BUniverse

The Promise of Change: Vision and Reality in Obama's Presidency

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EDT

Howard Zinn, a College of Arts & Sciences professor emeritus of political science, joins novelist Mary Gordon, author James Carroll, and Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman for a discussion of the Obama administration’s successes and disappointments as part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series. The event, which kicks off Alumni Weekend 2009, focuses on Obama’s foreign policy promises, his actions thus far, and whether he can live up to the public’s high expectations.

Zinn speaks first, offering the harshest criticisms of Obama’s “many compromises” on foreign policy issues. He faults the president for keeping the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan and blames a political culture in which Democratic presidents historically have been just as aggressive as Republicans. Carroll follows Zinn, putting Obama’s young presidency into the historical context of a nation often obsessed by military growth. He applauds Obama’s early efforts, saying, “I think the Nobel Prize went to the right person.” Goodman then argues that the president is almost doomed to fail in the eyes of America’s polarized public, which seems to want both a peacemaker and a strong commander-in-chief. Gordon concludes the discussion optimistically, noting that Obama, like FDR and JFK, has already “changed the American imagination.” Like his visionary predecessors, she says, Obama has already altered our perception of the role of “America in the world.”

The Howard Zinn Lecture Series, supported by a gift from Alex MacDonald (CGS’70, CAS’72) and Maureen A. Strafford (MED’76), is an annual talk on contemporary issues from a historical point of view.

October 22, 2009, 7 p.m.
Tsai Performance Center

Video length is 01:43:20.

About the Speakers:
James Carroll is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Residence at Suffolk University, a columnist for the Boston Globe, and a contributor to the Daily Beast. He served as the Catholic chaplain at BU from 1969 until 1974, when he left the priesthood. He has written several books, including Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews (2001), the inspiration for the 2007 documentary of the same name, and Practicing Catholic (2009).

Ellen Goodman, a columnist for the Boston Globe since 1974, received the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1980. Her columns are syndicated in 375 newspapers nationwide and have been published in six collections. In 2007, Goodman was a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy.

Mary Gordon, the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor in English and Writing at Barnard College, is the author of six novels, three memoirs, a collection of stories, and, most recently, Reading Jesus: A Writer’s Encounter with the Gospels (2009). The recipient of the 1997 O. Henry Award, the 2006 Story Prize, and a Guggenheim fellowship, she currently serves as the official state author of New York.

Howard Zinn is a College of Arts & Sciences professor emeritus of political science, who taught at Boston University from 1964 to 1988. A world-renowned activist, scholar, and playwright, his book A People’s History of the United States, first published in 1980, has sold more than two million copies and has been translated into a dozen languages. It, and Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History, is the basis of a new film, the History Channel’s documentary The People Speak.

Theology as a Living Discourse: The Future of Feminist Practical Theology

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:30:00 EDT

Eight women theologians from Boston-area universities and beyond explore the balance of feminist thought, practical application, and theological tradition that informs their work in feminist and practical theology. Throughout the panel discussion, which concludes the weeklong celebration of School of Theology Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore’s scholarly work in the discipline, the speakers seek to answer three questions: What makes feminist practical theology feminist? What makes it practical? And what makes it truly theology?

The panelists speak in pairs, with a more-junior scholar reflecting on the work of a senior colleague, who then responds to the questions raised about specific issues in feminist practical theology. Susan Abraham, of Harvard Divinity School, engages Amy Hollywood, also of Harvard, on how to bring more theological and academic legitimacy to the field. Renee K. Harrison, of Payne Theological Seminary, addresses the themes of suffering and freedom, found in both Christian texts and black women’s history, in the womanist writings of M. Shawn Copeland of Boston College. Donna Freitas, of BU’s College of Arts & Sciences, tells how she was inspired by Harvard’s Stephanie Paulsell to write broadly and engage wider audiences with her academic work, saying that to free feminist practical theology from the confines of academia “we must profane it.” Finally, the School of Theology’s Shelly Rambo addresses the work of Dean Moore, framing her talk with a look at the prefaces to works of feminist theology and the stories they tell. Moore concludes the event by discussing her own struggles throughout her career as a feminist practical theologian, and urges women scholars to keep asking the big questions about their work and its meaning: “We need to be realistic analysts of the world without having the same old conversations.”

October 22, 2009, 4:30 p.m.
George Sherman Union

Video length is 02:00:50.

