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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, April 25
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Pardee Research Seminar: Building Militaries in Fragile States
Wednesday, April 25
10:00 am to 11:15 am
BU, 154 Bay State Road, Eilts Room, Boston
Mara Karlin, of SAIS/Brookings
The presentation of book followed by comment by Prof. Rosella Cappella Zielinski.
The Pardee School of Global Studies is proud to launch its Research Seminar Series as a forum for faculty and students to discuss and receive feedback on ongoing research. The series is a mix of presentations, works-in-progress sessions, and research workshops.Faculty and students based at BU and elsewhere are invited to present and attend the Research Seminar Series. This seminar is open to the public; due to space constraints, however, admittance will be on a first come–first serve basis. If you would like to present, please send an e-mail with your name, affiliation, and a description of your presentation, with “Pardee Seminar” in the subject line, to: Mahesh Karra (mvkarra@bu.edu).
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Computing Reimagined: Ubiquitous Computing with the Smallest Computer
Wednesday, April 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 34-401 (Grier), 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
MTL Seminar Series
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Building Militaries in Fragile States
Wednesday, April 25
12:00pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496 (Pye Room), 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Summary
Since the end of World War II, U.S. administrations of both parties have relied on a time-honored foreign policy tool: training and equipping foreign militaries. Seeking to stabilize fragile states, the United States has adopted this approach in nearly every region of the world over the last 70 years. And yet, the record for success is thin. Mara Karlin, a scholar-policymaker, examines when, why, and under what circumstances the United States can be more successful in doing so.
Short Bio
Dr. Mara Karlin is Associate Director and Associate Professor of the Practice of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins-SAIS and non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has served in national security roles for five U.S. Secretaries of Defense, advising on policies spanning strategic planning, defense budgeting, future wars and the evolving security environment, and regional affairs involving the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Her first book, Building Militaries in Fragile States: Challenges for the United States, will be publishing by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2017. Karlin has been awarded Department of Defense Medals for Meritorious and Outstanding Public Service, among others.
SSP Wednesday Seminar
All Welcome
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BU Program in Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health Spring 2018 Symposium
Wednesday, April 25
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm
BU, Kilachand Center, Room 101, 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at http://sites.bu.edu/urban/rsvp/
Join the BU Program in Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health for its Spring 2018 Symposium, co-sponsored by the Pardee Center. The event will feature lightning talks by BU faculty about urban research themes in water, air, climate, noise pollution, and land use.
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Grid Modernization in Massachusetts: International Insights to Meet 2050 Goals
Wednesday, April 25
3:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Fraunhofer CSE, 5 Channel Center Street, Boston
“International Insights to Meet 2050 Carbon Goals” is the first event in a series of Roundtable Speaker Sessions on Grid Modernization in Massachusetts. It will feature two speakers and a roundtable discussion, focused on pathways to 2050 which are currently being considered in Massachusetts and in Germany—two leaders in research and energy innovation. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Germany, and other state and federal governments around the world, have committed to cutting their carbon emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050. It is a massive undertaking to accomplish this goal and yet, there is no agreement as to how to accomplish it. MassCEC CEO Steve Pike will be a panelist at this event.
Event Contact
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The Neurobiology of Need
Wednesday, April 25
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speakers: Scott Sternson, HHMI, Janelia
Phil Sharp Lecture in Neural Circuits
Public welcome
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Variances: Regulatory Flexibility for Good or for Ill
Wednesday, April 25
4:15pm
Harvard, Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Dietrich Earnhart, University of Kansas; Sarah Jacobson, Williams College; Yusuke Kuwayama, Resources for the Future; and Richard Woodward, Texas A&M University
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Contact Name: Casey Billings
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Vannevar Bush Lecture Series on Science and Technology Innovation: Suzanne Berger
Wednesday, April 25
6:00pm to 7:00pm, MA 02142
[NOTE: This event has been postponed until April 25th due to incliment weather. Our apologies.]
This lecture series, which includes imminent researchers and innovators from a wide variety of fields across MIT, will showcase the numerous forms that innovation takes and the pathways it can take from ideation to implementation.
Title: Making in America
Topic Summary
My talk will focus on two MIT initiatives on production and innovation: Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge (1989) and Making in America: From Innovation to Market (2013). Over the thirty years that separate the two projects, globalization, the rise of new rival economies, and transformative technological changes have created huge new opportunities and painful challenges of adjustment for society. On each of the two projects researchers fanned out into companies across the United States and to Japan, China, Germany, and France to try to understand from the bottom up how innovation moves into production and into the market; how and where new good jobs are created; how and where new industries come to life. Even after thirty years of profound technological, political, and social change, some of the problems we identified in the first study still remain basically unresolved—how, for example, to educate people for a lifetime of changes in the workplace; how to move innovation from the lab into society more rapidly. At MIT where we have a track record of carrying out research that brings together faculty and students from departments across the Institute to study complex problems that spill over disciplinary boundaries, we have the resources to make headway on these big questions.
About the Speaker
Suzanne Berger is Raphael Dorman-Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science. Her current research focuses on politics and globalization. She recently co-chaired the MIT Production in the Innovation Economy project, and in September 2013 published Making in America: From Innovation to Market. She created the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative, and participated in the 1989 Made in America project at MIT. She wrote Made By Hong Kong and Global Taiwan (with Richard K. Lester). She is the author of Notre Première Mondialisation and How We Compete. Her earlier work focused on political development (Peasants Against Politics) and the organization of interests (Dualism and Discontinuity in Industrial Societies and Organizing Interests in Western Europe.)
Suzanne Berger served as Head of the MIT Department of Political Science, founding chair of the SSRC Committee on West Europe, and Vice President of the American Political Science Association. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The French government has awarded her the Palmes Academiques, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite and the Légion d'Honneur.
Suzanne Berger served as Head of the MIT Department of Political Science, founding chair of the SSRC Committee on West Europe, and Vice President of the American Political Science Association. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The French government has awarded her the Palmes Academiques, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite and the Légion d'Honneur.
