Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.

Myths about American Poverty

Lawrence Eppard, Shippensburg University
Mark R. Rank, Washington University in St. Louis

Few topics have as many myths, stereotypes, and misperceptions surrounding them as that of poverty in America. Co-authors of Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty, in conversation with Professor Dan Schubert, will discuss their research and how it addresses and confronts many of the most widespread myths about American poverty.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of American studies, history, sociology and the Center for Civic Learning & Action.

Biographies

Lawrence Eppard’s expertise centers around issues related to poverty, economic and racial inequalities, and our post-truth age. He is a sociology faculty member at Shippensburg University, co-host of the Utterly Moderate Podcast, and author of a number of academic articles and books, including Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty, which he co-authored with Mark R. Rank and Heather Bullock.

Mark R. Rank is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts in the country on issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice.  His research on the life course risk of Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.

Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement and the Politics of Race

Jennifer Carlson, associate professor of sociology and government & public policy, University of Arizona

Carlson presents the troubling paradox of color-blind gun law and racialized gun criminalization. Based on interviews with close to eighty police chiefs she identifies two racialized frameworks—gun populism and gun militarism—that inform and justify how police understand and pursue public safety across different domains of gun violence.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of political science and sociology and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center.

Topic Overview Written by Bao Tran ’23

Biography

Jennifer Carlson is associate professor of sociology and government & public policy at the University of Arizona, where she teaches courses on guns, rights, trauma, justice, and law. Her award-winning research examines how guns shape American life, including those who survive gun violence’s harrowing aftermath, police who enforce the country’s complex gun laws, gun sellers and retailers who are on the front lines of surges in gun purchasing, and the people who choose to own and carry guns.

Her book, Policing the Second Read more

Carlisle Theatre, 7 p.m.

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Film Screening followed by Q & A with the co-producer and members of the Sung family

The 2008 financial crisis, with subprime mortgages at its heart, brought the global financial system to its knees and initiated the worst economic recession in decades. This documentary investigates why Abacus, a small bank serving Manhattan’s Chinatown community, was the only commercial bank in the United States to be prosecuted in the aftermath of this financial crisis. A Q&A with the film’s protagonists and one of its producers will follow the film screening.

“What happened to the Sungs seems horribly unfair, but this film is a silver lining. Everyone needs to see it.” Matt Zoller Seit (rogerebert.com)

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of East Asian studies, film & media studies, and American studies.

Topic Overview by Logan Cort ’24

Biographies

Vera Sung serves on the board of directors for Abacus Federal Savings Bank and is its closing attorney. She worked for the Brooklyn DA’s office for two-and-a-half years after graduating from law school at Boston College. She has a B.A. from Wellesley College.

Heather Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.

Sadie Alexander and the Use of Federal Job Guarantees to Address Racial Discrimination in Employment

Nina Banks, president of the National Economic Association (NEA) and associate professor of economics, Bucknell University

Sadie T.M. Alexander, the first African American economist, believed that a government job guarantees to achieve full employment was the only solution to persistent discrimination against African American workers. This lecture focuses on Alexander’s arguments for a federal job guarantee with relevance to current labor markets.

A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of economics, history, women’s gender & sexuality studies, and law & policy, the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center.

Topic Overview Written by Amanda Sowah ’22

Biography

Nina Banks is associate professor of economics and an affiliate of women’s and gender studies and Africana studies, the faculty director of Bucknell in Ghana, and Bucknell’s academic director of the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty. She is president of the National Economic Association (NEA) and serves on the board of directors of the Read more

Virtual Presentation in Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.
(No recording of this live-stream will be available after the program)

Our Languages Belong Here: Indigenous Language Revitalization in Urban Contexts

Lindsay Morcom, associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Language Revitalization and Decolonizing Education, Queen’s University (Canada)

This talk will give an overview of the Indigenous languages of Turtle Island, and about the need for language revitalization. Morcom will then examine how language revitalization can be done in urban contexts, and why urban language revitalization is so important.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of English; American studies; Middle East studies; anthropology & archaeology; and Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean studies. This program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers.

Topic Overview by Rebecca Fox ’22

Biography

Dr. Lindsay Morcom is an interdisciplinary researcher with experience in education, Aboriginal languages, language revitalization, and linguistics. She earned her master’s degree in linguistics at First Nations University through the University of Regina in 2006. She then completed her doctorate in general linguistics and comparative philology as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in 2010.

From 2014-2019 she coordinated the Read more

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), 7 p.m.

