Events and Programs

Pizza and Politics Series

 Lunch series held periodically each semester, aims to offer a casual forum for Pomona College professors as well as visiting speakers to discuss their current research and writing, and for students and other members of the community to gain greater exposure to these scholarly efforts. There is always plenty of time reserved for questions, comments, and debate. Free pizza and drinks served on a first come, first served basis...or bring your own brown bag lunch!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012
Noon - Carnegie 107

'99 RISE
A Nonviolent Movement to Get Money Out of American Politics
Devon Whitham, Scripps College ’07: ”99 Rise is a new nationwide movement waging nonviolent struggle to break the stranglehold of Big Money in American politics.  In the proud tradition of the abolitionists, the suffragettes, civil rights activists and other liberty and justice loving patriots throughout our nation's history, we are committed to putting our bodies and our freedom on the line through nonviolent direct action to activate the support of the masses and push our elected officials out of the pockets of the worst of the 1 percent”

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012
Noon – CA 107

“Witches, Rebels and Justice in Central Africa”
Louisa Lombard, PhD Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley

In the remote part of the Central African Republic at the confines of Chad and South Sudan, where Louisa Lombard does her research, one of the gravest dangers faced by people is witchcraft -- the invisible world of the spirits that meddle in human lives. State courts, where they function, hear witchcraft cases more often than any other types of cases.  In many parts of this region, however, it is rebel groups that rule.  Eager to gain legitimacy, they too handle the suspected witches in their midst. This talk will explore the nature and consequences of rebel witchcraft justice.

Louisa Lombard has done extensive fieldwork research in the Central African Republic, including areas beyond the reach of the central state.  She has a blog at http://foolesnomansland.blogspot.com/

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11 
Noon -Carnegie 107

“Health Care Reform and the 2012 Elections: What's Next”
Paul Skowronek
Vice President for State Affairs at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).

During the last decade, Paul Skowronek has been a key player in every major health care policy debate in the United States. Before coming to AHIP, he worked at the public relations firm of Porter Novelli, where he was involved in the "Patients' Bill of Rights" debate in Congress, then as the Director of Communications for the Alliance of Community Health Plans, and most recently as a Vice President at APCO Worldwide. Skowronek has also worked as a research associate at the Advisory Board Company and as an assistant to two members of the New Jersey Legislature, including a former Senate Minority Leader. Skowronek graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College and holds a Master of Arts from the School for Advanced Study at the University of London.

Lectures

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARy 6
4:15 - Carnegie 107

Professor David Elliott
Pomona College

"From American Century to Asian Century - or advent of the age of global gridlock?"
Following the footsteps of Graham Greene and George Orwell - An Overview
Reflections on a recent visit to Vietnam and Myanmar
November - December 2012

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25
9:00 -10:15 am - Rose Hills Theatre

MASTER CLASS WITH DR. JAMES HANSEN

The Pomona College Politics Department and Program in Environmental Analysis are pleased to present

Climate Change and our Shared Future:
A Master Class with Dr. James Hansen

Open to all students, staff and faculty. Please join us for a question-and-answer session with physicist James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. He is best known for his testimony on climate change to Congress in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue. In recent years Dr. Hansen has drawn attention to the danger of passing climate tipping points, producing irreversible climate impacts that would yield a different planet from the one on which civilization developed.

Dr. Hansen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and, in 2001, received the Heinz Award for environment and the American Geophysical Union's Roger Revelle Medal. Dr. Hansen received the World Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Medal from the Duke of Edinburgh in 2006 and was designated by Time Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2006. In 2007 Dr. Hansen won the Dan David Prize in the field of Quest for Energy, the Leo Szilard Award of the American Physical Society for Use of Physics for the Benefit of Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility.

FRIDAY, MARCH 1
9:00 am - 5 pm - Frank Blue Room
260 E. Bonita Ave.

The newly formed Southern California Law and Social Science (SoCLASS) Forum brings together scholars from Southern California to share their research in American, Comparative, and International Law. The conference theme, "Law at the Fault Lines," emphasizes the ways in which law influences and is influenced by "fault lines" between social and political groups. Robert A. Kagan (Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Law, University of California, Berkeley) will give a keynote address: "American Adversarial Legalism: Fading, Spreading, Still Entrenched?" For details and For more information please visit our website: soclass.org. Sponsored by Politics IR, PPA, Public Events @ Pomona College