I may be late with next week’s edition as I will be at a conference all weekend but each edition of Energy (and Other) Events includes the following week’s Monday and Tuesday events even thought it is published on Sunday.
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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, September 16
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8:15am Bangladesh Rising Conference
11/45am Carbon Pricing in Electricity Markets: New York on the Forefront
12pm Book Launch: Transparency in Health and Health Care in the United States
12pm Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium - Speaker: Marianna Linz
12pm The Time for Talk is Over: Climate Justice for Future Generations
12pm Collecting War Crimes Evidence during Cultural Rescue in Iraq
12:15pm Viral Science and the Tragedy of the Scientific Commons
12:30pm Fletcher D-Prize 2019 Information Session: Poverty Solutions Venture Competition
3pm Ocean Futures: Conversations with Jim McCarthy
3pm A Conversation with Don Eigler: Moving Atoms One by One
4:15pm 2019 Loeb Lectures in Physics "Colloquium: The unreasonable effectiveness of deep learning”
5pm Meat Planet Q&A with Author and Historian, Ben Wurgaft, PhD
5pm Boston Cannabis Week Presents: Conscious Community
6pm A Public Address by The Right Honourable John Bercow
6pm Preparing for & Competing with the ‘Tech Titans of China’
6pm Fight Like a Mother: Shannon Watts Book Talk & Signing
6pm Boston New Technology FinTech & Blockchain Startup Showcase #BNT105 (21+)
7pm Death to Fascism: Louis Adamic's Fight for Democracy Reclaiming the life of a progressive visionary
7pm Mental Health and Africa
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Tuesday, September 17
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7:30am & 4:30pm BlackRock Demonstration
12pm Speaker Series: Adam Moss on How Desperation Breeds Innovation
12pm Humor & Geoengineering
12pm Women’s Political Empowerment A Century After the 19th Amendment: Reflections by Women Mayors
12pm 2nd person and me
12pm Greentown Learn Manufacturing Initiative Supplier & Innovation Showcase
1pm Changing Minds, Saving Lives: Media’s Role in Public Health
3:30pm "Sensing Human Behavior with Smart Garments", Prof. Trisha Andrew, University of Massachusetts
4:30pm Study Group with Alice Stewart: From the Reagan Rule to the Trump Tweets: Was 2016 Incivility an Aberration or Precedent-setting?
5:15pm Reducing the cost of decarbonization through cutting-edge carbon capture innovation
5:30pm American Democracy: Creators, Gatekeepers & Disruptors
5:30pm Gutman Library Book Talk: Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty
5:30pm Farming While Black: African Diasporic Wisdom for Farming and Food Justice
5:30pm Environmental Voter Project BUILDING THE ELECTORATE FUNDRAISER
6pm Sway: How to Persuade and Influence Others
6pm Growing Up Puritan: The Family in 17th-century New England
6pm Ben Franklin Circles: Tranquility
6:30 Sunrise Movement Boston Full Hub Meeting
7pm Poisoner in Chief
7pm Protest Health and Safety Training
7pm You're It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When It Matters Most
7pm Producers in Crisis! Presenting a Study on Costs of Production in Latin America
7pm JP Solar Professionals Happy Hour
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Wednesday, September 18
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7:30am Sustainability Breakfast
11am MassTLC’s Tech & Innovation Conference
12pm International Order and the Persistence of War
12:30pm U.S. Strategy and Doctrine for Cyber Conflict and Deterrence
1pm NASA’s Destination Station and ISS AI Project Pitches
2pm Yoshua Bengio: Learning High-Level Representations for Agents
4pm Telling Stories: Allegories on “Race,” Racism, and Anti-Racism
4:15pm Behavioral Economics and Public Policy
4:30pm Study Group with Senator Jeff Flake: The Future of Conservatism
4:30pm Book talk: 'City of Black and Gold: Oil, Ethnicity, and the Making of Modern Kirkuk’
5pm Ian Condry, “Sound, Learning and Democracy: The Curvature of Social Space-Time through Japanese Music, from Underground Techno to Pop Idols”
5pm SPI Faculty Panel on Space Debris and Space Sustainability
5:30pm Gutman Library Book Talk: Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty
5:30pm Anders Åslund: Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy
6pm Food and fascism
6pm Authors@MIT | George Yip: Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs
6pm Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic
6pm Distributive Politics of Urban Planning in China
6:30pm The Key to Making Renewable Energy Work
6:30pm Heading for Extinction (and What to Do about It)
6:30pm Old North Speaker Series: LECTURE + COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
Forcing Freedom: Understanding Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence
7pm We are The Weather
7pm The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains
7pm Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI
7pm Environmental and Health Impacts of Natural Gas and Fracking
7:30pm Elie Wiesel Memorial Lecture: "Writing from a Place of Survival" Rabbi Joseph Pollack
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Thursday, September 19
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9am Inclusive Community Convening: Immigrant Rights and Resources
11am Covering Climate Change Solutions
11am BU Annual Sustainability Festival
12pm Integrating Tropical Conservation and Civic Engagement to Create Change: a Case Study from Ecuador
12pm Colonized by Data: The Costs of Connection with Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias
12pm Investing and Innovating: Technology’s Role in Democracy Reform
12:45pm Why Robert Mueller’s Appointment as Special Counsel Was Unlawful
3pm Why Businesses are Backing Carbon Pricing
3pm Climate Justice Speaker: Dr. Adrienne Hollis
3:30pm Fear and Loathing (and Enthusiasm!): A National Study of Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence
3:30pm Mechanisms of Regeneration and their Evolution
4pm Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Dr. Ben Hayden: The Neuroscience of Naturalistic Decisions
4:15pm All That Glitters Is Gold: Gravitational Waves, Light and the Origin of the Heavy Elements
4:30pm Crisis in Kashmir: Current Events Seminar
5pm Extinction Rebellion Open Mic at Herter Park, Charles River
5:30pm Reading King in Boston (RKIB): Rev. Mariama White-Hammond of New Roots AME Church
5:30pm Jeanne S. Chall Lecture and Reception - Language is Access
6pm The Promises, Responsibilities, and Challenges of Citizenship
6pm Heading for Extinction (and What to Do about It)
6pm 9.19 Mapping Feminist Cambridge Walking Tour
6pm Dr. Vali Nasr: U.S. Middle East & South Asia Policy in the Age of Trump
6pm Climate Stories Project
7pm The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
7pm Gender and our Brains: How New Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds
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Friday, September 20 - Friday, September 27
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Global Climate Strike
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Friday, September 20
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8am Changing Climate, Changing Health: Strategies for Addressing Public Health in the Age of Climate Change
8am Global Climate Strike
8am PARKing Day
9am Boston Climate Strike
12pm Light-Absorbing Impurities in Snow: Origins, Radiative Processes, and Climate Impacts
12:10pm Social Resilience: Understanding how Environmental Stressors Impact the Behavior and Health of Bees
2pm Mayors Stepping Up. Can Mayors Save the World?
5pm Hitler's Great Gamble: A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II
7pm Represent: The Woman's Guide to Running for Office and Changing the World
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Saturday, September 21
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9am Somerville Garden Club Annual Plant Sale
9:30am National Day of Civic Hacking: Boston 2019
11am Ladies Comics Con [Gentlemen Invited]
1pm Nature Inspired Design (Bio-mimicry) Workshop
1:30pm Plant A Tree Day in Boston
3:30pm Can They Do It? Divisions on the Road to the 19th Amendment
5pm Revels Riversing: A Free Family Celebration of the Autumnal Equinox
7:30pm Standing up to Climate Change
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Sunday, September 22
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1:30pm Addiction as Compulsion and Choice: A Naturalistic Perspective
1:45pm Climate Action for Peace - UN International Day of Peace Boston 2019
5pm Governing With Communities
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Monday, September 23 – Tuesday, September 24
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Indigenous Knowledge in Coastal Resilience
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Monday, September 23
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11am Wind Technology Testing Center Tour
12pm Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium - Speaker: Dorian Abbot
12pm Gutman Library Book Talk: "We Dare Say Love": Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys
12:10pm Social Resilience: Understanding how Environmental Stressors Impact the Behavior and Health of Bees
12:15pm Computational Social Science: 10 Years Later
4:30pm The Environmental Bias of Trade Policy
5pm 2019 Walker Prize Lecture: "The Origin of Life on the Early Earth”
5:30pm Gurus, Women, and Yoga: The Spiritual World of Hindu Universalism
6pm ACT Fall 2019 Lecture Series: The Inexplicable Wonder of Precipitous Events -- Sarah Oppenheimer
6pm Lifespan: Why we Age and Why We Don't Have To
6pm History Café 3: Engaging through the Arts
7pm Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost and The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
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Tuesday, September 24 - Monday, September 30
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Climate Preparedness Week - September 24-30
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Tuesday, September 24
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8am In Brookline, Climate is Everybody's Business
8:30am IxDA Boston & Creative Mornings Boston | Emotionally Intelligent Design
9am MIT Quest Workshop on Collective Intelligence
12pm Speaker Series: Suraj Yengde
12pm A New Jim Code? ON RACE, CARCERAL TECHNOSCIENCE, AND LIBERATORY IMAGINATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE JUSTICE, EQUITY, & INCLUSION
12:30pm IDG Development Seminars: Ciro Biderman
4pm Biology Colloquium Series: The Coming of Age of De Novo Protein Design
4:15pm Thinking Like a Magician
5:30pm Fulbright University Vietnam: Sustainability in New Campus Design
5:30pm I'm Taking a Job in Charlotte: How the High Cost of Housing is Hurting Massachusetts Businesses
6pm What Psychedelics Teach Us About Spirituality
6pm The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
6pm A Golden Civilization and The Map of Mindfulness
6pm PKG Community Conversations: Tech for Social Good
6pm DeepMind - Company Presentation
6:30pm A Global Ecology Journey: Prioritizing Earth-Centered Ethics
6:30pm Harvard Philosophy Department Faculty and ThinkerAnalytix Panel
6:30pm Wicked Hot Boston
7pm The City-State of Boston
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers
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Monday, September 16 – Friday, September 20
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2nd Annual AI Research Week (2019)
Monday, September 16, 12:30 PM – Friday, September 20, 5:30 PM EDT
MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Chang Building (E52), Cambridge
Join us for AI Research Week 2019!
5 days of innovation, inspiration and insights featuring notable speakers, panels, workshops, networking and mentorship from leading figures in AI Research.
Register now to sign up for the AI Research Week marquee events: the Colloquium and Poster Social, on Monday and Tuesday, September 16-17th 2019.
Learn more about the full slate of AI Research Week events, see select Replays from last year and get travel information by checking the AI Research Week website.
Stay Tuned and Register for other AI Week Events! We will continue to update the AI Research Week schedule with speakers and further details, so come back often to check these updates and get links to register separately for events such as the IBM Cambridge Open House and the various AI Research Week workshops.
Questions? Contact IBM Research / Josiane Emorine at emorine@us.ibm.com
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Monday, September 16
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Bangladesh Rising Conference
WHEN Monday, Sep. 16, 2019, 8:15 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Gutman Conference Center, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Education, Health Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Kaushik Basu, C. Marks Professor of International Studies and Professor of Economics, Cornell University; Former Chief Economist, World Bank
Abdur Rouf Talukder, Secretary of Finance, Government of Bangladesh
Reshmaan Hussam, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Iqbal Quadir, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Kazi Aminul Islam, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority
Gary Bass, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
Shamsul Alam, Senior Secretary, General Economics Division, Bangladesh Planning Commission
Hossain Taufiq Imam, Political Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Abul Kalam Azad, Principal SDG Coordinator, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; Former Principal Secretary, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey
DETAILS Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with the third fastest GDP growth rate. Despite its small geographical size, Bangladesh is on its way to becoming an economic and cultural giant. In our upcoming Bangladesh Rising Conference, experts from Harvard and peer institutions, as well as governing bodies and organizations across Bangladesh, will discuss the nation’s economy, history, art and heritage, entrepreneurship, public health, and its actions to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Keynote speakers include Kaushik Basu, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, who will lead a panel on the Bangladesh economy and the nation’s economic resurgence through foreign investment. Abul Kalam Azad, Principal SDG Coordinator with the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, will discuss the current efforts toward meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
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Carbon Pricing in Electricity Markets: New York on the Forefront
Monday, September 16
11:45AM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Sam Newell, The Brattle Group. Lunch is provided.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name: Julie Gardella
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Book Launch: Transparency in Health and Health Care in the United States
WHEN Monday, Sep. 16, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East (2036), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Law
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
SPEAKER(S) I. Glenn Cohen, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center
Holly Fernandez Lynch, John Russell Dickson, MD Presidential Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Assistant Faculty Director of Online Education, and Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Jennifer Miller, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine: General Internal Medicine and Program for Biomedical Ethics, Yale School of Medicine
Moderator: Elena Fagotto, Co-investigator, Project on Transparency and Technology for Better Health and former Director of Research, Transparency Policy Project, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Kaitlyn Dowling
DETAILS In June 2019, Cambridge University Press published "Transparency in Health and Health Care in the United States." This volume, edited by Holly Fernandez Lynch, I. Glenn Cohen, Carmel Shachar, and Barbara J. Evans, stems from the Petrie-Flom Center’s 2017 annual conference, which brought together leading experts to reach better understandings of this health policy buzzword, recognizing its true limitations, so that transparency can be utilized as a solution to pressing health policy issues.
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Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium - Speaker: Marianna Linz
Monday, September 16
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54, Room 915 (Ida Green Lounge), 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
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The Time for Talk is Over: Climate Justice for Future Generations
WHEN Monday, Sep. 16, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Morgan Courtroom, Austin 308, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR East Asian Legal Studies
SPEAKER(S) Antonio Oposa, Environmental activist in the Philippines and Founder, The Law of Nature Foundation
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Mike Zaisser
DETAILS Lunchtime talks begin promptly at 12 p.m. You are invited to bring your own lunch.
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Collecting War Crimes Evidence during Cultural Rescue in Iraq
WHEN Monday, Sep. 16, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Wasserstein 1019, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World; Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Corine Wegener
CONTACT INFO pls@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS After ISIS established its “Caliphate” in Mosul in 2014, it intentionally destroyed cultural heritage across Iraq’s Nineveh Plain. When Mosul was liberated in 2017, international cultural organizations offered salvage and stabilization assistance. Faced with scenes of war crimes under the 1954 Hague Convention on cultural property protection, professionals realized they also had to document the destruction properly or risk causing future court cases to fail.
Corine Wegener will describe the development of Mosul Museum Project Zero, which collects evidence of destruction at the museum for use in a possible war crimes trial. Wegener is director of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and a board member of the US Committee of the Blue Shield. She is a retired US Army Reserve major and served as a Civil Affairs Arts, Monuments, and Archives Officer in Iraq in 2003-2004.
LINK pls.law.harvard.edu
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Viral Science and the Tragedy of the Scientific Commons
Monday, September 16
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Christopher Winship, Department of Sociology, FAS
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to via the online form by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
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Fletcher D-Prize 2019 Information Session: Poverty Solutions Venture Competition
Monday, September 16
12:30 pm
Tufts, Mugar 200 - Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Street, Medford
The Fletcher D-Prize funds entrepreneurs who increase access to proven poverty interventions.
The world has already invented ways to end poverty, yet the best interventions are not being distributed at mass-scale. Can you design a business or NGO that solves one of the Distribution Challenges like education or agriculture?
If selected, The Fletcher D-Prize will award you up to $20,000 in cash to launch a pilot in any region where extreme poverty exists. For more details, visit: http://www.fletcher.tufts.edu/d-prize
During this info session, you'll learn more about how you can participate, brainstorm ideas with fellow students and meet the 2019 winners, Guilia Bova & Farah Momen, F'20 who launched their venture The Now Project this summer, bringing health access and choice to women in the Bangladeshi garment industry.
Pizza Will be Served!
@ IBGC_Fletcher #IBGCSpeaks #DPrize
For more information, contact Maria Pereira (Maria.Pereira@tufts.edu)
If you had $30,000, how would you fight poverty?
Six years ago, the Fletcher School/Tufts University and The D-Prize launched a unique social entrepreneurship competition, combining Fletcher’s interdisciplinary, holistic problem solving around the world’s most pressing development issues with D-Prize’s ability to find and fund poverty fighting ventures. Imagine, you can distribute a proven social venture idea, receive valuable feedback from venture capitalists, and win up to $20K in cash with additional $10K in-kind support to start your venture. And you can fulfill your capstone requirement all while doing your summer internship or making it a post Fletcher/Tufts experience that builds your business skills – all while having real world impact.
That’s exactly what’s happening for Guilia Bova and Farah Momen, F'20. They launched the Now Project (TNE) this summer with $10K funding from the Fletcher D-Prize. They also won the Tufts $100k New Ventures social track competition, receiving an additional $15K in funding. Come and hear how they are focusing on strengthening health clinics within Bangladeshi garment factories through the provision women's health supplies (starting with contraceptive access), and medical training. Ultimately, TNE aims to redefine the exchange between retailers and workers by advocating for investment into the health of people throughout supply chains.
Fletcher D-Prize invites all budding Fletcher/Tufts social entrepreneurs like Farah – in any stage of formation – with support from faculty, staff, and alumni to focus your energy and talent on distributing proven poverty solutions.
This could be your summer internship, your capstone, you post Fletcher/Tufts experience to build your business skills.
This could be your way to make real world impact.
