2019-2020

Fall 2019 Series: Discrimination and the Search for Truth and Justice

Debates about race, gender, and other social issues that have roiled the academy recently raise questions, at least implicitly, about the nature and purpose of higher education. Is higher education essentially about free and open inquiry in pursuit of truth or is it about the promotion of social justice? Are truth and justice always compatible ideals? Some have argued that these ideals can conflict and that the academy’s central telos is the pursuit of truth even at the expense of justice. Others have proposed that there is no real conflict between truth and justice, that truth requires justice and vice versa.  Still others say that “truth” is a social construction that invites deconstruction for the sake of justice.

A community discussion of this theme was inaugurated in a faculty seminar hosted by the Institute last July on “Liberal Arts, Academic Freedom, Truth and Social Justice.”  Here is a link to the article: https://stolaf.edu/news/faculty-seminar-examines-truth-justice-and-discrimination.

Glenn Loury

Truth, Justice and Racial Equality
A conversation with Glenn Loury, Merton P. Stoltz Professor of Economics at Brown and host of the Glenn Show podcast
Friday, September 27, 2019 at 3:30 p.m.
Tomson Hall 280

Alice Dreger

Truth, Justice and the Science of Gender
A conversation with Alice Dreger, writer, historian, and journalist and author of Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice
Thursday, October 10, 2019 at 7 p.m.
Tomson Hall 280

Beth Truesdale ’97

Truth, Justice, and America’s Aging Workforce
A conversation with Beth Truesdale ’97, a sociologist who studies economic inequality, labor markets, health, and public policy
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 7 p.m.
Viking Theater

Spring 2020 Series: U.S.-China Relations

John M. Barry

Pandemics, China, and the Coronavirus
A conversation with award-winning and New York Times best-selling author John M. Barry, whose books have involved him in two areas of policy-making, preparedness and resilience.  Mr. Barry will discuss pandemics, China, and the Coronavirus.

Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Tomson Hall 280

jeffrey ding, joy dantong ma, Xiao qiang

China: Big Data, AI, and Privacy
A moderated panel on the computer science statistical tools and methods used by the Chinese government to track citizen activities. Panel includes Director and Research Scientist of the Counter-Power Lab at Berkeley Xiao Qiang, Rhodes Scholar and Researcher at the University of Oxford Jeffrey Ding, and former Associate Director of the Think Tank at the Paulson Institute Joy Dantong Ma.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Tomson Hall 280

The following Spring 2020 Events were canceled as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic

reihan salam, Amy Walter

The State of the Presidential Election
Monday, March 16, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Tomson Hall 280

elizabeth economy, evan osnos

U.S.-China Relations Today
Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Tomson Hall 280

sheena greitens, Minxin Pei

Freedom and Coercion in China
Thursday, April 16, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Tomson Hall 280