All posts by admin

Thursday, February 8, 2024 – Women in Sports

Time: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
RSVP: By Wednesday, February 7 to clarkeforum@dickinson.edu. Space is limited. More information will be sent once we receive your RSVP.

At the 2023 World Cup medal ceremony, Former President of Spain’s Soccer Federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed player Jennifer Hermoso without consent. The fallout that ensued brought issues of sexism in women’s sports to a global stage. Prior to the World Cup, the Spain women’s national team had complained of subpar training facilities and transportation, as well as a hostile and monitored work environment, leading 15 players to withdraw from World Cup consideration in protest. These accusations were not taken seriously before the medal ceremony media fallout. Even now Hermoso is experiencing repercussions from speaking out about her experience, such as being excluded from the national team’s recent roster.

Additionally, in 2022, following a six-year legal battle, the United States women’s national team received a fairer contract regarding pay. Tensions rose when the United States men’s national team earned an overall higher salary than the women’s team, specifically in regard to international tournament payments (like the World Cup). Even though the women’s team had performed consistently and comparatively better than the men’s team they received Read more

Wednesday, October 25, 2024 – Politicization of Banned Books

Time: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: Stafford Reading Area, Waidner-Spahr Library

Since 1982, the American Library Association has been tracking book bans and challenges in both school and public libraries. Book bans in the United States are not new, but starting in 2021 book bans and challenges, especially in K-12 schools, increased in striking numbers. Prior to this time, concerns over content in libraries would be brought to light by individual parents concerned about what their child was reading. However, the current wave of challenges is now organized by groups of parents, rather than individuals, and not only that, but they are also politicized.

Organizations like Moms for Liberty have a mission to ban books they deem inappropriate for school libraries. Many of these titles contain racial and LGBTQ+ themes. Diverse reading lists are weaponized; without ever reading these books in their entirety or at all, groups of parents go to their school board, demanding that these titles be removed from their children’s classrooms and libraries. This phenomenon did not happen in isolation or overnight. Conservative groups feel empowered by Florida’s governor—Ron DeSantis—and his hateful legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and the prohibition of the Read more

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Stern Center, Great Room, 6 p.m.

Livestream link coming soon

War in Gaza: An International Lawyer’s Perspective

Leila Nadya Sadat, the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at Washington University and a Visiting Fellow at the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale

This program is sponsored by the Program in Middle East Studies in collaboration with the Office of the President, the Provost’s Office, and the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Headshot of Leila Nadya SadatProfessor Leila Nadya Sadat is the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at Washington University and a visiting fellow at the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale. She served as special adviser on Crimes Against Humanity to the ICC Prosecutor from 2012-2023 and was recently appointed to the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE. A devoted teacher and prolific scholar, she is recognized for her expertise in international law, human rights, and international criminal law, publishing over 170 articles and books in leading journals, academic presses, and media outlets throughout the world. Sadat was the first woman to receive the Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Fulbright Chair (2011) and has received many awards for her work including an Honorary Doctorate from Northwestern Read more

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The Regulation of AI in the Creative Economy

Matthew Sag,  Professor of Law in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science at Emory University Law School

Although we are still far from the science fiction version of artificial general intelligence that thinks, feels, and refuses to “open the pod bay doors,” we are clearly in the midst of a fundamental technological change. This presentation will address how Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI challenge existing legal frameworks and how copyright law in particular should respond.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) involves computer systems that can perform tasks that usually require human intelligence, judgement, or perception. AI today is mostly comprised of machine learning (ML). ML is a set of computational methods for classification and prediction based on clever processing of massive amounts of data without any explicit theory. ML models are inherently data dependent, and this presentation will explore some legal and social implications of that dependency. It will also outline how AI raises ethical and legal questions in relation to: the collection and extraction of data; the storage and sharing of data; the legitimacy of algorithmic decision-making; the social impact of algorithmic decision-making; and Read more

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream link coming soon

Scripting the Moves: Culture and Control in a No-Excuses School

Joanne Golann, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education at Peabody
College, Vanderbilt University

Silent, single-file lines. Detention for putting a head on a desk. Rules for how to dress, how to applaud, how to complete homework. Walk into some of the most acclaimed urban schools today and you will find similar recipes of behavior, designed to support student achievement. But what do these “scripts” accomplish? Immersing readers inside a “noexcuses” charter school, Scripting the Moves offers a telling window into an expanding model of urban education reform. Through interviews with students, teachers, administrators, and parents, and analysis of documents and data, Golann reveals that such schools actually dictate too rigid a level of social control for both teachers and their predominantly low-income Black and Latino students. Despite good intentions, scripts constrain the development of important interactional skills and reproduce some of the very inequities they mean to disrupt.