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Ocean Futures: Conversations with Jim McCarthy
Monday, September 16
3:00PM TO 5:00PM
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Throughout his career, Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography Jim McCarthy has blended his scientific curiosity about life in the oceans with his commitment to a broader public understanding of human impacts on the Earth system. In honor of his 75th year, and in recognition of his many contributions to science, to education, and to the assessment of climate change as a global challenge, HUCE invites you to join Jim along with five visionary leaders in science and policy for a discussion of the future of the oceans and the Earth.
OCEAN FUTURES: Conversations with JIM McCARTHY
With panelists:
SALLIE (Penny) CHISHOLM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JEREMY JACKSON, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Smithsonian Institution
JANE LUBCHENCO, Oregon State University; former Administrator, NOAA
WILLIAM MOOMAW, Tufts University
BUD RIS, Boston Green Ribbon Commission; former President, New England Aquarium
Contact Name: Erin Harleman
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A Conversation with Don Eigler: Moving Atoms One by One
Monday, September 16
3:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 34-401 (Grier), 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
For the final event in the Perspectives in Nanotechnology seminar series, MIT.nano is delighted to host Don Eigler. Rather than present from behind a podium, Mr. Eigler will sit with a former student and colleague for a wide ranging conversation about his accomplishments and career.
This event is free and open to the public. Registration details to come.
Biography
Don Eigler is a physicist, Kavli Laureate and former IBM Fellow. Don was the founding leader of the Low Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Project at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. While he is most often noted for his 1989 demonstration of the ability to manipulate individual atoms, it was his seminal efforts to take tunneling microscopes to low temperatures that have had the greatest impact. While at IBM, his research was aimed at understanding the physics of nanometer-scale structures and exploring their applications to computation. In 2011 Don left IBM to found The Wetnose Institute for Advanced Pelagic Studies, a private institute devoted to creating opportunities for scientists to conduct studies free from the administrative responsibilities, financial demands and diversionary cacophony that accompany more traditional positions.
Don received both his bachelors and doctorate degrees from the University of California San Diego and was named its Outstanding Alumnus of the year in 1999. He has been recognized for his accomplishments with the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, the Davisson-Germer Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize, the Grand Award for Science and Technology, the Nanoscience Prize, and numerous honorary lectureships. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Max Planck Society and the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from the Technical University of Delft and the University of Warwick.
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2019 Loeb Lectures in Physics "Colloquium: The unreasonable effectiveness of deep learning”
WHEN Monday, Sep. 16, 2019, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Jefferson 250, Physics Department, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Information Technology, Lecture, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Physics Department, Harvard University
Morris Loeb Lectureship Fund
SPEAKER(S) Yann LeCun, VP & Chief AI Scientist, Facebook; Silver Professor, NYU
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Jolanta Davis
Administrator to the Chair of the Physics Department
617-495-2866
DETAILS Yann LeCun is VP & Chief AI Scientist at Facebook and Silver Professor at NYU affiliated with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences & the Center for Data Science. He was the founding Director of Facebook AI Research and of the NYU Center for Data Science. He received an Engineering Diploma from ESIEE (Paris) and a PhD from Sorbonne Université. After a postdoc in Toronto he joined AT&T Bell Labs in 1988, and AT&T Labs in 1996 as Head of Image Processing Research. He joined NYU as a professor in 2003 and Facebook in 2013. His interests include AI machine learning, computer perception, robotics and computational neuroscience. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the recipient of the 2018 ACM Turing Award (with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio) for "conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that have made deep neural networks a critical component of computing".
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Meat Planet Q&A with Author and Historian, Ben Wurgaft, PhD
Monday, September 16
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT
Industry Lab, 288 Norfolk Street, Cambridge
Cultured meat historian, Ben Wurgaft, has written a engaging, thoughtful look at the field of cellular agriculture. Join us for a Q&A with the author.
"About Meat Planet
In 2013, a Dutch scientist unveiled the world’s first laboratory-created hamburger. Since then, the idea of producing meat, not from live animals but from carefully cultured tissues, has spread like wildfire through the media. Meanwhile, cultured meat researchers race against population growth and climate change in an effort to make sustainable protein. Meat Planet explores the quest to generate meat in the lab—a substance sometimes called “cultured meat”—and asks what it means to imagine that this is the future of food.
Neither an advocate nor a critic of cultured meat, Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft spent five years researching the phenomenon. In Meat Planet, he reveals how debates about lab-grown meat reach beyond debates about food, examining the links between appetite, growth, and capitalism. Could satiating the growing appetite for meat actually lead to our undoing? Are we simply using one technology to undo the damage caused by another? Like all problems in our food system, the meat problem is not merely a problem of production. It is intrinsically social and political, and it demands that we examine questions of justice and desirable modes of living in a shared and finite world.
Wurgaft tells a story that could utterly transform the way we think of animals, the way we relate to farmland, the way we use water, and the way we think about population and our fragile ecosystem’s capacity to sustain life. He argues that even if cultured meat does not “succeed,” it functions—much like science fiction—as a crucial mirror that we can hold up to our contemporary fleshy dysfunctions."
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Boston Cannabis Week Presents: Conscious Community
Monday, September 16
5:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
District Hall Boston, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
Panel discussions featuring industry leaders, legal experts, executives , regulatory labs, and entrepreneurs.
The Educated Consumer: (Starting at 6:15PM)
Consumer Rights & Laws
CBD
Mapping of resources
Next steps in Prohibition
Recreational vs. Medicinal Markets
Sales
State & Federal
Jurisdictions
The Massachusetts Hemp Market
Social Equity & Economic Empowerment for Entrepreneurs: (Starting at 7:30PM)
Navigating a Start-Up in the Cannabis Industry
Qualifications
The Application Process
Funding
Marketing Challenges
Labs & Testing (Starting at 8:45PM)
Laws
Procedures
Operations
Quality Control
EVENT IS 21+
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A Public Address by The Right Honourable John Bercow
WHEN Monday, Sep. 16, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, United Kingdom
Moderator: Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Executive Director, The Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, Harvard Kennedy School
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.facebook.com/events/366360620908631/
CONTACT INFO Rsvp_IOP@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS A public address by the The Right Honourable John Bercow, MP Speaker of the House of Commons.
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Preparing for & Competing with the ‘Tech Titans of China’
Monday, September 16
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT Stata Center, 32-123 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Cost: $10 - $58
Last August, the Economist argued that there is a new geography of innovation in a cover story titled, “Peak Valley.” Looming large in this new geography is China. They’ve transformed their economy from that of a low-cost manufacturer to a cutting-edge innovator. With their “9-9-6” de facto weekly work schedule, China’s tech companies are relentless in their pursuit of success, and it shows.
China has now achieved near parity with the US in venture capital investments, something inconceivable even 5 years ago. It’s been reported that the race to lead the future of technology comes down to just $6 billion dollars with China’s venture investments rising to $105 billion in 2018, nearly matching the U.S. at $111 billion.
Google China’s former President, Dr. Kai-Fu Lee now heads China’s largest VC Fund and is aggressively leading their efforts to be the world leader in AI. Further signaling their global ambitions, Chinese technology companies such as Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, and other titans have very active Corporate VC offices in both the US and Israel. They are no longer content to compete in their domestic market.
Spearheaded by Huawei, China’s increasingly dominant presence in the tech sector, especially in the highly strategic 5G wireless market, has spurred endless headlines as the most visible flashpoint in the escalating U.S.-China trade war. Rising tariffs – and tensions- have spooked the capital markets from Wall Street to the City of London to Hong Kong. Investors are prepared for a long period of tension.
It’s clear that the rise of China's tech companies and intense competition from the sector is just beginning and it’s presenting challenges for US companies now and will present increasing challenges well into the future.
In this fireside chat, Rebecca Fannin, an expert on China, journalist, speaker and author of the new book “Tech Titans of China: How China's Tech Sector is challenging the world by innovating faster, working harder, and going global,“ will sit down with serial entrepreneur, professor, innovation consultant, angel investor, board member and startup mentor Mike Grandinetti for a fireside chat to discuss:
The US-China tech race
Which Chinese tech companies are making waves
The Tech sectors that matter most in China's grab for superpower status
What US startup founders can learn from Chinese founders
Join us on September 16th and come ready with your questions for Rebecca, who has the inside scoop on the ammunition venture capitalists, startup founders, and others impacted by -- or interested in -- cashing in on the Chinese tech industry need to prepare and compete.
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Fight Like a Mother: Shannon Watts Book Talk & Signing
Monday, September 16
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
More Than Words Warehouse Bookstore, 242 East Berkley Street, Boston
Meet Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and author of Fight Like a Mother.
ABOUT FIGHT LIKE A MOTHER
Hear the inspiring story of how Shannon Watts went from stay-at-home mom to “the NRA’s worst nightmare.” What started as a simple Facebook group to connect with other frustrated parents in the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, grew into Moms Demand Action, a national movement with millions of supporters and a powerful grassroots network of local chapters in all fifty states.
This incredible account of how one mother’s cry for change became the driving force behind gun safety progress will inspire everyone—mothers and fathers, students and teachers, lawmakers, and anyone motivated to enact change—to get to work transforming hearts and minds and passing laws that save lives.
Ticketing Ticket proceeds support More Than Words, empowering system involved youth through job training and mentorship. Set your own ticket price and receive a copy of the book when you give over $26.
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Boston New Technology FinTech & Blockchain Startup Showcase #BNT105 (21+)
Monday, September 16
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Foley Hoag, LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
Cost: $0 – $99
See 6 innovative and exciting local FinTech & Blockchain tech demos, presented by startup founders
Network with attendees from the Boston-area startup/tech community
Get your free headshot photo (non-intrusively watermarked) from The Boston Headshot!
Enjoy dinner with beer, wine and more
Each company presents an overview and demonstration of their product within 5 minutes and discusses questions with the audience.
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Death to Fascism: Louis Adamic's Fight for Democracy Reclaiming the life of a progressive visionary
Monday, September 16
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Born to Slovenian peasants, Louis Adamic commanded crowds, met with FDR and Truman, and built a prolific career as an author and journalist. Behind the scenes, he played a leading role in a coalition of black intellectuals and writers, working-class militants, ethnic activists, and others that worked for a multi ethnic America and against fascism.
About the Author: John P. Enyeart is professor and chair of the Department of History at Bucknell University. He is the author of The Quest for “Just and Pure Law”: Rocky Mountain Workers and American Social Democracy, 1870–1924.
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Mental Health and Africa
WHEN Monday, Sep. 16, 2019, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, WCC-1015, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Law School Project on Disability
SPEAKER(S) Elizabeth Kamundia, Kenya Human Rights Commission
Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies
Vikram Harshad Pate, The Pershing Square, Professor of Global Health
Moderator: Michael Stein, Harvard Law School Project on Disability
CONTACT INFO hpod@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join HPOD, GMHI, and the Department of Africa and African American Studies for a discussion on mental health and Africa
Light refreshments will be served.
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Tuesday, September 17
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BlackRock Demonstration
Tuesday, September 17
Meet at Carmen Park, corner of Congress and North Street, at 7:30 am and again at 4:30 pm. We will then proceed as a group to our location in front of BlackRock’s offices at 60 State Street where “school will be in session” and we’ll be “giving lessons” from 8 to 9 am and again from 5 to 6 pm.
RSVP for 7:30 session: https://xrmass.org/action/black-rock-report-card-rebellion/
for 4:30 session: https://xrmass.org/action/blackrock-report-card-rebellion-part-2/
BlackRock’s report card is out and it’s time to school BlackRock on responsible corporate behavior.
On August 30th, BlackRock and other top asset managers filed with the SEC, as required by law, their 2018–2019 shareholder votes, revealing that both asset managers wielded their considerable shareholder power to block the boards of directors of ExxonMobil, Duke Energy, General Motors, Ford, and Dominion Energy from facing accountability on climate change, prioritizing short-termism over the creation of long-term shareholder value. BlackRock, one of the two largest asset managers in the world, was also a top shareholder at each of those companies at the time of their shareholder meetings. Instead of using their power to promote leadership on climate change, BlackRock is using it to shield industries driving the climate crisis from accountability (https://medium.com/majority-action/blackrock-and-vanguard-protect-fossil-fuel-energy-and-auto-execs-from-facing-accountability-on-71086bac46ba)
Why September 17th? This is the date when the Majority Actions/Climate Majority Project releases its 2019 Asset Manager Climate Scorecard (based on what asset managers filed with the SEC) This scorecard is the impetus and inspiration for this action.
TIME FOR TEACHING SOME LESSONS!
We’ll meet at Carmen Park, corner of Congress and North St, at 7:30 am and again at 4:30 pm. We will then proceed as a group to our location in front of BlackRock’s offices at 60 State St. where “school will be in session” and we’ll be “giving lessons” from 8 to 9 am and again from 5 to 6 pm.
We'll be handing out report cards on the terrible voting record BlackRock has among other big problems and "schooling" BlackRock employees on their way in and out as well as the public passing by. Please note the two different times we will be gathering. You are welcome to join either or both.
Please sign up so we can send you any updates or changes!
4:30 session:
This action is being led by our friends, Mothers Out Front, with support from Extinction Rebellion. Using the Climate Scorecard as a jumping off point, Mothers Out Front are designing a “report card/school” theme that promises to be impactful, engaging, and educational!
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Speaker Series: Adam Moss on How Desperation Breeds Innovation
Tuesday, September 17
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, David T. Ellwood Democracy Lab, Rubenstein Building, Room 414AB, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Adam Moss was the editor-in-chief of New York Magazine from 2004–2019. During his 15-year tenure he oversaw an ambitious digital expansion of parent company New York Media, which included five digital publications in addition to New York: Vulture, The Cut, Intelligencer, The Strategist, and Grub Street, each of which were created from scratch and collectively reach an audience of 50 million visitors each month. Under Moss’s leadership New York and nymag.com won 41 National Magazine Awards. Before joining New York Magazine, Moss was the editor of the New York Times Magazine, as well as assistant managing editor of the paper, overseeing the magazine, Book Review, culture and style. Moss was founding editor of 7 Days, a New York weekly magazine, and before that, he worked at Esquire magazine in a variety of positions. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oberlin College, his alma mater, and is a member of the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame. While at the Shorenstein Center, Moss will lead a group project that focuses on building a better political media landscape.
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Humor & Geoengineering
Tuesday, September 17
12-1pm
Harvard, HUCE 429, 26 Oxford Street, 4th floor, Cambridge
RSVP at acchang@seas.harvard.edu
We are joined by Pablo Suarez and Bob Mankoff
Humor, like geoengineering, is about the clash between what is and what could be. In this unconventional, interactive session, researcher-turned-humanitarian Pablo Suarez and illustrious cartoonist Bob Mankoff will engage participants in exploring how the power of intelligent humor can be harnessed to support learning and dialogue about difficult issues. Focusing on climate risks and the prospects of geoengineering, we will share an experience of how humor works, how it can be used and misused, and what it can do to enable fruitful discussions about tough issues.
It will be a departure from the format of our regular talks with some interactive tasks for the audience. Lunch will be provided with an RSVP here.
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Women’s Political Empowerment A Century After the 19th Amendment: Reflections by Women Mayors
Tuesday, September 17
12:00pm to 1:30pm
BU, Rajen Kilachand Center Eichenbaum Colloquium Room (101), 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
One hundred years ago, Congress launched the process that was completed in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, stating the right to vote could not be denied or abridged on the basis of sex. One hundred years have passed, and we still have not achieved gender equality in politics. For example, only 21% of the mayors of cities with a population over 30,000 people are women. How much has really changed since then? What experiences are women in political leadership having today?Join the Initiative on Cities to welcome three Massachusetts women mayors who will reflect on these questions in light of their experiences as candidates and political leaders. Our panelists are Mayors Ruthanne Fuller of Newton, Donna Holaday of Newburyport (BU alumna ’79), and Yvonne Spicer of Framingham. Moderated by Virginia Sapiro, Professor of Political Science and Dean Emerita of Arts & Sciences.Lunch served.Co-sponsored by the Howard Thurman Center, Political Science Department, and BU College Democrats.
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2nd person and me
Tuesday, September 17
12:00 – 1:30 PM
MIT, Building E15-318, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, 3rd Floor, Cambridge
In conversation with: Tirtza Even
Tirtza Even will talk about conversation as a tool for crafting an ongoing personal story. Over the last twenty years Even has been developing a language for communicating social/political realities in visual media, through almost imperceptible digital manipulation of slow and extended recorded moments. Using a complex network of fractured depictions, and subtle digital interventions, and ranging from a two-channel installation about juveniles incarcerated for life without parole, to an experimental documentary on Even’s childhood apartment-building in Jerusalem as it exposes the repressive manifestations of Israel’s psychological/national concept of Defense, Even’s work aims to disturb, bend, split and ultimately undermine the structures which protect a presumed uniformity of self.
An experimental documentary maker and video artist, Tirtza Even has produced both linear and interactive video work that has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, at the Whitney Biennial, the Johannesburg Biennial, as well as in many galleries, museums and festivals in the U.S., Israel and Europe, including the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight, Rotterdam Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, New York Video Festival, Lincoln Center. Even is currently an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department.
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Greentown Learn Manufacturing Initiative Supplier & Innovation Showcase
Tuesday, September 17
12:00 PM – 4:00 PM EDT
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville
Please join us for The Manufacturing Initiative’s largest event of the year, bringing together our communities of suppliers, startups, and supporters to showcase, pitch, and connect!
The Manufacturing Initiative connects startups with physical product to regional manufacturers, engineering firms, and other companies essential to their supply chain, as well as product development education and resources. To date we have worked with over 170 startups, 270 suppliers, and made connections resulting in 120+ contracts and purchase orders, millions of dollars in economic value.
