Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater
Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) EventsGeo
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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, February 25
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12pm Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium: Julien de Wit (MIT)
12pm Waking Up to the Internet Platform Disaster
12pm The Cost of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
12pm The Belt and Road Initiative: A Discussion of China's Vision and Strategy
12pm The Cost of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
12pm Sociology Department Seminar: Down Out and Under Arrest: How Policing Shapes Everyday Life in Urban Poor Communities
12:15pm American Geomimesis: The Earth's Past and Engineering Environments
3:30pm Fueling Forest Carbon Capture in a Changing World
5pm Blackjack to Board Member: Jon Hirschtick, MIT ’83, ‘86
5:30pm Opioid Epidemic & Harm Reduction: Social Work, Public Health & Emergency
Services Approaches
5:30pm Towards Life 3.0 - Ethics and Technology in the 21st Century: Human Rights & AI: The Long (Worrisome?) View
5:30pm Did Scrubbing the Government Clean Up the Air? Polluter Responses to China’s Anticorruption Campaign
6pm Environmental Activism, American Economy, and Democracy
6pm CDD Forum - Nerding-out Over Design and Social Justice
6:30pm Social Media 101 - How to Make the Most of Your Digital Presence w/ AIMC
6:30pm Design for Augmented Intelligence
7pm The Heart Is a Shifting Sea: Love and Marriage in Mumbai
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Tuesday, February 26
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7:30am EBC Climate Change Program: The Challenge of Designing Systems for an Uncertain Climate Future
12pm What’s the Point of Publishing Opinion, Anyway?
12pm Fighting fake science: Barriers and solutions
12pm Goodbye California? The New Tech Worker Market
12pm The Creative Wealth of Nations: Can the Arts Advance Development?
12pm Tuesday Seminar Series: Venezuela: Understanding the Crisis. Building a Sustainable Solution
12:30pm Japan's Antiracism Movements: Gendered Negotiations of Violence and Vulnerability
1pm Technology, Science, and Frontiers in the Arts
2pm Artificial Intelligence & Biotechnology
2pm Computing Exposition
4pm Coded Computing: A Transformative Framework for Resilient, Secure, and Private Distributed Learning
4:30pm Focus on Russia: Putinism
5pm Wounded by War: The Story of Kevin Flike
5pm Perspectives from Luminaries—A Panel on Computing and Cognition
5:30pm Open Mic Africa @ MIT w/ Jake Bright & Oswald Jumira
5:30pm AI Can't Fix This: MIT, Imperialism, and the Future of AI
6pm Public Program: Artist Talk by Olafur Eliasson
6pm Yemen: The Human Cost of War, a conversation with Abby Maxman, CEO & President of Oxfam America
6pm Boston Green Drinks
6pm Cambridge Opposes the Fare Hike
6pm MIT Water Night
6:30pm Rouse Visiting Artist Lecture: David Hartt, “Urban Futures of the Recent Past”
6:30pm An Introduction to Conscious Language
6:30pm WHERE DOES THE PATH OF VIRTUE LIE ON ENGINEERING HUMAN GENOMES?: Faculty Lecture with Professor Louis M. Guenin
6:30pm Rouse Visiting Artist Lecture: David Hartt, “Urban Futures of the Recent Past”
6:30pm An Introduction to Conscious Language
7pm The Shape of a Life: One Mathematician's Search for the Universe's Hidden Geometry
7pm Feminism’s Forgotten Fight The Unfinished Struggle for Work and Family
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Wednesday, February 27
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Spies and Lies: Covert Action in World Politics
10am Affect & Decision-Making in Health and Disease
10am Gardening Workshop
12pm Telemedicine: Promise vs. Reality
12pm Simulating midlatitude circulation changes: what might we gain from high resolution modelling of air-sea interactions?
12pm Some Welfare Economics of the Termination Problem in Climate Engineering
12pm Simulating midlatitude circulation changes: what might we gain from high resolution modelling of air-sea interactions?
12pm Triadic Coercion: Israel's Targeting of States that Host Nonstate Actors
12pm A Safe Way to School? Black Caribbean Youth Negotiating Police Surveillance in London and New York City
2pm RPP Special Event: The Role of Reconciliation, Memory, and Theology in Shaping the Public Stage
2pm Cultures of Science Seminar: “Earthrise: Nature vs. Planet in the Nineteenth Century”
3pm State House Forum on Stimulating Transformative Investment in Gateway Cities
4pm The Built Environment: State Presence at Border Crossings in the Modern World
4pm Does Solving Energy Poverty Help Solve Poverty? Perspectives from Kenya and Ghana
4pm The American City: Promoting Inclusion or Sowing Division?
4pm Lift US UP, Don’t Push Us Out! Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement
4:15pm Decompositions and Policy Consequences of an Extraordinary Decline in Air Pollution from Electricity Generation
4:30pm Math, Money, and Making a Difference Part 1: Mathematics
5pm ACTUALITY AND REALITY IN THE AR/VR WORLD: Perspective from a Zen Buddhist Priest
5pm What Should Cities Do?
5pm NEU For the Common Good Forum
5:30pm Climate Resilience Zoning Task Force
5:30pm Askwith Forums – Still Separate and Unequal: Reducing Poverty, Inequality, and Racial Injustice in the U.S.
5:30pm Faith and Faustian Bargains: Compromise, Complicity, and Courage in Leadership
5:30pm Energy Storage: New Business Models Fuel Rapid Growth
6pm Robotland: The Future of Labor Policy and Work in an AI World
6pm Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past
6pm Silas Peirce Lecture: Henry David Thoreau’s Legacy of Resistance and Hope
6pm Documentary Night at Harvard Business School - "Bending the Arc”
6pm Great Decisions 2019 starts with "Cyber Conflict & Geopolitics”
6pm Whose University Is It?
6pm Join Us for the Next I-90 Public Meeting
6:30pm The Making of a Community Garden Film
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Thursday, February 28
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11am Fix My Road: What can YOU do (with your smartphone) to make OUR Infrastructure Great Again while addressing Climate Change?
12pm Climate change and development: An analysis of global adaptation finance
12pm Forced from Home: Displacement Assessment in Boston Chinatown
12pm Lessons from a Life in Peace Building
12:30pm Hydrogen Economy
12:30pm Study Group: Human Rights Advocacy in Polarizing Times — Where Are We Going? And How Will We Know When We Get There?
2:30pm MIT Protest Against Henry Kissinger
3:30pm Books@Baker with Sunil Gupta
3:30pm OEB Seminar Series - "Mosaics, Megabases, and Matryoshki: A Leaf-to-Landscape Perspective on the Symbiotic Renaissance”
4pm Climate conversation: Setting the DUSP research agenda
4pm Starr Forum: Abolish ICE?
4pm Digital Transformation Summit: AI, Ethics, and Business Decisions
4:15pm Democracy in Hard Places — Populism's Threat to Democracy: Comparative Lessons for the U.S.
5pm Cambridgeport Social Event
6pm Cambridge Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force
6pm Evolution Matters: David Quammen and Carl Zimmer
6pm Marc Mauer: “The Meaning of Life: The Case for Abolishing Life Sentences”
6pm WORKac: Dan Wood
6pm Psychiatric Diagnosis: The First Cause of Everything Bad in the Mental Health System
6:30pm Men of Boston Against Violence in Our City
7pm Do Your Garden Plants Have a Backstory?
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Friday, March 1
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8am The "R" Word: Retreat, Relocation and Climate Resilience
9am Italy and the Origins of Capitalism
10am Stratified and Stirred: Monsoon Freshwater in the Bay of Bengal
12pm Cryptography and the Politics of Decentralization
12pm Friend or foe? Microbial cross-feeding and viral predation in the engineered deep subsurface
12pm Artificial Intelligence: Short History, Present Developments, and Future Outlook
1:45pm Managed Retreat Workshop: Legal and Policy Tools for States and Local Communities
2pm Study Group: Human Trafficking - Empowerment-based Approaches in Anti-Human Trafficking
3pm Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice
4pm Leadership Lessons From Space
4:30pm One Month To Go or More? A Brexit Update from an EU and UK Perspective
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Saturday, March 2
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8:30am IDEA 2019 Conference: Embrace Your Impact
9am 2019 MIT Asia Business Conference
9am 2019 Environmental Justice Conference: Equitable Solutions to an Inequitable Food System
10am Observe the Ocean; Secure the Future - 22nd Annual Blue Lobster Bowl
1pm Wolf-PAC MA Strategy Meeting
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Sunday, March 3
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9:30am Sustainability Student Leadership Symposium
6pm The Telescope in the Ice Reading with Mark Bowen
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Monday, March 4
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12pm Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium: Aditi Sheshadri
12pm Smoke and Mirrors: Did China's Environmental Crackdowns Lead to Persistent Changes in Polluting Firm Behavior?
12pm Aga Khan Program Lecture: Rania Ghosn
12pm Twitter Wars & Culture Wars: Teens, Tolerance and the Anti-Bullying Era
12pm Trauma at the Border
3:30pm A Conversation with Jack Lew, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2013-2017)
4pm The Power of Protest: MIT March 4th @ 50 Years
5pm Human-Machine Collaboration in Art Making
6pm SPI March Discussion: Privacy in the Age of Big Data
6pm Mutual Pictures #6: November Actions
7pm USA Slavery in a Global Context: From the Bible to Today
7pm Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Neverafter
7pm Talk & Signing Authentic Inclusion™ Drives Disruptive Innovation
7pm Decoding, Leveraging and Protecting Our DNA in The Age of Personal Genomics
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Tuesday, March 5
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12pm Jack Markell, Former Governor of Delaware: “Leading by Preparing for a Changing World”
12pm Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies
1pm Fireside Chat on Certainty Versus Uncertainty with Naomi Oreskes and Gina McCarthy
1pm HESEC Webinar: "Sustainability in Apparel Industry”
3:30pm Trust & Innovation with Tarun Khanna
4pm Quantum Dots: Photophysics to Photochemistry
4:30pm Emile Bustani Seminar: "No country for young men (and women): Education, employment, and inequality in the Middle East and North Africa”
5pm The Past, Present & Future of Truth
5pm Hospitality Now!
5pm The Battle for the Future of Food Book Launch: Eating Tomorrow
6:30pm Stepping Up: Business In The Era Of Climate Change Part 1 (Open for Business)
6:30pm Native Bees in the Hood
7pm Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote
7pm Cambridge Forum: How to Be Happy
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
Geometry Links - February 17, 2019
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Monday, February 25
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Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium: Julien de Wit (MIT)
Monday, February 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium [PAOCC] is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. Contact the 2018/2019 Coordinators: paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu.
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Waking Up to the Internet Platform Disaster
Monday, February 25
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Harvard, Austin Hall, Austin Hall North Room 100, 1515 Massachusetts AVenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSczE_BtlKPPBpzmxkCNa_m0bkSBvYjdRJo20RhxY3c7CSDRqg/viewform
Roger McNamee
Lawrence Lessig
Join us for a conversation with Roger McNamee, author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook and Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School.
Facebook, Google and other internet platforms employ a business model – surveillance capitalism – that is undermining public health, democracy, privacy, and innovation in unprecedented ways. They use persuasive technology to manipulate attention for profit. They use surveillance to build data sets with the goal of influencing user behavior. The negative externalities of internet platforms are analogous to those of medicine in the early 20th century and chemicals in the mid-20th century, situations that required substantial regulatory intervention.
This event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-02-25/waking-internet-platform-disaster at noon on event date.
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The Belt and Road Initiative: A Discussion of China's Vision and Strategy
WHEN Monday, Feb. 25, 2019, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Building, Land Hall (Fourth Floor), 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
SPEAKER(S) Shirley Yu, Non-Resident Ash Center Asia Program Fellow
Moderator: Anthony Saich, Ash Center Director, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join us and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies for a discussion about the Belt and Road Initiative. Lunch will be served.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the signature foreign policy by Xi Jinping has served as China’s grand strategy since 2013, when the idea first arose, and it will remain relevant until around 2050, when China is predicted to reach "modernity." If successfully carried out, by the second half of the century, the ambition is that China would return to its ancient Middle Kingdom status as the center of all nations, equivalent to a Pax-Sinica.
The BRI is conceptualized as a two-pronged strategy. One is “to maximize engagement with China’s economic growth and power," and the other is to build a “community of common destiny for humanity." One vision is clearly economic, and the other, political. The success of the BRI is contingent upon the cohesion and the achievement of both visions in its entirety. The first vision can be empirically achievable. The prevalence of authoritarianism and flawed democracies in the BRI region essentially provides China with the ideal political incubator to expand its model of authoritarian capitalism. The second BRI vision, a world community built upon a moral order prescribed by Confucianism and communism, is challenging and important to elucidate by the liberal West, as this set of defining values will illuminate the fundamental systemic challenges to liberal market capitalism and liberal political order. This talk aims to demystify the two-pronged BRI strategy and its sustainability.
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The Cost of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Monday, February 25
12:00PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Jim Stock, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University
Lunch will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar
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Sociology Department Seminar: Down Out and Under Arrest: How Policing Shapes Everyday Life in Urban Poor Communities
Monday, February 25
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
BU, Room 241, 100 Cummington Mall, Boston
Forrest Stuart, Associate Professor of Sociology, Stanford University, will present his work “Down Out and Under Arrest: How Policing Shapes Everyday Life in Urban Poor Communities.”Since the 1990s, American cities have embraced hyper-aggressive policing policies. Drawing on over 7 years of in-depth, ethnographic fieldwork alongside police and residents in Los Angeles’s Skid Row and on Chicago’s South Side, Dr. Forrest Stuart analyzes how the omnipresent threat of harmful police contact reshapes the cultural contexts and patterned behaviors in criminalized neighborhoods. In the hope of reducing such police contact, residents adopt a particular cognitive schema—which he refers to as “cop wisdom”—that transforms the way residents understand and interact with physical environments, peers, and strangers. He traces how cop wisdom leads to new and potentially troubling forms of behavior and social interaction.
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American Geomimesis: The Earth's Past and Engineering Environments
Monday, February 25
12:15PM
Harvard, CGIS South S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7VGUkAvTU655Dub2FTGSNMjpVs6f8Qbu0kpmXh6oz11MgFw/viewform
Please RSVP via the online form by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
Daniel Francis Zizzamia, Harvard, Solar Geoengineering, will discuss "."
STS Circle at Harvard
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Fueling Forest Carbon Capture in a Changing World
Monday, February 25
3:30PM
Harvard, BioLabs Lecture Hall (1080), 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Benton Taylor, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Reception to follow talk.
OEB Special Seminar
Contact Name: Wendy Heywood
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Blackjack to Board Member: Jon Hirschtick, MIT ’83, ‘86
Monday, February 25
5:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 35-225, 127 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join students from the Integrated Design & Management program in a lively discussion with Jon about his adventures in Vegas, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Jon Hirschtick’s rich past includes being a player on the MIT Blackjack Team (as featured in the movies “21" and "Breaking Vegas"), and director of engineering at Computervision before he even finished his Bachelor’s degree at MIT. Using $1 million he made while a member of the blackjack team, Hirschtick founded the SolidWorks Corporation in 1993. Under his leadership, SolidWorks revenue grew to $100 million, and was acquired by Dassault Systèmes in 1997. Hirschtick continued on as a group executive for the next 14 years, until In October 2012, when he left Solidworks and founded Belmont Technology (later changed to Onshape) with other members of the original SolidWorks team. Hirschtick is currently CEO and chair of the Board at Onshape.
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Did Scrubbing the Government Clean Up the Air? Polluter Responses to China’s Anticorruption Campaign
Monday, February 25
5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
MIT, Building E19-319, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
Professor Valerie Karplus
Abstract: We examine whether targeting city mayors during a nationwide anticorruption campaign in China affected the concentration of sulfur dioxide (SO2), a major air pollutant, emitted from local coal power plants. Using the quasi-random timing of mayor investigations in an event study design, we show that investigating a mayor led to substantial reductions in SO2 concentrations at private coal power plants, but not state-controlled coal power plants. Private plants are less connected politically and receive less state support; for them, forming relationships with officials may be a low-cost alternative to environmental compliance. We find suggestive evidence that environmental improvements resulted from an increase in plants’ operation of SO2 pollution control equipment. Our results show empirically that efforts to improve local governance can sustainably reduce pollution.
e4Dev: Energy for Human Development
E4Dev is a student group and discussion forum exploring energy and human development challenges in the developing world. We seek to bring together students, faculty, and practitioners, at MIT and beyond, who are devoted to working on these critical challenges.
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Towards Life 3.0 - Ethics and Technology in the 21st Century: Human Rights & AI: The Long (Worrisome?) View
WHEN Monday, Feb. 25, 2019, 5:30 – 6:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wexner: room 102, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
SPEAKER(S) Mathias Risse, Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Administration
DETAILS "Towards Life 3.0: Ethics and Technology in the 21st Century" is a new talk series organized and facilitated by Mathias Risse, director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Administration. Drawing inspiration from the title of Max Tegmark’s book, "Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," the series draws upon a range of scholars, technology leaders, and public interest technologists to address the ethical aspects of the long-term impact of artificial intelligence on society and human life.
Held on select Monday evenings and occasionally on other weekdays, the series will also be shared on Facebook Live and on the Carr Center website. A light dinner will be served.
For the inaugural event, Mathias Risse, director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, will give a talk titled, "Human Rights & AI: The Long (Worrisome?) View.”
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Opioid Epidemic & Harm Reduction: Social Work, Public Health & Emergency
Services Approaches
Monday, February 25
5:30 – 7:00 pm
BU, Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
This event will feature diverse perspectives of individuals working at the forefront of the opioid epidemic. Panelists will discuss care for people who use opioids (or other substances), and opportunities for prevention, harm reduction, and inter-professional collaboration.
Speakers:
Chief Scott Allen, Chief of Police, East Bridgewater; Member of the PAARI (Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative) National Advisory Police Council
Caitlin Clark, MSW, Social Worker, Project RESPECT Clinic, Boston Medical Center
Tyshaun Perryman, Recovery Coach, Project RECOVER, Boston Medical Center
Clare Schmidt, MPH, Program Coordinator, AHOPE Needle Exchange, Boston Public Health Commission
Christopher Salas-Wright, PhD, MSW, Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Social Work, moderator
The first half will be focused on panelists’ experiences in the field and the second half will be a moderated panel discussion with Q&A from the
audience.
