Themes

David Eng

Eng Poster FinalProfessor, University of Pennsylvania

Absolute Apology, Absolute Forgiveness

Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Eng will address how the atomic bombing of Japan and the postwar politics of reparations are both connected to a longer history of native dispossession in the New World, uranium mining of indigenous lands, and more recent colonial violence and militarism in the Cold War transpacific.

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

imageBiography (provided by the speaker)
David L. Eng is Richard L. Fisher Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also a member in the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory as well as the Program in Asian American Studies. After receiving his B.A. in English from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley, Eng taught at Columbia and Rutgers before joining Penn in 2007. His areas of specialization include American literature, Asian diaspora, psychoanalysis, critical race theory, queer studies, and visual culture. Eng has held Read more

James A. Baker – Constitution Day Address Lecturer

Baker poster finalFormer Counsel for Intelligence Policy and Associate Deputy Attorney General, Justice Department

Surveillance Post-Snowden

Thursday, September 12, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Baker will reflect on the recent disclosures of government surveillance activities. Formerly in charge of representing the government before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Baker will provide his perspective on the challenging security and privacy issues facing us today.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs

Biography

James A. Baker has worked on numerous national security matters during his career. A former federal prosecutor, he worked on all aspects of national security investigations and prosecutions, including in particular the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), during his 17 year career at the U.S. Department of Justice. From 2001-2007, Mr. Baker served as Counsel for Intelligence Policy at the Justice Department, where he was head of the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. In that position, he was responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing national security policy with regard to intelligence and counterintelligence matters for the department. Mr. Baker provided the Attorney General, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and the White House with Read more

Robert Bilheimer

Bilheimer Film Poster FinalPresident, Worldwide Documentaries, Inc.

Not My Life (Film Showing and Discussion with Film Director)

Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 6:15 p.m.

Not My Life is a film that depicts the cruel and dehumanizing practices of contemporary human trafficking.  Bilheimer, who directed and produced the film, will make general remarks and conduct a question-and-answer session at the end of the film. This event 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 jointly by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg and co-sponsored by the Office of Institutional & Diversity Initiatives, and the Departments of Sociology and Economics.  It is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in a Age of Uncertainty Series.

imageBiography (provided by the speaker)

Robert Bilheimer, president of the nonprofit company Worldwide Documentaries, is one of the most influential documentary filmmakers working in the world today.
In 1989, Robert was nominated for an Academy Award for Cry of Reason, a feature-length documentary that profiles the South African anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude. Since that time, he has made Read more

Gail Dines

Founding Member, Stop Porn Cultureporn culture poster

Sex, Identity and Intimacy in a Porn Culture

Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

In this multi-media presentation, Dines explores how masculinity and femininity are shaped by a consumer-driven image-based culture and how pornography reproduces a gender system that encourages social and economic inequality and promotes a rape culture.  Note: This presentation contains explicit images.

A book sale and signing will follow.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Division of Student Development, Women’s and Gender Resource Center and the Departments of American Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Gail web portraitBiography (provided by the speaker)
Dr. Gail Dines is a professor of sociology and women’s Studies at Wheelock College in Boston, where she is also chair of the American Studies department. She has been researching and writing about the porn industry for well over twenty years. Dr. Dines is co-editor of the best-selling textbook Gender, Race and Class in Media and she has written numerous articles on pornography, media images of women and representations of race in pop culture. She is a recipient of the Myers Center Award for Read more

Michael Mann

Professor, Penn State University

Mann Final PosterThe Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars

Monday, April 22, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.
A book sale and signing will follow

Mann will discuss the topic of human-caused climate change through the prism of his own experiences as a reluctant and accidental public figure in the societal debate over global warming.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs and co-sponsored by the Departments of Earth Sciences and Environmental Studies.

mannBiography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Michael E. Mann is a member of the Penn State University faculty, holding joint positions in the Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences, and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).

Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth’s climate system.