Golann presents a fascinating, sometimes painful, account of how no-excuses schools use scripts to regulate students and teachers. She shows why scripts were adopted, what purposes they serve, and where they Read more

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

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 – Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Positive Psychology & Beyond

Martin E.P. Seligman,  Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and
Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania

Agency is a psychological state that has changed the course of history and it is the immediate cause of progress and innovation. In the absence of this mindset, humanity stagnates.

Agency is the belief that I can influence the world, made up of three components: efficacy, optimism, and imagination. Efficacy is the expectation that I can achieve a specific goal now. Optimism is how long into the future I believe I can achieve that goal. Imagination is the range of goals that I believe I can achieve. Efficacy causes trying hard; optimism causes persistence, and imagination causes innovation. These are the mechanisms by which Agency causes progress.

Progress over the sweep of human history has been viewed through the lens of economics, ecology, theology, ‘great man’ biography, and ‘social force’ history, but almost never, until this book, through the lens of psychology.

Over the last 14000 years there have been several psychological epochs in which agency changes radically to keep pace with new Read more

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link

Exploring the Strange and Ancient Biology of the Brain Hidden in Our Guts

Subhash Kulkarni, Scientist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School

The Enteric Nervous System (ENS) is the second largest collection of neurons and glial cells outside of the brain. It is estimated to contain half a billion neurons and a couple of billion glial cells, which makes it a larger nervous system than the spinal cord. Located entirely within the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, it regulates not only important gut functions – including digestion, absorption, motility of the gut, immunity of the gut, but it also plays a central role in regulation of higher order functions such as satiety and behavior. Given the pivotal nature of the functions it regulates, the ENS in some or the other form has existed in animals long before the need to have a central nervous system, which would regulate higher executive functions, evolved. However, despite playing such a key role in an animal’s ability to survive, we know little about how it develops, how it matures, how it maintains itself in a constantly moving organ full of acids, 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

Monday, March 4, 2024

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Livestream Link 

Race and the Origins of Modern Policing

Matthew Guariglia ’12, Senior Policy Analyst at Electronic Frontier Foundation

This talk will show how the modern police department, rather than originating as a “colorblind” institution, was built to explicitly consider race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality when enforcing laws and repressing individuals and communities. From searching for formerly enslaved African Americans, managing imagined Irish Catholic criminality, surveilling Jewish, Italian, and Chinese communities—police departments look and act the way they do because their early encounters with race and ethnicity led to periods of experimentation and growth. Central to the story of policing in the United States are the tactics and technologies cultivated by colonialism as oppressive tactics traveled home from the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico as well as from British and French imperialism in African and Asia. This history reveals the deep-rooted fault lines in American policing and the thinking that produced them in the first place. 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 Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, the departments of American Read more

Thursday, February 29, 2024 – The Morgan Lecture

(Event rescheduled from 11/14/23)

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This event is in-person only. It will not be livestreamed or recorded.

Morgan Lecture

Savage States: Settler Governance in an Age of Sorrow

Audra Simpson, Columbia University

How is the past imagined to be settled? What are the conditions that make for this imagining, this fantasy or rather, demand of a new beginning? In this lecture, Professor Audra Simpson will consider the making of ‘new time’ in light of histories of wrongdoing – residential and boarding schools and the dispossession that is tied to this in recent history – 1990 to the near present in Canada. This is a time of apology, and a time in which Native people and their claims to territory are whittled to the status of claimant in time with the fantasy of their disappearance from a modern and critical present. How has settler governance adjusted itself in line with global trends and rights paradigms away from overt violence to softer and kinder, caring modes of governance? This lecture will ask not only in what world we imagine time to stop, but will also take up the ways in which those that survived the time stoppage 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

Monday February 12, 2024

Eunji Kim Poster Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

 

