Hill Stops
Sampling from 2023-24
More than 100 experts, performers, writers, and artists visit 51ÁÔÆæ each year — and that’s in addition to the dozens of alumni who return to offer students career-related advice. To give you an idea of the breadth and variety of topics covered by campus guests, here’s a sampling of 40 from 2023-24.
Guggenheim Fellow and filmmaker Ephraim AsiliSpoke as part of the F.I.L.M. series on his project The Inheritance, an ensemble work set in a West Philadelphia house where a community of young Black artists and activists attempt to work toward political consensus
David Autor, leading labor economist and Ford Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Expertise, Artificial Intelligence, and the Work of the Future”
Leah Platt Boustan, the Kuenne Professor of Economics and Humanistic Studies, Princeton University
Two presentations: “Competition in the Promised Land: Black Migrants in Northern Cities and Labor Markets, 1900-1970” and “Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success”
Chris Boyatzis, professor of psychology, Bucknell University
“What is a Good Childhood? A Mixed-Methods Study of Parenting in Denmark and the U.S.”
Scott Busby, former deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State
“Promoting Human Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy: A Practitioner’s Perspective”
Leah Byrne, assistant professor of ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
“New Approaches to Gene Therapy for Blindness”
U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright ’83 (Pa.) and former Rep. Steve Russell (Okla.) with moderator Mimi Geerges, host of CSPAN’S Washington Journal“Climate, Guns, Borders, Beliefs,” one of several discussions in the College’s Common Ground series, designed to explore cross-boundary political thought and complex social issues
Ben Coleman, artist
Discussed his practice, rooted in sound and performance making, but which also incorporates media such as music, text, video, and installation
American roots musicians Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer with Chinese classical hammered dulcimer player Chao Tian“From China to Appalachia,” a performance that combined instruments ranging from the yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), to gourd banjo, five-string banjo, ukulele, dumbek, cello-banjo, and mandolin
Wandeka Gayle, Jamaican writer, visual artist, and assistant professor of creative writing, Spelman College Spoke about her work Motherland and Other Stories and her forthcoming novel, My Name Is Sweet Thing
Indigenous DJ and Producer Dan “DJ Shub” GeneralAnnual Tolles Lecture included a screening of the music video Indomitable and a live Haudenosaunee social dance with Shub hosting “War Club Live”
Randy Gonzales, poet, writer, community historian, and associate professor of English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Shared research and stories of Filipino Louisiana
Rhiana Gunn-Wright, director of Climate Policy at the Roosevelt Institute, and Bob Inglis, former U.S. representative and executive director of RepublicEN.org
“Two Voices, One Planet: Navigating the Climate Crisis,” a Common Ground series event
“Making China Great Again: Online Fictions and the Road to Digital Cultural Hegemony”
Jiin Jeong ’21, Cybercorps SFS Scholar, Carnegie Mellon University“What Top Hackers Do Differently: An Exploration of Cybersecurity Talent, Strategies, and Fundamentals”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, scientist, New York Times bestselling author, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation
Annual Plant Lecture focused on restoration of both ecological communities and our relationships to landArtemy Magun, former professor of democratic theory, European University at Saint-Petersburg, and editor of Stasis, a journal of social and political theory “The Russian Constitution of 1993 and the Constitutions to Come”
Award-winning cartoonist Ira Marcks “Telling Stories with Comics,” a hands-on introduction to story design as part of Kirkland Zine Fest
Gerardo Martí, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowed Professor of Sociology at Davidson College and president, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion“Racial Justice and Progressive Piety: Can Antiracism Happen through White Christian Churches?”
Richelle Massey-Harris, chaplain for Wende Correctional Facility
“Faith and Grace: Pastoral Care in a Maximum-Security Prison”
Dancer, director, and choreographer Kaleena Miller
Presented talk and masterclass on tap
Vandi Minah, 51ÁÔÆæ’s Sol M. Linowitz Visiting Professor of International Affairs, moderated a discussion with United Nations diplomats Inga Rhonda King, ambassador and representative of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Michael Imran Kanu, ambassador and representative of the Republic of Sierra Leone; Kristel Lõuk; deputy representative of Republic of Estonia“A World in Crisis, the Security Council in Paralysis, the United Nations Under Fire: Can Small Member States Seize the Moment and Save the World?”
