Events

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

Monday, February 26, 2007Fiasco Poster
7:00 p.m. – Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Thomas E. Ricks, Pulitizer-prize winning journalist, The Washington Post, and author

As the title, “Fiasco” suggests, Thomas E. Ricks views the American war in Iraq as a misguided exercise in folly and incompetence. His book provides a detailed and comprehensive critique for anyone interested in understanding how the United States came to go to war in Iraq, how an insurgency emerged, and how these events will affect the future of the United States. Ricks will discuss his findings and respond to questions from the audience.
Co-sponsored by International Business & Management and Political Science

Issue in Context
As of February 19, 2007, the official U.S. death toll in Iraq was 3,133, more than ten times the fatal casualties of all other coalition countries combined. The U.S. has invested about $500 billion in the Iraq war, but several audits over the last couple of years have revealed incomplete or unreliable documentation on the spending of several billions of dollars. A recent Washington Post article revealed that nearly 100 million dollars in cash intended for rebuilding projects in south-central Iraq cannot even be accounted for.
Three years ago, it Read more

Oil, War, and Geopolitics: The Global Struggle Over Disappearing Petroleum

Thursday, February 22, 2007
Klare Poster
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room
Michael Klare, Five Colleges professor of peace and world security studies

As we move deeper into the 21st century, the global demand for energy in all its forms is rising at breakneck speed, but the global supply is failing to keep pace, producing intensified competition between the major consuming nations — especially the United States, China, Japan, and the European powers — for access to the available supply. On top of this, the center of gravity of world energy output is moving inexorably from the Global North to the Global South, producing increased anxiety and uncertainty over the reliability and safety of international energy shipments. Both of these trends are contributing to the increased militarization of energy policy. Unless more is done to reduce our reliance on hydrocarbons, we can expect a global epidemic of “resource wars” over oil and other sources of energy.
Co-sponsored by Environmental Science, International Studies, International Business & Management, and Political Science.

Issue in Context
The actions of the U.S. in the Middle East during the past twenty years have been the subject of considerable debate. In his 2001 article “Geopolitics of War” Read more

The Neoliberal City

Thursday, February 1, 2007Neoliberal City
7:00 p.m. – Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Geography, Department of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

The global economic transformations that have occurred since 1970 or so are increasingly being referred to in terms of the rise of a “neoliberal” form of political economy (privatization, the withdrawal of the state from social provision, the inculcation of an ethic of personal responsibility). The urban consequences of this transformation have been the focus of considerable attention, but the New York “fiscal crisis” of the mid 1970s and its aftermath turns out to have been an originary moment in the rise of neoliberal practices. Tracing the history of neoliberalization through the recent history of urbanization reveals much about the power structures lying behind these transformations.

Books authored by David Harvey are available at the Waidner-Spahr Library. Read more

Open House and Reception

Monday, December 4, 2006
Open House and Reception

Please join us as we celebrate our name change from The Clarke Center to the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

249-255 W. Louther Street, Carlisle
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Forum Invite Read more

Open House and Reception

Monday, December 4, 2006Forum Invite
Open House and Reception
Please join us as we celebrate our name change from
The Clarke Center to The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

249-255 W. Louther Street, Carlisle
4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Read more

Humans First Altered Climate Thousands (Not Hundreds) of Years Ago

Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Humans First Altered Climate Thousands (Not Hundreds) of Years Ago
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Ruddiman

Issue in Context
The earth’s climate naturally goes through periods of warming and cooling. Currently, the average temperature of the planet is increasing at an alarming rate. The most common conjecture of environmental scientists is that human actions are accelerating the natural warming of the planet. The amount of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ), present in the atmosphere has increased, due in part to human consumption of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Most scientists attribute this increase to the population growth and the industrialization of the past few hundred years in human history. However, William F. Ruddiman, a professor emeritus from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia suggests that significant human intervention in the natural operation in the climate system actually began 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. Even while the world population was relatively small, heavy deforestation and rice irrigation in Eurasia , compounded by additional emissions from an unusually warm ocean caused a shift in global climate. Ruddiman suggests that by the start Read more

Concert: Works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Ravel, and Saraste

Sunday, November 19, 2006
Concert: Works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Ravel, and Saraste
Weiss Center, Rubendall Recital Hall, 4:00 p.m.

