Past Programs

Joanne Miller

University of Delaware

The Bruce R. Andrews Lecture

Why People Believe Conspiracy Theories

Monday, February 4, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

Miller will discuss her research on the roots of conspiracy theory beliefs, including the motivating forces of self-concept preservation, uncertainty, and powerlessness.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Bruce R. Andrews Fund.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Joanne M. Miller is associate professor of political science and associate professor of psychology and brain sciences at the University of Delaware. Her work, which has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, centers on the psychological underpinnings of political attitudes and mass behavior. She is the recipient of three best paper awards from the American Political Science Association, including the Paul Lazarsfeld Award for the best paper delivered on a Political Communication panel (for her co-authored paper (with Kyle L. Saunders and Christina E. Farhart) titled “Conspiracy Endorsement as Motivated Reasoning: The Moderating Roles of Political Knowledge and Trust”). She has published articles in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, and Public Opinion Read more

Beth Norcross – “Wesley Lecturer”

The Center for Spirituality in Nature

Wesley Lecture

Church of the Wild: A New and Old Way of Experiencing Spirituality

Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Norcross will share information about her organization’s new Church of the Wild, that gathers people in nature to celebrate the mutual indwelling of the Divine and the earth. She will discuss how the gathering is attracting both regular church-goers as well as those for whom traditional church is not appealing.

This lecture is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Center for Service, Spirituality and Social Justice with special thanks to the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church and co-sponsored by Division of Student Life; the College Farm; the Center for Sustainability Education; the Women’s & Gender Resource Center; and the departments of religion and environmental studies. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Founder and executive director Beth Norcross brings her training and experience in both theology and ecology in founding and leading the Center for Spirituality in Nature. An enthusiastic and popular teacher, speaker and preacher, she loves to share her passion and Read more

Macarena Gómez-Barris

Pratt Institute

Extractive Zones + Decolonial Praxis

Monday, January 28, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Based on her book, The Extractive Zone, this talk explores the old and new sites of land and water defense, and artistic and activist responses to these issues. Gómez-Barris will discuss work from the Américas to argue for alternative modes of living, being, and doing from within and outside of the extractive zones.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the departments of Latin American, Latino & Caribbean studies; Spanish & Portuguese; environmental studies; art & art history; and anthropology & archaeology. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Macarena Gómez-Barris is chairperson of the Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies and director of the Global South Center (GSC) at Pratt Institute. She is author of three books including The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives that theorizes social life, art, and decolonial praxis through five extractive scenes of ruinous capitalism upon Indigenous territories (Duke University Press, 2017). Gómez-Barris’s recent book Read more

Feminist Sorority Women: A Place for Intersectionality in Tradition?

Thursday, November 29, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists

Donna Bickford (moderator), Dickinson College
Brontè Burleigh-Jones, Dickinson College
Diana Turk, New York University
Deborah Whaley, University of Iowa

Sororities can be both a place for women’s empowerment and a site that produces elitism and constructs stereotypical gender roles. This student-initiated panel of experts will address the history of sororities and the possibilities for activism within them.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of English, American studies, philosophy, sociology, women’s, gender & sexuality studies, the First Year Seminar Program, the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, Kappa Delta Pi, and the Churchill Fund. This program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s Student Project Managers and it is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Donna M. Bickford has served as the director of the Women’s and Gender Resource Center at Dickinson since January 2016. She also teaches in women’s, gender and sexuality studies and serves as co-chair of the President’s Commission on Women, Gender and Sexuality. Previously she was the director of the Carolina Read more

Jane Mt. Pleasant

Cornell University

The Paradox of Productivity: Lessons from an Indigenous Agriculture

Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) agricultural systems in the 17th and 18th centuries were three to five times as productive as their European counterparts at the same time. This lecture provides insights into this ‘paradox of productivity.’

