Events

Wednesday, November 11, 2026 – Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

y code when ai?

Hadley Wickham is Chief Scientist at Posit PBC

Software engineering has irrevocably changed, and there is now relatively little need to personally type code. But I don’t think this means you should no longer learn to code. In fact, it’s now a better time to learn than ever before. Coding agents might have changed how we create code, but code as an artifact of reasoning and reproducibility is still incredibly valuable.

I’ll share what I’ve learned using AI tools in my own software engineering practice, particularly the importance of the “double-entry accounting” of programming—unit tests—and the importance of creating an adversarial environment for code generation. I’ll also include some speculation about how AI will affect data science. It’s less clear to me how this is going to play out, since it’s much harder to automatically validate the most important parts of data science.

This is a scary time, but it’s also exhilarating. I built an iPhone app in a couple of hours without ever having written Swift. The ceiling on what individuals can build has never been higher, and it’s easier than ever to bring Read more

Thursday, November 5, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Tree Obsessions: Celebrating the Ephemeral in Long-Lived Plants

William (Ned) Friedman is the Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

In an age of environmental destruction and outright murder of our biological brethren, there is something deeply troubling about humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Technology has left us with mere facsimiles of nature – pixilated abstractions of biodiversity through satellite imagery, decoded strings of DNA – and we have become fundamentally disconnected from actual nature. I will argue that by mindfully engaging in the simple act of observing nature (and obsessing about it) in arboreta, botanical gardens, and our backyards, trees can help us forge a personal and empathic lifelong connection with the “other,” the vast and variant organisms with which we share the planet. As Johann Wolfgang Goethe aptly wrote: “To wander about among a vegetation which is new to one is pleasant and instructive.  It is the same with familiar plants as with familiar objects: in the end we cease to think about them at all.  What is seeing without thinking?” Indeed, seeing without thinking lies at the very heart of the human-created crisis of global change and extinction, and the Read more

Thursday, October 8, 2026

Mathers Theatre, 7 p.m.

The Archive

Neta Pulvermacher, Israeli/American Choreographer, Dancer, Director and a Professor of Dance at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (JAMD)

The Archive
Created and Performed by Neta Pulvermacher

“They are not here,
And they are not coming
There is nothing here…
There is nothing here for you
It’s just this room and you and me.
And they are not here…
Go home, go home…
There’s no sense in waiting”

When the last person who remembers is gone, whole worlds disappear forever. Israeli/American artist, choreographer and performer Neta Pulvermacher, situates her riveting one woman show, The Archive, inside this perforated post-memory landscape. Exploring her German-Jewish family history, she constructs a jarring, witty and deeply moving performative journey that follows the traces to Frankfurt and Berlin – once her family’s home.

Inside a room containing a table, three chairs, a reading lamp, and an old violin, Pulvermacher sifts through documents, photographs, and personal artifacts. She dances, sings, and tells stories, conjuring fragmented narratives, voices, and characters that connect briefly only to fade away into oblivion. In her “Archive,” she asks us to consider the ephemerality of memory, history, and experience.

The Archive premiered at Villa Read more

Monday, October 5, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

When Trees Testify: Learning From and With Trees

Beronda L. Montgomery is a writer, science communicator, researcher and professor at Grinnell College

Montgomery will discuss themes from her recent book, When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy, including the ways seven trees—as well as the cotton shrub—are intertwined with Black history and culture. The histories of trees in America are also the histories of Black Americans. Pecan trees were domesticated by an enslaved African named Antoine; sycamore trees were both havens and signposts for people trying to escape enslavement; poplar trees are historically associated with lynching; and willow bark has offered the gift of medicine. These trees, and others, testify not only to the complexity of the Black American narrative but also to a heritage of Black botanical expertise that, like Native American traditions, predates the United States entirely.

The program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by The Trout Gallery and is in conjunction with the Trout Gallery exhibition Branch: Trees in American Art. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s annual theme, Revolutions.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Beronda L. Read more

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Dickinson Faculty Forum

Can a Computer Program Think Like a Human?

John MacCormick is Professor of Computer Science at Dickinson College

Computer scientists have known since the 1950s that it is possible, in principle, for a computer to emulate human cognitive processes.  But the startling advances in artificial intelligence over the last two decades have given us new insights into some specific similarities between human cognition and the computer programs known as a deep neural networks. These similarities will be explained without assuming any background knowledge from the audience. Armed with an understanding of how modern AI systems work, we can debate the consequences for a liberal arts education.

