Past Programs

Jenny Reardon

Reardon PosterDirector, Science & Justice Research Center, UC, Santa Cruz

The Anti-Racist Democratic Genome?

Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The opening decade of this millennium witnessed genome scientists, policy makers, critical race theorists and world leaders proclaiming the anti-racist democratic potential of human genomics.  These views stand in stark contrast to the 1990s concern that genomics might create new forms of racism.  This lecture explores this shift, both why it happened and what it reveals about emerging challenges for understanding issues of race and racism in the genomic age.

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

Reardon PicBiography (provided by the speaker)

Jenny Reardon is an associate professor of sociology and faculty affiliate in the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  She also founded and directs the UCSC Science and Justice Research Center.  Her book, Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics, was published with Princeton University Press in 2005.  Reardon is

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Citizenship and Partisanship

Citizenship Poster with Bannerindd FINALFriday, September 27, 2013
Allison Hall (former Allison Church), 3 p.m.

Panelists:

John E. Jones III ’77 filling in for James Gerlach ’77, U.S. Representative, PA 6th District
Lisa Jackson, vice-president of Environmental Initiatives at Apple and the current Rose-Walters Prize winner for Global Environmental Activism
Joseph Sestak, former three-star admiral and congressman, and the 2013-14 recipient of the General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership

Professor Douglas Edlin, political science, will moderate a panel discussion that will explore how partisanship is related to the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in the contemporary constitutional framework of the United States.  This event is one of several celebrating the inauguration of Nancy A. Roseman as the new president of Dickinson College.

Update: James Gerlach was replaced with John E. Jones III ’77

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Gerlach PicJames Gerlach ’77  has served the citizens of Southeastern Pennsylvania for more than 20 years. His distinguished career began in 1990 with the first of two terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, which was followed by two terms in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Jim is serving his sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing portions of Berks, Chester, Lebanon and Montgomery Read more

Sarah Tishkoff

Tishkoff Final Poster

Professor, University of Pennsylvania

African Genomic Variation

Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Tishkoff will discuss the results of recent analyses of genome-scale genetic variation in geographically, linguistically, and ethnically diverse African populations for the purpose of reconstructing human evolutionary history in Africa and the genetic basis of adaption to diverse environments.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Biology and Anthropology. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, The Meanings of Race.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Tishkoff Hi ResSarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Tishkoff studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans. Her research combines field work, laboratory research, and computational methods to examine African population history and how genetic variation can affect a wide range of practical issues – for example, why humans have different susceptibility to disease, how they metabolize drugs, and how they adapt through evolution.  Dr. Tishkoff is a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Read more

David Eng

Eng Poster FinalProfessor, University of Pennsylvania

Absolute Apology, Absolute Forgiveness

Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Eng will address how the atomic bombing of Japan and the postwar politics of reparations are both connected to a longer history of native dispossession in the New World, uranium mining of indigenous lands, and more recent colonial violence and militarism in the Cold War transpacific.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of American Studies and East Asian Studies. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, The Meanings of Race.

imageBiography (provided by the speaker)
David L. Eng is Richard L. Fisher Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also a member in the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory as well as the Program in Asian American Studies. After receiving his B.A. in English from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley, Eng taught at Columbia and Rutgers before joining Penn in 2007. His areas of specialization include American literature, Asian diaspora, psychoanalysis, critical race theory, queer studies, and visual culture. Eng has held Read more

James A. Baker – Constitution Day Address Lecturer

Baker poster finalFormer Counsel for Intelligence Policy and Associate Deputy Attorney General, Justice Department

Surveillance Post-Snowden

Thursday, September 12, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Baker will reflect on the recent disclosures of government surveillance activities. Formerly in charge of representing the government before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Baker will provide his perspective on the challenging security and privacy issues facing us today.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs

Biography

James A. Baker has worked on numerous national security matters during his career. A former federal prosecutor, he worked on all aspects of national security investigations and prosecutions, including in particular the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), during his 17 year career at the U.S. Department of Justice. From 2001-2007, Mr. Baker served as Counsel for Intelligence Policy at the Justice Department, where he was head of the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. In that position, he was responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing national security policy with regard to intelligence and counterintelligence matters for the department. Mr. Baker provided the Attorney General, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and the White House with Read more

What Should the United States Do About Syria?

