Past Programs

Joseph R. Núñez

Nunez Poster FinalColonel, U.S. Army (ret.)

** Breaking Issue **

ISIS in IRAQ: What are our Options?

Thursday, September 11, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The brutal beheading of American journalist James Foley has dramatically raised the stakes regarding what policy the United States should pursue in reaction to the rise of ISIS in Iraq. Núñez, who served over five years in Iraq, will offer his assessment of the situation and discuss what he thinks is the best way forward.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Project on Civilian-Military Educational Cooperation.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Nunez R and Sheikh Abu ChaffatDr. Joseph R. Núñez spent 30 years in the army and retired as a colonel in 2007.  He had the privilege and opportunity to command at the company and battalion level, leading as many as 750 soldiers.  His primary specialty was logistics, which was well tested with a major deployment to Haiti in 1994 for Operations Restore and Uphold Democracy, as he was responsible for planning and executing all logistical support to the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) under very austere and challenging conditions.

Dr. Núñez two Read more

Stephanie Kaza

Kaza PosterProfessor, University of Vermont

Buddhist Contributions to Climate Ethics

Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This lecture will draw on Buddhist environmental thought to explore climate change and consumerism looking at human behavior and ethical choice.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of East Asian Studies, Religion, the Center for Sustainability Education, and the Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

stephanieDr. Stephanie Kaza is professor of environmental studies at the University of Vermont and director of the Environmental Program. Her courses include Unlearning Consumerism; Religion and Ecology; Women, Health, and Environment; and other values-based courses. She co-founded the Environmental Council at University of Vermont, a campus-wide consortium on sustainability, and is the faculty director for the UVM Office of Sustainability and Sustainability Faculty Fellows program. Her current scholarship focuses on Buddhist perspectives on climate ethics and bicycle commuting quality of life benefits.

Dr. Kaza is the 2011 winner of the UVM George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching. Her books include Mindfully Green (2008), Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Read more

World War I: The Consequences

WWI Poster FinalTuesday, September 9, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Wendy Moffat, professor, Dickinson College
Dominique Laurent, professor, Dickinson College
David Commins, professor, Dickinson College
Crystal Moten, professor, Dickinson College
Douglas Mastriano, professor, U.S. Army War College

In commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the start of World War I, this panel discussion will explore the consequences of this world-shattering event from multiple and diverse perspectives in an effort to better understand the impact that international conflicts can have on the social, economic, cultural, ethnic, and political dimensions of human life.

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

Biographies (provided by the participants)moffat

Wendy Moffat, professor of English at Dickinson College, is the author of the award-winning biography A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster ( 2010.) A scholar of 20th century British and American culture, she is writing a dual biography of the psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Salmon and the war correspondent Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant in World War I.

 

Dominique Laurent began teaching at Dickinson in the falllaurent of 1995. He has taught all classes in the French program, including senior seminars such as “America Read more

World War I: The Causes

WWI Poster FinalMonday, September 8, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Kamaal Haque, professor, Dickinson College
Craig Nation, professor, U.S. Army War College
Michael Neiberg, professor, U.S. Army War College
Karl Qualls, professor, Dickinson College

In recognition of the centennial anniversary of the beginning of World War I, this panel discussion will address the causes of this world-changing event from multiple and diverse perspectives in an effort to better understand the origins of international conflicts.

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

Biographies (provided by the participants)

haquekKamaal Haque is an assistant professor of German at Dickinson College. His research interests include German film, the literature and culture of the German-speaking Alps, and the influence of the Middle East in German culture. He has published on such diverse topics as the German mountain film, the poetry of Goethe, and Muslim minorities in Germany today. In addition to courses at all levels of German language and culture, he has taught recent courses such as Mountains in the German Cultural Imagination, Minority Cultures in the German Context and Modern German Film. This semester he is teaching German Literature and Culture of the First World Read more

Ukraine Update – NEW DATE – MAY 1

Ukraine UpdateNew Date:
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Noon – 1 p.m.

