Past Programs

Lisa Sherman ’79

Metzger-Conway Fellow, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Logo TV.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

Changing Hearts and Minds: Media as a Bridge Builder for LGBT America

For the past several decades, the media has been an important and powerful tool for humanizing LGBT Americans, gradually replacing stereotypes and caricatures with authentic portrayals and depictions of LGBT people characters. In the past several years, media specifically for the LGBT audience has come to the forefront, notably with the launch of Logo, the new 24/7 ad-supported television and broadband channel from MTV networks. Lisa Sherman will discuss gays and lesbians in the media as well as the context for Logo’s place in the media landscape and how it is helping to advance a sense of an electronic community for many LGBT Americans. Co-sponsored by the psychology department.

Issue in Context

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are frequently excluded and misrepresented. Gay men are often represented as overly ‘feminine,’ while lesbian women are depicted as ‘masculine.’ LGBTs are also classified as excessively sexual, and it is assumed that they will make advances towards all members of the sex to which they are attracted. Such Read more

Sara Lennox

Director of the Social Thought and Political Economy Program and professor of German Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Reading Transnationally: The German Democratic Republic and Black Writers

Thursday, October 25, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

Keynote speaker for the conference of the same name. Many of the African-American authors GDR publishers prmoted after the war were deeply influenced by Soviet models of proletarian internationalism, national self-determination, and masculine subjecthood. GDR scholars could thus appropriate such Black writers texts to provide confirmation of official GDR notions about race-blind class solidarity, general-neutral revolutionary subjectivity, the GDR’s positioning of itself on the right side of history, and the role that particular kinds of literary production could play in moving history forward. Only a reading attentive to transnational influences acting upon the GDR and Black writers in their Cold War contexts can fully account for why and how East Germans were encouraged to read African-American literature. Co-sponsored by Music and German Departments.

Issue in Context
Beginning in the 1920’s, a number of African-American artists and intellectuals openly expressed their adherence to socialism as a way to gain rights for Black people under the political unity of American working classes. Read more

Yolanda Lopez, political artist

The Virgin of Guadalupe on the Road to Aztlan

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

Artist-provocateur and activist, Yolanda Lopez, will discuss the trajectory of her work, including her famous “virgin of guadalupe” paintings, in the context of her experiences with the Chicano civil rights movement, feminism, and contemporary immigration debates. Co-sponsored by Latin American Studies, American Studies and sociology Department.

Issue in Context
The Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the most revered Roman Catholic symbols in Mexico. She is believed to be an apparition of the Virgin Mary. From the time of the Mexican War of Independence, the Virgin of Guadalupe has been assumed as an icon of Mexican culture. Each year on December 12, millions of Mexicans and Mexican Americans celebrate The Queen of Mexico with dancing, songs, fireworks, and prayers.

According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2000 there were more than 20 million Mexican Americans living in the United States. Although they represent a large portion of the U.S. population, Chicanos, or Mexican-Americans, still often find themselves marginalized and discriminated against in mainstream society. The Chicano movement addresses negative representations of Mexican-Americans. Activists in the Chicano movement have worked Read more

Julie Nemecek and Bear Bergman

Gender and the Search for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Part I – Common Hour
“Transgender Issues” – Facilitator, Prof. Christine Talbot
12:00 p.m. – Weiss Center, Rubendall Recital Hall

Part II – “Gender and the Search for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

Julie Nemecek, consultant, former associate professor and minister and S. Bear Bergman, writer, activist, performer, will use their own compelling stories and current research to discuss the barriers gender causes for the realization of the “unalienable rights” enumerated in our country’s Declaration of Independence. They will also identify key tools and actions needed to overcome those barriers. The Clarke Forum Student Board has created this program. Co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Students.

Issue in Context
In an article published in the September issue of the Human Relations journal, professors Stephen Linstead and Alison Pullen define “transgender” as a gender identity that goes beyond the normative binary system of male and female social representation. By this definition, transgender does not refer to sexual orientation and transgendered people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual. The American Psychological Association specifies Read more

Dana Priest

Author and National Security Correspondent with The Washington Post

The Media as Junkyard Dog: One Journalist’s Journey From Secret CIA Prisons to the Walter Reed Scandal

Wednesday, October 10, 2007
4:30 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
Dana Priest, Pulitzer Prize winner, and the reporter who “broke the story” on Walter Reed Hospital. What is the role of the mainstream media during a time of war and growing government secrecy? Priest takes us through the obstacle course, with all its trapped doors and moral dilemmas she encounters everyday in reporting during a time of great national angst and fear of terrorism. Co-sponsored by the United States Army War College and the philosophy department.