Reflections on 9/11 Twenty Years Later

Panelists

Samia Malik, Islamic Center of PA
David O’Connell, political science professor, Dickinson College
Christopher Patrick ’13, presenting a veteran’s perspective
Harry Pohlman, political science professor, Dickinson College
David Commins (moderator), history professor, Dickinson College

The panelists will offer perspectives on how 9/11 changed politics, law, and everyday life in the United States.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of political science and military science, and the Middle East studies program.

Biographies

Samia Malik, was born in Chennai, South India. She and her husband have resided in Mechanicsburg for over 40 years.

She is co-founder of Community Responders Network and serves on the board of the Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific Affairs and the board of the Islamic Center of PA. She has also volunteered for many other organizations including women’s and homeless shelters, soup kitchens, YWCA, among others.

She is the recipient of many awards for her Peace-making work from several Mosques, Market Square Presbyterian and the World Affairs Council. She is also the recipient of the 2016 SAGE award Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

The Model Minority Myth, Anti-Asian Racism, Anti-Black Racism, and COVID-19

Jennifer Ho – University of Colorado Boulder

This talk will look at the ways Asians in America have been objects of racism—from the first entrance of Chinese immigrants to California in the 19th century to the current mass shootings of six Asian women in Atlanta. What both anti-Black and anti-Asian racism share are the roots in white supremacy that position Asians as the “good” model minority, a myth that serves to divide and conquer minority racial groups in the U.S.  Ho will share strategies to combat anti-racism of all kinds for people who want to be anti-racism advocates and allies.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center.

Topic overview by Bao Tran ’23

Biography

The daughter of a refugee father from China and an immigrant mother from Jamaica, whose own parents were, themselves, immigrants from Hong Kong, Jennifer Ho is the director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she also holds an appointment as Professor Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Intersections of Race and Gender in Contemporary Iberian Studies 

N. Michelle Murray – Vanderbilt University

This talk will provide a brief overview of the representation of migrant women by Spanish directors in the films Flores de otro mundo, Princesas, and Amador. The talk connects these works to the writings of Lucía Asué Mbomío Rubio and Quan Zhou Wu, whose novels reflect and nuance the established frameworks for representing race and gender in contemporary Spain.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center.

Topic overview by Gabriella Farrell ’21

Biography

N. Michelle Murray is an assistant professor of Spanish at Vanderbilt University. Her research and teaching focus on contemporary Spanish literature and film. Her first book Home Away from Home: Immigrant Narratives, Domesticity, and Coloniality in Contemporary Spanish Culture (UNC Press for North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures, 2018) studies representations of immigrant women as domestic workers in contemporary Spain. She has published articles in Research in African Literatures, Symposium, Letras Femeninas, Studies in Spanish and Latin American Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

Caring for Our Elders: A Conversation on the Present and Future of Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

Dr. Michael Daniels
Jean Foschi
Sherry Knowlton ’72
Tim Potts ’71
Dave Sarcone (moderator)

The Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center has been a Cumberland County resource since 1829. It is a community-based non-profit with an open admission policy, focused on providing quality skilled nursing services to residents in a caring and dignified environment. However, deficit budgets in recent years have prompted the County Commissioners to decide to sell the Center to a private nursing home facility provider in order to avoid property tax increases. There are currently two potential buyers, and commissioners anticipate that a sale will be finalized by the summer of this year. This event will explore potential costs to our residents of a sale and discuss ways the center might be kept as a county owned resource.

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

Biographies

Dr. Michael Daniels, MD, MBA, is a general practitioner based in Mount Holly Springs. He is a residency trained, board certified family physician with additional certification in geriatrics. For 35 years he Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

Strongman Propaganda and Personality Cults from Mussolini to the Present

Ruth Ben-Ghiat – New York University

This talk examines the “authoritarian playbook” strongman rulers used to get to office and stay there: corruption, propaganda, violence, and the myth of national greatness. The talk will focus on how propaganda and personality cults tie everything together – and how to push back against authoritarian disinformation.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and cosponsored by the department of Italian & Italian studies and history.

Topic overview by Gabriella Farrell ’21.

Biography

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a historian, educator, and commentator on fascism, authoritarian leaders, and propaganda — and the threats these present to democracies around the world. Professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, she is author or editor of seven books and many essays and op-eds in media outlets including CNN, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. Her newest book is Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present (Norton,2020), which examines the authoritarian playbook (corruption, violence, propaganda, and virility) that such leaders have used for a century.

