Past Programs

Sandra L. Steiner Ball ’84 – “Wesley Lecturer”

SteinerBallPosterBishop, West Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church

Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Wesley Lecture

We Are More Than We Have Become:

John Wesley’s Call to Holiness and Service

In this lecture, the first woman bishop of the United Methodist Church’s West Virginia Conference, Sandra Steiner Ball, will address Wesley’s desire to reform the Church and to move women and men from a passive connection with the Divine, to an active, relational, and accountable life of holiness and service to God. This subject is relevant for today as it was in the 18th Century.

This lecture is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Center for Service, Spirituality and Social Justice, and the Office of the President, and co-sponsored by the Department of Religion, Women’s and Gender Resource Center, Dickinson Christian Fellowship and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

BishopSteinerBallBiography (provided by the speaker)

Sandra L. Steiner Ball, the daughter of Edward J. and Marjorie W. Steiner, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and raised in Milford, Delaware. She is a graduate of Dickinson College, (B.A. in Religion, 1984), Read more

Zach Leverenz ’01

Leverenz Final PosterFounder and CEO, EveryoneOn

Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Allison Great Hall, 7 p.m.
(Reception to follow)

Launch for New Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) Certificate

Business as Unusual: Shared Strategies for Accelerating Change

Leverenz will apply a practitioner’s lens to examine how social entrepreneurs can design shared-value strategies and build cross-sector partnerships that accelerate social impact with immediate scale and sustained success.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) Certificate Program, and the Office of Provost and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

IMGBiography (provided by the speaker)

Zach Leverenz serves as founder and CEO of EveryoneOn, and has led the growth of the organization into a national force for social impact and inclusion.

With a singular focus on providing access to opportunity for all, the organization has adopted a broad, integrative agenda that harnesses the collective expertise and scale of more than 250 cross-sector partners to accelerate meaningful technology adoption for all segments of the unconnected population, including students, families, adults, and seniors.

Through the work of EveryoneOn, Leverenz has become a Read more

Silvia Pedraza

pedraza poster

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Cuba and its Exile: Political Generations

Thursday, December 3, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Using the concept of political generations, Pedraza traces the evolution of the Cuban exile, mostly in Miami, and the Cuban revolution, in the island.  Political generations refers to young people that in their transition from adolescence to adulthood experienced dramatic historical events that marked their consciousness. Pedraza identifies several major political generations that developed during the course of the Cuban revolution and its exile.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the department of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

PEDRAZA PUBLICITY NAVYBiography (provided by the speaker)

Silvia Pedraza is professor of sociology and American culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She was born and raised in Cuba, from where she immigrated with her family at the age of 12. Her research interests include the sociology of immigration, race, and ethnicity in America, and the sociology of Cuba’s revolution and exodus. She places particular stress on comparative studies, both historical and contemporary. Her work seeks to Read more

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima Nagasaki PosterWednesday, December 2, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Dickinson Panelists:

Alex Bates, associate professor of Japanese language and literature
Shawn Bender, associate professor of East Asian studies
Claire Seiler, assistant professor of English
W. Evan Young, assistant professor of history
Shogo Nishikawa, exchange student from Japan

In this panel of four faculty members and a student will each draw from their own research and experience to respond to the questions of how we remember the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  How do these memories shape our contemporary understanding of the past and of current struggles regarding nuclear energy and war?

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

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

batesaAlex Bates is associate professor of Japanese language and literature at Dickinson College. He is a specialist in modern Japanese literature and film. In addition to survey courses in these areas, he has taught courses in Japanese youth culture, ecocriticism, East Asian film, and World War II in Japanese literature and film. Professor Bates’ book on representations of the 1923 earthquake that destroyed Tokyo will be out later this year from the University of Michigan, Center for Read more

Kimberlé Crenshaw – Constitution Day Lecturer

Columbia Law School & UCLA

Black Girls Matter

Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Across the country, women and girls of color face barriers in completing education, accruing wealth, and living free from public and private violence. However, the unique challenges facing women and girls of color are largely invisible in dominant discourses of racial and gender justice. In this talk, Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw will explore historical and contemporary instances of intersectional erasure which have led to neoliberal attacks on the wellbeing of women and girls of color as well as initiatives that increase awareness of challenges facing Black women and girls, such as #SayHerName, #Black Girls Matter, and #WhyWeCantWait.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Penn State Dickinson School of Law and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Life, the Women’s and Gender Resource Center, and the departments of American studies, economics, sociology, and women’s and gender studies. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
KimberleCrenshawKimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, is a leading authority on civil rights, Black Read more