Issue in Context
While the “War on Terror” and the debate about its constitutionality continues, concerns about the system of American democracy and its morality are at the center of our national life.
As the link between the government and the American public, the media are responsible for informing American citizens about Federal policies and practices, and the government’s actions and inactions. But what happens if the government withholds such information from the media? Does the Bush administration have the right to operate in secrecy? The treatment Read more

Carmencita "Chie" Abad

No More Suffering From Sweat

Tuesday, October 9, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
Chie will discuss the horrible working conditions she endured in the U.S. territory of Saipan while making clothing for the Gap. In her struggle to unionize workers, she was forced to leave the island and is now working to educate Americans about inhumane factory conditions worldwide. Co-sponsored by campus academic life (first year seminars/learning communities) and the sociology department.

Issue in Context
Where did you buy the clothes you are wearing today? It is possible your clothes were made in a garment factory by underpaid women and children working in deplorable conditions. In many garment and clothing factories around the world, workers spend prolonged periods of time in dangerous settings, pressured to meet production quotas. Corporations use these “sweatshops” in their production process in order to capitalize on cheap labor costs, boost production, and pursue increased profits at the expense of the human rights and dignity of the human beings who sweat to assemble products for mass consumption.

While some limited progress has been made in establishing regulations and worker rights in some factories, a large percentage remain outside the sphere of global attention. Read more

Sister Helen Prejean

Dead Man Walking: The Journey Continues

Thursday, October 4, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents: Wrongful Executions. Sister Helen is a Southern storyteller who brings you on a journey and shares her experiences involved with her death penalty ministry while working with the poor. She is the author of Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents: Wrongful Executions. Book signing to follow. Co-sponsored by The Legislative Initiative Against the Death Penalty, Unitarian Universalists of the Cumberland Valley, community service and religious life, and the religion, philosophy, and English departments.

Join us for a student-led discussion “Continuing the Conversation” to be held on Friday, October 5, 12:30 p.m. at The Clarke Forum. Bring a bag lunch.

Issue in Context
Since 1976, there have been 1,095 executions in the United States. The death penalty has been used as a form of punishment in America since the founding of the colonies as Europeans brought the practice with them to the New World. The methods of execution have evolved over the years from hanging, to the firing squad, the electric chair in 1890, the gas chamber in 1924, and Read more

Vinton Cerf

Priestley Award

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

Social, Technical and Economic Consequences of the Internet Evolution

Vinton Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the internet, will discuss new internet products and services that may be appearing over the next decade. He will also explore the business consequences of dramatic changes in the economics of computing, networking and international demographics. Dr. Cerf will receive the Priestley award for his key technical and managerial role in the creation of the Internet, in particular, for leading the development of the TCP/IP protocols. Co-sponsored by the mathematics and computer science department.

Issue in Context
It is difficult to identify anything that has changed our lives to the extent that the Internet has. While the 19th century industrial revolution led to manufacturing prowess, expanding GDP and an increase in per capita purchasing power, the technological revolution which so much of Dr.Cerf’s work represents has captured the essence of human evolution and has taken us places previously incomprehensible. Who would have imagined that we could one day monitor the progress of our washer/dryer from our office desk? Who would have imagined that we could one day browse BBC online Read more

Judge Marjorie O. Rendell

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 43rd First Lady of Pennsylvania

The Constitution Day Address: The Constitution and Civic Responsibility

Monday, September 24, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
As a federal judge, First Lady and citizen, The Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell is passionate about civic learning. She has said, “We are the newest guardians of our democracy. It is important that we rededicate ourselves to the creation of those “voices of the people” proficient in understanding and willing to sacrifice for the rights and responsibilities embodied in our Constitution. We have a duty as “living” citizens to educate our youngest so that they not only know the words, “we the people…,” but fully embrace their meaning.” Co-sponsored by the department of political science.

Issue in Context
On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine men signed the U.S. Constitution, giving the people sovereignty under the American government. As the oldest written national constitution in use, the United States Constitution stands as a model of statesmanship and cooperation. September 17, 2007 marked the 220th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution; this date serves as a reminder of the Founding Father’s legacy and American citizen’s responsibility to uphold Read more

Stephanie Black

Life and Debt

StephanieBlack092007 Podcast
Thursday, September 20, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
Film showing and discussion with the filmmaker.
The film features Jamaica, land of sea, sand and sun, and a prime example of the impact economic globalization can have on a developing country. Using conventional and unconventional documentary techniques, this searing film dissects the “mechanism of debt” that is destroying local agriculture and industry while substituting sweatshops and cheap imports. With a voice-over narration written by Jamaica Kincaid, adapted from her book A Small Place, Life and Debt is an unapologetic look at the “new world order,” from the point of view of Jamaican workers, farmers, government and policy officials who know the reality of globalization from the ground up. Co-sponsored by campus academic life (first year seminars/learning communities).

