Themes

John Baugh

Professor, Washington University

Linguistic Relativism: Language, Culture, and Thought

Thursday, November 20, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This presentation draws upon evidence from linguistics, anthropology, and psychology to explore the ways in which human language and corresponding thought processes have been influenced by cultural circumstances.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of English, American Studies, Spanish and Portuguese. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Language.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

John Baugh is the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts & Sciences and former director of African and African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he holds academic appointments in psychology, anthropology, education, English, linguistics, African and African American studies, American culture studies, philosophy-neuroscience-psychology and urban studies. Prior to his tenure at Washington University, Dr. Baugh taught at Stanford University, The University of Texas at Austin, and Swarthmore College.

Dr. Baugh has published award-winning books in the fields of anthropology, education, legal affairs, linguistics, sociology and urban studies. His work bridges theoretical and applied linguistics, with particular attention to matters of policy and social equity in the fields of education, Read more

Janet Astington

Professor Emerita, University of Toronto

Why Language Matters for Theory of Mind

Thursday, November 6, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Astington will argue that language is critical in the development of theory of mind, which underlies human social interaction and self-awareness.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Psychology, Education and Philosophy. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Language.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Janet Wilde Astington is professor emerita at the Institute of Child Study, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. She was born in England and in 1966 immigrated to Canada where she taught high school science. She earned a Ph.D. in applied cognitive science from the University of Toronto in 1985 and then held a faculty position at the Institute of Child Study from 1990 until her retirement in 2012. She is married to John H. Astington (professor of English and drama, University of Toronto) and has two daughters and five grandchildren.

Astington played a central role in the development of the field of children’s theory of mind. She is author of The Child’s Discovery of Read more

Dorit Bar-On

Professor, University of Connecticut

Communicative Intentions and Origins of Meaning

Thursday, October 30, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

What separates human linguistic communication from all forms of nonhuman animal communication and how could it have evolved? I argue that focusing on the role of communicative intention renders the evolutionary emergence of language more puzzling than it needs to be.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Biology, Philosophy, and Spanish and Portuguese. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Language.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Born in Israel, Dorit Bar-On received her B.A. from Tel Aviv University in philosophy and linguistics (summa cum laude), while also working as a radio producer and translator of fiction, poetry, and philosophy. She continued to study philosophy at UCLA and wrote her dissertation on the Indeterminacy of Translation. Bar-On has published extensively on topics in philosophy of language and mind, epistemology, and metaethics. In 2004, she published a book titled Speaking My Mind: Expression and Self-Knowledge (Oxford Clarendon Press). Work on that book led to her interest in studying continuities between human and non-human communication. Read more

Susan Carey

Professor, Harvard University

Do Non-Linguistic Creatures Have a Language of Thought?

Thursday, October 9, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

This lecture considers whether the minds of babies and nonhuman animals, on the one hand, and human adults, on the other, are fundamentally alike or radically different from each other.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Susan Carey is a professor at Harvard University, where she joined the psychology department in 2001, after having taught at MIT (24 years) and NYU (5 years). She did her graduate work at Harvard, working with Jerome Bruner and Roger Brown. She studies conceptual development. Over her whole career, she has worked on explaining how human beings, unique among animals, create the huge conceptual repertoire that characterizes adult thought. Only humans can think about cancer, global warming, infinity, wisdom, moral obligations… Her work on this broad problem combines historical case studies, animal cognition studies, but mainly studies with human infants, children and adults. Her case studies include mathematical concepts, scientific concepts, Read more

Kate Martin – Constitution Day Address Lecturer

Director, Center for National Security Studies

Government Surveillance and the Bill of Rights

Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

A former senior counter-terrorism official has said that existing surveillance capabilities are creating “the potential for a police state.” This lecture will address whether and how such capabilities can be reconciled with the Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, its protections for freedom of speech and religion, as well as the demands of an open government in a democracy.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Penn State Dickinson School of Law, and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund and with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Project on Civilian-Military Educational Cooperation. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Kate Martin serves as director of the Center for National Security Studies, in Washington, D.C., the only think tank and advocacy organization devoted exclusively to preserving civil liberties in the national security context. Martin has served as director since 1992, having joined the Center as director of its Litigation Project in 1988 after 10 years as Read more

The Rule of the Clan – Panel Discussion

Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Panelists:

Carol Horning, professor, U.S. Army War College
Mark Weiner, professor, Rutgers School of Law
Andrew Wolff, professor, Dickinson College
Erik Love (moderator), professor, Dickinson College

This panel discussion will focus on the special challenges of democratic political development faced by nations whose social organization is rooted in the traditional extended family. In these social-economic conditions that are based on the clan, what are the realistic prospects and most promising paths for liberalizing reform?

