Past Programs

danah boyd

Final Boyd PosterFounder and President, Data & Society

Fairness and Accountability in Algorithmic Culture

Monday, October 23, 2017 
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Data-driven and algorithmic systems increasingly underpin many decision-making systems, shaping where law enforcement are stationed and what news you are shown on social media. In this talk, boyd will unpack some of the unique cultural challenges presented by “big data” and machine learning, raising critical questions about fairness and accountability.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science and Student Senate. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Big Data.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

MSR edanah boyd is the founder and president of Data & Society, a research institute focused on understanding the role of data-driven technologies in society. She is also a principal researcher at Microsoft Research and a visiting professor at New York University. Her research is focused on addressing social and cultural inequities by understanding the relationship between technology and society. Her most recent books – It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens and Participatory Culture in a Networked Age – examine the intersection of Read more

Damián Sainz

Sainz PosterCuban Filmmaker

Imagining Cuba: Emerging Documentary Filmmaking within Social Change

Thursday, October 19, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Sainz explores the struggles of the emerging generation of documentary filmmakers in contemporary Cuba.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Spanish & Portuguese; Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies; Latin American, Latino & Caribbean Studies; Film Studies; the Women’s & Gender Resource Center; and First Year Seminars.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

BATERÍA Damián Sainz eDamián Sainz  graduated from the University of Arts, Havana, Cuba with a degree in media arts and from the EICTV (International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños) with a degree in documentary direction. Sainz also studied at the Mel Oppenheim Film School in Montreal, Canada and at the Cinema Department at HEAD Genève, Switzerland. Sainz has worked as director, editor and producer in documentary films in Cuba, Canada, Switzerland and Spain and has collaborated with visual arts projects like Galeria Continua, Inventario at the Ludwig Foundation and online project Docuselfie. His short documentary films, focused on LGBTQ culture in the island and Cuban youth, have been selected and awarded in several international film festivals Read more

Republican Politics Today

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Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

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Panelists

Reneé Amoore, Republican Party of Pennsylvania
Robert Borden ’91, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Brandon Ferrance, Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans
Jim Gerlach ’77, Business-Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC)
David O’Connell (moderator), Dickinson College

Drawing from state and national politics, this panel will explore who identifies as and what it means to be a Republican today. Particular attention will be paid to the definitions of conservatism and the challenges Republicans face in Pennsylvania as a swing state, adding context to political debates on Dickinson’s campus.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Life, the Departments of American Studies and Psychology and the Program in Policy Studies.  This program was also initiated by the Clarke Forum Student Project Managers.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

RA Bio picReneé Amoore is a longtime advocate of clinically-appropriate and cost effective alternatives to expensive healthcare, and began her foray into the medical field as a registered nurse with training at Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. Earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Antioch University, Amoore catapulted Read more

Raquel Cepeda

Cepeda PosterJournalist, Critic, Filmmaker, and Autobiographer

Remixing the American Dream

Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

The American Dream, Cepeda argues, is a pipedream for some and a birthright for others. Challenging the absurdity of the black-white national conversation about the American dream, Cepeda offers a working and accessible revision to suit generations of Americans, like her, who have been pushed to the margins.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Popel Shaw Center for Ethnicity & Race, the Division of Student Life, and the Departments of Spanish & Portuguese, English, and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Raquel CepedaBorn in Harlem to Dominican parents, award-winning journalist, cultural activist, podcaster, and documentary filmmaker Raquel Cepeda is the author of Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina. Equal parts memoir about Cepeda’s coming of age in New York City and Santo Domingo, and detective story chronicling her year-long journey to discover the truth about her ancestry, the book also looks at what it means to be Latinx today. Cepeda’s latest documentary Some Girls, produced by Henry Chalfant and Sam Pollard, Read more

Peterson Toscano

Toscano PosterTheatrical Performance Artist

Everything is Connected

Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Connecting contemporary issues to his own bizarre personal experiences, literature, science, and even the odd Bible story, Peterson Toscano takes his audience on an off-beat mental mind trip. A shapeshifter, he transforms right before your eyes into a whole cast of comic characters who explore the serious worlds of gender, sexuality, privilege, religion, and environmental justice.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education, the Office of LGBTQ Services, the Center for Service, Spirituality and Social Justice, the Women’s and Gender Resource Center, the Department of Religion, the Department of Theatre & Dance, and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Toscano photoDrawing on comedy, storytelling, and history, Peterson Toscano creates original content for the stage and the Internet that inspires curiosity about climate change. Peterson’s unique personal journey led him into performance art. After spending 17 years and over $30,000 on three continents attempting to de-gay himself through gay conversion therapy, he came to his senses Read more

Richard Alley – “Joseph Priestley Award Recipient”

Poster Alley FinalPennsylvania State University

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

The Good News on Energy, Environment and Our Future

Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

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Humans have burned trees, whales, and now fossil fuels far faster than they grew back, enjoying the energy but suffering the environmental impacts and then shortages. Now, we are the first generation that can build a sustainable energy system, improving the economy, employment, environment, ethics, and national security.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Earth Sciences 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.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

alley head shotRichard Alley (Ph.D. 1987, Geology, Wisconsin) is Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences at Penn State.  He studies the great ice sheets to help predict future changes in climate and sea level, and has conducted three field seasons in Antarctica, eight in Greenland, and three in Alaska.  He has been honored for research (including Read more

Alexander Heffner – “Constitution Day Address Lecturer”

heffner posterJournalist, Writer and Civic Educator

Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Address

Civil Discourse in an Uncivil Age

Monday, September 18, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

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Heffner will discuss the millennial citizen, the space of old and new media, and the character of contemporary political discourse. How can we restore faith in democracy?

