Past Programs

Charlie Hebdo Tragedy: An International Perspective

Charlie Hebdo Poster** Breaking Issue **

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

Panel Discussion

Neil Diamant, professor of East Asian studies, Dickinson College
Kristine Mitchell (moderator), assistant professor of political science and international studies, Dickinson College
Dominique Laurent, associate professor of French, Dickinson College
Edward Webb, associate professor of political science and international studies, Dickinson College

A panel discussion that will address, from international perspectives, some of the causes and effects of the recent attacks on the French satiric magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris.

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

Biography (provided by the panelists)

NJDNeil J. Diamant is professor of Asian law and society and chair of the East Asians studies department at Dickinson College. He is author of Revolutionizing the Family: Politics, Love, and Divorce in Urban and Rural China, 1949-1968 (2000), Embattled Glory: Veterans, Military Families and the Politics of Patriotism in China, 1949-2007 (2009) and co-editor of Engaging the Law in China: State, Society and Possibilities for Justice (2005) Before joining the Dickinson faculty in 2002, he taught at Tel Aviv University in Israel. He teaches classes on various Read more

EBOLA

Ebola PosterThursday, December 4, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Dickinson Faculty Panelists:

Michael Beevers, environmental studies
Marie Helweg-Larsen, psychology
John Henson (moderator), biology

The ongoing Ebola epidemic in West Africa is a World Health Organization classified public health emergency that has caused anxiety around the world, including here within the United States. This panel discussion will focus on the nature and effects of the disease, the perceptions of risk it has generated, and the sociological and public health challenges associated with containing the virus in the source countries.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Beevers MichaelMichael D. Beevers is an assistant professor of environmental studies at Dickinson College. His research examines links between environment, conflict and peacebuilding and how natural resources can be managed in war-torn societies to increase the likelihood of a sustainable peace and development. Dr. Beevers has lived and worked in West Africa for many years and conducts ongoing research in Liberia and Sierra Leone—two Ebola-inflicted countries. He has served as a research associate at Princeton University and as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme and World Resources Institute. He holds a Ph.D. Read more

Brett Walker

Walker PosterProfessor, Montana State University

3/11, Asbestos, and the Unmaking of Japan’s Modern World

Wednesday, December 3, 2014 (Rescheduled from 11/18/14)
Allison Great Hall, 7 p.m.

Walker explores the role asbestos has played in the construction and, more importantly, the destruction of Japan’s environment, with a focus on the natural and the unnatural disasters of the 3/11 disaster and the later clean up.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Studies.

walker brettBiography (provided by the speaker)

Brett L. Walker is Regents Professor and Michael P. Malone Professor of History at Montana State University, Bozeman. His research and teaching interests include Japanese history, world environmental history, and the history of science and medicine. He is author of The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590-1800, The Lost Wolves of Japan, Toxic Archipelago: A History of Industrial Disease in Japan, and the forthcoming A Concise History of Japan, from Cambridge University Press. He has also co-edited two volumes. He spends most of his time in southwestern Montana and the San Juan Islands, where he enjoys the outdoors.

Video of the Lecture

 

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Judge John E. Jones III ’77

Jones PosterU.S. Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Blindfolds Off: How Judges Decide

Tuesday, December 2, 2014 
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Link to Live Stream

A conversation with Judge Jones, U.S. District judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and a Dickinson trustee, about the nature of judging and the role that judges play in American political, social, cultural, and economic life.  Gary Gildin, interim dean and professor of law, The Dickinson School of Law of Penn State University, and Harry Pohlman, professor of political science, Dickinson College, will participate in the discussion.

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

Join the conversation on Twitter with #clarkeforum and #howjudgesdecide.

 Biography 

Independent from the Ground Up – Video and Dickinson Magazine Article about Judge Jones

Jones JohnJudge John E. Jones III commenced his service as a United States District Judge on August 2, 2002. He is the 21st judge to sit in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Judge Jones was appointed to his current position Read more

John Baugh

Baugh Final PosterProfessor, Washington University

Linguistic Relativism: Language, Culture, and Thought

Thursday, November 20, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This presentation draws upon evidence from linguistics, anthropology, and psychology to explore the ways in which human language and corresponding thought processes have been influenced by cultural circumstances.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of English, American Studies, Spanish and Portuguese.  This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Language.

BaughBiography (provided by the speaker)

John Baugh is the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts & Sciences and former director of African and African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he holds academic appointments in psychology, anthropology, education, English, linguistics, African and African American studies, American culture studies, philosophy-neuroscience-psychology and urban studies. Prior to his tenure at Washington University, Dr. Baugh taught at Stanford University, The University of Texas at Austin, and Swarthmore College.