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Carol Horning is the professor of international development at the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, U.S. Army War College. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of counselor, Ms. Horning has served for 28 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development, promoting sustainable economic development, participatory governance, health and education, primarily in conflict-affected or post-conflict countries.

Most recently, Ms. Horning served as director of the Office of Social Sector Development Read more

James Salzman

Professor, Duke University

Drinking Water

Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

By explaining how drinking water highlights the most pressing issues of our time, from globalization and social justice to terrorism and climate change, and how humans have been wrestling with these problems for centuries, Salzman shows us how complex a simple glass of water can be.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Economics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science, Environmental Studies and Environmental Science. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Water.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

James Salzman holds joint appointments at Duke University as the Samuel Fox Mordecai Professor of Law at the Law School and as the Nicholas Institute Professor of Environmental Policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment. In more than eight books and seventy articles and book chapters, his broad-ranging scholarship has addressed topics spanning trade and environment conflicts, drinking water, environmental protection in the service economy, wetlands mitigation banking, and the legal and institutional issues in creating markets for ecosystem services.

A dedicated classroom teacher and colleague, Salzman has twice been voted Professor of the Read more

Suzanne Corkin

Professor Emerita, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Permanent Present Tense

Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Relying on 55 years of behavioral and imaging studies, Corkin shows that short-term, long-term, declarative, and nondeclarative capacities of memory rely on different brain circuits. The case of Henry Molaison, who at age 27 underwent an experimental brain operation that left him in dense amnesia with a preserved intellect, will be discussed in some detail. A book sale and signing will follow.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Biology and Psychology.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Suzanne Corkin is professor of neuroscience, emerita in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She arrived at MIT in the fall of 1964, having just received her Ph.D. in comparative and physiological psychology from McGill University. Her first accomplishment was establishing the Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory at the newly opened Clinical Research Center. She joined the faculty in 1981 as an associate professor. Corkin’s research over the last 48 years has focused on the study of patients with neurological disease, with the goal of linking specific cognitive processes, particularly memory, to discrete Read more

Laura Suchoski

Social Media Manager, McKinney

Sports, Social Media & the Empowerment of Women

Monday, March 24, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The ever-growing landscape of social media is changing how we, as fans and athletes, consume sports. Laura Suchoski, a former social media manager at ESPN, will be exploring social innovations in sports media and how businesses are using them to engage diverse audiences with a focus on women.

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

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Laura Suchoski is a social media and creative marketing professional, currently social media manager at the advertising agency McKinney in North Carolina. Prior to joining McKinney in 2014, Laura managed social media for four years at ESPN and espnW, the company’s business dedicated to female fans and athletes. Growing up with three competitive siblings and parents who drove her to far-away clinics and tournaments, Laura developed a passion for sports and being a part of a team. She became the first four-time field hockey All-American at Duke University, a two-time captain, All-Academic honoree, and Athlete of the Decade. Laura competed with the U.S. Field Hockey National Read more

Howard Winant

Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara

The Dark Matter: Race and Racism

Thursday, March 20, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Race and racism are in many ways the building blocks of the contemporary world and the social universe we take for granted. The unfreedom, despotism, exclusion, inequality, and violence that are associated with the absolutist regimes from which contemporary society has evolved lives on in the profound presence of race and racism: the “dark matter” of our lives today.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of American Studies, Spanish & Portuguese, Sociology, and Middle East Studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Howard Winant is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is also affiliated with the Black Studies and Chicana/o Studies departments. He chaired the UCSB Law and Society program during the 2009-2010 academic year. He received his Ph.D from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1980. He has worked and taught in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