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and the departments of anthropology & archaeology, American studies, environmental studies, philosophy, history and the food studies program. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and its semester theme, Indigeneity in the Americas.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Jane Mt. Pleasant, associate professor in the Horticulture Section of School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University, studies indigenous cropping systems and their productivity. Using her expertise in agricultural science, she examines agriculture from a multi-disciplinary perspective that includes history, archeology, paleobotany, and cultural/social anthropology. Although much of her work has focused on Haudenosaunee agriculture in the 16 through 18^th centuries, more recently Read more

Daniel Ziblatt

Harvard University

How Democracies Die

Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Is democracy in decline around the world? Is American democracy itself in trouble? Examining the history of democracy in the United States against a global backdrop of how democracies have died throughout history, Ziblatt comes to some surprising conclusions about the sources of vulnerability and strength in American democracy today. After Ziblatt’s presentation, Prof. David O’Connell will offer a brief scholarly counterargument that challenges certain aspects of Ziblatt’s book as they pertain to the American political system. A book sale and signing will follow the program.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of political science and international studies, and the Churchill Fund. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Daniel Ziblatt is Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University and a faculty associate at Harvard’s Minda De Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He researches and teaches in European politics, democratization, and historical political economy.

He is the author of three books, including two recent books, How Democracies Die (2018) (co-authored Read more

Dovie Thomason

Storyteller and Activist

Residency: Monday, October 29 – Friday, November 2, 2017

How the Wild West was Spun

Thursday, November 1, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Thomason’s story begins in 1887, eleven years after the battle of the Little Big Horn, when Buffalo Bill Cody brought his premiere of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to Europe, cementing Cody as one of the most famous people of his day. His show, which he called The Drama of Civilization, attracted millions and affected perceptions of history to the present day.

This residency is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and the departments of English, anthropology & archaeology, sociology, history, American studies, and theatre & dance.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dovie Thomason has been a storyteller and lecturer for over thirty years, sharing the importance of Indigenous narratives and arts to give voice to untold stories of Indigenous America. Her ability to craft tales that not only enchant audiences––but also
raise provocative questions about Indigenous realities ––has long made her an inspiriting contributor to schools and organizations across Read more

Eboo Patel

Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC)

Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise

Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

America is the most religiously devout country in the Western world and the most religiously diverse nation on the planet. Will America’s identity as a Judeo-Christian nation shift as citizens of different backgrounds grow in numbers and influence? In what ways will minority religious communities themselves change as they take root in American soil? In addressing these questions, Eboo Patel will explore how America’s promise is the guarantee of equal rights and dignity for all, and how that promise is the foundation of America’s unrivaled strength as a nation. A book sale and signing will follow the program.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by The Marjorie M. and Irwin Nat Pincus Fund in Honor of their Daughters, The Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life, the Division of Student Life, the Center for Service, Spirituality & Social Justice, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Inclusivity, the Departments of Judaic Studies and Religion, the First Year Seminar Program and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Read more

Congress to Campus

Monday, October 15, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists

Don Manzullo, (R-IL, 1993-2013) (Replacing Jim Kolbe, R-AZ)
Betsy Markey, (D-CO, 2009-2011)
David O’Connell (moderator), Dickinson College

Live Stream Link

A bipartisan pair of former members of Congress will look back on their own experiences in government and reflect on the challenges currently facing the United States of America. This discussion will be moderated by political scientist David O’Connell.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the department of political science, the Churchill Fund, and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Inclusivity.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Don Manzullo recently retired as president & CEO, KEI, Korea Economic Institute of America. During his 20 years of service representing the 16^thDistrict of Illinois, Manzullo was a leading voice in shaping congressional economic and foreign policy towards the Asia Pacific region. He started his career in the House of Representatives in 1993 on the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and ended his tenure in Congress serving as the Republican leader of this pivotal subcommittee from 2007 until 2013, including chairing the Asia subcommittee Read more

Sustainable Endowment?

Thursday, October 11, 2018
Weiss Center for the Arts, Rubendall Recital Hall, 3 p.m.

Panelists

Alice Handy, Investure
Sarah Kolansky, Graham Partners
Rob Symington, Dickinson Board of Trustees

What is the purpose of Dickinson’s endowment? How is it managed? Should Dickinson join a growing movement to invest our endowment in ways that align with community values regarding corporate behavior, social justice, environmental stewardship, climate change and other issues? What might be the implications for the performance of our endowment and the financial wellbeing of the college? Is it possible to have a sustainable endowment? Join us for a discussion about these issues.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the President’s Office, Dickinson Sustainable Investment Group, Board of Trustees, Office of Finance & Administration, and Center for Sustainability Education.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Alice Handy founded Investure in December 2003. Prior to founding Investure, Alice spent 29 years managing the endowment of the University of Virginia. She started as the first investment officer, later became treasurer, and finally president of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company. Alice began her career as a bond portfolio manager and

NAACP

Environmental Racism in the Age of Climate Change

Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

Environmental racism proliferates throughout the climate change continuum from who is most likely to be exposed to the co-pollutants from facilities that spew the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, to who is most likely to be displaced or even killed from climate change induced disasters. The depth of the systemic inequities require a transformative response to ensure that civil, human, and earth rights are upheld. A book sale and signing will follow the program.

