Past Programs

Uprisings and Interventions in the Arab World

** BREAKING ISSUE **

Thursday, April 7, 2011
Denny Hall, Room 317 – 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Larry Goodson – professor of Middle East studies, U.S. Army War College
W. Andrew Terrill – professor of national security affairs, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College
David Commins – professor of history and Middle East Studies, Dickinson College

Protest movements continue to spread in the Arab world, taking different shape according to local political structures and social dynamics and posing knotty challenges to US policymakers to keep up with the breakneck speed of developments.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)
Goodson LarryLarry P. Goodson is professor of Middle East Studies at the U.S. Army War College. He is regularly consulted by senior government officials about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East. In 2008-2009 he served on a four-month temporary assignment with the U.S. Central Command Assessment Team, where he focused on U.S. strategy and policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan for General David Petraeus. As U.S. Central Command Fellow in 2004, he served as a senior adviser to General John Abizaid on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Prof. Goodson held the General Dwight D. Eisenhower Chair of National Security at the U.S. Army War College from 2004 Read more

Major General John D. Altenburg, Jr, U.S. Army, Retired

Altenburg Poster

Omar N. Bradley Joint Chair in Strategic Leadership

Guantanamo Dilemmas: What’s Next?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 *
Penn State Dickinson School of Law
Lewis Katz Hall Auditorium, Carlisle
6:30 p.m.

Major General John D. Altenburg, Jr, this year’s Omar N. Bradley Joint Chair in Strategic Leadership, will discuss the ethical, policy (both foreign and domestic), and legal dilemmas regarding detention, rendition, interrogation, and the use of military commissions in the ongoing war against al Qaeda and associated groups.

Following opening remarks, General Altenburg will respond to questions posed by two experts, Dr. Jeffrey D. McCausland, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council and retired U.S. Army Colonel, and Dr. Harold L. Pohlman, the A. Lee Fritschler Professor of Public Policy and executive director of The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College. After fielding questions from the interviewers, General Altenburg will take questions from the audience.

The event is co-sponsored by Dickinson College, Penn State Dickinson School of Law, the Penn State School of International Affairs, and the United States Army War College.

The Omar Bradley Chair is a joint initiative of the United States Army War College, Dickinson College, and Penn State Law to advance the study of Read more

Arlen Meyers ’68

Meyers PosterProfessor of Otolaryngology, Dentistry and Engineering, University of Colorado, Denver; Metzger-Conway Fellow

Developing Entrepreneurial Graduates

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 *
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Entrepreneurship is not only about creating new businesses. It is a facilitating mindset that should permeate all academic disciplines, not just those that have a technological basis. Meyers will discuss how colleges and universities looking for a competitive edge should place entrepreneurship at the center of their academic programs.

* This event is part of The Clarke Forum’s series on Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty.

Biography (provided by the speaker)Meyers color headshot
Arlen D Meyers, MD, MBA is professor of otolaryngology (ear nose and throat surgery), engineering and dentistry at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus and a bioentrepreneur. He is the founding CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs.

Dr. Meyers is an award winning clinician, researcher and teacher. He has created four companies, including several medical device companies, www.medvoy.com, a medical travel company, and consults to several other life science firms producing drugs, devices, diagnostics,healthcare IT solutions and medical services. He is the former director of the Bioentrepreneurship education program and the MD/MBA program at the University of Colorado Read more

Colson Whitehead

whitehead poster webAuthor of The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Sag Harbor and other novels

The Art of Writing

Thursday, March 24, 2011
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m

Whitehead will provide micro-lectures on craft, style, and what we can all learn from the Donna Summer version of “MacArthur Park.”

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of English, the Office of Student Development and the Office of Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, the Department of American Studies, the Office of Diversity Initiatives and the Department of Sociology.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Colson Whitehead is the author of The Intuitionist, his accomplished debut novel that received widespread and enthusiastic critical praise for its quirky and imaginative writing and complex allegories of race. The Intuitionist won the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award and was a finalist for the Ernest Hemingway/PEN Award for First Fiction.

Recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius award” given to scholars, artists, and others to free them to pursue their work, Whitehead has been praised for writing novels with inventive plots that weave American folklore and history into the stories.

His most recent work is Sag Harbor: A Novel. Before this, he wrote Apex Hides Read more

Mary Cappello ’82

Cappello posterAward-Winning Author

Autobiography of Illness/Biography of Cure

Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

An illustrated reading that brings together writing about self in the form of “rituals in transfigured time” and writing about the other in the form of lyric biography. Cappello will discuss her entry into cancer treatment as a patient-writer and her new book on Chevalier Jackson, a Pennsylvania physician-artist, a pioneering laryngologist, and a foreign body specialist.

This event is co-sponsored by the Departments of English, Sociology and American Studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker)MarySAuthorPhotos
Mary Cappello (class of ’82) is the author of Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration and the Curious Doctor who Extracted Them (The New Press, 2011). Her three previous books of literary nonfiction are Awkward, a Los Angeles Times Bestseller; Called Back, a critical memoir on cancer that won a ForeWord Book of the Year Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award; and the memoir, Night Bloom, set in the suburbs of Philadelphia. A recipient of the Bechtel Prize for Educating the Imagination from Teachers and Writers Collaborative, and the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, she is former Fulbright Read more

Paul Campos

Campos Poster webProfessor of Law, University of Colorado Law School

The Politics of Fat

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

America is in the grip of a moral panic about fat. The “obesity epidemic” is the “reefer madness” of our time, and the sooner we recognize this fact the sooner we will stop demonizing body diversity.

The event is co-sponsored by the Women’s Center and the Departments of Sociology and Psychology.

Topical Background (provided by the speaker)
A wide range of cultural authorities, that includes such disparate figures as First Lady Michelle Obama, leading public health officials, and the National Football League, are assuring Americans that we are in the midst of an “obesity epidemic,” that presents a major public health crisis, which requires a strong response from both the government and the private sector. In fact these claims are symptoms of a classic moral panic. Moral panics occur when social anxieties focus on a marginalized group, that is blamed for causing a serious social problem. Such panics feature responses that are disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the group (which indeed, as in the case of fat, may well be largely or completely imaginary). Professor Campos’ Read more

Ellen McLaughlin

Ellen McLaughlin poster final webPlaywright and Actress

Readings by Ellen McLaughlin

Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

McLaughlin will read excerpts from several of her plays, including Infinity’s House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus and Ajax in Iraq. She is most well known for having originated and developed the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, having appeared in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run.

The event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Classics, Theatre & Dance and English.

color book jacketBiography (provided by the speaker)
Ellen McLaughlin’s plays have received numerous national and international productions. They include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity’s House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus, Penelope, Kissing the Floor and Ajax in Iraq.
Producers include: Actors’ Theater of Louisville, The Actors’ Gang L.A., Classic Stage Co., N.Y., The Intiman Theater, Seattle, Almeida Theater, London, The Mark Taper Forum, L.A., the Public Theater in NYC, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The National Actors’ Theater, N.Y., Read more

Feeding Dickinson

feeding dickinson poster webPanel Discussion

Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Jennifer Halpin, director of the college’s organic farm
Jay Myers of the food distributor, Feesers, Inc.
Keith Martin, director of dining services
Ben Riggs ’86, Four Seasons Produce Distributors
Scott Wagner, John Gross & Co.
Moderated by Andy Skelton, professor of psychology, Dickinson College

Each day, Dickinson College provides thousands of meals for students and employees. How does an institution feed so many people, with such a variety of tastes and needs? Where does all this food come from and how is its quality assured? Our panel will address these and related questions, offering a glimpse behind the scenes of how a residential college feeds its population.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

HalpinJennifer Halpin
Halpin manages the production and educational aspects of the Dickinson College Farm, in addition to working cooperatively with students and faculty to create meaningful educational experiences on the farm. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), is an active member of the South-central Buy Fresh, Buy Local Campaign and is the board president of Farmers on the Square, a producer-only Read more

Heidi Skolnik

Eating you way to athletic success webSports Nutrition Consultant to the New York Giants, New York Knicks, The Juilliard School and The School of American Ballet

Eating Your Way to Athletic Success

Thursday, March 3, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Nutrient Timing for Peak Performance is a strategic approach in what, when, and how much to eat of selected foods to maximize athletic conditioning, training and performance. Learn some of the tools that athletes can use to reduce risk of injury, maximize muscle repair, maintain a healthy immune system and increase endurance.