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Environmental Activism, American Economy, and Democracy
WHEN Monday, Feb. 25, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President, Waterkeeper Alliance
Rand Wentworth, Louis Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; President Emeritus, Land Trust Alliance
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office 617-495-1380
DETAILS Join the Institute of Politics in a discussion about the relationship between environmental activism, the U.S. economy, and democracy.
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CDD Forum - Nerding-out Over Design and Social Justice
Monday, February 25
6:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Jason Schupbach, Director of the Design School at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, ASU
Nerding-out Over Design and Social Justice: Insights from a recovering Federal employee who tried to help the designers working to make America better. Come hear an inside view on how the Federal government supports good urban design, and to hear about the people and projects across the country that are building more equitable communities.
Jason Schupbach is the Director of the Design School at Arizona State University. Previous to this position he was Director of Design and Creative Placemaking Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversaw all design and creative placemaking grantmaking and partnerships, including Our Town and Design Art Works grants, the Mayor’s Institute on City Design, the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design, and the NEA's Federal agency collaborations. Previously, Jason served Governor Patrick of Massachusetts as the Creative Economy Director, tasked with growing creative and tech businesses in the state. He formerly was the Director of ArtistLink, a Ford Foundation funded initiative to stabilize and revitalize communities through the creation of affordable space and innovative environments for creatives. He has also worked for the Mayor of Chicago and New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. He has written extensively on the role of arts and design in making better communities, and his writing has been featured as a Best Idea of the Day by the Aspen Institute.
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Social Media 101 - How to Make the Most of Your Digital Presence w/ AIMC
Monday, February 25
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Microsoft Store Prudential Center, 800 Boylston St #27, Boston
You hear it all the time from social media and marketing professionals to your own children, that you need to be active daily on all of the social media platforms for your personal brand or business to survive in today's digital world. It can get confusing and overwhelming managing your time on social media and understanding what works and what doesn't.
The purpose of this presentation is to review the major social media platforms and their purpose as well as some tips/techniques to make the most of your time on the social platforms whether it is for personal growth or to build your business & career.
Jeffrey DeSocio, Owner/Principal of AIMC Business Solutions, will be the guest speaker and will provide a great overview of the "A Social Media 101 - How to Make the Most of Your Digital Presence"
The event will take place on Monday, February 25th from 6:30pm - 8pm at the Microsoft Store in the Prudential Center, Boston.
Our event is a combination of networking and presentation. Here is the agenda:
6:30pm - 6:45pm: Introductions and Networking
6:45pm - 7:30pm: "A Social Media 101 - How to Make the Most of Your Digital Presence"
7:30pm - 8:00pm: Q/A and More Networking
More details to follow.
This event is being run by AIMC Business Solutions. We look forward to meeting you.
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Design for Augmented Intelligence
Monday, February 25
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
IDEO Cambridge, 80 Prospect Street, Cambridge
Cost: $17 – $22
Data is shaping how we live and consume digital services today. Design has long been about creating tools that augment human experiences. Now with the development of artificial intelligence, we are faced with new possibilities. How can we use AI to make things better for people?
Join us for a conversation about “augmented intelligence.” IDEO believes that data science and machine learning can help us design intelligent products, services, and systems that improve people’s everyday lives. In order to have a truly positive impact, AI-powered technologies must be grounded in human needs and work to extend and enhance our capabilities, not replace them.
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The Heart Is a Shifting Sea: Love and Marriage in Mumbai
Monday, February 25
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Elizabeth Flock in conversation with Min Jin Lee
Elizabeth Flock has observed the evolving state of India from inside Mumbai, its largest metropolis. She spent close to a decade getting to know these couples—listening to their stories and living in their homes, where she was privy to countless moments of marital joy, inevitable frustration, dramatic upheaval, and whispered confessions and secrets. The result is a phenomenal feat of reportage that is both an enthralling portrait of a nation in the midst of transition and an unforgettable look at the universal mysteries of love and marriage that connect us all.
Elizabeth Flock is a reporter for PBS NewsHour. She began her career at Forbes India magazine, where she spent two years as a features reporter in Mumbai, and has worked for U.S. News & World Report and the Washington Post. She has also written for major outlets, including the New York Times, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, Hindustan Times, and The Hindu. She lives in Washington, DC. The Heart Is a Shifting Sea is her first book.
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Tuesday, February 26
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EBC Climate Change Program: The Challenge of Designing Systems for an Uncertain Climate Future
Tuesday, February 26
Registration: 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
Program: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Pierce Atwood LLP, 100 Summer Street, 2nd Floor, Boston
Cost: $50 - $185
This EBC Climate Change program explores the design and liability issues associated with designing resilient systems that are able to withstand increased demands due to climate change impacts. Traditionally, design professionals rely on historical data to design systems that have a 50 to 100 year timeframe. Due to the impacts of climate change, historical data may not be the appropriate basis of design for future systems. This EBC program will explore the dilemma that design professionals have in designing systems with uncertain design parameters. It will also explore the potential exposures and liabilities associated with designing for an uncertain future.
Ample time is provided for discussion with program speakers during the moderated panel discussion.
General Continuing Education Certificates are awarded by the EBC for this program (3.5 training contact hours). Please select this option during registration if you wish to receive a certificate.
Program Chair:
Scott Turner, Director of Planning, Nitsch Engineering
Speakers:
Sandy Brock, Chief Engineer, Nitsch Engineering
Barbara Landau, Counsel, Noble, Wickersham & Heart LLP
Deanna Moran, Director, Conservation Law Foundation Massachusetts
Ellen Watts, President & Co-Founder, Architerra, Inc.
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What’s the Point of Publishing Opinion, Anyway?
Tuesday, February 26
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Wexner Conference Room, Wexner Building, Room 434AB, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
James Bennet, the editorial page editor of The New York Times, is in charge of the Opinion department. He oversees the editorial board and the Letters and Op-Ed sections. Mr. Bennet became editorial page editor in May 2016. Before this role, Mr. Bennet was the president and editor in chief of The Atlantic. Under Mr. Bennet, who was named editor in 2006, The Atlantic substantially increased its editorial reach and impact while returning to profitability for the first time in recent history. Adweek named Mr. Bennet editor of the year in 2012 and Ad Age did the same in 2009. The Atlantic was honored with the National Magazine Award four times during his tenure, including Magazine of the Year and best website, for TheAtlantic.com.
Before joining The Atlantic, Mr. Bennet worked for The Times for 15 years in several roles, including Detroit bureau chief, White House correspondent and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also served as a staff writer for The Sunday Magazine. Before joining the Times, Mr. Bennet was an editor with The Washington Monthly. He and his wife have two sons.
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Fighting fake science: Barriers and solutions
Tuesday, 26 February
12 noon
Webinar
Ivan Oransky, M.D., New York University and Richard Harris, B.Sc.
It is no secret that science has come under increasingly derisive attacks in recent years. There are those who view science as being inconsistent, untrustworthy, and even unethical. The findings by some researchers revealing that many published experiments cannot be easily repeated—prompting the so-called reproducibility crisis—have further fueled this narrative and led to serious concerns about wasteful spending on bioscience research. Recent media reports about the gene-editing experiments performed on human embryos by rogue Chinese scientist He Jiankui have given rise to fears that science operates with lax ethics. On the flip side, scientists face overwhelming pressure to publish and win grants, creating an atmosphere in which ethical and scientific standards are being squeezed to the breaking point. Although science provides enormous value to society, this message is often drowned out by the negative press, a situation made more critical when solid science is depicted as fake and fake science as real.
This webinar attacks the issue of fake science head-on, examining what can be done to combat bad science and how good science can be encouraged and promoted. The expert panel will discuss solutions to counteract fake science and explore how the scientific community can better communicate truth over falsehood.
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Goodbye California? The New Tech Worker Market
Tuesday, February 26
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West B (Room 2019, Second Floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Moira Weigel
Yarden Katz
The past several months have seen a wave of worker actions at major tech firms. Tech workers have challenged their company's contracts with the Pentagon, ICE, and other government agencies. They have organized for safe and equitable workplaces, free from sexual harassment and discrimination. They are demanding better wages, benefits, and working conditions for both white and blue collar contractors. My talk will place these actions in context, drawing on several years of research and writing on the movement and my work as an editor of Logic magazine and publisher of the book Tech Against Trump (2017). In addition, I will propose that these actions point to the need for new frameworks for interpreting the culture or world view of the tech industry--frameworks beyond "The Californian Ideology" that has dominated since the 1990s. To this end, I visit several recently proposed alternatives for thinking about "tech work" (e.g. platform capitalism, surveillance capitalism, data colonialism) that members of tech worker organizations themselves have studied and drawn on.
Join us for a presentation by Moira Weigel, followed by a conversation with recent Berkman Klein Fellow, Yarden Katz.
This event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-02-26/goodbye-california at noon on event date.
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The Creative Wealth of Nations: Can the Arts Advance Development?
Tuesday, February 26
12pm - 1:30pm
MIT, Building 9-255 (City Arena)
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYmD6rcWxSW5V1yFPQGZWfN99RMAuRsvPLR6p5Y7NiFmtC1A/viewform
Please RSVP here so we can estimate how much food to order.
Please join LatinX and Urban Africa for a book presentation by Ugandan organist Patrick Kabanda followed by a conversation with Brazilian architect Washington Fajardo.
A Note on the Book
"The Creative Wealth of Nations: Can the Arts Advance Development?"
By Patrick Kabanda, with foreword by Amartya Sen
Development seen from a more holistic perspective looks beyond the expansion of material means and considers the enrichment of people's lives. The arts are an indispensable asset in taking a comprehensive approach toward the improvement of lives. Incorporating aspects of international trade, education, sustainability, gender, mental health and social inclusion, The Creative Wealth of Nations demonstrates the diverse impact of applying the arts in development to promote meaningful economic and social progress. Patrick Kabanda explores a counterintuitive and largely invisible creative economy: whilst many artists struggle to make ends meet, the arts can also be a promising engine for economic growth. If nations can fully engage their creative wealth manifested in the arts, they are likely to reap major monetary and nonmonetary benefits from their cultural sector. Drawing from his own experience of the support music provided growing up amidst political and economic turmoil in Uganda, Kabanda shows us the benefits of an arts-inclusive approach to development in Africa, and beyond. 'Creativity and imagination go together. One leads to the other. Kabanda hits the very central point of human progress, the creativity and how it relates to development. Anybody interested in development must read it. It gives a completely new perspective.' Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2006.
Patrick Kabanda is a Juilliard-trained organist and a Fletcher-trained international affairs professional. He has taught at Phillips Academy, consulted for the World Bank, and contributed to the World Development Report 2016. He was awarded the 2013 Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service from Tufts University, Massachusetts.
Washington Fajardo was president of the Rio World Heritage Institute and the Mayor’s Special Advisor for Urban Issues from 2009 to 2016. He created policies and finance solutions to preserve heritage, regenerate buildings and places, and improve public services in Rio de Janeiro. His innovative initiatives revived cultural heritage in the city’s waterfront renewal and supported private owners to rehabilitate historic buildings. Fajardo is one of the 2019 Harvard GSD's Loeb Fellows.
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Tuesday Seminar Series: Venezuela: Understanding the Crisis. Building a Sustainable Solution
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Room S250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
SPEAKER(S) Temir Porras Ponceleon, CEO, Ventuari Partners
Moderated by Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO drclas@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Temir Porras Ponceleon began his public service career in the Republic of France and continued in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. He specialized in foreign policy, sovereign credit, and oil. He has brokered and negotiated political and trade deals at the presidential level for more than 10 years in Latin America, Europe and Asia. He has also set-up and negotiated credit lines for Venezuela with China and Russia. In addition, Porras Ponceleon managed the Sovereign Development Fund and Development Bank for Venezuela. He has also supported energy (oil) trading deals between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Latin American countries. Porras Ponceleon is an expert in Latin American politics, Latin American Geopolitics, and Latin American integration.
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Japan's Antiracism Movements: Gendered Negotiations of Violence and Vulnerability
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel Building, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Vivian Shaw, Postdoctoral Fellow, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University
Moderated by Christina Davis, Acting Director, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; Professor of Government and Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
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Technology, Science, and Frontiers in the Arts
Tuesday, February 26
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
MIT, Wong Auditorium, Tang Center, Building E51, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/frontiers-in-science-technology-and-the-arts-registration-55030609033
A symposium at MIT exploring the intersection of the frontiers of science and technology with artistic practice.
Co-organized by MIT.nano and the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), this afternoon symposium will examine art forms and expressions enabled by the emergence of new materials and by advances in computing paradigms. The program will showcase artistic collaborations and innovations from across disciplines. The four sessions are:
1. Frontiers: Art and Computing
2. Frontiers: Art and Materials
3. Frontiers: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and the Arts
4. Collaborations in Art, Science, and Technology at MIT
Each session will feature lightning talks, panels, and presentations from an interdisciplinary array of MIT faculty, visiting artists, and other researchers, practitioners, and innovators.
This event is free and open to the public. Registration required.
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Artificial Intelligence & Biotechnology
Tuesday, February 26
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST
MIT, Building 3-442, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
An academic seminar held by MIT Deshpanda Center for Technological Innovation. Mr. Leon Sandler, the executive director of Deshpanda Center, and Mr. Liangang Sun, an initiator of Contemporary Ideographism, will be the speakers of the seminar.
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Computing Exposition
Tuesday, February 26
2:00pm to 4:30pm
MIT, Charles M. Vest Student Street, Building 32, Koch Lobby, Building 76, Memorial Lobby, Lobby 10
Part of the celebration of the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, this expo features challenge winners and demos connecting computing across disciplines.
Talk to researchers who work with data from the Moral Machine and test yourself
See the MIT Super Mini Cheetah in action
See how fellow students augmented the murals in Stata as part of the Connect Arts, Community and Computing Challenge
Understand ways to visualize space and time with 3D-printing with MoSculp
Paint with the Neurons of a Generative Adversarial Network
See more at https://helloworld.mit.edu/agendas/explore/
Refreshments include bubble tea, popcorn, and desserts.
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Coded Computing: A Transformative Framework for Resilient, Secure, and Private Distributed Learning
Tuesday, February 26
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Salman Avestimehr, University of Southern California
ABSTRACT: This talk introduces "Coded Computing”, a new framework that brings concepts and tools from information theory and coding into distributed computing to mitigate several performance bottlenecks that arise in large-scale distributed computing and machine learning, such as resiliency to stragglers and bandwidth bottleneck. Furthermore, coded computing can enable (information-theoretically) secure and private learning over untrusted workers that is gaining increasing importance in various application domains. In particular, we present CodedPrivateML for distributed learning, which keeps both the data and the model private while allowing efficient parallelization of training across untrusted distributed workers. We demonstrate that CodedPrivateML can provide an order of magnitude speedup (up to ~30x) over the cryptographic approaches that rely on secure multiparty computing.
BIOGRAPHY; Salman Avestimehr is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and co-director of Communication Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in 2008 and M.S. degree in 2005 in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to that, he obtained his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2003. His research interests include information theory and coding, distributed computing, and machine learning. Dr. Avestimehr has received a number of awards, including a Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a Young Investigator Program (YIP) award from the U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and several best paper awards. He is currently an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and a General Co-Chair of the 2020 International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT).
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Focus on Russia: Putinism
Tuesday, February 26
4:30pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
What is Vladimir Putin up to? Drawing on his new study, Brian Taylor will argue that we can only understand Putin’s Russia if we understand the set of ideas, emotions, and habits that influence how Team Putin views the world.
Each semester the MIT Security Studies Program, together with the MISTI MIT-Russia Program, and the MIT Center for International Studies, presents a speaker series entitled “Focus on Russia,” which considers a number of current issues in Russian domestic and foreign policies. The public is welcome to attend.
About the Speaker: Brian Taylor is Professor and Chair of Political Science in the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Taylor is the author of three books on Russian politics: The Code of Putinism (Oxford University Press, 2018); State Building in Putin’s Russia: Policing and Coercion after Communism (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Politics and the Russian Army: Civil-Military Relations, 1689-2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2003). He received his B.A. from the University of Iowa, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Copies of Taylor's latest book The Code of Putinism will be available for purchase for purchase at the event.
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Wounded by War: The Story of Kevin Flike
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Taubman Building, 5th Floor, Room 520, Nye ABC, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Kennedy School, Center for Public Leadership
SPEAKER(S) Kevin Flike, U.S. Army Special Forces Engineer, Green Beret 2007-2013
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SVXKLB2
CONTACT INFO Kevin Moloney
617-496-3232
DETAILS The moments of Sept. 25, 2011 will never be forgotten by Kevin Flike and his teammates. This is the day they were ambushed and attacked by the Taliban. After being pinned down for 11 hours, Flike – who had been shot in the stomach – was carried to safety by his teammates. The harrowing and heroic events were captured on film.
"Wounded by War" is a story of resilience and recovery, life-altering medical procedures, and a veteran’s battle with PTSD, addiction, and a will to live.
Join us in watching this incredible story, followed by a Q&A session with Kevin Flike.
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Perspectives from Luminaries—A Panel on Computing and Cognition
Tuesday, February 26
5:00pm to 7:30pm
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Ask a question in advance or upload a photo of yourself with your first computer!
Students who attend and sign in with Engage will be entered to win grants for Microsoft devices and professional development grants. Reception to follow. All are welcome!
Barbara Liskov, Institute Professor at MIT
Pattie Maes, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT
Laura Schulz, Professor of Cognitive Science at MIT
Jaime Teevan, Chief Scientist for Microsoft‘s Experiences and Devices
Jeannette Wing, Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute; Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University
In this panel, we will discuss the challenges and opportunities that the future of computing holds for different disciplines. Our panelists, each distinguished in their field of research, will share their own experiences from working at the edge of invention over the course of their careers. We will also use the opportunity to discuss different career paths in computing and will share resources on campus to create connections between disciplines and with one another as we shape the future.
Everyone is welcome to hear from and engage with these leaders in academia and industry.
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Open Mic Africa @ MIT w/ Jake Bright & Oswald Jumira
Tuesday, February 26
5:30pm to 7:30pm
MIT, Building E52-164, Chang Building, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Open Mic Africa @ MIT is an interactive speaker series featuring leaders from some of Africa's most innovative tech startups.