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Community Growing: Youth Efforts to Increase Multicultural Access to Food
Wednesday, April 25
6:00 PM – 7:15 PM EDT
Groundwork Somerville, 337 Somerville Ave, #2B, Somerville
The cultural relevancy of food options is an important factor in improving access to healthy food and health outcomes in our communities. By engaging local mentor farmers, Groundwork Someville grows multicultural crops that reflect the needs of our multicultural community. Green Team youth members will present their work growing and distributing crops using inter-generational and cross-cultural approach to urban farming, food access and cultural food connections.
Join us to learn and have fun (*_*)
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"What is Truth?/Role of the Media and Facts and the Rule of Law" — Myra Kraft Open Classroom
Wednesday, April 25
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Northeastern, West Village F, 20, 40A Leon Street, Boston
Speakers: David Shribman, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist; Executive Editor, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Laurel Leff, Associate Professor of Journalism, Northeastern University
The Spring 2018 Open Classroom will explore the definition of the Rule of Law, what it requires, what happens in its absence, and how it has declined and emerged globally. We will also explore some of the tensions between the Rule of Law and Democratic Governance, focusing on the Rule of Law in time of polarization and technological upheaval (as in the United States but also abroad).
The Spring 2018 Myra Kraft Open Classroom is co-sponsored by the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Northeastern’s School of Law.
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The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace
Wednesday, April 25
6:30 PM
Cambridge Main Library, Lecture Hall, 442 Main Street, Cambridge
Join Professor David Woolner in a discussion about his recent book, The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace. Introduction by Jim Roosevelt.This is part of the Our Path Forward series.
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Robot Sex: Connection, Privacy & Ethics in the 21st Century
Wednesday, April 25
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Museum of Science, Museum of Science Driveway, Boston
Part of the Cyber Insecurity series.
Probe the difficult questions that we will need to address as human-robot relationships evolve in the coming decades. Explore the nuances of our future and prepare for the complex problems that will rise as our lives become more A.I. dependent.
Adults 18+ Only.
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Thursday, April 26
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Accelerating the Discovery of New Antimicrobial Compounds
Thursday, April 26
8AM PDT | 11AM EDT | 4PM BST | 5PM CEST
Webinar
If you’ve already registered, please click here to log in to the webcast.
The increasing occurrence of multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria is driving an urgent demand for the discovery of new antibiotics. The incidence of MDR bacteria is becoming a serious problem, especially in the hospital setting. High-throughput screening methodologies are important to speed up the discovery of new antibiotics. Automation and miniaturization are important components in this process, since they significantly decrease the amount of drugs and reagents needed.
During this webcast we will present some of the main assays used in the early stages of the antimicrobial compound discovery:
1. Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) assay,
2. synergy assay among 2 or 3 antimicrobial compounds,
3. determination of the concentration of bacteria in liquid cultures,
4. cytotoxicity assay
5. bacterial growth/killing curves.
During the webcast we will discuss why and how we developed, and optimized protocols for the miniaturization and automation of these assays using the Echo Liquid Handler. The protocols developed have increased our capacity for screening new antimicrobial compounds by 400%, decreased the time for the preparation of several assays from several hours to minutes and allowed to routinely run assays that were not possible with a large number of compounds due to time and labour constrains.
This webcast has been produced on behalf of the sponsor who retains sole responsibility for content.
Presenters
Riccardo Russo, Senior Research Associate. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Jersey Medical School, Center for Biodefense
Iain Russell, Senior Product Manager, Labcyte, Inc.
Dr. Jayshan Carpen, Moderator, Nature Research
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Environmental Justice in the City of Chelsea
Thursday, April 26
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Judith Garcia, City of Chelsea Councilor
As the City Councilor of District 5, Judith Garcia is the first Honduran American woman to serve on the Chelsea City Council. She has been recognized as Top 10 Latinas Think Big Innovators to Watch in 2016 by the Huffington Post and as one of El Mundo Boston's 30 Under 30 influential leaders. Most recently, she received an official Proclamation from the New York State Senate for her relentless commitment to helping the growing Honduran diaspora. In recognition of her exceptional leadership and devoted service, El Centro de MARIAS awarded her Leader of The Year 2017. In addition, she was recognized nationally by Eva Longoria's Latino Victory Project, where tribute is paid to the achievements of Latinos who are pioneers in their fields.
She attended Wheaton College where she received a BA in Urban Studies. During her years at Wheaton, she was a strong advocate of women's rights and took part in many initiatives against gender based violence. While pursuing her degree, she interned at Chelsea's Planning and Development department where she focused on improving housing conditions for residents. She also worked with the Trash Task Force to help recreate a sustainable method to dispose of trash and enforce a recycling program in Chelsea.
In 2015, at the age of 23, Judith decided to run for office at Chelsea's City Council. She garnered 60% of the vote and increased voter turnout by 101%. Her victory garnered local, national, and international recognition.
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Environmental Poetry Pop-Up @ ARTS FIRST
Thursday, April 26
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard University Center for the Environment and Poetry in America invite you to a poetry share as a part of Harvard's ARTS FIRST festival. We invite you to join us for a reading and the opportunity to read your own poem or other "nature writing" that addresses the theme: WILDERNESS, CONSERVATION, & ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM – What is wilderness and what does it mean to conserve it?
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The Other Side of Terror: Blackness and the Culture of US Empire
Thursday, April 26
4:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Erica R. Edwards is currently at work on her book “The Other Side of Terror: Blackness and the Culture of US Empire,” which argues that the making of US empire as a way of life throughout the long war on terror has transformed contemporary black writing. Mapping the transformations of African American literature against campaigns of counteterrorism both at home and abroad—beginning in 1968 with the FBI’s covert COINTELPRO war against black radicalism and proceeding through the war in Vietnam, the Iran hostage crisis, the first Gulf War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—Edwards argues that poetry, fiction, television, and film have exposed what she calls the imperial grammars of blackness while also marking out minor grammars of subsistence, survival, and black radical undoing.