Dr. Mann was a Lead Read more

Bill McKibben

Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College; Recipient of The Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism

Mckibben posterFront Line of the Climate Fight

Thursday, April 11, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.
A book signing will follow the lecture

McKibben will highlight the ways in which environmental groups are working around the country and the world to scientifically and politically challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry before it breaks the planet.

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and The Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism and co-sponsored by the Department of Environmental Studies.  It is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and the faculty seminar series titled, Living in a World of Limits.

BillMcKibbenNancieBattaglia HighResBiography (provided by the speaker)

Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries Read more

David Orr

Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College

Final Orr PosterDesigning Resilience in a Black Swan World

Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Black Swan events are those with low or unknown probability, but high, long-lived and often global impacts. Orr will discuss how we should design communities, regions, and nations to improve resilience and prosperity in the context of such events, with a focus on the Oberlin Project and the National Sustainable Communities Coalition.

The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Office of the President, and co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education and the Department of Environmental Studies.  It is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in a Age of Uncertainty Series and the faculty seminar series titled, Living in a World of Limits.

IMGBiography (provided by the speaker)

David Orr the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and senior adviser to the president at Oberlin College. He is the author of seven books, including Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009) and co-editor of three others. He has authored nearly 200 articles, reviews, book chapters, and professional publications. In Read more

Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Extraction – Panel Discussion

Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Natural Extraction Panel PosterPanelists:

Peter Bechtel ’81 – Andorinha Azul Ambiental
Tim Kelsey, Penn State University
Veronica Coptis, Center for Coalfield Justice
Erika Staaf, PennEnvironment
Moderated by Julie Vastine, ALLARM

Natural resource extraction has been at the heart of economic growth and, for that reason, remains a source of considerable political and economic controversy.   Both Pennsylvania and Mozambique are currently experiencing a boom in natural gas exploration while they yet confront the economic, social, and environmental consequences of previous forms of resource extraction.  The panel will discuss and compare the two locations, identify commonalities, and see what lessons have been learned.

This event is part of the faculty seminar series titled, Living in a World of Limits and is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center for Global Study and Engagement, Center for Sustainability Education, Career Center, Department of Religion, Office of Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, Department of International Business and Management, Health Studies, Department of Environmental Studies, Community Studies Center, Department of Africana Studies and ALLARM.

BiographiesDSCN

Peter Bechtel, an ’81 Dickinson graduate, worked with the World Wildlife Fund in Mozambique on Read more

Peter Bechtel ’81 and Ruth Mkhwanazi-Bechtel

Peter Bechtel ’81, director, Andorinha Azul Ambiental, a company specializing in sustainable development
Ruth Mkhwanazi-Bechtel, program director, Vanderbilt University’s Friends in Global Health in Mozambique

Bechtel Final PosterSustainable Development in Mozambique

Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

For many years, Mozambique has been near the bottom of the UN Human Development Index, but recent discoveries of gas, coal, and mineral deposits have created opportunities for rapid economic development.  While the government places some importance on sustainability, there are ongoing problems related to transparency, top-down decision-making, urbanization and climate change.

The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center for Global Study and Engagement, Center for Sustainability Education, Career Center, Department of Religion, Office of Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, Department of International Business and Management, Health Studies, Department of Environmental Studies, Community Studies Center and the Departments of Africana Studies, International Studies, Earth Sciences and Economics.

This event is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and the faculty seminar series titled, Living in a World of Limits.

DSCNBiographies

Peter Bechtel ’81, a graduate of Dickinson College, traveled to Africa with the US Peace Read more

Michael Shellenberger

Shellenberger PosterPresident, The Breakthrough Institute

Love Your Monsters: Why Technology Will Save the World

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 *
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Environmental expert Michael Shellenberger will describe why technology is the key to dealing with the world’s toughest environmental problems from climate change to rainforest destruction and species extinction.

The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education and the Department of Environmental Studies.  It is also part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and the faculty seminar series titled, Living in a World of Limits.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus are leading global thinkers on energy, climate, security, human development, and politics. Their 2007 book Break Through was called “prescient” by Time and “the most important thing to happen to environmentalism since Silent Spring” by Wired. Their 2004 essay, “The Death of Environmentalism,” was featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times, sparked a national debate, and inspired a generation of young environmentalists. They also Shellenberger Photoco-authored the 2011 book titled “Love Your Monsters: Postenvironmentalism and the Anthropocene.”