Amoroso

Program
Ludwig Van Beethoven, Sonata No. 8, Op.30
Sergei Prokofiev, Sonata in D major, Op. 94
Intermission
Maurice Ravel, Sonata for violin and cello

About the Performers
Richard Amoroso
Violinist Richard Amoroso joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1998. Born in 1970 to a musical family, he is well-known for his involvement in the Philadelphia musical community and for his extensive work with young people. A former pupil of past Philadelphia Orchestra concertmasters, Norman Carol and William de Pasquale, Mr. Amoroso continues in the long and rich tradition of these artists.Recent engagements include a recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and a solo appearance with the Philly Pops Orchestra. In addition, Mr. Amoroso speaks from the stage to both subscription and young audiences of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also a frequent participant in the orchestra’s chamber music series and Family Concerts.

Mr. Amoroso’s relationship with The Philadelphia Orchestra began at the age of 14 when, as winner of the orchestra’s student concerto competition, he performed as soloist with the orchestra on the stage of the famed Academy of Music. He Read more

Bilingual Education Symposium

Thursday, November 16, 2006
Bilingual Education Symposium

Common Hour
Part I: Historical, Demographic and Legal Trends
Grace Jarvis, Professor of Spanish, Dickinson College
Marcia Kile, ESL Coordinator, LIU
Tina Trozzo, World Languard Program Chair, CASD
Weiss Center, Rubendall Recital Hall, 12:00 pm

Part II: The National Debate
Raul Gonzalez, National Council of La Raza
Don Soifer, Lexington Institute
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 pm

Bilingual Education
Issue in Context
Started in 1968 by the federal government, bilingual education programs are designed to educate students whose first language is one other than English. The goal of these programs is to help students become proficient in English and be able to succeed in mainstream classes. The nation’s schools are becoming increasingly diverse in all areas, both urban and rural, further emphasizing the need for bilingual educators. Over the last decade the number of students in the United States in need of bilingual education has increased to three million. These changing demographics are demanding more effective bilingual education programs nationwide.

The best method of bilingual education has been highly debated for years. The major issue is the extent to which the student’s native language should be used. Some educators are proponents of instruction in the Read more

Afghanistan Beyond the Burqa

Thursday, November 9, 2006
Afghanistan Beyond the Burqa
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Afghanistan Beyond Burqa
Issue in Context
A free and compulsory education is viewed by many as one of the most fundamental of all human rights. However, at least 125 million worldwide children are denied basic education and one in three adults remain illiterate, according to the Global Campaign for Education.

Under the Taliban, basic education declined between 1996 and 2001, causing an increased percentage of illiteracy and low rate of school attendance. School curriculum was restricted, schools were destroyed and female education was banned. The government closed all of the girls’ schools in the country and prevented female teachers from working. Some girls were secretly educated in their homes by parents and teachers, others attended underground schools. In 2000, UNICEF reported that only 4% to 5% of Afghan children were being educated at the primary school level. Fewer had access to secondary and university education. By 2001, Afghanistan possessed one of the worst educational records in the world.

Since the Taliban fell from power in 2001, international efforts led by numerous countries negotiated an aid package of $4.5 billion to help rebuild Afghanistan. More than a million attend school Read more

Women Confronting Globalization

Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Women Confronting Globalization
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Women Globalization

Issue in Context
Ninety percent of Mexico ‘s potable water comes from Chiapas, but many communities have no access to fresh water. Similarly, Chiapas is Mexico’s top producer of hydroelectric energy and a major producer of natural fuels, and yet most of Chiapas ‘ indigenous people live without electricity. The Zapatistas, a largely non-violent revolutionary group struggling for the autonomy of indigenous people, has spent the last two decades raising awareness of local conditions domestically and internationally. Early in the Zapatista’s history, women joined the ranks and many rose to leadership positions, eventually creating the “Revolutionary Laws of Women,” which explicitly provided for equal rights for women in Zapatista-controlled areas. While the government has made changes in Chiapas, the region still suffers.

About the Speaker
Gabriela Martinez is a sociologist, activist, and researcher who worked with the Center of Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research in Chiapas, Mexico. Martinez has focused her studies and community work on the collective rights of indigenous communities, liberation theology, and fair trade and women’s cooperatives.

Celeste Escobar will translate for Martinez at this event. Escobar, originally from Paraguay , Read more

From Wiseguys to Wise Men: Masculinities and the Italian American Gangster Figure

Thursday, November 2, 2006
From Wiseguys to Wise Men: Masculinities and the Italian American Gangster Figure
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Wiseguys to Wisemen
Issue in Context
What does one associate with an Italian-American: pasta, large families, nice clothes, masculine men, and the mafia? These are some of the common stereotypes Americans have had about Italians living in the United States since they began arriving in the late 19 th century. Violence, sexism, machismo, overt sexuality and an obsession with abundance have characterized the persona of the Italian-American gangsters of yesterday in films such as The Godfather or Goodfellas. Represented as highly physical, the images of Italian men have helped construct what it meant to be an American man. The “wiseguy” character expresses both the experience of Italian immigrants and native fantasies that reveal the culture of American race, gender, and ethnicity. The wiseguy figure can be interpreted as a “trickster” character long employed as a metaphor in American literature to serve as a model of improper behavior.