Dr. Baugh has published award-winning books in the fields of anthropology, education, legal affairs, linguistics, sociology and urban studies. His work bridges theoretical and applied linguistics, with particular attention to matters of policy and social equity in the fields of education, Read more

The Death Penalty: Beyond the Numbers

Death Penalty PosterMonday, November 17, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Kathleen Lucas (moderator), director, Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Shujaa Graham, death row exoneree
Spero Lappas, criminal defense attorney
Vicki Schieber, murder victim’s family member

This panel will bring the voices of experience to a conversation about capital punishment. You’ll hear from a man who was exonerated after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to die; the mother of a young woman who was murdered in Philadelphia; and a criminal defense attorney who has represented defendants in death penalty cases. Reality is more complicated than the statistics can communicate adequately. These are the personal stories of those who have been impacted directly by our death penalty system.

Join the conversation on Twitter with #clarkeforum and #deathpenalty.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

kalredKathleen Lucas has been active in human rights work for over 30 years with organizations including Amnesty International, the Pennsylvania Prison Society and the World Organization for Human Rights. Her professional background includes corporate and nonprofit management and consulting specializing in change management and strategic planning. She earned both her B.S. Read more

PTSD: A Panel Discussion

PTSD PosterTuesday, November 11, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Panelists

Kimberly Dozier, 2014-15 Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership
Wendy Moffat, professor, Dickinson College
Rebecca Porter, commander, Dunham U.S. Army Health Clinic, Carlisle Barracks
David Wood, senior military correspondent for The Huffington Post

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that is triggered by experiencing or witnessing a terrifying or traumatic event.  It is not a unusual for veterans returning from war to experience this condition, whether the condition is brief, prolonged, or permanent.  It is estimated that 11-20% of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are suffering from PTSD. This panel discussion will approach the complex issue of PTSD from multiple perspectives.

Join the conversation on Twitter with #clarkeforum and #PTSD.

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

 Biographies (provided by the panelists)


Kimberly Dozier PhotoKimberly Dozier is a contributor to The Daily Beast and CNN, and former correspondent at the Associated Press and CBS News. She holds the 2014-2015 Gen Omar Bradley Chair — a joint initiative among the United States Army War College, Dickinson College and Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and Read more

Janet Astington

Astington PosterProfessor Emerita, University of Toronto

Why Language Matters for Theory of Mind

Thursday, November 6, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Astington will argue that language is critical in the development of theory of mind, which underlies human social interaction and self-awareness.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Psychology, Education and Philosophy.  This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Language.

Astington JWBiography (provided by the speaker)

Janet Wilde Astington is professor emerita at the Institute of Child Study, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. She was born in England and in 1966 immigrated to Canada where she taught high school science. She earned a Ph.D. in applied cognitive science from the University of Toronto in 1985 and then held a faculty position at the Institute of Child Study from 1990 until her retirement in 2012. She is married to John H. Astington (professor of English and drama, University of Toronto) and has two daughters and five grandchildren.

Astington played a central role in the development of the field of children’s theory of mind. She is author of The Child’s Discovery of Read more

Javier Corrales

corrales PosterProfessor, Amherst College

Venezuela: The Politics of Barricades

Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This lecture seeks to explain why Venezuela, the country that has experienced the most spectacular economic windfall in Latin America from 2003 to 2011, is today in one of the worst political crises in the region and one of the worst economic crises in the world. It confronts the question of how “new” is the “new Venezuela” after Hugo Chavez.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Constance and Rose Ganoe Memorial Fund for Inspirational Teaching, courtesy of Professor J. Mark Ruhl and by the Department of Latin American Studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Javier Corrales is professor of political science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is currently working on the fbc c croppedsecond edition of his co-authored book with Michael Penfold, Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela (Brookings Institution Press, 2011).  In addition, he is working on a book project on constitutional assemblies and presidential powers in Latin America.   Corrales is also the co-author with Daniel Altschuler of The Promise of Participation: Experiments Read more

Dorit Bar-On

Bar On PosterProfessor, University of Connecticut

Communicative Intentions and Origins of Meaning

Thursday, October 30, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

What separates human linguistic communication from all forms of nonhuman animal communication and how could it have evolved? I argue that focusing on the role of communicative intention renders the evolutionary emergence of language more puzzling than it needs to be.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Biology, Philosophy, and Spanish and Portuguese.  This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Language.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Born in Israel, Dorit Bar-On received her B.A. from Tel Aviv University in philosophy and linguistics (summa cum laude), while also working as a radio producer and translator of fiction, poetry, aDorit Bar On Photo from her Websitend philosophy.  She continued to study philosophy at UCLA and wrote her dissertation on the Indeterminacy of Translation.  Bar-On has published extensively on topics in philosophy of language and mind, epistemology, and metaethics.  In 2004, she published a book titled Speaking My Mind: Expression and Self-Knowledge (Oxford Clarendon Press).  Work on that book led to her interest in studying continuities between human and non-human communication. Read more

In a Republic Does a Citizen Have a Duty to Vote?