About the Speakers:
Susan Abraham, an assistant professor of women studies and ministry studies at Harvard Divinity School, is the author of Identity, Ethics, and Nonviolence in Postcolonial Theory: A Rahnerian Theological Assessment (2007) and co-editor of Frontiers in Catholic Feminist Theology: Shoulder to Shoulder (2009).

M. Shawn Copeland, an associate professor of theology and of African and African diaspora studies at Boston College, recently published Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being (2009). She also serves as an adjunct associate professor at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Donna Freitas is a College of Arts & Sciences visiting scholar of religion. Her books include Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses (2008) and the novel The Possibilities of Sainthood (2008).

Renee K. Harrison, an assistant professor of African American religious practices and culture at Payne Theological Seminary, is the author of Enslaved Women and the Art of Resistance in Antebellum America (2009).

Amy Hollywood holds the Elizabeth H. Monrad Professorship of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History (2002) and is currently editing the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism.

Mary Elizabeth Moore is the dean of the School of Theology, as well as a professor of theology and education. She is the author of several books, including Teaching as a Sacramental Act (2004), and co-edited Children, Youth, and Spirituality in a Troubling World (2008).

Stephanie Paulsell, the Houghton Professor of the Practice of Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School, previously served as the school’s associate dean of ministry studies and as associate dean for faculty and curricular affairs. She is the author of Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice (2003).

Shelly Rambo is a School of Theology assistant professor of theology. Her book Trauma and Redemption: Witnessing Spirit between Death and Life will be published in 2010.

U.S./Iran Negotiations: What Is at Stake?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Iranian experts, a foreign journalist, and a Massachusetts state representative discuss the future of Iran-U.S negotiations, reflecting on the recent agreement by Iran to allow international inspection of its new uranium enrichment plan, the possibility of Iran’s developing an atomic bomb, and Iran’s Green Movement against the current government. The discussion is moderated by Hengameh Saberi, a visiting assistant professor in the School of Law.

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former member of Iran’s reform Parliament, argues that the Green Movement in Iran is the main reason for the country’s current compliance, since it can’t effectively fight domestic and international battles at the same time. If the movement continues to flourish, she says, there’s a good chance that the government will maintain its cooperative stance on the nuclear issue. Kamran Dadkhah, an associate professor of economics at Northeastern University, on the other hand, says that the movement has failed. The world can either accept that Iran has atomic bombs, he says, or go to war with the country. Since both options are “hard to swallow,” he says, America resorts to sanctions, which will never work because “Iranians are born negotiators.”

Representative Denise Provost (LAW’82), representative from Massachusetts 27th Middlesex District, discusses her opposition to the divestment bill passed by the U.S. House in October which she argues is designed to “marginalize” and “demonize” Iran, pushing the country towards further disengagement. The bill, she argues, is incompatible with President Obama’s intention for diplomatic relations with Iran. Ahmad Rafat, an Iranian journalist, however, says that Obama’s effort toward improved relations anger the previously pro-American Iranians, who have started to hate the United States for recognizing a government that the people do not support.

October 21, 2009, 1 p.m.

Barristers Hall

Video Length is 01:33:06.

About the speakers:

Kamran Dadkhah is an associate professor of economics at Northeastern University. His areas of interest include econometrics, macroeconomics, international economics, and Middle Eastern economies. He has published numerous articles and two books, Foundations of Mathematical and Computational Economics (2006) and The Evolution of Macroeconomics Theory and Policy (2009). He earned a bachelor’s degree from Tehran University, a master’s and a Ph.D. from Indiana University, and a master’s from Northeastern University.

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo is a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She previously taught at MIT, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Connecticut. She has lived in exile in the United States for five years after serving as one of the youngest members in the Iranian Parliament. Nicknamed the “Lion Woman” of Iran, she continues to push for democracy in Iran.

Denise Provost is the state representative from the 27th Middlesex District of Massachusetts. After serving as a Somerville assistant city solicitor, working as an attorney in private practice, and being a neighborhood activist, she was elected representative in January 2006. Her legislative work has focused on public health, transportation, and the environment.

Ahmad Rafat is an Iranian journalist. He was chief correspondent for Italy and the Middle East for over 21 years for the Spanish newspaper Tiempo. In 2008 he won the Iliaria Alpi award, presented by the Italian chapter of Reporters Without Borders.

Hengameh Saberi is a visiting assistant professor in the School of Law. She is an S.J.D candidate at Harvard Law School. She earned LL.M.s from Harvard Law School and McGill University, and a Bachelor of Law and a Master of International Law from Tehran University. She has given numerous presentations on law and foreign policy worldwide, including at Harvard Law School, the University of Ottawa, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran.