About the Speaker
Fred Gardaphe is the director of the American and Italian American Studies Program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He teaches courses in Italian American history and Read more

The Plain People of Pennsylvania

Wednesday, November 1, 2006
The Plain People of Pennsylvania
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Plain people

Issue in Context
Early this fall, the murder of five students in an Amish schoolhouse thrust a community and its culture into the international media spotlight and sent shockwaves through the Pennsylvania communities that had for so long coexisted with these peaceful people. Despite our vicinity to this culture, there is little understanding of these people who are known for their conservative dress and restricted use of modern technologies, such as electricity and cars.

About the Speaker
Donald B. Kraybill is Distinguished College Professor and Senior Fellow in the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. Kraybill has also served as Provost at Messiah College. Nationally recognized for his scholarship on Anabaptist groups, Kraybill is the author or editor of over 18 books and dozens of professional articles. His books have been translated into six different languages. His research on Anabaptist groups has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and on radio and television programs across the United States and in many foreign countries, including Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Australia, and Japan. He received the National Religious Book Award for The Read more

Venezuela’s PetroPolitics: Democracy over a Barrel

Monday, October 30, 2006
Venezuela’s PetroPolitics: Democracy over a Barrel
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 P.M.

Venezuela's Petropolitics

Issue in Context
Home of the fifth largest oil industry in the world, Venezuela has gained increasing economic and political clout in the midst of a global scarcity of oil. Venezuela’s oil policy has polarized the country’s domestic politics, culminating in the 2002 coup that nearly removed its populist president, Hugo Chavez, from office. In addition to triggering intense public debate on the home front, Venezuela’s oil politics and its effects on the country’s domestic and foreign relations have alarmed governments around the world. Despite criticism from the U.S. administration and oil CEOs, Chavez has utilized his country’s oil revenues to promote his idea of democratic socialism by creating a vast array of social programs that have boosted his popularity among Venezuelans. Chavez has also allocated oil revenues to fund an aggressive diplomatic agenda. In light of an upsurge in global terrorism, oil policy in Venezuela has dramatically transformed the country’s position in the sphere of global politics, as world leaders have linked Chavez’s actions to broader questions of national security. Pat Robertson’s controversial request that the U.S. administration “take out” Chavez demonstrates the Read more

Ending Impunity: Seeking Justice for the Murder of My Brother in Pinchet's Chile

Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Ending Impunity: Seeking Justice for the Murder of My Brother in Pinochet’s Chile
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Chili Poster
Issue in Context
In the Chilean presidential election of 1970, Salvador Allende, running for the socialist-leaning coalition, Unidad Popular (Popular Unity), defeated the sitting president. He won a narrow plurality of 36.2 percent to 34.9 percent of the vote over the former president. In conjunction with members of Chile’s conservative wing, the United States government, particularly the CIA, helped engineer a coup twelve days before Allende’s inauguration. In a failed kidnaping attempt, General René Schneider, Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army, was assassinated by rightists. Ironically, this unpopular action only helped end military opposition against Allende. The president would remain ostensibly unchallenged for the next three years. On September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet led a bloody coup d’etat against then President Allende. The brutality of the immediate aftermath would portend the brutality of years to come. American freelance journalist Charles Horman and Chilean folk-singer Victor Jara were among the many tortured and killed in the days following the coup. Over the next month and a half, the infamous Caravan of Death, a Chilean army squad, Read more

Cancer: the Cost of Cure

Thursday, October 5, 2006
Cancer: the Cost of Cure
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.
Cancer

Issue in Context
With medical care costs around the country soaring, it is no surprise that cancer drugs are doing the same. However the price increases of pharmaceuticals are not uniform. Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager, produced a report indicating that the cost of a prescription for cancer treatment drugs rose 16% last year, while other prescription costs rose only 3%. Marcia Angell, faculty member at Harvard Medical School and former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that these costs are “really exploiting the desperation of people with a life-threatening illness.” Yet if simply treating cancers costs this much, how much would it cost to find cures? If cures are possible, who should pay the billions it may take to find them?

