Guidelines for Provost Lectures »

Corporations Are Not People: Responding to the Supreme Court in Citizens United
Jeff Clements is the co-founder of Free Speech for People, a national, non-partisan campaign to challenge the creation of Constitutional rights for corporations, overturn Citizens United v. FEC, and strengthen American democracy and republican self-government. He is the author of Corporations Are Not People (Berrett-Koehler, 2012). Jeff, an attorney, has represented people, businesses and the public interest since 1988 and served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office from early 2007 to 2009. As Bureau Chief, he led more than 100 attorneys and staff in the enforcement of environmental, healthcare,  financial services, civil rights, antitrust and consumer protection laws. Jeff also served as an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts from 1996 to 2000, where he worked on litigation against the tobacco industry and handled range of other investigations and litigation to enforce consumer protection and antitrust laws. Jeff served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office from early 2007 to 2009. As Bureau Chief, he led more than 100 attorneys and staff in the enforcement of environmental, healthcare,  financial services, civil rights, antitrust and consumer protection laws. Jeff also served as an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts from 1996 to 2000, where he worked on litigation against the tobacco industry and handled range of other investigations and litigation to enforce consumer protection and antitrust laws. Co-sponsored by the Center for Study of Working Class Life.

Abstract: Jeff Clements will discuss his new book, Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It. The book shows how the largest corporations in the world organized and funded a three-decade effort to take over our American government and Constitution, culminating in the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission striking down a century of law restricting corporate spending in elections. Mr. Clements connects the recent fabrication of “corporate rights” under our Constitution to the disabling of republican democracy in America. Elections and government now are dominated and controlled by corporations and the extremely wealthy, with devastating results: lost jobs, stagnating wages, and vanishing benefits for most people and extraordinary riches for a very few; environmental destruction and accelerating global catastrophe; dead-end fossil fuel energy policies demanding unjust, unwise use of military force around the world; and a loss of faith in the American promise of government of, for and by the people. At the same time, Mr. Clements will discuss the rapidly growing movement for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and corporate rights, the work of Free Speech for People in this effort, and the ways in which you can join the work of millions of Americans to build anew that rarest of things: a peaceful republic of free people with equal rights and an equal voice.

Thursday, June 7, 7:00 pm, Student Activities Center, Ballroom B

W.E.B. Du Bois: The Unforgotten Founder of American Sociology
Aldon Morris is the Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University. His interests include race, social inequality, religion, politics, theory and social movements. Morris is the author of the award winning book, The Origins of the Civil rights Movement. In 1986, Origins won the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award of the American Sociological Association. He is co-editor of the volumes, Frontiers in Social Movement Theory and Opposition Consciousness. He is completing a book examining the sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois and his preeminent role as a founder of American sociology. Dr. Morris is also working on a volume exploring the relationship between civil rights movements throughout the United States rather than focusing exclusively on the Southern Civil Rights Movement. In 2009, Morris won the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award for a lifetime of research, scholarship and teaching from the American Sociological Association. Morris is a former Chair of Sociology, Director of Asian American Studies, and Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.

Abstract: W.E.B. Du Bois was one of a handful of scholars of the twentieth century with a sustained global impact on sociological, literary, and political knowledge. In this talk, Professor Morris will draw on evidence from his forthcoming book demonstrating that Du Bois was the founding father of scientific sociology in the United States; that is, American scientific sociology was founded in a segregated black university by a black man. This research disconfirms the accepted wisdom that American scientific sociology was founded by elite white sociologists in elite white universities. This talk will explore the methods Du Bois pioneered and his novel theorizing that they laid the foundations for subsequent sociological analysis, and will offer a radical revision of the dynamic forces that undergird knowledge production in social science.

Thursday, February 9, 4:00 pm, Humanities 1006

How Fossils Reveal the Evolution of Birds from Other Dinosaurs
Mark Norell is Curator and Chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He received his PhD in 1988 at Yale University. Dr. Norell's research concerns diversity through time, and includes naming new dinosaurs, deciphering growth patterns in dinosaurs, studying the relationships of small carnivorous dinosaurs to modern birds, and attempting to develop new ways of looking at fossils using CT scans and imaging computers. He has taken part in more than 50 international scientific expeditions to Patagonia, Cuba, the Chilean Andes, the Sahara, Laos, Thailand, China, West Africa, and Mongolia, where his project (now in its 22nd year) has received worldwide attention. He has published more than 150 scientific articles, and his work has been repeatedly listed among the top ten yearly science stories by Time magazine, Discover magazine, and Scientific American. Dr. Norell has assisted in the development of the American Museum’s exhibits, including "Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries" (Spring 2005) and "The World’s Largest Dinosaurs" (Spring 2011). In 1998, he was named a New York City Leader of the Year by The New York Times. Cosponsors: Department of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Anatomical Sciences, Center for Communicating Science, and Living World Lecture Series.