At this event, suppliers will showcase and hardware startups will pitch to a panel of manufacturers and engineers for an award of $10,000 to solve specific engineering or prototyping challenges. We will also be joined by our ecosystem partners and legislative supporters, share exciting news about the future of the Manufacturing Initiative. Lunch will be provided!
Agenda:
12:00pm - 1:00pm: Lunch and supplier showcase
1:00pm - 1:10pm: Opening Remarks from Greentown Learn and House Leader, Representative Joseph Wagner
1:10pm - 1:45pm: Startups pitch engineering challenges
1:45pm - 2:20pm: Supplier panel deliberates and selects grant winner
2:30pm - 3:00pm: Closing remarks
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Changing Minds, Saving Lives: Media’s Role in Public Health
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2019, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, FXB Building, Room G13, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health Communication
SPEAKER(S) Jay A. Winsten, Frank Stanton Director, Center for Health Communication, Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health
DETAILS What are the ingredients of a successful media campaign to change minds and save lives? How do you attract and sustain the public's attention in a highly-fragmented media environment at a time when the public has an extremely short attention span?
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Center for Health Communication has pioneered in creating large-scale behavior-change campaigns in collaboration with Hollywood studios and TV networks. Dr. Jay Winsten, Center director, will present lessons learned from these campaigns.
RSVP required.
Lunch will be served.
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"Sensing Human Behavior with Smart Garments", Prof. Trisha Andrew, University of Massachusetts
Tuesday, September 17
3:30pm to 4:30pm
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
The Materials Science and Engineering Seminar Series presents Prof. Trisha Andrew from the University of Massachusetts, who will present her talk "Sensing Human Behavior with Smart Garments". Refreshments will be served. Please join us!
Sensing Human Behavior with Smart Garments
Apparel with embedded self-powered sensors can revolutionize human behavior monitoring by leveraging everyday clothing as the sensing substrate. The key is to inconspicuously integrate sensing elements and portable power sources into garments while maintaining the weight, feel, comfort, function and ruggedness of familiar clothes and fabrics. Prof. Andrew's lab uses reactive vapor coating to transform commonly-available, mass-produced fabrics, threads or premade garments into comfortably-wearable electronic devices by directly coating them with uniform and conformal films of electronically-active conjugated polymers. By carefully choosing the repeat unit structure of the polymer coating, Prof. Andrew's group accesses a number of fiber- or fabric-based circuit components, including resistors, depletion-mode transistors, diodes, thermistors, and pseudocapacitors. Further, vapor-deposited electronic polymer films are notably wash- and wear-stable and withstand mechanically-demanding textile manufacturing routines, enabling us to use sewing, weaving, knitting or embroidery procedures to create self-powered garment sensors. She will describe her efforts in monitoring heartrate, breathing, joint motion/flexibility, gait and sleep posture using loose-fitting garments.
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Study Group with Alice Stewart: From the Reagan Rule to the Trump Tweets: Was 2016 Incivility an Aberration or Precedent-setting?
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2019, 4:30 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Institute of Politics (L-163), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Alice Stewart
COST Free
DETAILS A look back at election process, press, and data with a glimpse into the future of populism, socialism, and Trumpism.
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Reducing the cost of decarbonization through cutting-edge carbon capture innovation
Tuesday, September 17
5:15pm to 6:20pm
MIT, Building E51, Wong Auditorium, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Brian Anderson, Director, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy
This talk will highlight state-of-the-art carbon capture R&D and discuss crosscutting scientific and technological initiatives underway at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory to meet some of the nation’s most important energy challenges—delivering reliable, clean, low-cost, and low-carbon energy.
About the speaker:
Brian J. Anderson SM ’04 PhD ’05, is director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In 2011, he was awarded an Honor Achievement Award from the DOE for his role on a team that responded to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He is a recipient of the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Anderson earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at West Virginia University and his master's and doctorate in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Please note that we will open our doors to unregistered participants 15 minutes before the event start time. To guarantee your seat, we recommend you register and arrive at least 15 minutes early.
If you are not able to attend, note there will be a high-quality recording of this seminar made available on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/MITEnergyInitiative) about a week following the event.
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American Democracy: Creators, Gatekeepers & Disruptors
Tuesday, September 17
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Harvard, Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-democracy-creators-gatekeepers-disruptors-tickets-71419255917
HGSE's Office of Student Affairs and the HKS Center for Public Leadership is hosting an event called "American Democracy: Creators, Gatekeepers, & Disruptors" which is taking place on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2019 from 5:30pm-7:00pm in Askwith Hall at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This event is intended to be a conversation with Maria Hinojosa, Edna Chavez, and Beth Fukumoto to discuss what American Democracy means in 2019 as we gear up for the upcoming presidential election. We hope to educate and mobilize the Harvard and extended Boston communities on numerous social justice issues.
Join us for what is set to be a powerful conversation with three powerful women!
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Gutman Library Book Talk: Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gutman Conference Center, E4 & E5, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Gutman Library
SPEAKER(S) Paul Reville, Former Massachusetts secretary of education and Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at HGSE
CONTACT INFO myanne_krivoshey@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS In "Broader, Bolder, Better," authors Elaine Weiss, of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education campaign, and Paul Reville, former Massachusetts secretary of education, make a compelling case for a fundamental change in the way we view education. The authors argue for a large-scale expansion of community-school partnerships in order to provide holistic, integrated student supports (ISS) from cradle to career, including traditional wraparound services like health, mental health, nutrition, and family supports, as well as expanded access to opportunities such as early childhood education, after school activities, and summer enrichment programs.
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Farming While Black: African Diasporic Wisdom for Farming and Food Justice
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 17, 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
CONTACT CSWR, 617.495.4476
DETAILS Soul Fire Farm, cofounded by author, activist, and farmer Leah Penniman, is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system. Penniman’s new, James Beard award-winning book, Farming While Black, offers the first comprehensive manual for African-heritage people ready to reclaim their rightful place of dignified agency in our food system. Join us to learn how you too can be part of the movement for food sovereignty and help build a food system based on justice, dignity, and abundance for all members of our community.
Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. She has been farming since 1996, and co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in our food system. She holds an MA in Science Education and a BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a Manye (Queen Mother) in Vodun.
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Environmental Voter Project BUILDING THE ELECTORATE FUNDRAISER
Tuesday, September 17
5:30 - 7:30pm
The Bostonian Hotel, 26 North Street, Boston (near Faneuil Hall)
Cost: $50 - ?
RSVP for the Environmental Voter Project's 'Building the Electorate' Fundraiser on September 17th!
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Sway: How to Persuade and Influence Others
Tuesday, September 17
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Rabb Hall , Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
In order to achieve our goals, we need the ability to sell our ideas to others. Without the skills of persuasion and influence, we put our relationships and our credibility in jeopardy. In this program, you’ll learn immediately-applicable techniques to positively influence others. You’ll leave energized and ready to go out and put your newly-enhanced skills to good use.
Presented by Barabara Roche
Barbara is an organizational development and communication specialist with over 20 years helping organizations thrive. She is also a lecturer in the Management Communications program at the Wharton School of Business. She is best known for blending her theatrical experience, Irish Catholic humor, and hard-won leadership skills to help professionals become more effective leaders and communicators. She is the author of Commit to Confidence: 30 Strategies to Help Women Step Up and Stand Out. A native Bostonian and proud member of Red Sox Nation, Barbara holds a master's degree in psychology from Northeastern University. In 2005 and 2008 respectively, she founded two consulting companies: Barbara Roche & Associates (leadership development and team-building) and SpeakWell Partners (public speaking and leadership communication).
This program is sponsored by Bank of America.
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Growing Up Puritan: The Family in 17th-century New England
Tuesday, September 17
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Boston
Judith Graham will examine the challenges of rearing children in the New World.
An examination of childhood in seventeenth and early eighteenth century Massachusetts, with an emphasis on the family life of the diarist, councilor, and judge Samuel Sewall (1652–1729) and his wife Hannah (Hull) Sewall, and of their contemporaries. How did they approach birth, the illness and death of children, discipline, religious and secular education, preparation for a religious calling, courtship and marriage, and intergenerational relationships? What evidence have historians gathered to illuminate Puritan family life?
Judith Graham earned a BA in history from Brandeis University and a PhD in history at Boston College. She is the author of Puritan Family Life: The Diary of Samuel Sewall (2000) and the editor of Out Here at the Front: The World War I Letters of Nora Saltonstall (2004).
She was an editor at the Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, working on the papers of John Adams and the family correspondence, and she served as series editor of the two-volume Diaries and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams(2013). She is a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Image: A Little Pretty Pocket-book: Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy, and Pretty Miss Polly… Being a New Attempt to Teach Children the Use of the English Alphabet, by way of Diversion. Printed at Worcester, Massachusetts: Isaiah Thomas, 1787
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Ben Franklin Circles: Tranquility
Tuesday, September 17
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Impact Hub Boston, 50 Milk Street, 15th Floor, "Socrates” Room, Boston
Ben Franklin Circles meet monthly to discuss one of Franklin's classic virtues and how they relate to our own experiences, goals and perspectives on life, and how they apply to the world today. We end the evenings with setting individual commitments: what we each want to work on around the discussed virtue until the following meeting for self-improvement. See the list of 13 virtues below. So far we have discussed Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, and Cleanliness.
Ben Franklin’s 13 Core Virtues:
Temperance
Silence
Order
Resolution
Frugality
Industry
Sincerity
Justice
Moderation
Cleanliness
Tranquility - 9/17
Chastity
Humility
Join us at our upcoming discussion on September 17th focused on Tranquility.
When, Where & Other Logistics:
Please note that when you get to the 15th floor, the glass door is locked. Please call 617-548-8061 to get buzzed in (# is also listed on the glass door on the left hand side.)
We are in the Socrates room on the 15th floor inside Impact Hub Boston (once past the glass doors, take a right and another right, and just before walking into a huge open space, the room is on your left.) If you get turned around, you can ask the nice the Impact Hub Boston hosts at the desk or reach them at 617-548-8061 and they'll help guide you to the right place.
We know our meeting time may overlap with dinner time for some, and warmly invite you to bring your meal or snacks. We will have water available.
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Sunrise Boston Full Hub Meeting
Tuesday, September 17
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain
All are welcome! Come join us, get to know the Boston Hub, and hear what's next for Sunrise Boston!
Questions? Email: SunriseMovementBoston@gmail.com or message our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SunriseBoston/
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Poisoner in Chief
Tuesday, September 17
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
The bestselling author of All the Shah’s Men and The Brothers tells the astonishing story of the man who oversaw the CIA’s secret drug and mind-control experiments of the 1950s and ’60s.
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer—the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace—including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the 1960s counterculture. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world.
Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about U.S. clandestine operations, draws on new documentary research and original interviews to bring to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the twentieth century. Gottlieb’s reckless experiments on “expendable” human subjects destroyed many lives, yet he considered himself deeply spiritual. He lived in a remote cabin without running water, meditated, and rose before dawn to milk his goats.
During his twenty-two years at the CIA, Gottlieb worked in the deepest secrecy. Only since his death has it become possible to piece together his astonishing career at the intersection of extreme science and covert action. Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale.
Stephen Kinzer is the author of over ten books, including The True Flag, The Brothers, Overthrow, and All the Shah’s Men. An award-winning foreign correspondent, he served as the New York Times bureau chief in Nicaragua, Germany, and Turkey. He is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and writes a world affairs column for the Boston Globe. He lives in Boston.
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Protest Health and Safety Training
Tuesday, September 17
7 p.m.
First Church Somerville, 89 College Avenue, Somerville
Local street medics are offering a two hour training on how to keep yourself and your friends safer at protests, ahead of the Global Climate Strikes on September 20 and September 27. We'll be teaching about:
getting ready for a protest: self care, dressing for success, and the importance of buddies
being safe during a protest: a taxonomy of protest attendees, practicing situational awareness, staying & spreading calm, preventing & recognizing heat illnesses
just in case: being safer in the event of police or fascist violence, specifically chemical weapons and handcuffs (this training does NOT include how to do an eye flush)
after the action: coping/unwinding/transforming tough events
This event is co-hosted by Extinction Rebellion. It is a general protest health and safety training for anyone participating in the Global Climate Strikes. The training is from 7-9pm.
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You're It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When It Matters Most
Tuesday, September 17
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
The Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Today, in an instant, leaders can find themselves face-to-face with crisis. An active shooter. A media controversy. A data breach. In You’re It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When It Matters Most, directors and researchers at Harvard’s innovative National Preparedness Leadership Initiative take you to the front lines of some of the toughest decisions facing our nation’s leaders-from how to mobilize during a hurricane or in the aftermath of a bombing to halting a raging pandemic. They also take readers through the tough decision-making inside the world’s largest companies, hottest startups, and leading nonprofits.
About the Authors: Eric J. McNulty holds an appointment as Associate Director of Research and for the Program for Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Instructor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His work centers on leadership in high-stakes, high-stress situations. He is currently working on a book based on meta-leadership, the core leadership framework of the group’s curriculum. He teaches in graduate-level courses on public health leadership, conflict resolution, and negotiation as well as serving as Program Co-director for the Leading in Health Systems executive education program. He holds a similar appointment at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a joint program of the Harvard Chan School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Leonard J. Marcus, Ph.D. is the founding co-director of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard and an internationally recognized authority on leadership during times of crisis and change.
Dr. Barry Dorn, M.D., M.H.C.M. is Senior Advisor of the Program for Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Harvard T.H. Chan of Public Health and faculty member of The National Preparedness Leadership Initiative. He is a retired orthopedic surgeon
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Producers in Crisis! Presenting a Study on Costs of Production in Latin America
Tuesday, September 17
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
George Howell Coffee, 505 Washington Street, Boston
Coffee is currently being traded at the lowest prices in more than 15 years. Specialty coffee demands fairer prices for better-quality coffee. But without knowing how much farmers need to spend to produce a pound of coffee, and how this varies across countries and production methods, it’s hard to know what “sustainable prices” really are.
This presentation will uncover how much it costs to produce coffee in 7 Latin American countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The majority of coffee producers are not aware of exactly how much it costs to produce a pound of coffee, leaving them unable to effectively budget and allocate resources throughout the year, keeping them in a continually vulnerable situation. By breaking down the cost structure for the average coffee farmer in each origin, we can begin to uncover what it takes for producers to operate sustainably.
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JP Solar Professionals Happy Hour
Tuesday, September 17
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
Brassica Kitchen + Cafe, 3710 Washington Street, Boston
Join neighbors friends and solar indistry professionals for drinks, friendly arguments, and the occasional war-story. This month we meet at Brassica Kitchen in Forest Hills. Note that we are meetin on a Tuesday this month.
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Wednesday, September 18
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Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, September 18
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM EDT
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
Join Net Impact Boston in gathering together for an informal breakfast meetup of professionals making social change through business!
Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals for networking, discussion, and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by Pret a Manger any time between 7:30 and 8:30 AM.
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MassTLC’s Tech & Innovation Conference
Wednesday, September 18
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Design Center, Drydock Avenue, Boston
Cost: $49 – $89
With new and more sophisticated technologies being developed at such a fast pace, developers, architects, product managers, security professionals, and others in the tech industry must parse out the most effective tools, methods, processes, and team building strategies to be successful.
This one-day, hands-on event, will provide a both a glimpse into the future as well as tools and techniques for the here and now to utilize next gen networks, advanced methods in machine learning and AI, optimizing hybrid/cloud, and gleaning ROI as companies make investments and adopt programs.
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International Order and the Persistence of War
Wednesday, September 18
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496 (Pye Room), 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Bear Braumoeller, Ohio State University
Abstract
The idea that war is going out of style has become the conventional wisdom in recent years. In his new book, Only the Dead: The Persistence of War in the Modern Era (Oxford), Bear Braumoeller argues that it shouldn't have: the evidence simply doesn't support the decline-of-war thesis propounded by scholars like Steven Pinker. While optimists are prone to put too much faith in human nature, however, pessimists have been too quick to discount the successes of our attempts to reduce international conflict. Reality lies somewhere in between. The key to understanding trends in warfare lies, not in the spread of humanitarian values, but rather in patterns of international order—sets of expectations about behavior that allow countries to work in concert, as they did in the Concert of Europe and have done in the postwar Western liberal order. In this talk, Braumoeller will discuss the evidence against the decline-of-war thesis as well as some preliminary research on the complex relationship between international order and international conflict.
Bio
Bear F. Braumoeller (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a Professor in the Department of Political Science. He previously held faculty positions at Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is or has been on the Editorial Boards of five major journals or series, and he is a past Councilor of the Peace Science Society. In the summer of 2016 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. Professor Braumoeller’s research is in the areas of international security and computational social science. His current research focus is on the relationship between international order and international conflict. His substantive research includes an original, book-length systemic theory of international relations, The Great Powers and the International System (Cambridge University Press; winner of the 2014 International Studies Association Best Book Award and the 2014 J. David Singer Book Award) as well as various works on international conflict, the history of American isolationism, and the problem of so-called “politically irrelevant dyads.” His new book, Only the Dead: The Persistence of War in the Modern Age (Oxford University Press, 2019), challenges the decline-of-war thesis propounded by scholars like Steven Pinker.
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U.S. Strategy and Doctrine for Cyber Conflict and Deterrence
Wednesday, September 18
12:30 – 1:30AM
Tufts, 205 Cabot Intercultural Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
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NASA’s Destination Station and ISS AI Project Pitches
Wednesday, September 18
1:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT
MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, salon I and T (7th floor), Cambridge
Join us for the NASA’s Destination Station and ISS AI Project Pitches event during AI Research Week in Cambridge, Massachusetts!