Issue in Context
At what expense comes the global economic domination of industrial capitalist countries? The globalization process currently spreading through the world has many negative effects. In developing countries like Jamaica, many economic policies are adversely affecting the lives of the population. This process is fueled by multi-national economic organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank. Read more

Admiral Dennis Blair

Omar Bradley Chair
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

The American Use of Military Force Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 there were hopes for a peaceful new world order and even predictions of the end of history. As it turned out, the United States has sent major military forces into action nine times in the 19 years since then. Two major conflicts are continuing today in Afghanistan and Iraq. Admiral Blair will address how the United States has used military force in recent years, successfully and unsuccessfully, and how to think about what the country should do in Afghanistan and Iraq. Co-sponsored by the department of political science.

Issue in Context
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the end of nearly a half-century of Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States emerged victorious, affirming its superiority in the international arena. President H. W. Bush declared grand expectations for a “new world order” – the United States would finally be able to fulfill its founding fathers’ visions of freedom. There were widespread hopes for global peace. However, Read more

Lance Simmens

Global Warming

Tuesday, September 11
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

The scientific evidence on global warming is as disturbing as it is definitive. Increasing carbon emissions challenge our planet and all who inhabit it, a challenge that is here and now and that we must both acknowledge and address. Taking off from the documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, the presentation by Simmens, special assistant to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, speaks to the average citizen.

Issue in Context
Global warming refers to the rise of the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans and has become a prominent global issue over the last fifty years. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have been found by scientists to contribute in large part to the continued increase of the earthâ€™s temperature. While some greenhouse gases are necessary to maintain a temperature suitable for life on earth, an excess of these gases can create serious problems. In the past decade, the earth has experienced some of the warmest years ever recorded. While changes in the sun’s orbit and some volcanic eruptions have contributed to global warming, scientists and environmentalists have found that the recent elevated temperatures of the planet can be attributed Read more

Jackson Katz, educator and filmmaker

Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity

Thursday, September 6
7:30 p.m. – Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Mr. Katz explores the relationship between the social construction of masculinity and the widespread violence in American society, including the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, Columbine, and elsewhere. Katz will provide the audience with conceptual and practical tools for reading both negative and positive media images critically, especially those connected with masculinity and violence. Co-sponsored by the sociology and anthropology departments.

Issue in Context
The past fifty years have seen serious challenges to conventional gender and sexual relations, which have reshaped people’s identities and experiences in the United States. Diversity has become more than just a statement of gender, racial, and ethnic uniqueness. People are embracing the idea of gender equality and more women are assuming positions of power and responsibility that transcend the domestic realm. Discriminated groups have been demanding their rights and claiming acceptance and visibility in society. These social movements are perceived as a threat by some men who react violently to the challenge of their dominant role. Jackson Katz points that the only field in which men still have an advantage over women is the “area of Read more

"Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity" – Film Showing

Wednesday, September 5
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
The first educational video to systematically examine the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the United States at the dawn of the 21st century.
Jackson Katz, educator and filmmaker will present a lecture on Thursday, September 6. Click here for more information about this lecture.
For a film clip, visit http://www.mediaed.org/videos/MediaGenderAndDiversity/ToughGuise/# Read more

Film Showing: The Situation

Saturday, March 24, 2007 – The Carlisle Theatre
Panel Discussion – 7:00 p.m.
Film Showing – 7:45 p.m.
Discussion with Director, Philip Haas – 9:30 p.m.

Local Newspaper Reviews
The Sentinel
The Patriot-News

About the Film
The Situation, the first U.S. feature film that focuses on the occupation in Iraq, attempts to portray the conflict fairly and accurately. The film is co-written by director Philip Haas and journalist Wendell Steavenson, who spent a year reporting from Iraq. Strategically filmed in Morocco with a cast including many local actors, The Situation adeptly illustrates the interactions between Iraqis and American soldiers.
Producer Liaquat Ahamed said the idea for the film was inspired by “the feeling that, though the papers were full of Iraq, no one seemed to be able to understand it. People had a hunger to get inside the Middle East. [â€¦] News 4 reports were somehow unable to satisfy that curiosity.” Despite the mass media coverage of the war in Iraq, many people remain confused and lack a working understanding of the war and the United States’ role in the conflict. Director Philip Haas hoped to create a story that audiences could understand. He said, “you see the human toll, Read more

Energy Politics and Policy

Monday, April 16, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
Metzger-Conway Fellow
Jeanne Lopatto, director of Government and International Affairs at Westinghouse Electric Company