This is event is co-sponsored by the Department of Athletics.

Biography (provided by the speaker)Skolnik
Considered a thought leader in the nutrition, Heidi is the Sports Nutrition Consultant to the The NY Knicks Basketball Team, The Juilliard School, School of American Ballet and Fordham University Athletics. She was the team nutritionist for the past 18 years for The Football Giants and continues to see clients one-to-one one day a week at The Women’s Sports Medicine Center at Hospital of Special Surgery. Heidi is a contributing advisor to Men’s Health magazine and is co-author of Nutrient Timing for Peak Performance; the right food, the right time, the right results (Human Kinetics, 2010) and Read more

Elaine Pagels – “Mary Ellen Borges Memorial Lecturer”

Pagels poste colorHarrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion, Princeton University

The Cultural Impact of the Book of Revelation

Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 6:00 p.m.

Pagels will address who wrote the Book of Revelation, why it was written, how it became a part of the Bible, and how it became influential in politics, art and culture over the last 2,000 years.

pagels pictureBiography (from Princeton.edu)
Elaine Pagels joined the Princeton faculty in 1982, shortly after receiving a MacArthur Fellowship. Perhaps best known as the author of The Gnostic Gospels, The Origin of Satan, and Adam, Eve and the Serpent, she has published widely on Gnosticism and early Christianity, and continues to pursue research interests in late antiquity. Her most recent books include Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (was on the New York Times best-seller list) and Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, co-authored with Karen King of Harvard.  Her current project is working on a book entitled Revelations which will explore the New Testament Book of Revelation and other Jewish, Christian, and Pagan books of Revelation written around the same time.  She will be on leave for the 2010-11 Read more

L. Randall Wray

Minskian bannerProfessor of Economics, University of Missouri–Kansas City

A Minskian Explanation of the Economic Crisis

Thursday, February 24, 2011
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Relying upon the theories and assumptions of Hyman Minsky, Wray will explore and expound upon the factors that contributed to the current economic and financial crisis.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Economics.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
L. Randall Wray is a professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as well as research director, the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability, and senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, NY. A student of Hyman P. Minsky while at Washington University in St. Louis, Wray has focused on monetary theory and policy, macroeconomics, financial instability, and employment policy. He has published widely in journals and is the author of Understanding Modern Money: The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability (Elgar, 1998) and Money and Credit in Capitalist Economies (Elgar 1990). He is the editor of Credit and State Theories of Money (Edward Elgar 2004) and the co-editor of Contemporary Post Keynesian Analysis (Edward Elgar 2005), Money, Financial Instability and Stabilization Policy (Edward Elgar 2006), and Keynes for Read more

Stuart Rothenberg

ObamaTheWayForward WebEditor and Publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report

Obama: The Way Forward

Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

What’s next for Obama, Democrats and the GOP? Rothenberg will look back to the midterm elections and ahead to the 112th Congress and the 2012 presidential race.

Biography (provided by the speaker)Stu Photo
Stuart Rothenberg is editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, a non-partisan political newsletter covering U.S. House, Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, Presidential politics and political developments. He is also a twice-a-week columnist for Roll Call, Capitol Hill’s premier newspaper.

He holds a B.A. from Colby College (Waterville, Maine) and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Connecticut. He has taught at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania) and at the Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.).

A frequent soundbite, Mr. Rothenberg has appeared on Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation, The NewsHour, Nightline and many other television programs. He is often quoted in the nation’s major media, and his op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers.