This event is an exciting opportunity to learn about the world’s only crewed, multinational research laboratory and technology test bed in orbit: the International Space Station (ISS). As part of NASA’s Destination Station, this is a unique opportunity to understand the space-based orbiting laboratory that enables innovative research capable of pushing the boundaries of exploration, and benefitting life on Earth. During this glimpse into the space station we will be joined by representatives from the NASAISS Program Science Office and ISS U.S. National Laboratory. They will describe the wide range of projects that leverage the space environment,the facilities aboard the orbiting research laboratory, and the vast repository of data collected to date.
Additionally, you will have the opportunity to meet an astronaut, see and touch artifacts and space food, and hear from researchers to be inspired by ways the future of AI and the future of research in space can intersect.
The event will include a competition and special session in whichresearchers and students can pitch “ISS meets AI” project ideas of their own to a panel of space experts who will give feedback based on their experience with other flight experiments that have been conducted on the space station. Awards will be given for the top ideas, and some researchers may be contacted for follow-up discussions. (Please follow this link for information on submitting project descriptions for consideration to be pitched at this event.)
The NASA’s Destination Station and ISS AI Project Pitches event is part of the AI Research Week hosted by the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and sponsored by the AI Systems research community. Check the full AI Research Week agenda for other sessions that may be of interest to you.
Questions? Contact Dan Gruen at daniel_gruen@us.ibm.com
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Yoshua Bengio: Learning High-Level Representations for Agents
Wednesday, September 18
2:00pm to 3:00pm
MIT, Grier 34-401 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
CSAIL is pleased to welcome Prof. Yoshua Bengio as Dertouzos Distinguished Lecturer.
Abstract: A dream of the deep learning project was that a learner could discover a hierarchy of representations with the highest level capturing abstract concepts of the kind we can communicate with language, reason with and generally use to understand how the world works. It is still a challenge but recent progress in machine learning could help us approach that objective. We will discuss how the ability to discover causal structure, and in particular causal variables (from low-level perception), would be a progress in that direction, and how recent advances in meta-learning and taking the perspective of an agent (rather than a passive learner) could also play in important role. Because we are talking about high-level variables, this discussion touches on the old divide between system 1 cognition (intuitive and anchored in perception) and system 2 cognition (conscious and more sequential): these high-level variables sit at the interface between the two types of cognitive computations. Unlike what some advocate when they talk about disentangling factors of variation, I do not believe that these high-level variables should be considered to be independent of each other in a statistical sense. They might be independent in a different sense, in the sense that we can independently modify some rather than others, and in fact they are connected to each other through a rich web of dependencies of the kind we communicate with language. The agent and meta-learning perspective also force us to leave the safe ground of iid data of current learning theory and start thinking about non-stationarity, which a learning agent is necessarily confronted with. Instead of viewing such non-stationarity as a hurdle, we propose to view it as a source of information because these changes are often due to interventions by agents (the learner or other agents), and can thus help a learner figure out causal structure. In return, we might be able to build learning systems which are much more robust to changes in the environment, because they capture what is stationary and stable in the long run throughout these nonstationarities, and they build models of the world which can quickly adapt to such changes and sometimes may even be able to correctly infer what caused those changes (thus requiring no additional examples to make sense of the change in distribution).
Bio: Recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence (AI), Yoshua Bengio is a pioneer in deep learning. He began his education in Montreal, where he earned his Ph.D. in computer science from McGill University, then completed his postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since 1993, he has been a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operational Research at the Université de Montréal. In 2000, he became the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Statistical Learning Algorithms. At the same time, he founded and became scientific director of Mila, the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence, which is the world’s largest university-based research group in deep learning. Lastly, he is also the Scientific Director of IVADO. His research contributions have been undeniable. In 2018, Yoshua Bengio collected the largest number of new citations in the world for a computer scientist thanks to his three reference works and some 500 publications. Professor Bengio aspires to discover the principles that lead to intelligence through learning, and his research has earned him multiple awards. In 2019, he earned the prestigious Killam Prize in computer science from the Canada Council for the Arts and was co-winner of the A.M. Turing Prize, considered the “Nobel of computer science,” which he received jointly with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. He is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a recipient of the Excellence Awards of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies 2019 and the Marie-Victorin prize and was named Scientist of the Year by Radio-Canada in 2017. These honours reflect the profound influence of his work on the evolution of our society. Concerned about the social impact of AI, he has actively contributed to the development of the Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence.
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Telling Stories: Allegories on “Race,” Racism, and Anti-Racism
Wednesday, September 18
4:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Lecture by Camara Phyllis Jones RI '20
Free and open to the public.
Racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (which is what we call “race”), which unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources. While at Radcliffe, Camara Phyllis Jones is developing tools to inspire, equip, and engage all Americans in a national campaign against racism. For example, her allegories on “race” and racism illuminate topics that are otherwise difficult for many Americans to understand or discuss. Her toolbox will equip both children and adults to name racism, ask “How is racism operating here?” and organize and strategize to act.
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Behavioral Economics and Public Policy
Wednesday, September 18
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Littauer, Room L-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Hunt Alcott, New York University
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Contact Name: Jason Chapman
617-496-8054
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Study Group with Senator Jeff Flake: The Future of Conservatism
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 18, 2019, 4:30 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Institute of Politics (L-166), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Senator Jeff Flake
COST Free
DETAILS As its main focus, this study group will explore the recent past and ponder the future of conservatism. In addition, this study group will discuss the nature of compromise in our two-party system. While Barry Goldwater was best known for his declaration that “Extremism in pursuit of liberty is no vice…and moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue,” he also declared “Politics is nothing more than public business, sometimes you make the best of a mixed bargain.”
Is there room for bipartisanship in a hyper-partisan era?
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Book talk: 'City of Black and Gold: Oil, Ethnicity, and the Making of Modern Kirkuk’
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 18, 2019, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CMES, Rm 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR CMES Modern Middle East Speaker Series
SPEAKER(S) Arbella Bet-Shlimon, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Washington
COST Free and Open to the Public
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Arbella Bet-Shlimon is a historian of the modern Middle East and assistant professor of History at the University of Washington. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and an affiliate of the Jackson School's Middle East Center (UW). In her research and teaching, she focuses on the politics, society and economy of twentieth-century Iraq and the broader Persian Gulf region, as well as Middle Eastern urban history. In addition to specialized courses on these topics, she offers general introductory courses on the modern Middle East, including a survey of the Middle East since the nineteenth century. Bet-Shlimon's teaching has been recognized with several awards, including the UW's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Her first book, "City of Black Gold: Oil, Ethnicity, and the Making of Modern Kirkuk" (Stanford University Press, 2019), explores how oil and urbanization made ethnicity into a political practice in Kirkuk, a multilingual city that was the original hub of Iraq's oil industry. Bet-Shlimon finds that, over the course of the twentieth century, Kirkuk transformed from a provincial town into a prominent symbol of urban modernity, developing a distinct civic identity. However, the city became segregated and polarized as a result of British neocolonialism, urban development schemes, the expansion of the oil industry, and Baghdad's systematic attempts to integrate Kirkuk into an Arabized Iraq. Today, claims to Kirkuk's identity, as in so many disputed cities, have become reduced to a zero-sum game between ethnic communities — a phenomenon that, far from being predictable or inevitable, requires a historical perspective to be fully understood.
Her research has been funded by, among others, the American Historical Association, the UW Royalty Research Fund, and the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. She has published articles in the Journal of Urban History and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. She is on the board of the Academic Research Institute in Iraq.
CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record.
LINK https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/book-talk-city-black-gold-oil-ethnicity-and-making-modern-kirkuk
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Ian Condry, “Sound, Learning and Democracy: The Curvature of Social Space-Time through Japanese Music, from Underground Techno to Pop Idols”
Thursday, September 19
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
The talk will explore contemporary Japanese music, with a comparison of diverse examples, such as female Japanese rappers, underground techno festivals, the virtual idol Hatsune Miku, and the pop idol group AKB48. How can music help us understand the curvature of social space-time? What does this mean for our understanding of society, culture, and media?
Ian Condry is a cultural anthropologist in the department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT, where he has taught since 2002. He is the author of two books, Hip-Hop Japan and The Soul of Anime, both of which have been translated into Japanese. He organizes the MIT/Harvard Cool Japan research project and a new initiative called Dissolve Music,which brings together musicians, sound artists, technologists and educators to use audio experiences to dissolve the structures of inequality.
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SPI Faculty Panel on Space Debris and Space Sustainability
Thursday, September 19
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
The MIT Science Policy Initiative (SPI) is hosting our annual orientation faculty panel on September 19 from 5-6:30pm in 4-231. Dinner will be provided for attendees, courtesy of the GSC Funding Board!
The topic will be space debris: what it is, why it's a problem, and what it takes to make space activities sustainable. Our speakers will be:
Richard Linares, Charles Stark Draper Assistant Professor, Co-Director, Space Systems Lab, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Matthew Weinzierl, Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling Professor of Business Administration, Hardvard Business School
The panelists will discuss their work and research in addition to taking audience questions. We hope to see you there!
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Gutman Library Book Talk: Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 18, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gutman Conference Center, E4 & E5, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Gutman Library
SPEAKER(S) Paul Reville, Former Massachusetts secretary of education and Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at HGSE
CONTACT INFO myanne_krivoshey@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS In "Broader, Bolder, Better," authors Elaine Weiss, of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education campaign, and Paul Reville, former Massachusetts secretary of education, make a compelling case for a fundamental change in the way we view education. The authors argue for a large-scale expansion of community-school partnerships in order to provide holistic, integrated student supports (ISS) from cradle to career, including traditional wraparound services like health, mental health, nutrition, and family supports, as well as expanded access to opportunities such as early childhood education, after school activities, and summer enrichment programs.
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Anders Åslund: Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy
Wednesday, September 18
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Tufst, Cabot 702, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Please join the Russia and Eurasia Program at The Fletcher School for a conversation with Anders Åslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, about his new book Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy (2019). Attendance is by registration only on Eventbrite.
The book provides a penetrating look into the extreme plutocracy Vladimir Putin has created and its implications for Russia’s future. This insightful study explores how the economic system Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super-wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism. Much of this wealth has been hidden in offshore havens in the United States and the United Kingdom, where companies with anonymous owners and black money transfers are allowed to thrive. Though beneficial to a select few, this system has left Russia’s economy in untenable stagnation, which Putin has tried to mask through military might.
Anders Åslund has served as an economic adviser to several governments, notably the governments of Russia (1990-1994) and Ukraine (1994-1997). He is a member of the Academy of the Natural Sciences of the Russian Federation, chairman of the Advisory Council of the Center for Social and Economic Research, Warsaw, and chairman of the Scientific Council of the Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition. He has published widely and is the author of fifteen books, including Europe's Growth Challenge (2017), and Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It(2015).
He is a non-executive director of the Ukrainian state railways. He earned his Ph.D. from Oxford University. He was a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics and the founding director of the Stockholm Institute of East European Economics. He served as a Swedish diplomat in Kuwait, Poland, Geneva, and Moscow. He has also worked at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Brookings Institution, and the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He is fluent in Swedish, Russian, German, Polish, and French.
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Food and fascism
Wednesday, September 18
6pm
BU, College of Arts and Sciences, Room B25, 685-725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
They seem to have little to connect them, but author Karima Moyer-Nocchi found otherwise when she interviewed a cross-section of women who lived through Italy’s years under Mussolini.
She’ll share her discoveries at the Culinary Historians of Boston meeting.
It will be a fascinating meeting. Mark your calendars now, so you don’t miss it.
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Authors@MIT | George Yip: Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs
Wednesday, September 18
6:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT Press Bookstore, Building N50, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Chinese innovators are making their mark globally. Not only do such giants as Alibaba and Huawei continue to thrive and grow through innovation, thousands of younger Chinese entrepreneurs are poised to enter the global marketplace. In this book, Greeven, Yip, and Wei offer an essential guide to what makes China a heavyweight competitor in the global marketplace.
The authors, all experts on Chinese innovation, distinguish four types of innovators in China: pioneers, large companies that are globally known; hidden champions, midsize enterprises that are market leaders in their niches; underdogs,technology-driven ventures with significant intellectual property; and changemakers, newer firms
characterized by digital disruption,exponential growth, and cross-industry innovations.
George Yip is the Emeritus Professor of Marketing and Strategy at Imperial College Business School in London and coauthor of China’s Next Strategic Advantage (MIT Press).
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Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic
Wednesday, September 18
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital, 2 North Grove Street, Boston
The Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital invites you to attend an evening of discussion. "Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic" will be presented by Matt McCarthy, MD, in conversation with MGH Writer in Residence Suzanne Koven, MD. This event, which is cosponsored by the MGH Writer in Residence program, will be presented on Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 6 to 8 pm in the museum's third-floor Putnam Gallery. A book signing by Dr. McCarthy will follow.
Light refreshments will be available.
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Distributive Politics of Urban Planning in China
Thursday, September 19
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 9-217, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
A discussion led by the China Future Cities Lab at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.
The politics of urban planning is deeply rooted in local economic models. Although Chinese cities are dominated by a broad pro-growth coalition, within this pro-growth coalition local governments wrestle with developers, landholders, and their own agents over the distribution of urban development profits. Looking at urban planning controls in three provinces—Fujian, Guangdong, and Shaanxi—this project asks why different economic models balancing these competing pro-growth interests have evolved in different cities. Lastly, I ask why some downtown historic districts have evinced a strong preservationist counter-coalition, which has challenged the distributive logic of the pro-growth coalition.
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The Key to Making Renewable Energy Work
Wednesday, September 18
6:30 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library, Lecture Hall, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Reneable energy generation is now often cheaper than fossil fuels. The problem? It can’t be deployed when adn where it is needed. The ability to store energy at scale could have a dramatic effect on increased renewables penetration and on global grid stability and resiliency. Malta, a graduate of Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory, is based in Kendall Square and is developing a solution that can store large amounts of energy for long durations.
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Heading for Extinction (and What to Do about It)
Wednesday, September 18
6:30 p.m.
Encuentro5, 9 Hamilton Place, Boston
We are in the midst of an unprecedented climate crisis and ecological breakdown that threatens the continuation of life as we know it: record atmospheric carbon levels, global temperature rise, deforestation, plastic pollution, mass extinction of species... Join us to hear the latest information on the state of our planet, and learn how to become part of a global movement of social transformation for a livable future.
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Old North Speaker Series: LECTURE + COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
Forcing Freedom: Understanding Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence
Wednesday, September 18
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Old North Church, 193 Salem Street, Boston
Speaker: Kellie Carter Jackson
Presented in partnership with National Parks of Boston
Her book Force & Freedom examines one of the perennial questions in political thought: is violence a valid means of producing social change? In her lecture, Kellie Carter Jackson address how black abolitionists answered this question. Black resistance, and in particular, violent resistance to slavery, was central to emancipation. The phrase “freedom now” was never more urgent than in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Carter Jackson takes us beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and the romanticism of the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.
Afterwards, join us for a reception and Community Conversation with the speaker and National Park Rangers Ryan McNabb and Elisabeth Colby for an intimate discussion of the parallels between the methods of bringing about social and political change in the 19th and 21st centuries.
Kellie Carter Jackson is a 19th century historian in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She earned her BA from Howard University and her PhD from Columbia University. Her book, Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence (University of Pennsylvania Press) provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists. Carter Jackson is also co-editor of Reconsidering Roots: Race, Politics, & Memory (Athens: University of Georgia Press). Together, Ball and Carter Jackson have curated the largest collection of essays dedicated to the history and impact of Alex Haley’s Roots. Carter Jackson was also featured in the History Channel's documentary, Roots: A History Revealed which was nominated for a NAACP Image Award in 2016. Follow her on twitter @kcarterjackson.
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We are The Weather
Wednesday, September 18
7:00pm
Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School Fitzgerald Theater, 459 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/jonathan-safran-foer-frances-moore-lappé-we-are-weather
Cost: $25.00
Join Porter Square Books at CRLS's Fitzgerald Theater to hear bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer in conversation with renowned author and environmental advocate Frances Moore Lappé, discussing Safran Foer's newest book, We are The Weather. A signing will follow the talk.
Please note that this event is ticketed, and tickets include a copy of the book! The event will take place off-site at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School's Fitzgerald Theater, and you can pick up your copy of the book at the event.
Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act on what we know. Will future generations distinguish between those who didn’t believe in the science of global warming and those who said they accepted the science but failed to change their lives in response?
In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the central global dilemma of our time in a surprising, deeply personal, and urgent new way. The task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves—with our all-too-human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future. We have, he reveals, turned our planet into a farm for growing animal products, and the consequences are catastrophic. Only collective action will save our home and way of life. And it all starts with what we eat—and don’t eat—for breakfast.
Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the novels Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Here I Am, and of the nonfiction book Eating Animals. His work has received numerous awards and has been translated into thirty-six languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Frances Moore Lappé is the co-founder of Food First, the Institute for Food and Development Policy, and the Small Planet Institute. She is the author of nineteen books, including the three-million-copy Diet for a Small Planet and, most recently, World Hunger: 10 Myths, co-authored with Joseph Collins. Lappé has received eighteen honorary doctorates, as well as the Right Livelihood Award, often called the “Alternative Nobel,” and the James Beard Foundation’s “Humanitarian of the Year” award. Gourmet Magazine chose her among twenty-five people whose work has changed the way America eats. Lappé has been a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley.
