Past Programs

Gene Dykes

Record-Holding Master Marathoner

Just Run

Monday, November 11, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Dykes will explore the many ways running is made overly complicated and how both running and your life can be made so much more enjoyable by employing his “Just Run” philosophy.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Athletics and the Office of Student Leadership & Campus Engagement. This event was also the first program that is part of our new The Good Life series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Gene Dykes was born in Canton, OH in 1948. He lived there until he attended Lehigh University, graduating in 1970 with a B.A. in chemistry. After two years in the army, serving in Vietnam and Japan, Dykes received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cornell University in 1978. He then embarked upon a career in computer programming until he retired in 2012. He married in 1982, and along with his wife, raised two daughters who now reside in San Francisco and Minneapolis. His wife is a professor of economics in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dykes ran track in high school and Read more

Perspectives on Impeachment

Breaking Issue

Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorum, 7 p.m.

Dickinson Panelists

Susan Feldman, professor of philosophy
David O’Connell, assistant professor of political science
Kathryn Heard, instructor in political science and law & policy
Gregory Steirer, assistant professor of English and film & media studies

A panel discussion on the general topic of impeachment in the context of the ongoing impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump from legal, political, ethical, and media perspectives.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Susan Feldman is professor of philosophy at Dickinson College. Her interests include the history of modern philosophy, the problem of knowledge and skepticism, philosophy of science and ethics, both “pure” and “applied” to such areas as the environment, the status of women, medicine and public policy.

Kathryn Heard is a professor in the departments of political science and law & policy studies at Dickinson College, where she specializes in constitutional jurisprudence, political theory, issues of power, belonging, and recognition in democratic societies, and feminist and queer theories. Her work has been supported by the Mellon Discovery Foundation and the Coblentz Civil Rights Endowment Fund, and Read more

Bryant Keith Alexander

Loyola Marymount University

Queer Intersectionalities: The Communicative Dimensions of Race, Masculinity and Sexuality

Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This lecture will use critical autoethnography as a mode of examining the queer intersectionalities of race, masculinity and sexuality as a positionality of power. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Life, the departments of English, American studies, psychology, and women’s, gender & sexuality studies, the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Office of LGBTQ Services, the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, and the Office of the Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness and Inclusivity. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Masculinities.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Bryant Keith Alexander, Ph.D. (Southern Illinois University Carbondale, M.S. and B.A, University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana Lafayette), is professor of communication, performance, and cultural studies. He currently serves as dean, College of Communication and Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University. He is an active scholar, lecturer Read more

Javier Ávila

Northampton Community College

Performance: The Trouble with My Name

Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Ávila’s one-man show, The Trouble with My Name, blends comedy and poetry to shed light on the American Latino experience. The show draws on the arts, education, and entertainment to deliver a powerful message about who we are as a society.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the department of Spanish & Portuguese, Latin American, Latino & Caribbean studies, and American studies and the First Year Seminar Program.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Javier Ávila (San Juan, Puerto Rico) is the recipient of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña Poetry Award, the Pen Club Book of the Year Award, and the Olga Nolla Poetry Award. Ávila’s dual-language anthology Vapor brings together poems from his award-winning poetry books. His best-selling novel Different was made into a movie entitled Miente. Two of his other novels, The Professor in Ruins and the controversial La profesión más antigua, explore Puerto Rico’s academic underworld. Ávila’s most recent novel, the thriller Polvo, was published in 2019. Ávila has been honored with the Outstanding Latino Cultural Arts, Literary Read more

Thomas Page McBee

Award-winning author

Am I a Real Man? Questioning Masculinity with a Beginner’s Mind

Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Author of Man Alive and Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man as well as the first trans man to box in Madison Square Garden, McBee shares what masculinity means, and what it definitely does not mean. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center and the departments of English and philosophy. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Masculinities.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Thomas Page McBee is an author, journalist, television writer, and “questioner of masculinity” (The New York Times). His Lambda award-winning memoir, Man Alive, was named a best book of 2014 by NPR Books, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly. His “refreshing [and] radical” (The Guardian) second book, Amateur, a reported memoir about learning how to box in order to understand masculinity’s tie to violence, was shortlisted for Read more