Duty to Vote PosterTuesday, October 28, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Participants:

Dickinson Faculty:
Sarah Niebler, assistant professor of political science
David O’Connell, assistant professor of political science
Thomas Kozdron, class of 2018
Samantha Lodge, class of 2015
Angeline Apostolou (moderator), class of 2015

The 2014 elections will be held on November 4. Do American citizens have a duty to participate in this election? This debate will focus on whether there is such a duty from multiple perspectives.

This event is part of a new series titled Dickinson Debates sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Student Senate Public Affairs Committee.

Biographies (provided by the participants)

nieblersSarah Niebler is an assistant professor of political science at Dickinson College. She studies campaigns and elections, political participation, and political communication and her work is published or forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, Political Communication, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Politics Research. Prior to coming to Dickinson, Sarah was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but is a Pennsylvania native having grown up in Read more

Pennsylvania’s 199th District Debate

th Debate PosterJill Bartoli (D) vs. Stephen Bloom (R)

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 – 7 p.m.
NEW LOCATION:  Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

The Republican and Democratic candidates running in the general November election for the 199th seat in the Pennsylvania state legislature will debate the central issues confronting local voters and answer questions from the audience. The event will be moderated by Michelle Crowley, president and CEO of the Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce.

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, American Association of University Women (AAUW), the League of Women Voters,  YWCA Carlisle and The Sentinel.

Biographies

Jill ProfileJill Bartoli (provided by Bartoli)

I have lived in Cumberland County for my entire life, growing up in a rural area near Cumberland Valley High School, which was built when I was in third grade.  So my first three years of school were in a one room country school house, with a pot-bellied stove and an outhouse, that had grades one to eight.

Growing up, I was a member of the 4-H Baby Lamb Club and 4-H Horse and Pony Club, and I took ballet lessons from Marcia Dale Weary when she Read more

Regionalism in Pennsylvania: Is Bigger Always Better?

Regionalism Final PosterWednesday, October 15, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Ronald Bailey, executive director, Chester County Planning Commission
Elam Herr, assistant executive director, Penn State Assoc. of Twp. Supervisors
Steve Kusheloff, manager, public information, SEDA-COG
Kirk Stoner (moderator), director of planning, Cumberland County

This program will provide an overview of how Pennsylvania developed its system of local government. Local officials will present stories of achievement and lessons learned from specific examples of regional cooperation to identify the principles that will be the foundation for future success.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Ronald BaileyRonald T. Bailey, AICP is the executive director of the Chester County Planning Commission. Mr. Bailey also serves as a member of the Pennsylvania State Planning Board and is a senior research fellow with the Floyd Institute for Public Policy at Franklin and Marshall College. Previously, Mr. Bailey was the executive director of the Lancaster County Planning Commission. Prior to coming to Pennsylvania, he worked in state and local government the Pacific Northwest. He holds a bachelor of science from the California State University at Read more

Susan Carey

Carey PosterProfessor, Harvard University

Do Non-Linguistic Creatures Have a Language of Thought?

Thursday, October 9, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This lecture considers whether the minds of babies and nonhuman animals, on the one hand, and human adults, on the other, are fundamentally alike or radically different from each other.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Psychology, Education and Philosophy.  This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Language.

susan careyBiography (provided by the speaker)

Susan Carey is a professor at Harvard University, where she joined the psychology department in 2001, after having taught at MIT (24 years) and NYU (5 years).  She did her graduate work at Harvard, working with Jerome Bruner and Roger Brown.  She studies conceptual development. Over her whole career, she has worked on explaining how human beings, unique among animals, create the huge conceptual repertoire that characterizes adult thought.  Only humans can think about cancer, global warming, infinity, wisdom, moral obligations…   Her work on this broad problem combines historical case studies, animal cognition studies, but mainly studies with human infants, children and adults.  Her case studies include mathematical concepts, scientific concepts, Read more

Mark Price

Price PosterLabor Economist, Keystone Research Center

Fighting Runaway Inequality: The Minimum Wage Controversy

Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Through the lens of the debate over the minimum wage, Price will explore the connections between public policy, the social sciences and one of the most pressing social issues of our time, the rise of income inequality.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Sociology,  Political Science, Economics, and American Studies.

