Past Programs

David T. Johnson

Former 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.

Biography (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

Writer, 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)
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

Assistant 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 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”

Panel 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

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)
Ed 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

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

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?

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

Michael Ableman

Author, Educator, and Urban Agriculturalist

Feeding the Future

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 *
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7:00 p.m.

Michael_Ableman_11_17_2010

A reception will immediately follow the presentation in the lobby of ATS. Book signing by the author and the opportunity to purchase Fields of Plenty will be offered at the reception.

Food may be the dominant issue of our time. The industrial system that brings it to us is unraveling, and the cost of that system, ecologically, socially, and personally is enormous.

But there is hope, individuals and communities are gathering together to rethink our food system, bringing honor and respect and craftsmanship back into farming, and recreating our farms as places that nourish and nurture and teach and inspire.

Join Michael Ableman for an evening of inspiring stories and photographic imagery from around the world as he provides us with a sense of how we can participate in the solutions; on our farms and in our gardens, in our kitchens and at the dining room table, and in the communities where we live.

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

This event is co-sponsored by The Clarke Forum Read more

Steve Sparks – Joseph Priestley Award Lecturer

Professor of Geology, University of Bristol, U.K.

Volcanic Eruptions

Thursday, November 11, 2010 *
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Photos

The causes of volcanism and the dynamics of volcanic eruptions are explained with some implications for society.
Biography (provided by the speaker)
Sparks is research group leader of the Volcanology and Geological Fluid Dynamics Research Group in the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Bristol, United Kingdom. The Group currently consists of six members of academic staff, 8 post-doctoral researchers and 12 Ph.D. students. He is also the director of the newly established Bristol Environmental Risk Research Centre (BRISK), which seeks to nurture interdisciplinary research across the University in risk and uncertainty science. His research interests include how magma chambers form, how volcanoes erupt, kimberlite geology, the movement of sediment gravity flows, assessment of volcanic hazards, the development of new methods to quantify risk and uncertainty in the assessment of natural hazards, and risk perception in relation to natural hazards and disasters.

Sparks is a recipient of a European Research Council Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros from January 2009 for 5 years. This project seeks to understand how magma chambers form. This research builds on his Read more

Jennifer Brier

Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies/History, University of Illinois-Chicago

Censoring Infectious Ideas: Queer Sexuality and the AIDS Crisis

Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Beginning with her own experiences as an author whose work has been censored, Brier will discuss how the response to AIDS has been affected by attempts to remove discussions of sex and sexuality from its center and question the extent to which we have become a more sexually liberated culture since the 1980s.

This event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Sociology, American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Background Information (provided by speaker)
In the last stages of preparing her book for publication, including securing the permissions to publish several reproductions of early AIDS prevention posters from San Francisco, Brier’s press informed her that she would not be able to include any images that displayed full-frontal male nudity. Told that the images were not central to her argument and that they would be distracting, Brier had no choice but to exchange the images for less-explicit ones, a decision that uncannily mirrored what happened when the San Francisco AIDS Foundation first created and tried to distribute the posters using federal Read more

Growth in the Garden: Food and Sustainability

Sally McMurry, professor of history, Penn State University
Brian Snyder, executive director, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture

Thursday, November 4, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room
6:00 – Reception
7:00 – Program

One of the South Mountain Environmental History Lectures, this event features a keynote address by Professor McMurry titled “Pennsylvania’s Historic Farming Legacy and Sustainable Agriculture’s Future” and an additional presentation by Mr. Snyder who will discuss opportunities to capitalize on the fact that sustainably raised Pennsylvania products are centrally located to some of the largest population centers in the nation.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)
Sally McMurry is professor of history at Penn State University – University Park. She is a cultural and social historian of nineteenth-century America, with a special interest in the history of agriculture, landscape, architecture, and gender as they develop in rural contexts. She has published books and articles on these topics. Currently she is principal investigator for a multi-year collaborative project, ‘The Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project,’ which will create a resource that can be used by preservation professionals to evaluate Pennsylvania’s historic farm buildings and landscapes.