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The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains
Wednesday, September 18
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Joseph LeDoux
Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us and our ancestors in deep time. This page-turning survey of the whole of terrestrial evolution sheds new light on how nervous systems evolved in animals, how the brain developed, and what it means to be human.
Joseph LeDoux is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at New York University, where he is a member of the Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology. He directs the Emotional Brain Institute at New York University and at the Nathan Kline Institute, and is the author of the books Anxious, Synaptic Self, and The Emotional Brain
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Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI
Wednesday,September 18
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30)
First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge
Cos: $6 - $31.00 (book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes CNN law enforcement analyst JOSH CAMPBELL—former special assistant to FBI Director James Comey—for a discussion of his new book, Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI. He will be joined in conversation by homeland security expert and analyst JULIETTE KAYYEM.
Please Note
This event takes place at First Church Cambridge on Garden St, not to be confused with First Parish Church on Mass Ave.
About Crossfire Hurricane
It is January 6, 2017, two weeks before the inauguration. Only a handful of people know about the Steele dossier, and the nation is bitterly divided by the election results. As rumors begin to circulate that something might be brewing with the newly elected president and Russia, FBI special agent Josh Campbell joins the heads of the US intelligence community on a briefing visit to Trump Tower in New York City. He does not yet know that this meeting will eventually lead to the firing of his boss, James Comey, or that within weeks his former boss Robert Mueller will be appointed to investigate collusion and obstruction of justice at the highest level. He does not yet know that the FBI will come under years of sustained attacks from the commander in chief of the very nation its agents have sworn to protect. But, from his unique position within the FBI, he will watch it occur.
In this gripping fly-on-the-wall narrative, Campbell takes readers behind the scenes of the earliest days of the Russia investigation—codename: Crossfire Hurricane—up to the present. Using both firsthand experience and reporting, he reveals fresh details about this tumultuous period; explains how the FBI goes about its work and its historic independence from partisan forces; and describes the increasing dismay inside the bureau as the president and his allies escalate their attacks on the agency. Appalled by Trump’s assault on the bureau’s credibility, Campbell left the FBI in 2018 to sound the alarm about unfair political attacks on the institutions that keep America safe.
Smart, clear, passionate, Crossfire Hurricane will captivate readers struggling to make sense of a news cycle careening out of control.
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Environmental and Health Impacts of Natural Gas and Fracking
Wednesday, September 18
7pm - 9pm
BU, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 132, Boston
Dr Sandra Steingraber, PhD
Concerned about fracking and its consequences on our health and environment? Come hear the dynamic Dr. Steingraber during her upcoming visit to Boston and engage with us about solutions.
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Elie Wiesel Memorial Lecture: "Writing from a Place of Survival" Rabbi Joseph Pollack
Wednesday, September 18
7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
BU, Tsai Performance Center 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
As few adult survivors of the Holocaust remain alive today, our attention shifts to child survivors who, in their life and work, attest to a traumatic past they experienced as children or infants. Their tales provide a window into the difficult aftermath of the trauma of persecution and genocide.
Rabbi Joseph Polak is the author of a harrowing account of his family’s deportation from the Netherlands to the Nazi concentration camp at Westerbork and speaks to the difficulties of living with traumatic early childhood memories. Rabbi Polak will also speak of what he learned over many years of friendship with Professor Wiesel.
About the Speaker: Rabbi Joseph Polak is the author of After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring (2015). He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health and rabbi emeritus of the Hillel House at Boston University. R. Polak also serves as Chief Justice of the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts.
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Thursday, September 19
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Inclusive Community Convening: Immigrant Rights and Resources
Thursday, September 19
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM EDT
Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center, 123 Antwerp Street Extension, Allston
Please join the Allston Brighton Health Collaborative for our quarterly convening to support immigrant health and wellness. This convening will focus on how:
updated changes to public charge will impact our communities and work
state and local offices and initiatives are working together to protect residents
community-facing professionals and allies can best support residents and each other.
Everyone is welcome regardless of geography or profession.
Interpretación y Cuidado de niños está disponible
Interpretação e Cuidado infantil está disponível
Interpretation and Childwatch available
Presenters:
Marcony Almeida-Barros, Director of Community Engagement Division, MA Attorney General's Office
Donna Patalano, General Counsel, Office of Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins
Lauren Sampson, Civil Rights Fellow, Lawyers for Civil Rights
Breakfast refreshments provided
Please bring any resources you would like to share.
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Covering Climate Change Solutions
Thursday, September 19
11:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Webinar
In preparation of Climate Week, join Chris Forest, Allen Arthur, and Jules Hotz to discuss climate change solutions and get ideas on how to cover them.
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BU Annual Sustainability Festival
Thursday, September 19
11:00am – 2:00pm
BU, Marsh Plaza, Boston
Stop by Marsh Plaza on Thursday Sept. 19th for the Annual Sustainability Fair. Learn about Bike Safety complete with cool giveaways, or enjoy the Farmer's Market with tons of local vendors. But the pièce de résistance is our first ever Apple Festival featuring local apples, baked apple goods, live chef demos, games and the Locally Baked Cobbler Tasting with entries from 5 different campus locations..hmmmm. See you on the 19th!
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Integrating Tropical Conservation and Civic Engagement to Create Change: a Case Study from Ecuador
Thursday, September 19
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Multi-Purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford
Jordan Karubian, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University
This talk will provide a case study of developing and conducting community-engaged research. The work in Ecuador, now in its 18thyear, has had its share of successes- including establishing a reserve and providing significant training, employment, and educational opportunities for locals - but also many failures and learning experiences. Attempting to achieve real world conservation gains while balancing the demands of a tenure-track faculty position also presents a series of challenges and opportunities. The speaker will speak candidly about these and related topics, with the goal of encouraging and informing students and others interested in pursuing a similar path.
Jordan Karubian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University and a founding member of FCAT, an Ecuadorian NGO. After completing his doctoral work at University of Chicago, Jordan lived in Ecuador for five years developing a distinctive model for community-engaged participatory research. His efforts have been recognized and supported by the Fulbright Fellowship Program; ‘Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty’; and the ‘Excellence in Tropical Biology and Conservation Award’ from the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.
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Colonized by Data: The Costs of Connection with Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias
Thursday, September 19
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East A (Room 2036, Second Floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScACWAH_UnxXYfS8b-9IFizV17MSuM9Dx-R24XQydtKR_lvlA/viewform
Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejías
This talk will introduce the speakers’ new book, The Costs of Connection: How Data Colonizes Human Life and Appropriates it for Capitalism (Stanford University Press, August 2019). Couldry and Mejias argue that the role of data in society needs to be grasped as not only a development of capitalism, but as the start of a new phase in human history that rivals in importance the emergence of historic colonialism. This new "data colonialism" is based not on the extraction of natural resources or labor, but on the appropriation of human life through data, paving the way for a further stage of capitalism. Today’s transformations of social life through data must therefore be grasped within the long historical arc of dispossession as both a new colonialism and an extension of capitalism. Resistance requires challenging once again the forms of coloniality that decolonial thinking has foregrounded for centuries. The struggle will be both broader and longer than many analyses of algorithmic power suppose, but for that reason critical responses are all the more urgent.
Nick Couldry is a sociologist of media and culture. He is Professor of Media Communications and Social Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and from 2017 has been a Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. In fall 2018 he was also a Visiting Professor at MIT. He jointly led, with Clemencia Rodriguez, the chapter on media and communications in the 22 chapter 2018 report of the International Panel on social Progress: www.ipsp.org. He is the author or editor of fourteen books including The Mediated Construction of Reality (with Andreas Hepp, Polity, 2016), Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice (Polity 2012) and Why Voice Matters (Sage 2010). His latest books are The Costs of Connection and Media: Why It Matters (Polity: October 2019).
Ulises Ali Mejías is associate professor of Communication Studies and director of the Institute for Global Engagement at the State University of New York, College at Oswego. He is a media scholar whose work encompasses critical internet studies, network theory and science, philosophy and sociology of technology, and political economy of digital media. He is the author of Off the Network: Disrupting the Digital World (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) and various articles including ‘Disinformation and the Media: The case of Russia and Ukraine’ in Media, Culture and Society (2017, with N. Vokuev), and ‘Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyond’ in Fibreculture (2012). He is the principal investigator in the Algorithm Observatory project.
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/colonized-data-costs-connection-nick-couldry-and-ulises-mejias at 12:00PM on event date.
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Investing and Innovating: Technology’s Role in Democracy Reform
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 19, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, Floor 2, Suite 200N, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Information Technology, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Ramya Raghavan, Head of Civic Engagement and News Outreach, Google
Nick Carter, Managing Director, 2020 Vision Ventures
Shomik Dutta, Co-founder and Partner, Higher Ground Labs
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS From online voter registration to digital news media, Citizens are increasingly interacting with democracy and civil society aided by technology. Join us for a conversation with three of our 2019-20 Technology and Democracy Fellows, investors and experts from the technology community, about how digital tools, platforms, and products are being leveraged to better our democracy.
Lunch will be served.
LINK https://ash.harvard.edu/event/investing-and-innovating-technology’s-role-democracy-reform
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Why Robert Mueller’s Appointment as Special Counsel Was Unlawful
Thursday, September 19
12:45 PM – 2:00 PM EDT
BU School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, The Charles River Room, Boston
Please join us as Gary Lawson present on why Robert Mueller's appointment as Special Counsel was unlawful
The Beck Lecture presented by Professor Gary Lawson
Since 1999, when the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act expired, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has had in place regulations providing for the appointment of Special Counsels who possess “the full power and independent authority to exercise all investigative and prosecutorial functions of any United States Attorney.” Appointments under these regulations, such as the May 17, 2017 appointment of Robert S. Mueller to investigate the Trump campaign, are patently unlawful, for three distinct reasons. Professor Gary Lawson, expert on constitutional history, will discuss these reasons and more as he presents this year’s Beck Lecture.
About the Speaker
Gary Lawson came to Boston University in January 2000; he was named the Philip S. Beck Professor of Law in 2012. He has authored six editions of a textbook on administrative law, co-authored two books on aspects of constitutional history, and authored or co-authored more than seventy scholarly articles. He is a founding member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Heritage Guide to The Constitution, a reference tool for legal scholars.
Professor Lawson twice clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, first at the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and then at the United States Supreme Court. Prior to joining the BU Law faculty, Professor Lawson taught at Northwestern University School of Law, where he earned three of the School’s most prestigious teaching awards.
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Why Businesses are Backing Carbon Pricing
Thursday, September 19
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Webinar
Earlier this year, top business leaders from across the country — representing more than 2.8 million employees globally — lobbied Capitol Hill to put a price on carbon pollution. It was one of many indications that businesses, big and small, are beginning to recognize that an economy-wide price on carbon is the most efficient and cost-effective tool to achieve necessary emissions reductions. It is also a policy that can generate needed revenue for investments in green infrastructure, clean tech innovation, and ease the transition into the low-carbon economy of the future.Why is business engagement essential in reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
How can advocates, business leaders, and policymakers work together to pass bold climate solutions? How can we elevate the voices of businesses to become leaders in the carbon pricing conversation? Join us for our upcoming Deep Dive webinar where we will answer these questions with our guests, leaders from The World Bank and The International Emissions Trading Association
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Climate Justice Speaker: Dr. Adrienne Hollis
Thursday, September 19
3:00-4:30pm
UMass Boston, Integrated Sciences Complex, Room 3300, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston
Dr. Adrienne L. Hollis is the lead climate justice analyst for the Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Dr. Hollis works with environmental justice communities to identify priority health concerns related to climate change and other environmental assaults, and evaluates climate and energy policy approaches for their ability to effectively address climate change and benefit under served communities.
This event is free and open to the public. Please contact ssl@umb.edu with any questions about accessibility.
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Fear and Loathing (and Enthusiasm!): A National Study of Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence
Thursday, September 19
3:30 pm to 4:30 pm
BU, College of Communication, 640 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 209, Boston
Dr. James E. Katz: Feld Professor of Emerging Media
Director, Division of Emerging Media Studies
Major advances in the technology of artificial intelligence (AI) have commanded great attention at both the national and international levels. Various commissions, panels, and studies have been launched to understand AI’s transformational potential for both positive and negative outcomes. Some see AI as solving major problems ranging from healthcare to transportation, while others see it as a profound threat to job security, personal privacy, individual autonomy, and even humanity itself.
In this talk, Dr. Katz will report on a research project (in which he is assisted by Division of Emerging Media Studies students Kate Mays, Janey Zitomer, and Yiming “Skylar” Lei) exploring public attitudes towards AI. The project's aim is to help build better policy by analyzing how the public perceives AI. Dr. Katz will present findings from this collaborative work, including the results of a national U.S. attitude survey conducted in 2019.
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Mechanisms of Regeneration and their Evolution
Thursday, September 19
3:30PM
Harvard, Biological Lecture Hall 1080, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Mansi Srivastava, Assistant Professor, Department of OEB
Abstract: Wound repair and regeneration are fundamental features of animal biology, and the capacity to replace all missing tissues (“whole-body regeneration”) is widely distributed across animal phyla. The genetic pathways that mediate whole-body regeneration are poorly understood, and little is known about how these pathways compare across animal lineages. Functional studies of species in phylogenetically informative positions are needed both to elucidate further the mechanisms of regeneration and to evaluate how these mechanisms have evolved. The goals of my research program are: 1) to identify cellular and genetic mechanisms for whole-body regeneration, and 2) to create aframework for rigorous cross-species comparisons to understand the evolution of regeneration. We focus our work on a new model system, the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia, which regenerates robustly and represents the likely sister-lineage to all other animals with bilateral symmetry, to address these questions. In this talk, I will discuss how we utilize a diversity of approaches including functional genomics, single-cell RNA-sequencing, and transgenesis to uncover the mechanisms of regeneration in Hofstenia. In particular, I will highlight how our studies of wound-induced gene regulatory networks and of stem cells are enabling comparisons of regenerative mechanisms across species.
OEB Seminar Series
Contact Name: Christian Flynn
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Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Dr. Ben Hayden: The Neuroscience of Naturalistic Decisions
Thursday, September 19
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Singleton Auditorium, 46-3002 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Ben Hayden
I am interested in understanding the neural mechanisms by which our brains make and control our choices. I have a particular interest in understanding self-control, learning, and decision-making. My research is closely inspired by foraging theory and by behavioral ecology more generally. As such a major focus of the lab’s methods development comes in making our task environments ever more naturalistic. We are especially interested in the cingulate cortex (dorsal anterior and posterior, dACC and PCC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and the striatum. I recently moved my lab from the University of Rochester to the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research at the University of Minnesota. There, my lab and I have begun working to understand expand our understanding of these regions and processes by incorporating measures of hemodynamic response.
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All That Glitters Is Gold: Gravitational Waves, Light and the Origin of the Heavy Elements
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 19, 2019, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Research study, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Edo Berger.2019–2020 Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this talk, Berger will discuss his efforts to explore the long-standing question of how gold and other heavy elements are created in the universe. In particular, his work aims to demonstrate the creation of these elements in neutron star collisions detected through their gravitational wave emission and the implications of the answer. Register online.
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Crisis in Kashmir: Current Events Seminar
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 19, 2019, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S020 (Belfer Room), 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Salil Shetty, Former Secretary General of Amnesty International and Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School
Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs and Director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University
Prerna Singh, Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University
Ashwaq Masoodi, Nieman Fellow, Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey
DETAILS The panel will discuss the recent events in Jammu and Kashmir, including the lead-up to the dissolution of its special autonomous status, the current situation on the ground, and the greater geopolitical implications of the recent change in status.
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Extinction Rebellion Open Mic at Herter Park, Charles River
Thursday, September 19
5 p.m.
Herter Park, 1175 Soldiers Field Road, Brighton
Free open mic, part of the Herter Park series that’s been going all summer. Coral Reef affinity group will flyer and chat with people about XR and climate anxiety. We also want to do a song or two in the open mic, song(s) to be determined. Please let me know by email (noteaparty@gmail.com) if you would like to participate in singing and I will be in touch. Happy for any and all XR folks to join us to sing or flyer and talk to folks. Performance starts at 7 but we’ll be there at 5 to chat with people while they wait. Sign up to get meeting info.
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Reading King in Boston (RKIB): Rev. Mariama White-Hammond of New Roots AME Church
Thursday, September 19
5:30 – 7:30pm
BU Howard Thurman Center, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Basement, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reading-king-in-boston-rev-mariama-white-hammond-tickets-71954270159
Reading: Christmas Sermon, 1967
“Reading King in Boston” (RKIB) is a program that raises up specific works by Martin Luther King, Jr. The selections chosen are to be read and discussed in anticipation of themes raised up in four recognized national or international commemorations in fall, 2019.
The “Reading King in Boston” project is an offshoot of the New Democracy Coalition’s (NDC) annual effort at reading a King speech, sermon or letter publicly. Cooperative Metropolitan (CMM) is partnering with NDC on this project which includes support from the Ella J. Baker House and Seymour Institute in Dorchester and the NDC’s “To the Mountaintop Series.” Boston University School of Theology, King’s university, is supportive of this project.
The four presentation/discussions will be held first at the Howard Thurman Center, Boston University, with the remainder of sessions held at Grove Hall Public Library, Roxbury. Our location at the Grove Hall Public Library will help to ensure that all people of whatever religious or secular traditions are welcome. Our first session at Boston University acknowledges the person and place formative of King’s work.