** Bring your Lunch **

Panel Discussion

Participants:

Kristine Mitchell, assistant professor political science and international studies
Anthony Williams, visiting professor of security studies, Dickinson College
Andrew Wolff, professor of political science, Dickinson College
Karl Qualls (moderator), associate professor of history, Dickinson College

Following Russia’s annexation of the former Ukrainian province of Crimea, the United States and its European allies have imposed sanctions on Russia, but pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists have responded by occupying government buildings in eastern Ukrainian cities and Russia has demanded that the Ukraine adopt a federal constitutional structure that would grant considerable autonomy to Russian-speaking areas of the country.  The panel will consider the implications of these ongoing developments from the perspective of the Ukrainian government in Kiev, NATO, the European Union, Russia, and United States.

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

Biographies of the Panelists

Kristine Mitchell is assistant professor of political science and international studies at Dickinson College. Her teaching and research interests include European and EU politics, labor politics, and Left parties. She has conducted field research across Western Europe and has held visiting Read more

Should Pennsylvania Legalize Marijuana?

Marijuana posterWednesday, April 23, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Participants:

Marc Mastrangelo, professor of classical languages, Dickinson College
Crispin Sartwell, associate professor of philosophy, Dickinson College
William Nelligan, class of 2014
Willa Hut, class of 2017
Alex Toole ’14 (moderator), class of 2014

Crispin Sartwell, associate professor of philosophy, and Willa Hut ’17, will argue in favor of the motion, while Marc Mastrangelo, professor of classical studies, and Will Nelligan ’14 will argue in opposition.  The debate will focus in part on the consequences of legalizing marijuana, both positive and negative, as well as how the question relates to the rights and duties of a human being.

This event is the first in 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)

Marc Mastrangelo is a professor of classical studies and has taught  at Dickinson for 17 years. He has published books and articles on the literature of the later Roman Empire, Greek tragedy, and ancient intellectual history. He is cofounder of the Humanities Collective and faculty advisor to the Quads Neighborhood.

Crispin Sartwell is an associate professor of Read more

Revisiting the Cold War: CIA Analysis and Collection

Coldwar PosterinddPanel I:

Resolving the Missile Gap

Monday, April 21, 2014
Althouse Hall, Room 106, 7 p.m.
Dickinson College

Panelists:

John Bird, Central Intelligence Agency (Ret.)
Richard Immerman, U.S. Army War College
Fred Kaplan, Slate Magazine
Gene Poteat, Central Intelligence Agency (Ret.)
Moderator: Major General William Burns, U.S. Army (Ret.)

In the 1950s, our nation faced one of the gravest military threats in its history. The Soviet Union had nuclear weapons and boasted they had the means to deliver them. Was the U.S. truly vulnerable to a first strike? Intelligence analysts had few answers and assertions of “Bomber Gaps” and “Missile “Gaps” abounded.  President Eisenhower recognized that aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union was the answer. The story of the U-2 and Corona satellites is now history, but the success of those programs and their follow-on versions is the stuff of today’s high-tech intelligence and warfare.

Link to more information on the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center Site

Panel II:

CIA Analysis of the Warsaw Pact: The Importance of Clandestine Reporting

Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Army Heritage and Education Center, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
(950 Soldiers Drive, Carlisle PA)

Panelists:

John and Joan Bird Read more

The Rule of the Clan – Panel Discussion

Rule of the Clan Final PosterWednesday, April 16, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Carol Horning, professor, U.S. Army War College
Mark Weiner, professor, Rutgers School of Law
Andrew Wolff, professor, Dickinson College
Erik Love (moderator), professor, Dickinson College

This panel discussion will focus on the special challenges of democratic political development faced by nations whose social organization is rooted in the traditional extended family. In these social-economic conditions that are based on the clan, what are the realistic prospects and most promising paths for liberalizing reform?

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

Carol HorningCarol Horning is the professor of international development at the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, U.S. Army War College.  A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of counselor, Ms. Horning has served for 28 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development, promoting sustainable economic development, participatory governance, health and education, primarily in conflict-affected or post-conflict countries.

