Editor's Introduction
Reclaim Your Curiosity
Speaker: Daniel Dries
Occasion: Opening Convocation
Date:23 August 2018
Daniel Dries, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, addresses the incoming Class of 2022 as they begin their journey at Juniata College. He encourages students to hold on to their sense of curiosity and wonder throughout their college experience and beyond.
Captain Dorito and the Bombshells: Hypersexuality in Marvel Comic Characters
Speaker: Rebecca Burch
Date: 20 September 2018
The torso of Chris Evans, the actor who played Captain America in the Marvel movies, has a shape that has been compared to a Dorito: wide across the shoulders and narrowing to a small waist. Dr. Burch, Associate Professor of Human Development at Oswego State University, has looked at over 17,000 characters in the Marvel Comic Universe, measured 3200 male and female humanoid bodies, and uncovered patterns that show a consistent exaggeration of testosterone and estrogen markers. The supernormal sexualized depictions tap into preferences and expectations of gendered bodies that have existed for millennia.
The Warrior Coffee Project: A Model of Service Learning in Study Abroad
Speaker: Caroline L. Payne
Date: 26 September 2018
In trying to find a developing country in which her students could make a positive difference, Caroline Payne, Associate Professor of Political Science at Lycoming College, created the Warrior Coffee Project. This project partners with a community of coffee pickers in the Dominican Republic and works to create sustainable growth. The long-term development goal is to take the resource that the community already produces and help them access markets that will pay them more than they historically have gotten for their coffee. Thus, the Dominican coffee pickers can connect directly with other buyers directly and have a method of sustainable growth within the international coffee trade.
Two Poems: 'Tomatoes' and 'Asian Shrimp'
Speaker: Adrienne Su
Date: 26 September 2018
Adrienne Su is a Professor of Creative Writing at Dickinson College. Su shares two poems from Living Quarters: Poems “Asian Shrimp” and “Tomatoes.”
We Are Unstoppable: Another World is Possible
Speaker: Emily Welty
Date: 8 October 2018
Dr. Emily Welty, Professor of Peace and Justice Studies at Pace University and member of the Nobel Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, discusses how her Christian faith and various civil rights activists and movements have inspired her efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. She argues with great passion that not only is a world without nuclear weapons possible but also that all of us can play a role in making this a reality. Working together, people can be unstoppable.
Lessons from the Juniata College Experience
Speakers: Nicole Close, Jim Metz, Angela Jones and Bill Phillips
Date: 19 October 2018
Four Juniata College alumni consider the impacts of their undergraduate experiences at Juniata. Their reflections focus on how Juniata provided a foundation for their lives and careers, which include, respectively, medical research, medical education, working on Netflix’s legal team, and winning a Nobel Prize in Physics, by encouraging passion, confidence, independent thinking, and caring.
Progress on Climate Change in D.C.: The Untold Story
Speaker: Danny Richter
Date: 29 October 2018
Danny Richter, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Citizens' Climate Lobby, describes how his organization has worked with the United States Congress to promote legislation reducing harmful climate change. He provides a fascinating insider view of the challenges of depoliticizing the issue of climate change. By fostering mutual respect among climate change lobbyists and both the Republicans and Democrats of Congress, significant progress can be and has been made.
The Public, Press, and Presidency in a Time of Democratic Turbulence
Speaker: Joshua Scacco
Occasion: G. Graybill Diehm Lecture
Date: 5 November 2018
Joshua Scacco, Class of 2008 and Assistant Professor of Political Communication at the University of South Florida, calls for a stronger civil society and “restraint and strength of conscience among political leaders.” Scacco notes that increasing economic inequality, demographic changes, and intensifying political polarization, fueled by digital and social media and the behavior of the president, have led to this need for the American people to safeguard democracy. He, therefore, urges all Americans to improve their interpersonal relationships, to have open discussions with people with differing political perspectives or personal experiences, and to hold their elected officials accountable.
Engineering Through a Peacebuilding Lens: Supporting Locally-Driven, Locally-Owned Peace Processes from Within in Somalia, Colombia, Kenya, and Beyond
Speaker: Jerry McCann
Date: 29 November 2018
Jerry McCann serves as Senior Advisor and Peace Engineer at Build Up, an organization that collaborates with civic activists and peacebuilders to find and apply innovative practices that help them achieve their peacebuilding mission. In this talk, he discusses the ways in which he has applied his training in engineering to peacebuilding. He shares lessons learned while working to support peacebuilders around the world and discusses how technology is being used as a powerful peacebuilding tool. McCann is a fellow of The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, and he returned to Juniata in 2019 as a Baker Institute Scholar in Residence.
