and the prohibition of the Read more

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Stern Center, Great Room, 6 p.m.

Livestream Link

War in Gaza: An International Lawyer’s Perspective

Leila Nadya Sadat, the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at Washington University and a Visiting Fellow at the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale

The current war in Gaza has roiled the international community. It has also been deeply upsetting to many in the United States. Historians, politicians, and pundits have weighed in on the origins of the conflict and its current conduct. International law, a discipline based upon global values, norms, and standards, offers a different perspective. This lecture will address the conflict from the perspective of the international lawyer, and discuss, in particular, the work of the United Nations, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which have been tasked with bringing peace to the region and, in the case of the ICC and the ICJ, evaluating the legality of the parties’ conduct. In addition to explaining the role of international law and institutions, the lecture will reflect upon the gaps and shortcomings of the international legal system when faced with a seemingly intractable conflict.

This program is sponsored by the Program in Middle East Read more

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Poster for Matthew SagStern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

The Regulation of AI in the Creative Economy

Matthew Sag,  Professor of Law in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science at Emory University School of Law

Although we are still far from the science fiction version of artificial general intelligence that thinks, feels, and refuses to “open the pod bay doors,” we are clearly in the midst of a fundamental technological change. This presentation will address how Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI challenge existing legal frameworks and how copyright law in particular should respond.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) involves computer systems that can perform tasks that usually require human intelligence, judgement, or perception. AI today is mostly comprised of machine learning (ML). ML is a set of computational methods for classification and prediction based on clever processing of massive amounts of data without any explicit theory. ML models are inherently data dependent, and this presentation will explore some legal and social implications of that dependency. It will also outline how AI raises ethical and legal questions in relation to: the collection and extraction of data; the storage and sharing of data; the legitimacy of algorithmic decision-making; the social impact of Read more

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Joanne Golann Poster for Scripting Moves lecture

Scripting the Moves: Culture and Control in a No-Excuses School

Joanne Golann, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

Silent, single-file lines. Detention for putting a head on a desk. Rules for how to dress, how to applaud, how to complete homework. Walk into some of the most acclaimed urban schools today and you will find similar recipes of behavior, designed to support student achievement. But what do these “scripts” accomplish? Immersing readers inside a “noexcuses” charter school, Scripting the Moves offers a telling window into an expanding model of urban education reform. Through interviews with students, teachers, administrators, and parents, and analysis of documents and data, Golann reveals that such schools actually dictate too rigid a level of social control for both teachers and their predominantly low-income Black and Latino students. Despite good intentions, scripts constrain the development of important interactional skills and reproduce some of the very inequities they mean to disrupt.

Golann presents a fascinating, sometimes painful, account of how no-excuses schools use scripts to regulate students and teachers. She shows why scripts were adopted, what purposes they serve, and where they fall short. What emerges Read more

Monday, April 8, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Glass Walls: A Fireside Chat with Author Amy Diehl

Amy Diehl,  Chief Information Officer at Wilson College
Jill Forrester, Chief Information Officer and VP of Information and Technology Services at Dickinson College

Wilson College CIO and Author Dr. Amy Diehl will join Dickinson College CIO and Vice President of Information and Technology Services Jill Forrester for a fireside chat to discuss Diehl’s new book Glass Walls: Shattering the Six Gender Bias Barriers Still Holding Women Back at Work. They will talk about real examples of the “glass walls” women encounter at work and how leaders, allies and individual women can overcome them. A  book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Information and Technology Services, the Quantitative Reasoning Center, the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, and the departments of data analytics, geosciences, international business & management, mathematics & computer science, psychology, physics & astronomy, and women’s, gender & sexuality studies.

Topic overview written by Phuong Hoang ’26

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Photo of Amy DiehlAmy Diehl, Ph.D., is an award-winning information technology leader, currently serving as chief Read more