Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Mathematics occupies a unique place among the vast variety of academic disciplines: it can be classified as both an art and a science. Its natural symmetry, elegant logic, and intrinsic beauty of arguments and constructions make it appear as a very sophisticated art form. Equally compelling, deep and seemingly abstract mathematical ideas prove to be exceptionally applicable. In modern times, the process of mathematical discovery is at the heart of both fundamental intellectual pursuit and technological innovation.

CMC mathematicians professors Asuman Aksoy P'07, Lenny Fukshansky, Blake Hunter, and Chiu-Ken Kao will explore some of the remarkable problems and ideas in several branches of modern mathematics, such as analysis, applied mathematics, statistics, and number theory. These, among other areas in math, significantly impact human activity, from natural sciences to engineering and computer science, digital communications to artificial intelligence, and many others. The panelists will also incorporate their work and research into the discussion.

View Video: YouTube with Math for the New Millennium

Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is a leading authority on freedom of speech and religion, the relation of individual rights to government structure, originalism, and various other aspects of constitutional history and constitutional law.

The framers of the United States Constitution had many models to draw on for the executive of the new American republic—most of them bad, says McConnell. But in the 240 years since the founding of the U.S., he believes we have drifted toward an understanding of the executive power none of the original framers imagined—whether for starting war or for administering peace. In his Athenaeum talk, McConnell will argue that it is time for us to think about the limits, if indeed there are any.

Professor McConnell's Athenaeum talk is the inaugural lecture of the Charles Lofgren Program in Constitutionalism through the Salvatori Center at CMC.

View Video: YouTube with Michael McConnell

Ted Rall is the first American political cartoonist to break out of the underground weekly newspaper scene into major mainstream newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times. He is also an award-winning author and columnist whose works include groundbreaking journalism from Afghanistan and Central Asia, political polemics, and seminal graphic novels.

Rall won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his cartoons in 1995 and 2000. In 1996 he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. In 2011 Rall won the Alternative Weeklies Award and was a finalist in the Scripps-Howard Journalism Awards for the daily cartoon blog he filed from the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. In 2008-09 he was elected President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoons, the first and only of his generation of "young Turk" alternative cartoonists to be chosen by his colleagues for the position.

Rall is the editor-in-chief of SkewedNews.net, as well as an author, columnist and war correspondent. He is a former staff editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. His most recent books are Snowden and After We Kill You, We Will We Welcome You Back as Honored Guests.

Mr. Rall's Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Public Writing and Discourse. 

View Video: YouTube with Ted Rall

Adrienne Martin is the Akshata Murty '02 and Rishi Sunak Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. She is the author if How We Hope: A Moral Psychology (2014) and several journal articles on moral emotions. She is currently writing a book examining interpersonal hope, Hope in Humanity, and editing The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy. If a promise seems to invite trust, yet is binding even on an untrustworthy individual, Martin explores when and why trusting and promising come together, and come apart.

Professor Martin's Athenaeum presentation is part of her installation ceremony as the Akshata Murty '02 and Rishi Sunak Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

View Video: YouTube with Adrienne Martin

As the first of a two-part panel discussion sponsored by CMC’s public art committee and the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, this session will explore the relationship between art, architecture, and the campus. Internationally recognized artists, curators, and scholars will join curator Philipp Kaiser and Professor Robert Faggen to explore these themes and formally launch Claremont McKenna’s public art initiative.

Panelists include Miwon Kwon, professor of art history, UCLA; Oscar Tuazon, artist in sculpture, architecture and mixed media; Jorge Pardo, artist in sculpture; and Rochelle Steiner, writer, curator, and public art producer and former dean of USC's Roski School of Fine Arts.

This event is sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies.

NOTE: This program will start with a reception at 5 p.m. Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. The formal program will begin at 6 p.m. The presentation by the panelists will be followed by a moderated discussion and a Q & A.

Debórah Dwork is the Rose Professor of Holocaust History and director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. She is a leading authority on university education in this field, as well as in her area of scholarship, the Holocaust. Her award-winning books include Children With A Star, Auschwitz, and Flight from the Reich. The recipient of many prestigious fellowships, Dwork is a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Dwork is currently engaged in two projects. Saints and Liars focuses on Americans — Quakers, Unitarians, secular people, Jews — who traveled to Europe to aid and, step by step, engaged in rescuing people targeted by Nazi Germany and its allies.

In her Athenaeum talk, Dwork asks: To whom did hidden Jewish children belong at war’s end? Who made that decision? And how did the children experience the paths others determined for them?

Professor Dwork’s Athenaeum presentation is sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights.