Mr. Rothenberg served as an election night analyst for the Newshour on PBS in 2008 Read more

David T. Johnson

johnson poster NEW eFormer Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Mexico, Drugs and Crime

Thursday, February 17, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

For the last decade, Mexico, and especially its border regions, has suffered skyrocketing murder rates and a breakdown in public safety driven by a surge in drug-fueled organized crime. The “Merida Initiative,” first crafted in 2008, was an attempt by the United States to help its neighbor, but the violence today continues unabated. Johnson, the senior U.S. government official responsible for this “initiative” from its inception until January 2011, will address how it was crafted, what it has delivered, and the prospects for bringing down Mexico’s high rates of murder and violence.

Bio DTJBiography (provided by the speaker)
David T. Johnson served as Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs from October 2007 to January 2011. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Johnson served as Deputy Chief of Mission for the US Embassy in London from August 2003 until August 2007.

Mr. Johnson, of Georgia, entered the United States Foreign Service in 1977. He served as the Afghan Coordinator for the United States from May 2002 to July 2003. He served as United States Ambassador to Read more

Jaclyn Friedman

Friedman poster webWriter, Performer, and Activist

Sexual Empowerment: A World Without Rape

Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Depot, 7:00 p.m.
A book signing will follow.

Based on her hit book Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World without Rape, Friedman explains how the culture shames women for expressing their sexuality, how the media uses empty images of female sexuality to fuel sales, and how rape is allowed to function in society.

The event was organized by The Clarke Forum Student Project Managers and is co-sponsored by Student Senate and the Women’s Center.

Biography (provided by the speaker)JFheadshotDSC
Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, performer, and activist, and the editor of the hit book Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (one of Publishers’ Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009).

As an undergraduate, Jaclyn thought she was too smart to become a victim of sexual assault – until another student proved her wrong. That experience eventually led her to become a student and instructor of IMPACT safety training. At IMPACT, she helped bring safety skills to the communities which most need them, including gang-involved high school students and women transitioning out of abusive Read more

Tamara Metz

Metz webAssistant Professor of Political Science and Humanities, Reed College

Untying the Knot

Thursday, February 10, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

As the issue of same-sex marriage wends its way to the Supreme Court, Metz claims that state control of marriage conflicts with basic liberal principles and threatens families. Drawing a parallel to religion, Metz argues that marriage should be disestablished and that the state should use other means for supporting intimate caregiving.

The event is co-sponsored by The Women’s Center and the Office of Institutional and Diversity Initiatives.

Biography (provided by the speaker)Tamara Metz
Tamara Metz is a political theorist at Reed College, Portland, OR. Her interests include history of political thought, classical and contemporary liberalism; feminist and critical theory; care; policy, law and ethics. She is the author of Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State and the Case for their Divorce (Princeton University Press, 2010), in which she explores the history of the relationship between marriage and the state in liberal theory and practices, and concludes that marriage should be disestablished. Related material appears in Just Marriage (Oxford, 2004), Contemporary Political Theory (2007), Marriage and Family (Columbia, 2009), and Politics & Gender (2010). At Reed, in addition to Read more

It Takes More than the “Veg”

by veg posterPanel Discussion

Thursday, February 10, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 12:00 p.m.

Panelists

Chad M. Kimmel, associate professor of sociology, Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Shippensburg University
David Sarcone, associate professor, Department of International Business and Management, Dickinson College

Carlisle, Pennsylvania has a rich history of farmers markets. From the “Market House(s)” located on the square for more than a century, to the more modern market buildings that followed, farmers have continually engaged in commercial activities in Carlisle since the middle of the 18th century. Honoring this tradition, the Carlisle Central Farmers Market (CCFM) established itself as a year round, hybrid public/farmers market. CCFM espoused both social and economic goals as stated in its mission statement – “…to promote sustainable agriculture practices, to encourage healthy eating, and to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for those who produce and sell local products.” But what began in September 2007 as a well intentioned venture, ended in February 2009.