Jake Bright, Techcrunch contributor, will be on campus to moderate a conversation with Oswald Jumira, Head of Innovation Partnerships at Liquid Telecom.
Internet is the baseline for startup ecosystems and depsite recent gains, Africa remains last in nearly all global metrics for digital connectivity. How does Africa bridge the connectivity gap for its people and its startups?
A networking session will follow the conversation.
Appetizers will be available.
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AI Can't Fix This: MIT, Imperialism, and the Future of AI
Tuesday, February 26
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Come Learn about MIT's role in US imperialism, the dangers of AI, and how to reclaim these technologies for liberatory purposes.
On Feb. 26–28, MIT will celebrate the opening of the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. MIT claims “ethics” are integral to the college’s mission. However, it is difficult to take this claim seriously, given that MIT invited war criminal Henry Kissinger to speak at these celebrations. You can read more about the College here.
A group of students and community members decided this is unacceptable. We decided we will not stand by as this Institute rolls the red carpet for war criminals such as Henry Kissinger. But we also recognize the need to foster serious discussion about and action on the ethical implications of the research that is done at MIT.
As such, on February 26th, we will host a series of short talks followed by a panel discussion, in which we will
1. address the history of U.S. imperialism (especially Kissinger's role) and MIT's complicity in the same, and
2. address the specific dangers of AI, and how we may reclaim these technologies and use them for liberation as opposed to oppression.
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Public Program: Artist Talk by Olafur Eliasson
Tuesday, February 26
6:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Join us for the dedication of Northwest Passage by Olafur Eliasson. This program is in celebration of one of the newest additions to MIT’s Public Art Collection. Olafur Eliasson works through multiple mediums, including sculpture, painting, photography, film, and installation. This piece is a site-specific work for the ceiling of the breezeway of Building 12, MIT.nano.
Please note: this event is SOLD OUT. Additional tickets will be made available 2 weeks before the event. Please stay tuned for more information.
About MIT’s Percent-for-Art Program
The MIT List Visual Arts Center maintains one of the most active Percent-for-Art programs in the country. Over the years MIT’s campus public art collection has continued to grow with new commissions by important and critically acclaimed contemporary artists.
All programs are free and open to the general public.
Please note RSVPs are required. RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sold-out-artist-talk-olafur-eliasson-tickets-53700194728
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Yemen: The Human Cost of War, a conversation with Abby Maxman, CEO & President of Oxfam America
Tuesday, February 26
6:00pm to 7:30pm
Northeastern, Renaissance_Park, 909, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Abby Maxman is the president and CEO Oxfam America, a global non-profit dedicated to ending the injustice of poverty. Abby brings more than twenty five years of experience in international humanitarian relief and development to her role. In this talk, she will discuss her recent trip to Yemen and the ongoing humanitarian crisis there.
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Boston Green Drinks
Tuesday, February 26
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Warehouse Bar & Grille, 40 Broad Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-green-drinks-february-2019-happy-hour-tickets-57136080555
Join the conversation with sustainability professionals and hobbyists. Enjoy a drink and build your connection with our green community! Boston Green Drinks builds a community of sustainably-minded Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging green issues. We support the exchange of ideas and resources about sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
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Cambridge Opposes the Fare Hike
Tuesday, February 26
6-8 PM
Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 459 Broadway, Cambridge
COME SPEAK OUT
OFFICIAL MBTA COMMUNITY MEETING ABOUT THE FARE HIKE
Come speak out against the MBTA's proposed fare hike, the fourth hike since 2012. This will be the *only* opportunity for Cambridge residents to voice their opinion directly to MBTA officials. We need to pack the room!
Cambridge stands united against a fare hike that is projected to decrease ridership by 1.3% systemwide. MBTA needs to find a way to improve service and conditions without putting an undue burden directly on the working and middle class. We should be actively working to *increase* ridership, not decrease it, because Boston has some of the worst rush hour traffic in the entire country and the only way to improve things is to get people out of cars and onto public transit.
More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/248438992727666/
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MIT Water Night
Tuesday, February 26
6:00pm to 9:00pm
MIT, Building 50: Walker Memorial, 50-140, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Come join the MIT Water Club for its annual Water Night, a family-friendly event to celebrate water on the evening of Feburary 26 with research posters, art exhibits, interactive demos, and more. Researchers at MIT, local universities and industries will present their water-related work. In addition to a research showcase, we will feature artistic and experimental displays, as well as company and NGO tables! Open to everybody -- attendance is FREE and food will be provided. Don't miss this amazing opportunity to interact with the local water community!
Call for Presenters: Are you working on a great water-related topic? Do you have an experiment that you'd like to show the world? Do you have cool artistic items - pictures, paintings, displays, etc - related to water? Are you a company or organization working in the water space? Then hesitate no more and come present at the MIT Water Night by filling out the form on ourwebsite! Over $1000 in prizes available to the top presenters.
Volunteering Opportunities are available with the MIT Water Night organizing team. If you are interested in artistic and scientific content development, or gaining experience in PR, fundraising, or event organizing, please send an email to water-night@mit.edu expressing your interests and our team will get in contact with you.
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WHERE DOES THE PATH OF VIRTUE LIE ON ENGINEERING HUMAN GENOMES?: Faculty Lecture with Professor Louis M. Guenin
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Club of Boston, 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Club of Boston
SPEAKER(S) Professor Louis M. Guenin
COST Complimentary with registration
CONTACT INFO To register, contact Matt Hegarty at mghegarty@post.harvard.edu
DETAILS WHERE DOES THE PATH OF VIRTUE LIE ON ENGINEERING HUMAN GENOMES?
Advances in molecular biology have yielded efficient laboratory maneuvers by which to select components of a human genome. Philosopher Louis M. Guenin, Lecturer on Ethics in Science in the Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, who works in moral philosophy, metaphysics, and the philosophy of science, will discuss how fundamental moral reasoning may be brought to bear on whether and how it is virtuous to practice human genetic engineering.
Concerning a related controversial practice, embryonic stem cell research, his book The Morality of Embryo Use (Cambridge University Press), named Outstanding Academic Title for 2009, presents a justification, constructed within an overlapping moral consensus, for the use of donated embryos in service of humanitarian ends. He has served as a consultant to the Department of Health and Human Services on research ethics and as co-chair of the Ethics Committee, International Society for Stem Cell Research. In other writings he has discussed issues in distributive justice, the patentability of human life forms, and the theory of social choice.
On the one hand, genetic engineering poses the prospect of curing and preventing diseases of known genetic origin. On the other hand, such interventions pose the risk of errors. We shall hear how these prospects, joined with concerns of propriety even if risk can be minimized, pose a challenging question for collective resolution.
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Rouse Visiting Artist Lecture: David Hartt, “Urban Futures of the Recent Past”
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Conferences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) David Hartt
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
DETAILS This talk borrows the sub-title from Reyner Banham’s seminal book Megastructure, published in 1976. As a reference, Banham’s text critiques the failure of translating the energy and optimism of 60’s era civic projects into lasting institutions; thus creating fertile conditions for the seeds of our own post-ideological crisis to germinate in the capitalist restructuration of the mid 70’s. Hartt will focus on the relationship between the speculative and documentary aspects of his practice and, in particular, works that continue this narrative forward into our own age of fiction.
David Hartt (b. 1967, Montréal) lives and works in Philadelphia where he is an Assistant Professor, in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. His work explores how historic ideas and ideals persist or transform over time.
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An Introduction to Conscious Language
Tuesday, February 26
6:30 pm
Impact Hub Boston, Edison Room, 15th floor, 50 Milk Street, Boston
This February, EFA Boston will be having Jill Campbell come talk about conscious language.
Often without our realizing it, our word choices can make the difference between presenting a biased, potentially stigmatizing message and a respectful, inclusive one. This talk will cover some language categories in which unconscious bias is common and suggest alternatives to problematic terms so that we can all ensure we are being mindful of a variety of readers’ perspectives.
Jill Campbell is the senior copy editor at America's Test Kitchen, where she has edited the nationally distributed magazines Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country as well as the recent New York Times best seller The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs. She has earned editing certificates from the University of Chicago and Emerson College and has been a member of ACES: The Society for Editing since 2014. She tweets about editing, mental health, and the frustrations of the MBTA @jillysull and Instagrams too many cat photos @jillybeansoup (just kidding—there's no such thing as too many cat photos).
The entrance to the building is on Devonshire Street. Please check in at the desk with a photo ID.
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The Shape of a Life: One Mathematician's Search for the Universe's Hidden Geometry
Tuesday, February 26
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes renowned mathematician and Harvard professor SHING-TUNG YAU and science writer STEVE NADIS—contributing editor to Astronomy and Discover magazines—for a discussion of their new book, The Shape of a Life: One Mathematician's Search for the Universe's Hidden Geometry.
About The Shape of a Life
Harvard geometer and Fields medalist Shing-Tung Yau has provided a mathematical foundation for string theory, offered new insights into black holes, and mathematically demonstrated the stability of our universe. In this autobiography, Yau reflects on his improbable journey to becoming one of the world’s most distinguished mathematicians. Beginning with an impoverished childhood in China and Hong Kong, Yau takes readers through his doctoral studies at Berkeley during the height of the Vietnam War protests, his Fields Medal–winning proof of the Calabi conjecture, his return to China, and his pioneering work in geometric analysis. This new branch of geometry, which Yau built up with his friends and colleagues, has paved the way for solutions to several important and previously intransigent problems. With complicated ideas explained for a broad audience, this book offers readers not only insights into the life of an eminent mathematician, but also an accessible way to understand advanced and highly abstract concepts in mathematics and theoretical physics.
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Feminism’s Forgotten Fight The Unfinished Struggle for Work and Family
Tuesday, February 26
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
A spirited defense of feminism, arguing that the lack of support for working mothers is less a failure of second-wave feminism than a rejection by reactionaries of the sweeping changes they campaigned for. When people discuss feminism, they often lament its failure to deliver on the promise that women can “have it all.” But as Kirsten Swinth argues in this provocative book, it is not feminism that has betrayed women, but a society that balked at making the far-reaching changes for which activists fought. Feminism’s Forgotten Fight resurrects the comprehensive vision of feminism’s second wave at a time when its principles are under renewed attack
About the Author:
Kirsten Swinth is Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Fordham University and the author of Painting Professionals: Women Artists and the Development of Modern American Art, 1870–1930
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Wednesday, February 27
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Spies and Lies: Covert Action in World Politics
Wednesday, February 27
all day
BU, 121 Bay State Road, Boston
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Affect & Decision-Making in Health and Disease
Wednesday, February 27
10:00am to 11:15am
MIT, Building 46-3002, McGovern Institute, Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Tali Sharot, PhD; University College London
Abstract: The ability to use information to adaptively guide behavior is central to intelligence. My work describes the role of affect in this process. In this talk I will present our recent research characterizing the influence of affect on how humans gather, and use, information to make predictions. First, I will present a framework for understanding how people decide whether to seek information. One key component is whether the information is likely to produce a positive or negative affective response. This influence of valence on information-seeking is captured by brain regions along the dopamine reward pathway. The findings yield predictions about information-seeking behavior in disorders in which the dopamine system malfunctions. We have begun to test these predictions, aiming to use measures of information-seeking to facilitate early detection, monitoring and treatment selection for psychopathology. Second, I will show that learning in response to positive and negative information involves distinct mechanisms. This segregation of function allows for flexibility in how positive and negative information influence beliefs and actions in different environments, for instance as a function of the level of threat. Finally, I will describe how these processes are altered across the life-span and in clinical depression.
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Gardening Workshop
Wednesday, February 27
10am-1pm
MIT, Wiesner Gallery (W20-209), 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Laura Knott
It may seem that gardeners are growing tomatoes, or zucchini, or pumpkins, corn and beans. But the best gardeners are growing soil. And, in the meantime, they’re growing communities of bacteria and fungi and, sometimes, of neighbors and friends. This workshop brings together textual references and a little dirt, to think together about food, seeds, and gardening as a generative and regenerative action.
Laura Knott is an artist, curator, editor and author, specializing in work at the intersection of art and technology. She is also an alumna of the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.
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Telemedicine: Promise vs. Reality
WHEN Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, 12 – 12:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School Webinar
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Medical School Executive Education
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy and Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Hospitalist, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
TICKET WEB LINK https://executiveeducation.hms.harvard.edu/webinar-series/telemedicine-promise-vs-reality
DETAILS There’s a widespread interest in telemedicine, which has the potential to transform health care by facilitating an effective long-distance encounter between a physician and a patient using technology. Despite much excitement about telemedicine’s potential, payers and providers are struggling to identify the best ways to implement it: How and where should this approach be applied to maximize quality, health outcomes, and access to care while controlling spending? People often think those who will benefit most from telemedicine are those in rural and underserved communities, but is this assumption correct?
This webinar will focus on both the potential of telemedicine and the pitfalls. How can quality of care be achieved, where and how telemedicine could be problematic and what this all means for health care costs and telemedicine’s real-world applicability.
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Simulating midlatitude circulation changes: what might we gain from high resolution modelling of air-sea interactions?
Wednesday, February 27
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS) Series: Arnaud Czaja (Imperial College London)
An important strategic question for climate modelling centres worldwide is to decide whether or not to invest in costly high resolution coupled (ocean+atmosphere) modelling. It is indeed not clear at present that this would systematically improve the representation of climate phenomena (see for example the persistent issues with blocking over Northern Europe) and it is also in conflict with the need to increase statistical confidence via an increase in the size of the ensemble used for predictions. Nevertheless, missing physics owing to poor resolution of air-sea interactions over the midlatitude oceans is emerging as a possible candidate to explain recent exciting discoveries: that variations in the Jet Stream path are more predictable in nature than in models (Dunstone et. al., 2016); and that models systematically underestimate the multi-decadal variability of weather patterns in the Atlantic sector (Simpson et al., 2018). In this talk I will critically review the progresses made on the impact of midlatitude SST anomalies on the Jet Stream – storm track system since the review published in 2002 by Kushnir et al., with an emphasis on the North Atlantic sector. I will highlight the development of parameterizations of midlatitudes air-sea interactions on scales of ~10km as a most needed and exciting new area of research for climate modelling.
About this Series
The Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series is an informal seminar series within PAOC that focuses on more specialized topics than the PAOC Colloquium. Seminar topics include all research concerning the science of atmosphere, ocean and climate. The seminars usually take place on Wednesdays from 12-1pm in 54-915. The presentations are either given by an invited speaker or by a member of PAOC and can focus on new research or discussion of a paper of particular interest.
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Some Welfare Economics of the Termination Problem in Climate Engineering
Wednesday, February 27
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room 429, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Timo Goeschl, Heidelberg University
Lunch provided
Solar Geoengineering Research Seminar
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Simulating midlatitude circulation changes: what might we gain from high resolution modelling of air-sea interactions?
Wednesday, February 27
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS) Series: Arnaud Czaja (Imperial College London)
An important strategic question for climate modelling centres worldwide is to decide whether or not to invest in costly high resolution coupled (ocean+atmosphere) modelling. It is indeed not clear at present that this would systematically improve the representation of climate phenomena (see for example the persistent issues with blocking over Northern Europe) and it is also in conflict with the need to increase statistical confidence via an increase in the size of the ensemble used for predictions. Nevertheless, missing physics owing to poor resolution of air-sea interactions over the midlatitude oceans is emerging as a possible candidate to explain recent exciting discoveries: that variations in the Jet Stream path are more predictable in nature than in models (Dunstone et. al., 2016); and that models systematically underestimate the multi-decadal variability of weather patterns in the Atlantic sector (Simpson et al., 2018). In this talk I will critically review the progresses made on the impact of midlatitude SST anomalies on the Jet Stream – storm track system since the review published in 2002 by Kushnir et al., with an emphasis on the North Atlantic sector. I will highlight the development of parameterizations of midlatitudes air-sea interactions on scales of ~10km as a most needed and exciting new area of research for climate modelling.
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Triadic Coercion: Israel's Targeting of States that Host Nonstate Actors
Wednesday, February 27
12:00pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496 (Pye Room), 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Boaz Atzili (American University)
SUMMARY
"Triadic coercion," is a situation in which one state targets another state for allowing or assisting violent nonstate actors operating from its territory. The talk will explore both the conditions under which such triadic coercion might be successful, and the reason why some states, and Israel in particular, adopt a triadic coercion strategy even when it is unlikely to succeed. This talk is based on a recently published book co-authored with Wendy Pearlman.
BIO
Dr. Boaz Aztili is an Associate Professor and the Director of Doctoral Studies at the School of International Service of American University in Washington DC. He holds a PhD in Political Science from MIT and a BA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His research focuses on territorial conflicts and peace, the politics of borders, and deterrence and coercion, with a Middle East focus. He has published three books, Good Fences, Bad Neighbors: Border Fixity and International Conflict (University of Chicago Press, 2012), Territorial Designs and World Politics: Inside-out and Outside-in (Routledge, 2017, edited with Burak Kadercan), and Triadic Coercion: Israel's Targeting of States that Host Non-State Actors (Columbia University Press, 2018, with Wendy Pearlman). Dr. Atzili has published articles in journals such as International Security, Security Studies, International Studies Review, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Territories, Politics, Governance. His work has won the American Political Science Association's Kenneth N. Waltz prize for the best 2006 dissertation in the area of security studies, the Edgar S. Furniss 2014 Award for the best first book in international security, and the A. Leroy Bennett Award for the best paper presented at IS Northeast, 2015.
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A Safe Way to School? Black Caribbean Youth Negotiating Police Surveillance in London and New York City
WHEN Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Barker Center, Thompson Room, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Derron Wallace, Assistant Professor, Education and Sociology, Brandeis University
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS A Q&A will follow the colloquium
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RPP Special Event: The Role of Reconciliation, Memory, and Theology in Shaping the Public Stage
WHEN Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard,, Braun Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Religions and the Practice of Peace (RPP) and Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
CONTACT RPP
DETAILS Space is limited. RSVP is required at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9HbQfSQ1YWspBsN
Much has been written about the Northern Ireland peace process, particularly on securing the peace. However, as Senator George Mitchell commented in relation to the Good Friday agreement, “If you think getting this agreement was difficult, implementing it will be even more difficult.” Twenty-one years after the signing of the Good Friday agreement, those have proven to be prophetic words. Dr. Mason will explore what reconciliation looks like in a contested space, the power of memory and story in keeping the pain of the past alive, and how theology can move into that contested narrative in a way that brings about dialogue, honesty, and healing. He will also address the current Brexit situation, exploring how Brexit has been a very difficult experience for these two islands.
