Past Programs

Bart Ehrman – “Mary Ellen Borges Memorial Lecturer”

Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jesus and the Historian

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.

Biography (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

Professor 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

Professor, 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.

Biography (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

Professor, 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)

Catherine 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

Wednesday, 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)

Kim 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

Carlisle’s Future: Balancing Environmental and Economic Concerns – Panel Discussion

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

Panelists

George Pomeroy, professor, Shippensburg University
Kirk Stoner, director of planning, Cumberland County
Nathan Wolf, attorney, Wolf & Wolf
John Henson, moderator, professor, Dickinson College

A panel of experts will discuss the complex array of environmental and economic-development issues surrounding the evolution of the Carlisle area as a major logistics center with the associated construction of mega-warehouses and the concentration of truck traffic. The panel will be composed of representatives of academia, non-profit environmental groups, developers, the public sector, and the local community.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters and the Carlisle YWCA.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

George Pomeroy is a professor of geography – earth science and director of the Center for Land Use at Shippensburg University. His teaching and research interests speak to community, land use, and environmental planning. His degrees are in geography (B.A. Ed., M.S., Western Washington University) and in urban studies and public administration (Ph.D., The University of Akron). For his research, Dr. Pomeroy has received the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Regional Development Read more

David Pryor

Former U.S. Senator, Arkansas (D)

Washington Gridlock

Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:30 p.m.

Many public commentators are of the opinion that the election of President Obama in 2008 ushered in a new era of extreme partisanship. Senator Pryor will discuss and evaluate the state of politics in our nation’s capital.

The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues sponsored and planned this event in partnership with the Student Senate Public Affairs Committee.

Biography

David H. Pryor was born in Camden, Arkansas. He received his B.A. from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and his LL.B. from the University of Arkansas School of Law.
In 1960 he was elected to the Arkansas State House of Representatives where he served three terms. In November of 1966 he was elected to fill the unexpired term of Congressman Oren Harris and served three full terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1974 he was elected Governor of Arkansas, a position he held for four years. In 1979 Governor Pryor was elected to the United States Senate and served until he retired from the Senate in 1996.

Since retiring from the Senate, he became a Fulbright Distinguished Fellow of Law and Public Read more

Andrew Hyde ’81

Partnership Manager, CSO, Department of State

Putting out the Fires

Thursday, November 14, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

New forms of politics and new types of technologies have unleashed new kinds of conflicts in disparate parts of today’s world. Hyde, a Metzger-Conway Fellow, will explore how U.S. foreign policy must evolve to confront these challenges and seize the opportunities they present.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

A twenty-year veteran of the foreign service, Andrew Hyde is currently the partnership manager at the Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO). In that position he designs and manages the Bureau’s outreach to other governments, multilateral institutions and NGOs including think tanks. The Bureau, created in 2012 as a result of the State Department’s first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, identifies regions in the world prone to conflict and instability and devises programs and solutions to disrupt cycles of violence.

Previously, Hyde served as the deputy coordinator for Regional Command East at Embassy Kabul’s Office of Interagency Provincial Affairs where he was responsible Read more

Patrick McGovern

Scientific Director, University of Pennsylvania Museum

Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Fermented Beverages

Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

McGovern will describe how enterprising our ancestors were in concocting a host of fermented beverages from a vast array of natural products (honey, grape, barley, rice, sorghum, chocolate, etc.) and explain the profound effects these beverages have had on our cultural and biological development.

This event was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s Student Project Managers. It is sponsored in partnership with The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Student Senate Public Affairs Committee and co-sponsored by the Departments of Archaeology, Anthropology, History and Classics.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Patrick E. McGovern directs the Biomolecular Archaeology Project at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, where he is also an adjunct professor of anthropology and consulting scholar in the Near East Section. Over the past two decades, he has pioneered the exciting interdisciplinary field of Biomolecular Archaeology which is yielding whole new chapters concerning our human ancestry, medical practice, and ancient cuisines and beverages. Popularly, Dr. Pat is known as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages.” He is the author Read more

James Hansen – Joseph Priestley Award Lecturer

Former Director, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies

White House Arrest and the Climate Crisis

Thursday, November 7, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

A scientist’s view of the climate crisis: why the public does not see it, why governments fail to address it effectively, and options for how young people might respond to the intergenerational injustice of human-made climate change.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Environmental Studies has selected this year’s recipient, James E. Hansen. The event is supported by the College’s Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Student Senate and co-sponsored by the Department of Environmental Studies, Center for Sustainability Education, and the Departments of Biology, Earth Sciences, Psychology, Physics & Astronomy, Chemistry and Math & Computer Science.

This event is also part the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. James Hansen, formerly the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, where he directs a program in Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions. He was trained in physics Read more

Joseph Sestak – “General Omar N. Bradley Chair Lecture”

Former Congressman and a Former U.S. Navy Three-Star Admiral and 2013-14 General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership

Leadership to Restore the American Dream

Monday, November 4, 2013
Penn State Dickinson School of Law
Lewis Katz Hall Auditorium, 6 p.m.

Link to Penn State Dickinson School of Law Web site

“We once had leaders who recognized the expectations of the people, and turned them into demands that advanced the American Dream for both individual opportunity and the common good of the nation. Leadership must once again be accountable for brokering the shared alliance that deepens the individual strengths of these two great values of our American character so that we can restore the dream,” Sestak said.

His presentation will draw on his distinguished 31-year career in the U.S. Navy and his tenure as director for defense policy on the National Security Council, the first director of “Deep Blue,” the U.S. Navy’s counterterrorism unit, a sea-going Commander of an aircraft carrier battle group in war, and a U.S. Congressman representing Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District.

