Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Bruce R. Andrews Lecture in Political Science

Sueño Americano or Sueño Republicano? Latino Voters in 2020, 2022, and Beyond  

Bernard Fraga, Emory University 

In 2020, support for Joe Biden among Latina/o/x voters was 8 percentage points lower than support for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the largest drop of any racial/ethnic group. While much media and academic attention has focused on understanding the impact of misinformation, COVID concerns, and racial animus on Latino voters in 2020, in this lecture Fraga will discuss co-authored work examining the demographic and core ideological characteristics of Latino voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Using a mix of national survey data, precinct returns, and voter file records, and disaggregating components of electoral change, he provides evidence of increasing alignment between issue positions and vote choice among Latinos. Moreover, he highlights pro-Trump shifts among working-class Latinos and modest evidence of a pro-Trump shift among newly-engaged U.S.-born Latino children of immigrants and Catholic Latinos. Examining evidence from 2022 elections, Fraga concludes by discussing the likelihood of a durable Republican shift for Latinos going forward. 

The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: A Promising Intervention Mental Health Treatment

Alan Davis, Ohio State University

Psychedelic substances produce cognitive effects ranging from psychologically challenging to spiritual, mystical, and insightful. Although several factors are related to the type of psychedelic experiences one might have (i.e., dose, purity of substance, substance used, individual/environmental factors), many report that these experiences are psychologically helpful. For example, cross-sectional surveys and laboratory experiments suggest that psilocybin can have psychotherapeutic benefits, with published reports documenting positive outcomes. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the acute psilocybin experience is associated with positive clinical outcomes and with persisting changes in attitude, mood, personality, beliefs, and behavior among clinical samples with depression, PTSD, addiction, and anxiety. Therefore, this lecture aims to briefly review the empirical literature supporting the study of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, provide a basic framework of the possible acute effects occasioned by these medicines, and assist attendees in developing a foundational understanding of contemporary psychedelic research.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Pre-Health Program and the departments of chemistry and psychology. This event was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers.

Topic overview written Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Social Inequality and Maternal and Child Health in Latin America: A Health Equity Perspective 

Arachu Castro, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine  

In this lecture, Castro will present findings from research she conducted in Latin America on the impact of social inequality, poverty, and violence on maternal and child health outcomes. 

The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of anthropology & archaeology; international studies; Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean studies; and the health studies and pre-health programs.

Topic overview written by Sofia Perrone ’25

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Arachu Castro, Ph.D., MPH, is the Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America and director of the Collaborative Group for Health Equity in Latin America at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. She is a medical anthropologist trained in public health. Before joining Tulane in 2013, she was an associate professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. Among other awards, Castro is the recipient of the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship for her research on HIV and syphilis Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Love Your Body Week Keynote

Bearing Witness to Myself: Womanness, Blackness, Fatness, Wholeness and…the Twisted Work of Trauma

Psyche Williams-Forson,  University of Maryland College Park

This discussion will engage the intersections of womanness, blackness, fatness, and wholeness to consider different definitions of health and personal agency. Creating healthy bodies requires a redefinition of the food stories that define African American culture. And it requires that we push back against acts that demonize and degrade the foods that help communities “to keep on keepin’ on.” Redefining and pushing back is part of the work that helps to heal bodies as well as minds. Healing occurs when we consider the whole person—the cultural, spiritual, biomedical, economic, and social being and when we allow people to live lives that empower and strengthen them without shame or fear of being shamed.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, and the departments of women’s, gender & sexuality studies; American studies, Africana studies; anthropology; and the Food Studies Program. The program is part of Love Your Body Week programming.

Topic Overview written Read more

Mathers Theatre, 6 p.m.

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

Tickets are free, reservations are required. (Link to Reserve Tickets)

The Carlisle Project: Artists in Conversation  

Ronee Penoi, FLORA musicals 
Annalisa Dias, FLORA musicals

The Carlisle Project, written by Ronee Penoi (music/lyrics) and Annalisa Dias (lyrics), unravels the complicated legacy and trauma of Indian boarding schools in an expressive song cycle. The project uses song, satire, and ceremony to tell the harrowing history of the Carlisle Indian School and the brutal assimilation enforced under its motto “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” In this musical song cycle, Indigenous descendants separated by time, place, and experience grapple with the generational trauma and erasure that Carlisle caused and explore what it means to be Native American now.  