Syria Web Stream poster** Breaking Issue **

Web Stream Viewing of U.S. Army War College Presentation

Wednesday, September 11, 2013
1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Weiss Center, Room 235

Panelists:

Dr. James MacDougall: Moderator
Dr. Larry Goodson: “The Policy Challenge Posed by Syria”
Dr. W. Andrew Terrill:  “Internal Dynamics of Syria”
Dr. Richard Winslow: “Regional Effects of Syrian Civil War”
Dr. Christopher Bolan: “U.S. Strategy toward Syria”

This web stream viewing of the U.S. Army War College presentation is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

 Link to Video of Presentation Read more

Robert Bilheimer

Bilheimer Film Poster FinalPresident, Worldwide Documentaries, Inc.

Not My Life (Film Showing and Discussion with Film Director)

Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 6:15 p.m.

Not My Life is a film that depicts the cruel and dehumanizing practices of contemporary human trafficking.  Bilheimer, who directed and produced the film, will make general remarks and conduct a question-and-answer session at the end of the film. This event is one of a series on “Hidden Dangers: Emerging Global Issues of the 21st Century” sponsored with the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

This event is sponsored jointly by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg and co-sponsored by the Office of Institutional & Diversity Initiatives, and the Departments of Sociology and Economics.  It is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in a Age of Uncertainty Series.

imageBiography (provided by the speaker)

Robert Bilheimer, president of the nonprofit company Worldwide Documentaries, is one of the most influential documentary filmmakers working in the world today.
In 1989, Robert was nominated for an Academy Award for Cry of Reason, a feature-length documentary that profiles the South African anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude. Since that time, he has made Read more

Gail Dines

Founding Member, Stop Porn Cultureporn culture poster

Sex, Identity and Intimacy in a Porn Culture

Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

In this multi-media presentation, Dines explores how masculinity and femininity are shaped by a consumer-driven image-based culture and how pornography reproduces a gender system that encourages social and economic inequality and promotes a rape culture.  Note: This presentation contains explicit images.

A book sale and signing will follow.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Development, Women’s and Gender Resource Center and the Departments of American Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Gail web portraitBiography (provided by the speaker)
Dr. Gail Dines is a professor of sociology and women’s Studies at Wheelock College in Boston, where she is also chair of the American Studies department. She has been researching and writing about the porn industry for well over twenty years. Dr. Dines is co-editor of the best-selling textbook Gender, Race and Class in Media and she has written numerous articles on pornography, media images of women and representations of race in pop culture. She is a recipient of the Myers Center Award for Read more

Syria: What Next?

Syria Poster

** Breaking Issue **

Monday, September 2, 2013
Althouse Hall, Room 106 – 7 p.m.

A panel discussion focused on the issues arising out of the Syrian civil war, in particular the recent apparent use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime and the likelihood of a military response by the United States.  The situation highlights a number of perplexing issues regarding how the conflict affects other countries in the Middle East, the outcomes of the Arab uprisings, the substance and binding character of international law, along with a number of domestic U.S. constitutional and political issues.

Panelists

Neil Diamant, professor of Asian law and society
Joseph Sestak, General Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership
Edward Webb, assistant professor of political science and international studies
Russell Bova, (moderator), professor of political science and international studies

Biographies

Neil J. Diamant is professor of Asian law and society at Dickinson College. He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and teaches classes on Israeli politics and the history of Zionism in addition to those in his primary field of expertise.  He lived in Israel between 1978-1988, and 1997-2000, serving in the Israeli Read more

Pennsylvania Gun Debate

Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Gun Debate Poster FinalParticipants:

State Representative Stephen Bloom (R), serving the 199th Legislative District in Cumberland County

State Senator Larry Farnese (D), serving the 1st Senatorial District in Philadelphia

The participants will discuss the merits of gun control provisions currently being considered by the Pennsylvania legislature.

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

Biographies

BloomPORTRAITRepresentative Stephen Bloom, of Cumberland County, was first elected to represent the citizens of the 199th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in November 2010. A practicing lawyer for more than 20 years, now of counsel with the Carlisle firm of Irwin & McKnight, P.C., Bloom focused on business and transactional matters. He was also an adjunct instructor of management and business at Messiah College, where he taught economics and business law.