Most recently, Ms. Horning served as director of the Office of Social Sector Development Read more

James Salzman

Salzman poster finalProfessor, Duke University

Drinking Water

Tuesday, April 8, 2014     
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

By explaining how drinking water highlights the most pressing issues of our time, from globalization and social justice to terrorism and climate change, and how humans have been wrestling with these problems for centuries, Salzman shows us how complex a simple glass of water can be.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Economics, Chemistry, Mathematics  and Computer Science, Environmental Studies and Environmental Science.  It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Water.

Salzman preferred SeptBiography (provided by the speaker)

James Salzman holds joint appointments at Duke University as the Samuel Fox Mordecai Professor of Law at the Law School and as the Nicholas Institute Professor of Environmental Policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment. In more than eight books and seventy articles and book chapters, his broad-ranging scholarship has addressed topics spanning trade and environment conflicts, drinking water, environmental protection in the service economy, wetlands mitigation banking, and the legal and institutional issues in creating markets for ecosystem services.

A dedicated classroom teacher and colleague, Salzman has twice been voted Professor of the Read more

Suzanne Corkin

corkin poster finalProfessor Emerita, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Permanent Present Tense

Tuesday, April 22, 2014       
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Relying on 55 years of behavioral and imaging studies, Corkin shows that short-term, long-term, declarative, and nondeclarative capacities of memory rely on different brain circuits.  The case of Henry Molaison, who at age 27 underwent an experimental brain operation that left him in dense amnesia with a preserved intellect, will be discussed in some detail.  A book sale and signing will follow.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Biology and Psychology.

Corkin PicBiography (provided by the speaker)

Suzanne Corkin is professor of neuroscience, emerita in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She arrived at MIT in the fall of 1964, having just received her Ph.D. in comparative and physiological psychology from McGill University. Her first accomplishment was establishing the Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory at the newly opened Clinical Research Center. She joined the faculty in 1981 as an associate professor. Corkin’s research over the last 48 years has focused on the study of patients with neurological disease, with the goal of linking specific cognitive  processes, particularly memory, to discrete Read more

A. Breeze Harper

Breeze Harper PosterResearch Fellow, University of California, Davis

Vegan Food Politics: A Black Feminist Perspective

Thursday, April 3, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Using the analytical lenses of critical whiteness studies and black feminism, this lecture will explore how issues of food, health, and “ethical eating” in American veganism are informed by embodied experiences with race, gender, and legacies of colonialism.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Student Senate and co-sponsored by the Department of American Studies, Women’s and Gender Resource Center, Center for Sustainability Education, Office of Diversity Initiatives and the Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies.

skinnyjeansandafroBiography  (provided by the speaker)
Dr. A. Breeze Harper is the director and founder of the Sistah Vegan Project. Her emphasis are in the the intersections of critical food studies, critical race studies, and black feminist theorizing. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis and is currently a research fellow in the human ecology department of University of California where she is currently researching key black male vegans who use hip hop and decolonial methodologies for their health, food, and environmental activism. You can follow her work at
www.sistahvegan.com Read more

Chris Crass

Crass PosterCommunity Organizer and Author

Towards Collective Liberation

Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Crass will draw lessons from American social movements and his own experiences working within them over the past 25 years to help us see how divisions of race, class and gender can become bridges to help expand democracy and create healthier communities for all.

This event is sponsored by the Division of Student Development, the Churchill Fund and the Departments of American Studies, Sociology and Political Science.  It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

HeadshotBiography (provided by the speaker)

Chris Crass is a longtime organizer working to build powerful working class-based, feminist, multiracial movements for collective liberation.  Throughout the 1990s he was an organizer with Food Not Bombs, an economic justice anti-poverty group, strengthening the direct action-based anti-capitalist Left.  In the 2000s, he was an organizer with the Catalyst Project, which combines political education and organizing to develop and support anti-racist politics, leadership, and organization in white communities and builds dynamic multiracial alliances locally and nationally.

