Kahn Chronicle Fall 2019 News & Events
What’s Happening at the Kahn
Check back regularly to read profiles of students and faculty, notes from the Kahn staff, and to learn more about Kahn projects and events.
How Can Human Values Inform Technological Innovation? A Dialogue
Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 12:15-1:10 p.m., Carroll Center
The chairman of the board of NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph), Jun Sawada will be visiting campus to discuss the possibility of connecting Smith College engineering graduates with NTT, the world’s largest telecommunications firm. From 12:15-1:10 p.m., Mr. Sawada will join Yasuo Deguchi of Kyoto University and Jay Garfield of Smith on a public panel to discuss the ways human values can inform and inflect technological innovation. The panel will be moderated by Suzanne Gottschang, Kahn Institute director, and Susannah Howe, Design Center director. The event will take place in the Julia McWilliams Child ’34 Campus Center Carroll Room. Lunch will be provided for the first 40 guests.
A Publication Celebration: Christen Mucher’s and Javier Puente’s New Books
Come engage with groundbreaking books from two Smith professors: Christen Mucher's Before American History: Nationalist Mythmaking and Indigenous Dispossession and Javier Puente's The Rural State: Making Comunidades, Campesinos, and Conflict in Peru's Central Sierra. The evening will include comments by the authors and refreshments.
Vegetal Forms: Knowing Time and Place Through Plants
How does plant form communicate trauma, landscape, memory, and place? Join us to discuss the work of Smith College Museum of Art’s visiting artist Abdessamad El Montassir and of Elaine Gan, Assistant Professor of Science in Society at Wesleyan University. Learn more about this short-term Kahn project.
Director’s Note, Spring 2023
Indigenous and State Politics in Latin America: The Mapuche People and the Chilean Constitutional Assembly
Common Grounds: Toward (Re)Thinking Global Indigeneity is pleased to announce a public lecture by Dr. Elisa Loncon Antileo, Mapuche activist, Indigenous scholar, and formerly the distinguished leader of the Constitutional Assembly in Chile, one of the 21st century’s most transformative political processes. Graham Hall, Brown Fine Arts Center, February 2, 2023, 5:35 p.m. The lecture will also be livestreamed. Loncon will speak in Spanish with an English translator. Free and open to the public. Masks Welcome.
Hauntings from A Eugenic Past: Race, Gender, and the Practice of Science, by Banu Subramaniam
Banu Subramaniam, Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will speak on “Hauntings from A Eugenic Past: Race, Gender, and the Practice of Science” as part of the Kahn Institute yearlong project Health and Medicine, Culture and Society: Crossroads in a Liberal Arts Education.
Sex(ually Transmitted Diseases) and the City: Syphilis Control in Tokyo, 1868–1912, by Susan L. Burns
Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, 5 p.m., Neilson Browsing Room, Neilson Library
Susan L. Burns, Professor of East Asian Language and Civilization at the University of Chicago, will speak on “Sex(ually Transmitted Diseases) and the City: Syphilis Control in Tokyo, 1868–1912” as part of the Kahn Institute yearlong project Health and Medicine, Culture and Society: Crossroads in a Liberal Arts Education.
A Desire to Cure, Not to Punish: Women Physicians and Eugenics in the American West, 1900–1930 by Jacqueline D. Antonovich
Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, 5 p.m., Graham Hall, Brown Fine Arts Center
Jacqueline D. Antonovich, professor and historian of health and medicine in the United States, will speak on “A Desire to Cure, Not to Punish: Women Physicians and Eugenics in the American West, 1900–1930” as part of the Kahn Institute yearlong project Health and Medicine, Culture and Society: Crossroads in a Liberal Arts Education.
Kahn Student Fellows Presentation Showcase
Friday, Apr. 29, 2022, 12:15-2:15 p.m., Online
Kahn Institute Student Fellows will present their research from this year’s long-term projects, Coping with Democratic Precarity and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal, and Democracies Redux: Resumptions, Resilience, Reconciliation, and Restoration. All are welcome; register to attend.