Abstract: The evolution of many of the characteristics of birds has been a vexing problem to biologists since an evolutionary view was adopted. The origin of features like feathers, wishbones, advanced behaviors, and flight all until recently generated more speculation than empirical science. A combination of new fossil discoveries, primarily from Asia, and the use of new instruments and methodologies has changed all this. We can now dissect many of the parts of modern birds (everything from feathers to behaviors) and understand that birds are not so special at all. Instead they are a contemporary group of living dinosaurs, whose non-avian relatives share many of their attributes.

Friday, February 10, 7:30 pm, Earth & Space Sciences Building, Room 001

Women: Essential for Peace and Security
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury has devoted many years as an inspirational champion for sustainable peace and development and ardently advancing the cause of the global movement of the culture of peace. He served from 2002 to 2007 as the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations, responsible for the most vulnerable countries of the world. A career diplomat, he served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 2001. He also served as President of the Security Council, President of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Board and Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council of the UN for two terms. Ambassador Chowdhury spearheaded a pioneering initiative of the United Nations General Assembly in 1999 for adoption of the landmark Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and proclamation of the "International Decade for Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-2010)." His initiative in March 2000 as the President of the Security Council led to the adoption of the groundbreaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women and Peace & Security. He is the chair of the International Drafting Committee on the Human Right to Peace, an initiative based in Barcelona, Spain and Vice-Chair of the International Congress on the Human Right to Peace held in December 2010 at Santiago de Compostela, Spain. He is the recipient of the U Thant Peace Award, UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal for Culture of Peace and Spirit of the UN Award. In March 2003, the Soka University of Tokyo, Japan conferred to Ambassador Chowdhury an Honorary Doctorate for his work on women's issues, child rights, and culture of peace as well as for the strengthening of the United Nations. He is the Chair of the International Day of Peace NGO Committee at the UN, New York, and Chairman of the Global Forum on Human Settlements, both since 2008.

Abstract: Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury will address the essential role of women in the international community’s efforts toward building sustainable peace. That conceptual and political breakthrough at the UN Security Council formally brought to global attention the unrecognized, under-utilized and under-valued contribution women have been making to preventing war, to building peace, and to engaging individuals and societies to live in harmony. The contribution and involvement of women in this is an inherent reality that transcends everything. The initiative is unparalleled in terms of what it can do to empower women—not only to give 50% of the world's population their due, but also to make the world a better place to live. The key element of Resolution 1325 on Women and Peace & Security is participation in which women can contribute to decision-making and ultimately help shape societies where violence against women is not the norm. The Security Council recognized that peace is inextricably linked with equality between women and men, and affirmed the equal access and full participation of women in power structures and their full involvement in all efforts for peace and security. The Security Council needs to realize and recognize that women are not just a vulnerable group; they are empowering as well. We need to remember that the main emphasis here is not to make war safe for women, but to structure the peace in a way that there is no recurrence of war and conflict. That is why women need to be at the peace tables and involved in decision-making and in peace-keeping teams, particularly as civilians, to make a real difference in transitioning from the cult of war to the culture of peace.  

Thursday, February 16, 4:00 pm, Wang Center Theater

Animation: Embodied Minds or Mindful Bodies? (CANCELLED)
In her first life, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone was a dancer/choreographer and a professor and scholar of dance. During her years of teaching dance, she choreographed 25 dances, performed in 13 of these, was artistic director of 5 concerts, including two full-length concerts of her own works, and the director-narrator of numerous lecture-demonstrations. In her second and ongoing life, she is a philosopher whose research and writings remain grounded in the basic realities of animation. She is a courtesy professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. She has published numerous articles in humanities, science, and art journals, and lectured widely in Europe and the US. Her books include The Phenomenology of Dance; Illuminating Dance: Philosophical Explorations; the "roots" trilogy: The Roots of Thinking; The Roots of Power: Animate Form and Gendered Bodies; and The Roots of Morality; Giving the Body Its Due; The Primacy of Movement; The Corporeal Turn: An Interdisciplinary Reader; and Putting Movement Into Your Life: A Beyond Fitness Primer. She was awarded a Distinguished Fellowship for her research on xenophobia in the inaugural year of the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University, UK, the theme of which was "The Legacy of Charles Darwin" and an Alumni Achievement Award in 2011 from the University of Wisconsin. Co-sponsors: Department of Philosophy and Center for Dance, Movement and Somatic Learning.