His mission as a lawmaker is to cut the size and scope of government, reduce the burden of taxes and unnecessary regulation, protect and defend constitutional freedoms, and by doing those things, unleash the power of individuals and businesses to create and grow jobs and economic prosperity.
Full Biography

Farnese downloadSenator Larry Farnese Read more

Amy-Jill Levine – “Mary Ellen Borges Memorial Lecturer”

University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University

Levine posterHearing Jesus’s Parables Through Jewish Ears

Thursday, April 25, 2013
Allison United Methodist Church, 7:00 p.m.
(99 Mooreland Ave., Carlisle, Pa)

Understanding Jesus’s parables requires understanding Jesus’s Jewish context. How would the parables have been heard by Jesus’s original Jewish listeners, and how might those original messages still speak to Jews and Christians today?

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

Levine PhotoBiography (provided by the speaker)

Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies, and professor of Jewish studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Science in Nashville, TN; she is also affiliated professor, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge UK. Holding the B.A. from Smith College, and the M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, she has honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Drury University, and Christian Theological Seminary. Her recent publications include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus and  Read more

Michael Mann

Professor, Penn State University

Mann Final PosterThe Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars

Monday, April 22, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.
A book sale and signing will follow

Mann will discuss the topic of human-caused climate change through the prism of his own experiences as a reluctant and accidental public figure in the societal debate over global warming.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs and co-sponsored by the Departments of Earth Sciences and Environmental Studies.

mannBiography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Michael E. Mann is a member of the Penn State University faculty, holding joint positions in the Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences, and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).

Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth’s climate system.

Dr. Mann was a Lead Read more

Joan Steitz – “Joseph Priestley Award Lecturer”

Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University

Steiz Poster FinalLupus and Snurps: Bench to Bedside and Back Again

Thursday, April 18, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

This talk will trace the origins of our understanding of how small cellular particles contribute to the critical process of splicing and relate this knowledge to today’s quest for treatment of splicing diseases, such as Lupus.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year.  This year the recipient was selected by the Department of Biology.  The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Student Senate and co-sponsored by and the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Psychology, Physics & Astronomy and Environmental Studies.

Steitz J fettersBiography (provided by the speaker)

Joan Steitz is a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry; and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University.

Steitz earned her B.S. in chemistry from Antioch College in 1963. Significant findings from her work emerged as early as 1967, when her Harvard PhD thesis with Jim Watson examined the test-tube assembly of a ribonucleic acid (RNA) bacteriophage (antibacterial virus) known as R17.

Steitz spent the next three years in postdoctoral studies at Read more

Angela Stent

Professor, Georgetown University

Stent PosterU.S.-Russia: The Second Obama Term

Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

The U.S-Russian relationship faces new challenges as President Barack Obama embarks on his second term. Both countries will have to reassess the relative priority of interests versus values as they seek to move forward.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs, and the Constance and Rose Ganoe Memorial Fund for Inspirational Teaching, courtesy of Professor Russell Bova.

astentbrookings eBiography (provided by the speaker)

Angela Stent is director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University. She is also a senior fellow (non-resident) at the Brookings Institution and co-chairs its Hewett Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs. From 2004-2006 she served as National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council.  From 1999 to 2001, she served in the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State.

Stent’s academic work focuses on the triangular political and economic relationship between the United States, Russia and Europe.  Her publications include: Russia and Germany Reborn: Unification, Read more

Scott Silverstone

Professor, United States Military Academy at West Point

Silverstone PosterPreventive War and American Democracy

Monday, April 15, 2013
Althouse Hall, Room 106, 7:00 p.m.

Ten years after the United States launched the first preventive war in its history – against Iraq in 2003 – American leaders are once again wrestling with the preventive war temptation, this time directed at Iran and its nuclear program. This lecture will explore and explain this profound shift in American thinking about preventive war over the past sixty years.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Mellon Foundation Project on Civilian-Military Educational Cooperation.  It is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in a Age of Uncertainty Series.

scott silverstoneBiography (provided by the speaker)
Dr. Silverstone is professor of international relations in the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he has been on the faculty since 2001. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, and has also served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and Williams College. Dr. Silverstone is a research fellow with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and is Read more

Bill McKibben

Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College; Recipient of The Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism

Mckibben posterFront Line of the Climate Fight

Thursday, April 11, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.
A book signing will follow the lecture

McKibben will highlight the ways in which environmental groups are working around the country and the world to scientifically and politically challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry before it breaks the planet.

