LL.M., Partner London Office Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Metzger-Conway

Fellow

Human Rights: An Analysis of Saudi Arabia and the Impact of Islam

Monday, November 24, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Using Saudi Arabia as a case study, this talk will explore human rights in the Middle East from the perspective of the Muslim world and Sharia law. Particular attention will be paid to capital punishment, sexism, homophobia, immigration, divorce and inheritance.

Topical Background
Saudi Arabia is ruled by the Saudi royal family within a framework that is based on sharia law. Sharia law, in turn, is derived from the Qur’an, other religious texts of Islam, interpretations and precedents. Elements of sharia law, in some ways, stand in opposition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. The practice of sharia law in Saudi Arabia has witnessed the oppression of minority groups, including religious and sexual minorities. In particular, women’s rights are often a point of contention because of the extent to which gender-based discrimination pervades Saudi society. These problems and concerns reappear in many other countries of the Middle East.

Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” concept is certainly worth considering when Read more

Pamela Newkirk, associate professor of journalism, New York University

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the Andrews Fund.

Reception to follow sponsored by the Central PA Alumni Club.

Topical Background

In one of the most electrified and contested presidential elections in history, the American public faced daily bombardment of the latest statistics, allegations and controversies for more than a year by pollsters, pundits, analysts and journalists alike. But what was the role of race in the media coverage of the 2008 presidential election, and how might it have shaped popular opinion or fueled racial divisions?

Religion, race and gender have always played significant roles in America’s development. To say that the 2008 presidential election was historic is now a cliché. President-elect Barack Obama confronted (and continues to face) the issues of race that were left unresolved by our founding fathers and has persisted as a malignancy in the body politic ever since.
The media reported on an issue that has been debated for decades in elections featuring Black candidates: the “Bradley effect.” Tom Bradley was a former African-American mayor of Los Angeles who narrowly lost the 1982 California governor’s race to Republican George Read more

Luke Bernstein ’01, Executive Director of the PA State Republican Party

Mary Isenhour, Executive Director of the PA State Democratic Party

Thursday, November 6, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

“Continuing the Conversation” session following the program in Stern Center, Room 102. Refreshments sponsored by the Central PA Alumni Club.

The session to be moderated by James Hoefler, Political Science Department.

The race for president will surely take many interesting and unexpected twists and turns as the fall campaign season rolls on toward Election Day, November 4. Pennsylvania is traditionally one of the “must have” swing states and its 21 Electoral College votes promise to be among the most contested prizes in the county again this year. Join us for a session with two ultimate insiders for some insightful analysis of what happened and why.

About the Speakers
Luke Bernstein ’01, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Republican Party, worked last year with former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and guided the state GOP to many critical and successful wins in 2007. During the 2008 presidential race, he worked within the Republican Party to promote Republican Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain.

Mary Isenhour, executive director of the Pennsylvania Read more

Thursday, October 30, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

A panel of Dickinson College professors will examine U.S. domestic policy to better understand the challenges Senator Obama or McCain will face if elected. Student representatives from College Democrats and College Republicans will ask questions of the panelists prior to the general question and answer session.

Topical Background
A country’s domestic policy is a set of guidelines which outline how the federal government will direct its internal affairs (the everyday lives of its citizens and their communities). The growth of transnational issues means that very few issues today are considered solely the province of domestic policy. However, topics such as the health care system, including both Medicare and Medicaid, the state of the economy and job creation, the rise of gas prices, the debate over illegal immigration, the educational system, the regulation of business and industry, and the protection of civil liberties have all been debated throughout the 2008 presidential election because their impact is visible and immediate for many American voters. More recently, attention has centered on the financial crisis, which has produced a credit freeze that many fear could result in an economic depression. A panel of Read more

Panel Discussion with Dickinson Faculty

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

A panel of Dickinson College faculty will examine United States foreign relations to better understand the policy environment Senators Barack Obama or John McCain will face after the elections. Students representatives from College Democrats and College Republicans will ask questions of the panelists prior to a general question and answer session.

Topical Background
A country’s foreign policy is a set of guidelines which outline how the country will interact with other state and non-state actors economically, politically, socially and militarily. In our globalized world, an understanding of the important foreign policy issues in a presidential election is essential. Issues of this type that have been repeatedly discussed in the 2008 presidential race include the United States’ military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation, energy independence and global climate change, and the rise of new powers such as China and a resurgent Russia. When these security issues are combined with questions of diplomacy, such as U.S. relations with the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), international trade policy, foreign aid, and the perception of Read more

Award-Winning Filmmaker

Film Showing – “I Was Raped”

Monday, October 27, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

First cut showing of the documentary, followed by a question and answer session and book signing.