Especially for Women: How to Get Paid What You Are Worth

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:30:00 EDT

Evelyn Murphy, president of the WAGE Project and a former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, addresses a female audience on gender and wage parity. Noting that women earn 23 percent less on average than their male coworkers, Murphy argues that the only way for women to close the wage gap is to fight individually for fair treatment. Throughout the talk, she encourages audience engagement as she provides useful tactics for negotiating a higher salary.

Most women find it difficult to talk about money, Murphy says, but it is crucial to have a greater understanding of the context of one’s earnings. Bias and stereotypes still exist in the workplace, and the wage gap prevails because women fail to act to eliminate it. The key element women must remember, she says, is that salary negotiation is a discussion. Murphy suggests that when speaking with an employer, women should set a positive tone and be matter-of-fact and flexible. She advises listening carefully to determine what is in the employer’s best interests, so that female employees can properly determine how to cast their personal characteristics in a positive light, thus bettering their chances. She urges women to aim high but be realistic when negotiating salary, and concludes by emphasizing that effective wage negotiation is best learned through practice.

October 19, 2009, 3:30 p.m.

Sargent College

Video length is 01:09:37.

About the speaker:

Evelyn Murphy is president of the WAGE Project, an organization that strives to end wage discrimination against women. She began her political career in the late 1970s as Massachusetts’ secretary of environmental affairs and later served as the state’s secretary of economic affairs. In 1986, she became the first woman in the state’s history to hold a constitutional office when she was elected lieutenant governor. Now a resident scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, Murphy has published a book on women’s wages, Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men — and What To Do About It (2005). She is a corporate director of SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company and Citizens Energy Corporation. She also serves as a founding director of the Commonwealth Institute, a trustee of Regis College, honorary chair of the Lost Coin Women’s Fund, Inc., and a director of the Polaris Project.

Aeroecology: The Next Frontier

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EDT

Professor of biology and director of Boston University’s Center for Ecology & Conservation Biology Thomas Kunz invites the audience to consider the air around them. In Aeroecology: The Next Frontier, Kunz explains the new discipline of aeroecology, which studies airborne organisms and how they depend on the support of their aerospheric ecosystem. Kunz’s presentation is Boston University’s 2009 University Lecture, established to honor faculty engaged in outstanding research.

According to Kunz, the aerosphere — the boundary of the Earth’s atmosphere that supports life — is the least-understood part of the biosphere. Adiabatic forces in the aerosphere strongly influence the evolution of organisms that depend upon this fluid environment. The goal of Kunz’s research is to understand and interpret responses of organisms under different meteorological and atmospheric conditions and anthropogenic perturbations.

Kunz stresses that aeroecology is vitally important because it directly relates to climate change, air pollution, altered landscapes, emerging pathogens, invasive species, and declining bird, bat, and insect populations. Bats and birds are harmed by the ever-changing aerosphere — a serious issue because they play such a crucial role in countering insect populations.

The challenges of counting and tracking bats are enormous, Kunz says. However, most of the advances in aeroecology are being conceptually and technologically driven. New technologies like vertical profiling, computer simulations, thermal imaging, and radio transmitting are greatly increasing the information gained about bats’ common behaviors.

A question-and-answer session follows the lecture, as well as an interactive demonstration of thermal imaging technology.

October 19, 2009, 7 p.m.

Tsai Performance Center

Video length is 01:12:00.

About the speaker :

Thomas H. Kunz is Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Ecology & Conservation Biology at Boston University. A BU faculty member for the last 35 years, he has authored more than 200 publications and is the editor of five books on bat ecology. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a winner of both the Gerrit S. Miller Jr. and C. Hart Merriam awards for his work with bats, and is Past-President of the American Society of Mammalogists.

Pandemics, Public Health, and Political Transition

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Richard E. Besser, senior health and medical editor for ABC News and former acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), discusses the federal government’s response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak. He also shares the practical and political wisdom he gained while leading the CDC during the largest pandemic in forty years — while simultaneously reimagining and negotiating the organization’s role within a new presidential administration.

Besser says that his interim appointment at the CDC — which began the day after Barack Obama’s inauguration and ended in June — gave him the opportunity to expand the agency’s emergency-preparedness focus on “high-consequence, low-probability events” to include more routine public-health crises. He discusses the logistical factors that helped control the spread of swine flu during the spring, after it was first seen in California, Texas, and Mexico.