Winant is the founding director of the UC Center for New Racial Studies (UCCNRS), a MultiCampus Research Program active on all ten UC Read more

Steven Solomon

Author and Commentator

Brave New World of Water

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Freshwater, civilization’s most indispensable resource, is growing increasingly scarce. Solomon will explore how global water resource scarcity is transforming our economies, politics, environment, national security, basic human health and what we can do about these trends.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Water.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Steven Solomon has written for The New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Economist, Forbes, and Esquire. He has been a regular commentator on NPR’s Marketplace, and has appeared as a featured guest on the late the “CBS Evening News,” BBC-TV, “Morning Joe“ (MSNBC), “Tavis Smiley,” Tim Russert’s CNBC show, Al Jazeera, Fox News, “The Diane Rehm Show,” NPR’s Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered and The World, Larry Mantle’s “AirTalk,” “The Jim Bohannon Show,” Bloomberg TV, and various other news programs.

Solomon has addressed the Carnegie Council, Wilson Center, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Department of Defense, Read more

Carl Bruch

Senior Attorney, Environmental Law Institute

Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding

Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Sorting myth from reality by drawing upon an emerging body of research on water and peacebuilding, Bruch will survey what we have learned about water, conflict, and peacebuilding over the past twenty years.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Water.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Carl Bruch is a senior attorney and co-director of international programs at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). He has helped countries and organizations throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe develop and strengthen their environmental laws, improve institutions, and build capacity. He has worked on a range of issues related to natural resources, conflict, and post-conflict peacebuilding, including in East Timor, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Liberia, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan, among other countries. He is currently coordinating a global initiative with UNEP, the University of Tokyo, and McGill University to examine experiences in managing natural resources to support post-conflict peacebuilding. This initiative is generating six edited books with 150 case studies by 225 authors in 50 countries (Earthscan 2012-2014), Read more

The Eisenhower Series College Program

Topic: U.S. Security Policy

Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Participants

Lt. Col. Robert Borcherding, U.S. Army
Capt. Jim Boswell (Facilitator), U.S. Navy
Lt. Col. Paul Brooks, U.S. Army
Cmdr. Anthony Conley, U.S. Navy
Col. Michael Daniels, U.S. Army
Col. Kelly Ivanoff, U.S. Army

The Eisenhower program is an academic outreach designed to encourage dialogue on national security and other public policy issues between students at the U.S. Army War College and students/faculty at other academic institutions.

This program is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Captain Jim Boswell (facilitator of the event) was born at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida and grew up on Air Force bases in Europe and the Far East. He attended high school and college in the great state of Florida and holds a bachelor’s of science in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida and a master’s of science in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey California. He is also a graduate of the Read more

Catherine O’Reilly

Professor, Illinois State University

Global Consequences of Current Lake Warming

Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Current climate change significantly affects water quality and fish production in freshwater ecosystems with potentially dire consequences for developing countries. This talk explores global patterns in recent lake warming, and describes how these changes are related to climate, geography, and lake shape.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Water.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Catherine O’Reilly is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography-Geology at Illinois State University. Her research focuses on nutrient cycles and freshwater biogeochemistry, with an interest in human impacts and climate change. Much of her initial work focused on Lake Tanganyika, East Africa, where her research was among the first to show ecosystem-scale impacts of current climate change. Dr. O’Reilly is involved in the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) and the Global Lake Temperature Collaboration (GLTC). She has been the recipient of several National Science Foundation awards and given scientific presentations around the world. Dr. O’Reilly has a B.A. from Carleton College and a Ph.D. from the University Read more

Andrew Hyde ’81

Partnership Manager, CSO, Department of State

Putting out the Fires

Thursday, November 14, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

New forms of politics and new types of technologies have unleashed new kinds of conflicts in disparate parts of today’s world. Hyde, a Metzger-Conway Fellow, will explore how U.S. foreign policy must evolve to confront these challenges and seize the opportunities they present.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

A twenty-year veteran of the foreign service, Andrew Hyde is currently the partnership manager at the Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO). In that position he designs and manages the Bureau’s outreach to other governments, multilateral institutions and NGOs including think tanks. The Bureau, created in 2012 as a result of the State Department’s first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, identifies regions in the world prone to conflict and instability and devises programs and solutions to disrupt cycles of violence.