This program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and part of it’s Dickinson Faculty Forum series. It is also affiliated with the Clarke Forum’s annual theme, Revolutions.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

John MacCormick’s work in computer science spans several sub-fields, including artificial intellegence, computer vision, large-scale distributed systems, computer science education, and the public understanding of computer science. He is the author of four books, including Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today’s Computers and  Read more

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

From the Kafala to Human Trafficking: Migrant Domestic Work Across the Globe

Rhacel Salazar Parreñas is the Doris Stevens Professor in Women’s Studies and Professor of Sociology and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University

This talk provides a global overview of the labor exploitation faced by migrant domestic workers. It demonstrates how these workers share a legal status as bound laborers who cannot easily leave their jobs, rendering them uniquely vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking. Across the globe, migrant domestic workers operate under systems where their legal status mandates they work solely for a specific sponsor and, for the most part, live in their employer’s home. This reality suggests that the kafala—or a kafala-like system—is not unique to the Middle East, but is instead a global condition of labor.

This structural binding reveals that migrant women, who make up the vast majority of this workforce, are not treated as independent economic migrants, but are instead legally reduced to household dependents. This status severely limits their ability to participate in a free labor market, preventing them from seeking higher salaries or better labor standards, while simultaneously leaving them highly exposed to abuse. Read more

Monday, September 14, 2026 – Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Program

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Program

Freedom is Made Safe … Through Character and Learning

Jane E. Calvert, The John Dickinson Writings Project
Jeffrey Rosen, George Washington University Law School

The Clarke Forum and the Department of Music present Jane Calvert (author of Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson) and Jeff Rosen (CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center) for an evening of conversation and performance celebrating Constitution Day. Organized by Dickinson Professor of Music, Jennifer Blyth, readings from Calvert’s book form the basis of a discussion that will be complemented by performed versions of “The Liberty Song,” and some original compositions from Jeff Rosen’s podcast on “The Pursuit of Happiness.”

The program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Department of Music.  It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s annual theme, Revolutions.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Jane E. Calvert (biography forthcoming)

Headshot of Jeffrey RosenJeffrey Rosen is the CEO emeritus of the National Constitution Center, a senior fellow at FIRE, a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. Rosen is the author Read more

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Poster for Cynthia Miller-Idriss's talk

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

No livestream, however, the program will be recorded for future campus-only viewing.

The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism

Cynthia Miller-Idriss,  professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education at the American University and founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL)

What two things do most mass shooters, terrorists, or violent extremists have in common? Most of us know the first: they are almost always men or boys. But the second? They are almost always virulent misogynists, homophobes, or transphobes—even if they are also motivated by racism, antisemitism, or xenophobia. In dozens of incidents from North America to Norway to New Zealand, an increasing number of misogynist incel (involuntarily celibate) and male supremacist attackers have explicitly targeted and killed women, blaming feminism or sexual frustration with women as motivation for their attacks. Yet, despite all evidence, the bright red thread of misogyny running through these attacks is barely acknowledged by the media or even experts—and this failing leaves us powerless to stop the violence. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a leading expert on extremism, will discuss this crucial oversight, revealing how an epidemic of misogyny—both Read more

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Poster to advertise The Poster of Languange eventAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

A book signing will follow the presentation

The Power of Language: How Knowing More Than One Language Transforms the Mind and Society

Viorica Marian, Sundin Endowed Professor of Communication and Psychology at Northwestern University

Bilingualism and multilingualism are the norm rather than the exception in the world. Yet historically, scientific research has focused disproportionately on monolingual speakers as the standard. For an accurate understanding of the mind, we must recognize the brain’s ability to accommodate multiple symbolic systems simultaneously as the signal, rather than the noise, in human experience.

In this talk, I will present evidence that bilingualism reshapes cognitive architecture. My research integrates behavioral, neuroimaging, cognitive, and computational methods to capture the continuous parallel activation and interaction of multiple languages in the brain and their consequences for cognitive function, from perceptual processes to higher-order thinking. Behavioral methods such as eye-tracking and mouse-tracking reveal that bilinguals’ eye movements drift toward objects whose names overlap across languages, and that hand movements and decision-making veer toward alternatives activated by another language. Neuroimaging shows that managing multiple languages is like a workout for the brain and reshapes neural connections, leading to measurable structural and functional adaptations.

The Read more

Monday, April 20, 2026

Poster to advertise Mayanthi Fernando's program Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

 

Muslim France and the Contradictions of Laïcité: A History of the Present

Mayanthi Fernando, University of California Santa Cruz

In 1989 three Muslim schoolgirls from a Paris suburb refused to remove their Islamic headscarves in class, igniting a debate – still raging more than 30 years later – about the place of Muslims in the French Republic and within its governing framework of laïcité (secularism). The dominant narrative about laïcité, both in France and in the US media, is that in 1905, France separated church and state, and religion was restricted to the private sphere. Public Muslimness is therefore seen as contravening this longstanding arrangement of what it means to be French.

