Prominent intellectual and activist Cornel West will be on campus April 25 as part of an inaugural lecture series at Dartmouth.
West will give one of seven talks in a new lecture series called “Seeds of Change: Gender, Scholarship, and Social Justice,” which kicks off April 8. Another talk will feature the Dartmouth IGERT fellows who garnered international attention last December for their video “Science in Greenland: It’s A Girl Thing.”
The series is run by a pilot program, the Gender Research Institute at Dartmouth (GRID).
“I am looking forward to hearing these artists, scholars, and activists talk about the place of higher education in making important social change,” says Annabel Martín, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the GRID steering committee.
The April 8 events include two panel discussions. The first, at 3:30 p.m., features three young alumnae activists; the second begins at 5 p.m. and features Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, and Leslie Adelson Lewin, executive director of Seeds of Peace. The latter panel will be moderated by Dartmouth Trustee Peggy Epstein Tanner ’79. Both panel discussions take place in Haldeman Center 041.
Salbi has written two books; one is about her life growing up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s regime. In 2011, The Guardian named her one of the “Top 100 Women: Activists and Campaigners.”
Lewin is the executive director of Seeds of Peace, a group that brings together teenagers from opposing sides of conflicts, such as Israeli and Palestinian youth, for conversations to promote peace and understanding. She was profiled in the 2012 book How Great Women Lead alongside Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, and others.
The Seeds of Change Lecture series is part of a GRID seminar program, which brings 18 faculty, senior staff, and undergraduate and graduate student fellows to research and talk about gender and social activism. The fellows meet 10 to 12 times throughout the term and attend the Seeds of Change series. They will also participate in a GRID symposium “Body Politics: Women, Families, and Reproductive Rights” (April 30 to May 3), which is the kickoff event of the Women’s and Gender Studies recently established Katy Lebowitz 1976 Academic Enrichment Fund. Katy Lebowitz ’76 devoted much of her life to supporting women’s rights; the fund was established in her memory by her husband, David Lockard ’76.
The upcoming Seeds of Change speakers are:
Monday, April 8
- “Young Alumnae Activists,” at 3:30 p.m. in Haldeman 041. The panel discussion features Myra Sack ’10, Christina Stoltz ’06, and Kashay Sanders ’11.
- “Praxis: Activism and Social Justice,” at 5 p.m. in Haldeman 041. The panel discussion features Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, and Leslie Lewin, executive director of Seeds of Peace, and moderated by Trustee Peggy Epstein Tanner ’79.
- Cornel West, professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary, speaking on “Scholarship, Diversity, and Social Change,” at 4:15 p.m. in Cook Auditorium at the Tuck School of Business. (Note: This is a new location for West’s talk.)
- Dean Spade, associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law, speaking for the 13th Annual Stonewall Lecture on “Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law,” at 4:15 p.m. in Carpenter 13.
- Panel Discussion: Dartmouth IGERT Graduate students will talk about their video Science in Greenland: It’s a Girl Thing video at 3:30 p.m. in Dartmouth Hall 105.
- Anne Fausto-Sterling, the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Biology and Gender Studies in the department of molecular and cell biology and biochemistry at Brown University, speaking at 4:15 p.m. in the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center room 100.
- Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago Law School, speaking on “The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear,” at 3:15 p.m. in Moore Hall’s Filene Auditorium.