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How the Public’s Perception of Face Coverings and Face Masks Can Impact People of Color in the United States During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Thursday, April 30, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

Participants

Safronia Perry, executive director of Hope Station

In Conversation with:
Linh Nguyen ’20, student project co-supervisor at the Clarke Forum
Carolina Celedón ’22, student project manager at the Clarke Forum

As of Sunday April 19^th, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf updated the state response to the Coronavirus to mandate that essential employees wear masks at work. The wearing of face masks and coverings is very new for most Americans. However, in other countries, this practice was already common to guard against air pollution and the spread of disease. The lack of PPE in the United States during the Pandemic has resulted in health officials suggesting that people make their own face masks and coverings using bandanas and other cloth materials. In American cities in particular, bandanas of certain colors are associated with gang membership and violence. This conversation with Safronia Perry will explore how wearing face masks and coverings could intensify racial profiling and stereotyping of people of color in America.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Safronia Perry is the executive director of Hope Read more

April 23rd: World Book Day

Today, April 23rd, is World Book Day. So please, don’t forget to open a book. Today and every day. And read. Here at the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues we take books seriously. And we have fun with them, too. Many of the people we invite to campus are distinguished authors who have written timely and influential books. During this pandemic when things have slowed down some for many of us, perhaps we are finding more time to enjoy reading. I hope so. There is extensive scientific research on the benefits of reading, and these benefits go beyond just getter smarter. For example, a study in the journal Science found that reading literary fiction can make us more empathetic. (Maybe that was Don Quijote’s problem: he went crazy reading trashy stories of chivalry.) The Clarke Forum has hosted hundreds of authors over the years. A recommendation for today from our archive: novelist Yoko Tawada interviewed by student project manager Kaila Basile. After you listen to this fascinating interview, you may want to read Tawada’s The Lost Children of Tokyo, a novel that seems especially pertinent at the present moment.

How many of you know why World Book Day Read more

David McCormick

Bridgewater Associates

* We are conducting this event virtually. It was previously postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

How Mentors Can Shape Your Future: A Conversation with a Global Leader

Wednesday, April 29, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

Dickinson College President Margee Ensign and U.S. District Judge John E. Jones will converse with Bridgewater Associates CEO David McCormick (Bridgewater Associates manages approximately $160 billion in global investments). They will discuss the importance of mentorship and the role mentors can play in developing leadership skills.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Office of the President. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biographies

David McCormick is the CEO of the global investment firm Bridgewater Associates, responsible for overseeing the firm’s strategy, governance, and business operations. McCormick joined Bridgewater in 2009 and previously served as the firm’s president, before becoming Co-CEO in 2017 and the CEO in 2020.

Before joining Bridgewater, McCormick was the U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs in the George W. Bush Administration during the global financial crisis. Prior to that, he served in senior posts on the National Security Read more

John Henson

Dickinson College

The Science of COVID-19: Aspects of Infection, Immunity, Treatment and Testing

Tuesday, April 28, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 has been called the “perfect pathogen” due to it being both highly infectious and virulent. This presentation will provide an overview of our current understanding of how the virus damages the lungs, the good – and bad – of the resulting immune response, the potential for treatments/vaccines, and the mechanisms underlying the various testing strategies.

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

Biography

John Henson is the senior associate provost for Academic Affairs and the Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology at Dickinson College. Henson is a member of the biology department, contributes to the biochemistry and molecular biology and health studies programs, and has taught courses covering aspects of infection vs. immunity, global health and the origins of pandemics. He is a broadly trained cell biologist and comparative immunologist with a long record of external research support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Henson worked on H5N1 pandemic influenza preparedness along with biological weapon nonproliferation while a William C. Foster science Read more

Dana Souders

Licensed Massage Therapist and Life Coach

Pursuing the Good Life During a Pandemic: Pause, Connect, Pivot and Re-Design

Wednesday, April 22, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

We have globally found ourselves in a collective pause from our daily routines and activities. And in many ways life is now forever changed of how we will move forward. We are at a crossroads of sorts. Our nervous systems can be getting quite a workout these past weeks and months and it is important that we meet ourselves and each other with grace. This talk will include some reflections regarding awareness and what happens in our bodies when we are in extended periods of stress and fight/flight/freeze response. Some tools on how to calm the stress response by self regulating and co-regulating. Join in as we explore some ways to support one another in finding our center in the dynamic sea of information and energy. The Good Life, according to Souders, means being able to create a safe haven for ourself and each other as well as a launching pad of re-designing our lives anew as we move forward.

