Themes

Monday, April 8, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream link coming soon

Glass Walls: A Fireside Chat with Author Amy Diehl

Amy Diehl,  Chief Information Officer at Wilson College
Jill Forrester, Chief Information Officer and VP of Information and Technology Services at Dickinson College

Wilson College CIO and Author Dr. Amy Diehl will join Dickinson College CIO and Vice President of Information and Technology Services Jill Forrester for a fireside chat to discuss Diehl’s new book Glass Walls: Shattering the Six Gender Bias Barriers Still Holding Women Back at Work. They will talk about real examples of the “glass walls” women encounter at work and how leaders, allies and individual women can overcome them. A  book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Information and Technology Services, the Quantitative Reasoning Center, the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, and the departments of data analytics, geosciences, international business & management, mathematics & computer science, psychology, physics & astronomy, and women’s, gender & sexuality studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Photo of Amy DiehlAmy Diehl, Ph.D., is an award-winning information technology leader, currently serving as chief information officer at Wilson College Read more

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

 

Gender Week Keynote

Breaking Barriers: A Journey of Empowering Women through Self-Discovery, Equality, and Resilience

Hagir Elsheikh,  author and entrepreneur

Gender inequality is not an isolated phenomenon; we need to analyze the social, cultural, and political factors that contribute to the subsequent oppression of women’s rights and, in turn, affect how women view, interact with, and love themselves and the world around them. It calls for the recognition of women’s rights as human rights and challenges the pervasive societal belief that women are to be regulated and kept under men’s supervision, perpetuated through politics, education, and cultural norms. The interconnected challenges of gender equality, feminist movements, patriarchy, authoritarian regimes, and reproductive rights are highlighted, urging a directional shift in societal progress. 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 Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Middle East Studies Program and the Department of Africana Studies. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Photo of Hagir ElsheikhHagir Elsheikh, is chairwoman and CEO of Hagir Network, serial entrepreneur, Read more

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Black History Month Keynote

The Ethics of Anti-Racism

Eddie Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University

What does it mean to commit oneself to deconstructing the idea of whiteness and the way in which it determines the distribution of advantage and disadvantage? How does one do that when the language of racism comes to us as naturally as language itself? For Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr., anti-racism isn’t about making a list of action items and then checking off some boxes. It is a highly ethical position — the reflection of a committed, moral choice to reject the idea that some people should be valued more than others. Calling on audiences to engage in an ongoing critique of racism’s manifestations, he challenges all of us to work together to create the conditions for people to think more carefully and systematically about the issues that we confront. As James Baldwin wrote in 1962: “The trouble is deeper than we think, because the trouble is in us.” According to Glaude, eliminating racism will take a lot more work than checking off some boxes. It’s going to take nothing less than a moral reckoning. Read more

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

 

Gender Based Violence and Women’s Education

Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, Sewing Hope Foundation

Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe will speak on the effects of gender-based violence and how she uses “Learn and Earn” to help her students overcome the trauma they’ve suffered in the violent civil wars of Northern Uganda and South Sudan. Amidst the war, armed with sewing machines and love, Sister Rosemary provided a safe place for women and children fleeing and recovering from the war. Join Sister Rosemary, named one of Time Magazine’s most 100 influential people, as she discusses her work with St. Monica’s Girls’ Tailoring Center and the Sewing Hope Foundation, and how we can find hope amid trauma and pain.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Dickinson Catholic Campus Ministry (a Senate sponsored club), Saint Patrick Church, Office of the President, the Center for Civic Learning & Action, the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity,  the Center for Spirituality & Social Justice, and the departments of Africana studies, history, religion, women’s, gender & sexuality studies, and educational studies. This program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers. It Read more

Thursday, November 30, 2023 – The President’s Award and Celebration

Poster Advertising Lives of Leadership event Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

The President’s Award and Celebration

Lives of Leadership: A Conversation with David Petraeus P’04 and Holly Petraeus ’74, P’04

The Dickinson College President’s Award is a symbol of excellence and distinction. The award is bestowed by President John E. Jones III ’77, P’11, to individuals who lead lives of service, forge new paths in their respective fields, contribute meaningfully to the betterment of the world and inspire future generations. The inaugural recipients of the President’s Award are David Petraeus P’04 and Holly Petraeus ’74, P’04, in recognition of their exemplary lives of service, both to their nation and to their community. This conversation will be facilitated by President Jones.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Office of the President and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