Brian Snyder is executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), a position he has held Read more

Donald Graham – Benjamin Rush Award Lecturer

Chairman of The Graham Group

The Liberal Arts in Today’s World

Wednesday, November 3, 2010 – Rush Award *
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Mr. Graham will speak about the vital importance of a liberal arts education and the need for broad-based thinking in today’s business and political climate.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Donald C. Graham founded Graham Engineering in 1960 with no capital in the basement of his rented farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. Today, the Graham Group manages approximately $2.5 billion of internal and third party capital and is the anchor sponsor of four investment management businesses including the family investment office, Graham Capital Company located in York, PA and three private equity firms based in the Philadelphia area, Graham Partners, Inverness Graham and Striker Partners. The Graham Group manages a significant pool of marketable securities along with investments in over 100 private equity, real estate and hedge funds. The Graham Group also maintains a direct co-investment operation in businesses where it believes we have something to offer, other than just capital. The co-investments are in diverse industries and Read more

Charlie Savage

The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

Presidential Power: Barack Obama and the Bush-Cheney Legacy

Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Depot – 7:00 p.m.

How President Obama’s team has grappled with the executive powers they inherited from the Bush-Cheney administration presents a case study in the multi-generational, bipartisan trend toward escalating White House authority – and a warning sign for the future of American-style checks and balances.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie Savage is a Washington correspondent for the New York Times. A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Savage graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1998 and later earned a master’s degree from Yale Law School while on a Knight Foundation journalism fellowship. He began his career as a local government and politics reporter for the Miami Herald, and covered national legal affairs for the Boston Globe from 2003 to 2008 before moving to the Times. Savage lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, the journalist Luiza Ch. Savage of Maclean’s Magazine, and their son, Will.

Savage’s work on the Bush-Cheney administration’s efforts to expand presidential power has been widely recognized. His articles in the Boston Globe received the Read more

Fred Greenstein

Professor of Politics Emeritus, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

Buchanan vs. Lincoln: A Presidential Comparison

Friday, October 29, 2010
Denny Hall, Room 317, 4:00 p.m.

No two presidents are viewed as having been more unlike than Buchanan and Lincoln. Historians typically rate Buchanan near the bottom of the list of presidents and Lincoln at the top. This lecture addresses whether these two presidents differed that much, whether the historians’ ratings are justified, and whether there is any merit to such ratings?

James Buchanan is an 1809 graduate of Dickinson College.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Fred I. Greenstein is Professor of Politics Emeritus at Princeton University. His books include Children and Politics (1965), Personality and Politics (1969), The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader (1982), How Presidents Test Reality (1989, with John P. Burke), The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Barack Obama (2009), and Inventing the Job of President: Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson (2009). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past president of the International Society for Political Psychology. He received a BA from Antioch College in 1953 and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1960.

Video of Read more

Carole Counihan

Professor of Anthropology, Millersville University

Italian Slow Food: Societal Change and Justice

Thursday, October 14, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

This talk uses ethnographic interviews with members of the Italian Slow Food Movement – a coalition of 100,000 members around the world devoted to promoting “good, clean, and fair food” – to explore whether food practices can be the basis for advancing personal growth as well as social and economic justice.

This event is co-sponsored by the 2010: A Food Odyssey Learning Community and the First Year Seminar Program.

Biography (provided by speaker)
Carole M. Counihan is professor of anthropology at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She has a BA in history cum laude from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Counihan’s research centers on food, culture, gender, and identity in the United States and Italy. Supported by a 2005-2006 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, she authored A Tortilla Is Like Life: Food and Culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado (University of Texas Press, 2009), which is based on food-centered life histories collected from Hispanic women in the town of Antonito, Colorado. Counihan is also author of Around Read more

Debate: Pennsylvania's 199th District

Stephen Bloom (R) and Fred Baldwin (D)

Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7:00 p.m.
The Republican and Democratic candidates running in the general November election for the 199th seat in the Pennsylvania state legislature will discuss the central issues confronting local voters and answer questions from the audience. The debate will be moderated by Prof. Andrew Rudalevige, political science department

Co-sponsored by the Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters and the YWCA Carlisle.