Mayanthi Fernando will complicate that narrative to offer a different history of the present. First, she will show how laïcité has entailed not the separation of religion from politics and the public sphere but rather the French state’s intervention into religious life, including defining what counts as religion, belief, practice, symbol, and so on, using a Christian framework to make those distinctions. Fernando will then delve more deeply into the headscarf drama. The language of the 2004 law banning “conspicuous religious signs” classifies Read more

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 – Breaking Issue

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

This event is in-person only. It will not be livestreamed nor recorded for future viewing. 

The Geopolitical Consequences of the Iran War

A Dickinson College Faculty Panel Discussion

Russell Bova – Political Science & International Studies
David Commins – History & Middle East Studies
Mireille Rebeiz  – Middle East Studies, French & Francophone Studies and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury, marking a significant escalation in their conflict with Iran and intensifying instability across the Middle East. Since then, the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as a central site of geopolitical contention and a critical factor in negotiations. As one of the world’s most vital energy corridors, disruptions to this waterway reverberate through global markets and supply chains, raising urgent questions about the role of energy security in shaping contemporary international relations.

At the same time, the conflict has generated profound humanitarian and public health concerns. Attacks on critical infrastructure, including desalination facilities, alongside disruptions to fertilizer and food systems, have heightened the risks of water scarcity and food insecurity across the region and beyond. As the conflict evolves, it has Read more

Monday, April 13, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

 

The Canary in the Coal Mine: The 1951 Refugee Convention and the Collapse of the Post WW II International Order

Seyla Benhabib is the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University Emerita and Senior Research Fellow at Columbia Law School and the Center for Contemporary Critical Thought

The 1951 Refugee Convention is one of the most important human rights documents of the post-WW II period. Like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (on which it is based) and the Genocide Convention, both of 1948, it embodied the hopes and aspirations of a new world order. Never again would those persecuted on account of their race, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs, and social group fail to find protection and refuge in countries other than those in which such persecution occurred.

The 1951 Convention, however, from the beginning was beset with some difficulties: first, it originally excluded countries of the Global South, whether by omission or by design. To this day, India is not a signatory of the Convention because the India-Pakistan War could find no place within its framework. Likewise, the categories of “protected groups,” named in the Convention, were based Read more

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

The World As We Would Have It Be: Collective Thriving in the Timeplace of Collapse

Norma Kawelokū Wong (Collective Acceleration), Native Hawaiian and Hakka Writer/Teacher, 86th Generation Zen Master, and Political Strategist

David L. McMahan, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania

“We know the story of the collapse. We have much less imagination of the timeplace of the other side. Thus, the far horizon story should always take place beyond the apocalyptic time when everything completely fell apart and the skies were dark for so long no one knew lightness nor blueness. It is there and then we need to practice into.” –Norma Kawelokū Wong

We are living at a moment of rapid systemic breakdown in which chaos dominates our present condition and directs our future. Instability is no longer a failure of power but its primary technique, governing through exhaustion, fear, and confusion. Against this unpredictable, disorienting, and exhaustive background, who are we, who do we evolve to become, and how do we show up in this time of collapse? How do we relate to one another and what collectives Read more

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

 

Finding Unity in History: Our Community Process Recovering Victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Phoebe R. Stubblefield, Director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory, University of Florida

On June 1,1921, the unincorporated community of Greenwood Oklahoma was systematically looted and burned by a white mob.  The conflict derived from an attempt by the mob to lynch a young African American man, Dick Rowland, who had been accused of assaulting a white woman. Thirty-nine deaths were documented by death certificates, but the actual number of deaths is unknown due to the period of martial law which ended the rioting, poor documentation, and focus on recovery.  Twenty African American adult males were buried in the Tulsa city cemetery, Oaklawn, in unmarked graves.  In 2020 former mayor GT Bynum initiated the investigation, which continues today, to recover these and any other victims of the race massacre and return them to their families.  Our team of anthropologists have recovered over 50 individuals from unmarked graves in Oaklawn, and forensic analysis has identified six with gunshot wounds that make them potential victims of the riot.  Collaboration with our historians,  geneticists, and genealogists resulted in the first Read more

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Althouse Hall, Room 106 – 4:00 p.m.

Film Screening of Tulsa:  The Fire and the Forgotten

A Centennial Exploration of the 1921 Race Massacre

“A landmark PBS documentary, Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten examines the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre on the 100th anniversary of the crime. The film includes interviews with descendants of the victims and probes how their families’ devastating experience affects their lives in today’s America, and also documents the current excavation of potential mass graves from the massacre. Through the historical lens of white violence and Black resistance, this project explores issues of atonement, reconciliation, and reparation in the past, present and future.” – (Description taken from the DVD Cover)

The film screening will provide historical context for this week’s program with Forensic Anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield titled, Finding Unity in History: Our Community Process Recovering Victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. This program is scheduled for Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m. in ATS.