The “I Was Raped” Project highlights the prevalence of rape in our culture and the silence and shame that surrounds it. The goal of this project is to add nuance to the cultural conversation around rape as well as give rape survivors a voice. In the film, eight women and one man tell their rape stories.

Co-sponsored by Women’s Studies, Community Studies, Psychology, Anthropology, Office of the Dean of Students, and The Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women.

Topical Background
In the general population of the United States, rape statistics show that one out of every six women will be raped in her lifetime. On a typical college campus, one out of eight women will be raped during her time at school alone. However, the numbers of reported rapes are drastically lower than the numbers of actual rapes committed. Surveys show that an estimated sixty percent of all rape victims leave their assaults unreported. Victims are more likely to suffer from depression, alcohol abuse, post traumatic Read more

Binary Pulsars and Relativistic Gravity

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7:30 p.m.

Pulsars are neutron stars — the extremely dense, strongly magnetized, rapidly spinning remnants of supernova explosions. They also appear to be nature’s most precise clocks. Discovery of the first orbiting pulsar opened a new subfield of astrophysics in which the relativistic nature of gravity is tested through precise comparisons of “pulsar time” with atomic time here on earth. Among other results, the experiments have demonstrated the existence of gravitational waves, as predicted by Einstein’s theory of gravity.

About the Speaker
Dr. Joseph Taylor is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Princeton University. He is the recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Dr. Taylor taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, from 1968 to 1980, and since then in the Physics Department, Princeton University. From 1997 to 2003 he also served as Dean of the Faculty at Princeton. He earned a BA in physics, with honors, from Haverford College in 1963, and a PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University in 1968. His research is in radio astronomy, especially the study of pulsars and their applications to experimental gravitation.

Dr. Read more

Assistant Professor of Policy Studies in the College of Education and the

Department of African Studies, University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC)

Same Dynamics, New Directions: Centering Race, Class and Gender in Transformative Education

Thursday, October 16, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Join us for “Continuing the Conversation”
Friday, October 1, 2008
HUB Side Room 206 – 12:30 p.m.

Why are many teacher training programs still reluctant to forefront the complexities of race, class, and gender in k-12 education? The discussion identifies a process that centers the preparation of teachers in an explicit investigation of race, class and gender in teaching. Within this discussion is a set of processes that colleges and universities can engage to begin an intentional commitment to transformative education.

Topical Background
Critical race theory analyzes the roles of race/racism in daily life. Scholars in the humanities and social sciences have utilized this approach to name, analyze and work against the oppressive power of racism. In education, critical race theory has enabled educators to understand the dynamics of race/racism in the classroom and in the communities that schools serve. Critical race theory is “critical” in that it challenges conventional theories of race while working Read more

Award Winning Filmmaker

Film Showing: “No! The Rape Documentary”

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

This groundbreaking documentary explores the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism and cultural work of African Americans.

Topical Background
Every two minutes another person is subjected to sexual assault. In total, 17.7 million American women have been victims of rape or attempted rape. Through the ground-breaking work of Aishah Shahidah Simmons, more people than ever are becoming educated about these tragic facts.

No! The Rape Documentary is a film that explores the issue of rape on an international scale. Specifically, the film works to bring the prevalence of sexual violence in the African-American community to the forefront. Survivors, scholars and viewers alike have praised the film. Further, as a testament to the power and reach of the documentary, it has been seen in countries from Nepal to Brazil, Rwanda, and Hungary, crossing boundaries both physically and linguistically.

The issue of sexual abuse is especially pertinent in a college community, where college age women are 4 times more likely to be assaulted than women outside the 18 to 22 Read more

LGBT Rights in Spain: Writing and Social Change

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

What role can the writer play in bringing about social change? Franc, who grew up during the repressive dictatorship of Franco, addresses this question in the context of Spain’s gay and lesbian movement.

Topical Background
From the end of the Spanish Civil war in 1939 until 1975, Generalissimo Francisco Franco governed Spain autocratically, based on nationalism and traditionalism. As part of an imposed national unity, Spanish was the only official language, even though other languages were widely used in certain regions of the country. Censorship controlled every aspect of culture. Dissidents and opponents of the regime were imprisoned or they simply disappeared. During his rule, the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community was severely stifled. Not only was homosexuality illegal, but there were very few references to homosexuality in literature, cinema and music. Any references that did survive censorship were negative in tone. Despite this culture of oppression, a clandestine gay scene began to emerge in Barcelona in the 1960s.
Franco’s death in 1975 provided an impetus for drastic political and social change. Spain transitioned peacefully and relatively smoothly from Read more