This presentation will explore the life history of CCFM, and will pay particular attention to the timeline of events and decisions that opened, maintained and finally closed the market. Other models/timelines of farmers market development in other parts of the nation will be used for purposes Read more

People Power in the Middle East: Challenges for U.S. Policy

Tunisia Poster new** BREAKING ISSUE **

Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Edward Webb – professor of political science and international studies, Dickinson College
Andrew Wolff – professor of political science and international studies, Dickinson College
Larry Goodson – professor of Middle East studies, U.S. Army War College
W. Andrew Terrill – professor of national security affairs, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College
Moderator – David Commins – professor of history and Middle East Studies, Dickinson College

The wave of Arab protests sweeping through Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen caught American policymakers by surprise, posing the dilemma of choosing between apparently reliable autocratic allies and democratic principles.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)
webbeEd Webb is assistant professor of political science & international studies and a founder of Dickinson’s Middle East studies program. Formerly a member of Britain’s Diplomatic Service, including serving at the British Embassy in Cairo in the 1990’s, he has a B.A. from Cambridge University and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His teaching and research interests in the Middle East include secularism, education, authoritarianism, and media, including digital and social media. He is a member of the National Advisory Board of Read more

Sandra Steingraber – “Morgan Lecturer”

World Renowned Ecologist, Author and Cancer Survivor

“Fracking” Our Food: A New Threat to Sustainable Farming

Steingraber Final

RESCHEDULED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER
(originally scheduled for February 2)
New Date:

Thursday, February 3, 2011
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.
A reception and book signing will follow.

We are standing at a historic confluence, a place where two rivers meet: a stream of emerging knowledge about what the combustion of fossil fuels is doing to our planet is joining a stream of emerging knowledge about what synthetic chemicals derived from fossil fuels–such as pesticides and fertilizers–are doing to our bodies.” So writes biologist and author Sandra Steingraber in the second edition of her classic book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment. In this lecture, Steingraber will explore the tangled relationship between petrochemicals and farming, with a special focus on natural gas, the feedstock for many agricultural products and whose extraction from shale bedrock of our nation is threatening the ecological conditions that support our food system.

The event is co-sponsored by the Women’s Center, the Office of Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, and the Departments of Biology, American Studies and Environmental Studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker) Read more

Paul Robbins

Robbins web

Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Orthopaedic
Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Gene Therapy: Current and Future Prospects

Thursday, December 2, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

The presentation will provide an overview of gene therapy and how it is being used to treat different types of diseases, including non-lethal diseases and disorders. The clinical development of a gene therapy for rheumatoid arthritis will be used as an example of how gene therapy can be used to treat other non-lethal diseases.

About the Lecture
Gene therapy is the prevention or treatment of disease by intracellular delivery of nucleic acid. Although gene therapy was first developed to treat rare genetic diseases, it is now being applied to the treatment of acquired diseases, such as cancer and arthritis, and disorders such as wound and bone healing. The recent successes in a number of gene therapy trials treating a variety of human disorders, such as X-linked and ADA-SCID, a genetic form of retinal degeneration, some forms of cancer and even a severe neurodegenerative disease demonstrate that gene transfer in humans can provide therapeutic benefit in some patients. The successes of these technologies to treat human disease is leading to Read more

Afghanistan: What Next?

Afghan Poster web

Panel Discussion

Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Larry Goodson, professor of Middle East studies, U.S. Army War College
Thomas Barfield, professor of anthropology at Boston University and president of the American Institute for Afghanistan Studies.
Marvin Weinbaum, Scholar-in-Residence, Middle East Institute in Washington, DC
Moderated by David Commins, professor of history, Dickinson College

In the context of the Obama Administration’s upcoming review of its policies in Afghanistan, a panel of experts will address the following questions: What are the intensity and depth of U.S. interests in Afghanistan? Are these interests vital to U.S. national security? If the interests are vital, can the U.S. achieve these interests with the existing policy/strategy or is some other policy/strategy required? If the interests are not vital to U.S. national security, why is the U.S. spending so much blood and treasure in Afghanistan?

Biographies (provided by the panelists)
Larry P. Goodson is professor of Middle East Studies at the U.S. Army War College. He is regularly consulted by senior government officials about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East. In 2008-2009 he served on a four-month temporary assignment with the U.S. Central Command Assessment Team, Read more