Speaker
Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, director of Rethinking Conflict; senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University in Ireland; Adjunct Professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University; faculty advisor and partner to the Negotiation Strategies Institute, a Harvard University program on negotiation
Moderator and Discussant
David N. Hempton, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies, John Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School
Rev. Dr. Gary Mason is a Methodist minister and directs a conflict transformation organisation based in Belfast called "Rethinking Conflict." Prior to this he spent 27 years as a Methodist clergy person in parish ministry in Belfast and has played an integral role in the Northern Irish peace process. He played a key role in establishing the Skainos project which is a world class urban centre developed in a post conflict society as a model of coexistence and shared space; it is acknowledged as the largest faith-based redevelopment project in Western Europe. Mason is a close advisor to Protestant ex-combatants on the civilianisation efforts of paramilitaries. He was instrumental in facilitating negotiations with paramilitaries and government officials, and in 2007 his contribution was formally recognised by the Queen. In 2009, Mason’s church was the stage from which Loyalist paramilitaries announced their weapons decommissioning. Mason has lectured in political and academic forums throughout Europe, South Africa, the Middle East and the USA on lessons from the Irish peace process. He has been interviewed on CNN, BBC, ITV and various radio programs. He holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Ulster, completed his theological studies at Queens University, and a Bachelor’s in business studies from the University of Ulster. Gary also holds an honorary doctorate from Florida Southern College for his role in peace building in Ireland.
Gary is a senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University in Ireland. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta lecturing on reconciliation, peace building, the history of the Northern Ireland conflict, racism, sectarianism and conflict transformation. Gary is a faculty advisor and partner to the Negotiation Strategies Institute, a Harvard University program on negotiation.
Recommended Readings
Brewer, John D., Gareth I. Higgins, and Francis Teeney. Religion, Civil Society, and Peace in Northern Ireland. Oxford University Press, 2014.
English, Richard. Does Terrorism Work? A History. Oxford University Press, 2016.
McKittrick, David, and David McVea. Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict. Viking, 2012.
Moloney, Ed. Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland. PublicAffairs, 2010.
Rowan, Brian. Unfinished Peace: Thoughts on Northern Ireland’s Unanswered Past. Colourpoint, 2016.
Further Readings
Barlow, Kari C. “We must disagree well.” The Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church, 2018. https://www.flumc.org/newsdetail/we-must-disagree-well-11441761.
Belfast: Faith in the City. Veritas Books, 2001.
Berti, Bernadetta, Ariel Heifetz Knobel, and Gary Mason. “The Role of Intra-Group Consensus-Building in Disarming Militant Groups in Northern Ireland.” Journal of Mediation & Applied Conflict Analysis, 2 (1). pp. 232-241, 2015. https://www.mediate.com//articles/intragroupconsensusireland.cfm.
Bourke, Richard. Peace in Ireland: The War of Ideas. Random House UK, 2003.
Brewer, John D., David Mitchell, and Gerard Leavey. Ex-Combatants, Religion, and Peace in Northern Ireland: The Role of Religion in Transitional Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Elliott, Marianne. When God Took Sides: Religion and Identity in Irish History. Oxford University Press, 2009.
English, Richard. Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. Oxford University Press, 2004.
“Faith & Society: Lessons from Northern Ireland.” Audio blog post. Three Wise Guys. 2017. http://twgradio.com/podcast/s10e17-dr-mason-n-ireland-42517/.
Henderson, Michael. Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate. Kumarian Press, 2002.
Hoge, Warren. “In Northern Ireland and Beyond, Peace Takes Time: Q&A with Gary Mason.” International Peace Institute, 2015. https://theglobalobservatory.org/2015/04/northern-ireland-peace-process-belfast/.
Jones, L Gregory. Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis. Eerdmans, 1995.
Lederach, John Paul. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Leichty, Joseph and Cecelia Clegg. Moving Beyond Sectarianism: Religion, Conflict, and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Columbia Press, 2001.
Marshall, Ellen Ott. Conflict Transformation and Religion: Essays on Faith, Power, and Relationship. Palgrave Macmillian, 2016.
Martin, Ralph P. Reconciliation. Wipf and Stock, 1997.
Powell, Jonathan. Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland. Vintage Books USA, 2009.
Rieff, David. In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies. Yale University Press, 2017.
Taylor, Peter. Brits: The War Against the IRA. Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, 2002.
Taylor, Peter. Loyalists. Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, 1999.
Taylor, Peter. Provos: The IRA & Sinn Fein. Bloomsbury UK, 1998.
With generous support from the Rev. Karen Vickers Budney, MDiv ’91, and Mr. Albert J. Budney, Jr., MBA ’74, as well as the Once Here Foundation.
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Cultures of Science Seminar: “Earthrise: Nature vs. Planet in the Nineteenth Century”
Wednesday, February 27
2:00PM TO 4:00PM
BU, Room 200, College of Arts and Sciences Building, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Boston University hosts Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life (Chicago, 2017) and Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America (Chicago 2009). She is the 2019 Silas Peirce Lecturer at Boston University and will lead this seminar on the rise of nineteenth-century earth sciences and the changing concepts of nature.
We will read Alexander von Humboldt’s chapter “Concerning the Steppes and Deserts” from his Views of Nature; the essay is 13 pages long and the notes 73 pages, so feel free to dip into the notes (more like nested essays) as you wish. We will also read a recent essay by Laura Walls et al, “Introduction: Reclaiming Consilience” from their edition of Humboldt’s Views of Nature.
Contact Name: Adriana Craciun
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State House Forum on Stimulating Transformative Investment in Gateway Cities
Wednesday, February 27
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM EST
Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, Room 428, Boston
Please join MassINC, the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, and LOCUS for a State House forum on stimulating transformative investment in Gateway Cities with the state’s Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) and new federal Opportunity Zone Funds.
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The Built Environment: State Presence at Border Crossings in the Modern World
Wednesday, February 27
4:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Lecture by Beth A. Simmons RI '19
Beth Simmons is working on a project that attempts to document and explain the paradox of hardening international borders between states in an era of globalization. She uses satellite imagery to document evidence of state presence at international border crossings and the location in time and space of border walls and fences round the world. Her goal is to write a book probing the politics, economics, and social anxieties behind international border “thickening.”
Free and open to the public.
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Does Solving Energy Poverty Help Solve Poverty? Perspectives from Kenya and Ghana
Wednesday, February 27
4:00 – 5:30 pm
Tufts, Cabot 702, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
Reception to follow
Catherine Wolfram is the Cora Jane Flood Professor of Business Administration at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. She is also Faculty Director of the Energy Institute at Haas and of The E2e Project, a research organization focused on energy efficiency. She is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an affiliated faculty member in the Agriculture and Resource Economics department and the Energy and Resources Group at Berkeley.
Wolfram has published extensively on the economics of energy markets. She has studied the electricity industry around the world and has analyzed the effects of environmental regulation, including climate change mitigation policies, on the energy sector. She is currently implementing several randomized controlled trials to evaluate energy programs in the U.S., Kenya and India.
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The American City: Promoting Inclusion or Sowing Division?
Wednesday, February 27
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
BU, Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Hosted by Graham Wilson, Professor, Political Science, and Director, Initiative on Cities; and Katharine Lusk, Executive Director, Initiative on Cities.U.S. cities are places of tremendous diversity that can provide paths to prosperity, promote inclusion and improve well-being. Yet cities must also confront a countervailing narrative as they continue to struggle with discrimination, segregation, addiction and violence. The American City brings together scholars from across Boston University devoted to the study of urban populations, policies and leadership. They will share their latest comparative research on the benefits and consequences of housing, health, public safety, education and inclusion policies and priorities.
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Lift US UP, Don’t Push Us Out! Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement
Wednesday, February 27
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST
UMass Boston, Campus Center, 2nd Floor, Alumni Lounge, Morrissey Boulevard, Boston
Join us to celebrate and discuss the new publication, Lift US UP, Don’t Push Us Out! Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement from Professor Mark Warren.
Hear youth organizers, teacher activists, and scholars lift up their stories and victories in the fight for educational justice and discuss future directions for building intersectional social justice movements.
Panelists:
Carlos Rojas, Organizer and Special Projects Consultant, Youth on Board
Denyse Wornum, Organizer, Youth on Board
Roberta Udoh, Boston Public School Teacher
Patricia Krueger-Henney, Assistant Professor of Urban Education, Leadership and Policy Studies, College of Education and Human Development, University of Massachusetts Boston
Kandice Sumner, PhD, College of Education and Human Development, University of Massachusetts Boston
Light refreshments will be served and books will be on sale.
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Decompositions and Policy Consequences of an Extraordinary Decline in Air Pollution from Electricity Generation
Wednesday, February 27
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Stephen Holland, University of North Carolina; Erin Mansur, Dartmouth College; Nicholas Muller, Carnegie Mellon University; and Andrew Yates, University of North Carolina
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Contact Name: Casey Billings
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Math, Money, and Making a Difference Part 1: Mathematics
Wednesday, February 27
4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
MIT, Wong Auditorium (E51), 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Moderated by: Tomasz Mrowka, SB ’83, Singer Professor of Mathematics, MIT
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ACTUALITY AND REALITY IN THE AR/VR WORLD: Perspective from a Zen Buddhist Priest
Wednesday, February 27
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Rev. Takafumi Zenryu Kawakami travels the world giving talks about the zen & mindfulness, and how these practices can help improve our everyday lives. His discussions shine light on the opportunity to diffuse modern day chaos while improving creativity - which can in turn leave us more satisfied in our work. During this talk, Rev. Kawakami will specifically highlight the difference between the actuality and reality as well as the importance of the practice of self-cultivation.
Rev. Takafumi Zenryu Kawakami is the Vice Abbot/ International Affairs Coordinator and Deputy Head Priest at Shunkoin Temple in Kyoto, Japan. He will lead us in a thoughtful discussion and practice of mindfulness
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What Should Cities Do?
Wednesday, February 27
5:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Avoiding the impacts from global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the 2018 IPCC special report, would require shifts on a global scale similar to the industrial and societal changes the United States experienced as it entered the second World War. With sea-level rise, global health, and vulnerable ecosystems at risk - what are we doing now to change our trajectory?
‘What Should Cities Do?’ organized by DUSP Climate and featuring Noelle Selin (MIT STS and EAPS), Kerry Emanuel (MIT EAPS), and Dan Kammen (Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley) is the first in a series of events exploring possible changes that could enhance climate education, advocacy, and action.
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NEU For the Common Good Forum
Wednesday, February 27
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Northeastern Crossing, 1175 Tremont Street, Boston
A forum for Northeastern University's faculty, staff, students, and neighbors organizing for a common good.
About this EventThis forum is intended to bring Northeastern University's faculty, staff, students and neighbors who are interested in working together to make Northeastern University a more socially responsible institution to the greater community.
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Climate Resilience Zoning Task Force
Wednesday, February 27
5:30 pm
Citywide Senior Center Ballroom, 806 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
For more information, see the task force webpage at https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/detail.aspx?path=%2Fsitecore%2Fcontent%2Fhome%2FCDD%2FProjects%2FZoning%2Fclimateresiliencezoning
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Askwith Forums – Still Separate and Unequal: Reducing Poverty, Inequality, and Racial Injustice in the U.S.
WHEN Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HGSE
SPEAKER(S) Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, and Member of the Faculty, HGSE
Paul Reville, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration and Founding Director of the Education Redesign Lab, HGSE; former Secretary of Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
William E. Spriggs, Professor of Economics, Howard University; Chief Economist to the AFL-CIO
Moderator: E.J. Dionne, W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institute; syndicated columnist, The Washington Post; University Professor, Georgetown University
Remarks by: Alan Curtis, President and CEO, The Eisenhower Foundation
Bridget Terry Long, Dean and Saris Professor of Economics, HGSE
PLEASE NOTE: Regrettably, Linda Darling-Hammond is unable to participate in this panel.
COST This event is free and open to the public. First come, first seated.
CONTACT INFO askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders — known as the Kerner Commission — issued a report with a stark warning: The United States was becoming two societies, one white, one black, separate and unequal. Critics observed that the nation was already separate and unequal. The Commission called for sweeping investments in jobs, education, and housing to reduce poverty, inequality, and racial injustice.
Fifty years later, a new report from the Eisenhower Foundation finds that things aren’t much better — and in some cases, things have gotten worse. Schools are more segregated, income and wealth inequality has dramatically increased, opportunity gaps remain, and poverty and incarceration rates are unacceptably high. Society is more unequal.
Yet one thing has changed: we know what works — and what doesn’t. The question is, do we have the will to use that knowledge? Can we build the will to take what works and bring it to scale? Can we create the multiracial, multi-class economic justice coalition that Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were advocating when they were assassinated in 1968?
In this essential Askwith Forum, an all-star panel of scholars, educators, media experts, and practitioners will explore the Eisenhower Foundation’s newly released update, Healing Our Divided Society. Panelists will discuss the economic investments, the education policy changes, the electoral and criminal justice reforms, and other commitments we need to significantly reduce poverty and racial injustice in order to fulfill the promise of equality in the United States.
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Faith and Faustian Bargains: Compromise, Complicity, and Courage in Leadership
WHEN Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions, Department of African and African American Studies, Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School
CONTACT CSWR, 617.495.4476
DETAILS The Annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice
Race and religion are among the best predictors of how Americans choose a president. Race and religion are also bases for political compromises that call into question our moral credibility on issues ranging from voting rights to police brutality. How do we demonstrate courage when we decline or choose to compromise?
Cornell William Brooks is Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also Director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School’s Center for Public Leadership, and a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School. Brooks is the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights attorney, and an ordained minister.
Todne Thomas is a socio-cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of African American Religions at Harvard Divinity School. Her current research examines the familial and spiritual experiences of black evangelicals and the neoliberal displacement of black sacred space.
This event will be livestreamed and can be viewed at https://hds.harvard.edu/news/live-stream at 5:30pm EST on Wednesday, February 27th.
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Energy Storage: New Business Models Fuel Rapid Growth
February 27
5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
MIT Weisner Building, Bartos Theater 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/energy-storage-new-business-models-fuel-rapid-growth/
Cost: $10 Members; $10 Livestream Members; $30 Non-Members: $30 Livestream Non-Members; $10 Students; $10 Livestream Students; $5 Student Members; $5 Livestream Student Members
This event will be live streamed - select the live stream ticket option @ checkout if you would like to watch the event online.
If you registered for the live stream, you'll be emailed a link & password between 5:30PM & 6:00PM on the day of the event
There’s Room for Start-ups
Energy storage has always been a part of the power system, but mainly at the edges - think uninterruptible power system storage, flywheels, ice-based storage, and pumped hydro. Research and development efforts spawned many new ideas, but markets were not ready for widespread adoption of the technology. Now, energy storage is poised to become a central piece of a rapidly growing clean power system, helping to displace fossil fuel generation, reduce emissions and provide power during outages caused by frequent weather events.
According to Wood Mackenzie Power and Renewables, the US energy storage market will be a $4.5 billion market in 2023. Behind-the-meter energy storage will account for more than half of the annual market in dollar terms by 2021. Growth has been largely driven by storage initiatives and demonstration projects in state policy, rate-setting and incentives. Changes in federal rules for energy storage markets requiring equal treatment of energy storage with other power sources are likely to drive even more adoption. Given this impressive growth, there will be tremendous opportunities for start-ups, especially in the commercial, industrial and residential markets.
The price of energy storage technology is still relatively high and there are barriers to entry. Players in this market need to be creative in developing viable business models to attract investment and achieve success. Join us to explore what startups need to know to participate:
What government incentives and policies (local, state, federal) are in place to encourage greater adoption of energy storage in the commercial, industrial and residential markets?
What storage technologies and services produce revenue streams now? What markets will become valuable in the next five years?
How have investors and utilities influenced the development of new business models for both established companies and startups? Which of these models are most likely to be successful?
Moderator
Peter Kelly-Detwiler, Principal, Northbridge Energy Partners
Panelists
Dan Berwick, General Manager, Energy Storage, Borrego Solar
Alicia Barton, CEO and President, NYSERDA
Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO, Energy Storage Association
Charlotte Ancel, Director, Strategic Development, Eversource
Agenda
5:30 PM to 6:00 PM - Registration and networking
6:00 PM to 7:00 PM - Panel discussion
7:00 PM to 7:30 PM - Audience Q&A
7:30 PM to 8:30 PM - Networking @ Mead Hall on second level
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Robotland: The Future of Labor Policy and Work in an AI World
WHEN Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Jason Furman, Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Mary L. Gray, Microsoft Research; School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering Faculty, Indiana University; Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Fellow, Harvard University
Moderator: David Eaves, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office 617-495-1380
DETAILS Join the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics in a conversation about the future of labor policy in an increasingly AI-driven world.
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Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past
Wednesday, February 27
6:00 PM
Harvard Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard University Division of Science, Cabot Science Library, and Harvard Book Store welcome eminent geneticist DAVID REICH—Harvard Medical School professor and one of the world’s leading pioneers in analyzing ancient human DNA—for a discussion of his latest book, Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past.
About Who We Are and How We Got Here
Geneticists like David Reich have made astounding advances in the field of genomics, which is proving to be as important as archeology, linguistics, and written records as a means to understand our ancestry.
In Who We Are and How We Got Here, Reich allows readers to discover how the human genome provides not only all the information a human embryo needs to develop but also the hidden story of our species. Reich delves into how the genomic revolution is transforming our understanding of modern humans and how DNA studies reveal deep inequalities among different populations, between the sexes, and among individuals. Provocatively, Reich’s book suggests that there might very well be biological differences among human populations but that these differences are unlikely to conform to common stereotypes.
Drawing upon revolutionary findings and unparalleled scientific studies, Who We Are and How We Got Here is a captivating glimpse into humankind—where we came from and what that says about our lives today.