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Who Rules Iraq? Iraq's Political Transition Since 2003
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 26, 2018, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The WCFIA/CMES Middle East Seminar
SPEAKER(S) Muhamed Almaliky, Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Director, Iraqi American Institute
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
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Walter Jehne: New Climate Solutions - Water Cycles and the Soil Carbon Sponge
Thursday, April 26, 2018
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Harvard, Haller Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street,Cambridge
A talk by Australian climate scientist and soil microbiologist Walter Jehne, Director of Healthy Soils Australia
An internationally-recognized Australian climate scientist and soil microbiologist, Walter Jehne was one of the early researchers on glomalin, mycorrhizal fungi, and root ecology. He will describe how quickly, affordably and naturally we can reverse global warming and its effects by working with the water cycle and the soil sponge.
Walter worked for three decades at CSIRO – the Australian government’s scientific research organization, with the UN and with NGOs to create global change in food systems and climate response.
Walter is a leader in the grassroots movement to educate farmers, industry and policymakers on the crucial role of soil ecosystems in global climate change. In 2017, he was part of an invitation-only UN FAO conference in Paris looking at bringing soil into the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
Note: This event is not a Harvard University program or activity. Biodiversity for a Livable Climate is not affiliated with Harvard University.
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Askwith Forums - Education, Democracy, and Human Rights
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 26, 2018, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard,Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
TYPE OF EVENT Forum, Question & Answer Session
PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT Alumni, Askwith Forum
BUILDING/ROOM Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME Roger Falcon
CONTACT EMAIL askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
CONTACT PHONE 617-384-9968
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED No
ADMISSION FEE This event is free and open to the public.
RSVP REQUIRED No
FEATURED EVENT Askwith Forums
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Social Sciences
DETAILS Panelists:
Roger Brooks, president and CEO, Facing History and Ourselves
Maureen Costello, Teaching Tolerance director, Southern Poverty Law Center
Melissa Garlick, civil rights national counsel, Anti-Defamation League
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, HBS; chair and director, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative
Meira Levinson, professor of education, HGSE
Moderator and panelist: Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education and director, International Education Policy Program and Global Education Innovation Initiative, HGSE; co-chair, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative
In the past weeks in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, our nation has seen a wave of student activism on the rise, with teenagers at the forefront of advocating for gun control and safer schools. Engaged and civically minded youth do not just spring up out of nowhere – they need to be cultivated. A recent Slate article described the students at the forefront of this wave of student activism as being the "beneficiaries of the kind of 1950s-style public education that has all but vanished in America." When we think about how schools today are preparing the next generations of citizens to engage with human rights, civic action, and working for change in our democracy, a number of questions arise:
To what extent are schools in the United States preparing students for active democratic engagement and to advance human rights? Given the documented increase in overt expressions of hatred and intolerance in American society, what role should schools play in responding and combating those narratives? How are civic education and civil rights organizations assisting educators as they prepare their students to stand for human rights, and what challenges do they face?
This forum is held in conjunction with the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative.
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Between Participation and Control: A Long History of CCTV
Thursday, April 26
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) has become synonymous with surveillance society and the widespread use of media technologies for contemporary regimes of power and control. Considered from the perspective of television’s long history, however, closed-circuit systems are multifaceted, and include, but are not limited to sorting and surveillance. During the media’s experimental phase in the 1920s and 1930s, closed-circuit systems were an essential feature of its public display, shaping its identity as a new technology for instantaneous communication. With the emergence of activist video practices in the 1970s, closed-circuit TV became a core feature for alternative experiments such as the Videofreex’ Lanesville TV, where it offered access to community-based media making. This use of CCTV as a tool for participatory media took place simultaneously with the rise of CCTV as a surveillance technology, which had been promoted under the label of “industrial television” already from the early 1950s on. Based on war-driven technological developments, industrial TV implemented televisual monitoring in industrial, educational, and military spheres decades before the global spread of surveillance cameras in public space.
This talk by Anne-Katrin Weber explores the politics of CCTV as they unfold in different institutional and ideological settings. Examining television’s history beyond broadcasting and programs, it focuses on television’s multiple applications and meanings in public space – from the early presentation of television at World’s Fairs to community-based initiatives – and thus highlights the adaptability of closed-circuit technologies, which accommodate to, and underpin variable contexts of media participation as well as of surveillance and control.
Anne-Katrin Weber is a postdoctoral fellow supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and is a visiting scholar at MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing. Her research examines the history of television outside broadcasting institutions. Currently preparing her first monograph titled Television on Display: Visual Culture and Technopolitics in Europe and the USA, 1928-1939, she is the editor of La télévision du téléphonoscope à Youtube: pour une archéologie de l’audiovision (with Mireille Berton, Antipodes, 2009) and an issue of View: Journal of European Television History and Culture (“Archaeologies of Tele-Visions and –Realities,” with Andreas Fickers, 2015).
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Future of Nutrition
Thursday, April 26
6:00 - 8:30PM
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, Lighthouse, 20th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/branchfood-presents-the-future-of-food-panel-series-tickets-39173251249
Cost: $20 - $75.95
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Climate Resilience on the Mystic
Thursday, April 26
6:30 pm 8:00 pm
Somerville High School Library Auditorium, 81 Highland Avenue, Somerville
Join the City of Somerville, City of Medford, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and the Mystic River Watershed Association in a panel discussion about climate change vulnerabilities and resilience opportunities along the Mystic River.
More information at https://mysticriver.org/calendar/2018/4/26/climate-resilience-on-the-mystic
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MIT Undergraduate Energy Research Fair
Thursday, April 26
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
MIT, Stratton Student Center, 84 Masachusetts Avenue W20 Twenty Chimneys, Cambridge
The Undergraduate Energy Research Fair is an opportunity for undergraduate students in energy research to present their work to the public in addition to a panel of distinguished MIT energy faculty. The event is open to the public, so all are welcome to attend!