Besser also addresses the political aspects of crisis management, noting the CDC’s successes (convincing scared officials not to close the Mexico border) and failures (recommending school closures at the first sign of swine flu, a policy that was later rescinded). Ultimately, he says, consensus-building — among government agencies and with the public — is the key to crisis management, and to successful public health campaigns in general.

October 16, 2009, 3 p.m.

Sargent College

Video Length is 00:58:56.

About the Speaker:

As the senior health and medical editor for ABC News, Richard E. Besser provides on air and online analysis of medical issues. From January to June 2009, he was acting director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and acting administrator for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry, for which he received the Surgeon General's Medallion for leadership. Besser has worked for teh CDC in various capacities since 1991. He is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Why Care? A Conversation with Timberland President and CEO Jeffrey Swartz about Our Collective Responsibility

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Jeffrey Swartz, president and chief executive officer of Timberland, visits Boston University to discuss sustainability, carbon emissions, and corporate responsibility to provide ethical consumer choices. Throughout the lecture, Swartz draws on his own business experience and his company’s attempts to foster sustainability, highlighting Timberland’s efforts to discourage waste, encourage community action by its employees, and reduce its carbon footprint. Kristen McCormack, faculty director of the School of Management’s Public and Nonprofit Management Program, moderates the event.

As Timberland has grown, Swartz explains, it has begun to focus more intently on curbing its environmental impact. He discusses Timberland’s aims to reduce carbon emissions in the manufacturing of its leather, to safely eliminate toxins produced in its factories, and to make sure its working conditions are safe. He also emphasizes the need for business competitors to work together to create change in the area of sustainability. Swartz describes his own corporate philosophy, saying he runs his company on a belief in the notion of “justice in commerce.”

October 14, 2009, 4 p.m.

Morse Auditorium

Video Length is 01:12:03.

About the Speaker:

Jeffrey Swartz is the president and CEO of the outdoor apparel company Timberland, one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Since joining the family business in 1986, he has created a social enterprise department to encourage employees’ community service and has spoken frequently on corporate responsibility. In 1988, he helped launch Timberland’s public/private partnership with City Year, a national youth service organization, where he has served on the board of directors since 1989 and acted as the board’s chairman from 1994 to 2003. He served on President George W. Bush’s task force on national service, Business Strengthening America. Swartz is a member of the executive committee of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, chairman of the board of directors of the Maimonides School in Newton, Massachusetts, and a board member of Birthright Israel. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University.

Future Challenges: Global Development Beyond the Financial Crisis

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EDT

Moderated by Adil Najam, director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Global Development Beyond the Financial Crisis examines the long-term fallout of last year’s global financial collapse and the resulting stimulus spending. The panelists are William Grimes, a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of international relations, Shahrukh Rafi Khan, a visiting professor of economics at Mount Holyoke College, and Michael Walton, a lecturer in international development at the Harvard Kennedy School. They debate the role of the International Monetary Fund, the United States, East Asia, and other players in reconstructing the world economy.

Khan begins by discussing the role of international institutions in managing global recovery, particularly the newly strengthened International Monetary Fund and the Group of Twenty, which seems to have taken the place of the more exclusive Group of Eight. He notes that even wealthy countries will experience some upheaval: two-thirds of the world’s 80 high-income economies have “stable or declining” manufacturing, “so they have their work cut out for them.” Grimes follows with a brief talk on the East Asian economic bloc, which he says “is coming out of this crisis faster and stronger than anyone else.” He applauds Asian countries for opening their economies, but wonders if China in particular will be able to transition from buying U.S. debt to promoting demand-centric growth within its borders. Walton concludes by exploring policy avenues that would lead to successful moderate transformation for developing countries. While the recent financial crisis was a flaw, not a fundamental failure, of capitalism, he says, we should not expect that the transition out of debt and collapse will be easy for developing nations.

A question-and-answer period follows.

October 9, 2009, noon
Pardee House

Video length is 01:27:13.

About the speakers:
William W. Grimes is a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of international relations and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Asia at Boston University. He has published extensively on Japanese monetary policy and the impacts of financial regionalism and globalization in Japan and East Asia and is the author of Currency and Contest in East Asia: The Great Power Politics of Financial Regionalism (2008).

Shahrukh Rafi Khan is a visiting professor of economics at Mount Holyoke College. From 1996 to 2002, he was executive director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan. He is the author of several books on trade, labor, and education in the developing world, including Export Success and Industrial Linkages: The Case of Readymade Garments in South Asia (2009).

Michael Walton is a lecturer in international development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In the past year, he has been the V.K.R.V. Rao Chair Professor at the Institute of Social and Economic Change in Bangalore, India, and a senior visiting fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi, India. From 1980 to 2004, he worked at the World Bank, where he spent extended periods in Zimbabwe and Indonesia and contributed to World Development Reports on poverty, labor, and equity and development.

Solving the Health Care Reform Puzzle: How to Balance Cost, Access, and Quality

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EDT

The first Discoveries Lecture of the 2009 academic year focuses on solutions for the health-care crisis. The BU panelists sharing their insights are Gary Young, chair of the department of health policy and management at the School of Public Health, Arlene Ash, a School of Medicine research professor of medicine and public health, and Stephen Davidson, a School of Management professor of business, policy, and law. Randall Ellis, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of economics moderates.

The speakers agree that the U.S. health-care system is broken and that solutions must help it to run more efficiently and at lower costs. One way to do this is to offer incentives to physicians and hospitals to provide quality care and prevent unnecessary and costly hospital visits and readmissions. Panelists also suggest that a more efficient system would include much more collaboration among physicians who are treating the same patient.

October 8, 2009,  7 p.m.
George Sherman Union

Video length is 01:16:40.

About the Speakers:
Gary Young is chair and professor of health policy and management at the School of Public Health. He also is associate director of the Center for Organization, Leadership, and Management Research in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which is affiliated with Boston University. His writings and research have appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Health Services Research, Inquiry, Health Affairs, Medical Care, and Strategic Management Journal, among other publications. He was awarded the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration and an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Arlene Ash is a School of Medicine research professor of medicine and public health, a School of Public Health adjunct research professor, and an expert in the application of statistical methods to questions of public policy. Her areas of interests include researching the differences in health-care service delivery and outcomes by race, sex, and age, Medicare, and systematic problems in health delivery systems. She is a fellow of the Academy of Health and of the American Statistical Association and past chair of the association’s health policy statistics section. Ash’s current research projects focus on racial disparities in health-care services for Medicare beneficiaries and on risk assessment of military populations to predict health-care cost and utilization.

Stephen Davidson is a School of Management professor of business, policy, and law. He also researches the management of health-care organizations. Davidson is the author of In Urgent Need of Reform: Saving the U.S. Healthcare System.

Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture: Carl Phillips

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:30:00 EDT

Award-winning poet and BU Creative Writing Program alumnus Carl Phillips (GRS’93) reads from his new collection, Speak Low, for the semiannual Lowell Lecture. He is joined by poets Brandy Barents (GRS’06) and Rosanna Warren, BU’s Emma Ann MacLachlan Metcalf Professor of the Humanities.

As a young poet, Phillips “stepped forward with a voice of astonishing authority,” Warren says; since then, “he has been consistent and loyal to his talent and at the same time, in book after book, bold.” Phillips’ selections for the evening — from “The Plains of Troy,” a depiction of madness in Sophocles’ Ajax, to the ominous calm of the Mississippi River in “The Storm” — exemplify his long-time focus on the themes of “moral and psychological damage, regret, and freedom.” He also recalls his time at BU, thanking poetry professor Robert Pinsky in particular “for helping me to believe I could be this thing that is apparently called a poet.”

The Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture Series was established in 2005 to bring distinguished writers to campus to read their works alongside a member of the Creative Writing Program faculty and a recent program graduate. It honors Robert Lowell, the former BU professor who taught young poets Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and George Starbuck in the late 1950s. The series is funded by Nancy Livingston (COM’69) and her husband, Fred Levin, through the Shenson Foundation, in memory of Ben and A. Jess Shenson.

October 8, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Photonics Center

Video Length is 00:55:43.

About the Speakers:

Brandy Barents (GRS’06) is a lecturer in the College of Arts & Sciences and at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, as well as the programs director of Robert Pinsky’s Favorite Poem Project. Her poems have appeared recently in Barrow Street.

Carl Phillips (GRS’93) is a professor of African and Afro-American studies and English at Washington University in St. Louis. He has won numerous fellowships and prizes, including the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize for his first collection of poems, In the Blood (1992). He recently published his tenth book of poetry, Speak Low (2009).

Rosanna Warren is a University Professor, the Emma Ann MacLachlan Metcalf Professor of the Humanities, and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of English and Romance studies at Boston University. The author of several books of poetry and criticism — most recently Fables of the Self: Studies in Lyric Poetry (2008) — she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.