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Silas Peirce Lecture: Henry David Thoreau’s Legacy of Resistance and Hope
Wednesday, February 27
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
BU, Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Laura Dassow Walls, English, University of Notre Dame
More information at http://bostonu.imodules.com/s/1759/2-bu/2col.aspx?sid=1759&gid=2&pgid=6330&cid=11675&ecid=11675&crid=0&calpgid=1050&calcid=2086
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Documentary Night at Harvard Business School - "Bending the Arc"
Wednesday, February 27
6:00-7:30 pm Film clips, panel discussion and audience Q&A 7:30 pm Reception
Harvard, Klarman Hall, Allston
Please join us for the winter installment of Harvard Business School’s Documentary Night, featuring scenes from Bending the Arc, the story of Partners In Health, Dr. Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl and their fight for global health equality. A panel of the film's protagonists will discuss the film and their experiences finding novel ways to address global public health challenges with co-moderators Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School, and Michelle A. Williams, Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
This event is free and open to the Harvard community. Partners and friends of Harvard are welcome. Registration required.
Free event parking is available next door to Klarman Hall in the Soldiers Field Park Garage, Kresge Way, Allston, MA 02163
Panelists: Dr. Paul Farmer, a noted physician and anthropologist, chief strategist and co-founder of Partners In Health, Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Ophelia Dahl, advocate for the health and rights of poor people for nearly 30 years. In 1983, she volunteered at the small Eye Care Haiti clinic in Haiti’s impoverished Central Plateau. There she met Paul Farmer, and they have been working ever since to deliver high-quality health care to the destitute sick.
About Bending The Arc: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. They bent it faster. In 1983, three young people barely out of their teens began a public health revolution by treating patients who had been abandoned by the health establishment. The community health model they developed to treat diseases like tuberculosis & HIV/AIDS has saved millions of lives in the developing world. Their fight for universal health equity became a global battle in the highest halls of power for the right to health for all.
Reaching far beyond the issue of health care, Bending the Arc shows how moral imagination, strategy, and sheer will together can change the trajectory of the world, bending the arc of the moral universe closer to justice. Bending The Arc was screened at Sundance Film Festival, Miami International Film Festival, and the San Francisco Film Festival. It earned the "Best Documentary Feature Film" award at the Greenwich International Film Festival in 2017.
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Great Decisions 2019 starts with "Cyber Conflict & Geopolitics”
Wednesday, February 27
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
led by former General Counsel of U.S. Homeland Security Gus Coldebella!
Cyber conflict is a new and continually developing threat, which can include foreign interference in elections, industrial sabotage and attacks on infrastructure. Russia has been accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential elections in the United States and China is highly committed to using cyberspace as a tool of national policy. Dealing with cyber conflict will require new ways of looking at 21st century warfare. Is the United States prepared to respond to such threats?
Gus Coldebella is the Chief Legal Officer at Circle, a global crypto finance company, where he is responsible for all legal, compliance, regulatory, and government affairs. Coldebella’s work in crypto finance and regulation complements his experience in homeland and cyber security. From 2005 to 2009, he was the Deputy General Counsel, then the acting General Counsel, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, focusing on all major security issues confronting the nation. As the department’s top lawyer, he helped lead implementation of President Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, designed to shore up the government’s civilian networks from attack and to promote information sharing between the public and private sector.
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Whose University Is It?
Wednesday, February 27
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Lecture Hall, Cambridge
Universities are rolling out the red carpet for war criminals like Mohammad bin Salman and taking money from profit-hungry corporations - all behind closed doors and without any say from students, faculty, staff, and local communities.
Please join us in this effort to imagine a university that’s for the people - not for corporations, foreign governments, or the military. We'll hear from a variety of speakers, including:
Shireen Al-Adeimi (Assistant Professor at Michigan State University & Harvard graduate)
Quinton Zondervan (Cambridge City Councilmember)
Sally Haslanger (MIT Professor of Philosophy)
And many others, including students, faculty, and activists from BU, Harvard, Mass Peace Action, MIT, and Tufts.
After a series of short presentations, we'll host a town hall-style session where everyone is invited to share their thoughts. Afterwards, pizza will be served and there will be time for informal discussion.
What else can I do?
Help us publicize the event by retweeting and sharing these flyers with your friends and colleagues: bit.ly/whoseuniversity-promo
Join our mailing list: bit.ly/whoseuniversity-mailinglist
Explore our reading list and add your contributions: bit.ly/whoseuniversity-readinglist
Visit our website for more information: https://whoseuniversityisit.github.io/
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Join Us for the Next I-90 Public Meeting
Wednesday, February 27
6:00pm
Fiorentino Community Center, 123 Antwerp Street, Brighton
Join the conversation about MassDOT's next public meeting regarding the I-90 Allston Interchange Multimodal Project.
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The Making of a Community Garden Film
Wednesday, February 27
6:30-8:30PM
More Than Words Bookstore, 242 East Berkeley Street, Boston
Cost: $12 - $20
Meet the gardeners and filmmaker who are working together on a documentary about Boston’s community gardens. Filmmaker Mark Gardner will show clips from the work in progress, and a few of the film's stars will share their stories and answer your questions. You can help us make the movie by dreaming up a title and maybe even recording your own community garden story! Enjoy locally sourced appetizers, beer, and wine. Advance ticket purchase is recommended. Tickets include food and one drink, and all proceeds support Trustees Boston Community Gardens. Food, drinks and mingling start at 6pm; the program begins at 6:30.
We're pleased to partner with More Than Words Warehouse Bookstore in the South End for this event. More Than Words is a job training and youth development program that empowers nearly 350 youth each year to take charge of their lives by taking charge of their $4M bookselling business.
The bookstore, which doubles as a beautiful event space, will be open until 8pm so come early if you'd like to browse! Donations of books, CDs, DVDs, and video games are most welcome (please no encyclopedias, VHS tapes, audio cassettes, or magazines/periodicals). The bookstore is a brick building next to the Troy residential complex, accessible by the Silver, Red, and Orange lines as well as other MBTA buses.
Contact
617.542.7696 x2115
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Thursday, February 28
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Fix My Road: What can YOU do (with your smartphone) to make OUR Infrastructure Great Again while addressing Climate Change?
Thursday, February 28
11:00am
Webinar
In this webinar, we propose a new, crowdsourced way to assess the state of infrastructure. Using acceleration data from a smartphone mounted inside of a vehicle, we have developed a method to assess road roughness properties. Together with speed and GPS data, this technique permits continuous access to road roughness (such as IRI) and vehicle properties and can, in turn, monitor the aging of both infrastructure and vehicle.
In other words, we utilize smartphones to offer “a heart-monitoring device” for roads and vehicles and hence to pavement distress and deterioration mechanisms. If crowdsourced, this technology can replace expensive roughness measurements by providing a strong statistical basis for reliable road condition assessment. It can also be used to map the aggregated excess fuel consumption, associated environmental footprint, and health impact due to these road conditions. This is critical for a fiscally responsible, socially equitable and climate change conscious asset management framework for our 21st-century road infrastructure—be this at a city, state or federal scale.
This webinar will be presented by Dr. Franz-Josef Ulm, MIT Professor, and Faculty Director of the Concrete Sustainability Hub and was developed in collaboration with Jacob Roxon (MIT & Carbin); Shahd Nara (Harvard & Carbin); Meshkat Botshekan (UMass Dartmouth); Erfan Asaadi (UMass Dartmouth); Arghavan Louhghalam (UMass Dartmouth); and Mazdak Tootkaboni (UMass Dartmouth).
The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) webinar series offers information of general interest to members of the building, paving, and construction communities, as well as to educators, students, journalists, and law and policy-makers interested in the environmental and economic impacts of decision-making concerning infrastructure. Videos of past webinars are archived to the CSHub YouTube Channel.
Webinars are free and open to the public. Presentations are geared toward a lay audience.
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Climate change and development: An analysis of global adaptation finance
Thursday, February 28
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford
Laura Kuhl, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the International Affairs Program, Northeastern University
Through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and reaffirmed in the Paris Agreement, the world has committed to supporting developing countries in meeting their urgent adaptation priorities. Climate change presents a risk to development progress, and many of the advances in the past decade could be stalled or even reversed unless urgent action is taken to adapt. Global adaptation funding, however, is quite limited, and significant debates exist on appropriate criteria for funding. Approaches to adaptation can range from those that address specific climate impacts to those that address broader drivers of vulnerability. This talk looks at the funding criteria of global adaptation funds and the implications for the relationship between adaptation and development.
Dr. Laura Kuhl is assistant professor in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the International Affairs Program. Her research examines climate adaptation and resilience in developing countries. Prior to Northeastern, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for International Environment and
Resource Policy at the Tufts University Fletcher School, where she helped establish a new research partnership with the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) on climate policy in developing countries. She has studied innovation, technology transfer and adoption for adaptation as well as mainstreaming adaptation in development policy in East Africa and Central America. Current projects also address climate information and early warning systems, coastal resilience, adaptation finance, and national adaptation plans. She has conducted fieldwork in Ethiopia, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and New England and has collaborated with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UNDP. She has a PhD and MALD in international affairs from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a BA in environmental studies and anthropology from Middlebury College.
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Forced from Home: Displacement Assessment in Boston Chinatown
Thursday, February 28
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 9, 4-50A, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
At a time of increasing displacement, gentrification and insecure housing, this event marks the release of the first report from MIT DRAN on the displacement and eviction crisis in Boston’s Chinatown.
"Chinatown residents are disproportionately elderly and 40 percent of families have children but are losing this working-class core,” says Karen Chen, Executive Director, Chinese Progressive Association. “Being displaced means not only loss of housing and increased stress, but also loss of social networks, multilingual social services, access to nearby jobs, a voice on issues that impacts our lives and much more.”
The report is the result of over 3 years of collaboration between DRAN and Chinese Progressive Association in Boston, and details the results of a displacement impact assessment using a tool that DRAN has developed. This is the first time in the US that a comprehensive displacement impact assessment, benchmarked against global human rights standards, has been used in a major city.
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'Lessons from a Life in Peace Building' a public lecture by Rev. Dr. Gary Mason
Thursday, February 28
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Consulate General of Ireland, Boston, 535 Boylston Street, 5th Floor, Boston
Rev. Dr. Gary Mason is a Methodist minister and directs a conflict transformation organisation based in Belfast called ‘Rethinking Conflict’. Prior to this, he spent 27 years as a Methodist clergy person in parish ministry in Belfast and has played an integral role in the Northern Irish peace process, particularly through his work with loyalist paramilitary groups.
Mason is a Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University in Ireland. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, lecturing on reconciliation, peace- building, and the history of Northern Ireland conflict, racism, sectarianism, and conflict transformation. He is a faculty advisor and partner to the Negotiation Strategies Institute, a Harvard University programme on negotiation.
In this edition of the Consulate’s ‘Lunch and Learn’ series, Mason will touch on his work with ‘Rethinking Conflict’, his experience in Northern Ireland, and the lessons learned from the Peace Process.
This event will be moderated by Dr. Fiona Creed, Associate Teaching Professor and Faculty Lead- MS Global Studies & International Relations, Northeastern University.
A light lunch will be provided.
Space is limited, please register early.
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Hydrogen Economy
Thursday, February 28
12:30PM
Harvard, Room 429, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jason Munster
Harvard Energy Journal Club
HEJC is open to all members of the Harvard and MIT communities. A technical background is not needed. Lunch will be provided.
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Study Group: Human Rights Advocacy in Polarizing Times — Where Are We Going? And How Will We Know When We Get There?
WHEN Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Littauer 324, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
DETAILS The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy invites you to join a study group on human rights advocacy! The study group, which will meet three times this semester, is convened and moderated by Elisa Massimino, Senior Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
This is an open study group. No registration is required.
The study group will meet from 12:30 - 1:45 p.m. on three occasions this semester:
Thursday, Feb. 28 in room Littauer-324
Topic: Where Are We Going? And How Will We Know When We Get There?
Thursday, April 4 in room Littauer-324
Topic: Writing to Persuade
Thursday, April 25 in room Littauer-324
Topic: Building Coalitions that Work
Description: Human rights advocacy can often seem a bit quixotic. But progress is possible. The problems we tackle need serious, hard-nosed strategies and activists with the skills to execute them. In this study group, we’ll explore key elements of successful human rights advocacy campaigns — goal-setting, communications, coalition-building — and practical skills advocates need, especially in today’s politically polarized environment, to win.
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MIT Protest Against Henry Kissinger
Thursday, February 28
2:30 p.m.
Kresge Building Lawn, directly across the street from 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
More information at https://www.facebook.com/MIT-Students-Against-War-328543951122099/
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Books@Baker with Sunil Gupta
WHEN Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Business School, Aldrich Hall 210, Soldiers Field Road, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Baker Library
SPEAKER(S) Sunil Gupta, Edward W. Carter of Business Administration
Author of "Driving Digital Strategy: A Guide to Reimagining Your Business"
COST Free
CONTACT INFO schurch@hbs.edu
DETAILS Digital transformation is no longer news – it’s a necessity. Despite the widespread threat of disruption, many large companies in traditional industries have succeeded at digitizing their businesses in truly transformative ways.
The New York Times, formerly a bastion of traditional media, has created a thriving digital product behind a carefully designed paywall. Best Buy has transformed its business in the face of Amazon's threat. John Deere has formed a data-analysis arm to complement its farm-equipment business. And Goldman Sachs and many others are using digital technologies to reimagine their businesses.
For over a decade, Professor Sunil Gupta has studied digital transformation at Fortune 500 companies. Filled with rich and illuminating case studies of companies at the forefront of digital transformation, Driving Digital Strategy is the comprehensive guide you need to take full advantage of the limitless opportunities the digital age provides.
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OEB Seminar Series - "Mosaics, Megabases, and Matryoshki: A Leaf-to-Landscape Perspective on the Symbiotic Renaissance"
WHEN Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Biological Labs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Betsy Arnold, The University of Arizona
COST Free and open to the public
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Climate conversation: Setting the DUSP research agenda
Thursday, February 28
4:00pm
MIT, Building 9, 6th Floor ‘Skylounge’, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
In October of 2018 the IPCC released a special report on the potential to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in response to an invitation from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change after the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The report identified numerous advantages from limiting sea-level rise, improving health outcomes and protecting vulnerable ecosystems.
However, achieving the goal will require radical transformations in energy use, and the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions by 45% below 2010 levels by 2030. In line with these targets, MIT has committed to reducing campus greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2014 levels by 2030.
DUSP's Environmental Policy and Planning (EPP) faculty are hosting a conversation to begin a dialogue about what DUSP can do to help meet MIT’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Additionally, this discussion will help shape research agendas to put forward in DUSP. For example, please see the recent article from Fazey et al at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17565529.2017.1301864
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Starr Forum: Abolish ICE?
Thursday, February 28
4:00pm to 5:30pm
MIT, Building E51, 115 Wong Auditorium, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Please Note: This event will now start at 4:00pm, 30-minutes earlier than previously advertised.
Experts discuss US immigration policies
Main speaker: Juliette Kayyem is the faculty director of the Homeland Security Project at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where she is also the Robert and Renee Belfer Lecturer in International Security. Previously, she served as President Obama’s assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. She also serves as CEO of Zemcar, a lifestyle company focused on connecting busy parents with qualified drivers to solve their family’s transportation needs. Her memoir Security Mom: My Life Protecting the Home and Homeland, tells stories of her professional life in homeland security and her personal life as a mother.
Co-sponsors: MIT Center for International Studies
Free & open to the public | Refreshments served
Can't attend in person? Watch it on Facebook live or on-demand on YouTube.
For more information or accessibility accommodations please contact starrforum@mit.edu.
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Digital Transformation Summit: AI, Ethics, and Business Decisions
Thursday, February 28
4:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Harvard Business School, Klarman Hall, 117 Western Avenue, Boston
Summit is an open forum on tech, organizations, and markets.
About this Event
The aim of Digital Transformation Summit is simple: to help leaders gain new and informed perspective on the intersection of technology and business.
This year, we focus on AI, ethics, and the implications for business decision makers.
While the benefits of AI can reduce costs and improve efficiency and even accuracy, many AI tools lack transparency and have inherent biases. So where does this leave business leaders facing unknown consequences? In order to evaluate opportunities and risks, you will likely rely on experts that sit at the intersection of several fields. We’re here to connect you.
EVENT BREAKDOWN:
TED Talk-style presentations from three rare experts bridging the worlds that collide around digital transformation. Speakers include: Cansu Canca, AI Ethics Lab; Rana el Kaliouby, Affectiva; Matthew Wansley, nuTonomy
Q&A with each speaker.
A reception to continue the conversation.
Join students from HBS and beyond, scholars, practitioners, and alumni in this open event to dig deeper on a topic that impacts current and future business leaders.
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Democracy in Hard Places — Populism's Threat to Democracy: Comparative Lessons for the U.S.
WHEN Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, Floor 2, Suite 200N, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Kurt Weyland, Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin Department of Government
Moderator: Scott Mainwaring, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor for Brazil Studies, HKS
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS To elucidate the prospects of U.S. democracy under President Trump, this talk will analyze the regime impact of populist chief executives in Europe and Latin America. Professor Weyland's investigation finds that institutional weakness is a crucial permissive cause for democratic backsliding. Yet even in weaker institutional settings, authoritarian regression only advances under special circumstances, namely when acute yet resolvable crises or extraordinary bonanzas allow populist leaders to win overwhelming support – and then override institutional constraints. Because none of these conditions prevails in the U.S., an undemocratic involution is exceedingly unlikely.
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Cambridgeport Social Event
Thursday, February 28
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Gallery 263, 263 Pearl Street, Cambridge
The Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association is hosting another social event. This is a chance to meet people and catch up with your neighbors. Refreshments will be provided, and families and friends are welcome.
We had a great time last year and are looking forward to doing it again. We hope you’ll drop by and say hello!
More information at https://nextdoor.com/events/2736427/
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Cambridge Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force
Thursday, February 28
6:00 pm
CRLS Media Cafeteria, 359 Broadway, Cambridge
For more information, see the UFMP website at https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/publicworks/urbanforestmasterplan
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Evolution Matters: David Quammen and Carl Zimmer
Thursday, February 28
6:00pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
David Quammen, Author and Journalist
Carl Zimmer, Author and New York Times Columnist
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Evolution Matters Lecture Series, two of the world’s best-known science writers will engage in a lively and wide-ranging conversation. From a discussion of their latest books on heredity and the history of life on Earth to the story of how two English majors became award-winning practitioners of scientific non-fiction, they will explore the most important idea in biology—evolution.