Elizabeth Hinton

Hinton Poster FinalHarvard University

Federal Policy, Urban Policing, and the Roots of Mass Incarceration

Thursday, November 19, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Shedding light on the devastating outcomes and the deep racial disparities within American law enforcement and penal institutions, Hinton traces the development of the War on Crime from its origins in the War on Poverty through the rise of mass incarceration and the War on Drugs in the 1980s. Hinton’s historical account situates the punitive policies of Ronald Reagan not as a sharp policy departure but rather as the full realization of the shift towards surveillance and confinement implemented by previous administrations.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of American studies, history, philosophy and sociology. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Inequality and Mass Incarceration in the United States.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

ehintonimageElizabeth Hinton is assistant professor in the Department History and the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Hinton’s research focuses on the transformation of domestic social programs and urban inequality in the 20th century United States. She is the author of a forthcoming history Read more

Inviting Green Tara: An Illustrated Talk and Tibetan Buddhist Ritual

Monks Tara PosterA Program that is Part of the Tibetan Monk Residency,
Enlightened Activity: The Green Tara Initiative

Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Dan Cozort, Dickinson College
Tibetan Monks, Drepung Monastery’s Gomang College

Mandala making is part of a distinctive religious practice called tantra or vajrayana. The practitioner of the Tara tantra chants a liturgy that describes Tara and the cosmos, symbolized by the mandala, but in three dimensions. As he chants, he visualizes the three dimensional mandala and visualizes Tara within it; then he suddenly becomes Tara and visualizes doing feats of vast generosity and healing. The chanting is done in an unusual and distinctive manner; the monks employ a tone so low that it generates overtones, so that each monk is singing a chord. They also use bells, drums, and sometimes a kind of oboe. Before the puja begins, Prof. Cozort will give a short illustrated talk about Tara, the mandala, and the puja, making the connection between what the monks are doing and Buddhist insights into greed, delusion, and ill-will as the roots of environmental degradation and consumerism.

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

Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte

Emanuelle Oliveira Monte PosterVanderbilt University

Obama Is Brazilian: (Re)Signifying Race Relations in Contemporary Brazil

Thursday, November 12, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Barack Obama’s election to the American presidency in 2009 sparked a renewed interest in the theme of race in the Americas, and worldwide. The sight of an African American as President of the United States led analysts to declare that North America was living in a post-racial era. But Obama’s election also had a tremendous impact on the imaginary of the African Diaspora.  This lecture will examine his characterizations in the Brazilian media, especially in examples of political humor, such as cartoons and memes.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies, Portuguese and Brazilian studies and the department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Oliveira Monte professional pictureBiography (provided by the speaker)
Professor Oliveira-Monte’s research interests include Afro-Brazilian literature, race relations, race in comparative perspective, the Afro-Diasporic experience, the relationship between politics and literature, literature of human rights, as well as Brazilian Cinema and Popular Culture. Her manuscript Writing Identity: The Politics of Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Literature (Purdue UP, 2007) examines the intricate connections between literary production and political action by focusing Read more

Breaking Issue: The Iran Nuclear Deal

Iran Nuclear Deal PosterTuesday, November 10, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:30 p.m.

Dickinson  Panelists:

Andrea Lieber, associate professor of religion and Judaic studies
Jeffrey McCausland, visiting professor of international security studies
Edward Webb, associate professor of political science and international studies
Anthony Williams (moderator), visiting professor of political science and security studies

On July 11th, 2015, Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States reached a historic agreement limiting Tehran’s nuclear ability in exchange for lifting international oil and financial sanctions. The overall goal of the accord is to increase Iran’s “breakout time” – the time it would take Iran to make enough material for a single nuclear weapon. Critics of the negotiation question the verifiability of the constraints and the long-term impact on  regional and world stability.  The panel, comprised of Dickinson College faculty members, will explore the historic negotiation and its international policy, security and cultural implications.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. It is was also initiated by the Student Project Managers of the Clarke Forum.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

lieberAndrea Lieber is associate professor of religion and Sophia Ava Asbell Read more

Doris Fuller

Doris Fuller PosterTreatment Advocacy Center, Arlington, VA

The New Asylums: Mentally Ill and Behind Bars

Thursday, November 5, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

In the 1930s, barely one in 100 jail inmates had a serious mental illness. Today, the most conservative estimates are one in five jail inmates and even more of the prison population. With video, personal story and professional insight, Fuller will discuss the role of mental illness in turning the U.S. into the world leader in incarceration and discuss practical measures to curb this trend.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Life, health studies and the department of psychology. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Inequality and Mass Incarceration in the United States. 

