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

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

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

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

Monday, September 13, 2010
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Congressman Todd Platts (R), Ryan Sanders (D) and Joshua Monighan (I)

Moderated by Jim Hoefler, Political Science Department

The candidates running in the general November election for the 19th congressional seat will participate in a debate. The debate will be moderated by Prof. James Hoefler, political science department.

This event is co-sponsored by the Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, and the League of Women Voters, and the YWCA Carlisle. Read more

Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Hussein Ibish, Ph.D., senior fellow, American Task Force on Palestine
Michelle Boorstein, religion reporter, The Washington Post
Erik Love, adjunct faculty member, sociology department
David Commins, professor, Middle East studies, Moderator

The panelists will discuss the nature and extent of American Islamophobia in the context of the ongoing controversy regarding whether an Islamic community center should be built near Ground Zero, focusing in part on the proper balance between religious freedom, the concerns and rights of the victims and survivors of the 9/11 attacks, and the needs of national security.

This event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Religion and Sociology, Middle East Studies and the Community Studies Center.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)
Michelle Boorstein , a native of suburban Boston, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied history and journalism. She worked what was once the traditional print journalism path, starting at a small city newspaper before joining the Associated Press where she spent eight years in bureaus including Providence, Phoenix, New York City, Nairobi and Afghanistan. She was a general reporter and a foreign editor at the AP before coming Read more

A Panel Discussion

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Mayor Kirk R.Wilson, Carlisle
Judge Edward Guido, Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas
Chief Dolores “Dee” Danser, Public Safety, Dickinson College
Lieutenant Michael Dzezinski, Carlisle Police Department
Matthew T. Bennett, prevention specialist, Cumberland-Perry Drug and Alcohol Commission
Moderator: Prof. Susan Rose, Sociology, Dickinson College

A panel of experts will discuss the topic and answer questions. The event will be of special interest to students new to the Harrisburg/Carlisle area, which Forbes Magazine recently identified as the fifth-most desirable place to live in the nation.

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

Kirk R. Wilson is serving his 25th year as mayor of Carlisle. He was first elected in November of 1985 and has been re-elected to six more consecutive four-year terms. As mayor he has played an active role in this community’s public safety, economic development, housing and downtown revitalization initiatives.

Under state law, the mayor is responsible for the operation of the Carlisle Police Department. He also approves or vetoes all ordinances and has the authority to break tie votes of the borough council.

He is past president of the Read more