*Special note to the seniors. Souders acknowledges that many of you may Read more

Global Pandemic: What it Reveals About Prospects for a Sustainable World

Tuesday, April 21, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

Dickinson Panelists

Heather Bedi, assistant professor of environment studies
Michael Beevers, associate professor of environmental studies
Neil Leary, director of the Center for Sustainability Education

The effects and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are making visible stark differences in who and what are vulnerable and resilient to its widespread disruptions and dislocations. In this panel discussion, we will explore what the pandemic is revealing about existing inequities and vulnerabilities and implications for pursuing sustainable development goals.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Center for Sustainability Education and is part of Dickinson’s Earth Day Teach-in.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Heather Bedi is an assistant professor of environmental studies at Dickinson College. Funded by the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust, she completed a Ph.D. in human geography from the University of Cambridge. Bedi’s research examines how civil society and socio-environmental movements experience and adapt to natural resource and landscape modifications related to energy processes, climate change, industrialization, and agricultural transitions. Her broader research and teaching interests include environmental and social justice, political ecology, development, planning, and low carbon futures. Her current Read more

Carlisle Artists and Arts Organizations Respond to COVID-19

Thursday, April 16, 2020
Live Stream Event

Panelists

Erika Juran, Carlisle Regional Performing Arts Center
Zach King, Singer/Songwriter
Becky Richeson, Carlisle Arts Learning Center
Sarah Skaggs, Dickinson College

The Coronavirus Pandemic and resulting closure of non-essential businesses, the practice of social distancing and shelter-in-place orders have had serious impacts the lives of artists and arts organizations all across the country. In this discussion we will hear from a local musician and several arts organizations and find out how they are adjusting to this new reality.

The virtual panel will take place via Zoom and will be available for live streaming on the Clarke Forum’s YouTube page or by visiting Clarke.dickinson.edu for the live stream link. Members of the public are invited to watch the discussion and submit questions for panelists in the comments section of the YouTube live stream.

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

Biographies (provided by the participants)

Erika Juran serves as Carlisle Regional Performing Arts Center’s executive director. She has over 17 years of experience in nonprofit management with most of this experience in the arts sector, including service as a leader at an art museum and a Read more

Adapting to Challenging Times: Local Small Businesses Navigate the Coronavirus Response

Wednesday, April 15, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

Panelists

Stephanie Patterson Gilbert, Georgie Lou’s Retro Candy
Tanis Monroy, Destination Carlisle
Kirk Ream, Transformation Training & Fitness

The Coronavirus Pandemic and resulting closure of non-essential businesses and shelter-in-place orders have had serious impacts on small businesses across the nation. In this discussion, small business owners in Carlisle will share the new realities local businesses are adjusting to and how businesses in the Carlisle area are responding to the challenges presented by the pandemic.

Members of the public are invited to watch the discussion and submit questions for panelists in the comments section of the YouTube live stream.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Stephanie Patterson Gilbert is the owner of Georgie Lou’s Retro Candy, a candy, soda, and pop culture store in downtown Carlisle that opened in 2009 that is known for its elaborate store windows and downtown-wide kids events that is has staged for over a decade. Stephanie is also the founder and president of Destination Carlisle, a volunteer merchant organization that helps connect downtown merchants to each other and the community Read more

Food in a Time of Crisis

Tuesday, April 7, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

Panelists

Jenn Halpin, Dickinson College Farm
Andrea Karns, Karns Quality Foods
Robert Weed, Project Share

Access to quality food was already an issue for many families in Central Pennsylvania prior to the arrival of the coronavirus. Today, the question of access is more urgent for many more people. Supply chains are also threatened, as our efforts to respond to the health crisis creates all kinds of unforeseen challenges. A panel of experts will discuss food, food supply chains and food access during a time of crisis.

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

Biographies (forthcoming)

Jenn Halpin has been involved with food systems initiatives at Dickinson and within the region for over 18 years. She co-founded the organic farm at Dickinson College in 2007. In addition to directing all aspects of the farm, Halpin helped to establish Dickinson’s Food Studies Certificate Program and develop regional purchasing initiatives at the college. Additionally, she was the founding president of Farmers on the Square, Carlisle’s thriving producer-only farmers’ market and served on the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) board for nine years, several Read more

Marie Helweg-Larsen

Dickinson College

Why Are We Optimistically Biased About Our Risks?: Applications to the Coronavirus Pandemic

Monday, April 6, 2020
Live Stream Event, NOON – 1 p.m.

