speakers

Inaugural Symposium Features Distinguished Alumnus

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The first ever economics and business Senior Individualized Project symposium is bringing back one the department’s own to serve as keynote speaker. Will Dobbie ’04 will address senior econ and business majors during a dinner that will follow the poster presentation to occur in the Hicks Center at 4:30 PM on May 22.

After graduating from K, Dobbie earned his master’s degree in economics from the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. (economics and public policy) from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. Dobbie is an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at the Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs.

Dobbie’s research interests are primarily in the areas of labor economics and the economics of education. His work has examined the effect of school inputs on student outcomes, the importance of peer effects, the impact of voluntary youth service, and the benefits of the consumer bankruptcy system. Earlier this year he received an award from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research for writing the best doctoral dissertation in the field of labor-related economics. Ahmed Hussen, the Edward and Virginia Van Dalson Professor of Economics and Business, attended that event. “Will’s lecture was based on his highly acclaimed and controversial work on high performing charter schools in New York City,” says Hussen. “We are delighted to have him back for our first SIP symposium. He has accomplished a great deal in such a short period of time after graduating from K–living proof that we do more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.”

Amina Wadud, Scholar on Islam and Gender, Delivers Annual Thompson Lecture at K

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Islamic and gender studies scholar and author Amina Wadud
Islamic and gender studies scholar and author Amina Wadud delivers annual Thompson Lecture on March 6 at 7PM in Olmsted Room, at K.

Author and scholar Amina Wadud, Ph.D., will deliver the annual Thompson Lecture in Religion at Kalamazoo College, Thursday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. in the Olmsted Room, Mandelle Hall, 1153 Academy Street.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Her lecture, “We are One and We are Diverse: Muslim Women’s Responses to Gender Reform,” will focus on the changing dynamics of traditional Islamic gender justice and inclusiveness.

Dr. Wadud is an internationally known scholar on Islam and gender. She is professor emerita of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., and a visiting scholar at Starr King School for Ministry in Berkley, Calif. She is also the author of several books, including Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oneworld Publisher, 2006), and Qur’an and Women (Oxford University Press, 1999).

“Since the turn of the new millennium, the emergence of Islamic feminism has challenged the traditional conflict between secular Muslim feminists and Islamists,” said Dr. Wadud. “Islamic feminism uses anti-oppression theology to articulate the necessity for greater inclusion in the policy, spirituality and identity of the Muslim community. My lecture will focus on the interaction between major perspectives on gender justice in Islam today, highlighting the trend toward greater inclusiveness.”

The Paul Lamont Memorial Lecture at K was established by a gift from the sons and daughters-in-law of Paul Lamont and Ruth Peel Thompson. Paul Lamont Thompson was president of Kalamazoo College from 1938 to 1949.

Arcus Center Invites Proposals for 2014 Conference “WITH/OUT – ¿BORDERS?”

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KALAMAZOO, Mich. [Oct. 23, 2013]: Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) invites proposals for papers, workshops, roundtables, and think-tanks for “WITH/OUT – ¿BORDERS?” a conference to be held September 25-28, 2014 on the Kalamazoo College campus—including in the new home of the ACSJL currently under construction.

The deadline for submitting 150-word proposals is Jan. 15, 2014. Send entries to Karla.Aquilar@kzoo.edu. Entries selected for the conference will be notified by Feb. 15, 2014. For more information, email Arcus.Center@kzoo.edu or visit https://reason.kzoo.edu/csjl/withoutborders.

“Conference-goers will explore the very notion of borders both physical and theoretical,” said ACSJL Academic Director Lisa Brock, Ph.D. “Borders and boundaries of all kinds, whether intersectional, cartographical, ideological, political, cultural, and social, will be deconstructed.”

Confirmed conference speakers include award winning performance artist Guillermo Gomez Pena, 2011 National Book Award poetry winner Nikky Finney, artist Ashley Hunt, scholar Saree Makdisi, musician Ugochi, and scientist Jon Beckwith.

According to Brock, the 2014 WITH/OUT – ¿BORDERS conference aims to foster both theoretical discussion and practical problem-solving around key questions such as how individuals and groups can:

  • cross academic borders and break down organizational silos in order to embrace emerging disciplines and create interdisciplinary spaces;
  • remove or open seemingly fixed national and military borders such as the U.S.-Mexico border or the conflict between Palestinian and Israeli territories;
  • span cultural borders such as race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation; and
  • connect and combine historically separate social justice issues and work in solidarity across social justice movements.

“We are interested in creating conversations on emerging epistemologies, radical geographies, critical solidarities, and transgressive practices that transcend disciplinary and academic/activist borders,” said Brock. “We want conference attendees to show us how they would re-map the world—with and without borders.”