Biographies
Stephen Bloom (Republican)
Bloom has served as a business lawyer and community leader for 25 years. He is a 1983 graduate of Penn State University, with a B.S. in agricultural economics and rural sociology, and a 1987 graduate of the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. His first book, The Believer’s Guide to Legal Issues, was published in 2008. He has also served terms as president of the Downtown Carlisle Association and treasurer of the Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition to his Carlisle law practice at the firm of Irwin & McKnight, P.C., he teaches economics and business law as an adjunct instructor of management & business at Messiah College. Visit www.stephenlbloom.com for Read more

Steven Aftergood

Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists

WikiLeaks–A Flood of Secrets: National Security vs. Free Speech

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

The recent disclosure of up to 90,000 classified documents relating to the Afghanistan War has underscored the difficult balance between preserving open government and preserving national security. Underlying issues that will be addressed include the problem of over classification, the scope of the Espionage Act, and the challenges of protecting sources and methods in the age of the internet.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Steven Aftergood is a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. He directs the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, which works to reduce the scope of government secrecy and to promote reform of official secrecy practices.
He writes Secrecy News, an email newsletter (and blog) which reports on new developments in secrecy policy for more than 10,000 subscribers in media, government and among the general public.

In 1997, Mr. Aftergood was the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency which led to the declassification and publication of the total intelligence budget ($26.6 billion in 1997) for the first time in Read more

Eric Schlosser

Bestselling author of Fast Food Nation and co-producer of Food, Inc.

Thoughts on Food

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 *
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Schlosser will discuss what effects food production, distribution, and consumption have on society’s health, environment and culture.

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

A reception will immediately follow the presentation in the lobby of ATS. Book signing by the author and the opportunity to purchase “Fast Food Nation” and “Chew on This” will be offered at the reception.

This event is co-sponsored by Student Senate, The Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life, The Division of Student Development, and the Departments of Religion, Judaic Studies, Environmental Studies and Psychology.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
As an investigative journalist, Eric Schlosser continues to explore subjects ignored by the mainstream media and gives a voice to people at the margins of society. Over the years he’s followed the harvest with migrant farm workers in California, spent time with meatpacking workers in Texas and Colorado, told the stories of marijuana growers and pornographers and the victims of violent crime, gone on duty with the New York Police Read more

Sandra Soto

Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Arizona

The Politics of Resentment in Arizona

Thursday, September 23, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Professor Soto will analyze the treatment of Latinos (both documented and undocumented) in terms of Arizona’s “show-me-your-papers law” and the “ethnic studies law.”

This event is co-sponsored by the Office of Global Education.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Sandra K. Soto is co-coordinator of the Chicana/Latina Studies Concentration, and affiliate faculty of English, Mexican American Studies, and Latin American Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Austin (with a focus in Ethnic and Third World Literature). Her interdisciplinary research agenda draws on Chicana/o and Latina/o literary and cultural studies, queer theory, and gender studies to offer innovative approaches to the overdetermined terrain of social relations, cultural representation, and knowledge production. Her book Reading Chican@ Like a Queer: The De-Mastery of Desire (University of Texas Press, 2010), replaces the race-based oppositional paradigm of Chicano literary studies with a less didactic, more flexible, framework geared for a queer analysis of the discursive relationship between racialization and sexuality. She is currently working on her second book tentatively titled Feeling Greater Read more

Former Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Mexico, Drugs and Crime

Writer, Performer, and Activist

Sexual Empowerment: A World Without Rape

Assistant Professor of Political Science and Humanities, Reed College

Untying the Knot

Panel Discussion

Panelists

** BREAKING ISSUE **

Panelists

World Renowned Ecologist, Author and Cancer Survivor

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

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

Gene Therapy: Current and Future Prospects

Panel Discussion

Panelists

Author, Educator, and Urban Agriculturalist

Feeding the Future

Professor of Geology, University of Bristol, U.K.

Volcanic Eruptions

Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies/History, University of Illinois-Chicago

Censoring Infectious Ideas: Queer Sexuality and the AIDS Crisis

Sally McMurry, professor of history, Penn State University Brian Snyder, executive director, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture

Chairman of The Graham Group

The Liberal Arts in Today’s World

The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

Presidential Power: Barack Obama and the Bush-Cheney Legacy

Professor of Politics Emeritus, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

Buchanan vs. Lincoln: A Presidential Comparison

Professor of Anthropology, Millersville University

Italian Slow Food: Societal Change and Justice

Stephen Bloom (R) and Fred Baldwin (D)

Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists

WikiLeaks–A Flood of Secrets: National Security vs. Free Speech

Thoughts on Food

Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Arizona

The Politics of Resentment in Arizona

BREAKING ISSUE

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

Sally McMurry, professor of history, Penn State University
Brian Snyder, executive director, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture