Themes

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

David Eng

Professor, 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.

Biography (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

Former 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

President, 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.

Biography (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 Culture

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.

Biography (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

The 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.

Biography (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

Front 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.

Biography (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