The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, the Churchill Fund, the departments of American studies, sociology, Africana studies, the program in policy studies, the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM), and the Center for Sustainability Education. This program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s Student Project Managers and it is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Jacqueline Patterson is the director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. Read more

Bob Weick

Actor and Monologist, Featured as Karl Marx

Marx in Soho by Howard Zinn

Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

In Howard Zinn’s one-person play, Karl Marx, the revolutionary socialist, comes back to earth to clear his name. Performed by Bob Weick, Marx in Soho, is a freewheeling and entertaining show, and Weick delivers an impassioned performance that connects Marx to contemporary themes.

The presentation is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of history, sociology, economics, American studies and the First Year Seminar program.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Bob Weick is the celebrated national touring actor of Howard Zinn’s Marx in Soho. A veteran stage actor in Philadelphia, he is a two-time Barrymore nominee with Iron Age Theatre (TERRA NOVA) and Theatre Horizon (CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION). Weick’s friendship and working relationship with the late Howard Zinn began in 2004 with the critically acclaimed sold out Philadelphia premiere of Marx in Soho. Weick has gone on to perform the piece over 300 times across the country from Maine to California.

Weick is a company member of Iron Age Theatre, where he collaborates with artistic director John Doyle Read more

Angela Belcher – “Joseph Priestley Award Recipient”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Giving New Life to Materials for Energy, the Environment and Medicine

Thursday, September 27, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

This talk will address the possibilities Engineering Biology provides for working with a larger toolkit of materials to tailor properties in devices for energy, environmental remediation, and cancer diagnostics and treatment.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Chemistry has selected this year’s recipient. The event is supported by the College’s Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of biology, chemistry, earth sciences, environmental studies, mathematics & computer science, psychology, and physics & astronomy and the Churchill Fund. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography

Angela Belcher is a biological and materials engineer with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid-state chemistry and devices. Her primary research focus is evolving new materials for energy, electronics, the environment, and medicine.

She received her B.S. in creative studies from The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Read more

Neal Katyal

Georgetown Law

Talk is Trump and the Rule of Law

Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general of the United States, will be discussing the Supreme Court, President Trump, the Mueller investigation, and the rule of law in a wide ranging discussion.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Penn State’s Dickinson Law and co-sponsored by the Departments of Political Science and History.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Neal Katyal is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of Law at Georgetown University and a partner at Hogan Lovells. He previously served as acting solicitor general of the United States. He has argued 37 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, with 35 of them in the last 9 years. Most recently, Neal argued the “Travel ban” case on behalf of the State of Hawaii against President Trump in the Supreme Court of the United States. In the 2016-17 term alone, Neal argued 7 cases in 6 separate arguments at the Supreme Court, far more than any other advocate in the nation – nearly 10% of the docket. At the age of 48, he has Read more

The Fugitive Slave Law and the Crisis Over Immigration Policy: Assessing a Forgotten Legacy

Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Address

Monday, September 17, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

Panelists:

Richard Blackett, Vanderbilt University
Andrew Delbanco, Columbia University
Judy Giesberg, Villanova University
Matthew Pinsker (moderator), Dickinson College

The controversial 1850 Fugitive Slave Law provoked a bitter national debate over open borders, due process, family separation, federal power and northern states’ rights. Our panelists will discuss those earlier controversies and assess how they might offer important insights or perspective for the current and increasingly intense debates over Trump Administration immigration policies. A book sale and signing will follow.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the House Divided Project and co-sponsored by the Departments of History and American Studies and the Program in Policy Studies.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Richard Blackett is Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. He is the author, most recently, of The Captive’s Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and the Politics of Freedom (2018) and Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Freedom (2013). He teaches courses on 19th century U.S. history and the history of the Caribbean. During Read more

Dan Longboat – Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky)