Abstract: The question constitutes a core 21st-century challenge. Animation holds the key to answering it. It does so either directly or indirectly from a broad range of perspectives that includes observations by evolutionary thinkers, neuroscientists, psychiatrists,
psychologists, phenomenologists, dancers and other artists. All such observations center on a recognition of dynamics, as in Charles Darwinʼs recognition that mind is a function of body, in Marc Jeannerodʼs recognition that kinesthesia cannot be
suppressed, in Scott Kelsoʼs recognition that intrinsic dynamics and rhythmic order ground coordination dynamics, in Edmund Husserlʼs recognition that consciousness of the world is in constant motion, in Daniel Sternʼs recognition of affect attunement and
vitality affects, in Colwyn Trevarthenʼs recognition of animacy, in Donald Winnicottʼs recognition of creativity as a basic value, in Aristotleʼs recognition of Nature as a principle of movement and change, in Doris Humphreyʼs recognition of the dynamic tie
between kinesthesia and emotions, in Merce Cunninghamʼs recognition of chance as a choreographic technique, and in Leo Tolstoyʼs recognition of the relationship between experienced feeling and artistic expression. In its inherent recognition of dynamics, animation leads us along a diversity of possible paths having to do with movement, affectivity, and sense-making, core dimensions of mindful bodies.

Wednesday, March 14, 4:00 pm, Wang Center Theater

Economic Outlook for the US and Long Island
William C. Dudley is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He serves as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the group responsible for formulating the nation's monetary policy. Mr. Dudley had been executive vice president of the Markets Group at the New York Fed, where he also managed the System Open Market Account for the FOMC. The Markets Group oversees domestic open market and foreign exchange trading operations and the provisions of account services to foreign central banks. Prior to joining the Bank in 2007, Mr. Dudley was a partner and managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Company and was the firm's chief US economist for a decade. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1986, he was a vice president at the former Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. Mr. Dudley was an economist at the Federal Reserve Board from 1981 to 1983. Mr. Dudley serves as chairman of the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems of the Bank for International Settlements. He is a member of the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements and the board of trustees of the Economic Club of New York. Co-sponsored by the College of Business.

Abstract: Mr. Dudley will talk about the economic outlook for the US economy, what he views as the most likely path for economic developments, the headwinds that could derail the economy from this path, as well as the economic outlook for the region. He will be discussing the key issues that impact our growth prospects as well as the outlook for employment.

Monday, March 19, 4:00 pm, Wang Center, Theater

Closing the Gaps: Promoting College Access and Success for Low-Income Students
Jennifer Engle is the Director of Higher Education Research and Policy at the The Education Trust, where she directs the research agenda of the Higher Education division, including leading the data analysis and reporting related to the Access to Success Initiative (A2S), an ambitious effort to advance the equity agenda in colleges and universities in the public realm. Dr. Engle also manages the Education Trust's College Results Online database and publications. She was previously the Interim Director and Senior Research Analyst at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. At the Pell Institute, she was the lead author on several major publications including, Demography is Not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large, Public Universities, Straight From the Source: What Works for First-Generation College Students, and Moving Beyond Access: College Success for Low-Income, First-Generation Students. Co-sponsored by the Office of Student Affairs and the School of Social Welfare. Part of The 17th Annual Leadership Symposium.