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Doris Fuller SeriousDoris A. Fuller is chief of research and public affairs, where she conducts and directs the Treatment Advocacy Center’s original studies abd research-driven communications, including public education related to mental illness.

Fuller has co-authored several recent studies from the Treatment Advocacy Center, including:

Read more

Nikki Jones

Nikki Jones Final PosterUniversity of California, Berkeley

How Things Fall Apart: Race and Suspicion in Police-Civilian Encounters

Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Drawing on years of field research among Black residents in urban neighborhoods, interviews with police, and videorecordings of police-civilian encounters, sociologist Nikki Jones illustrates how race, suspicion and bias shape the earliest moments of such encounters. She will also share findings from her research which reveals key interactional adjustments that could be used to improve the quality of police encounters with the public.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and the departments of women’s and gender studies, educational studies, policy studies, and sociology. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Inequality and Mass Incarceration in the United States, and its Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

EmilyKiyomiPhotographyBiography (Link to UC Berkeley Web site)

Nikki Jones is an associate professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a faculty affiliate with the Center for the Study of Law and Society. Her areas of expertise include urban ethnography, race and ethnic relations Read more

John Geer

GeerPosterVanderbilt University

The Bruce R. Andrews Lecture

Attacking Democracy

Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

Conventional wisdom says negative political attacks undermine democracy. This lecture will argue, instead, that “attack politics” advance democratic governance.

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

John G. Geer is vice provost for Academic and Strategic Affairs at Vanderbilt UniversitSGy, interim dean of the Graduate School, and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science.  He earned his Ph.D. in 1986 from Princeton University.  Geer is past editor of The Journal of Politics. Geer has published widely on campaigns, elections, and public opinion.  He is author of In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns, which won Harvard University’s Goldsmith Prize in 2008.  Geer has recently published the third edition of Gateways to Democracy (2015).  He has provided extensive commentary in the news media about American politics, including live nationwide interviews for FOX, CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, ABC, and NPR.  Read more

BREAKING ISSUE: The Syrian Migration Crisis

syrian migration crisis posterMonday, October 26, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Kristine Mitchell, associate professor of political science and international studies, Dickinson College
Magda Siekert, lecturer in Middle East studies, Dickinson College
Marybeth Ulrich, professor of government, U.S. Army War College
Andrew Wolff (moderator), assistant professor of political science and international studies, Dickinson College

Since March 2011, 49% of the Syrian population have migrated from the country, fleeing the brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad, the rise of jihadists, and the proxy war between regional and world powers to seek refuge in Europe and most recently, the United States. This is the largest displaced persons population in history. With the war and turmoil in Syria only intensifying, Syrian refugees are continuing to make the treacherous journey to surrounding countries by any means possible. This panel, comprised of Dickinson and U. S. Army War College faculty members, will explore the international security, diplomatic and social implications of the displacement and how the world powers are responding to the crisis.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is a Clarke Forum Student Project Manager initiated event.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

mitchelkKristine Mitchell is Read more

Cumberland County Commissioner Candidates’ Forum

Cumb Co Comm Forum PosterThursday, October 15, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Vince DiFilippo (R)
Gary Eichelberger (R)
Jim Hertzler (D)
Rick Rovegno (D)

The four candidates vying for the three seats on the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners will meet for a candidates’ forum. James Hoefler from Dickinson College will moderate.

The event is sponsored by the The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College, the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, American Association of University Women (AAUW) Carlisle Branch, Carlisle Young Professionals, Carlisle YWCA, League of Women Voters Carlisle Area and The Sentinel. Read more

Steven Strogatz – “Joseph Priestley Award Recipient”

Strogatz PosterCornell University

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Synchronization in Nature

Monday, October 12, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Strogatz will discuss spectacular examples of synchronization in nature, from rhythmically flashing fireflies to crowds of pedestrians that inadvertently caused London’s Millennium Bridge to wobble on its opening day.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year.  The Department of Physics and Astronomy has selected this year’s recipient, Steven Strogatz. The event is supported by the College’s Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Student Senate and the Churchill Fund  and co-sponsored by the departments of physics and astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, environmental studies, math & computer science, and psychology.

strogatz photo by John GrooBiography (provided by the speaker)