Trent University

Honoring Indigeneity: Indigenous Knowledge(s) and Indigenous Sovereignty

Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

For millennia Indigenous Nations have cared for and actively engaged with the landscape and through our respective cultures and unique ways of life have worked to create the bio-diverse richness of the Americas. Today, the Americas are confronted by a complexity of issues and problems that Indigenous Knowledge(s) can help to address. But we’ll need to start from the beginning, opening our minds to learning, understanding and honoring the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and the departments of anthropology & archaeology, American studies, psychology, environmental studies, and earth sciences. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and its semester theme, Indigeneity in the Americas.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dan Longboat – Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky) is a Turtle Clan member of the Mohawk Nation and a citizen of the Rotinonshón:ni (Haudenosaunee – People of the Longhouse), originally from Ohsweken – the Six Nations community on the Grand River. Longboat is an associate professor in the Read more

Rick Smolan ’72

New York Times Best-Selling Author and National Geographic Photographer

The Good Fight: America’s Ongoing Struggle for Justice

Friday, April 27, 2018
Althouse Hall, Room 106, 4:30 p.m.

Smolan will share images and stories from his new book The Good Fight. The book captures the sporadically violent, often triumphant, always risky struggles of Americans who have experienced hatred, oppression or bigotry because of their gender, skin color, country of origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability or beliefs over the past 100 years. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Rick Smolan, CEO of Against All Odds Productions is a New York Times best-selling author with more than five million copies of his books in print. A former Time, Life, and National Geographic photographer, Smolan is best known as the co-creator of the “Day in the Life” book series. His global photography projects, which feature the work of hundreds of the worlds leading photographers and combine creative storytelling with state-of-the-art technology, are regularly featured on the covers of prestigious publications around the globe including Fortune, Time, and GEO. His latest book, Read more

Stephen Walt

Harvard University

Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars Program

Where is U.S. Foreign Policy Headed?

Thursday, April 26, 2018 (Rescheduled from March 22, 2018)
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Watch Live Stream

This lecture explores the future of U.S. foreign policy under President Trump. Walt argues that Trump, his bellicose tweets notwithstanding, is gradually being captured, coopted, and constrained by the foreign policy establishment. Under Trump, therefore, U.S. foreign policy is likely to be an even more inept version of our recent follies.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Phi Beta Kappa and co-sponsored by the Office of Academic Advising, Political Science and International Studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Stephen Walt is Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former academic dean. He also taught at Princeton and the University of Chicago and has been a resident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. He is a contributing editor at Foreign Policy, co-chair of the editorial board of International Security, and co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs book series. A fellow of the American Academy Read more

Dale Bredesen

UCLA and Buck Institute

Reducing the Global Burden of Dementia: The First Alzheimer’s Survivors

Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Watch Live Stream

Bredesen describes his treatment for Alzheimer’s and pre-Alzheimer’s, along with associated challenges and implications. 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 Office of Senior Associate Provost; the Career Center; Pre-Health Society; Pre-Health Program; Division of Student Life; the Wellness Center; Department of Biology; and the Program in Policy Studies. It was initiated by the Clarke Forum Student Project Managers.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dale E. Bredesen, M.D. received his undergraduate degree from Caltech and his medical degree from Duke. He served as resident and chief resident in neurology at UCSF, then was postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Prof. Stanley Prusiner. He was a faculty member at UCLA from 1989-1994, then was recruited by the Burnham Institute to direct the Program on Aging. In 1998 he became the founding president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, and Adjunct Professor at UCSF; then in 2013 he returned to UCLA as Read more

Aloys Mahwa

Living Peace Institute – Promundo

Masculine Identity and Sexual Gender Based Violence: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Thursday, April 19, 2018
Althouse Hall, Room 106
Noon – 1 p.m. (Light lunch will be provided)
RSVP strongly encouraged, but not required to clarkeforum@dickinson.edu.

Sexual gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been described as the worst in the world. Mahwa will discuss ProMundo and Living Peace Institute preventative approaches that engage men, working to eradicate the root causes of violence.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Aloys Mahwa is Promundo’s Living Peace project director in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Using group therapy and group education techniques, the Living Peace initiative addresses the trauma associated with conflict and promotes equitable, nonviolent paths to healing for individuals, families, and communities.

Mahwa manages the scale-up of Living Peace in the North and South Kivu provinces of eastern DRC, playing a key role in coordinating stakeholder working sessions, developing the Living Peace Institute, documenting and building upon the program’s lessons learned and best practices, and supervising monitoring and evaluation of the initiative. Mahwa joined Promundo after five Read more