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Marc Mauer: “The Meaning of Life: The Case for Abolishing Life Sentences”
WHEN Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Marc Mauer, Executive Director, Sentencing Project
Rachel Corey, Emancipation Initiative
Sean Ellis, exoneree
MA State Rep. Jay Livingstone, 8th Suffolk District
Radha Natarajan, Executive Director, New England Innocence Project
A family member of a prisoner serving LWOP
COST free
DETAILS A book talk by co-author Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, followed by a conversation with Massachusetts experts about life sentencing. Free and open to the public
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WORKac: Dan Wood
Thursday, February 28
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
What is architecture in our age of the anthropocene, uncertainty, and polarization? What agency do we have to address big issues through design? As WORKac enters its fourth five-year plan, Dan Wood will discuss the merits of pop, whimsey and optimism as the firm gets real in in the scale and ambition of its work.
Dan Wood, FAIA, LEED AP, is a co-founder of WORKac and a principal of the firm with extensive experience leading large scale and complex US and international projects. Wood was the 2017 Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto Daniels School of Architecture as well as the 2013-14 Louis I. Kahn Chair at the Yale School of Architecture. He is currently an adjunct associate professor at Columbia GSAPP and has taught at the Princeton University School of Architecture, Penn Design and the UC Berkeley School of Environmental Design, where he was the Friedman Distinguished Chair. Wood is a licensed architect in the State of New York and Rhode Island. His publications include 49 Cities and Above the Pavement the Farm! Co-authored with Amale Andraos. He is currently the Vice President for Design Excellence on the board of the New York AIA chapter.
WORKac creates architecture and strategic planning concepts at the intersection of the urban, the rural and the natural. Embracing reinvention and collaboration with other fields. The practice strives to develop intelligent and shared infrastructures and to achieve a more careful integration between architecture, landscape and ecological systems. WORKac holds unshakable lightness and polemical optimism as a means to move beyond the projected and towards the possible.
WORKac was the #1 design firm in Architect magazine’s 2017 Architect 50 and the 2015 AIA NYS Firm of the Year. The firm has achieved international acclaim for projects such as the Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn, the Kew Gardens Hills Library in Queens, and the Stealth Building in New York. Current projects include a masterplan for 60 villas on a waterfront site in Lebanon, a new student center for Rhode Island School of Design, a public library in Boulder, CO and a new office building in San Francisco.
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Psychiatric Diagnosis: The First Cause of Everything Bad in the Mental Health System
WHEN Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wexner 102, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Paula J. Caplan:
Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D., is a clinical and research psychologist, currently an Associate at the DuBois Institute of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard, and she is a former Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Women and Public Policy Program. She served for two years on the Task Force that was revising the manual of psychiatric diagnosis before she resigned on moral, ethical, and professional grounds when she learned the truth about the dangerous myths related to the diagnoses and found that those in charge resisted becoming open about the truth. She wrote an exposé of all this called They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal, followed by her edited book, "Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis." Her stage play, "CALL ME CRAZY," won one of the top prizes in the Arlene and William National Playwriting Contest for Women and had a rave-reviewed Off-Off-Broadway production. She is the author of 10 other books and an award winning documentary filmmaker.
DETAILS Psychiatric diagnosis is completely unregulated and is widely — and unjustifiably — believed to be solidly grounded in science, to help reduce human suffering, and to expose psychiatrically labeled people to no harm. Dr. Paula J. Caplan resigned from two committees involved in revising the diagnostic manual when she learned that none of the above was true. Over the decades, she became aware of thousands of stories of people whose lives were destroyed, including through loss of a vast array of their human rights, by events that began with and were "justified" by their being diagnosed. Her activism to prevent such harm takes a variety of forms, ranging from advising labeled individuals and their therapists about what they can do to advocating for massive systemic changes.
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Men of Boston Against Violence in Our City
Thursday, February 28
6:30pm-8:30pm
Thelma Burns Building, 575 Warren Street, Roxbury
Dear Community Partners,
The Men of Boston was formed in Fall 2018 as a response to the recurring violence-taking place in the City of Boston. As a group of concerned men in the community, we recognize this issue to be a serious problem and have decided to come together to develop sustainable solutions. MOB is made up of a wide array of local experts, ranging from fathers, ministers, pastors, educators, entrepreneurs, coaches, mentors, non-profit providers, workforce development experts, street workers and neighbors in the community.
We envision a city where violence is eliminated, and a full range of comprehensive social services is available to youth and families in the community. We recognize that we cannot accomplish this important task alone without the support of the broader community stakeholders. Therefore, in the spirit of fellowship, we would like to invite “All” men from the community to attend the upcoming meeting. At this next gathering, we plan to launch our comprehensive strategy (Model X) that we’ve been developing over the last 6 months.
MOB is a “Home Grown” solution to the cyclical problem of violence that has been causing great harm to families and destroying the valuable lives of our children. As responsible men, we’re standing together in unity to ensure that the future opportunities of urban youth to succeed in Boston are guaranteed. We invite you to join us in this groundbreaking effort, where over 300 men will pledge their commitment to this work in solidarity.
For more Information: Contact Sam Williams (617)-276-5899 or email: samuel_williams_1999@hotmail.com
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Do Your Garden Plants Have a Backstory?
Thursday, February 28
7:00–8:15pm
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Boston
Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277
Cost: $0 - $10
Michael Dosmann, PhD, Keeper of the Living Collections, Arnold Arboretum
Museums assign value to their collections by understanding each piece’s backstory – for instance, where did it come from, who created/collected it, what does it represent, what feeling does it elicit from a visitor? The plants in our own gardens can and should do the same, but too often have become generic and mundane because we have forgotten their backstories. Perhaps even worse, we may be losing our own personal connections to what we grow. Michael Dosmann will provide his own perspective on how to re-engage with our garden plants in ways that make it personal.
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Friday, March 1
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The "R" Word: Retreat, Relocation and Climate Resilience
Friday, March 1
8 AM - 11:30 AM registration starts at 7:15 AM
UMass Club, One Beacon Street, Boston
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/the-r-word-retreat-relocation-and-climate-resilience/
Cost: $15 -45
Climate adaptation efforts are often focused on armoring the built environment against climate risks. But given dire climate projections and the costs associated with retrofits and rebuilding, retreat and relocation should be part of the conversation as well. Join the Climate Adaptation Forum for a discussion about retreat, relocation, and climate resilience. Speakers will touch on the financial, legal and human hurdles to retreat. We will hear stories from around the country of communities and individuals that have successfully moved or are currently grappling with the need to relocate due to climate change and sea level rise.
Forum Co-Chairs
Nasser Brahim, Technical Leader, Kleinfelder
Jason Hellendrung, Vice President, Planning and Design, TetraTech
Deanna Moran, Director of Environmental Planning, Conservation Law Foundation
Confirmed Speakers
Rosetta Elkin, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Carri Hulet, Senior Associate, Consensus Building Institute, Climigration Network
Katie Spidalieri, Institute Associate, Georgetown Climate Center
Robert S. Young, Director, Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines
Western Carolina University
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Italy and the Origins of Capitalism
WHEN Friday, March 1, 2019, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Business School, Chao Center, Room 340, 25 Harvard Way, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HBS Business History Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Daniel Lord Smail (Harvard University)
Sophus Reinert (Harvard Business School)
Robert Fredona (York Management School)
Christine Desan (Harvard Law School)
Elizabeth Mellyn (University of New Hampshire)
William Caferro (Vanderbilt University)
Jeffrey Miner (Western Kentucky University)
Francesca Trivellato (Institute for Advanced Studies)
Maria Fusaro (University of Exeter)
Corey Tazzara (Scripps College)
John Brewer (Caltech, emeritus)
Niall Atkinson (University of Chicago)
COST Free
CONTACT INFO bhi@hbs.edu
DETAILS Early historians of business, including N.S.B. Gras and Raymond de Roover at HBS, located the origins of modern capitalism in a commercial revolution that occurred in the late medieval Mediterranean. Before the Great Divergence which is the focus of much current scholarship on capitalism, there were earlier and smaller divergences: first Italy (perhaps as early as the eleventh century), then Holland, and then England experienced modern economic growth. Historical accounts of the global economy have been, since the very beginning, structured around “catching up”, a process we now see unfolding in China and other emerging economies. But Italy did not play catch up. It was first. Why? Why did Italy diverge first? How did Europe first develop and become rich? This workshop, bringing together scholars of the Italian and Mediterranean economies, seeks to answer these questions and consider ways that premodern economic history and business history can and should matter to us today.
LINK https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/conferences/italy-and-the-origins-of-capitalism/Pages/schedule.aspx
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Stratified and Stirred: Monsoon Freshwater in the Bay of Bengal
Friday, March 1
10:00am to 11:00am
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Thesis Defense - Gualtiero Spiro Jaeger
A public presentation of the thesis will be given by the candidate.
DEFENSE CHAIR: Prof. Glenn Flierl, MIT
THESIS COMMITTEE:
Dr. Amala Mahadevan, Advisor, WHOI
Prof. Raffaele Ferrari, MIT
Dr. J. Tom Farrar, WHOI
P Prof. Emily Shroyer, Oregon State University
Copies of the thesis may be obtained from the EAPS Education Office (54-912). All interested faculty, staff and students are invited to attend.
Editorial Comment: Since Bangladesh is on the Bay of Bengal and is probably one of the countries most susceptible to catastrophic flooding, this may thesis may have some importance information about the probabilities of climate change effects in this region.
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Cryptography and the Politics of Decentralization
Friday, March 1
12pm
Tufts, Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room, 15 Talbot Avenue, Medford
Gili Vidan
More information at http://sites.tufts.edu/stslunch/
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Friend or foe? Microbial cross-feeding and viral predation in the engineered deep subsurface
Friday, March 1
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 48-316, Parsons Laboratory, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Prof. Kelly Wrighton, Colorado State University
Abstract
In this seminar, shewill discuss the establishment and persistence of microbial communities that colonize 2,500-meter-deep energy-rich shales after drilling and hydraulic fracturing. She will review how surface microorganisms adapt to this newly created extreme environment, as well as inventory what these microorganisms feed on and what feeds on them. She will focus on the importance of methylamine cycling to microbial persistence, as well as the critical role for viruses in mediating this ecosystem. It is our belief that long-term energy extraction from shale will require management of the beneficial and detrimental impacts of microbial growth in this economically important, engineered ecosystem.
Environmental Science Seminar Series
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Artificial Intelligence: Short History, Present Developments, and Future Outlook
Friday, March 1
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
SPEAKER: David R. Martiniz (MIT Lincoln Laboratory
ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize many industries, for example, applications ranging from driverless cars, finance, national security, medicine, e-commerce, to name a few. Recently, MIT Lincoln Laboratory undertook a comprehensive study on AI. In this talk, we will cover a brief AI history, highlight present developments, and conclude with a future outlook. After a description of key AI accomplishments in the past several decades, the presentation addresses an AI canonical architecture suitable for a number of classes of applications. Several examples will be shown focused on cyber security, as representative of an application area that benefits from an end-to-end AI architecture. The examples shown include the protection of enterprise systems, automated detection of counterfeit parts, and machine learning to reduce cyber analysts’ workload. The AI canonical architecture starts with data conditioning, followed by classes of machine learning algorithms, human-machine teaming, modern computing, and robust AI. We will briefly address each of these areas. The presentation concludes with a summary of S&T challenges and recommendations – as well as an AI capability business model to more rapidly transition research into products and operational users.
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Managed Retreat Workshop: Legal and Policy Tools for States and Local Communities
Friday, March 1
Registration | 1:45 PM
Program | 2 PM - 4:30 PM
UMass Club, One Beacon Street, Boston
Cost: $15 -45
Organized by the Georgetown Climate Center (GCC) and the Climate Adaptation Forum, this workshop will offer participants the opportunity to engage in a facilitated discussion on managed retreat (i.e. relocating development from vulnerable coastal areas) and the legal and policy considerations impacting land-use decisions and human and natural resources movements in response to sea-level rise.
Participants will share their own work and learn from other experts across disciplines confronting questions about managed retreat as one strategy for adapting to rising seas and increased flooding. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to inform ongoing work by the GCC to create an online Managed Retreat Toolkit which is being designed to support state and local government decisions about how to adapt to rising sea levels (forthcoming in Fall 2019).
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Study Group: Human Trafficking - Empowerment-based Approaches in Anti-Human Trafficking
WHEN Friday, Mar. 1, 2019, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Carr Center, Wexner Room 102, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
COST Free
CONTACT INFO 617-495-5819
DETAILS Please join us for a study group on human trafficking, at the Harvard Kennedy School!
The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy invites you to join a study group on empowerment-based approaches in anti-human trafficking.
The study group, which will meet three times this semester, is convened and moderated by Dr. Laura Cordisco Tsai, Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
APPLY NOW: Registration is capped at 20 participants. To register, please email Dr. Laura Cordisco Tsai at Laura_Cordisco_Tsai@hks.harvard.edu.
The study group will meet from 2:00-3:30 pm on three occasions this semester:
Topic: Perceptions of Justice Among Human Trafficking Survivors
- Friday, March 1: 2:00-3:30 p.m. in room Wexner-102
Guest Speaker: Dr. Laura Cordisco Tsai, Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
Topic: Conducting Participatory Action Research with Survivors of Human Trafficking: A Photovoice Study in the Philippines
- Friday, April 5: 2:00-3:30 p.m. in room Rubenstein-G-21
Guest Speaker: Dr. Elena Shih, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, Faculty Fellow, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University
Description:
Protection of victims of human trafficking has been one of the centerpieces of the anti-trafficking movement to date. Stakeholders widely agree that people who have been trafficked have a right to freedom from trafficking and a right to receive supportive services to aid in their recovery. However, efforts to protect victims of human trafficking can veer into overprotection, contradict victim empowerment, and violate the rights of victims. In this study group, we will explore these tensions, focusing specifically on empowering approaches in anti-human trafficking work. Participants will learn from invited experts, including practitioners and researchers with experience both in the U.S. and globally. Active discussion of assigned readings and presentations will be encouraged.
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Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice
Friday, March 1
3:00pm to 4:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
In collaboration with the Harvard Book Store, we are thrilled to welcome Myisha Cherry, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside and former Graduate Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, to discuss her new book, UnMuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice.
About Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice:
Why do people hate one another? Who gets to speak for whom? Why do so many people combat prejudice based on their race, sexual orientation, or disability? What does segregation look like today? Many of us ponder and discuss urgent questions such as these at home, and see them debated in the media, the classroom, and our social media feeds, but many of us don't have access to the important new ways philosophers are thinking about these very issues. Enter UnMute, the popular podcast hosted by Myisha Cherry, which hosts a diverse group of philosophers and explores their cutting-edge work through casual conversation.
This book collects 31 of Cherry's lively and timely interviews, offering an accessible resource through which to encounter some of philosophy's most socially and politically engaged, public-facing work. Its original illustrations, depicting the interview subjects up close, show just how broad a range of philosophers--black, white, and brown, male and female, queer and straight, abled and disabled--are at the center of crucial contemporary conversations. Cherry asks philosophers to talk about their ideas in ways that anyone can understand, explaining how they got interested in philosophy, and why the questions they investigate matter urgently.
Along with the interviews, the volume provides a foreword by Cornel West, a section in which all the interviewees explain how they got into philosophy, and a "Say What?" glossary defining terms that might be new to some readers. Like the podcast that inspired it, the book welcomes in those new to these philosophical questions, those captivated by questions of race, class, gender, and other issues and looking for a new lens through which to examine them, and those well-versed in public philosophy looking for a one-stop guide.
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Leadership Lessons From Space
WHEN Friday, Mar. 1, 2019, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Business School, Klarman Hall, Soldiers Field Road, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Business School
SPEAKER(S) Colonel Terry Virts, Commander, International Space Station
COST Free
CONTACT INFO connects@hbs.edu
DETAILS Terry Virts will speak about his experience as a veteran of two space flights, a two-week mission on board space shuttle Endeavor, and a 200-day post on the International Space Station. The event will also feature astonishing aerial images of Earth from Virts' book, "Views from Above" and tales of life on the edge of the atmosphere.
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One Month To Go or More? A Brexit Update from an EU and UK Perspective
WHEN Friday, Mar. 1, 2019, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Lower Level Conference Room, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies
SPEAKER(S) José Manuel Martinez Sierra, Jean Monnet ad Personam Professor in EU Law and Government, Real Colegio Complutense, Harvard University
Tim Hickman, Partner, White & Case, London
Elizabeth Goldberg, Senior Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Paula Fernandez-Wulff, ESCR Coordinator, Jean Monnet Chair EU Law and Government
CONTACT INFO José Manuel Martinez Sierra
DETAILS The United Kingdom is slated to leave the European Union at 11:00 p.m. GMT on Friday, March 29, 2019. As the clock ticks toward the deadline, it is a very real possibility that this will be a hard Brexit, that is, with no-deal with the EU in place. However, even if the no-deal scenario happens, this does not mean that on day one after Brexit there will not be any treaties, agreements and other arrangements in force that will govern the relations between the EU and the U.K. and between the U.K. and third countries. This panel will explore some examples. It will first give an overview of the remaining general Brexit scenarios and focus on what will happen in different, concrete areas: EU regulatory arrangements with third countries; what they mean for the U.K.; cross-border transfers of personal data after the March 29 deadline; how data protection laws may restrict such transfers; and the status of the protection of social, economic and cultural rights of Europeans living in the U.K. after the country has left the European Union.
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Saturday, March 2
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IDEA 2019 Conference: Embrace Your Impact
Saturday, March 2
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM EST
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $15 – $20
Embrace your impact at IDEA 2019!
The annual IDEA Conference is a one-day event for Boston-area students to explore innovation of every kind. Whether it’s through technology, social impact, or arts and culture, we empower all students to embrace their passions and use them to create meaningful impact.
From start to finish, attendees will be inspired by world-class innovators, engage with strategies and useful tools for developing new ideas, and connect with resources and people from across Boston University and beyond.
This year, we're thrilled to welcome keynote speaker and "idea acupuncturist" Anjali Kumar (BU LAW), published author and former General Counsel at Warby Parker and Acumen, and former Senior Counsel for Google. Anjali recently co-founded, The Justice Dept; a women-led development and strategy firm, focusing on legal work for female entrepreneurs, executives, talent, and brands in technology, consumer product, entertainment, and fashion.