This film screening is being presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. Read more

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Poster to advertise Joshua Tucker's programAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

 

Bruce R. Andrews Lecture

Combating Online Harms: The Importance of Rigorous Scientific Testing of Proposed Interventions

Joshua A. Tucker is Director of the Jordan Center for Advanced Study of Russia, Co-Director of the Center for Social Media and Politics, and Professor of Politics at New York University

In the digital information era, policymakers and technology companies have implemented numerous interventions designed to mitigate online harms, ranging from misinformation to political polarization. However, Professor Joshua A. Tucker argues that we cannot rely on the assumption that these “common sense” solutions are effective; instead, they must be subjected to rigorous scientific testing. Drawing on extensive research from NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics (csmapnyu.org), Tucker will present findings from three major studies that challenge conventional wisdom. First, he will demonstrate how the popular advice to “do your own research” via search engines can paradoxically increase belief in misinformation due to low-quality search results. Second, he will discuss the limitations of source credibility labels, which appear to have little impact on downstream news consumption or trust in media. Finally, he will review the results of the U.S. 2020 Facebook & Instagram Election Study, Read more

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Poster to advertise Real-World Effects of AI discussionAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Real-World Effects of AI

Panelists

Hannah Beckler, Business Insider
John MacCormick, Dickinson College
Amy McKiernan, Dickinson College
Fengqi You, Cornell University

Last July, the current US administration announced an action plan for “Winning the AI Race” which includes almost 100 federal policy actions, among them the dissolution of federal regulations around AI development and the promotion of rapid buildouts of data centers. This panel explores what the AI boom means for all of us, from scientific research, healthcare diagnostics and automated content creation to its effects on public utilities and the environment. The speakers will discuss different applications of generative AI and a range of ethical concerns its use poses. The panel will be moderated by Sara Markowitz, assistant director of the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

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

Topic overview written by Layla Ilarraza ’26.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Headshot of Hannah BecklerHannah Beckler is an award-winning investigative reporter at Business Insider. Her work has been honored with a National Magazine Award and the Hillman Award in Read more

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This event is in-person only. It will not be livestreamed nor recorded for future viewing. 

Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program

The Arts, Democracy, and Public Life

Shannon Jackson is the Cyrus and Michelle Hadidi Professor of the Arts & Humanities at UC Berkeley and the Chair of the History of Art Department

How do the arts activate public life? What is the role of the arts in sustaining democracy?  In different eras and regions of the world, citizens have responded to these questions quite differently. As we mark the 250th anniversary of both the Phi Beta Kappa Society and of the United States of America, these questions have never been more resonant. The arts are key to advancing the rights of free assembly and of free expression.  The arts contribute to social movements and to the formation of civic identity.  This lecture alights upon a range of socially engaged art practices, investigating how the arts both shape and challenge our sense of community. Considering historic examples as well as those from our present moment, we will explore how public art can open us to new ideas of what democracy might mean.

This program Read more

Tuesday, February 10 & Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 5 p.m.

Film Screening of award-winning Adiós Cuba, subtitles in English

Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

A​​cclaimed Cuban filmmaker, Rolando Diaz, will discuss the making of the film with Dickinson Professor Margaret G. Frohlich of Spanish and Portuguese Studies with Q & A to follow.

These programs are sponsored by The Griffith Fund, The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Film and Media Studies, Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies, Theater and Dance, Political Science, and The Center for Spirituality and Social Justice.

  Read more

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

poster for Beverly Daniel Tatum's eventAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This program was in-person and livestream only. No recording is available for viewing.

Black History Month Conversation

The Psychology of Belonging: Navigating Identity on a College Campus

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, President Emerita of Spelman College, Best-Selling Author and Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum—esteemed psychologist, scholar, and former president of Spelman College—joins Dickinson College for a moderated conversation inspired by her New York Times-bestselling book, “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” And Other Conversations about Race. This dialogue will explore the psychological foundations of racial identity development and the ways in which students seek affirmation, belonging, and safety in community. Tatum will share insights into how identity formation shapes the student experience and why supportive environments are essential for student success.

As part of our Black History Month observance, this event offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with one of the nation’s leading voices in higher education. Together, we will reflect on what it means to build inclusive living and learning communities, a shared commitment that calls for both personal awareness and collective action.

Moderated by Dr. Jacquie Forbes, assistant professor of educational studies, Read more