In their lecture, Penoi and Dias discuss how The Carlisle Project is an act of decolonization and a restorying of our past, while offering a view of an Indigenous future. 

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center on the Futures of Native Peoples; Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education (Cambridge, NY); the Department of Theatre & Dance; Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

(This event will not be recorded for later viewing.)

Black History Month Keynote

Running from the Washingtons: Ona Judge and The Founding of a Nation 

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Rutgers University 

When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation’s capital. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. As the president grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn’t abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire.

Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. At just twenty-two-years-old, Judge became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts Read more

Waidner Admissions House, Large Meeting Room – 6:45 p.m.

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

From Small Town to Campus: Rural Student Experiences at Research One and Liberal Arts Institutions

Opening Keynote: Rurality and Access to Higher Education

Corinne Smith, Associate Director of Admissions at Yale University

In this forum, Smith will address topics related to rurality and access to higher education, such as the complexities of geographic diversity and defining rural; the challenges in identifying rural and small-town applicants; college access barriers impacting rural students; the importance of rural student organizations; and national efforts to support rural and small-town students. This forum will be moderated by Madison Mellinger, student at Princeton University and will be presented via Zoom to an in-person audience.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Student Engagement, Retention and Persistence at Dickinson. It is part of the national conference “From Small Town to Campus: Rural Student Experiences at Research One and Liberal Arts Institutions.”

Topic overview written by Anne Fisher-Henson ’24

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Corinne Smith (she/her) is an associate director of admissions at Yale University. Originally from a Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

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

The Cradle to Prison Pipeline and the Criminalization of Black Youth  

Kristin Henning, Georgetown Law

Drawing upon twenty-five years of experience representing young people in Washington, D.C.’s juvenile courts, Kristin Henning confronts America’s irrational and manufactured fears of Black youth and makes a compelling case that the nation’s obsession with policing and incarcerating Black America begins with Black children. Unlike White youth, who are afforded the freedom to test boundaries, experiment with sex and drugs, and figure out who they are and who they want to be, Black youth are seen as a threat to White America and denied the privilege of healthy adolescent development. Weaving together powerful narratives and persuasive data, Henning examines the criminalization of Black adolescent play and sexuality, the demonization of Black fashion, hair, and music, and the discriminatory impact of police in schools.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Penn State Dickinson Law; the Center for Civic Learning & Action; the Women’s & Gender Resource Center; and the departments of American studies; educational studies; history; philosophy; psychology; sociology; Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Free Speech on Campus

Sigal Ben-Porath, Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania

Free speech, a staple of modern democracy, has become the focal point for political and cultural forces impacting universities. Higher education is charged with the mandate to expand the boundaries of knowledge; to disseminate knowledge through teaching and other modes; and to serve the public by training citizens and leaders. To do so it must ensure that a broad range of views and approaches are discussed openly. But should all speech be protected in the name of free inquiry? Should the universities allow bigotry or exclusionary speech that targets specific groups? Should it make room for misinformation? Recent speech controversies around the globe expose the difficulty in carving a response in this polarized time. This struggle over the boundaries of speech is based in disagreement over core democratic principles. A democratic framework of inclusive freedom will be presented and defended. It reflects the values of protecting free thought, inquiry and expression, and maintaining a commitment to the dignity of all campus members.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

The Murder of Madam Bessie Jones in Carlisle

J. M. West, Author, Madam Bessie Jones
Pat LaMarche (moderator), Charles Bruce Foundation
Ron Turo, Cumberland County
Carmen James, Cumberland County Historical Society

This October marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Bessie Jones, who ran a brothel in Carlisle in the mid-20th century. The murder remains unsolved, but Jones’s story is remarkable—she was a black entrepreneur whose clients were exclusively white men. West will provide an overview of Jones’s life and the made-for-television legal case associated with her death. The panel will discuss the complex racial, gender, and sexuality issues that the case brings to light.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies.

Topic overview written by Shayna Herzfeld ’25

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

J. M. West, author of the award-winning, Madam Bessie Jones: Her Life and Times,  a tapestry of history: a local brothel owner’s struggles and sacrifices to survive. West also penned the fact based Carlisle Crime Cases series (CCCs) featuring homicide detectives Christopher Snow and Erin McCoy, is Read more