Previously, Hyde served as the deputy coordinator for Regional Command East at Embassy Kabul’s Office of Interagency Provincial Affairs where he was responsible Read more

James Hansen – Joseph Priestley Award Lecturer

Former Director, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies

White House Arrest and the Climate Crisis

Thursday, November 7, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

A scientist’s view of the climate crisis: why the public does not see it, why governments fail to address it effectively, and options for how young people might respond to the intergenerational injustice of human-made climate change.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Environmental Studies has selected this year’s recipient, James E. Hansen. The event is supported by the College’s Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Student Senate and co-sponsored by the Department of Environmental Studies, Center for Sustainability Education, and the Departments of Biology, Earth Sciences, Psychology, Physics & Astronomy, Chemistry and Math & Computer Science.

This event is also part the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. James Hansen, formerly the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, where he directs a program in Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions. He was trained in physics Read more

Michael McDevitt

U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Asia’s Looming Hotspot

Thursday, October 31, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Rear Admiral McDevitt will discuss the increasingly contentious dispute between China and Japan concerning sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea and the implications this dispute has for U.S. foreign policy. This talk is one of a series on “Hidden Dangers: Emerging Global Issues of the 21st Century” sponsored with the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg and co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Studies. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, U.S. Navy (ret) is a senior fellow associated with CNA Strategic Studies, a division of the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA); a not-for- profit federally funded research center in Washington D.C. During his 16 years at CNA, as both a manager and vice president and now as a fellow, he has had a number of papers published. His most recent research focus has been the maritime security issues along the Indo-Pacific littoral, the Read more

Janice Perlman

Founder and President, The Mega-Cities Project: Innovations for Urban Life

The Bruce R. Andrews Lecture

FAVELA: Four Decades of Research in Rio

Thursday, October 10, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Perlman, author of the recent book FAVELA, will share her experience, findings, and photographs from field research in Brazil, starting as a student and continuing until the present.

The event is sponsored in partnership with The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Student Senate Public Affairs Committee. The event is also co-sponsored by the Bruce R. Andrews Fund, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Center for Sustainability Education and the Departments of Sociology, Policy Studies and the Community Studies Center. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Janice Perlman is among the world’s foremost experts on urbanization, innovation and informal settlements. Her most recent book, Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro (Oxford University Press, 2010; paperback, 2011) won the 2010 PROSE Award for best book of the year in two categories: “Excellence in the Social Sciences” and “Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Sociology and Social Work”. The Read more

Jenny Reardon

Director, Science & Justice Research Center, UC, Santa Cruz

The Anti-Racist Democratic Genome?

Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The opening decade of this millennium witnessed genome scientists, policy makers, critical race theorists and world leaders proclaiming the anti-racist democratic potential of human genomics. These views stand in stark contrast to the 1990s concern that genomics might create new forms of racism. This lecture explores this shift, both why it happened and what it reveals about emerging challenges for understanding issues of race and racism in the genomic age.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of American Studies, Anthropology, and Spanish & Portuguese. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, The Meanings of Race.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Jenny Reardon is an associate professor of sociology and faculty affiliate in the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also founded and directs the UCSC Science and Justice Research Center. Her book, Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics, was published with Princeton University Press in 2005. Reardon is

Professor, University of Pennsylvania

African Genomic Variation

Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Tishkoff will discuss the results of recent analyses of genome-scale genetic variation in geographically, linguistically, and ethnically diverse African populations for the purpose of reconstructing human evolutionary history in Africa and the genetic basis of adaption to diverse environments.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Biology and Anthropology. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, The Meanings of Race.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Tishkoff studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans. Her research combines field work, laboratory research, and computational methods to examine African population history and how genetic variation can affect a wide range of practical issues – for example, why humans have different susceptibility to disease, how they metabolize drugs, and how they adapt through evolution. Dr. Tishkoff is a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Read more