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2019 MIT Asia Business Conference
Saturday, March 2
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, 6th Floor, Cambridge
Cost: $50 – $75
We are excited to present the 9th Annual MIT Asia Business Conference: “Impact Asia”. Our conference brings together founders, executives and investors to showcase the myriad ways Asia is leading technological innovation and shaping the world. This year, we are proud to introduce our keynote speakers:
Mark Porter, CTO of Grab Transportation
Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia
Victoria Loke, Crazy Rich Asians
The conference will focus on the themes of:
AI & Digital Transformation
Emerging Technologies
Healthcare & Biotech
Finance & Investment
Consumer & Retail
We will conduct panel discussions that feature 20+ industry leaders from Microsoft, Yahoo Japan, Face++, GGV Capital, 500 Startups, Fusion Fund, ASICS Digital, Walmart Media Group, Huya.com, BeiGene, and many more.
Please visit our website for the agenda and a list of panelists: http://mitasiabusinessconference.com/
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2019 Environmental Justice Conference: Equitable Solutions to an Inequitable Food System
Saturday, March 2
9:00 AM – 6:30 PM EST
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 651 Huntington Avenue (FXB entrance), Kresge Building, G1 Auditorium (ground 1 floor), Boston
About: This is the 2nd annual student-run Environmental Justice Conference to raise awareness about environmental inequities in our various communities. We will work together to identify ways we can address them and harness our collective power to build more equitable, sustainable, and just communities. This year, we are focusing on environmental justice through the lens of food sovereignty to develop more equitable food system solutions.
Plenary sessions will focus on the following topics: (1) toxic exposures in our food and water and the ways people are taking action to reduce them; (2) the health, wellbeing, and rights of food chain workers, many of whom belong to immigrant and migrant communities; and (3) strengthening our collective power and agency to gain food and land access and sovereignty for our various communities.
Keynote speakers:
Dr. Monica White, Professor of Environmental Justice, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Pastor at New Roots AME Church
Plenary sessions are as follows:
Plenary 1: Food and Water Contamination
Plenary 2: Justice for Food Chain Workers
Plenary 3: Food and Land Sovereignty
Plenary speakers include: Andrea Schmid (Pioneer Valley Workers Center), Chris Bolden-Newsome (Sankofa Farm of Philadelphia), Claudia Quintero (Central West Justice Center), Elizabeth Wills O'Gilvie (Springfield Food Policy Council), Lan Dinh (Vietlead and Soil Generation), Marcella Thompson (University of Rhode Island), Mea Johnson (Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Boston), Neftali Duran (I-Collective), Niaz Dorry (Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance), Shaina Kasper (Toxics Action Center) and more!
For a full schedule and speaker list, please visit our website at https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/environmental-justice-so/conference-schedule-and-speakers/
Join us and contribute to the dialogue! Everyone is welcome, regardless of background or experience.
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Observe the Ocean; Secure the Future - 22nd Annual Blue Lobster Bowl
Saturday, March 2
10:00am to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, Kirsch Auditorium, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Eighteen teams from 10 Massachusetts schools will face off in the regional component of the 22nd annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB), an interdisciplinary ocean science education program of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. The quiz-bowl style academic competition tests students’ knowledge of ocean-related topics, including cross-disciplines of biology, chemistry, policy, physics, and geology.
The competition theme is Observe the Ocean; Secure the Future. The majority of the global ocean remains unexplored, yet it’s changing at a time when its role in supporting life on our planet is becoming more transparent every day. As these changes impact every aspect of society, the need for information on ocean patterns, conditions, and processes is growing exponentially. High-quality data is critical for understanding ecosystem health, biodiversity, climate change, pollution, human health, maritime safety, and food, water, and energy security. Some of the competition questions will focus on this theme.
Around the nation, young scholars will be competing in 23 other ocean science bowls through early March. The winner of each regional bowl will compete in the national Finals competition April 11-14 in Washington, DC.
2019 competing high schools:
Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Acton
Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton
Cape Cod Academy in Osterville
Fitchburg High School in Fitchburg
Lexington High School in Lexington
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury
Nauset Regional High School in Eastham
Newton North High School in Newton
Newton South High School in Newton
Shepherd Hill Regional High School in Dudley
National Ocean Sciences Bowl
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) is a program of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership based in Washington, D.C. Now in its 22nd year, the NOSB seeks to interest students in pursuing a college degree and a future career in the ocean sciences. Through this educational forum, the NOSB strives to encourage and support the next generation of marine scientists, policy makers, teachers, explorers, researchers, technicians, environmental advocates, and informed citizens to consider and appreciate the ocean. Most high school students do not have the opportunity to study ocean science as part of their formal coursework, which makes the NOSB one of the only ways students gain exposure to this field. Many past NOSB participants have moved on to pursue college degrees and careers in ocean science, helping to solve the growing environmental, economic and security issues facing our ocean and planet.
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Wolf-PAC MA Strategy Meeting
Saturday, March 2
1:00 - 3:00 PM
encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston
RSVP at http://bit.ly/wolfpacboston
We need your help to make Massachusetts the historic 6th state to demand a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to fix our broken campaign finance system. Join our strategy meeting to learn about our current efforts to build positive relationships throughout the state, strengthen the MA team, and take part in the Ballot Question 2 proceedings.
We welcome both new and veteran volunteers! Have you ever said to yourself that you want to get involved in the fight to remove the corrupting influence of money in our political system but don?t know how? Well, this meetup will be a great opportunity to learn how you can get involved in right here in MA. We will have our seasoned Volunteers, Organizers and
Directors share their experiences and work with you hands on to provide the skills needed for our big push to pass MA this session.
Afterwards, we'll walk over to a nearby restaurant for food and drinks. This will be a great opportunity to meet like-minded people who care about saving our representative democracy while enjoying some good food, good people, and great conversations.
Remember to bring a friend!
Contact: Bo Ye at indelibo@gmail.com
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Sunday, March 3
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Sustainability Student Leadership Symposium
Sunday, March 3
9:30am-3pm
Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sustainability-student-leadership-symposium-registration-55098593376
Cost: $25
Co-hosted by Wellesley College and Brandeis University
Lunch included
SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSALS FOR A 10-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Do you have a best practice to share about student-led initiatives on your campus that have worked well? Are you doing something on your campus that you'd love to see replicated elsewhere? Proposals can fit into our three themed breakout sessions tracks: food, waste management, engagement; or they can fit into our "other" track.
Please fill out the proposal form by February 10, 2019
Questions about presentations can be sent to csiege@wellesley.edu
Agenda
(Presentations within tracks will be announced before the symposium.)
9:30-10:00 Registration, coffee and light breakfast
10:00-10:30 Introduction
10:40-11:20 Breakout Sessions #1 (four concurrent sessions: food, recycling, engagement, and other)
11:30-12:10 Breakout Sessions #2 (four concurrent sessions: food, recycling, engagement, and other)
12:20-12:50 Environmental Groups
12:50-1:30 Lunch
1:30- 2:30 Career Panel
2:30- 3:00 Networking/close
All events before lunch will be held in Gerstenzang, while lunch and afternoon activities will be held in Sherman Hall in Hassenfeld Conference Center.
Please see our website for more details and updates at http://www.brandeis.edu/sustainability/getinvolved/SSLS2019.html
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The Telescope in the Ice Reading with Mark Bowen
Sunday, March 3
6:00pm to 7:00pm
Boston Sculptors Gallery, 486 Harrison Avenue, Boston
Join us at the Boston Sculptors Gallery for a reading from Mark Bowen, author of The Telescope in the Ice!
An account of a telescope that "is unlike any other telescope you've ever seen or heard of, a marvel of science "buried more than a mile deep in the ice at the geographic South Pole." Occupying a cubic kilometer under the ice at the South Pole is a huge instrument dubbed one of the "seven wonders of modern astronomy." It doesn't search for light like a telescope but rather ghostly subatomic particles called neutrinos that fill the universe. In this enthusiastic account of Project IceCube, physicist Bowen explains that nuclear reactions produce neutrinos. They gush from stars, the sun, and earthly reactors and accelerators. Billions pass harmlessly through your fingertip every second, often after passing through the Earth or across the universe. Almost nothing stops a neutrino, but the key word is "almost." An immense device operated by patient observers will occasionally detect one. All require massive shielding to keep out the far more common cosmic rays. After describing competing projects, many still in operation thousands of feet underground or deep under water, Bowen gets down to business with a hair-raising account of 20 years of misery at the South Pole as a team of physicists and engineers suffered, repeatedly failed, and eventually succeeded in drilling 60 holes a mile deep, lowering complex electronics, and letting the ice freeze around them. The instrument works; since Project IceCube's completion in 2010, a few dozen distant neutrinos have made themselves known. Infusing groundbreaking inquiry with the spirit of those who carry it out, Bowen delivers a tale that's part educational, part inspirational, and all adventure.
MARK BOWEN is a writer and physicist. He earned a bachelor's degree and a doctorate in physics at MIT and worked for a decade in the medical industry. Bowen has written for Climbing, Natural History, Science, Technology Review, and AMC Outdoors. He has been embedded in AMANDA and IceCube since 1998. He lives in Vermont. The Telescope in the Ice is his third book.
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Monday, March 4
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Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium: Aditi Sheshadri (Stanford)
Monday, March 4
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium [PAOCC] is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. Contact the 2018/2019 Coordinators: paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu.
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Smoke and Mirrors: Did China's Environmental Crackdowns Lead to Persistent Changes in Polluting Firm Behavior?
Monday, March 4
12:00PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Valerie Karplus, Assistant Professor of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management
Lunch will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar
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Aga Khan Program Lecture: Rania Ghosn
WHEN Monday, Mar. 4, 2019, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Stubbins Room, Gund Hall 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Rania Ghosn
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/rania-ghosn/
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
DETAILS Rania Ghosn is Associate Professor of architecture and urbanism at MIT and founding partner of DESIGN EARTH with El Hadi Jazairy. Her research engages the geographies of technological systems to address the aesthetics and politics of the environment. The work of DESIGN EARTH has been exhibited internationally, including Venice Biennale (2018, 2016), Oslo Triennale (2017), Seoul Biennale (2017), Sharjah Biennale (2016), and MAAT (Lisbon, 2018), Sursock Museum (Beirut, 2016), Times Museum (Guangzhou, 2018) and collected by MoMA. Her honors include Architectural League Prize for Young Architects, Boghossian Foundation, and ACSA Faculty Design. Rania is co-author of Geographies of Trash (2015) and Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment (2018), which has received support from the Graham Foundation. She is founding editor of the New Geographies journal and editor-in-chief of NG 2: Landscapes of Energy (Harvard GSD, 2010). Rania holds a Bachelor of Architecture from American University of Beirut, a Master in Geography from University College London, and Doctor of Design from Harvard GSD.
This event is supported by the Aga Khan Program at the GSD and is organized as part of the activities celebrating International Women's Day 2019.
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Twitter Wars & Culture Wars: Teens, Tolerance and the Anti-Bullying Era
Monday, March 4
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
BU, 100 Cummington Mall, Room 241, 100 Cummington Mall, Boston
Sarah Miller, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Boston University, will present her research on “Twitter Wars & Culture Wars: Teens, Tolerance and the Anti-Bullying Era.” This talk draws from two school years of live and digital ethnography at a rural high school in the Northeast to examine how youth and adults put anti-bullying into practice. Dr. Sarah Miller finds that while bullying is routinely about the regulation of gender, sexual, racial and class-based inequalities present in U.S. culture, adults’ anti-bullying strategies largely ignore the role of inequality in youth conflict, and instead individualize bullying and emphasize tolerance. She argues that this approach is an ill-equipped response– without addressing inequality, anti-bullying policies can be just as easily used to protect as they can to police harassment. Instead, she finds that youth are more effective at responding to bullying through their own strategies, using social media as a site to engage in resistance, recognition, and diversity education.
Contact Deborah Carr
(732) 309-1807
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Trauma at the Border
WHEN Monday, Mar. 4, 2019, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East B (2036), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Part of the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
SPEAKER(S) Charles Nelson, III, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School and Director of Research, Developmental Medicine Center, Boston Children's Hospital
Cindy Zapata, JD, Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, Harvard Law School; Leader of 2018 HLS student trip to provide legal services to immigrant families separated in the Karnes Detention Center in Texas
Moderator: Francis X. Shen, Ph.D., JD, Executive Director, Harvard Center for Law, Brain & Behavior, Massachusetts General Hospital and Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, Petrie-Flom Center in Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School; Associate Professor of Law and McKnight Land-Grant Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eg0pegsjaa8a25bc&oseq=&c=&ch=
DETAILS At the center of contemporary political debate are the record numbers of migrant families and children at the U.S.-Mexico border. As these parents and children flee the trauma of violence in their native countries, they are now experiencing the trauma of navigating an increasingly hostile immigration system. What can neuroscience tell us about the effects of these traumatic experiences on the brains of the children and adults? And how might the neuroscience of trauma and brain development affect legal cases? Can advances in mobile neuroimaging provide practitioners with real-time brain evidence of trauma? Does neuroscience have a larger role to play in shaping our nation’s immigration policies? Join us for this special lunchtime event as we begin a dialogue between scientists and lawyers on neuroscience, trauma, and justice.
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A Conversation with Jack Lew, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2013-2017)
WHEN Monday, Mar. 4, 2019, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Littauer Building, Malkin Penthouse, 4th Floor, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, Institute of Politics, and the Business and Government PIC, all at HKS
SPEAKER(S) Jack Lew, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2013-2017)
Moderator: Karen Dynan, HKS
CONTACT INFO mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Jack Lew, former Secretary of the Treasury, also served as White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama and Director of the Office of Management and Budget in both the Obama and Clinton administrations. Previously, he was principal domestic policy advisor to House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr, and has held a variety of private sector and nonprofit roles. Jack is currently a partner at Lindsay Goldberg and on the faculty at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Refreshments will be provided by the Dean's Office.
LINK https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/conversation-jack-lew-former-us-treasury-secretary-2013-2017
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The Power of Protest: MIT March 4th @ 50 Years
Monday, March 4,
4:00pm
MIT, Building E15, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Join us for an exploration of the power of protest at MIT, particularly during the Vietnam era. What can we learn from previous protests and use that knowledge and energy to spur the Institute to create ethical policies?
We will screen excerpts of November Actions: Defiance at MIT,1969--a powerful documentary following the protests of MIT students, faculty and staff against the war in Vietnam and MIT's complicity in that war.
This will be followed by a moderated conversation with a panel to provide focused discussion on three pressing issues/crises facing the MIT community:
The Ethics of AI: Abby Everett Jaques, a philosopher at MIT, is the Ethics lead for MIT’s Quest for Intelligence, and a Research Fellow in Digital Ethics at the Jain Family Institute
MIT's on-going relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Ryan Costello, a local anti-war activist organizing against the war in Yemen
Local Impact of MIT: Housing: Rose Lenehan
Moderator: David Wright, PhD, Senior Scientist and Co-Director, Global Security Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
Introductory Remarks: Deborah G. Douglas, Director of Collections and Curator of Science and Technology at MIT Museum, and Research Associate in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society
This event will be a starting point for additional programs, lunches, panels later on in spring 2019, focusing more specifically on these issues. Participants at the MIT March 4 @ 50 Years event would be able to sign up for follow-up programming.
This program will provide not only historical information but can provide inspiration and a strong sense of "what's next". We will discuss direct actions we can take now to help create a more equitable society for all.
Please check back for updated information regarding speakers.
Refreshments will be served.
Co-Sponsored with the February School.
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Human-Machine Collaboration in Art Making
Monday, March 4
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST
MIT, Kresge Auditorium, W16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join artist Alexander Reben (MAS '10) for a public lecture on "Human-Machine Collaboration in Art Making" to coincide with his solo show at the Emerson Media Art Gallery featuring art produced in collaboration with artificial intelligence.
As technology becomes ever more intelligent, our connection to it becomes more complex with the future of what makes us "human" at stake. Alexander Reben has spent over a decade creating art which probes the inherently human nature of the artificial. Using tools such as artificial philosophy, synthetic psychology, perceptual manipulation and technological magic, he brings to light our inseparable evolutionary entanglement to invention which has unarguably shaped our way of being. This is done to not only help understand who we are, but to consider who we will become in our continued co-development with our artificial creations. In this lecture, he will present examples of his work including the motivations behind them.
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SPI March Discussion: Privacy in the Age of Big Data
Monday, March 4
6:00pm to 7:30pm
MIT, Building 66-160 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
In the modern economy, data is perhaps the most important commodity. Numerous free services, especially social media, generate revenue by selling targeted ads based on user data. Recent scandals over privacy practices have called this practice into question, and the European Union has passed policies designed to protect user privacy. However, information about web-browsing habits is not the only data subject to privacy concerns: everything from phone GPS data to genomic data from popular DNA-sequencing services could be considered fair game without policy reform. What kind of ownership should people have over their personal data? How can companies use this data in ethical ways? Join the Science Policy Initiative for our monthly meeting at 6 pm on Monday, 3/4 in Room 66-160 as we discuss these and other questions over dinner. Sponsored by the GSC.
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Mutual Pictures #6: November Actions
Monday, March 4
6pm
MIT, E15-070Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Film screening of excerpts of “November Actions”, a powerful documentary by Ricky Leacock following the protests of MIT students, faculty and staff against the war in Vietnam and MIT’s complicity in that war. Followed by a moderated conversation with a panel to provide focused discussion on three pressing issues/crises facing the MIT community: Ethics of AI and the #techlash movement of tech workers; MIT and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and Local Impact of MIT: Housing and physical operations (sustainability/environmental issues?). We will invite one local expert on each of these issues to serve as panelist.
This event provides not only historical information but also inspiration and a strong sense of “what’s next” amongst the community for actions we can take now (letter signing re: KSA and MIT, lunches to talk about how to work in the tech industry within an ethical framework, how to learn more about MIT’s real estate dynasty and how that is impacting our area of Cambridge).
Hosted in collaboration with MIT Radius and MIT KSA
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USA Slavery in a Global Context: From the Bible to Today
Monday, March 4
7 p.m.