Over the years, the two Read more

Ara Wilson

Ara Wilson PosterAssociate Professor of Women’s Studies and Cultural Anthropology, Duke University

The Erotic Life of Globalization

Friday, November 30, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 4:30 p.m.

This talk provides a new direction for thinking about sexuality at the transnational level. It focuses on the infrastructures of globalization, highlights the effects of intensified transnational links in the post-Cold-War period, and argues that transformations of sovereignty, labor, knowledge, and space provide the conditions for key forms of sexuality.

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

imageBiography (provided by the speaker)

Ara Wilson is an associate professor of women’s studies and cultural anthropology at Duke University, where she directed the program in the study of sexualities for six years. Trained as an anthropologist, her research combines political economy, culture theory, and post-colonial, queer, and feminist frameworks to understand the operations of sexuality and gender within global capitalist modernity. She has conducted long term research on Bangkok published in The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City (UC Press 2004) and on transnational feminist and queer politics. 

Video of the Program

 

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Marc Lynch

lynch posterAssociate Professor of Political Science, George Washington University

The Arab Uprisings

Thursday, November 8, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.
Book Sale/Signing to Follow

Lynch sheds light on the unfinished Middle East revolutions that have so far brought down the governments of Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, and offers a framework for understanding the deeper changes still emerging from a region thoroughly and forever altered.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs and co-sponsored by the Constance and Rose Ganoe Memorial Fund for Inspirational Teaching courtesy of Professor Russell Bova and the Department of Middle East Studies.  It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

lynch marcBiography(provided by the speaker)

Marc Lynch (@abuaardvark) is associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and the Project on Middle East Political Science. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and edits the Middle East Channel for ForeignPolicy.com. He has written several books including The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Read more

Anne Fausto-Sterling

Fausto Sterling PosterProfessor of Biology and Gender Studies, Brown University

From Babies to Gender Identity

Thursday, November 15 (Rescheduled from October 30 due to inclement weather)
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

How are we to understand the processes by which bodily differentiation, behavioral differentiation and gendered knowledge intertwine to produce male and female, masculine and feminine? Read more

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Women’s Center, Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, Women’s and Gender Studies and the Departments of Anthropology, Psychology, American Studies and Sociology.

PicBiography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling is a leading expert in biology and gender development and has achieved recognition for works that challenge entrenched scientific beliefs while engaging with the general public. Using a groundbreaking new approach to understanding gender differences, Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling is shifting old assumptions about how humans develop particular traits. Dynamic systems theory permits one to understand how cultural difference becomes bodily difference. By applying a dynamic systems approach to the study of human development, Dr. Fausto-Sterling’s work exposes the flawed premise of the nature versus nurture debate.

Radio Interview for WDCV, Dickinson College

 

 

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Lieutenant General James M. Dubik – “General Omar N. Bradley Lecture”

Dubik posterLeadership Under Pressure

Monday, October 22, 2012
Katz Hall, Penn State Dickinson School of Law, 7:00 p.m.
Link to Live Webcast

General Dubik, The General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership, will discuss the strategic mistakes made in Iraq; the myths that are partly responsible for these mistakes; the transformation that turned Iraq from a strategic failure to a strategic opportunity; and how the U.S. should incorporate its experience in Iraq in addressing current ongoing events in the Middle East and North Africa.