The Third Founding: The Struggle for Multiracial Democracy—and the Authoritarian Reaction Against it, by Steven Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die
Tuesday, Apr, 26, 2022, 5 p.m., Neilson Browsing Room
Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University and co-author of How Democracies Die, will speak on “The Third Founding: The Struggle for Multiracial Democracy—and the Authoritarian Reaction Against it” as part of the Kahn Institute yearlong project Coping with Democratic Precarity and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal.
Voices, Visibility and Versatile Artistic Praxis: Asian/Asian Americans at Smith College
Thursday, Apr. 28, 2022, 2:30-5 p.m., Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, 21 Henshaw
Two artworks at Smith represent the culmination of “Voices, Visibility, and Versatile Artistic Praxis: Asian/Asian Americans at Smith College, a multi-project collaboration between Boston-based multimedia artist Yu-Wen Wu and Smith community members: 1) Belonging: A Voice at the Table, on display at the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute (21 Henshaw Ave.) on Thursday, April 28, 2:30-5 p.m., is an installation of symbolic cloth bundles adorned with narratives and stories exploring ideas of home, identity and belonging; and 2) Belonging: Asian/Asian American Voices at Smith, an accordion book on display on the third floor of Neilson Library through the summer.
Starbucks, Amazon and How Labor Unions Lift Workers and Strengthen Our Democracy, by NYT Journalist Steven Greenhouse
Monday, Apr. 18, 2022, 5 p.m., Neilson Browsing Room
Steven Greenhouse, award-winning author and long-time New York Times reporter on labor and the workplace, will speak on "Starbucks, Amazon and How Labor Unions Lift Workers and Strengthen Our Democracy" as part of an event sponsored by the Kahn Institute, Journalism Concentration, Provost's Office and the departments of Sociology and Education.
Whistleblowers: Heroes or Traitors? by Jesselyn Radack
Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2022, 4:30 p.m., Graham Hall, Hillyer
Jesselyn Radack, lawyer, whistleblower, and National Security and Human Rights Director of the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program (WHISPeR), will speak on "Whistleblowers: Heroes or Traitors?" as part of the Kahn Institute yearlong project Coping with Democratic Precarity and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal.
Neilson Professor Lecture III: "A Focus on the Environment as a Source for the Recuperation of Memory"
Neilson Professor Miguel Angel Rosales, filmmaker and anthropologist, will give his third of three spring lectures, "A Focus on the Environment as a Source for the Recuperation of Memory," on Tuesday, April 5, at 5 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room.
Neilson Professor Lecture II: "Surviving Stories"
Neilson Professor Miguel Angel Rosales, filmmaker and anthropologist, will give his first of three spring lectures, "Submerged Stories," on Tuesday, February 22, at 5 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room.
The Data Will Not Save Us: Afropessimism and Racial Antimatter in the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Anthony Ryan Hatch
Thursday, March 3, 5 p.m., Online
Anthony Ryan Hatch, Chair of the Science in Society Program at Wesleyan University, will give an online lecture, "The Data Will Not Save Us: Afropessimism and Racial Antimatter in the COVID-19 Pandemic." An analysis of how the COVID-19 pandemic joins an already ongoing racial spectacle and system of structural gaslighting organized around “racial health disparities” in the United States and globally. View the lecture video.
Submerged Stories, Neilson Professor Lecture I, Miguel Angel Rosales (transcript)
In the long history of Spanish colonial domination, there is an element virtually ignored by historians: the decisive role that the Spanish and Portuguese Empires played in the African slave trade, dispersing millions of Africans across the shores of the Atlantic.
Director’s Note: Democracy as Making Hope
In its modest way, the work of the Kahn, where we incubate eggs whose creatures we cannot predict and whose shape we will neither prescribe nor proscribe, where imagination is the foundational term, even before thinking, is designed to contribute to the idea of the parallel polis (even by other names) that is a precondition for liberation in a democracy not yet realized.