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and The Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism and co-sponsored by the Department of Environmental Studies.  It is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and the faculty seminar series titled, Living in a World of Limits.

BillMcKibbenNancieBattaglia HighResBiography (provided by the speaker)

Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries Read more

Beatriz Diaz

Professor, University of Havana

Diaz PosterU.S. Role and Image in the World: A Cuban’s Perspective

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 (rescheduled from November 27, 2012)
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

This lecture focuses on the paradoxes that characterize U.S. role and image in the world: U.S. culture, technological development, civil society, economic influence and military power will be discussed and evaluated.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Center for Global Study and Engagement and co-sponsored by the Departments of Economics and Spanish & Portuguese.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
hastaBeatriz Diaz is a full professor at the University of Havana, and at the Cuban Program of the Latin American Social Sciences Faculty (FLACSO). She was the director of the Cuba FLACSO Program (2001-2008) and at present chairs the research group on Rural Development and the Environment at FLACSO. She obtained her BA in psychology at the University of Havana, followed by graduate work at the University of Paris X and Geneva. She obtained her Ph.D. at the Soviet Academy of Educational Sciences in Moscow.

Her main research interests focus on Cuban Social Development and Sustainable Development. She has conducted research on rural, urban and Read more

Kris Perry

Executive Director, First Five Years Fund

Perry PosterSame-Sex Marriage & the Supreme Court: A Plaintiff’s Story

Monday, April 8, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

In May 2009, two California couples—Kris Perry and Sandy Stier of Berkeley, and Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo of Burbank—filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging California’s Proposition 8 under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Represented by distinguished attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who famously faced-off in Bush v. Gore, the plaintiffs and their case, now known as Hollingsworth v. Perry, have forever changed America’s legal and political landscape surrounding marriage equality.

On March 26, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral argument in Perry to review the judgment of the federal court of appeals that upheld the decision of the federal district court that found Proposition 8 unconstitutional. A decision from the Supreme Court, which is expected by June 2013, could result in marriage equality nationwide.

In this lecture, Kris Perry will discuss her personal experience as one of the plaintiffs in this landmark civil rights lawsuit. From testifying at trial and watching oral argument at the Supreme Court, to seeing her twin boys Read more

Peter Lev

Professor, Towson University

Peter Lev PosterThe Politics of an Entertainment Company

Thursday, April 4, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Twentieth Century-Fox has always been involved in local, national, and international politics.  This lecture will describe Fox’s political activism in the 1940s and then fast-forward to the present.

The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Judaic Studies, The Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life, Film Studies, Middle East Studies, and the Departments of Political Science, American Studies, English, French & Italian and History.

LEV Peter hi resolBiography (provided by the speaker)
Peter Lev is professor of electronic media and film at Towson University. His research and teaching focuses on American film history, European film history, and film adaptations of literature.   He is the author of five books on film history and the co-editor of a book on film adaptation:  selected titles include Twentieth Century-Fox, the Zanuck-Skouras Years 1935-1965 (March 2013); The Literature/Film Reader (co-edited with Jim Welsh, 2007); Transforming the Screen:  The Fifties (History of the American Cinema series, 2003);and American Films of the 1970s:  Conflicting Visions (2000).  The Twentieth Century-Fox book was supported by an Academy Scholars Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Read more

Corinne Moss-Racusin

Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University

Moss Racusin Poster eGender Stereotypes in Academic Science Contexts

Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Despite persistent gender disparity, no experimental research has investigated whether subtle gender bias may be contributing to the underrepresentation of women within the academic science community. In this talk, Moss-Racusin will discuss research providing the first evidence of such bias against female students, and highlight implications for academic meritocracy, diversity, and gender parity across science fields.

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

Moss RacusinBiography (provided by the speaker)

Corinne Moss-Racusin is a postdoctoral associate at Yale University in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and the Department of Psychology. Before coming to Yale, she earned her Ph.D. in social psychology from Rutgers University and also studied psychology as an undergraduate at New York University. Dr. Moss-Racusin’s research focuses on understanding and ameliorating inequality within institutions. She studies the ways in which gender and racial stereotypes shape people’s own behavior and their social judgments, and how these in turn impact broader institutional diversity.

Video of the Lecture

 

 

Interview for WDCV Radio, Dickinson College

  Read more