Sestak plans to discuss the American Dream, the belief that one’s children will have the opportunity to do even better than their parents. “It was Read more

Michael McDevitt

U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Asia’s Looming Hotspot

Thursday, October 31, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Rear Admiral McDevitt will discuss the increasingly contentious dispute between China and Japan concerning sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea and the implications this dispute has for U.S. foreign policy. This talk 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 by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg and co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Studies. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, U.S. Navy (ret) is a senior fellow associated with CNA Strategic Studies, a division of the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA); a not-for- profit federally funded research center in Washington D.C. During his 16 years at CNA, as both a manager and vice president and now as a fellow, he has had a number of papers published. His most recent research focus has been the maritime security issues along the Indo-Pacific littoral, the Read more

Mark Frazier

Professor, New School for Social Research

China-India Future Relations

Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Will India and China cooperate or compete? Officials and experts have asked this question for over a century, and more often than not were wrong in their predictions. This lecture explores why the predictions were wrong and suggests new ways of thinking about Sino-Indian relations.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Donald W. Flaherty Fund, and the Departments of International Studies and Political Science.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Mark W. Frazier is a professor of politics, and co-academic director of the India China Institute at The New School, a university in New York City. His research engages comparisons of China and India in terms of how each has coped with development challenges related to inequality and urbanization, historically and in the present. He is the author of Socialist Insecurity: Pensions and the Politics of Uneven Development in China (Cornell University Press 2010) and The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace (Cambridge University Press 2002). He has contributed op-eds to The New York Times and The Diplomat. Before assuming his current Read more

Amy Nauiokas ’94

Founder of Archer Gray Productions

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

(Film Screening and Q&A with Amy Nauiokas ’94, an executive producer of the film)

Friday, October 25, 2013
Althouse Hall, Room 106, 4 p.m.

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete follows 14-year-old Mister (Skylan Brooks) and nine-year-old Pete (Ethan Dizion) during a sweltering New York City summer, after the arrest and detention of Mister’s mother (Jennifer Hudson) forces the unlikely duo to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the Brooklyn projects. Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale, The Manchurian Candidate), Jordin Sparks (American Idol), and Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, Million Dollar Baby) also star. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where Manohla Dargis, film critic for The New York Times, called the film a “beautiful…touching melodrama.” Amy Nauiokas ’94 is one of the film’s executive producers, along with Alicia Keys, who also wrote the film’s score. Nauiokas, whose career has taken her from the boardroom at Barclays Bank to a lucrative career as a producer and venture capitalist, will take questions from the audience after the screening.

Biography of Amy Nauiokas

Amy Read more

James Oakes

Professor, City University of New York, The Graduate Center

Emancipation Proclamation: Myths and Realities

Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The Emancipation Proclamation is so shrouded in mythology that even today, 150 years later, we are unable to answer the simplest but most important question: What did the proclamation actually do?

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the House Divided Project.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Currently a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, James Oakes has been teaching and writing about slavery, antislavery, and the origins of the Civil War for nearly thirty years. Most recently, he is the author of The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics (2007) and Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865 (2012), winner of the Lincoln Prize.

Video of the Lecture

Entrepreneur and Bestselling Author

Wholehearted Leadership

Thursday, October 17, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Job satisfaction around the globe is at a record low, which both reduces companies’ profits and negatively impacts the quality of human life. Based on an analysis of surveys of 10 million workers in 150 countries, Kruse shows how growth, recognition and trust are the three primary drivers of emotional commitment and satisfaction.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Serial entrepreneur and bestselling author, Kevin Kruse, uses a relentless focus on talent and employee engagement to build and sell several, multi-million dollar technology companies, winning both Inc 500 and Best Place to Work awards along the way. Kevin is also the author of several books including the NY Times bestseller, We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement, which was named one of the top leadership books in 2011 by 800-CEO-Read.

Kevin gives back to communities worldwide through the Kevin Kruse Foundation. Projects have included building libraries throughout China and Vietnam with The Library Project, mentoring social entrepreneurs in Kenya Read more

Carlisle Mayoral Candidates Forum

Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Candidates

Mayor William Kronenberg (R)
Tim Scott (D)
Roger Spitz (I)

The three mayoral candidates will debate the issues confronting Carlisle, Pennsylvania with Michelle Crowley, president and CEO, Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, as the moderator.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Carlisle Young Professionals, Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters, AAUW Carlisle Branch, Carlisle YWCA, The Sentinel and WHTM. Read more

Janice Perlman

Founder and President, The Mega-Cities Project: Innovations for Urban Life

The Bruce R. Andrews Lecture

FAVELA: Four Decades of Research in Rio

Thursday, October 10, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Perlman, author of the recent book FAVELA, will share her experience, findings, and photographs from field research in Brazil, starting as a student and continuing until the present.

The event is sponsored in partnership with The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Student Senate Public Affairs Committee. The event is also co-sponsored by the Bruce R. Andrews Fund, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Center for Sustainability Education and the Departments of Sociology, Policy Studies and the Community Studies Center. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Janice Perlman is among the world’s foremost experts on urbanization, innovation and informal settlements. Her most recent book, Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro (Oxford University Press, 2010; paperback, 2011) won the 2010 PROSE Award for best book of the year in two categories: “Excellence in the Social Sciences” and “Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Sociology and Social Work”. The Read more

Jenny Reardon

Director, 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.

Biography (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

Citizenship and Partisanship

Friday, 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)

James 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