The optimistic bias (thinking you are less at risk than other people) is well documented. This talk will explain why it is so pervasive and how it can help us understand complacency in following coronavirus precautionary behaviors.

Biography

Marie Helweg-Larsen is a social psychologist who examines why smart people do dumb things. Helweg-Larsen has examined the causes, consequences, and correlates of optimistic bias (thinking you are less at risk than others) as well as other health-related behaviors and cognitions. Most recently she has examined cross-culturally how moralized beliefs about smoking affect risk perceptions and willingness to quit smoking. In her current NIH-funded research she is examining the effects of stigmatization on smokers’ willingness to quit smoking. Last week Helweg-Larsen began a research project with two Dickinson alumni (Laurel Peterson ’06 and Sarah DiMuccio ’15) in which they are examining the gendered and political factors in the link between coronavirus risk perceptions and preventive behaviors.

Related Links

https://blogs.dickinson.edu/helwegm/

https://theconversation.com/in-battling-the-coronavirus-will-optimistic-bias-be-our-wrongdoing-134476

Video of the Presentation

Providing Safe Shelter When Home is Not a Haven From Crisis

Thursday, April 2, 2020 – 7 p.m.
Live Stream Event

Panelists

Jason Brode, AMEND Program
Sonya Browne, Domestic Violence Services of Cumberland and Perry Counties
Colleen Kinney, YWCA Carlisle
Scott Shewell, Safe Harbour

Around the world people are being told to stay home to help flatten the curve against the spread of Covid-19. But what happens if your home is not safe to shelter-in-place? According to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 123 victims lost their lives to domestic violence last year in Pennsylvania. How is COVID-19 and government recommendations to stay at home, impacting members of our community who are at risk? Representatives from Domestic Violence Services for Cumberland and Perry County, Safe Harbour, YWCA and the AMEND Program will talk about what their organizations and programs are doing to support survivors in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and what resources are available for individuals and families who are not safe (or at risk) at home.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Jason Brode is the executive director of Diakon Youth Services where he directs and administrates all Diakon Youth Read more

Mayor Tim Scott and His Team Explain How Carlisle is Responding to the Pandemic

Wednesday, March 25, 2020 – 7 p.m
Virtual Presentation

Participants:

Tim Scott, Mayor
Sean Shultz, Deputy Mayor
Susan Armstrong, Borough Manager
Jeffrey Snyder, Carlisle Fire Chief

Please join us for our first live-streamed event with our local officials concerning Carlisle’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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

Video of the Presentation

Update on this Semester’s Programming

Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Dickinson College has made the decision to complete the semester online. The college is following federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance that all gatherings of 50 or more people should be suspended for eight weeks. In accordance with this guidance, all Clarke Forum /programs on campus are postponed. We are, however, organizing more live-streaming events so stay tuned. You can take advantage of past programming by viewing our lecture videos or listening to interviews of our guest speakers. Read more

Yes, We’re Engaged in Critical Thinking

Our Spring semester programming began last week with a brilliant talk by Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. She spoke passionately about the important role liberal education must play in the health of our democracy. Pasquerella emphasized central role “educating for democracy” must play in maintaining the health of our society. Democratic societies are by no means unbreakable; the practices, institutions and shared values that sustain them must be continually cultivated and renewed. And this can be achieved, Pasquerella argues, only by a citizenry trained in critical thinking. At the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues we strive to center our work around critical thinking. I was thinking about this earlier today as I was reading Ibram X. Kendi’s acclaimed How to be an Antiracist. Early in the book, Kendi makes the simple but quite astute observation that “Definitions anchor us in principles.” He goes on to say that, “This is not a light point: If we don’t do the basic work of defining the kind of people we want to be in language that is stable and consistent, we can’t work toward stable, consistent goals.” No doubt Kendi’s talk on Thursday will be grounded Read more

Denise Sekaquaptewa (Event Cancelled*)

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

* The event was cancelled due to the college’s response to COVID-19.

Effects of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias on Underrepresented Minorities in STEM

Thursday, April 16, 2020
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This talk will describe social science research findings regarding the experiences of White women and underrepresented racial/ethnic minority (URM) people in STEM fields.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of earth sciences; educational studies; mathematics & computer science; environmental studies; biology; physics & astronomy; and women’s, gender & sexuality studies, the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Inclusivity in STEM committee, the Neuroscience Club, the Anthropology Club and the Women of Color Summit. This event is initiated by the Clarke Forum student project managers.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Denise Sekaquaptewa is University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Her research program in experimental social psychology focuses on stereotyping, implicit bias, and the experiences of women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering. Her research program has been supported by the National Science Foundation, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity. Read more

Environmental Scarcity and Instability in the West African Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin (Event Cancelled *)

Thursday, April 2, 2020
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

* The event was cancelled due to the college’s response to COVID-19.