WITH/OUT – ¿BORDERS? builds on the ACSJL’s successful spring 2013 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership that drew more than 100 entries from around the United States and 22 other countries, and culminated in the awarding of three global prizes and one regional prize.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (www.kzoo.edu/socialjustice) was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the ACSJL will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

Phi Beta Kappa Lecture on K’s Campus

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David Forsythe
David Forsythe

David Forsythe will deliver the annual Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Lecture at 8 PM on Tuesday, November 5, in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room at Kalamazoo College. The title of his address is “The United States and Torture after 9/11.” The event is free and open to the public.

Forsythe is University Professor and Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln). His work focuses on international human rights, international law and organization, American foreign policy, and international relations.

His books include The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights in International Relations; The United Nations and Changing World Politics; American Foreign Policy in a Globalized World; and The Politics of Prisoner Abuse. He is the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Human Rights and the recipient of many awards for scholarship. In 2008 he held the Senior Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair for Human Rights and International Studies at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Visiting Scholar Program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the institution by making possible an exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students. The 13 men and women participating during 2013-2014 will visit 100 colleges and universities with chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, spending two days on each campus to meet informally with students and faculty members, participate in classroom discussions and seminars, and give a public lecture open to the entire academic community.

 

 

A Commitment to Human Depth

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Rachel Kushner with her 1964 Ford Galaxie 500
Rachel Kushner with her 1964 Ford Galaxie 500.

Rachel Kushner, the 2009 Summer Common Reading author, returned to Kalamazoo College for the 2013 commencement, where she received an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) and delivered an important speech about the future and “movements of the young.”

Kushner asked the Class of 2013 many questions. The most important: “How has this experience of college formed you, and what does it mean, at this intersection of your past, and future?” Kushner compared time to water, always flowing, changing us gradually.

She emphasized the importance of books throughout the course of her speech. “By reading books, you can understand greater patterns in the movement of people through history, even history that you never witnessed yourself.”

Kushner’s talk posited a hypothetical Q & A, the questions of which touched on current news, the young, and novels. A sample question: “Was Occupy, the Arab Spring, the anti-austerity movements across Europe, and in Greece, and now in Turkey—all, by the way, historical events that happened while you were in college—were these essentially movements of the young, but about and including, a whole spectrum of people? —Yes”.

She closed with advice on how to enter the world of art, knowledge, and love. One must commit to “human depth–beyond jobs, profits, debt, petty differences, résumés, and grad school applications. Read, and live engaged with ideas. No matter what happens in your life, no one can take that away from you”.

For 13 years the College’s Summer Common Reading program has brought to campus writers of startling renown. Kushner is no exception, after she became a New York Times Bestseller with her novel from the Summer Common Reading, Telex from Cuba. She’s now making a splash in the literary world with her new novel The Flamethrowers.

The Flamethrowers takes place in the 1970’s. The protagonist is a woman in her early 20s, nicknamed Reno. She moves to New York to become an artist, and there falls in love with an Italian man, and with motorcycles; she quickly becomes the “fastest chic in the world.”

Kushner was born in Eugene, Ore., and graduated from the University of California-Berkley, majoring in political economy. After Berkley, Kushner headed to Columbia University to earn her Master of Fine Arts degree.

She now lives in Los Angeles. She drives a ’64 Ford Galaxie 500, much like the ride of her character, Reno.

Public Art and Artistic Truth Lecturer at K

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Author, philosopher and theologian Lambert Zuidervaart
Author, philosopher and theologian Lambert Zuidervaart

Kalamazoo College will host two public lectures on “Artistic Truth” and “Public Art” by Lambert Zuidervaart, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and a member of the graduate faculties in theology and philosophy at the University of Toronto. He was recently appointed Director of ICS’s Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics. His recent books include Art in Public (2011), Dog-Kissed Tears (2010), Social Philosophy after Adorno (2007), and Artistic Truth (2004).

On Thursday Feb. 28, his topic will be “Artistic Truth.” On Friday March 1, his topic will be “Public Art.” Both lectures take place in the Olmsted Room, in Mandelle Hall, at the corner of Academy and Thompson streets on the K campus. Free and open to the public, the lectures start at 8:00 p.m. Call (269) 337-7076 for more info.

Zuidervaart is a recognized expert in critical theory, especially the work of Theodor Adorno. His research and teaching range across continental philosophy, hermeneutics, social philosophy, and philosophy of art, with an emphasis on Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Habermas. He is currently developing a comprehensive and transformative conception of truth, in debate with prominent philosophers in both analytic and continental traditions.

Before moving to Toronto in 2002, Zuidervaart was a professor of philosophy at Calvin College for 17 years and served as board member and president of the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.