Spring Visiting Speakers at the Kahn
The Kahn Institute will host several speakers, both online and in person, this spring in conjunction with current long-term and short-term projects, as follows. Next up: Anthony Hatch, Chair of the Science in Society Program at Wesleyan University, on "The Data Will Not Save Us: Afropessimism and Racial Antimatter in the COVID-19 Pandemic," on Thursday, March 3, 5 p.m., online (register to attend) as part of the short-term project Democratizing Health II.
The Afrodiaspora in Spanish Culture
Miguel Angel Rosales, the 2022 Neilson Professor, is a filmmaker and anthropologist affiliated with Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain. Rosales will give three lectures through the spring, the first, "Submerged Stories," on Tuesday, February 22, at 5 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room. Rosales recently responded to questions for KahnTact.
Neilson Professor Lecture I: "Submerged Stories"
Neilson Professor Miguel Angel Rosales, filmmaker and anthropologist, will give his first of three spring lectures, "Submerged Stories," on Tuesday, February 22, at 5 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room.
Health Policy, Structural Racism, and Democracy
Jamila Michener, associate professor of government, Cornell University, will lecture on "Health Policy, Structural Racism, and Democracy," as part of the Kahn yearlong project Coping with Democratic Precarity and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal.
Presentation by Boston Multimedia Artist Yu-Wen Wu
Kahn Student Fellows for 2021-22 Yearlong Projects
Nine students have been awarded Kahn Fellowships in the 2021-22 yearlong projects Democracies Redux: Resumptions, Resilience, Reconciliation, and Restoration and Coping with Democratic Precarity and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal.
Focus on Fellowship: Zoe Birnhak ’21
Zoe Birnhak ‘21 recently participated in the Kahn short-term project The Notorious RCG: Race, Class, and Gender in STEM. She was one of two student fellows among some 25 faculty research fellows in the project, and discussed with the group her experience in STEM classes at Smith.
Not THOSE Birds and Bees
Director’s Note (Spring 2021)
Alex Keller, Director, Kahn Institute
We’re fully into many kinds of spring. We have sprung forward, there’s a spring in our step, things that sprang to mind now spring to life beyond it.
Focus on Fellowship: Espy Thomson ’21
Espy Thomson ’21, a fellow in Technophilia/Technoskepticism, has spent much of her final spring semester at Smith researching the reproductive technology industry, including interviews with some of her 65 half-siblings.
Focus on Fellowship: Amanda Jiang ’20
Amanda Jiang ’20 has been working on a new protocol to explore the efficacy of an alternative-based intervention to reduce stress and improve the quality of life for COVID-19 healthcare workers.
Kahn Past Events
Beyond Big Data: Communicating Climate Change Through Indigenous Voices & Art
An online conversation between Indigenous scientist/artist James Temte and special guest, Alaska native Ahtna Elder Wilson Justin. Temte, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe who leads the NSF Navigating the New Arctic Community Extension Office, will share a conversation with Ahtna elder Wilson Justin on the topic of Indigenous knowledge, connection to the land and the role of art in communicating the realities of climate change beyond the Arctic. This public conversation is presented as part of the Kahn Institute yearlong project Imagining Climate Change: From Slow Violence to Fast Hope.
WATCH THE EVENTOn Rising Together: Collective and Creative Responses to the Climate Crisis
Elizabeth Rush, award-winning author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, speaks on her book and related themes as a guest of the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design, and Sustainability (CEEDS) and the Kahn Institute’s yearlong project Imagining Climate Change: From Slow Violence to Fast Hope. Rush's most recent book, Rising, a Pulitzer finalist, lyrically documents the transformation of shorelines around the United States as a result of climate change and rising seas.
WATCH THE EVENTReversing Knowledge Loss
What does it mean to regain knowledge and practice of lost technologies? Why do some successful technologies disappear? MacArthur Fellow Sven Haakanson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington, works with the Alutiiq in Kodiak, Alaska, and other communities in preserving and relearning languages and cultural practices. Haakanson received a MacArthur Fellowship for his work reviving Alutiiq language and culture. He recently worked with Kodiak communities in relearning, building and using angyaaq again. He lectured as part of the yearlong project Technophilia/Technoskepticism.
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