Event Contact
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Friday, April 27 - Saturday, April 28
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Zooetics+ Symposium
Friday, Apr 27, 2018, 9:00 AM – Saturday, Apr 28, 2018, 11:00 PM EDT
MIT, Building e15-001, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
The Zooetics+ Symposium commences Friday, April 27, 2018 with the sessions “What Does Ecosystemic Thinking Mean Today” and “Knowledge Production Through Making and Living with Other Species,” discussing the habits of thought associated with cybernetics and the transition towards new thinking, inspired by sympoietics. The day will be finalized with a session speculating on what non-human imagination could look like in the session “The Radical Imagination: Toward Overcoming the Human.”
On Saturday, April 28, the program will explore further devices for ecosystemic thinking, discussing relevant artistic methods and practices in the panel “Artistic Intelligence, Speculation, Prototypes, Fiction.” “Creating Indigenous Futures” will be explored through bringing Indigenous values together with science and technology. The need for other, alternative vantage points—of species, of time, of traditions, of beings will be addressed in the session “Futures of Symbiotic Assemblages: Multi-naturalism, Monoculture Resistance and “The Permanent Decolonization of Thought.”
The symposium will conclude with a roundtable and launch of a new artistic research program “Sympoiesis: New Research, New Pedagogy, and New Publishing in Radical Inter-disciplinarity.”
Zooetics+ will be accompanied by a program of performances and installations by Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa, Allora and Calzadilla, Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, Rikke Luther and NODE Berlin/Oslo.
Detailed Schedule and Description of Program Sessions:
FRIDAY, APRIL 27
9:30 AM Registration
10:00 AM Opening Ceremony by Erin Genia
10:15 AM Introduction to Zooetics+ Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM What Does Ecosystemic Thinking Mean Today?
Genealogy, impact and legacy of ecosystematic thought since the dawn of cybernetics. How have the infrastructures changed today since the publication of “Limits to Growth” or “Whole Earth Catalogue”? What tools are there to attune ourselves to perceive the interconnections of natural and man-made systems and to be able to make ethical, political, aesthetic decisions? This session is engaged with the question of how to transition from the habits of thought associated with cybernetics towards new thinking… perhaps sympoietics?
Cary Wolfe and Sophia Roosth
Respondent: Lars Bang Larsen
12:00 PM -1:30 PM Lunch break and Banner Tow Flight by Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Knowledge Production Through Making and Living with Other Species
Visions for species equality. Conviviality. Accessing other-than-human ways of knowing. Learning from other species (vis-a-vis biomimicry of other species)
Scott Gilbert and Stefan Helmreich
Moderator: Caitlin Berrigan
Respondent: Caroline A Jones
3:10 PM – 4:30 PM The Radical Imagination: Toward Overcoming the Human
Often reduced to a capacity of either a subject or consciousness, imagination could be thought as a way of opening up to the future and the unknown. Simultaneously being a sphere of change and transformation, it invents the directions of its own development and acts as a link between a human and the powers of the world. However, is it possible transcend human imagination? What would a non-human imagination look like? The field of imagination enables the exposure of radically impossible possibilities, introduces the perspectives of their development, and overcomes predetermined articulations and representations.
Chiara Bottici, Richard Kearney and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
Respondent: Kristupas Sabolius
SATURDAY April 28
9:30 AM Registration
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Artistic Intelligence, Speculation, Prototypes, Fiction. Learning Through Artistic Methods.
Artistic methods of speculation, prototype making, modelling and fiction as pedagogical devices for ecosystemic thinking.
Jennifer Allora, Heather Davis, and Sheila Kennedy
Respondents: Larissa Harris and Laura Serejo Genes
11:45 AM – 1:15 PM Creating Indigenous Futures: Indigenous artists discuss their work in relationship to futurity and creative reclamation
Looking ahead to future generations, sustained by the strength of our ancestors and wise to the challenges of living in fraught times, how do we bring our values as Indigenous people to our work in creating Indigenous futures? As artists, how do we apply Indigenous science and technology to creating these futures?
Courtney Leonard (Shinnecock), Jackson Polys (Tlingit), Kite (Oglala Lakota)
Respondent: Mario Caro
1:30 PM -2:30 PM Lunch break
2:30 PM – 4:00 PM Futures of Symbiotic Assemblages: Multi-naturalism, Monoculture Resistance and “The Permanent Decolonization of Thought”
In the age of post-truth, peak oil, alternative facts, and the alternative right, it has never been more urgent to defend the need for the coexistence of other, alternative vantage points – of species, of time, of traditions, of beings.
Emmanuel Alloa, Kim TallBear, with Nuno Gomes Loureiro (Physics Department MIT), ACT graduate students
Respondents: Gediminas Urbonas, Laura Knott, and Nolan Dennis
4:30PM – 5:30PM Closing remarks and future plans:
Sympoiesis: New Research, New Pedagogy, and New Publishing in Radical Inter-disciplinarity
Florian Schneider, Corinne Diserens, Lars Bang Larsen, Gediminas Urbonas, Nomeda Urbonas, Judith Barry, Gary Zhang
6:00 Chalk by ALLORA AND CALZADILLA
6:30PM RECEPTION AT THE MUDDY CHARLES PUB
8:00 NODE PROJECTION EVENT
8:30 PM RASA SMITE and RAITIS SMITS, BIOTRICITY, at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics
9:30 PM RIKKE LUTHER PERFORMANCE AT ACT CUBE
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Translating Destruction: Contemporary Art and War in the Middle East
Friday, April 27
10:00am to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 182 Memorial Drive (REAR), Cambridge
MIT Department of Architecture
Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture
War ravages countries, cities, communities, and individuals. Its destructive effects linger in the collective consciousness for generations. Artists have been at the vanguard of societal responses to war and violence, recording and reflecting on its causes, impacts, meanings, and traumatic consequences and exploring means to deal with them. This symposium will probe the different ways in which contemporary artists are engaging the wars and upheavals afflicting the Middle East today and explore the formal, conceptual, and theoretical dimensions that underpin their work.