This event is jointly sponsored by Dickinson College, Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs, and the U.S. Army War College.  It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

The Omar Bradley Chair is a joint initiative among the United States Army War College, Dickinson College and Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs. Its objective is to advance the study of strategic leadership and enhance civilian-military dialogue by offering distinguished individuals the opportunity to contribute to the educational and research activities of the partner institutions. Previous chair-holders include former director of national intelligence and retired United States Navy Read more

Richard Matthew

Matthew PosterFounding Director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs & Professor of International and Environmental Politics, UC at Irvine

Natural Resources, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Based on fieldwork in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, this presentation examines the complex and evolving relationships among natural resources, violent conflict and peacebuilding.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs and is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Richard MatthewBiography (provided by the speaker)
Richard A. Matthew (BA McGill; PhD Princeton) is a professor in the Schools of Social Ecology and Social Science at the University of California at Irvine, and founding director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (www.cusa.uci.edu). He is also a senior fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Geneva; a senior fellow at the Munk School for International Affairs at the University of Toronto; a senior member of the UNEP Expert Group on Environment, Conflict and Peacebuilding; and a member of the World Conservation Union’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy. He has carried Read more

Cheng Li

Cheng Li PosterDirector of Research and Senior Fellow, Thornton China Center, Brookings

China’s Leadership Transition & the Bo Xilai Case

Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Just as the Chinese Community Party elite is trying to smooth the way for the transfer of power to a new generation of Chinese leaders, one of its rising stars, Bo Xilai, has been ousted as party chief of Chongqing and his wife is charged with the murder of a British businessman. What are the implications of this unfolding crisis for China’s decision-making process, economic policies, social stability, and foreign relations? More information

The event is jointly sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs 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.

Cheng LiBiography (provided by the speaker)

Cheng LI is the director of research and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. Dr. Li currently also serves as a director of the National Committee on US-China Relations, a member of the Academic Advisory Team of the Congressional U.S.-China Working Group, Read more

Pat Genovese

Genovese posterHead Lacrosse Coach, William Smith College

Title IX: Conception, Progression, Direction

Monday, September 24, 2012
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

In 1972, Congress enacted Title IX, which prohibited sexual discrimination in any education program or activity that received federal financial assistance. Coach Genovese will explore the origin of Title IX; the advances and setbacks that have occurred in athletics since its enactment; and where it will take us in the future.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of Athletics, Office of Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, and the Women’s Center. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Genovese Pat IMGPat Genovese’s Biography Read more

Heather Love

Heather Love PosterProfessor of English, University of Pennsylvania

Gay Marriage and Its Others

Thursday, September 13, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

This lecture considers the fate of the spinster in the era of gay marriage. Through a reading of the 2006 film Notes on a Scandal, Love argues that, while monogamous gay and lesbian couples have achieved unprecedented levels of social acceptability, those who are alone or whose intimacies are unconventional are more stigmatized than ever. Read more

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies.

image

Biography
Heather Love is the R. Jean Brownlee Term Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches interests include gender studies and queer theory, the literature and culture of modernity, affect studies, film and visual culture, psychoanalysis, race and ethnicity, sociology and literature, disability studies, and critical theory. She is the author of Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History (Harvard, 2007), the editor of a special issue of GLQ on the scholarship and legacy of Gayle Rubin (“Rethinking Sex”), and the co-editor of a special issue of New Literary History (“Is There Life after Identity Politics?”). She has recent Read more

Harry Brod

Brod Final Poster

Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, University of Northern Iowa

Asking for It: The Ethics & Erotics of Sexual Consent

Thursday, August 30, 2012
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

In a nonthreatening, non-hectoring discussion that ranges from the meanings of “yes” and “no,” to the indeterminacy of silence. to the way alcohol affects our ethical responsibilities, Brod challenges young people to envision a model of sexual interaction that is most erotic precisely when it is most thoughtful and empathetic.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life and Women’s and Gender Studies.

photo new

Harry Brod’s Web site

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Ana Puig

Puig SestakCo-Chair of the Kitchen Table Patriots

The Tea Party

Thursday, April 19, 2012 (originally scheduled for March 1)
Althouse Hall, Room 106, 5:00 p.m.
Reception to Follow

Puig will address the nature of the Tea Party and the impact that it has had in the early Republican primaries and the role she anticipates it will play in the 2012 presidential election.

This event was initiated by The Clarke Forum Student Project Managers and is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Puig picAna Puig’s Biography

Video of Program

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