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Celebrating the Clarke Forum:
25 Years of Pressing, Contemporary Issues Through a Liberal-Arts Lens By David Blosser ’19
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t’s a Tuesday evening, and you’re sitting in ATS, listening to leading feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw speak about the challenges facing black women and girls in 2015. Wednesday rolls around and you find yourself attending Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan’s talk on the writing process behind her national bestseller. The following week, Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies Greg Steirer invites you to a panel with distinguished scholars and scientists discussing developments in computergenerated imaging and virtual reality.
d ic k i n s o n ma g a z i n e Summer 2019
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Thanks to the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, experiences like these are not out of the ordinary. Founded in 1994, the Clarke Forum opened its doors after a generous gift from trustee Henry Clarke ’55. And although its name has changed since its inception (it used to be called the Clarke Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Issues), the forum brings the unique strengths of an interdisciplinary liberal-arts perspective to the critical examination of contemporary issues through thought-provoking lectures, seminars, conferences and salons.
“With programs that are free and open to the public, the Clarke Forum is a vibrant center of intellectual life at Dickinson for students, for faculty and for the broader community,” says Professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Amy Farrell, who just completed her term as executive director of the forum. “Providing a venue for scholars, policymakers, journalists, artists and writers to share their work, the forum allows us to see issues from so many different angles—historical perspectives, scientific paradigms, scholarly dissections, policy debates, creative explorations and more.”