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The Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Hackathon
Friday, April 27 - Sunday, April 29
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Our team is thrilled to produce a weekend with the leading innovators in breastfeeding and postpartum health, along with many mamas, papas, babies, students, and newcomers. This time around we have a focus on equity and inclusive innovation in breastfeeding. We want to catalyze the development of tech, products, spaces, clothing, programs and services that have an eye on affordability and access as well as cultural diversity.
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BOSTON AREA CITY NATURE CHALLENGE
Friday, April 27 - Monday, April 30
Join us for the Boston Area City Nature Challenge, a fun competition across the world — 65 cities, 17 countries, and 5 continents — to document the most species from April 27 - 30!
Citynaturechallengemap BoxWe need people (i.e. you) to help us take observations (e.g. taking photos with your phone) of as many species as possible to record nature in and around Boston. All species count! This information will help create a more accurate picture of the Boston area's biodiversity, focusing within the I-495 corridor and out to Stellwagen Bank. Any observation of plants, animals, fungi, even microbes, in the greater Boston area made during these days will count for the challenge. Scroll down for tips and resources on how you can help.
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Friday, April 27
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Our Aging Brains: Decision-making, Fraud, and Undue Influence
Friday, April 27
8:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East ABC (2036), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
With over 70 million Baby Boomers retiring, elder financial exploitation has been labeled the “Crime of the 21st Century.” In this half-day event, we will explore the neuroscience, psychology, and legal doctrine of financial decision-making in older adults. How does the aging brain make financial decisions, and when is it uniquely susceptible? How can courts best use science to improve their adjudication of disputes over “competency”, “capacity”, and “undue influence”? Is novel neuroimaging evidence of dementia ready for courtroom use? This conference will bring together experts in medicine, science, and law to explore these important questions and chart a path forward for dementia and the law.
This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and registration is required. Register online now!
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Confronting Inequality and Economic Mobility: Data-Driven Lessons From Boston, For Boston
Friday, April 27
8:45am to 6:00pm
BU, Photonics Center, Colloquium Room 8 St. Marys Street, Boston
Rising income inequality and decreasing economic mobility are among the most pressing issues facing cities today, impacting all aspects of urban life, from education and health to transportation and housing. Boston is no exception.
The Boston Area Research Initiative’s 2018 conference, Confronting Inequality and Economic Mobility: Data-Driven Lessons From Boston, For Boston, will explore how the region can be a leader in dealing with these issues—understanding inequality and its consequences, and designing and implementing informed solutions to counteract them.
Over the course of the day, the conference will include: sessions composed of short talks by faculty, students, policymakers, and practitioners describing their work within the Boston civic data ecosystem; a keynote on the big-picture implications of this work; and other programming to facilitate the sharing of ideas. The goal of the event is two-fold: 1) provide a platform to highlight cutting-edge work in the region; and 2) catalyze new connections and synergies across institutions and disciplines.
Join us April 27th at Boston University to be a part of the conversation.
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Radical Skepticism and the Shadow of Doubt: A Philosophical Dialogue
Friday, April 27
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes ELI HIRSCH, Charles Goldman Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University, for a discussion of his latest book, Radical Skepticism and the Shadow of Doubt: A Philosophical Dialogue.
About Radical Skepticism and the Shadow of Doubt
Radical Skepticism and the Shadow of Doubt brings something new to epistemology both in content and style. At the outset, we are asked to imagine a person named Vatol who grows up in a world containing numerous people who are brains-in-vats and who hallucinate their entire lives. Would Vatol have reason to doubt whether he himself is in contact with reality? If he does have reason to doubt, would he doubt, or is it impossible for a person to have such doubts? And how do we ourselves compare to Vatol? After reflection, can we plausibly claim that Vatol has reason to doubt, but we don't? These are the questions that provide the novel framework for the debates in this book. Topics that are treated here in significantly new ways include the view that we ought to doubt only when we philosophize; epistemological “dogmatism”; and connections between radical doubt and “having a self.”
The book adopts the innovative form of a “dialogue/play.” The three characters, who are Talmud students as well as philosophers, hardly limit themselves to pure philosophy but regale each other with Talmudic allusions, reminiscences, jokes, and insults. For them, the possibility of doubt emerges as an existential problem with potentially deep emotional significance. Setting complex arguments about radical skepticism within entertaining dialogue, this book can be recommended for both beginners and specialists.
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Red Sox Nation: Exploring Sports and Citizenship
Friday, April 27
7:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Sports and community identity are deeply linked. What happens on the field and in the stands draws attention to larger issues confronting society and compels athletes and teams to think about their roles and responsibilities in their communities.
As the 2018 Major League Baseball season gets under way, Boston Red Sox executives and a former player will discuss how the Red Sox organization endeavors to engage with the community and to support good citizenship by the team and all of Red Sox Nation.
PARTICIPANTS:
Sam Kennedy, president and CEO, Boston Red Sox
Rebekah Salwasser, executive director, Red Sox Foundation
Moderated by Shira Springer, sports and society reporter, WBUR
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13th
Friday, April 27
7:30PM
First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain
13th is a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. The film explores the "intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States; it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which freed the slaves and prohibited slavery (unless as punishment for a crime). DuVernay contends that slavery has been perpetuated in practices since the end of the American Civil War through such actions as criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest poor freedmen and force them to work for the state under convict leasing; suppression of African Americans by disenfranchisement, lynchings and Jim Crow; politicians declaring a war on drugs that weigh more heavily on minority communities and, by the late 20th century, mass incarceration of people of color in the United States.
Dismantling White Supremacy Film Series
As persons of faith living in 21st century America, we feel called to question how we might work, take action, do our part, to dismantle white supremacy. We seek to deepen our understanding of the role white supremacy has played in the development of our modern day society, take some inventory, and identify opportunities for collective action. We are inspired by the words of Rev. Mary Margaret Earl, Executive Director and Senior Minister of UU Urban Ministries in Roxbury:
“We must continue the work that many of us have been engaged with, to dig deeper into the ways that racism has infiltrated our subconscious, our hearts, and our educational, prison and government systems since our country was founded. The hate on display in Charlottesville, as grotesque as it was, is not disconnected from the rest of us. It is the most egregious, visible outgrowth of the racism we have all breathed in, like polluted air, our whole lives.”