Our intention is to assemble a group of about 30 people, “King Fellows,” who will meet for the four sessions and become a literary nucleus for further work. The general public is strongly welcomed. Each of the four events, or “readings,” will occur about a week prior to and in relation to the four public events that transpire in the year of 2019. The four Reading King in Boston dates are September 19, October 10, November 7 and December 5. Persons planning to attend should register their interest here.
We intend a person from each of the four readings to speak at each of the four city-wide events, making reference to King’s work. Those events are: 1) The United Nations International Day of Peace (September 21 [acknowledged on 9/22]), 2) Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day (October 14), 3) Armistice/Veterans Day (November 11), and 4) day acknowledging the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (December 10).
There will be reporting on this project at the MLK Volunteer Day, January 20, at a youth event held annually at Brandeis University. In addition to the partnering organizations, this program is supported by Mass Humanities.
Contact for further information: Kevin Peterson (kevincharlespeterson@aol.com) or Rodney Petersen (rlp@coopmet.org).
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Jeanne S. Chall Lecture and Reception - Language is Access
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 19, 2019, 5:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gutman Conference Center, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
TYPE OF EVENT Lecture, Reception
TOPIC Literacy
BUILDING/ROOM Gutman Conference Center E1
CONTACT NAME Jodie Smith-Bennett
CONTACT EMAIL events@gse.harvard.edu
CONTACT PHONE 617-495-8059
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED No
ADMISSION FEE This event is free and open to the public.
RSVP REQUIRED No
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Lecture
DETAILS Please RSVP at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0PPmzr0HEcp6qFv to assist us in planning for attendance numbers.
Language is Access
Speaker: Julie Washington, chair and professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Georgia State University
Introduction: Alex Hodges, librarian and director, Monroe C. Gutman Library, HGSE; chair, Jeanne S. Chall Endowment Advisory Board
For young African American children growing up in poverty, access to social and educational opportunities can be impeded by the interaction between educational assessments, poverty, and dialectal variation. Dr. Washington's research has demonstrated that the growth of literacy skills, both reading and writing, are impacted in major ways. Washington will discuss how current educational policy combined with the impact of these sociocultural variables has influenced both research and practice.
Following the lecture will be an award presentation of the Jeanne S. Chall Doctoral Student Award to Pierre de Galbert, Ed.M.'07, Ed.M.’17, Ed.D.’19.
A reception from 7–8 p.m. will conclude the event.
Funded through HGSE’s Jeanne S. Chall Endowment, the annual lecture and doctoral student award honor the late Jeanne Chall, who served as a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her seminal work on reading research and instruction influenced scholarship on the teaching of reading in schools and universities throughout the country.
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The Promises, Responsibilities, and Challenges of Citizenship
Thursday, September 19
6:00 pm
BU, LAW Auditorium, 767 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
The 2019 Gitner Family CAS Lecture will be a panel discussion featuring faculty perspectives from classical studies, international relations, political science, and law with a focus on citizenship as an evolving and contested set of ideals, practices, and institutions. The panel will examine citizenship in relation to political inequalities, identities, and movements. Moderator: Neta Crawford, Professor and Chair of Political Science
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Heading for Extinction (and What to Do about It)
Thursday, September 19
6 p.m.
Brighton Public Library, 40 Academy Hill Road, Brighton
We are in the midst of an unprecedented climate crisis and ecological breakdown that threatens the continuation of life as we know it: record atmospheric carbon levels, global temperature rise, deforestation, plastic pollution, mass extinction of species... Join us to hear the latest information on the state of our planet, and learn how to become part of a global movement of social transformation for a livable future.
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9.19 Mapping Feminist Cambridge Walking Tour
Thursday, September 19
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
91 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/919-mapping-feminist-cambridge-walking-tour-tickets-71553984895
Did you know that in the 1970’s, Inman Square was home to many women-owned businesses and organizations like a restaurant and cultural center, health center, law collective, credit union, and a craft collective? Or that one of the nation’s first feminist bookstores thrived at 186 Hampshire Street for more than 25 years?
Join us on Thursday, September 19th for a walking tour of Mapping Feminist Cambridge: Inman Square, a guide that highlights feminist history along Hampshire Street from the 1970s to 1990s.
Meet at the intersection of Plymouth and Windsor Streets/Jutta Elsa Georgi Callinan Square (next to 91 Hampshire Street). The tour is about one hour and 15 minutes.
Free and open to the public.
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Dr. Vali Nasr: U.S. Middle East & South Asia Policy in the Age of Trump
Thursday, September 19
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Tufts, The Fletcher School ASEAN Auditorium, 160 Packard Avenue, MedfordR
SAIS Dean and current Brookings Fellow Dr. Vali Nasr kicks off the 2019-2020 year lecture series, cohosted by CSAIOS and the Fares Center.
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Climate Stories Project
Thursday, September 19
6:00-8:30 pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Presentation by Jason Davis, Director of the Climate Stories Project
More information at http://www.climatestoriesproject.org
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The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
Thursday, September 19
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
$8 - $28.75 (book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes ERIC FONER—the preeminent, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Civil War era—for a discussion of his latest book, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution. He will be joined in conversation by renowned scholar, literary critic, and filmmaker HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.
About The Second Founding
The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. They established the principle of birthright citizenship and guaranteed the privileges and immunities of all citizens. The federal government, not the states, was charged with enforcement, reversing the priority of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, these revolutionary changes marked the second founding of the United States.
Eric Foner’s compact, insightful history traces the arc of these pivotal amendments from their dramatic origins in pre–Civil War mass meetings of African-American “colored citizens” and in Republican party politics to their virtual nullification in the late nineteenth century. A series of momentous decisions by the Supreme Court narrowed the rights guaranteed in the amendments, while the states actively undermined them. The Jim Crow system was the result. Again, today, there are serious political challenges to birthright citizenship, voting rights, due process, and equal protection of the law. Like all great works of history, this one informs our understanding of the present as well as the past: knowledge and vigilance are always necessary to secure our basic rights.
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Gender and our Brains: How New Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds
Thursday, September 19
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes GINA RIPPON—Honorary Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at Aston University in Birmingham, England—for a discussion of her new book, Gender and Our Brains: How New Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds.
About Gender and our Brains
We live in a gendered world, where we are ceaselessly bombarded by messages about sex and gender. On a daily basis, we face deeply ingrained beliefs that sex determines our skills and preferences, from toys and colors to career choice and salaries. But what does this constant gendering mean for our thoughts, decisions and behavior? And what does it mean for our brains?
Drawing on her work as a professor of cognitive neuroimaging, Gina Rippon unpacks the stereotypes that surround us from our earliest moments and shows how these messages mold our ideas of ourselves and even shape our brains. By exploring new, cutting-edge neuroscience, Rippon urges us to move beyond a binary view of the brain and to see instead this complex organ as highly individualized, profoundly adaptable and full of unbounded potential.
Rigorous, timely and liberating, Gender and Our Brains has huge implications for women and men, for parents and children, and for how we identify ourselves.
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Friday, September 20 - Friday, September 27
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Global Climate Strike
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Friday, September 20
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Changing Climate, Changing Health: Strategies for Addressing Public Health in the Age of Climate Change
Friday, September 20
Registration | 7:15 AM Program | 8 AM - 11:30 AM
UMass Club, One Beacon Street, Boston
Cost: $15 - $45
The public health field is rapidly shifting to incorporate the new realities of climate impacts. From extreme heat waves to the growing prevalence of diseases, issues with water quality, trauma from storms and allergy and asthma triggers, there are many challenges to address. While we are all vulnerable to this changes, low income communities and communities of color face disproportionate risks. Speakers will explore some of the issues and then will dive into what is happening on the ground to address heat and mental health and how the built environment can support resilient wellness.
Join this Climate Adaptation Forum to learn about how climate change is impacting public health and new approaches to address these challenges.
Forum Co-Chairs
Gabriella Boscio, Boston University
Deanna Moran, Conservation Law Foundation
Alex Papali, Clean Water Action
Keynote Speaker
Gina McCarthy, Professor of the Practice of Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Director of the Harvard Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment
Confirmed Speakers
Thomas Chase, Project Manager, New Ecology, Inc.
Dr. Adrienne L. Hollis, Lead Climate Justice Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists
Dr. Jean Rhodes, Frank L. Boyden Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston
Nancy Smith, Program Manager for Community Engagement, Office of Public Health Preparedness at Boston Public Health Commission
Additional speakers to be announced shortly.
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Global Climate Strike
Friday, September 20
8 a.m.
Everywhere
Join us in supporting the student strikers here in Boston, September 20.
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Community Events at City Hall Plaza—art activities, partner organization tabling, sign making, community mural/art wall
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Main Rally at City Hall Plaza—speakers, dances/songs/bands, slam poetry!
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM March to Massachusetts Statehouse
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Action at Massachusetts Statehouse
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Boston Climate Strike
Friday, September 20
9 AM – 3 PM
Boston City Hall Plaza, 1 City Hall Square, Boston
On September 20th, 2019, millions of people will strike around the world to demand action on the climate crisis. Join thousands in Boston at City Hall Plaza as we kick off a week of climate actions! This event is youth led and community supported.
#StrikeWithUs #StrikeWithUsBoston #ClimateStrike #ClimateStrikeMA
Our most up to date information and public resources can be found on our website: https://strikewithus.org/boston/
DONATE: bit.ly/strike-donate
**PUBLIC RESOURCES**
Misc Materials:
Flyers/Graphics | bit.ly/flyers_920
Strike One Pager | bit.ly/bos-strike
No Major Assignment Pledge | bit.ly/teacher_pledge
Sports Exemption Pledge | bit.ly/coach_pledge
Toolkits:
Student Ambassador | bit.ly/ambassador-toolkit
Teacher Support | bit.ly/bos-teacher-toolkit
Social Media Guidelines | bit.ly/strike-social
Google Forms:
Student Ambassador | bit.ly/school_outreach
Teacher Support | bit.ly/strike-teacher
Strike Leadership Team | bit.ly/bos-climate-form
Op Ed Guide:
Climate Strike Op Ed Guide (created in collaboration with Sunrise Movement Boston) | bit.ly/strike-op-ed
Please contact @ClimateStrikeMA or mass@youthclimatestrikeus.org with questions.
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PARKing Day
Friday, September 20
8am - 6pm
More information at https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Transportation/parkingday
for Cambridge
for MIT
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Light-Absorbing Impurities in Snow: Origins, Radiative Processes, and Climate Impacts
Friday, September 20
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Mark Flanner, University of Michigan.
Types of light absorbing impurities found in snow include black carbon, brown carbon, mineral dust, volcanic ash, and snow algae. Small concentrations of these impurities can have a large impact on the reflectance and melt timing of snow. This talk will explore the radiative processes that govern snow albedo, the origins and types of key impurities, processes that determine the concentrations of impurities within snow, and the climate impacts of snow darkening as simulated with Earth system models.
Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
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Social Resilience: Understanding how Environmental Stressors Impact the Behavior and Health of Bees
Monday, September 23
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
James Crall, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
All talks are free and open to everyone. Watch live on the Arboretum’s YouTube channel if you are unable to attend in person. The streaming video is entitled “AA Research Talks Live” and is visible only when a live stream is scheduled or in progress.
617-524-1718
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Mayors Stepping Up. Can Mayors Save the World?
Friday, September 20
2 pm-3:30 pm
BU, 75 Bay State Road, Boston
RSVP at http://bit.ly/ioc-mayors
In October 2014, the Initiative on Cities released a ground-breaking survey of American mayors, which has since been dedicated as the Menino Survey of Mayors. Now an annual project based on interviews with over 100 mayors from around the country, the survey takes the pulse of mayors and addresses key urban issues such as affordable housing, poverty, climate change, and racism and discrimination.
Join us as co-principal investigators Assistant Professors Katherine Levine Einstein and Max Palmer and Associate Professor David Glick share findings from the Menino Survey results between 2014-2018.
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Hitler's Great Gamble: A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II
Friday, September 20
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the turning points of World War II. Within six months, the invasion bogged down on the outskirts of Moscow, and the Eastern Front proved to be the decisive theater in the defeat of the Third Reich. Ever since, most historians have agreed that this was Hitler’s gravest mistake. In Hitler’s Great Gamble, James Ellman argues that while Barbarossa was a gamble and perverted by genocidal Nazi ideology, it was not doomed from the start. Rather it represented Hitler’s best chance to achieve his war aims for Germany which were remarkably similar to those of the Kaiser’s government in 1914. Other options, such as an invasion of England, or an offensive to seize the oil fields of the Middle East were considered and discarded as unlikely to lead to Axis victory.
About the author: James Ellman holds a bachelor’s degree in history and economics from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard. He lives near San Francisco, California
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Represent: The Woman's Guide to Running for Office and Changing the World
Friday, September 20
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Kate Black
Written with humor and honesty by writer, comedian, actress, and activist June Diane Raphael; and Kate Black, former chief of staff at EMILY’s list, Represent is structured around a 21-point document called “I’m Running for Office: The Checklist.” Doubling as a workbook, Represent covers it all, from the nuts and bolts of where to run, fundraising, and filing deadlines, to issues like balancing family and campaigning, managing social media and how running for office can work in your real life.
Kate Black is currently a policy advisor in the federal government and formerly the Chief of Staff and Vice President of Research at EMILY’s List, the largest resource for women in politics. She served as Executive Director of American Women, a nonpartisan research organization working to uplift the voices of women and the issues they care about. She has helped elect candidates up and down the ballot and across the country. Committed to bringing change in her community, she co-founded a free salary negotiation program for 15,000 women with the City of DC, AAUW, and the Younger Women’s Task Force.
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Saturday, September 21
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Somerville Garden Club Annual Plant Sale
Saturday, September 21
9am - 1pm
Davis Square, Somerville
Great stuff, at good prices, and lots of advice. Plus books, pots, etc. Always fun, bigger and better every year. (Good leftovers from our swap go to this sale.) Check it out!
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National Day of Civic Hacking: Boston 2019
Saturday, September 21
9:30 AM – 3:00 PM EDT
iZotope, 60 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
Join Code for Boston and Citizens for Juvenile Justice for the 7th Annual Nat'l Day of Civic Hacking!
The National Day of Civic Hacking brings together civic leaders, public servants, designers, coders, and engaged citizens to partner with local government and community groups to tackle some of our toughest challenges. This year Code for Boston invites you to join us and our partners at Citizens for Juvenile Justice for a day of collective action to help those impacted by the criminal justice system, particularly in the area of criminal record expungement (more on record expungement in Massachusetts).
This year’s NDoCH coincides with National Expungement Week, an effort led by organizations across the country to help people in the process of clearing their criminal records. This is a great opportunity to work with partners who are already doing this important work. At NDoCH, we will center their perspectives in an effort to transform the criminal record clearance landscape. We will focus on expanding, streamlining, and automating the expungement process in Massachusetts.
What can I expect to do at the National Day of Civic Hacking?
We’re planning a full set of activities to provide opportunities for people of all backgrounds and experience levels to make meaningful contributions to this effort! Each activity will have a facilitator with enough subject-matter knowledge to guide teams throughout the day.
Activities will include:
Building a “Know Your Rights” website to make Massachusetts’ criminal records expungement and sealing laws more accessible to the people they’re intended to serve
Developing and researching an Expungement Scorecard to assess Massachusetts’ expungement and sealing laws in comparison to other states
Making a journey map to understand the process a person who wants to seal their record needs to follow to successfully accomplish their goal
Analyzing data to estimate the number of people in Massachusetts who are eligible to seal or expunge their criminal record under existing laws
User testing some existing resources being developed by our partners at Citizens for Juvenile Justice
Translating everything we write, design, and develop into other languages to make the work we’ll do together accessible to people who speak a language other than English
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Ladies Comics Con [Gentlemen Invited]
Saturday, September 21
11am - 5pm
Center for the Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Avenue, Somerville
More information at http://ladiescon.com
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Nature Inspired Design (Bio-mimicry) Workshop
Saturday, September 21
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
DCR's Belle Isle Marsh Reservation, 1399 Bennington Street, EAST BOSTON
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nature-inspired-design-bio-mimicry-workshop-tickets-67063206857
Suitable for adults and teenagers accompanied by an adult. Free. Join us as we design a new way to attach things or create another invention using lessons learned from observing local plants and animals.
Meet at: DCR’s Belle Isle Marsh Reservation, 1399 Bennington Street, East Boston. Parking is on a paved lot and is free of charge. MBTA Blue line Suffolk Downs or Beachmont Station. Mass.gov/dcr/calendar
For more information call: 781-656-1485 or email Matthew.Nash@mass.gov
For the program calendar of the DCR state parks visit mass.gov/dcr/calendar
All Programs are FREE and open to the public.
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
For program cancellations phone 978-937-2094 ext. 121, one hour before start time.
Rain Cancels.
Bring Water. Strongly recommend sunscreen, insect repellent, a hat, sunglasses and footwear suitable for walking on paths.
For the DCR Program Calendar please visit mass.gov/dcr/calendar
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Plant A Tree Day in Boston
Saturday, September 21
1:30 PM – 4:30 PM EDT
Carriage Path & Rock Pond, Allandale Woods, 19 VFW Parkway, Boston
Get your hands dirty and do something good for nature this fall!
Join One Tree Planted and the Boston Parks & Recreation Department by planting trees in the Allandale Woods! By participating in this project, volunteers will be helping green Boston's largest urban wild space and increase the habitat for wildlife!