Carlos Andrés Gómez

Colombian American Poet and Actor

Reimagining Modern Manhood

Thursday, October 3, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Through storytelling, audience engagement, and poetry, Gómez shares his journey of growing up as a sensitive boy forced to navigate toxic machismo and restrictive gender stereotypes.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Life, the department of English, the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, and the Wellness Center. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Masculinities.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet and the author of the memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood, released by Penguin Random House. A star of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TV One’s Verses and Flow, and Spike Lee’s #1 movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, Carlos has performed at more than 500 colleges and universities in 45 U.S. states and headlined shows in 25 countries across five continents. Named 2016 Best Diversity Artist by Campus Activities Magazine and Artist of the Year at the 2009 Promoting Outstanding Writers Awards, you may know Read more

Brexit: Where it Stands, What it Means

Breaking Issue

Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists

Mark Duckenfield, U.S. Army War College
Oya Dursun-Özkanca, Elizabethtown College
Ed Webb, Dickinson College

It has been over three years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, yet a negotiated agreement to enable an orderly exit is still not in place. Many describe this situation as the worst political crisis faced by the UK in several decades. The final deadline is fast approaching. Our panelists will address several questions concerning the present moment and what to expect moving forward.

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

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Mark Duckenfield is chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the Army War College. He has written numerous academic articles on the European Union, British politics and international political economy. He is the author of the book Business and the Euro; and has also served as editor/general editor of the volumes The History of Financial Disasters; and Battles over Free Trade: Anglo-American Experiences with International Trade, 1776-2006. He has held teaching appointments at the Air War College (2009-2015), the London School Read more

Kathryn Abrams

University of California, Berkeley Law

Storytelling, Emotion Culture, and Performative Citizenship in the Undocumented Immigrants Movement

Thursday, September 26, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

How have a group of immigrants who lack formal legal status, and have been targeted by anti-immigrant enforcement in their state, developed the sense of authorization necessary to become outspoken and effective activists? This lecture, which draws on four years of observation and interviews with undocumented activists in Phoenix, Arizona, will explore three practices that have helped to form this new social movement.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the departments of philosophy and political science, the Program in Policy Studies and the Churchill Fund. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Kathryn Abrams is Herma Hill Kay Distinguished Professor of Law at UC-Berkeley School of Law, where she teaches Constitutional Law, Feminist Legal Theory, and Law and Social Movements. Her early scholarship on constitutional and statutory civil rights – including the Voting Rights Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act – led to a Read more

Zaneta Thayer

Dartmouth College

The Biology of Inequality

Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This talk will describe the hormonal and molecular mechanisms through which environments can become embodied, with a particular focus on how social inequalities can create health inequalities.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of philosophy, American studies, sociology and anthropology and the Health Studies Program. The program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Zaneta Thayer is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. She is interested in understanding how stress exposures, particularly in early life, shape patterns of human biology and health, as well as the evolutionary basis for that sensitivity. Much of her research has explored the health impacts of exposures such as poverty, discrimination, acculturative stress, and historical trauma in both New Zealand and among Native American communities in the United States.

Video of the Presentation

New York University

Morgan Lecture

Identity at Home and in the Wider World

Thursday, September 19, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Appiah will first explore the idea of identity philosophically, then focus on the psychology of identity and the challenges of managing identities in a humane way. He will examine how one particular identity—social class—works in our own society today, and end by discussing the role of identities across the world, defending the continuing relevance of a cosmopolitanism that is very much under attack. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Morgan Lecture Fund and co-sponsored by the Robert Lecture Fund in the Department of Classical Studies, and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Exciting and erudite, Kwame Anthony Appiah challenges us to look beyond the boundaries—real and imagined—that divide us, and to celebrate our common humanity. Named one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 public intellectuals, one of the Carnegie Corporation’s “Great Immigrants,” and awarded a National Humanities Medal by The White House, Appiah currently

Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Microbial Communities—The Original Internet of Everything

Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Microbial communities run the world. Although they are too small to see with the naked eye, microorganisms determine the health of humans, our food supply, and the environment. They accomplish their amazing feats working in concert in communities, but there is little knowledge about what makes these communities robust and stable. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Biology has selected this year’s recipient. The event is supported by the College’s Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of biology, chemistry, earth sciences, environmental studies, mathematics & computer science, psychology, and physics & astronomy and the Churchill Fund. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by speaker)

Jo Handelsman is the director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Vilas Research Professor, and Howard Hughes Medical Read more

Robyn Spencer

Lehman College, CUNY

Black Power, Gender and the Black Panther Party

Thursday, September 12, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

In the long 1960s, African Americans sought to redefine black manhood and womanhood in the face of feminist social movements, radical political change and anti-colonial global upheavals. The Black Panther Party’s gender politics provides an evocative case study to analyze the potential and limitations of challenging sexism and misogyny in the Black Power movement. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, and the departments of American studies and women’s, gender & sexuality studies. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Masculinities.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Robyn C. Spencer is a historian that focuses on Black social protest after World War II, urban and working-class radicalism, and gender. She teaches survey and seminar courses on Black history at Lehman College, City University of New York and graduate level courses at the CUNY Read more

Mark Blashford

Lanky Yankee Puppet Co.

Jack & Jill

Thursday, April 18, 2019
The Cubiculo, 7 p.m.

A one-man puppet show performed by actor, puppeteer and musician Mark Blashford, featuring hand-carved, folk-toy-inspired puppets and live music. The story addresses water conservation and water rights presented in the style of an Appalachian Jack Tale. Appropriate for children. After the show, Blashford will host a Q&A including a discussion of using children’s art to address serious environmental problems.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center of Sustainability Education, Alliance for Aquatic Resources Monitoring (ALLARM), and the department of theatre & dance. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Mark Blashford is a Chicago-based actor, puppeteer, and musician. He specializes in traditional puppet performance, including: marionette, shadow, rod, and hand puppetry. As a trained puppet builder, Blashford has studied in Germany, Iceland, the Czech Republic, and the University of Connecticut’s Puppet Arts Program. Blashford is a recipient of The American-Scandinavian Fellowship Award and The Jim and Jane Henson Scholarship Award. In 2018 he was an artist in residence at the University of Central Arkansas for a multidisciplinary Read more

José-Damian Ruiz-Sinoga

University of Málaga

Soil Degradation as an Indicator of Global Change

Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This talk will analyze the role of soil and its degradation processes as an indicator of Global Climate Change, as crucial for understanding a new framework of sustainability, and as key to establishing mechanisms for adapting to Climate Change.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the departments of environmental studies; Spanish & Portuguese; earth sciences; the Center for Global Study & Engagement; and the Center for Sustainability Education. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography

José-Damian Ruiz-Sinoga is professor of physical geography at the University of Málaga. He is also head researcher of the Physical Geography and Landscape research group. His areas of research include soil-water-plant relationships at different scales, processes of desertification and soil degradation in Mediterranean environments, Incidence of the EU directive of abandonment of crops on soil degradation processes, the role of human and socio-economic aspects in the integral management of watersheds, Global Change indicators in Mediterranean landscapes. and Read more

Mixed Race Saviors?: Learning from Latin American Racial Politics – Panel Discussion

Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Santiago Anria (moderator), Dickinson College
Tanya Hernández, Fordham University
Stacey Moultry, Dickinson College
Eric Vázquez, Dickinson College

There is a myth that as the U.S. becomes more mixed race, racial harmony will follow. But as we have seen in Latin America and the Caribbean the presence of mixed race majorities does not preclude racism. This talk will address how the U.S. can learn from the existing racial inequalities of Latin American and Caribbean societies in order to chart a better path forward.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of English; American studies; Latin American, Latino & Caribbean studies; and political science; and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Inclusivity. It was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Santiago Anria is assistant professor of political science and Latin American studies at Dickinson College. His research focuses on social movements, political parties, and democracy in Latin America and has appeared in journals including Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Democracy, Studies in Comparative Political Studies, Read more