David Petraeus HeadshotGeneral David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.) P’04 is one of the leading battlefield commanders and strategists of our time.  He served over 37 years in the US military culminating his career with six consecutive commands as a general officer, five of which were in combat, Read more

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 (Postponed from Wednesday, November 8) – The Glover Memorial Lecture

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

The Glover Memorial Lecture

Uncertainty in Climate Change Research:  An Integrated Approach

Linda Mearns,  Senior Scientist in the Research Applications Lab of the National Center for Atmospheric Research

Uncertainty is a factor in all phases of climate change research regarding the future from projections of regional climate change, to the various impacts of climate change, through the economics of climate change. All these uncertainties need to be considered when approaching the complete problem of climate change. We start from the consideration of decision making under uncertainty, and then consider the nature of uncertainty in the different parts of the problem.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Glover Memorial Lecture Fund and co-sponsored by the Department of Physics & Astronomy,  the Center for Sustainability Education, and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Linda Mearns PhotoLinda O. Mearns is a senior scientist in the Research Applications Lab of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado. She previously served as director of the Weather and Climate Impacts Assessment Science Program (WCIASP) for Read more

Monday, October 30, 2023

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.


Program is Part of the Dialogues Across Differences Project 

Creating a Calling In Culture within the Reproductive Health, Human Rights, and Justice Movements

Loretta Ross, Smith College

Professor Ross will speak on transforming the Calling Out Culture into a Calling In Culture within the Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice movements. She is committed to changing our national dialogue and improving our work on human rights by inviting us to deeply explore how we can most effectively affect change in our society to protect women’s human rights.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is part of the Dialogues Across Differences Project, which is funded by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. The program is also co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and the Churchill Fund.  In addition, it is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Topic overview written by Phuong Hoang ’26, Clarke Forum Student Project Manager

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Loretta J. Ross is an Associate Professor at Smith College. As a 2022 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Read more

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Video of the Presentation is Available on House Divided’s YouTube Channel

The Beirut Barracks Bombing of 1983: The Stories that America Needs to Hear

Panelists

James Breckenridge, U.S. Army War College
Michael Gaines, Beirut Veterans of America
Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College

In 1975, civil war erupted in Lebanon and opposed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Muslim fighters to Lebanese Christian militias. The PLO was launching military attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil. On June 6, 1982, Israel Defense Forces, under the orders of the Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, launched Operation Peace for Galilee and invaded Lebanon to end these attacks and eliminate the PLO. Upon Lebanese request, a Multinational Peacekeeping Force (MNF) was created to oversee the departure of the PLO from Lebanon. The MNF was composed of American, French, Italian, and British military. Iran responded to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the MNF’s arrival by training Shiite fighters whose immediate goal was to expel all foreign forces out of Lebanon.

On October 23, 1983, witnesses reported seeing a yellow Mercedes speeding toward the barracks. Loaded with over ten thousand pounds of explosives, it flattened a concrete building that housed American troops. Two Read more

Tuesday, March 28, 2023 – “Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture”

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Poster for John C. Mather program.Opening the Infrared Treasure Chest with the James Webb Space Telescope

John C. Mather, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, is NASA’s largest and most powerful space science telescope. Peering back in time, it probes the cosmos to uncover the history of the universe from the Big Bang to alien planet formation and beyond. 100 times more powerful than the celebrated Hubble Space Telescope, Webb can detect the heat signature of a bumblebee at the Earth-Moon distance.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Physics & Astronomy selected this year’s recipient. The event is supported by the Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of biology, chemistry,  data analytics, earth sciences, environmental studies, mathematics & computer science, psychology, and physics & astronomy, and the Churchill Fund.  It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Topic overview written by Natalia Fedorczak ’24.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

John Mather headshotDr. John C. Mather is a senior Read more

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Poster for Free Speech on Campus

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Free Speech on Campus

Sigal Ben-Porath, Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania

Free speech, a staple of modern democracy, has become the focal point for political and cultural forces impacting universities. Higher education is charged with the mandate to expand the boundaries of knowledge; to disseminate knowledge through teaching and other modes; and to serve the public by training citizens and leaders. To do so it must ensure that a broad range of views and approaches are discussed openly. But should all speech be protected in the name of free inquiry? Should the universities allow bigotry or exclusionary speech that targets specific groups? Should it make room for misinformation? Recent speech controversies around the globe expose the difficulty in carving a response in this polarized time. This struggle over the boundaries of speech is based in disagreement over core democratic principles. A democratic framework of inclusive freedom will be presented and defended. It reflects the values of protecting free thought, inquiry and expression, and maintaining a commitment to the dignity of all campus members.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is Read more