The Bechtel Lecture

Panelists:

Michael Beevers, Dickinson College
Guy Feldman, former Israel Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS (The Economic Community of West African States)
Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob (moderator and panelist), Dickinson College
Other Panelists: TBD

The West African Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin currently face two major threats: increasing environmental degradation and violence. This forum discusses the destabilizing interactions between declining renewable natural resources (such as fresh water and arable soil), ecological marginalization, resource capture, population growth, the rise of violent extremist networks and weakened governing institutions in the region.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Michael Beevers is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, and contributing faculty in the Department of International Studies at Dickinson College. Beevers specializes in global environmental politics with an emphasis on the linkages between the environment, security, conflict and peace. Beevers was a peace scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington DC, and has served as a research associate at Princeton University and Read more

David Nirenberg – “The Molly and Wayne Borges Memorial Lecture” (Event Cancelled *)

* The event was cancelled due to the College’s response to COVID-19.

University of Chicago

The Molly and Wayne Borges Memorial Lecture

What the History of Anti-Semitism Tells Us about Hate Today

Monday, March 23, 2020
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

From their earliest origins to the present moment, Christians and Muslims have given shape to their faiths by interacting with and thinking about Jews and Judaism. How has that long history of thought contributed to anti-Semitism in the past and present? And what can the study of that history offer the future?”

This event is a joint venture sponsored by St. John’s Episcopal Church on the Square and the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

David Nirenberg has written widely about the ways in which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures interrelate with each other. He is the author of, among other books, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages; Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition; Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism Medieval and Modern; and Aesthetic Theology and its Enemies: Judaism in Christian Painting, Poetry, and Politics. His essays have appeared in the London Review of Books, the Read more

Bread and Puppet Theater (Event Cancelled *)

* The event was cancelled due to the college’s response to COVID-19.

Diagonal Life: Theory and Praxis

Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Allison Great Hall, 6 p.m.

Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater returns to Dickinson College with a new show examining humanity’s current precarious (diagonal) condition: on the verge of collapse, yet always capable of uprising. This show animates the humorous, tragic and bewildering possibilities of diagonality with song, dance, magic, mechanism, and stunning cardboard and paper maché puppets painted in Peter Schumann’s exuberant expressionist style.

After the show Bread and Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye bread with aioli, and Bread and Puppet’s “Cheap Art” – books, posters, postcards, pamphlets and banners from the Bread and Puppet Press – will be for sale.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Department of Theatre and Dance. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Information about the Theater (taken from their website)

The Bread and Puppet Theater was founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side. Besides rod-puppet and hand puppet shows for children, the concerns of the first productions Read more

Tom Brier ’14

Attorney and Author

While Reason Slept: Recapturing the Founders’ Vision of a Rational Republic

Monday, March 2, 2020
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

How did we get to our current state of political acrimony? Brier, the author of While Reason Slept, will walk us through the beginning of our national politics to the present day before offering a solution for recapturing our Founding Fathers’ path to a rational Republic.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Thomas F. Brier Jr. is a native of Hershey, Pennsylvania, growing up as the oldest of three boys. He is a Dickinson College graduate with a degree in philosophy. Brier went on to Penn State Law, received a juris doctor in 2017 and was selected as commencement speaker by his classmates. After graduation, he served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit before joining an international law firm in Philadelphia. At the firm, in addition to working on several multi-million-dollar lawsuits, he worked closely with the SeniorLAW Center and other pro bono legal assistance organization to help low-income families. As a volunteer “Reader” in the Philly Reads Read more

Protests Around the World

Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Panel of Dickinson Faculty

Heather Bedi, environmental studies
Angela DeLutis-Eichenberger, Spanish & Portuguese and Latin American, Latino & Caribbean Studies
Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Italian and film studies
Mireille Rebeiz, French & Francophone and women’s, gender & sexuality studies
Ed Webb, political science and international studies

Protests are breaking around the world, and people are demanding immediate action and calling for changes in governmental, political, and environmental policies. What sparked these protests, and what is next for many of the countries involved? Panelists will address world-wide environmental activism as well as political protests in Algeria, Chile, Iraq, Italy, and Lebanon.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)