We are all caught in that web. For those of us who identify as white, we work to become unstuck through listening and learning. Listening nondefensively to people of color who are willing to share their experiences and viewpoint. Learning about the history of racism in our nation.
Co-sponsored by
First Church Unitarian Universalist in Jamaica Plain, Social Justice Action Committee, and The Racial Justice Task Force of the Theodore Parker Church
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Saturday, April 28
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Join Earthwatch for a fun Boston Area City Nature Challenge
Saturday, April 28
8:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Cambridge Water Department, 250 Fresh Pond Parkway,Cambridge
What we'll do
Join Earthwatch scientists for our kickoff event for the Boston Area City Nature Challenge at Fresh Pond in Cambridge, MA! Drs. Stan Rullman and Mark Chandler will guide us through an exploration of the urban wildlife of Fresh Pond Reservation’s Black’s Nook and Lusitania Meadow.
Along the way, we will document our findings on the iNaturalist app as part of the City Nature Challenge (CNC), an international competition comprised of 65 cities competing to document the most biodiversity from April 27–30. Your observations help local scientists monitor local biodiversity, and also count as entries to help Boston win the City Nature Challenge 2018!
Schedule of Events
8:30–9:00 a.m.: Meet in front of Cambridge Water Department for an Earthwatch meet and greet! Learn about the CNC with other Earthwatch volunteers and staff.
9:30–10:15 a.m.: Meet at Lusitania Meadow for a nature walk led by local naturalists.
10:00–11:00 a.m.: Meet at Alewife Pond for a nature walk led by Earthwatch Research Director Dr. Stan Rullman.
10:30–11:30 a.m.: Meet at Black’s Nook Pond for a nature walk led by local naturalists.
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Sunday, April 29
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A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
Sunday, April 29
4:00 PM (Doors at 3:00)
Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston
Cost: $35.00 (online only, book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes former FBI director JAMES COMEY for a presentation of his highly anticipated new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership—discussing his role in some of the highest-stakes situations in the past two decades of American government. The afternoon's discussion will include Q&A with the audience.
About A Higher Loyalty
In his forthcoming book, former FBI director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.
Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. He previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the U.S. deputy attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. From prosecuting the Mafia and Martha Stewart to helping change the Bush administration's policies on torture and electronic surveillance, overseeing the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation as well as ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Comey has been involved in some of the most consequential cases and policies of recent history.
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Monday, April 30, 7:30 AM to Wednesday, May 2, 3:30 PM
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2018 Local Solutions: Eastern Climate Preparedness Conference
Monday, April 30, 7:30 AM to Wednesday, May 2, 3:30 PM
Radisson Hotel Manchester Downtown, 700 Elm Street, Manchester
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eeig9umpc6fbcdaa&oseq=&c=&ch=
Cost: $135- $345
Join Antioch University New England and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the 2018 Local Solutions: Eastern Climate Preparedness Conference on April 30-May 2, 2018. Please visit localsolutions2018.org for session descriptions and visit www.radisson.com/climate to book your hotel room. See you in Manchester!
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Monday, April 30
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Road Safety For All: Innovations in Road Traffic Injury Prevention and Response
Monday, April 30
8:30 am–1 pm
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dean Michelle Williams will kick off the program at 9:00 am with opening remarks. The symposium will feature two keynotes, delivered by Piyush Tewari, MPA and Adnan A. Hyder, MD, MPH, PhD, and two panels of experts on Road Traffic Injury Prevention and Response. Continental Breakfast will be provided at 8:30 am and lunch will be provided at the conclusion of the program at 12:45 pm.
More information at https://globalhealth.harvard.edu/RTI
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PAOC Colloquium: Mary-Louise Timmermans (Yale)
Monday, April 30
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
I am a physical oceanographer with a research focus in the Arctic Ocean. I use a combination of theory, numerical modeling and geophysical observations (from icebreaker surveys and an ice-based network of drifting ocean-profiling instruments) to investigate how the ocean relates to Arctic sea ice and climate. This includes such topics as ocean mixing, eddies and waves, and ocean heat and freshwater transport.
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Digital Advertising: A View from the Inside
Monday, April 30
12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
BU Law, 15th Floor Faculty Lounge (1503), 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
BU Law’s IP & Innovation Speaker Series is an important element of BU Law’s comprehensive IP Program. In partnership with BU’s Hariri Institute for Computing & Computational Science & Engineering, the Speaker Series gives students and faculty the opportunity to interact with leading thinkers from around the world in an exciting workshop setting.
This talk on digital advertising will be given by BU Computer Science's Prof. John Byers. Please RSVP to Tyler Gabrielski at tgabs@bu.edu.
This talk on digital advertising will be given by BU Computer Science's Prof. John Byers. Please RSVP to Tyler Gabrielski at tgabs@bu.edu.
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Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz
WHEN Monday, Apr. 30, 2018, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Lower Level Conference Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies
SPEAKER(S) Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History, Department of History, Brown University
CONTACT INFO Alex Sagan, alex@sagan.org
DETAILS This lecture will discuss how the East Galician town of Buczacz was transformed from a site of coexistence, where Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews had lived side-by-side for centuries, into a site of genocide. Between 1941, when the Germans conquered the region, and 1944, when the Soviets liberated it, the entire Jewish population of Buczacz was murdered by the Nazis, with ample help from local Ukrainians, who then also ethnically cleansed the region of the Polish population. What were the reasons for this instance of communal violence, what were its dynamics, and why has it been erased from the local memory?