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Poster for Journalism in Conflict programAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m

Livestream Link

Journalism in Conflict: Reporting from Ukraine and Beyond

Anthony Borden, Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Borden will discuss the work of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), whose mission is to “empower local voices to drive change in countries in conflict, crisis, and transition.” He will discuss the role of IWPR and local journalists in the fight against hate speech and propaganda, and consider the importance of reliable information and public debate in global conflict zones, like Ukraine.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Military Science.  It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Topic overview written by Natalia Fedorczak ’24

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Anthony Borden headshotAnthony Borden is the founder of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR). He was editor of the highly regarded IWPR magazine War Report from 1991-98 and was commended for the “Best Online Journalism Service” in the 1999 NetMedia journalism awards, for IWPR’s reporting on the Kosovo crisis. He has worked with the UK’s Department for International Development assessing media programs in post-communist countries. Read more

Friday, October 7, 2022

Kaufman Hall, Room 178
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.

Let’s Talk Climate Series – Facilitated Discussion

Warming in the Arctic: Why Do We Need to Care?

Ben Edwards, Dickinson College

The Arctic is a critical area to understand as a first glimpse of changes that will be coming as global warming starts having a larger impact on driving climate change. If melting of the Greenland ice sheet causes too much freshening of North Atlantic waters, many bad things could follow ecologically and climatologically. The geopolitical realm of the Arctic is also moving to the global stage, in part as a result of Russia’s international ambitions and their impacts on current and future (Sweden and Finland) NATO members. We will pick out a few critical natural components of the Arctic in this session (sea ice, permafrost, glaciers), and discuss how they will have increasingly direct impacts on geopolitics in the near future.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Center for Sustainability Education.  It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, The Arctic.

Visit Let’s Talk Climate for a full list of events in this series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Ben Edwards is Read more

Thursday, October 6, 2022

Poster for Political Prisoners eventAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Political Prisoners and Free Speech in Cuba

Jorge Olivera Castillo, City of Asylum     

Nancy Alfaya Hernandez, Activist & Artist

Castillo will discuss censorship in Cuba and share his experiences working both in government media and against it. He began to write literature as a political prisoner in Cuba’s Guantanamo Prison in 2003. He will speak about his experience in prison and solitary confinement. After the Ladies in White protest movement organized for release of Black Spring prisoners, he was released in 2004. He and his wife, Nancy Alfaya Hernandez, continued to work as activists for freedom and democracy in Cuba while facing repression from the political police. Castillo will give information about activists and artists working to bring freedom to Cubans and the risks they face. He will share about his new writings, including a book based on his experiences as a veteran of the Angolan Civil War at 19 years old. In addition, Castillo will read political poems in Spanish with English subtitles.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of Spanish & Portuguese studies; and Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean studies.

Read more

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

 

Sliding Earth: Arctic Indigenous Cryo-Worlds, Environmental Risks and Human-Non-Human Collaborations

Olga Ulturgasheva                              Sayan Ulturgashev

University of Manchester                        Choreographer 

Accounts of dramatic environmental change offered by Arctic Indigenous communities and international climate scientists have recently pointed to a profound sense of unpredictability generated by the rapidly disappearing cryosphere. There are reports of the unprecedented extinction of ice-dependent worlds and of increasing likelihood for thousands of towns and villages to be threatened by rising sea levels and loss of the sea ice. All of the above will only intensify in the course of the next couple of decades, with methane released by rapidly thawing permafrost. The continuous and rapacious extraction of subsurface resources makes it increasingly clear that an ice-free Arctic is no longer located in the distant future but is lurking just around the corner. This lecture will examine the ways Arctic/Siberian Indigenous communities respond to unpredictable climate events and the knowledge, strategies, and human-non-human collaborations they draw from to face environmental calamities.

Following the lecture, students participating in Dickinson’s Ballet Certificate Program will perform an excerpt of Eveny Melody by Sayan Ulturgashev, Indigenous ballet dancer and choreographer.

