Past Programs

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

Kay Redfield Jamison – “Morgan Lecturer”

Jamison Poster FinalProfessor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Mood Disorders and Creativity

Thursday, February 27, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

A possible link between madness and genius is one of the oldest and most persistent of cultural notions; it is also one of the most controversial.  The lecture will present evidence for significantly increased rates of depression and bipolar illness in writers and artists, discuss possible reasons for these elevated rates, and open up for discussion areas of potential clinical and ethical concern.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Student Senate Public Affairs Committee, the Office of Student Development, the Wellness Center and the Departments of American Studies, Psychology, Art and Art History, Sociology, and Health Studies.

Kay PICTBiography (provided by the speaker)

Kay Redfield Jamison is the Dalio Family Professor in Mood Disorders, Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center. She is also honorary professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.  She is the co–author of the standard medical text on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness, which was chosen as the most outstanding book in Read more

Central America on the Precipice

Central America Final FinalWednesday, February 26, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Participants

Michael Allison, professor, University of Scranton
Christine Wade, professor, Washington College

The two panelists will discuss current developments in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador as well as the general impact of Central America’s role as the key transshipment point for cocaine headed to the United States.

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 also the Department of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Mike AllisonMichael Allison is an associate professor of political science at the University of Scranton. He also directs the University’s Education for Justice program and is a faculty member in the Latin American Studies program. He graduated with a BA (1996) in politics and minors in Latin American and Caribbean studies and peace justice studies from Fairfield University in Connecticut. He received his master’s (2001) and Ph.D. (2006) in political science from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

His teaching and research interests concern the comparative study of civil war and civil war resolution, particularly Read more

Bart Ehrman – “Mary Ellen Borges Memorial Lecturer”

Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jesus and the HistorianEhrman poster

Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Biblical scholars have long recognized the discrepancies between the four New Testament Gospels and the difficulties that result in determining who Jesus really was.  Can these four Gospels be relied upon to give us an accurate account of Jesus’s words and deeds?

This event is sponsored by St. John’s Episcopal Church on the Square and the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

ehrman bartBiography (provided by the speaker)

Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He came to UNC in 1988, after four years of teaching at Rutgers University. He served as chair of the UNC Department of Religious Studies from 2000-2006.

Professor Ehrman completed his M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees at Princeton Seminary, where his 1985 doctoral dissertation was awarded magna cum laude.   An expert on the New Testament and the history of Early Christianity, he has written or edited 29 books, numerous scholarly articles, and dozens of book reviews.  In addition to works of scholarship, Professor Ehrman has written several textbooks for undergraduate students and trade books Read more

Ira Glick ’57

Glick PosterProfessor Emeritus, Stanford University Medical Center

The New Neuroscience

Friday, February 21, 2014
Denny Hall, Room 317, 5 p.m.

Rapid advances in understanding how the brain works have led to dramatic and exciting changes in clinical practice and research in psychology, psychiatry and medicine. Glick will present a brief historical overview of these developments and suggest future opportunities for advancement.

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

Biography  (forthcoming)
Ira Glick ’57 is a professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center.

Video of the Lecture

 

  Read more

Scott Sumner

Sumner PosterProfessor, Bentley University

Market Monetarism and the Crash of 2008

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

By focusing on nominal GDP as an indicator of both economic conditions and a target of policy, the real problem with the financial crisis of 2008 was that policymakers misdiagnosed what was occurring.  Market monetarism can help us better understand the underlying nature of the 2008 crisis, along with current issues in monetary policy.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of International Business & Management.

scott sumnerBiography (provided by the speaker)

Scott Sumner is a professor of economics at Bentley University and has taught there for the past 31 years. He earned a B.A. in economics at the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago. Sumner’s research has been in the field of monetary economics, particularly the role of the gold standard in the Great Depression.  His other research includes liquidity traps, and how monetary policy can be effective at the zero interest rate bound.  Sumner’s policy work has focused on the importance of expectations, particularly policies aimed at targeting expectations in futures markets.  In Read more

Catherine O’Reilly

OReilly PosterFinalProfessor, Illinois State University

Global Consequences of Current Lake Warming

Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Current climate change significantly affects water quality and fish production in freshwater ecosystems with potentially dire consequences for developing countries. This talk explores global patterns in recent lake warming, and describes how these changes are related to climate, geography, and lake shape.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

OReilly picCatherine O’Reilly is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography-Geology at Illinois State University. Her research focuses on nutrient cycles and freshwater biogeochemistry, with an interest in human impacts and climate change. Much of her initial work focused on Lake Tanganyika, East Africa, where her research was among the first to show ecosystem-scale impacts of current climate change. Dr. O’Reilly is involved in the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) and the Global Lake Temperature Collaboration (GLTC). She has been the recipient of several National Science Foundation awards and given scientific presentations around the world. Dr. O’Reilly has a B.A. from Carleton College and a Ph.D. from the University Read more

Freedom of Religion: A Debate

Freedom of Religion PosterWednesday, February 5, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Kim Colby, senior counsel, Christian Legal Society
Heather Weaver ’99, senior staff attorney, American Civil Liberties Union
David O’Connell, moderator, professor, Dickinson College

Colby and Weaver will debate the issues of two freedom-of-religion cases that are currently before the Supreme Court: Greece v. Galloway, which concerns the constitutionality of starting a town council meeting with a prayer; and Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, which addresses whether the Affordable Care Act can require a family-owned business to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives despite the religious objections of the owners.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Religion and Political Science. This is a Clarke Forum Student Project Manager initiated event.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Colby bioKim Colby has worked for Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981. She has represented religious groups in several appellate cases, including two cases heard by the United States Supreme Court. She assisted in congressional passage of the Equal Access Act, 20 U.S.C. § 4071, et seq., which protects the right of Read more