About the Speaker
The speaker and Metzger-Conway Fellow, Dr. Michael Weiner, is a Dickinson College alumnus who received his medical degree from the State University of New York Health Sciences Center. After completing his postgraduate training at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York University and the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, he Read more

Ethanol and Biodiesel Biofuels: Energetic and Environmental Issues

Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Ethanol and Biodiesel Biofuels: Energetic and Environmental Issues
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Ethanol and Biodiesel Biofuels
Issue in Context
Though the U.S. has less than 4% of the world’s population, it is responsible for 22% of the carbon dioxide released worldwide from the burning of fossil fuels. The release of carbon dioxide is the greatest contributor to global warming. The high energy usage of the United States makes alternative energy sources essential in reserving the pollution and dependence on fossil fuels. Ethanol, an energy source derived from corn, soybeans, and switch grass, has been touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuel. However, the production of ethanol requires a lot of energy – through farming and harvesting to deriving ethanol. The fuel used to produce it may be more than the energy it provides.

About the Speaker
David Pimentel is a professor of Ecology and Agricultural Science at Cornell University . His research includes population ecology, biological control, biotechnology, sustainable agriculture, land and water conservation, and environmental policy. Pimentel has served on many national and government committees including the National Academy of Sciences, the President’s Science Advisory Council, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. State Department. Read more

Sacrifice and Victory: The History and Now of Sacrifice and Victory for Human Rights

Thursday, September 28, 2006
Sacrifice and Victory: The History and Now of Sacrifice and Victory for Human Rights
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Sacrifice & Victory
Issue in Context
Throughout the past century, there have been many struggles and subsequent victories for human and worker rights. From the 19th century struggle to abolish slavery to the current struggles of stadium workers at Camden Yards in Baltimore, many tactics and personal sacrifices have been integral for bringing about positive change for workers. The 2005 hunger strike of the Immokalee Workers against Taco Bell with a grueling four year legal battle finally resulted in Taco Bell’s acceptance of the worker’s demands for a penny a pound increase in the price paid for tomatoes. Taco Bell also pledged to work with the workers to improve wages and working conditions for farm workers in the Florida tomato industry. Without the tireless efforts of the workers, Florida tomato pickers, who are some of America’s lowest paid workers, would still be living far below the poverty line.

At Camden Yards, Baltimore’s baseball stadium, dozens of workers never received payment for an entire month of work. While those responsible for this were fired, it was simply the latest event Read more

Research Protection vs. Research Promotion

Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Research Protection vs. Research Promotion
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Research Protection vs. Research Promotion

Issue in Context
The basis of all science lies in repeatable experiments that yield evidentiary results for or against a hypothesis. The only way to obtain relevant results about human response is to utilize human subjects in the experiment. However, doing experiments with human subjects instigates a deluge of complications. The demand for better regulation of human research experiments began with the Nuremburg Code after the Nazi exploitation of unconsenting prisoners of concentration camps. Now Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) carefully examine every step of the research process, from experiment design to the relevance of the potential findings to selecting human subjects. These boards, established by the US Department Health, Education and Welfare, are responsible for determining and preserving the fine line between sufficiently protecting research subjects and unnecessarily hindering research processes.

About the Speaker
Marjorie A. Speers, Ph.D is the current executive director of the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP). From 1999 to 2001 she was acting Executive Director of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. She also managed the development of a report on the research oversight system, “Ethical and Read more

The Roberts Court: The Past as Prologue to the Future

Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The Roberts Court: The Past as Prologue to the Future
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Roberts Court
Issue in Context
Constitutional law focuses predominantly on conflicts surrounding peoples’ individual rights. The issues of abortion and gay marriage are particularly fervent disputes today. However, our Constitution affects far more than social issues. The changing politics, strategies, and technology of warfare, especially since the attacks of September 11, 2001 have greatly affected how our Constitution is interpreted, and perhaps more importantly, how the rest of the world follows this interpretation. As soldiers, or rather “enemy combatants,” are captured, situations may and have arisen in which our Constitutional rights apply to them, especially if they are citizens of the U.S. Although some believe that members of the Supreme Court should act mechanically in their interpretation of the law, the idea of a mechanical interpretation is impossible as interpretation is not based on facts. Thus, the members of the Court will always affect the decision reached.
About the Speaker
Professor Fried was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1935 and became a United States citizen in 1948. He served as a law clerk to Justice John Marshall Harlan, as a special assistant Read more

Mideast in Crisis: Israel and Lebanon

Thursday, September 7, 2006
Mideast in Crisis: Israel and Lebanon
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Mideast in Crisis
Fawaz A. Gerges, professor International and Middle Eastern Studies, Sarah Lawrence College; Larry P. Goodson, professor of Middle East studies, United States Army War College. A discussion of the recent and historical conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, its effects on Lebanon and its implications for United States policy.
Co-sponsored by the Asbell Center for Jewish Life and the United States Army War College. Read more