He has written and spoken widely about anti-racist organizing, lessons from women of color feminism, strategies to build visionary Read more

Tamara Lawson

Lawson PosterProfessor, Saint Thomas University School of Law

Stand Your Ground: Discretion, Race, and Culture

Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Allison Great Hall – 7 p.m.

An engaging conversation about how discretion, which is exercised at all levels of the criminal justice system, can affect the outcomes of criminal cases, including claims of self-defense and the right to stand-your-ground.  The dynamics of the discretionary decisions made by legislatures, prosecutors, judges, and juries, in controversial homicide cases like the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman case, the Marissa Alexander case, and the Michael Dunn case, as well as other high profile criminal cases, will be discussed.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Development and the Women’s and Gender Resource Center.

Lawson TBiography (provided by the speaker)
Tamara F. Lawson is a tenured professor of law at Saint Thomas University School of Law. She joined the Saint Thomas Law faculty in 2004 where she teaches criminal law,criminal procedure, evidence, and a seminar on race and the law. Professor Lawson has twice been awarded Professor of the Year at St. Thomas. Prior to joining the law faculty, Professor Lawson served as a deputy district attorney Read more

Snowden Reflections

Snowden Panel Final PosterTuesday, March 25, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room – 7 p.m.

The Snowden leaks of classified information over the last several months have highlighted a number of important issues, including the lawfulness of certain surveillance programs of the National Security Agency, the proper balance between national security and privacy/civil liberties, and the impact the leaks have had on U.S. foreign relations and the intelligence community.  This panel discussion will address these issues with a general focus on the impact that the Snowden disclosures have had on the United States and its constitutional framework.

Panelists

Amy Gaudion, assistant dean for Academic Affairs, Penn State Dickinson School of Law
Bert Tussing, director of the Homeland Defense and Security Issues Group, Center for Strategic Leadership and Development, U.S. Army War College
Anthony Williams, visiting professor of security studies, Dickinson College
Harry Pohlman (moderator), A. Lee Fritschler Chair in Public Policy and executive director of the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Dickinson College

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Amy C. Gaudion is the assistant dean for Academic Affairs, Penn State Dickinson School of Law.  Professor Gaudion’s scholarly and teaching Read more

Laura Suchoski

Suchoski Poster FinalSocial Media Manager, McKinney

Sports, Social Media & the Empowerment of Women

Monday, March 24, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The ever-growing landscape of social media is changing how we, as fans and athletes, consume sports.  Laura Suchoski, a former social media manager at ESPN, will be exploring social innovations in sports media and how businesses are using them to engage diverse audiences with a focus on women.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

lsuchoski kLaura Suchoski is a social media and creative marketing professional, currently social media manager at the advertising agency McKinney in North Carolina.  Prior to joining McKinney in 2014, Laura managed social media for four years at ESPN and espnW, the company’s business dedicated to female fans and athletes.  Growing up with three competitive siblings and parents who drove her to far-away clinics and tournaments, Laura developed a passion for sports and being a part of a team.  She became the first four-time field hockey All-American at Duke University, a two-time captain, All-Academic honoree, and Athlete of the Decade.  Laura competed with the U.S. Field Hockey National Read more

Howard Winant

Winant Poster FinalProfessor, University of California, Santa Barbara

The Dark Matter: Race and Racism

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

Race and racism are in many ways the building blocks of the contemporary world and the social universe we take for granted.  The unfreedom, despotism, exclusion, inequality, and violence that are associated with the absolutist regimes from which contemporary society has evolved lives on in the profound presence of race and racism: the “dark matter” of our lives today.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of American Studies, Spanish & Portuguese, Sociology, and Middle East Studies.