Video of the Presentation

Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

What is Translation? Theory, Practice, Value

Lawrence Venuti, Temple University

Although the history of translation theory and practice has been distinguished by a range of concepts and strategies, two approaches, one instrumental, the other hermeneutic (or interpretive), have recurred so frequently they are considered the dominated models. This talk will explore the continuing pertinence of these models for both theory and practice by examining the work of various theorists and commentators from antiquity to the present.

The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of classical studies, English, French & Francophone studies, Italian & Italian studies, Spanish & Portuguese, German, and Middle East studies.

Topic overview written by Logan Cort ’22

Biography

Lawrence Venuti, professor emeritus of English at Temple University, is a translation theorist and historian as well as a translator from Italian, French, and Catalan. He is, most recently, the author of Contra Instrumentalism: A Translation Polemic (2019), the editor of The Translation Studies Reader, 4th ed. (2021), and the translator of I.U. Tarchetti’s Fantastic Tales (2020).

Video of the Presentation

  Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

The Representation of Women in the U.S. Congress

Kira Sanbonmatsu –  Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at the Eagleton Institute of Politics of Rutgers University

Sanbonmatsu will share data from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) about the current status of women in elective office and discuss women’s candidacies in the 2018 and 2020 elections. She will also share findings from her coauthored book, A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Presence Matters, about how women in Congress perceive their representational roles. The book draws on interviews with women serving in the 114th Congress.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center.

Topic overview written by Bao Tran ’23

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Kira Sanbonmatsu is professor of political science at Rutgers University and senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. Her research interests include gender, race/ethnicity, parties, public opinion, and state politics. Her most recent book, coauthored with Kelly Dittmar and Susan J. Carroll, is A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

Analyzing The 2020 Elections in Pennsylvania: A Panel Discussion

Jean Foschi – Cumberland County Board of Commissioners
Valerie Gaydos ’89 – 44th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Matt Haverstick – Kleinbard LLC
Sarah Niebler (moderator) – Dickinson College

In October 2019 the Pennsylvania legislature passed Act 77 which allows for no-excuse mail-in voting. There was wide bipartisan support for this legislation which Governor Wolf signed into law on October 31. Some months later, however, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and President Trump began to repeatedly denigrate mail-in voting, claiming that it would lead to rampant fraud. In October 2020 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted a request by the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania to extend the deadline for receipt of mail-in ballots as long as they were postmarked by election day. That decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. In this program panelists will discuss the debate concerning mail-in voting and the many court challenges to the official results.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science.

Biographies

Jean Foschi is vice chairman and is the newest member of Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 12 – 1:30 p.m.

Wesley Lecture

Black Queer Christian Lives Matter: Race, Religion, and Sexuality – an Intersectional Conversation

Rev. Dr. Jay Williams – Senior Pastor at Union Church in Boston

The Annual Wesley Lecture will feature the Rev. Dr. Jay Williams, Senior Pastor at Union Church in Boston. The Rev. Jay (as he is known) is a queer cisgender man and partner to Robert. Williams is known as a charismatic leader and will discuss the deep roots of liberation theology and the Christian church’s difficult and important history of racism and anti-LGBTQIA+ actions. A keynote will be followed by a Q & A session to discuss these important intersections.

This lecture is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice and co-sponsored by the Office of LGBTQ Services, the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, and the Department of Religion.

Topic overview written by Rebecca Fox ’22

Biography

Rev. Dr. Jay Williams returned to Union Church in Boston as lead pastor on July 1, 2018, having guided this congregation September 2012 – June 2017. An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, Jay has served Read more

Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.

The First Amendment and Epidemics

Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law

Under what circumstances can an epidemic justify the government restricting religious worship services?  What about restrictions on other First-Amendment-protected activities, such as protests or political party gatherings?  Volokh will discuss how the Free Exercise Clause, the Free Speech Clause, and the Assembly Clause bear on these questions. This discussion-led presentation will be moderated by Harry Pohlman, professor of political science.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center for Spirituality & Social Justice and the departments of political science and sociology.

Topic overview written by Scout Meredith Best ’21

Biography

Eugene Volokh has taught First Amendment law for 25 years at UCLA School of Law; he is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (7th ed. 2020) and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 80 legal journal articles. He is also the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a Weblog (independent 2002-2014, hosted at the Washington Post 2014-2017, hosted at Reason from 2017).

H. L. Pohlman is the A. Lee Fritschler Professor of Public Read more