Meeting point: 19 VFW Parkway (Carriage Path & Rock Pond)
What to bring
Closed toe shoes
Long Pants
Reusable water bottle
Sun protection
Light snacks
Note: Children under 16 are welcome but must be accompanied by an adult/guardian. The guardian will need to sign a waiver.
If you are reserving more than 4 tickets, please contact Gabriela directly at gabriela@onetreeplanted.org
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Can They Do It? Divisions on the Road to the 19th Amendment
Saturday, September 21
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EDT
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston
The women’s suffrage movement was not always a cohesive or inclusive space for everyone who fought for the vote, nor did the Nineteenth Amendment bring about political enfranchisement for all women. Conflicts around political philosophy, campaign tactics, and most notably, issues of race, led to a movement that was deeply fractured. Allison Lange of the Wentworth Institute of Technology will moderate a conversation with Corinne T. Field of the University of Virginia, Manisha Sinha of the University of Connectitcut and independent historian Barbara Berenson as they further examine the divisions inherent in the movement and look at how other social reform activists have historically struggled with coalition building and intersectionality.
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Revels Riversing: A Free Family Celebration of the Autumnal Equinox
Saturday, September 21
5:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
The Herter Park Amphitheater, 1175 Soldiers Field Road, Allston
RAIN OR SHINE EVENT!
FREE! FREE! FREE!
All ages welcome. No reservations required. Plenty of FREE parking.
Wave goodbye to summer with a magical night of music and song featuring Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter Paul and Mary fame), guest soloists, a fabulous folk band, choruses galore – and YOU!
Lift your voice in song as Revels waves goodbye to summer and welcomes in the fall at the 16th annual Revels RiverSing at the Herter Park Amphitheater in Allston!
Hosted by Revels music director Megan Henderson, the event features over 100 performers including this year’s headliner, Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary fame. Additional participants include The RiverSing Chorus, Revels Youth Alumni and Children’s Choruses, the Brazilian percussion ensemble Marcos Santos and aNova.
But the real stars of RiverSing are YOU! Song sheets will be available on site so we can all sing along! Join us in song as Revels waves goodbye to summer and welcomes in the fall at this FREE family-friendly Autumnal Equinox celebration.
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Standing up to Climate Change
Saturday, September 21
7:30 pm - 9:15 pm
Arlington Center for the Arts, 3rd-floor gallery (above the Senior Center), 20 Academy Street, Arlington
Tickets: $20 general, $30 supporter, $5+ pay-what-you-can
Save $5 on general admission if you get your ticket in advance:
Tickets also available at the door
“Standing up to climate change: Stories of environmental activists”
In partnership with Sustainable Arlington
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Sunday, September 22
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Addiction as Compulsion and Choice: A Naturalistic Perspective
Sunday, September 22
1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
India Pavilion, 17 Central Square, Cambridge
We'll gather to celebrate the Fall Equinox (which takes place the following day!) with a Luncheon on Sunday September 22 featuring an Indian buffet meal at the India Pavilion in Central Square Cambridge, followed by special guest speaker Tom Clark.
The topic is "Addiction as Compulsion and Choice: A Naturalistic Perspective"
Addiction is an increasingly visible case study in the philosophy and science of human agency. Those seeking to prevent and treat addiction often portray it as a brain disease involving drug-induced compulsion, but the disease model is criticized for ignoring the role of voluntary choice in addictive behavior.
A naturalistic understanding of addiction can incorporate both compulsion and choice as fully caused phenomena, traceable to past and current biopsychosocial factors, not an uncaused or self-caused personal will. Such an understanding can help mitigate the stigma surrounding addiction and assist in the development of effective modes of treatment and prevention.
Philosopher Tom Clark hosts Naturalism.Org, one of the Web’s most comprehensive resources on worldview naturalism, its implications and applications. He is also a research associate at the Institute for Behavioral Health at Brandeis University, working on solutions to drug addiction and other behavioral disorders.
Related web page:
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Climate Action for Peace - UN International Day of Peace Boston 2019
Sunday, September 22
1:45 PM – 4:00 PM EDT
Boston Common, 139 Tremont Street, Boston
The United Nations has established “Climate Action for Peace” as the theme for this year's International Day of Peace. The theme draws attention to the importance of combatting climate change as a way to protect and promote peace throughout the world. Join CMM, Friends Meeting at Cambridge, Bethel Lowell Church, along with other partners, on the Boston Common in a day of music (starting at 1:45pm), dance, song, poetry, artwork, facepainting & activities for children, and peace education, followed by a walk to the Garden of Peace.
Proclamations from Mayor Walsh's office and Governor Baker's office to be read. This year's program will include:
Rob Bethel Albioni’s “Adagio in G Minor”
Building Bridges Through Music
Neil Dale “Heart of the Earth” and “Help Wanted”
David Doms, Dan Fitzmartin, Toussaint Liberator, and Stu Repogle “How Long Can We Wait?”
Dawn Duncan “Carry It On”
Stone of Hope Drumming Circle “Djembe Rhythms”
Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman
Allen McGonagill “Headed for Extinction & What to do About It”
Kevin C Peterson of the New Democracy Coalition
Nick Rabb “Climate Change & War: Organizing Against Sanctioned Violence”
Rev. Vernon K Walker
Alewife Poets
Jubilee Christian Church Harvest Adult Dance Ministry
Participatory Dance led by Kaeza Fearn
For more updates, please visit: http://www.idpboston.org/ For more info and to ask about sponsorships, please email info@coopmet.org
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Governing With Communities
Sunday, September 22
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington Street, Roxbury
A conversation with City Mayors Carter, Lumumba, & Tubbs about economic transformation with Boston Ujima Project and The Workers Lab
Doors at 4:30pm. Event starts at 5:00pm.
Registration required for attendance.
On Sunday, September 22nd we will welcome three visionary Black mayors from across the country - Mayor Melvin Carter (St Paul, MN), Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (Jackson, MS), and Mayor Michael Tubbs (Stockton, CA) - to Boston for a learning exchange with Boston Ujima Project, The Workers Lab, and our broader community.
These mayors - among the youngest and most progressive in the country - have advanced bold policy solutions addressing many of the challenges impacting working class communities of color, including wealth inequality, housing, health, education, and criminalization.
Join us for a panel and breakout discussion about the intersection of politics and worker power with Boston Ujima Project, the Workers Lab, and Mayors Lumumba, Tubbs, and Carter. How can our cities shift political and economic power directly into the hands of community members, and create cooperative economies that support the wellbeing of our people and our planet? What can we make happen when our people are in power? How can our communities and businesses prepare to govern ourselves?
We hope you will join us for this incredible opportunity. We are prioritizing attendance and participation of working class Black, brown, indigenous, and communities of color.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Children’s activities will be available upon request. Please email info@ujimaboston.com if you would like to bring your child or children.
About the mayors:
Mayor Melvin Carter (Saint Paul, MN): http://www.melvincarter.org/bio/
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (Jackson, MI): https://www.jacksonms.gov/index.aspx?NID=245
Mayor Michael Tubbs (Stockton, CA): www.stocktonca.gov/government/council/mayor.html
About Boston Ujima Project: www.ujimaboston.com
About The Workers Lab: https://theworkerslab.com/
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Monday, September 23 – Tuesday, September 24
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Indigenous Knowledge in Coastal Resilience
Monday, September 23, 9 AM – Tuesday, September 24, 6 PM
MIT, DUSP, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
With this workshop, our research team seeks to promote scholarly and practice-oriented contributions rooted in knowledge sharing around experiences with climate adaptation and relocation. Participants will include members of the Isle de Jean Charles, LA band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe, members of the Yupik people from Newtok, AK, and scholars working on resettlement issues from DUSP, the Lowlander Center, Louisiana, and elsewhere. More broadly, this workshop will provide an opportunity for dialogue and knowledge sharing to better scope out the challenges to equitable relocation planning and the opportunities for uncovering latent and unaddressed values in the planning process.
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Monday, September 23
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Wind Technology Testing Center Tour
Monday, September 23
11:00am to 1:00pm
Wind Technology Testing Center 100 Terminal Street (Building 80) Charlestown
Cost: $10 Members;$30 Non-Members: $10 Students; $5 Student Members
Offshore wind in Massachusetts is taking off as an economical source of clean energy. Vineyard Wind, the first offshore wind project in Massachusetts waters, is slated to begin construction soon. There could be anywhere from 5,000 MW to 10,000 MW built off the coast of Massachusetts south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in the future. The MassCEC Wind Technology Testing Center will be a part of the offshore wind story.
Wind turbine blade testing is a critical factor in maintaining high levels of reliability and evaluating the latest technological developments in airfoils and materials. Blade testing is required as part of turbine certification to meet international design standards including IEC, GL and DNV. Meeting international standards allows developers to mitigate the technical and financial risk of deploying mass-produced wind turbines.
The WTTC offers a full suite of certification tests for turbine blades up to 90 meters in length and is the largest commercial-scale blade testing center in the nation. WTTC is innovating and constantly improving testing methods to better represent field operations in the lab and to improve testing efficiency for wind industry partners.
See how the science happens!
Please join us for a tour, lunch and networking at the Wind Technology Testing Center on September 23, at 11:00 AM. 100 Terminal Street (Building 80), Boston (Charlestown), MA - space is limited to 25 so register early!
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Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium - Speaker: Dorian Abbot
Monday, September 23
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (Ida Green Lounge), 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
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Gutman Library Book Talk: "We Dare Say Love": Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys
WHEN Monday, Sep. 23, 2019, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gutman Conference Center, E1 & E2, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Gutman Library
SPEAKER(S) Jarvis R. Givens, Assistant professor of education at HGSE
CONTACT INFO myanne_krivoshey@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS "We Dare Say Love" takes up the critically important issue of what it means to educate Black male students in a large urban district. It chronicles the development and implementation of the African American Male Achievement Initiative in Oakland Unified School District, following a small group of Black male educators who changed district policy and practice to create a learning experience for Black boys rooted in love.
Lunch will be served!
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Social Resilience: Understanding how Environmental Stressors Impact the Behavior and Health of Bees
Monday, September 23
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
James Crall, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
All talks are free and open to everyone. Watch live on the Arboretum’s YouTube channel if you are unable to attend in person. The streaming video is entitled “AA Research Talks Live” and is visible only when a live stream is scheduled or in progress.
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
617-524-1718
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Computational Social Science: 10 Years Later
Monday, September 23
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Karen Huang, Organizational Behavior/Harvard STS
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to via the online form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7VGUkAvTU655Dub2FTGSNMjpVs6f8Qbu0kpmXh6oz11MgFw/viewform by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
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The Environmental Bias of Trade Policy
Monday, September 23
4:30pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building E52-532, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Joe Shapiro (University of California, Berkeley)
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2019 Walker Prize Lecture: "The Origin of Life on the Early Earth”
Monday, September 23
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston
Join us for the awarding of the 2019 Walker Prize to Jack W. Szostak, PhD and the presentation of his lecture The Origin of Life on the Early Earth.
THE WALKER PRIZE
Tha Walker Prize recognizes “meritorious published scientific investigation and discovery” in any scientific field. The recipient must be a noted scientist, professor, or researcher who is a superb science communicator via the written word and is well known for superlative work in her / his field. The prize was established in 1864 by Dr. William Johnson Walker, one of the most eminent surgeons of his era and a generous benefactor of the Boston Society of Natural History, the Museum’s founding organization.
2019 AWARDEE: Jack W. Szostak, PhD
Jack W. Szostak is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University, and the Alex Rich Distinguished Investigator in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital. His early research on telomere structure and function and the role of telomere maintenance in preventing cellular senescence was recognized by the 2006 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the 1990s Szostak and his colleagues developed in vitro selection as a tool for the isolation of functional RNA, DNA, and protein molecules from large pools of random sequences. His current research interests are in the laboratory synthesis of self-replicating systems and the origin of life.
The event is free, but registration is required. Complimentary parking. Business casual dress.
Tickets do not need to be printed in advance, there will be a registration table in the lobby for check-in. Please include all names of attending guests to help facilitate the check-in process.
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Gurus, Women, and Yoga: The Spiritual World of Hindu Universalism
WHEN Monday, Sep. 23, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvar,d Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR, 617.495.4476
DETAILS Annual Hindu View of Life Lecture
After the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda became a global celebrity and an emissary of neo-Vedanta or Hindu Universalism in Europe and America. He brought the practice of Raja Yoga and new forms of Hindu teaching to Europe and America, shaping Western disciples searching for post-Christian spirituality. This lecture will examine how Vivekananda conveyed the meaning of ‘guru-bakhti’ to his new female disciples, and the spiritual lens through which he sought to mold them. He had grown up in an entirely male spiritual milieu, where the guru’s power was transmitted to worthy male aspirants. In the West, Vivekananda had to adapt much of his teaching (i.e. guru-disciple relationship and the practice of meditation) to encompass an entirely new world of feminine devotees, many of whom had engaged in spiritualism, hypnotherapy and, above all, Christian Science. Professor Harris argues that he had to adapt to their concerns while constantly differentiating neo-Vedanta from a host of competing, and his view, spiritually deficient, Western ideas and practices. He also had to protect neo-Vedanta and his own mission from the suspicion of luring women away from their native faith into a world of seductive ‘orientalism.’ Last and not least, pleased though he was by the loyalty and seriousness of his female devotees, he was keen to locate men who would lead the movement outside of India, yet he was much less successful recruiting men than women.
Ruth Harris is Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at All Souls’ College. She has published widely in the history of religion, science, women’s history, French history, and more recently, global history.
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ACT Fall 2019 Lecture Series: The Inexplicable Wonder of Precipitous Events -- Sarah Oppenheimer
Monday, September 23
6:00pm to 7:30pm
MIT, Building E15, The Cube, E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
As an artistic research program, ACT is perennially concerned with emerging modes of expression that explore evolving forms of knowledge production. In this context, the program’s Fall 2019 Lecture Series asks, “What is art if not an event?”
Philosopher Alain Badiou describes an event as a multiplication of conditions which may not always make sense according to the perceived rules of the ‘situation,’ and which, in coming into being, must provoke, out of a dynamic intervention, something new as that which cannot easily be assigned. The works of the four artists in the Fall 2019 ACT Lecture Series raise some of these same issues in terms of how one might consider the conditions of events in relation to the questions their individual projects explore. Each artist, in different ways, addresses how it is that art functions as an event.
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Lifespan: Why we Age and Why We Don't Have To
Monday, September 23
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
From an acclaimed Harvard professor and one of Time’s most influential people, this paradigm shifting book shows how almost everything we think we know about aging is wrong, offers a front-row seat to the amazing global effort to slow, stop, and reverse aging, and calls readers to consider a future where aging can be treated.
LIFESPAN provides a road map for taking charge of our own health destiny and a bold new vision for the future when humankind is able to live to be 100 years young.
David A. Sinclair, PhD, AO is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Founding Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging at Harvard. One of the leading innovators of his generation, he is listed by Time magazine as “one of the 100 most influential people in the world” (2014) and top 50 most important influential people in healthcare (2018). He is a board member of the American Federation for Aging Research, a Founding Editor of the journal Aging, and has received more than 35 awards for his research on resveratrol, NAD, and reprogramming to reverse aging, which have been widely hailed as a major scientific breakthroughs. In 2018, he became an Officer of the Order of Australia, the equivalent of a knighthood, for his work on national security matters and human longevity. Dr. Sinclair and his work have been featured on 60 Minutes, Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and Newsweek, among others.
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History Café 3: Engaging through the Arts
Monday, September 23
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT (Doors open 6:00. Event begins 6:30.)
Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $10 – $60
As our last History Café of 2019, we reflect on how the arts can serve as a catalyst for– or reaction to– change.
In partnership with Central Square Theater, we invite artists David Fichter, Eryn Johnson, and Vincent Siders to discuss how the arts can serve as a catalyst for– or reaction to– change. We ask, how is their work informed by a history of social justice in the arts? Does this build on a legacy of such work in Cambridge? Dr. Marty Blatt will moderate the conversation. This event is part of Central Square Theater’s Central Conversations series and the final History Café of the Society’s 2019 “How Does Cambridge Engage?” programming.
This event will be held during the Nora Theatre Company’s production of The Crucible, framed and inspired by the #metoo movement.
Eryn Johnson is the executive director of the Community Art Center and helped create the Youth Development in the Arts Youth Work Training curriculum.
Vincent Siders is an award-winning actor, director, producer, and educator. He serves as the Lead Instructor and Director of the Ambassadors of Youth Underground at Central Square Theater.
David Fichter is an internally-recognized muralist, and his art can be found throughout Cambridge. Depicted here is a detail of his 1994 mural “The Potluck,” located in Central Square.
Dr. Martin Blatt is director of the Public History Program at Northeastern University. He has an advocate of the arts and a longtime supporter of the Central Square Theater.
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Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost and The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
Monday, September 23
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes authors and professors CAITLIN ZALOOM and ANTHONY ABRAHAM JACK for a discussion of their latest books, Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost and The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students.
About Indebted
The struggle to pay for college is one of the defining features of middle-class life in America today. At kitchen tables all across the country, parents agonize over whether to burden their children with loans or to sacrifice their own financial security by taking out a second mortgage or draining their retirement savings. Indebted takes readers into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to reveal the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life.
Caitlin Zaloom gained the confidence of numerous parents and their college-age children, who talked candidly with her about stressful and intensely personal financial matters that are usually kept private. In this remarkable book, Zaloom describes the profound moral conflicts for parents as they try to honor what they see as their highest parental duty―providing their children with opportunity―and shows how parents and students alike are forced to take on enormous debts and gamble on an investment that might not pay off. What emerges is a troubling portrait of an American middle class fettered by the "student finance complex"―the bewildering labyrinth of government-sponsored institutions, profit-seeking firms, and university offices that collect information on household earnings and assets, assess family needs, and decide who is eligible for aid and who is not.