HWBiography (provided by the speaker)

Howard Winant is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is also affiliated with the Black Studies and Chicana/o Studies departments.  He chaired the UCSB Law and Society program during the 2009-2010 academic year.  He received his Ph.D from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1980.  He has worked and taught in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

Winant is the founding director of the UC Center for New Racial Studies (UCCNRS), a MultiCampus Research Program active on all ten UC Read more

Steven Solomon

Solomon Final PosterAuthor and Commentator

Brave New World of Water

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Freshwater, civilization’s most indispensable resource, is growing increasingly scarce. Solomon will explore how global water resource scarcity is transforming our economies, politics, environment, national security, basic human health and what we can do about these trends.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Water.

Steven SolomonBiography (provided by the speaker)

Steven Solomon has written for The New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Economist, Forbes, and Esquire. He has been a regular commentator on NPR’s Marketplace, and has appeared as a featured guest on the late the “CBS Evening News,” BBC-TV, “Morning Joe“ (MSNBC), “Tavis Smiley,” Tim Russert’s CNBC show, Al Jazeera, Fox News, “The Diane Rehm Show,” NPR’s Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered and The World, Larry Mantle’s “AirTalk,” “The Jim Bohannon Show,” Bloomberg TV, and various other news programs.

Solomon has addressed the Carnegie Council, Wilson Center, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Department of Defense, Read more

Ukraine?

Ukraine Final Poster Resch**  Breaking Issue **

Thursday, March 6, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

As the Sochi Olympics were drawing to a close, the long simmering tug-of-war between the EU and Russia over the future of Ukraine boiled over into street violence and political chaos in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. This panel will examine the origins of this crisis, the interests at stake for Russia, the EU, and the US, and the possible outcomes and consequences for international relations and for Ukraine itself.

Panelists

R. Craig Nation – Visiting Professor of Political Science & Security Studies, Dickinson College;  and Professor of Eurasian Studies at the U.S. Army War College
Karl Qualls – Associate Professor of History, Dickinson College
Marybeth Ulrich – Professor of Government, Department of National Security and Strategy, U.S. Army War College
Russell Bova (moderator) – Professor of Political Science, Dickinson College

Biographies (provided by the panelists)Nation

R. Craig Nation has been professor of strategy and director of Eurasian studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania since 1996. He also serves as a visiting professor of security studies at Dickinson College. Professor Nation specializes in the foreign policy and security affairs of the Europan Read more

Carl Bruch

Bruch PosterSenior Attorney, Environmental Law Institute

Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding

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

Sorting myth from reality by drawing upon an emerging body of research on water and peacebuilding, Bruch will survey what we have learned about water, conflict, and peacebuilding over the past twenty years.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Water.

Bruch portraitBiography (provided by the speaker)

Carl Bruch is a senior attorney and co-director of international programs at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI).  He has helped countries and organizations throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe develop and strengthen their environmental laws, improve institutions, and build capacity.  He has worked on a range of issues related to natural resources, conflict, and post-conflict peacebuilding, including in East Timor, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Liberia, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan, among other countries. He is currently coordinating a global initiative with UNEP, the University of Tokyo, and McGill University to examine experiences in managing natural resources to support post-conflict peacebuilding.  This initiative is generating six edited books with 150 case studies by 225 authors in 50 countries (Earthscan 2012-2014), Read more

The Eisenhower Series College Program

ESCP Poster finalTopic: U.S. Security Policy

Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Participants

Lt. Col. Robert Borcherding, U.S. Army
Capt. Jim Boswell (Facilitator), U.S. Navy
Lt. Col. Paul Brooks, U.S. Army
Cmdr. Anthony Conley, U.S. Navy
Col. Michael Daniels, U.S. Army
Col. Kelly Ivanoff, U.S. Army

The Eisenhower program is an academic outreach designed to encourage dialogue on national security and other public policy issues between students at the U.S. Army War College and students/faculty at other academic institutions.

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

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Boswell picCaptain Jim Boswell (facilitator of the event) was born at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida and grew up on Air Force bases in Europe and the Far East.  He attended high school and college in the great state of Florida and holds a bachelor’s of science in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida and a master’s of science in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey California.  He is also a graduate of the Read more