Ms. Lopatto advises the chairman on international policy issues and programs related to regulatory assistance to foreign countries for nuclear safety and radiation protection, non-proliferation activities, and export licensing. She also acts as liaison for the chairman’s office and other federal agencies including the Departments of Energy, State, Homeland Security, and others. She will provide an energy perspective from inside “The Beltway.” Read more

Transforming Self-Interest: How Organizations Provoke Social Justice Commitments

Thursday, April 12, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
Margaret Levi, University of Washington, Jere L. Bacharach Professor of International Studies

Organizational membership sometimes changes the beliefs people hold about the nature of the world and, consequently, their behavior. This seems to be what is happening among some terrorist groups and a subset of religious, political, and labor organizations. Levi investigates this problem with an in-deph investigation of several unions in the United States and Australia, whose members routinely engage in political and social activities that do not have obvious, immediate payoffs to the membership in terms of wages, hours, and working conditions.
Co-sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program and Dickinson Phi Beta Kappa.

Issue in Context
Left-wing longshore union members give up time and money to fight on behalf of social justice causes from which they can expect no personal material return. Nationalists make vulnerable their freedom and their lives for the sake of seemingly unattainable goals. What beliefs and preferences guide those choices and how are they formed? Levi argues that individuals (1) develop different preferences (2) as a consequence of an organizational culture that produces contingent consent with leadership and its goals. Read more

Local Air Quality: Past, Present & Future?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

“Continuing the Conversation”
All are welcome to stay for The Clarke Forum’s student led follow-up discussion immediately following the presentation.

Philip Carey, M.D., pulmonary specialist
Thomas Au, environmental attorney
Colonel (Ret.) Paul J. Cunningham, Clean Air Board
Omar Shute, executive director, Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation
Jesse Keen, vice president, Keen Transport, Inc.
R. Russell Shunk, executive vice president of College/Community Development at Dickinson College, Moderator

Issue in Context
Since human occupation, the Cumberland Valley has been a crossroads of commerce, trade, and travel. American Indians traversed trails through the region, along waterways and over mountains. People crossing these waterways and mountains now rely on the areaâ€™s heavy network of interstate highways. A vast logistics industry provides jobs in an economy that continues to lose manufacturing and farming. The trucks that drive through campus on Route 11 are just a slice of this network, and local air quality has diminished because of the diesel fuel emissions. A recent study by the American Lung Association indicated that the Harrisburg-Carlisle-Lebanon area has the 24th most polluted air in the nation, a factor that affects health Read more

Getting to Green?: Pennsylvania's Commitment to Renewable Energy

Thursday, March 29, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

Mike Ewall, director, ActionPA
Tom Tuffey, director, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s
Future Center for Energy, Enterprise and the Environment
Michael Heiman, facilitator, geographer and professor of environmental studies, Dickinson College

A discussion of Pennsylvania’s electricity provision, reform and contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Panelists will discuss the alternatives state laws allow, and the advances that have been made in wind and solar energy. An open discussion will follow.

Issue in Context
As both a major industrial state and a large producer of coal, Pennsylvania leaves a significant environmental footprint. Ranked third highest in the nation for production of greenhouse gasses (behind California and Texas), Pennsylvania contributes 1 PERCENT of all human-generated global carbon dioxide. Yet recently, this hotbed of energy generation and use has also given a lot of attention to alternative energy sources and environmental protection.
Although most agree that renewable energy sources are necessary to reduce our dependence on foreign sources and the carbon footprint accompanying fossil fuels, funding and support for alternative energy sources, some of which are less than â€œrenewable,â€ is controversial in the Pennsylvania legislature and across the country. In Pennsylvania, Read more

Addressing Climate Change: A Least-Cost Strategy

Thursday, March 22, 2007
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
Benjamin Rush Award
Roger W. Sant

Roger W. Sant is co-founder and chairman emeritus of The AES Corporation, one of the world’s largest global power companies operating in 27 countries. Mr. Sant was assistant administrator for energy conservation and the environment at the Federal Energy Administration as well as director of the energy productivity center, affiliated with the Carnegie Mellon University.

Issue in Context
Over the past two centuries, “greenhouse gases” which trap heat in our atmosphere have caused global temperatures to increase. The concentration of “greenhouse gases” is formed from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. “Greenhouse gases” are critical to life for they allow the planet to remain warm. In recent years these temperatures have risen above traditional levels, providing cause for concern. Eleven out of the past 12 years have been some of the warmest years ever recorded. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are 30 percent higher than they were during the Industrial Revolution. Polar ice caps are melting rapidly, at an average of 9 percent per decade; artic thickness has decreased 40 percent in the past 40 years. Furthermore, the number of Read more