Transforming Complex Contemporary Challenges through Arts and Culture
Speaker: Polly Walker
Occasion: Bookend Seminar
Date: 22 January 2019
Polly Walker, Director of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and Elizabeth Evans Baker Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College, discusses her work on a joint project called Imagining Together Platform for Arts, Culture, and Conflict Transformation (IMPACT). The Baker Institute is partnering with Brandeis University’s Peacebuilding and the Arts program and Maseno University in Kisumu, Kenya. Their work focuses on transforming complex contemporary challenges through arts and culture.
Coping, Healing, and Mending: The Transformative Power of Humor
Speaker: Taylor Hallabuk
Occasion: Bailey Oratorical Contest
Date: 5 March 2019
The winner of Juniata College’s 2019 Bailey Oratorical Contest and a member of the Class of 2020, Taylor Hallabuk outlines the power of humor to transform: personally, in our relationships, and in our communities. Taylor calls on us all to transform awkward, challenging, and uncomfortable moments by laughing.
Building a Bridge for Others to Cross: The Serendipitous, Intersecting Stories of Two Same-Sex Couples Who Made a Home in Amish Country
Speaker: Grace Fala
Occasion: Bookend Seminar
Date:18 March 2019
In this talk, Fala discusses serendipity and setting the path for those who come after us. She tells of Grace and Frances, a same-sex couple who established a home among the Amish in Big Valley. Through a series of serendipitous events, that home would later become the home of Fala and her wife, Dawn Hayes. Fala talks about the path of discovery and discusses how she embraced and wrote about them in her book We Built the Bridge.
Meeting Africa's Needs Through Catholic Relief Services: A Firsthand View
Speaker: David Orth-Moore
Date: 28 March 2019
Juniata alumnus (1985) and career-development and relief professional David Orth-Moore recounts the influences that led him to non-governmental organization (NGO) work in sub-Saharan Africa. He explains the nature of the work and some of the programs offered by Catholic Relief Services, focusing primarily on improving or providing water systems and famine relief.
Saving Snow Leopards: Blending Biology and Social Science to Find Effective Conservation Solutions
Speaker: Tom McCarthy
Date: 9 April 2019
Wildlife conservationist Tom McCarthy describes how the Panthera program that he created has developed sustainable ways to protect snow leopards in central Asia. He highlights how Panthera’s cooperation with local people in creating alternative means for marketing local handicrafts as well as a fund that has provided cash bonuses to villages who report no killing of snow leopards has proven to be a highly successful approach to conserving these beautiful endangered animals.
Reframing (Dis)Ability: Representations of Impairment as Concept and Composition
Speaker: Will Dickey
Occasion: Bookend Seminar
Date:10 April 2019
Literature scholar Dickey provides an introduction to the literary side of the field of disability studies. Along the way he offers a critique of some of the previous frames and current fictional representations of disability that many are working to reposition in mainstream understanding.
Troublesome Women: Gender, Crime, and Punishment in Antebellum Pennsylvania
Speaker: Erica Hayden
Date: 22 April 2019
Dr. Hayden, Class of 2007 and Associate Professor of History at Trevecca Nazarene University, draws upon over 6000 court cases and hundreds of pages of prison records to examine the lived experiences of women criminals in Pennsylvania during the forty years prior to the Civil War. Hayden finds that these women did not passively accept the ideas and actions of antebellum society and authorities, but, instead, they played an active role in both committing crimes and resisting punishment. These women demonstrated a degree of agency and empowerment in an era when society attempted to control women and limit their influence.
In Praise We Raise Our Song
Speaker: John F. Bukowski
Occasion: Spring Awards Convocation
Date: 7 May 2019
John Bukowski, Professor of Mathematics, encourages the class of 2019 to remember fondly their time at Juniata through song. He performs songs from the third edition of The Juniata College Songbook, published in 1912. Bukowski’s piece includes scans of the songbook and links to performances of select songs.
Art Can Light Your Way
Speaker: Michael Trim
Occasion: 141st Juniata College Commencement
Date: 18 May 2019
Award winning cinematographer Michael Trim, director and producer on many television shows such as Weeds, Orange is the New Black, and Parks and Recreation, offers advice to the Class of 2019. He illustrates the way a passion may find you in the process of pursuing art through a self-deprecating account of his own rise in the film industry from bicycle messenger to director and Emmy Award winner. Trim also encourages everyone to turn to art in all its forms to find their way.