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Technoecologies: The Interplay of Space and its Perception
WHEN Monday, Apr. 30, 2018, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ludics Seminar, sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Zenovia Toloudi, Dartmouth College
CONTACT INFO Vassiliki Rapti, vasiliki_rapti@emerson.edu
DETAILS Based on the current Technoecologies exhibition at the Storrs Gallery, College of Arts + Architecture, UNC Charlotte, this talk reconceives the relationship between humans and their environment in architecture through prototypes and models that explore emerging forms of bioarchitecture, living systems, and evolving environments. Technoecologies exhibition proposes a metabolic architecture as a provocative alternative approach, being manifested by speculative yet tangible ways. Metabolic architecture is contemplated here both literally, and metaphorically. Literally, it deals with material transformations caused by either growth or decay of organic matter. Metaphorically, it relates to immaterial transformations of light or sound caused by environmental or artificial stimuli. Through these processes, metabolism within architecture becomes an apparatus that produces constant changes in form, space, and in user perception.
By bridging the gap between technophilia and technophobia, Technoecologies projects root into tradition and society to reinterpret in contemporary terms past history, culture, and traditional habits. With examples ranging from artificial sonic gardens and living wall prototypes to interactive models of seed banks, Technoecologies projects examine processes of material transformation, eventually generating a series of themes for architecture to consider, such as laboratory experimentation, objectification of nature, temporality and theatricality, the vernacular and cultural, modular and infrastructural elements, vulnerability and voyeurism, autonomy and complexity, as well as user participation. This exploration forms both a theory and a design approach, which subsequently advocate how art, technology, and architecture might progressively transform the environment, society, and culture.
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Women at War
Monday, April 30
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
On 3 July 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose stepped off a Japanese military plane in Singapore, pledged to finally free India from British rule, and created what was perhaps the first female infantry fighting unit in military history, the Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR). His young recruits were from Indian families of the diasporas in Singapore, Malaya and Burma, and consisted entirely of civilian volunteers lacking any prior military training. These women soldiers, deployed to the steamy jungles of Burma during the two last years of World War II, were determined to follow their commander to victory and to the liberation of India. More than seven decades later, their history has been forgotten, and their service and the role played by Bose himself unexplored with true rigour. Through in-depth interviews with the surviving Ranis – now in their late seventies and nineties – and meticulous archival research, historian Vera Hildebrand has uncovered extensive new evidence that separates the myth of the Bengali hero and his jungle warrior maidens from historical fact. The result is a wholly fresh perspective on the remarkable women of the RJR and their place in Indian and world history. The truth is every bit as impressive as the myth.
About the Author
Vera Hildebrand has a doctorate in Indian history and culture from Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She is a senior research fellow at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies at University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Previously, she taught at Harvard University and University of Copenhagen.
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Tuesday, May 1
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MAPC's 2018 Peak Electricity Demand Program Webinar
Tuesday, May 1
12:00 to 1:00 pm
Webinar
The Clean Energy Department will be hosting a webinar to discuss MAPC’s peak electricity notification program as well as new and exciting demand management opportunities provided by National Grid, Eversource, and ISO-New England.
To join the online event, please register here.
To join the audio conference only, please use this provided number: +1-415-655-0002
Access code: 667 515 351
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Landfills, Waste to Energy, Recycling and the Leap to Zero Waste
Tuesday, May 1
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Cambridge Innovation Center Venture Cafe, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
Cost: $8 – $12
If you’re reading this, you likely consider yourself sustainability-minded, probably recycle, perhaps even compost, and may even have already adopted a zero-waste perspective. But the data suggests that most of us don’t know all that much about what happens “down stream” from our use, don’t make the connection with climate change, and haven’t ventured far in the direction of inconvenience.
Even as municipalities roll out big, single-stream recycling bins, markets for the collected commodities face ever more intense pressure. In January, China, a major consumer of post-consumer waste plastic, shut its doors. Where is the plastic going now? What happens to collected glass that finds no buyer? The significant proliferation of corrugated cardboard with the widespread penetration of Amazon deliveries is making it difficult to find a buyer for many a would-be recycler of cardboard. Some say there’s nothing wrong with landfilling and we’ll never run out of landfill space. Is that true? What’s the environmental impact of simply hauling overflowing trash from metropolitan areas to rural sites – and what are we doing to those rural sites? And is “Waste to Energy” something we should be bragging about? Do people really do Zero Waste? Here to help us navigate we welcome:
Dawn Quirk has been working for the MassDEP Municipal Waste Reduction Branch for the past 3.5 years. She spent her first year conducting Waste Ban inspections at landfills, incinerators, and transfer stations across the state. During that year, she issued close to a hundred Notices of Noncompliance and eight Administrative Consent Orders with Penalties to Massachusetts businesses and government agencies for various waste ban violations.
Dawn spent the previous decade managing zero waste efforts for Tufts University as a Waste Reduction Program Manager. During Dawn's tenure, the school's recycling rate reached 45% of waste recycled, via a combination of waste reduction, composting, and reuse.
While working at Tufts, Dawn served as a member of Boston Recycling Coalition's Zero Waste Task Force, a ten-month process resulting in a policy paper for Boston; Don't Waste This Opportunity: Policy Recommendations for a Path to Zero Waste and Good Jobs for Boston. The policy paper was the precursor to a MassDEP funded grant administered by Dawn, to Toxics Action: Zero Waste Leaders' Summit: Moving Boston to Zero Waste. The multi-year grant produced: Guiding Principles for Implementing, prepared for Mayor Marty Walsh. The Leader's Summit and resulting Guiding Principles formed a framework for the City of Boston's current zero-waste planning initiative.
Dawn's began her recycling career working as a Recycling Specialist at the Cambridge Department of Public Works.
Claire Galkowski has been the Executive Director of the 15-town South Shore Recycling Cooperative since 1998. Prior to that, she worked as a microbiologist, running a teaching lab at MIT. Parenthood sparked her concern about our unsustainable waste practices.
Her volunteer work with the Boston Recycling Coalition led to a position as Boston’s Recycling Block Captain Coordinator. After moving to the suburbs she was hired by the SSRC. She served on the Board of MassRecycle for ten years, and as President for two of them.
Claire now serves on the Mass. Product Stewardship Council and the Westwood Environmental Action. She lives in Westwood with her husband and 3 cats.