Mackenzie Morshead ’18, Ph.D. candidate in environmental and molecular toxicology, Oregon State University
“Asking the Fish: How Chemical Structure Effects Toxicity Outcomes and Mechanisms”
Caitlin Knowles Myers, the John G. McCullough Professor of Economics and co-director of the Middlebury Initiative for Data and Digital Methods
“Forecasts for a Post-Roe America” featured methods for applying statistical tools of causal inference to study the effects of abortion access on people’s lives
Anya Nugent ’18, Ph.D. candidate in astronomy, Northwestern University
“BRIGHT: An Exploration of Short Gamma-Ray Burst Environments, their Connection to Neutron Star Mergers, and Impact on the Universe’s Heavy Element Enrichment”
Julie Faith Parker ’83, author, Old Testament scholar, and visiting scholar at Union Theological Seminary“The Bible as Queer and Feminist Friendly”
Marquis Palmer ’18, outreach manager, Common Justice; Sean Drake, assistant professor of sociology, Syracuse University; and Hilda Jordan, equity strategist
“Imagining Better Futures: Disrupting Exclusionary Injustice in Schools”
Discussed her work supporting maternal health programming for married adolescent girls; she spent four years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with PSI working to expand modern contraception for young women
Shannon Ray, National Research Council Fellow, Air Force Research Laboratory
“Ignorance Implies Symmetry–Symmetry Implies Ignorance: Rethinking Quantum Entropy Using the Surfaces of Ignorance”
Jack “J.B.” Riffle ’12, founder, Local Foods Mohawk Valley“Building Community Via Local Foods”
Melvin Rogers, associate director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, and professor of political science, Brown University
“On James Baldwin: Racial Progress Without Redemption”
Michelle Schenandoah, speaker, writer, consultant, and member of the Oneida Indian Nation“Haudenosaunee Women’s Global Influence on Governance and Culture”
Alexandria Naima Smith, assistant professor of gender and sexuality, University of Virginia
Two presentations: “Doomscroll, Desire & Critique,” a workshop on social media and mindfulness, and “Black Feminist Knowledge Production as Critical, as Imaginative, as Narrative”
Shauna Sweet ’03, principal scientist, Galois, Inc.“Ethics, Equity, and Digital Red-lining: Implications for Commodification of Large Language Models”
Artist René TreviñoSpoke as part of an Artists in Conversation panel at the Wellin Museum in conjunction with his exhibition, “René Treviño: Stab of Guilt”
Matthew Velasco, anthropological bioarchaeologist and assistant professor, Cornell University
“Ancient Populations of the Peruvian Andes”
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack ’72 and U.S. Rep. G.T. Thompson (Pa.), chair of the House Committee on Agriculture, with moderator Edvige Jean-François ’90, journalist and executive director of the Center for Studies on Africa and its Diaspora at Georgia State University“Bipartisanship, Agriculture, and Climate,” a panel discussion part of 51ÁÔÆæ’s Common Ground series
Jeffrey Williams, professor of literary and cultural studies, Carnegie Mellon University, and co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Literary Criticism
Discussed how contemporary fiction has been shaped according to generations, from the Boomers to Millennials, as writers experience a shifting social and cultural scene and find different responses to their culture
Tennis champion, New York Times bestselling author, and entrepreneur Venus WilliamsDiscussion moderated by Lauren Reynolds ’02, vice president, executive editor of ESPN Digital, as part of 51ÁÔÆæ’s Sacerdote Great Names series
Huichuan Xia, assistant professor, department of information management, Peking University
“Examining the U.S. and Chinese Smartphone Users’ Mental Models of Contextual Integrity”
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