Superbly written and unflinchingly honest, Indebted breaks through the culture of silence surrounding the student debt crisis, revealing the unspoken costs of sending our kids to college.
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Tuesday, September 24 - Monday, September 30
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Climate Preparedness Week - September 24-30
Events will be held in Cambridge and other communities throughout Massachusetts. City sponsored events are to be announced, but anyone can organize an event and have it be part of Climate Preparedness Week. The initiative is led by Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW).
More information at https://www.climatecrew.org/prep_week
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Tuesday, September 24
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In Brookline, Climate is Everybody's Business
Tuesday, September 24
8:00 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
Brookline Town Hall, Room 103, 333 Washington Street, Brookline
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-brookline-climate-is-everybodys-business-registration-62511897769
Learn ways to green your organization and celebrate your success. Open to all Brookline businesses, non-profits, and faith organizations.
Are you unable to attend the workshop but interested in participating in the pilot? If so, you can participate by completing the self-assessment of your organizational or business practices. Sign up to receive a custom link to the self-assessment when it becomes available after September 24th: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N3RJTBV
This workshop is a part of Brookline's new "Climate is Everybody's Business" pilot program for business owners, non-profits and faith organizations to green their everyday practices with a focus on energy. Come to this free event to learn about practical solutions to reduce your organizations' climate impact and support Brookline's ambitious sustainability plans. In addition to other helpful information, the workshop will feature stories and testimonials from local business owners with specific steps they’ve taken to reduce their climate impact and the local resources to replicate their success.
The workshop is part of a larger pilot program designed to engage and recognize businesses for their role in Brookline's transition to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Participants will be part of an initial cohort of local business and nonprofit leaders who will conduct a self-assessment of their everyday sustainability practices and receive public recognition for these efforts. This new recognition program will celebrate organizations in Brookline that have taken steps to green their operational practices in terms of energy, waste, climate and air quality.
Register to attend the workshop on Tuesday, September 24th from 8-10:30 am in room 103 of the Brookline Town Hall. From 8:00-8:30 will be registration and coffee, and program starts at 8:30.
More information is available under the "Go Green" tab on the Brookline Chamber of Commerce website http://gogreen.brooklinechamber.com
Please tell other Brookline business owners and nonprofit leaders about this important new program.
Questions? Please contact gogreen@brooklinechamber.com
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IxDA Boston & Creative Mornings Boston | Emotionally Intelligent Design
Tuesday, September 24
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
General Assembly Boston, 125 Summer Street, Boston
IxDA Boston is teaming with Creative Mornings Boston, General Assembly and HireMinds to celebrate the first World Interaction Design Day (IxDD) with the Greater Boston design community. On the morning of September 24, we will host Pamela Pavliscak, author of "Emotionally Intelligent Design: Rethinking How We Create Products." Pamela is an expert on our emotional relationship with tech, and her work brings together empathy research, affective computing, and expressive interfaces to make technology more human.
Come hear a thought leader speak to an interaction designer's mandate in the real world, make new connections (and deepen old connections) in the local design community, or meet local recruiters and learn more about current opportunities in the area... whatever the reason, we hope to see you there!
About World Interaction Design Day
September 24, 2019 is World Interaction Design Day. Join us in Boston, where we will come together as part of a united global design community to celebrate and explore how interaction design improves the human condition. Our aim is to have a positive, long-lasting impact by facilitating activities that support dialogue and outcomes. The theme for our first year is Trust and Responsibility.
About Our Speaker
Pamela Pavliscak (pav-li-shock) guides organizations toward emotionally intelligent futures as founder of Change Sciences. Part ethnography, part psychology, part data science, her approach translates future vision into tangible everyday possibilities.
She specializes in emotionally intelligent design and emotion-sensing artificial intelligence. Her research has been featured on CBC's Spark, Salon, and Quartz. Her book, Emotionally Intelligent Design, focuses on how to design a future that has as much EQ as it does IQ.
Pamela is a TEDx speaker and has spoken at SxSW , TNW, Web Summit, Google Creative Labs, among many others. She teaches at the Pratt Institute School of Information in NYC and has lectured at the Stanford d.School, ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination, University of Washington, and Parsons. She serves on an international committee to develop IEEE standard 7000 for ethically aligned AI.
About Our Sponsors
General Assembly is a pioneer in education and career transformation, specializing in today’s most in-demand skills. The leading source for training, staffing, and career transitions, we foster a flourishing community of professionals pursuing careers they love.
HireMinds is the leading search firm in the Boston area focused on Marketing/MarTech, Creative, Accounting/Finance, and Science recruiting.
About Donations
IxDA Boston is a non-profit organization supported in part by member / attendee donations. We do not charge membership fees. If you enjoy or are inspired by our events, please contribute to our ability to continue delivering great interaction and UX programming to the Boston design community by including an optional donation as part of your ticket registration!
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MIT Quest Workshop on Collective Intelligence
Tuesday, September 24
9:00am to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46, Singleton Auditorium and Atrium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Almost everything humans have achieved has been done by groups of people working together. Financial markets operate on this principle of collective intelligence to set prices for stocks, as do Internet search engines to answer questions asked by thousands before. Computers can make groups even smarter, but how should humans and machines interact? This workshop will explore the ways that people and machines, working separately and together, can leverage their relative strengths, resolve conflict and create value for society.
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Speaker Series: Suraj Yengde
Tuesday, September 24
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Wexner 434AB, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Suraj Yengde is an award-winning scholar and activist from India. Suraj is the author of Caste Matters, and a postdoctoral fellow for the Institutional Anti-racism and Accountability Initiative at the Shorenstein Center. Suraj is India’s first Dalit Ph.D. holder from an African university (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) in the nation’s history, and a published author in the field of Caste, Race, Ethnicity studies, and inter-regional labor migration in the global south. Suraj also holds a research associate position with the department of African and African American Studies, and a Non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Currently, he is involved in developing a critical theory of Dalit and Black Studies.
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A New Jim Code? ON RACE, CARCERAL TECHNOSCIENCE, AND LIBERATORY IMAGINATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE JUSTICE, EQUITY, & INCLUSION
Tuesday, September 24
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (Room 2036, Second Floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTapqp1BK0-tJi7d8Aqh_7CnD2RvE_EBX_SZa0DcHwRWXLkg/viewform
Ruha Benjamin and Jasmine McNealy
From everyday apps to complex algorithms, technology has the potential to hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racist practices of a previous era. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin presents the concept of the “New Jim Code" to explore a range of discriminatory designs that encode inequity: by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies, by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions, or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Ruha will also consider how race itself is a kind of tool designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice and discuss how technology is and can be used toward liberatory ends. This presentation delves into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements, and provides conceptual tools to decode tech promises with sociologically informed skepticism. In doing so, it challenges the audience to question not only the technologies we are sold, but also the ones we manufacture ourselves.
Event will be live webcast here at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/new-jim-code at 12:00PM on event date.
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IDG Development Seminars: Ciro Biderman
Tuesday, September 24
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-450, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The International Development Group welcomes Ciro Biderman, professor of graduation and post-graduation courses in public administration and economics at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), for an IDG Development Seminar.
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Biology Colloquium Series: The Coming of Age of De Novo Protein Design
Tuesday, September 24
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. David Baker, University of Washington
The Biology Colloquium is a weekly seminar held throughout the academic year, featuring distinguished speakers in many areas of the biological sciences, from universities and institutions worldwide. More information on speakers, their affiliations, and titles of their talks will be added as available. The Colloquium takes place at the Stata Center's Kirsch Auditorium, 32-123, at 4:00PM on most Tuesdays during the school year. Contact: Linda Earle lkn@mit.edu
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Thinking Like a Magician
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Comedy, Humanities, Lecture, Special Events, Theater
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Joshua Jay, Magician and author
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this performance-based lecture, the globe-trotting magician Joshua Jay will pull back the curtain on the way magicians think. He will explore how magicians achieve the seemingly impossible and how people can apply the same strategies to their own lives and work. Register online.
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Fulbright University Vietnam: Sustainability in New Campus Design
Tuesday, September 24
Time: 5:30pm – 7:30pm
38 Sidney Street, Suite 180, Cambridge
Cost: $37.79
Carrying forward the legacy of its namesake, Senator J. William Fulbright, a champion of international educational exchange, Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) is the country’s first independent, non-profit institution of higher education. The landmark institution aspires to serve Vietnamese society through innovative teaching programs and impactful research aimed at supporting Vietnam’s continued development, while addressing the grand challenges facing Vietnam and the world. The university, representing a collaboration between the United States government and the government of Vietnam, was officially announced in 2016 by President Obama during his visit to Ho Chi Minh City.
Reflecting its cultural and educational mandate, FUV aims to set a precedent in sustainable and resilient planning for the next generation of Vietnamese and global leaders. We will look at a number of issues that shaped this project, including how critical early decision-making and commitments impact opportunities for sustainable development throughout its design and construction life cycle; how FUV’s unique approach to environmental design is integrated with the cultural and contextual experience of the campus to create a forward-thinking design firmly rooted in its place; and the role of the university in acknowledging and addressing local environmental challenges while also advancing regional and global standards of sustainable development.
Refreshments will be served
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I'm Taking a Job in Charlotte: How the High Cost of Housing is Hurting Massachusetts Businesses
Tuesday, September 24
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $0 – $75
FLASH SALE FOR TICKETS ($20) NOW THROUGH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19thTickets:
Free for members
$20 for non-members now through September 19th
$75 for non-members after September 19th
Pricey housing has increasingly become a challenge for businesses in our region looking to attract and retain top talent, and it is holding our economy back as much needed workers abandon greater Boston for more affordable regions of the country. Join us for an interactive discussion with city and state officials, developers and businesses on the future of affordable housing in the region. What role do they each play in tackling the crisis? What solutions are on the table? How does Massachusetts keep up with other states to produce and preserve housing that is accessible, inclusive and supportive of economic growth?
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What Psychedelics Teach Us About Spirituality
Tuesday, September 24
6:00pm
Northeastern, East Village, 17th floor, 291 St Botolph Street, Boston
Author Michael Pollan - Lecture and Booking Signing
In this 2019 Morton E. Ruderman Memorial Lecture, New York Times bestselling author, Michael Pollan talks about his latest book, "How to Change your Mind - What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence." His first-person account of what pyschedelics taught him about his mind, the mind and the nature of spiritual experience.
Book signing follows the lecture at 7:30.
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The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S153, Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey
DETAILS In India, subaltern groups must resort to the universalizing vocabulary of citizenship in order to stake claims for redistribution and recognition. But on what basis do they do this — especially under severe coercion? Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria, will explore this question by investigating movement patterns in the Bhil heartland of western India, where Adivasi communities have organized and mobilized against the tyranny of the local state.
LINK The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S153, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey srafey@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS In India, subaltern groups must resort to the universalizing vocabulary of citizenship in order to stake claims for redistribution and recognition. But on what basis do they do this — especially under severe coercion? Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria, will explore this question by investigating movement patterns in the Bhil heartland of western India, where Adivasi communities have organized and mobilized against the tyranny of the local state.
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A Golden Civilization and The Map of Mindfulness
Tuesday, September 24
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
George Kinder invites readers to imagine a thousand generations have passed and humanity has at last accomplished a Golden Civilization. What does it look like? Who are we there? Of all our systems and structures currently in place which of them got us there? And which of them were irretrievably heading in the wrong direction? He challenges readers to immediately abandon habits, structures, and systems that won’t take us to a Golden Civilization and adopt those that will.
George Kinder, international thought leader, has authored three books on money: The Seven Stages of Money Maturity, Lighting the Torch, and Life Planning for You. He is known as the father of the Life Planning movement. Winner of numerous awards, as founder and CEO of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning he has revolutionized client-centered financial advice with in-depth trainings of thousands of advisers from thirty countries across six continents. A mindfulness teacher, Kinder also leads weekly meditation classes and retreats around the world and wrote Transforming Suffering into Wisdom: Mindfulness and The Art of Inner Listening. Kinder is also a published poet and photographer. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughters, and spends several months each year in London and Maui.
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PKG Community Conversations: Tech for Social Good
Tuesday, September 24
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
MIT Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, R&D Commons (4th floor), Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pkg-community-conversations-tech-for-social-good-tickets-65828345353
Join the conversation! Meet local organizations exploring ways that computational tech (AI, machine learning, data science, etc) can be used for the social good and restricting tech’s potential for contributing to inequality and injustice.
Community-focused organizations can sign-up for 90-second "pitches" to share their goals and opportunities. Pitching is optional but is a great way to quickly share your message or needs with everyone in the room. Presenters may send one slide in advance to serve as a visual aid.
Participants can take part in a table discussion about transparency and accountability at MIT with the Movement for Anti-Oppressive Computing Practices.
Join us for good food and good conversations!
Agenda:
6:00 pm Mingle with other tech and community advocates
6:45 pm Community tech organizations and social ventures share 90-second overviews of their work and needs
End-of-pitches to 8:00pm Additional time to network
Generously sponsored by Arrow and presented by the MIT PKG Center and MIT Radius.
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DeepMind - Company Presentation
Tuesday, September 24
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
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A Global Ecology Journey: Prioritizing Earth-Centered Ethics
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE The Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Arnold Arboretum,
& CREW (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather)
SPEAKER(S) Douglas Zook, Global Ecologist, Science Educator, and Director of the Global Ecology Education Initiative based at UMass/Boston School for the Environment, and current Fulbright Scholar
COST FREE, registration requested
CONTACT INFO Pam Thompson
DETAILS The discipline of Global Ecology leads us to realize that a sustainable, viable Home for us and all other species can only be restored by living a new ethic that keeps biosphere health foremost in our minds, hearts, and actions. Professor Zook will introduce us to some of the courageous and science-based grassroots peoples in nations around the world who are practicing and even prioritizing an earth-centered ethic. Learn from these inspiring examples and begin to create and practice your own earth-ethics.
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Harvard Philosophy Department Faculty and ThinkerAnalytix Panel
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2019, 6:30 – 8:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Club of Boston, 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Humanities, Lecture, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Club of Boston
SPEAKER(S) Ned Hall, Norman E. Vuilleumier Professor of Philosophy and Department Chair
Sean Kelly, Teresa G. and Ferdinand F. Martignetti Professor of Philosophy
COST Complimentary with registration
TICKET WEB LINK president@harvardclub.com
CONTACT INFO Matt Hegarty
DETAILS Argument mapping is a visual method of displaying how reasons work to support a claim. A map exposes the fundamental structure of the argument so that everyone can see how all the reasons fit together. How does argument mapping work? How does it expose hidden assumptions and objections to a premise? More broadly, how does it develop critical thinking and reasoning skills, and what are this tool’s practical benefits in terms of success in school, the workplace, and beyond? What is its potential for enriching philosophical, scientific, political and civic engagement?
Professors Ned Hall and Sean Kelly of Harvard’s Philosophy Department and their pioneering colleagues at ThinkerAnalytix will honor us in discussing the development and promise of argument mapping. Both serve on ThinkerAnalytix’s advisory board.
LINK thinkeranalytix.org
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Wicked Hot Boston
Tuesday, September 24
6:30 - 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, 1 Museum of Science Driveway, Boston
Extreme heat events, or heat waves, are on the rise in the US. This is intensified by the urban heat island effect, which makes cities warmer compared to non-urban environments. What are some ways that you can help reduce the urban heat island effect in your community?
In this program, you will learn about the health and social impacts of extreme heat, work with other participants to explore and recommend resilience strategies to keep our communities cool, and learn about how participating in community science can help inform scientists about which communities are the hottest.
Join us for a fun and interactive evening where you decide how communities around Boston should handle extreme heat!
Want to get involved in community science now? Go to www.SciStarter.org/NOAA to get started.
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The City-State of Boston
Tuesday, September 24
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Yale professor Mark Peterson reads from his book The City-State of Boston: a groundbreaking history of early America that shows how Boston built and sustained an independent city-state in New England before being folded into the United States.
In the vaunted annals of America's founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary "city upon a hill" and the "cradle of liberty" for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired clich's, The City-State of Boston highlights Boston's overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a pathbreaking and brilliant new history of early America. Following Boston's development over three centuries, Mark Peterson discusses how this self-governing Atlantic trading center began as a refuge from Britain's Stuart monarchs and how--through its bargain with slavery and ratification of the Constitution--it would tragically lose integrity and autonomy as it became incorporated into the greater United States.
Drawing from vast archives, and featuring unfamiliar figures alongside well-known ones, such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and John Adams, Peterson explores Boston's origins in sixteenth-century utopian ideals, its founding and expansion into the hinterland of New England, and the growth of its distinctive political economy, with ties to the West Indies and southern Europe. By the 1700s, Boston was at full strength, with wide Atlantic trading circuits and cultural ties, both within and beyond Britain's empire. After the cataclysmic Revolutionary War, "Bostoners" aimed to negotiate a relationship with the American confederation, but through the next century, the new United States unraveled Boston's regional reign. The fateful decision to ratify the Constitution undercut its power, as Southern planters and slave owners dominated national politics and corroded the city-state's vision of a common good for all.
Peeling away the layers of myth surrounding a revered city, The City-State of Boston offers a startlingly fresh understanding of America's history.
Mark Peterson is the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England.
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