Ed McGrath is the Recycling Coordinator for the Town of Bedford, MA. Ed also serves on the North Reading Recycling Committee and on the Board of Directors of MassRecycle. His career in recycling began with NYNEX Yellow Pages back around the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. Ed has worked on recycling programs and sustainability efforts in the public sector and private sector. In addition, Ed is a volunteer with the North Reading Food Pantry. Ed and his wife, Lori, still reside in North Reading. They have one son serving in the U.S. Navy and another still in college.
Kirstie Pecci is the director of the Zero Waste Project and a Senior Fellow at Conservation Law Foundation. Kirstie is a former MASSPIRG Staff Attorney actively engaged in waste reduction and opposing the expansion of landfill and incinerator capacity. Kirstie is part of the Zero Waste Boston coalition, which advocates for zero waste solutions such as reuse, recycling, redesign and composting/anaerobic digestion in the City of Boston. She also founded the central Massachusetts group Residents for Alternative Trash Solutions to oppose a regional landfill expansion in her community and promote zero waste principles. Kirstie started her legal career as an associate in Nixon Peabody’s Real Estate/Environmental Practice Group. A graduate of Boston College Law School and Harvard University, she lives in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
Brian Balukonis retired from Raytheon Company in 2018 after a 32+ year career where he worked as the Solid Waste Process Owner for the Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) business segment in Tewksbury, MA. As the Zero Waste Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Raytheon, he focused on Zero Waste planning and helped develop a unique resource management program which lead to six MA sites achieving zero waste certification (one Platinum and five Gold). He also contributed to the establishment of the Enterprise 5-year sustainability goals that focused on zero waste and was their core environmental regulatory compliance specialist. Since 2017, he is a member of Green Building Certification Inc. (GBCI) advisory council for the Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE) zero waste certification program.
Brian is a founding member of the Town of Littleton Sustainability Committee which was established in 2013. He introduced the concept of zero waste to the town by establishing the Towns first zero waste event in 2014. Based on it`s success, it is now an annual event. He has assisted and volunteered to help other towns to establish similar events. He also helped to establish a Repair Café in Littleton. He graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from North Adams State College. He is planning to do zero waste consulting in the future.
Come join us for a rousing evening and help us close our season with a bang…. And BYOQ (bring your own questions) - Carol, Holly & Tilly
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A Gut Feeling: How Microbes Impact Human Health
Tuesday, May 1
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Newsfeed Cafe, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-gut-feeling-how-microbes-impact-human-health-tickets-44595513381
The one-pathogen-one-disease paradigm – the focus of infectious disease research for more than a century – has been complicated by the discovery of the human microbiome (i.e. the bacterial communities that reside in and on our bodies). The gut microbiome is intimately tied to the development of our immune system, our physiology, and even our psychology. A breakdown in the ecological structure of our gut has been associated with inflammatory disorders, metabolic syndromes, and cancer.
In this talk, Dr. Gibbons will discuss how disturbances of the gut ecosystem can make us sick and how restoration of the microbiome back to a healthy state can potentially alleviate many complex diseases.
Seating is first-come, first-serve in WGBH's Boston Public Library Studio. Overflow seating will be located in the Newsfeed Café and is not guaranteed.
Speaker bio: Sean Gibbons received his Ph.D. in biophysical sciences from the University of Chicago in 2015. His graduate work focused on using microbial communities as empirical models for testing ecological theory. He completed his postdoctoral training in Eric Alm’s laboratory in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT from 2015-2018. His postdoctoral work focused on eco-evolutionary dynamics within the human gut microbiome. Gibbons recently joined the faculty at the Institute for Systems Biology, in Seattle. His lab will investigate interactions between ecology, evolution and ecosystem function in the gut, applying these insights to develop personalized interventions for improving human health and well-being.
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Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing
Tuesday, May 1,
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes Yale law and sociology professor ISSA KOHLER-HAUSMANN for a discussion of her debut book, Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing.
About Misdemeanorland
Felony conviction and mass incarceration attract considerable media attention these days, yet the most common criminal-justice encounters are for misdemeanors, not felonies, and the most common outcome is not prison. In the early 1990s, New York City launched an initiative under the banner of Broken Windows policing to dramatically expand enforcement against low-level offenses. Misdemeanorland is the first book to document the fates of the hundreds of thousands of people hauled into lower criminal courts as part of this policing experiment.
Drawing on three years of fieldwork inside and outside of the courtroom, in-depth interviews, and analysis of trends in arrests and dispositions of misdemeanors going back three decades, Issa Kohler-Hausmann argues that lower courts have largely abandoned the adjudicative model of criminal law administration in which questions of factual guilt and legal punishment drive case outcomes. Due to the sheer volume of arrests, lower courts have adopted a managerial model--and the implications are troubling. Kohler-Hausmann shows how significant volumes of people are marked, tested, and subjected to surveillance and control even though about half the cases result in some form of legal dismissal. She describes in harrowing detail how the reach of America's penal state extends well beyond the shocking numbers of people incarcerated in prisons or stigmatized by a felony conviction.
Revealing and innovative, Misdemeanorland shows how the lower reaches of our criminal justice system operate as a form of social control and surveillance, often without adjudicating cases or imposing formal punishment.
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Opportunity
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Announcing Destination 2040: The next long-range transportation plan for the Boston region
How would you improve the Boston region’s transportation system? That’s the question at the heart of the MPO’s preparations for Destination 2040, which the MPO expects to adopt in the spring of 2019.
Every four years, the MPO identifies the system’s strengths and weaknesses; forecasts changes in population, employment, and land use; and creates a plan to address existing and future mobility needs. The resulting long-range transportation plan (LRTP) allocates funding for major projects in the Boston region and guides the MPO’s funding of capital investment programs and studies.
Use the new Destination 2040 website at http://ctps.org/lrtp-dev to explore the state of the system; learn how the MPO will identify needs, revisit its vision and goals, and prioritize its investments; and share your own interests, concerns, and ideas.
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Resource
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development - http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy: https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at over 50 colleges and universities at Hubevents: http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://calendar.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 11 AM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
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