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Penn State’s Dickinson Law and co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Division of Student Life and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

AHAlexander Heffner is the host of The Open Mind on PBS. He has covered American politics, civic life and Millennials since the 2008 presidential campaign. His work has been profiled in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Medium, and on NBC News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, CNN, BBC and NY1, among other media outlets. His essays, reviews and op-eds have appeared in TIME, Reuters, RealClearPolitics, NYT’s Room for Debate Read more

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz – “Morgan Lecturer”

Final Dunbar Ortiz PosterAmerican historian, writer and feminist

Morgan Lecture

The Genocidal Foundation of the United States

Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Dunbar-Ortiz will provide a history of settler colonialism and genocidal war that she argues forms the foundation of the United States. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Morgan Lecture Fund and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund. It is  also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma.  As a veteran of the Sixties reOrtiz Picvolution, she has been involved in movements against the Vietnam War and imperialism, union organizing, and was one of the founders of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the late 1960s. Since 1973, she has worked with Indigenous communities for sovereignty and land rights and helped build the international Indigenous movement. With a doctorate in History, she professor emerita at California State University East Bay, and author of numerous scholarly Indigenous related books and articles, including Roots of Resistance:  A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico and The Great Sioux Read more

Breaking Issue: North Korea Today

NorthKoreaPanelPosterThursday, September 7, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Jina Kim, Dickinson College
Richard Lacquement,  U.S. Army War College
Jeff McCausland, Dickinson College
Douglas Stuart (moderator), Dickinson College

This panel of experts will share their ideas regarding the current North Korean political situation, including such perspectives as the relationship between North Korea and South Korea, tactics to control the nuclear threat, and U.S. policy.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Political Science, International Studies and East Asian Studies.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

kimji Kim JinaJina E. Kim is visiting assistant professor of East Asian Studies with a focus on modern Korean history, literature, and media. Her research and teaching areas include Korea under Japanese colonial rule, transnational Asian studies, Korean diaspora, and Korean War, all of which pay close attention to the history of North Korea and North Korean relations with its East Asian neighbors. Her writings on these topics have appeared in Journal of Korean Studies, Review of Korean Studies, and Harvard Asia Quarterly, among others.

Richard A. Lacquement Jr. is the dean of the School of Strategic Landpower at Read more

H. Andrew Schwartz

Schwartz PosterStony Brook University

The Power of Big Social Media Data

Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Schwartz will focus on what large-scale social media data can reveal about the users generating it and how this is changing social science.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science and the Department of American Studies. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Big Data.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

PortaitH. Andrew Schwartz is an assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University (SUNY), where he runs the HLAB: Human Language Analysis Beings, and teaches courses in data science. His interdisciplinary research focuses on large and scalable language analyses for health and social sciences. Utilizing natural language processing and machine learning techniques he seeks to discover new behavioral and psychological factors of health and well-being as manifest through language in social media. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Central Florida in 2011 with research on acquiring lexical semantic knowledge from the Web, and he was previously a visiting assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Read more

Lance Freeman

Freeman PosterColumbia University

The End of the Ghetto? Gentrification in Black Neighborhoods 1980-2015

Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

In the first decades of the 21st century gentrification has accelerated in black neighborhoods across a number of cities. This talk examines the prevalence of this trend, some possible causes and the implications for the Black Ghetto.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Black Student Union, the Departments of Political Science, Economics, and Sociology and the Program in Policy Studies. This is a Clarke Forum student project manager initiated  event.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Lance Freeman PicLance Freeman is a professor in the Urban Planning Program at Columbia University in New York City. His research focuses on affordable housing, gentrification, ethnic and racial stratification in housing markets, and the relationship between the built environment and well being. Freeman teaches courses on community development, housing policy and research methods.  He has also taught in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware.  Prior to this, Freeman worked as a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, a leading social policy research firm in Washington D.C.  Freeman holds a Read more

Kelly Brownell – “Joseph Priestley Award Recipient”

Brownell PosterFinalDuke University

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Harnessing Academic Work to Make a Difference: Food Policy as an Example

Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

With the goal of more tightly connecting work in academic settings with the real world of social and policy change, a model of strategic scholarship will be described. Examples will be drawn from work on food policy (e.g., menu labeling, food marketing, soda taxes).

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year.  The Department of Psychology has selected this year’s recipient, Kelly Brownell. 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, math & computer science, psychology, and physics & astronomy.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Kelly Brownell is dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, wherebrownell he is also Robert L. Flowers Professor of Public Policy and professor of psychology and neuroscience.

In 2006 Time magazine listed Kelly Brownell among “The World’s 100 Most Influential People” in its special Time 100 issue featuring those “.. whose power, talent Read more

Winona LaDuke – “Morgan Lecturer”

Final LaDuke PosterExecutive Director, Honor the Earth

Morgan Lecture

The Next Energy Economy: Grassroots Strategies to Mitigate Global Climate Change & How We Move Ahead

Wednesday, March 22, 2017 
(Rescheduled from Fall 2016)
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Native American writer and activist Winona LaDuke will draw from her grassroots experiences, including the #NoDAPL movement at Standing Rock, to explore how we can move forward to create a new energy economy. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Morgan Lecture Fund and co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education, the Churchill Fund and the Departments of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Environmental Studies, American Studies, Anthropology & Archaeology and Political Science.  It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s  Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and part of the Clarke Forum’s Fall 2016 semester theme, Food.

laduke winonaBiography (provided by the speaker)

Winona LaDuke is an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development renewable energy and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Read more