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Steve McGann '73 is a retired U.S. ambassador and a senior advisor of the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, D.C. His principal responsibilities at NDU include developing curriculum for implementation of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, the Joint Land Air Sea Strategic Program (JLASS), as well as lecturing on State-Defense Coordination. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to the Republics of Fiji, Nauru, Kiribati, and the Kingdom of Tonga and Tuvalu (2008-11). McGann was assigned as Chargé d’Affaires (ad interim) of the United States Embassy in Dili, Timor-Leste (2014). His achievements center on democracy-building, law enforcement cooperation, maritime security, humanitarian assistance, disaster response and the expansion of U.S. diplomatic presence in the Pacific. McGann is a graduate of CMC and serves on the College's Board of Trustees.

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View Video: YouTube with Steven McGann '73

Elaine A. Ostrander is chief of the Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She did her postdoctoral training at Harvard and Berkeley, beginning the dog genome project in 1991. Since moving to NIH in 2004, Dr. Ostrander’s lab has focused on advancing canine genomics and finding genes for breed-specific traits. Dr. Ostrander has published over 285 papers and articles and won multiple awards.

In the last few centuries subpopulations of dogs have developed into closed populations as a result of selection for behavior and appearance-related traits. In her Athenaeum talk, Ostrander will discuss recent advances in the canine genome project and reveal genes for cancer and morphologic traits including body size, leg length and skull shape and also address how pet dogs advance human health.

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Gordon Phillips is the Charles E. Cook-Community Bank Chair of Finance and professor of finance and business economics at USC's Marshall School of Business. He has expertise in mergers, firm organization, security issuance, and the impact of financial decisions on firms' strategic decisions. Professor Phillips’ Athenaeum talk is sponsored by the Financial Economics Institute at Claremont McKenna College.

View Video: YouTube with Gordon Phillips

Olivia Gatwood and Megan Falley of Speak Like a Girl offer an interactive, feminist show that uses spoken word as a tool to highlight gender inequality and related issues. Through humorous and passionate performances, Gatwood and Falley address issues such as street harassment, body image, rape culture, and the perils of the patriarchy. Critics say that Speak Like a Girl will make you laugh, cry, and rally for change! Together, Megan Falley and Olivia Gatwood are National Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam finalists and have been featured on TV One’s Verses and Flow.

Speak Like A Girl’s appearance at at the Athenaeum is co-sponsored by the Center for Public Writing and Discourse.

View Video: YouTube with Olivia Gatwood and Megan Falley

David Barboza is the Shanghai Bureau Chief of The New York Times, where he has been posted since 2004. In 2013, Barboza was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting “for his striking exposure of corruption at high levels of the Chinese government, including billions in secret wealth owned by relatives of the prime minister, well documented work published in the face of heavy pressure from the Chinese officials.” He was also part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. In 2008, Mr. Barboza won The Times’ internal business award, the Nathaniel Nash Award. He has twice won the Gerald Loeb Award for business reporting. Mr. Barboza graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in history and attended Yale University Graduate School. Mr. Barboza’s Athenaeum talk is sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Read more...

Victoria Sanford is professor and chair of anthropology and founding director of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies at Lehman College. She holds a doctorate in Anthropology from Stanford University, where she studied International Human Rights Law and Immigration Law at Stanford Law School. A prolific author, her books include, among others, Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala and Tierra y Violencia en Guatemala. In August of 2012, she served as an invited expert witness on the Guatemalan genocide before Judge Santiago Pedraz in the Spanish National Court’s international genocide case against the Guatemalan generals. Professor Sanford’s Athenaeum talk is sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College. (Photo credit: Julien Charlon)

Wajahat Ali, a journalist at Al Jazeera America, is a lawyer, an award-winning playwright, a television host, and a consultant for the U.S. State Department. Ali helped launch the Al Jazeera America network as co-host of Al Jazeera America's The Stream, a daily news show that extended news and conversation to social media and beyond. Author of The Domestic Crusaders, the first major play about Muslim Americans post-9/11, he is also the lead author and researcher of Fear Inc., Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America. He speaks on the multifaceted Muslim-American experience and the emergent generation of millennials poised for social change. Mr. Ali’s Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the President’s Leadership Fund. (Photo credit: Delaney Chambers) Read more...

Tim Haughton is an associate professor of European Politics at the University of Birmingham and a former director of Birmingham’s Centre for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies. He has held visiting positions at Harvard and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Haughton has published widely on party politics, the politics of Central and Eastern Europe, and has been the co-editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies Annual Review of the European Union since 2008. Professor Haughton’s Athenaeum talk is sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Read more...

Toshia Shaw is the founder of Purple W.I.N.G.S. (Women Inspiring Noble Girls Successfully), which seeks to demystify misconceptions about who is at risk for sexual violence. Having personally overcome domestic violence and sex-trafficking, Shaw draws on her own experiences in an effort to relate and connect with the girls and women she serves and transforms. In 2006 realizing that girls in her community were being trafficked in staggering numbers, she felt compelled to start speaking up about the issue of domestic minor sex trafficking in Las Vegas, Nevada. She transforms and inspires with her harrowing journey out of sex trafficking. Read more...

View video: YouTube with Toshia Shaw