The event is sponsored by the Read more

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Poster for Katrina Briddell's eventStern Great Room, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Can You Still Have Fun? In Search of “The Good Life” in a Broken World

Katrina Jurgill Briddell ’01, Head of Social Impact & Community Investment at The Hershey Company

How do we live life with intention and with wonder and delight–while witnessing the injustice, darkness, division, and pain in the world?  What does it mean to balance responsibility to our family, community, and world while prioritizing joy, fun, growth, and our own experience of life? Katrina Jurgill Briddell ’01 will be the first to tell you she does not have all the answers, but she will share how her life was shaped by sitting with these questions and engaging with them along the way.  In this session, she explores lessons from her personal and professional journey—from her time studying Spanish and Religion at Dickinson to her work today in social impact and sustainability—and how an evolving vision of “the Good Life” has served as a guide on her path through life.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies. This program is part of the Good Life Series  and Read more

Thursday, September 15, 2022 – Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Video of the Presentation is Available on House Divided’s YouTube Channel

Constitution Day Conversation

The Past and Future of the Political Supreme Court

Rachel Shelden                             John E. Jones III

Penn State University                       Dickinson

To commemorate Constitution Day in 2022, Dickinson College will feature President John E. Jones III, a retired federal judge, in a wide-ranging constitutional conversation with noted political historian Rachel Shelden. Jones and Shelden will help put several of the current bitter controversies over democratic elections, abortion, and judicial partisanship into revealing historical context.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the House Divided Project. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biographies

Rachel Shelton PhotoRachel Shelden is an associate professor at Penn State University and the director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center. Her work centers on the long U.S. Civil War era with a focus on politics, culture, slavery, constitutionalism, and law. Her first book, Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War, examines how the social lives of federal politicians in Washington created a political fraternity that left
Read more

Saturday, April 30, 2022

5:30 – 7 p.m.
Ejecta Projects, 136 W. High Street

Failings

A public reception to celebrate the current exhibit at the Ejecta Gallery, with some of the artists in attendance. Brief remarks by Rebecca Fox,’22 and exhibit curators Shannon Egan and Anthony Cervino.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. Read more

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

On Failure - event posterVirtual Presentation in Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

 

On Failure: A Contemporary Reflection on the Heart of Creativity

Ana Merino, University of Iowa

Enjoy a literary reflection on the different ways the notion of failure has been a creative space. Merino will examine the life of Miguel de Cervantes and his universal character, Don Quixote, then move to the twentieth century, the tragedy of exile in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and the fragility of poets confronting pain and fear in challenging times.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Failure.

Topic overview written by Logan Cort ’22

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Ana Merino headshotAna Merino is an award-winning writer and a professor of Spanish creative writing and cultural studies at the University of Iowa, where she founded the Spanish MFA. She has written extensive criticism on comics and graphic novels. She has authored two academic books: El cómic hispánico and Diez ensayos para pensar el cómic and a monograph on Chris Ware. Merino has curated five comic book exhibitions and edited several volumes on the topic. She was a member of the ICAF Read more

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Poster for Respiratory Health DisparitiesAllison Great Hall, 7 p.m.

Respiratory Health Disparities: Asthma as a Case Study

Juan Carlos Celedón P’19, P’22, Niels K. Jerne Professor of Pediatrics; Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Human Genetics; and Division Chief of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh

Respiratory health disparities are significant differences in respiratory health that are closely linked to racial ancestry, social, economic, and/or environmental differences. In the United States, racial/ethnic minorities bear a disproportionate burden of respiratory diseases such as asthma, obstructive sleep apnea, occupational lung diseases, COVID-19, and tuberculosis. Disparities in respiratory health are largely explained by unequal exposure to environmental risk factors such as tobacco use, air pollution, occupational hazards, and infectious agents. Such environmental injustice is ultimately due to structural and social determinants of health that must be addressed to achieve health equity. This lecture will first provide an overview of known and potential risk factors for asthma, focusing on psychosocial stressors such as exposure to violence and violence-related distress and their impact on biology through epigenetics and regulation of gene expression. This will be followed by a review of the need for a multipronged approach to eliminate respiratory health disparities and achieve health equity.

This program Read more

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 – (Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture)

Poster to advertise Priestley Lecture with Luis von AhnAnita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 5 p.m.

 

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

How Duolingo Uses AI to Assess, Engage and Teach Better

Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo

Duolingo is the most popular way to learn languages in the world. With over half a billion exercises completed every day, we have the largest dataset of people learning languages ever amassed. In this talk, I will describe all the different ways in which we use AI to improve how well we teach and how to keep our learners engaged.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Mathematics & Computer Science have selected this year’s recipient. The event is supported by the College’s Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of biology, chemistry, earth sciences, environmental studies, mathematics & computer science, psychology, and physics & astronomy and the Churchill Fund.  It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Topic overview written by Logan Cort ’22

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Headshot of Luis von AhnLuis von Ahn is an entrepreneur and former computer science professor at Read more