Lectures & Conferences
The Center actively promotes scholarly discussion of global
issues. It sponsors lectures, conferences, and symposia, both
on campus in Carlisle and at the College's study and research
centers abroad. In addition to its own events, the Center
frequently partners with academic departments and allied offices
and centers on campus to help support and promote lectures and
events on global themes.
Recent lectures and conference on issues of contemporary global
importance include:
The Politics of Resentment in
Arizona
Dr. Sandra Soto, Associate Professor of Gender and
Women's Studies, University of Arizona
Recent Arizona laws on immigration and the ethnic studies
curriculum in the state's public elementary and secondary schools
have been the subject of international attention and debate.
Professor Soto, a distinguished educator at the University of
Arizona, witnessed
this debate up close and participated in it personally, lending
her voice as a leader in higher education to constructive
discussion of one of the most vital issues--if not the single most
vital issue--that confronts (and too often divides) our country
today: namely, U.S.- Mexico immigration policy.
Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and
the Struggle to Save the Bay
Dr. Howard Ernst, Professor of Political Science, United States Naval Academy and Inaugural Director of
theKohler Environmental Center
The Chesapeake Bay Program was established in 1983 by the states of
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, the District of Columbia, and
the U.S. EPA to restore one of America's great environmental
treasures. However, after thirty years of environmental
education and research--and millions of "Save the
Bay" bumper stickers--the Chesapeake has not
recovered. Despite a few notable success stories, the bay
scored a 38%, a D+, in overall health on the 2011 Bay Report Card.
Dr. Ernst discussed the hard lessons learned and presented new
strategies for really saving the bay, and other
environmental treasures.
America's Asian Pivot: Implications for Asia and for
Europe (Bremen Center)
Dr. Douglas Stuart, J. William Stuart and Helen D.
Stuart Chair in International Studies, Dickinson
College
With Operation Iraqi Freedom over and ISAF's mission in
Afghanistan drawing down, the United States will likely turn its
attention and resources to the Pacific where China is asserting its
status as a regional hegemon and two frozen conflicts in the Taiwan
Strait and Korea Peninsula persist. Professor Stuart highlighted
the history of U.S.-Asia relations and then explained that this
"pivot" in American focus to Asia not only has implications for
Asia but also for Europe as well.
Postfeminism?The Culture and Politics of Gender in the Age of
Berlusconi (Bologna Center)
Dr. Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Associate Professor of
Italian, Dickinson College
The recent events concerning gendered identities and the way they
intersect with politics and society under the cultural hegemony of
Berlusconi's Italy (e.g., underage prostitution, the highly
sexualized parties--"bunga bunga"--the premier hosts at his
villas, the appointment to political office of some of the women
appearing on the prime minister's television network) have given
rise to a series of questions about the state of gender and
postfeminism in Italian culture. The Berlusconi of the conference's
title indexes historical and cultural parameters, political cachet,
and socio-economic contexts, not an actual individual. In the
context of Italy's Second Republic (1994 to the present), the
conference took up the subject of the shift in cultural paradigms
rooted in the "Age of Berlusconi."