Steven Strogatz is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He works in the areas of nonlinear dynamics and complex systems, often on topics inspired by the curiosities of everyday life. He studied at Princeton, Cambridge, and Harvard and taught at MIT before moving to Cornell in 1994. A renowned teacher and one of the world’s most highly cited mathematicians, he has blogged about math for the New York Read more

Christopher Wildeman ’02

Wildeman Final PosterCornell University

With Comments by Lauren Porter ’06, University of Maryland

Family Life in an Era of Mass Incarceration

Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This lecture will consider the implications of mass incarceration for American families, focusing especially on the consequences of men’s incarceration for their parents, partner, and progeny.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Inequality and Mass Incarceration in the United States.

portrait cjw from Cornell Web siteBiographies (provided by the speakers)

Christopher Wildeman is an associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University. He is also currently a senior researcher at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit in Copenhagen, Denmark (since 2015) and a visiting fellow at the Bureau of Justice Statistics in Washington, D.C. (since 2013). Prior to joining Cornell’s faculty, he was an associate professor of sociology at Yale University (from 2010-2014) and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Michigan (from 2008-2010). He received his Ph.D. in sociology and demography from Princeton University in 2008 and his B.A. in philosophy, sociology, and Spanish from Dickinson College in 2002. His interests revolve around Read more

Patricia Hill Collins – “Morgan Lecturer”

PHC Final PosterUniversity of Maryland

Intersectionality, Black Youth and Political Activism

Thursday, October 1, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.

Live Stream Link

This talk examines how intersectional frameworks shed light on new directions for anti-racist activism, especially among African American youth.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Morgan Lecture Fund and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund, Division of Student Life, the departments of sociology, women’s and gender studies, Africana studies, American studies, anthropology, English, history,  philosophy, and political science. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Inequality and Mass Incarceration in the United States and the Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

PatriciaHillCollins Head ShotBiography (provided by the speaker)

Patricia Hill Collins is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park and Charles Phelps Taft Emeritus Professor of Sociology within the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her award-winning books include Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990, 2000) which received both the Jessie Bernard Award of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems; Read more

Bob Weick

Weick PosterActor and Monologist, Featured as Karl Marx

Marx in Soho by Howard Zinn

Monday, September 28, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.

Karl Marx launches into a passionate, funny and moving defense of his life and political ideas in Howard Zinn’s brilliant and timely play, Marx in Soho.

The presentation is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of economics and sociology.

Marx Photo with ManifestoBiography (provided by the speaker)

Bob Weick, is the national touring actor of Howard Zinn’s, Marx in Soho. The celebrated actor and Barrymore Award nominee has presented over 250 performances of Zinn’s play from Maine to California. A farrier by trade, Bob began his acting career in 1995 and in the aftermath of the 2000 election, 9/11, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, chose to use his talent to contribute to the education and engagement of students and citizens.

Related Links
www.ironagetheatre.orghttp://phindie.com/howard-zinn-bob-weick-peoples-history-6757/

Video of Performance for Campus-Viewing Only

  Read more

Anthony Ingraffea

Ingraffea PosterCornell University

Shale Gas and Oil Development: Latest Evidence on Leaky Wells, Methane Emissions, and Energy Policy

Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.
(360 W. Louther Street, Carlisle, PA)

Ingraffea will discuss the myths and realities concerning large-scale development of unconventional natural gas/oil resources in shale deposits on both a local and global scale.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund,  Center for Sustainability Education, department of environmental studies and Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM). The program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s  Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Dr Ingraffea ithaca fallsBiography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Ingraffea is the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering Emeritus and a Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow at Cornell University where he has been since 1977. He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado. Dr. Ingraffea’s research concentrates on computer simulation and physical testing of complex fracturing processes. He and his students performed pioneering research in the use of interactive Read more

Rush Holt

Final Holt PosterAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

The Glover Memorial Lecture
Advancing Science

Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.
(360 W. Louther Street, Carlisle, PA)

Science is, as physician and essayist Lewis Thomas wrote, the “shrewdest maneuver” for discovering the world. Asking questions that can be answered empirically and engaging in open communication so that others can collectively review and verify possible answers lead to the most reliable knowledge—a knowledge that is powerfully applicable in daily life. To thrive, however, science needs the support of the society it serves, and that support must be cultivated.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Glover Memorial Lecture Fund and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and the departments of physics, policy studies and political Science. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)holt aaas px

Rush D. Holt, Ph.D., became the 18th chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the Science family of journals in February 2015. In this role, Holt leads the world’s largest multi-disciplinary scientific and Read more