Bruce R. Andrews Lecture

Unseen Politics: Hidden Impact of Entertainment Media in Unequal America

Eunji Kim, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University

There is a simple and uncomfortable truth about the nation still recovering from the scars of a reality TV presidency: given the dazzling array of media choices, Americans are not watching news. If our media diet primarily consists of entertainment media, how does it shape politics? In this hyper-politicized world full of partisan news media, it might seem implausible that something as frivolous as entertainment media could possibly affect people’s political attitudes. Defying such conventional wisdom, Kim theorizes and describes the unique power of entertainment media in shaping political attitudes and behaviors. In particular, this talk introduces a puzzle in American politics that can be addressed by bringing entertainment media to the table. In this age of intensifying income inequality, the concerns about the fading American Dream from politicians on both sides of the partisan aisle are omnipresent. Nevertheless, many Americans continue to view the United States as the land of opportunity. Why do beliefs in economic mobility persist despite the raft of empirical evidence to Read more

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy

April Baker-Bell,  Associate Professor of Language, Culture, and Justice in Education at the University of Michigan in the Marsal Family School of Education

In this talk, Dr. April Baker-Bell will discuss how anti-Black linguistic racism and white linguistic supremacy get normalized in teacher attitudes, curriculum and instruction, pedagogical approaches, disciplinary discourses, and research, and she will discuss the impact these decisions have on Black students’ language education and their linguistic, racial, and intellectual identities. Dr. Baker-Bell will introduce a new way to forward through Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, a pedagogical approach that intentionally and unapologetically places Black Language at the center to critically interrogate white linguistic hegemony and anti-Black linguistic racism. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship (CTLS), the Faculty Success Center, and the departments of English and sociology.

Topic overview written by Ella Layton ’26

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Dr. April Baker-Bell  is an award-winning transdisciplinary teacher-researcher-activist and associate professor of Language, Culture, and Justice in Education at the University of Michigan in the Marsal Family 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

Snapshot of Spring 2024 Programs

While we work on our programming for the spring semester, there are a few ways to stay connected to the Clarke Forum. You can enjoy our content by viewing past programs and listening to guest interviews conducted by our talented student project managers.

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where our previous programs are available for viewing.

Snapshot of our Spring 2024 Programs

Wednesday, January 31, 2024 – 7 p.m.
Gender Based Violence and Women’s Education
Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, Sewing Hope Foundation
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

Tuesday, February 6, 2024 – 7 p.m.
Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy
April Baker-Bell, University of Michigan

Monday, February 12, 2024 – 7 p.m.
Bruce R. Andrews Lecture
Unseen Politics: Hidden Impact of Entertainment Media in Unequal America
Eunji Kim, Columbia University
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

Thursday, February 22, 2024 – 7 p.m.
Black History Month Keynote
The Ethics of Anti-Racism
Eddie Glaude Jr., Princeton University
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

Thursday, February 29, 2024 – 7 p.m. (Rescheduled from 11/14/23)
Morgan Lecture
Savage States: Settler Governance in an Age of Sorrow
Audra Simpson, Columbia University
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium

Monday, March 4, 2024 – 7 p.m.
Race and the Origins of
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

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Carlisle Theatre, 40 W. High Street, 7 p.m.

Film Screening of Retrograde

Baktash Ahadi, Filmmaker
Chris Mason, U.S. Army War College
Farida Mohammadi, Afghan Female Tactical Platoon
Asem Shukoori, Film Subject

Retrograde captures the final nine months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan from multiple perspectives: one of the last U.S. Special Forces units deployed there, a young Afghan general and his corps fighting to defend their homeland against all odds, and the civilians desperately attempting to flee as the country collapses and the Taliban take over. From rarely seen operational control rooms to the frontlines of battle to the chaotic Kabul airport during the final U.S. withdrawal, this Oscar-Shortlisted film offers a cinematic and historic window onto the end of America’s longest war, and the costs endured for those most intimately involved. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the panelists.

The film showing is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Carlisle Theatre.

Topic overview written by Ella Layton ’26, Clarke Forum Student Project Manager

Biographies (provided by the speakers).

Headshot of Baktash Ahadi

Baktash Ahadi is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, storyteller, and executive leadership coach. He was born in Kabul in 1981, and his 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