K Hoops Halftime Event To Benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

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Jessie Wagner ’04, a career development specialist in the Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University, will be a special guest speaker at halftime of the Kalamazoo College men’s basketball game against Adrian College on February 13. (Tip off is 8 PM in the Anderson Athletic Center.) Jessie’s halftime appearance is part of a benefit fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Jessie is a former patient at St. Jude, and she will share her story of her struggle against childhood cancer. Proceeds from the game’s ticket gate and special activities at the game will be donated to St. Jude’s.

Perspectives on a Dream

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Community Reflection Participants Mark Dream Speech Anniversary
Top row (l-r), Babli Sinha, Elizabeth Candido ’00; middle row, Marjorie Toshach ’13, Craig Isser ’13; bottom row, Gabrielle Clay ’13, Natalie Cherne ’15.

“A Dream Deferred, A Dream Made Reality? Marking the 50th Anniversary of the ‘I Have a Dream Speech’” was the topic of the Winter Quarter 2013 Week Two (Jan. 18) Community Reflection in Stetson Chapel. Several speakers considered Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy in their own lives at K.

Associate Dean of Students Karen Joshua-Wathel spoke about the popular characterizations of Malcolm X and King. She promoted the Black History 101 Mobile Museum visiting the Weimer K. Hicks Student Center, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation featuring a speech by K alumnus Harvey Hollins, III ’87. <span”>Natalie Cherne ’15 spoke about the gratitude she feels to King. “I had the opportunity to apply to colleges [and] to choose K…because of what Martin Luther King, Jr. did, and that’s amazing,” she said. Chaplain Liz Candido ’00 read a short sermon she wrote about working with a church in south Boston where she witnessed racism while mentoring Dominican teens. She said our collective dreams depend on community and challenging racist aggression. “I suppose we need each other so we can dream new dreams—ones we have yet to imagine.”

Craig Isser ’13 spoke about his education and white privilege at K. “I must keep the white guilt, but also make something good out of it,” he said. Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor of English Babli Sinha then spoke about King’s less widely-known message about ending the pattern of American consumerism, and its relation to peace. Gabrielle Clay ’13 addressed her remarks directly to King, discussing the work remaining to accomplish his dream. “Talking about race and racism has remained an obnoxious pink elephant in the room,” she said. Marjorie Toshach ’13 spoke about joining K’s Black Student Organization as a white woman, and learning to confront her majority status for the first time. Joshua-Wathel retook the stage to offer closing remarks before Candido led the audience in a closing prayer.

Friday Chapel programs are called Community Reflections and offer a unique forum for discussion, worship, performance, and community expression each Friday at 10:50 AM. Refreshments at 10:30. The entire campus community and general public are invited. Theme of Week Three (Jan. 25) Community Reflection is a “Cold Weather Catharsis” which will serve as a forum for ideas on how to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, spice up your life, stay active, and release the pent-up energy of Winter with the Adventure House and friends!

Photo: (l to r) top row, Babli Sinha, Elizabeth Candido ’00; middle row, Marjorie Toshach ’13, Craig Isser ’13; bottom row, Gabrielle Clay ’13, Natalie Cherne ’15.

Story and photo by Elaine Ezekiel ’13

Renowned Professor and Public Servant To Speak at Kalamazoo College

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Kenneth Marcus, the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at Baruch College of the City University of New York, will deliver a lecture titled “The Conundrum of Race: Civil Rights, Law, and Jewish Identity,” on Tuesday, January 29, at 7:30 P.M. in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room. The event is free and open to the public.

Marcus is a former staff director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and was last month named to the “Forward 50,” the Jewish Daily Forward’s listing of the American Jews who made the most significant impact on the news last year. Marcus is the founder, president, and chief counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights, which combats the resurgence of anti-Semitism in American higher education. He is the author of the award-winning book, Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Marcus’s lecture is sponsored by K’s Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Political Science.

Kalamazoo College Political Science Lecture Features Joan Mandle

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Joan Mandle, executive director of Democracy Matters and professor emeritus of sociology, Colgate University will deliver the 2012 William Weber Lecture in Political Science at Kalamazoo College on October 24 at 8 P.M. The event will take place in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room; it is free and open to the public. The title of the lecture is “Who Owns Democracy: The 2012 Elections.” Since 2001 Mandle has directed Democracy Matters, a non-partisan campus-based national student organization committed to and commended for getting big private money out of politics. At Colgate she directed the college’s women’s studies program and founded the college’s Center for Women’s Studies. She has been actively involved with many efforts to reform the political system. Her activism is rooted in her participation as an undergraduate in the civil rights movement and her leadership in both the women’s and anti-Vietnam war movements. Mandle served as campaign manager for Congressman Robert W. Edgar of Pennsylvania’s races for the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. She spearheaded grassroots organizing drives in Oakland and San Francisco that resulted in the successful passage of significant campaign finance reform. Mandle has received widespread recognition for both her academic and political work, including awards from Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) and the League of Women Voters of Oakland, Calif.