PriceBiography (provided by the speaker)

Mark Price has been the Keystone Research Center’s (KRC) labor economist for over a decade. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Utah in 2005. The KRC is a non-partisan research and policy development institute based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His areas of research include income inequality, trends in employment and compensation, the construction industry, and low-wage labor markets. Mark’s work involves policy analysis and advocacy on a wide range of issues including, prevailing wage law, unemployment insurance, payday lending, economic and workforce development and tax and budget policy.  His advocacy involves fielding questions from reporters, testifying before the state legislature and making public presentations on current policy issues and Read more

Kimberly Dozier – “General Omar N. Bradley Chair Lecture”

Bradley Lecture Dozier Poster2014-15 General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership

How to Survive a Car Bomb and Anything Else: Turning Healing Anger into Portable Wisdom

Monday, October 6, 2014
Penn State Dickinson School of Law
Apfelbaum Family Courtroom
Lewis Katz Hall Auditorium, 6 p.m.

Dozier’s presentation will draw on her experience covering the war in Iraq for CBS News from 2003 until May 29, 2006, when she was critically wounded in a car bombing that killed the U.S. Army officer that her team was filming, Capt. James Alex Funkhouser, his Iraqi translator “Sam,” and her CBS colleagues, cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan. Dozier recounted the attack in Iraq, her injuries, and the long road to recovery, in her memoir, Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report and Get Back to the Fight.

Link to Penn State Dickinson’s Web site

Biography
Kimberly Dozier is a CNN and Daily Beast contributor and former correspondent for The Associated Press and CBS News. She has received many Edward R. Murrow Awards; a Peabody Award; and three American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) Gracie Awards. She is the first woman journalist to receive the National Medal of Honor Society’s Tex  Read more

Trevor Aaronson

Aaronson Final PosterAward-Winning Investigative Journalist

Inside the FBI’s Terror Factory

Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room

Aaronson, author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism, will explore how the FBI has built up a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the government can then claim victory in the War on Terror.  A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of Middle East studies and religion.

Trevor AaronsonBiography (provided by the speaker)

Trevor Aaronson is an accomplished investigative journalist and author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism.  Aaronson reported and produced a one-hour documentary for Al Jazeera Media Network, “Informants,” about the FBI’s counterterrorism program. He co-founded the nonprofit Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, which won national and regional journalism awards under his leadership, and has written for Mother Jones magazine. A two-time finalist for the Livingston Awards, Aaronson has won more than two dozen national and regional awards, including the Molly National Journalism Prize, Read more

Bob Weick

Weick PosterActor and Monologist, Featured as Karl Marx

Marx in Soho by Howard Zinn

Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 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 actor)

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.org

Click here for campus-only video Read more

Karen Thornber

Thornber PosterProfessor, Harvard University

Ecoambiguity: Asia and the Environmental Humanities

Thursday, September 18, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This talk examines East Asian writing on environmental degradation, introducing the concept of ecoambiguity (environmental ambiguity) to highlight the contradictions in human behaviors vis-a-vis the nonhuman.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department East Asian Studies.

Thornber photoBiography (provided by the speaker)

Karen Thornber is professor and chair of comparative literature, Harvard University; she is also chair of Harvard’s Regional Studies East Asia Program and holds an additional faculty appointment in Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.  Thornber’s research and teaching focus on world literature, East Asian literatures, the literatures of the Indian Ocean Rim, postcolonialism, diaspora, environmental humanities, and medical humanities.

A 2006 Harvard Ph.D., her books include Empire of Texts in Motion: Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese Transculturations of Japanese Literature (Harvard, 2009) and Ecoambiguity: Environmental Crises and East Asian Literatures (Michigan, 2012), both of which were awarded multiple international prizes.  She is the author of over 50 articles/chapters as well as of an award-winning translation of Japanese poetry; Thornber is additionally guest editor of a special issue of the Read more

Kate Martin – Constitution Day Address Lecturer

Director, Center for National Security Studies

Government SurveillMartin Final Posterance and the Bill of Rights

Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

A former senior counter-terrorism official has said that existing surveillance capabilities are creating “the potential for a police state.” This lecture will address whether and how such capabilities can be reconciled with the Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, its protections for freedom of speech and religion, as well as the demands of an open government in a democracy.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Penn State Dickinson School of Law, and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Project on Civilian-Military Educational Cooperation. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

kate martinBiography (provided by the speaker)

Kate Martin serves as director of the Center for National Security Studies, in Washington, D.C., the only think tank and advocacy organization devoted exclusively to preserving civil liberties in the national security context. Martin has served as director since 1992, having joined the Center as director of its Litigation Project in 1988 after 10 years as Read more