Abstract: Current economic stresses place additional burdens on low-income students seeking access to institutions of higher education. As economic disparities widen, achieving access becomes more challenging; and once admitted, additional barriers emerge that may hinder student success. Stony Brook University is cited (Crossing the Finish Line, Bowen, Chingos and McPherson, 2010) as being unique among its peers in this context: our low-income students are more likely to graduate than other students. This is an important achievement for which we can be proud; however, the reasons which lead to this result are not entirely clear. Assessing our policies, programs, and assumptions alongside identified promising practices is essential to sustaining our efforts. This year’s symposium addresses our need to further this analysis. Dr. Engle, will share national findings to broaden the discussion of how to promote access and success of low-income students. SBU respondents and a panel of students will engage in a dialogue to further our understanding of the challenges we face in continuing to enhance student success.

Wednesday, March 21, 9:00 am, Wang Center Theater

What Is Memory Studies? Intellectual and Institutional Conditions for Interdisciplinarity
Jeffrey Olick is Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia. His publications include In the House of the Hangman: The Agonies of German Defeat, 1943-1949 (Chicago 2005); The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility (Routledge 2007); and The Collective Memory Reader (with Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi and Daniel Levy, Oxford 2011), as well as two translations and critical editions (with Andrew Perrin) of Frankfurt School work on public opinion (Harvard 2010, 2011). Co-sponsored by The Humanities Institute.

Abstract: Across numerous disciplines, scholarly interest in the past three decades has converged around the concept (or concepts) of memory. What are the sources of this interest? What opportunities does it present, and what obstacles does it face? In particular, Olick explores two issues. First, he asks to what extent the waning of a "memory boom" in public culture will alter the landscape of scholarly memory studies. And second, he inquires into the conditions–intellectual and institutional–that hinder the consolidation of memory studies as a relatively coherent field, and he explores some solutions, as well as the desirability of such consolidation.

Thursday, March 22, 4:15 pm, Humanities 1006

Plutonium: "Burn" or Bury–Nuclear vs. Geologic Solutions
Rod Ewing is the Edward H. Kraus Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. He is a Professor in the Departments of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, and Materials Science & Engineering. He has published widely on issues related to nuclear materials, radiation effects in materials, nuclear waste management and nuclear waste policy, as well as on the use of nanomaterials in medical diagnostics/treatments and the response of materials to extreme environments. He is co-editor of and a contributing author to Radioactive Waste Forms for the Future and Uncertainty Underground–Yucca Mountain and the Nation’s High-Level Nuclear Waste. He has served on eleven National Research Council committees and two terms on the Board of Nuclear and Radiation Studies. He was recently appointed by President Obama to serve on the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and is a founding editor of the magazine, Elements. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002, the Dana Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America in 2006, the Lomonosov Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2006, and a Honorary Doctorate from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in 2007. Co-sponsored by the Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research and the Department of Geosciences.

Abstract: During the past seventy years, ~2,000 metric tonnes of Pu, and substantial quantities of the “minor” actinides, such as Np, Am and Cm, have been generated in nuclear reactors. There are two basic strategies for their disposition: 1) to “burn” or transmute them using nuclear reactors or accelerators 2) to “sequester” them in durable materials for geologic disposal. Both options will be discussed along with recent developments in the materials science of transuranium elements.

Thursday, April 26, 3:00 pm, Wang Center Theater

Democracy Acclaimed!
Anglo-American Intellectuals and the French Revolution (1789-93)
Jonathan Israel is Professor of Modern European History in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He was previously Professor of Dutch History and Institutions at the University of London. He has written on Dutch and Spanish history, the Age of Enlightenment and European Jewry. His books include European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750 (1985); The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806 (1995); Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750 (2001); Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670–1752 (2006); In strijd met Spinoza, Het failliet van de Nederlandse Verlichting (1670-1800) (2007); A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy (2010); Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights (1750-1790) (2011). His recent work focuses on the impact of radical thought (especially Spinoza, Bayle, Diderot and the eighteenth century French materialists), and on the Enlightenment and emergence of modern ideas of democracy, equality, toleration, freedom of the press and individual freedom. Co-sponsored by the Philosophy Department.

Abstract: Although most of the British public and eventually much American opinion was strongly averse to the French Revolution and its ideology, among writers, poets and intellectuals the position, until 1793 at any rate, was very different. The main tendency among this constituency seems to have been to follow Tom Paine and Joseph Priestley and adopt an attitude of enthusiastic support rather than to echo Edmund Burke and reject the Revolution. This lecture seeks to explain the enthusiasm of the (isolated and soon highly unpopular) Anglo-American intellegentsia for the principles of the Revolution and assess the significance of this phenomenon.

Thursday, May 3, 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, Harriman Hall 214