Parlor of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington, 630 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington Center
Lori Kenschaft
I would like to invite you to a talk I'm giving that will put U.S. slavery in a global context, from the Bible to today. I realize that this is a rather grim topic, but the historian in me thinks that it is both interesting and important to understand the past -- and slavery and its effects are not only in the past. Slavery is one of the (many) topics where Americans tend to think just about the history of the U.S., which means we're missing most of the picture and the images we have are distorted in important ways.
I'd be delighted if you can join us. And please feel free to share this invitation with anyone else you think might be interested.
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Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Neverafter
Monday, March 4
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
The notion of “happily ever after” has been ingrained in many of us since childhood--meet someone, date, have the big white wedding, and enjoy your well-deserved future. But why do we buy into this idea? Is love really all we need?
Author Laurie Essig invites us to flip this concept of romance on its head and see it for what it really is--an ideology that we desperately cling to as a way to cope with the fact that we believe we cannot control or affect the societal, economic, and political structures around us. From climate change to nuclear war, white nationalism to the worship of wealth and conspicuous consumption--as the future becomes seemingly less secure, Americans turn away from the public sphere and find shelter in the private. Essig argues that when we do this, we allow romance to blind us to the real work that needs to be done--building global movements that inspire a change in government policies to address economic and social inequality.
Laurie Essig is Professor and Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Middlebury College. She is the author of American Plastic: Boob Jobs, Credit Cards, and Our Quest for Perfection. Essig has written for a variety of publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, and she blogs regularly for Ms. Magazine.
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Talk & Signing Authentic Inclusion™ Drives Disruptive Innovation
Monday, March 4
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-frances-west-author-of-authentic-inclusion-tickets-55079819222
In a world where technology is deeply embedded in all of our lives, providing the most personalized experience for every member of society is of the utmost importance. Today’s most successful and innovative businesses are operating with everyone in mind—not just the majority. In Authentic Inclusion™ Drives Disruptive Innovation, thought leader, speaker, strategy advisor, and women-in-technology trailblazer Frances Westaddresses key diversity issues and proposes new ways that business leaders can affect sustainable and scalable change—and tap into tremendous opportunities.
In this essential blueprint, Frances reveals how putting humans first—and building inclusion into business strategies, technological infrastructure, and organizational processes—can enable companies to bring principle, purpose, and profit into a state of harmonious alignment for sustainable talent acquisition, market expansion, and business differentiation.
Throughout the book, Frances draws on her unique personal background and business experience in technology innovation—from her personal journey as a first-generation, non-English speaking immigrant to her professional path as a woman in tech and IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer—along with cutting-edge research on diversity, accessibility, technology, and business. The result is a candid and inspiring guide that offers leaders the necessary tools to achieve disruptive innovation and lasting success.
About the Author
Frances West is an internationally recognized thought leader, speaker, strategy advisor, and women-in-technology trailblazer known for her work in innovation, technology, and business transformation. She is the founder of FrancesWestCo, a global strategy advisory company focused on operationalizing inclusion as a business and technology imperative through her unique Authentic Inclusion™ blueprint. Her insightful and impactful approach comes from her experience as a global executive in sales, marketing, business development, and research, as well as her groundbreaking work in accessibility as IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer. Frances brings a valuable business perspective to this human rights-based initiative. Because of her expertise, she was invited as the sole IT industry representative to testify before the US Senate on the need to pass the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts in Boston in recognition of her work in accessibility, research, and digital inclusion. Frances was born in Taiwan and educated in Hong Kong and the US. She is married with two adult sons and currently resides in Newton, Massachusetts.
@fwest34
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Decoding, Leveraging and Protecting Our DNA in The Age of Personal Genomics
Monday, March 4
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Cambridge Innovation Center, Venture Cafe, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
Cost: $0 – $25
Doors open @ 6pm -- Come early and meet other Long Now thinkers -- Presentation starts @ 7pm
A Long Now Boston Community Conversation with Preston Estep CSO and co-founder, Veritas Genetics and Dennis Grishin CSO and co-founder, Nebula Genomics
In the 21st century, propelled by groundbreaking technologies that enable quick and easy reading and editing of DNA molecules, the fields of genetics, genomics and synthetic biology have exploded.
Two biotech scientists and entrepreneurs, Preston Estep, co-founder and CSO of Veritas Genetics and Dennis Grishin, co-founder and CSO of Nebula Genomics, will share their stories and their views on the future role of DNA to human health and human thriving.
Veritas Genetics is dedicated to the goal of making whole-genome sequencing available to anyone. Whole-genome sequencing is far more extensive than the more common, and less expensive “genotyping” process now commonly available. Veritas was the first company to offer whole genome sequencing and interpretation for under $1,000.
Nebula Genomics tackles a different problem. How can consumers retain control over the data from their own genomes, protecting both the privacy of the data and the potential economic benefits of making it available for research? Using advanced blockchain technology and other cryptographic techniques, Nebula promises to do both: make anyone’s DNA sequences available for medical and research purposes while protecting their privacy and making sure the economic value of the data accrues to the individual.
The questions we'll explore may include:
What benefits and new ideas might the sciences of genetics and genomics spawn in the coming century?
What are the current barriers to achieving these benefits in terms of basic science, technology development, culture or policies?
What are the long term implications of using blockchain and other cryptographic techniques to increase personal privacy and control of information?
How do you think societal views on reproduction, genetic screening and selection, or cloning might change over time?
What are you most excited by? What are you most afraid of?
What might it be like to live in the distant future with fully mature bio-sciences in place?
Join the conversation and be part of the solution.
$15 in advance // $20 at the door. Students w/ID admitted free.
Audience participation is encouraged.
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Tuesday, March 5
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Jack Markell, Former Governor of Delaware: “Leading by Preparing for a Changing World”
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 5, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Kresge Building, Leadership Studio, 10th Floor, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
(Or online)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Voices in Leadership webcast program at Harvard T.H. School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) Jack Markell, Former Governor of Delaware
Moderator: Gina McCarthy, Director of Harvard C-CHANGE
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/jack-markell-former-governor-of-delaware/
CONTACT INFO Alison Barron
DETAILS Join us for the next “Voices in Leadership” event featuring Jack Markell, former Governor of Delaware. During his tenure, according to Gallup, Delaware progressed “from one of the lowest-ranking states (in terms of job creation) in 2008 and 2009 to one of the top-ranking in 2013 and 2014. Delaware holds the distinction of being the only state anywhere along the Eastern seaboard to be in the top 10.” Employment in Delaware increased by more than 60,000 during the same time period, best in the region and one of the best in the country. In 2010, Delaware won first place in Pres. Obama’s “Race to the Top” competition.
For lottery and live webcast details, visit hsph.me/markell.
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Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies
Tuesday, March 5
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West B (Room 2019, Second Floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevC2NdgcAMc7Re4UjVr8QC00bRHsIuhao9RxYgMQ1BjwbXHg/viewform
Woodrow Hartzog
Every day, Internet users interact with technologies designed to undermine their privacy. And the law says this is okay because it is mainly up to users to protect themselves—even when the odds are deliberately stacked against them. In this talk, Professor Hartzog will argue that the law should require software and hardware makers to respect privacy in the design of their products. Current legal doctrine treats technology as though it is value-neutral: only the user decides whether it functions for good or ill. But this is not so. Popular digital tools are designed to expose people and manipulate users into disclosing personal information. Against the often self-serving optimism of Silicon Valley and the inertia of tech evangelism, privacy gains will come from better rules for products, not users. The current model of regulating use fosters exploitation. We must develop the theoretical underpinnings of a new kind of privacy law responsive to the way people actually perceive and use digital technologies. The law can demand encryption. It can prohibit malicious interfaces that deceive users and leave them vulnerable. It can require safeguards against abuses of biometric surveillance. It can, in short, make the technology itself worthy of our trust.
This event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-03-05/privacys-blueprint at noon on event date.
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Fireside Chat on Certainty Versus Uncertainty with Naomi Oreskes and Gina McCarthy
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 5, 2019, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Snyder Auditorium, Kresge G1, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Kresge G1, Snyder Auditorium, Boston, MA 02115
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard C-CHANGE
SPEAKER(S) Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science
Gina McCarthy, Professor and director of C-CHANGE
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fireside-chat-on-certainty-versus-uncertainty-with-naomi-oreskes-and-gina-mccarthy-tickets-57051107398
CONTACT INFO Flanigan@hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS From tobacco smoke to global warming, a handful of scientists obscured the truth on these issues to create doubt among the general public. Join "Merchants of Doubt" author, Naomi Oreskes, as she explores this deliberate attempt to confuse the public with former EPA Administer Gina McCarthy. The two will discuss what Ms. Oreskes has learned since writing this groundbreaking book and how to determine what is certain verses uncertain.
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HESEC Webinar: "Sustainability in Apparel Industry"
Tuesday, March 5
1:00PM TO 2:00PM
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hesec-webinar-sustainability-in-apparel-industry-tickets-56596410387
"ONE GARBAGE TRUCK OF CLOTHES IS BURNED OR SENT TO LANDFILL EVERY SECOND", fashion industry's impacts hidden in the glamor, the impact of our clothes on our planet health and human health.
Join HESEC for a webinar with Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), and learn about the environmental and social issues associated with apparel industry, and how SAC's tool - Higg Index, is used to address those issues along with bringing transparency and traceability of apparel products.
Ms. Amina Razvi is the interim Executive Director at Sustainable Apparel Coalition, she has been in the apparel industry for more than a decade. Join our webinar with her and learn about the unseen impacts of fashion industry.
Webinar Link - https://harvard-dce.zoom.us/j/6511268568
Contact Name: Yashi Dadhich
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Trust & Innovation with Tarun Khanna
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 5, 2019, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard i-lab, Batten Hall, 125 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Baker Library
Harvard i-lab
SPEAKER(S) Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor
Author of "Trust: Creating the Foundation for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries”
COST Free
CONTACT INFO schurch@hbs.edu
DETAILS Entrepreneurial ventures often fail in the developing world because of the lack of something taken for granted in the developed world: trust. Over centuries, the developed world has built customs and institutions such as enforceable contracts, an impartial legal system, and credible regulatory bodies.
This is not the case in the developing world. In "Trust," Professor Tarun Khanna shows that rather than become casualties of mistrust, smart entrepreneurs can adopt the mindset that, like it or not, it's up to them to weave their own independent web of trust. Using vivid examples from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and elsewhere, Khanna's stories show how entrepreneurs can build on existing customs and practices instead of trying to push against them. He highlights the role new technologies can play (but cautions that these are not panaceas) and explains how entrepreneurs can find dependable partners in national and local governments to create impact at scale.
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Quantum Dots: Photophysics to Photochemistry
Tuesday, March 5
4:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Emily Weiss, Northwestern University
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Emile Bustani Seminar: "No country for young men (and women): Education, employment, and inequality in the Middle East and North Africa"
Tuesday, March 5
4:30pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building E51-325, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Professor of Economics, Virginia Tech, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, Research Affiliate, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School, Research Fellow, Economic Research Forum (ERF), Cairo
Worldwide, education offers better employment prospects and upward social mobility. These benefits have been the two pillars of the social contract in the post-independent Middle East between authoritarian governments, who promised education and government jobs, and the people they ruled. In the last two decades this “authoritarian bargain” has come largely undone as ever larger cohorts of university educated youth compete for a shrinking number of governments jobs. The failure of education in the Middle East in securing employment is well known: everywhere in the region, educated youth suffer from the highest rates of unemployment. Less well known is its failure as the main path to upward social mobility. In this talk, Salehi-Isfahani draws on a growing body of evidence on equality of opportunity in education in the Middle East to document and explain the twin failures of education to modernize Middle Eastern societies.
Djavad Salehi‐Isfahani received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1977. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania till 1984, before moving to Virginia Tech, where he is currently Professor of Economics. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Global Economy and Development, the Brookings Institution, Research Affiliate of the Iran Project at the Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School, and Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo. He has held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, the Brookings Institution, Harvard University, and Princeton University. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Economic Research Forum in Cairo, the Middle East Economic Association, the International Iranian Economic Association, and as Associate Editor of the Middle East Development Journal. His current research is on economic inequality and economics of the family in the Middle East. His opinion pieces have appeared in Al Monitor, Brookings, Foreign Affairs, LA Times, Lobelog.com, the New York Times, and the Project Syndicate.
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The Past, Present & Future of Truth
Tuesday, March 5
5:00 - 6:30 pm (reception to follow)
BU, Morse Auditorium, 602 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eg11hw59485c3ef8&oseq=&c=&ch=
Marcia McNutt, President of the National Academy of Sciences
What is truth? A scientist might tell you that something is true if it is verifiable by the scientific method. Courts have their own standards of truth. And until recently we believed that if an event was captured on video, we were assured of its veracity. But now the very foundations of what is truth are crumbling. Scientific studies are irreproducible. There is no scientific basis underpinning forensic science. Even videos are easily manipulated. Some say we are living in a "post-truth" era. There are several futures we can imagine given the current situation, but the one that we should most staunchly support is one in which we empower people and institutions to rebuild a stronger basis for distinguishing truth from falsehood.
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Hospitality Now!
Tuesday, March 5
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 14e-304, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Benjamin Boudou examines anti-migration discourse and policies in France and the US. and makes a case for why we should make hospitality a principle of our democracies.
Benjamin Boudou is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute, Germany. He is author of Le dilemme des frontières : Ethique et politique de l’immigration [The Boundary Dilemma] and Politique de l’hospitalité [Politics of Hospitality].
Global France Seminar
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The Battle for the Future of Food Book Launch: Eating Tomorrow
Tuesday, March 5
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
The Fletcher School at Tufts University, Cabot 701-702, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Timothy A. Wise launches his new book, Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food, with a public talk and reading as part of "Tufts Global Week," linking the global with the local. Wise's new book, published by The New Press in February 2019, travels the world to answer the question: Why are leaders ignoring the low-cost solutions to hunger and climate change all around them in favor of more expensive and less-effective agricultural technologies?
Wise will be joined by Frances Moore Lappé, renowned author of Diet for a Small Planet and other books, for a conversation about the battle for the future of food. Eating Tomorrow will be available at the event and the author will be signing books. Read more about the book.
Co-sponsored by GDAE, UEP, Global Tufts Week, Small Planet Institute
Author Bio: Timothy A. Wise directs the Land and Food Rights Program at the Small Planet Institute and is a senior research fellow at the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University. Eating Tomorrow is part of Wise's Land and Food Rights Program at Small Planet Institute, building on his GDAE work on A Rights-Based Approach to the Global Food Crisis. Wise earned his Masters in Public Policy in 2005 from Tufts' Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Department.
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Stepping Up: Business In The Era Of Climate Change Part 1 (Open for Business)
Tuesday, March 5
6:30 pm
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $15.00
A five-part WBUR series in collaboration with Harvard Business School and Boston University Questrom School of Business
Business is the main source of the greenhouse gases that are causing the Earth’s climate to change. Business is also the main source of new products, services and business models that may save us from wholesale climate calamity. This 5-part series, featuring leading thinkers from business, environmental advocacy groups and area universities, will explore what businesses are doing, can do and should do to confront climate change.
Part 1: Open for Business?
In deciding where to locate, managers take into account proximity to workers, customers, and infrastructure. But climate change—and associated sea level rise, extreme weather, drought, wildfires, and political and security risk—is changing the calculus of where businesses set up shop and how they manage their supply chains. What new costs is climate change posing for large manufacturers that buy inputs and sell products in a global marketplace? Will businesses of the future retreat from the coast to areas less prone to climate disruption? What will those shifts mean for coastal cities like Boston?
Panelists:
David Cash, Dean, School of Public Policy, UMass Boston
Bryan Koop, Executive VP, Boston Properties
Rachel Cleetus, Policy Director Climate and Energy, Union of Concerned Scientists
Moderator, Barbara Moran, WBUR Senior Producing Editor, Enviroment
Click the links below to purchase tickets to other events in this series.
Part 2: Food, Diet, and Climate, April 2
Part 3: Climate Politics and Business, April 22
Part 4: The Road Map of the Future: Transportation, May 7
Part 5: Energy Transitions, June 4
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Native Bees in the Hood
Tuesday, March 5
6:30–8:30pm
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Boston
Cost: $15
Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
Nick Dorian, PhD student, Tufts University
Perhaps surprisingly, urban environments support a high diversity of native bee species. But where are they living and what are they eating? In this workshop, you will first learn about the biology and diversity of native bees and why they are important pollinators. We’ll dive into the city lifestyles of bees and the strategies they employ to be successful in these anthropogenic landscapes. In the second part of the workshop, we’ll focus on native bee decline and conservation, and learn answers to common questions such as: Why are bees dying? Do all bees need saving? What can I do to help bees at home? You’ll also learn the fundamentals of gardening for bees, and at the end of the workshop, have the opportunity to build and leave with a mason and leafcutter bee hotel. This workshop will extend your interest in native pollinators and equip you with the knowledge essential to supporting populations of native bees.
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Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote
Tuesday March 5
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
An eye-opening, inspiring, and timely account of the complex relationship between notable suffragist Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson in Alice’s fight for women’s equality. From solitary confinement, hunger strikes, and mental institutions to sitting right across from President Wilson, Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? reveals the inspiring, near-death journey it took, spearheaded in no small part by Paul’s leadership, to grant women the right to vote in America.
Tina Cassidy is the executive vice president and chief content officer at the public relations and social content firm InkHouse and also a board member at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. She has written two previous nonfiction books, Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born and Jackie After O: One Remarkable Year When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Defied Expectations and Rediscovered her Dreams. Previously, Tina was a journalist at The Boston Globe, where she covered politics, sports, fashion, and business.
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Cambridge Forum: How to Be Happy
Tuesday, March 5
7pm
3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
Happiness is a choice you make.
So says author John Leland who reflects on the timeless subject in his new book Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons From a Year Among the Oldest Old. It’s based on his interviews with some of New York City’s oldest residents in order to understand the experience of aging during the twilight years . Read an excerpt at
Can we really just choose to be happy?
John Leland is a reporter for The New York Times. Since joining The Times in 2000, he has covered topics ranging from the poetry of rock lyrics to the housing crisis.
Leland is the author of two books: Hip: The History (HarperCollins, 2004), a cultural history of hipness, and Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of ‘On the Road’ (They’re Not What You Think) (Viking, 2007).