Gender, Religion, and Violence

Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Margee Ensign, Dickinson College
Jean-Pierre Karegeye, (moderator), Dickinson College
Christina Li, U.S. Department of State, Office of Religion and Global Affairs
Stephanie Ogorzalek, U.S. Department of State, Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues
Celestino Perez, U.S. Army War College

In several current world conflicts, multiple sides claim religious belief as a motivation for violent actions, including gender-based violence. In fact, the U.N. “Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence That Could Lead to Atrocity Crimes” lists gender-based violence as one of the key elements related to atrocity crimes. Panelists will discuss prevention strategies, military actions, education, government policies, and constructions of gender.

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

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Margee Ensign became Dickinson’s 29th president on July 1, 2017. Prior to Dickinson she served for seven years as the president of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), a young, private university based on the U.S model of university education. There she Read more

Lilliana Mason

University of Maryland, College Park

Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity

Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

In her book, Uncivil Agreement, Mason looks at the growing social gulf across racial, religious, and cultural lines, which have recently come to divide neatly between the two major political parties. She argues that group identifications have changed the way we think and feel about ourselves and our opponents.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and the departments of philosophy; political science; and sociology; and the program in policy studies. It was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers and is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Lilliana Mason is assistant professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity (University of Chicago Press). She received her Ph.D. in political psychology from Stony Brook University and her B.A. in politics from Princeton University. Her research on partisan identity, partisan bias, social sorting, and American social polarization has been published in journals Read more

Linda Hogan

Poet and Novelist

An Evening with Writer Linda Hogan

Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Poet and novelist Linda Hogan will read from a selection of her works, many of which connect to themes related to gender, Indigeneity and the environment.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center and the departments of creative writing, English, American studies and women’s, gender & sexuality studies. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability .

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), former faculty at Indian Arts Institute, writer-in-residence for The Chickasaw Nation, and professor emerita from the University of Colorado, is an internationally recognized public reader, speaker, and writer of poetry, fiction, and essays. In July, 2014, DARK. SWEET. New and Selected Poems, was published from Coffee House Press. Her other books include INDIOS (Wings Press, 2012), a long poem and also a one-woman performance piece; ROUNDING THE HUMAN CORNERS (Coffee House Press, April 2008, Pulitzer nominee) and the well-regarded novel PEOPLE OF THE WHALE (Norton, August 2008). Works include novels MEAN SPIRIT, a winner of the Oklahoma Book Award, Read more

Sarah McBride

Activist

Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality

Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Sarah McBride is the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign and one of America’s leading public voices in the fight for LGBTQ equality. Her moving memoir, Tomorrow Will Be Different, chronicles her journey as a transgender woman, from coming out to her family and school community, to fighting for equality in her home state and nationally, to her heartbreaking romance with her late husband. A book sale and signing will follow the program.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Office of LGBTQ Services, the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the department of women’s, gender & sexuality studies, the Churchill Fund, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Inclusivity and Outlaw at PSU -Dickinson School of Law. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Sarah McBride is a progressive activist and currently the national press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. In 2016, Sarah made history when she became the first openly transgender Read more

Unveiling America: Addressing Issues of Contemporary Homelessness

Thursday, February 28, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Panelists

Jim Hoefler (moderator), Dickinson College
Christina Kapp, Cumberland County Housing & Redevelopment Authorities (Panelists was unable to present due to unforeseen circumstances)
Beth Kempf, Community CARES
Scott Shewell, Safe Harbour
Tim Whelan, Cumberland County Housing & Redevelopment Authorities

A panel of community leaders will discuss their efforts to find sustainable solutions to homelessness in this region.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund; the departments of English; American studies; religion; and sociology; and the health studies program. It was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers and is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Jim Hoefler is professor of political science and coordinator of the policy studies program here at Dickinson where he has been teaching courses on politics and policy making since he joined the faculty in 1989.

Hoefler’s primary area of research is end-of-life care and end-of-life decision making. He has published several books and numerous articles in this area and has served on the UPMC Pinnacle Carlisle’s Biomedical Read more