Ira Helfand – “Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War”
Monday, March 2 at 6 p.m. (Sturgis Hall)
Ira Helfand, MD is co-chair of PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee and also serves as co-president of PSR’s global federation, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
Dr. Helfand has worked for many years as an emergency room physician and now practices internal medicine at an urgent care center. Dr. Helfand represents IPPNW at the annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. He is also a member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)’s International Steering Committee.
Dr. Helfand co-authored PSR’s report, “Nuclear Famine: 2 Billion at Risk?,” which outlines the global health consequences of regional nuclear war. He was a leading medical voice in ICAN’s campaign for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Dr. Helfand addressed national delegations at international conferences on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Oslo, Norway, Narayit, Mexico, and Vienna, Austria, during the May 2016 U.N. Open-Ended Working Group on disarmament in Geneva, and throughout the U.N. General Assembly negotiations in 2017.
Rachel Seidman – “Speaking of Feminism”
Wednesday, March 4 at 6 p.m. (Sturgis Hall)
Book signing to follow
In partnership with First Person Plural
In this centennial year of the Nineteenth Amendment, Dr. Rachel Seidman will speak about the work of the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP), one of the oldest collections in the country, which has a distinguished record in documenting the perspectives of women throughout the region.
She will also discuss her recent book, “Speaking of Feminism,” which explores formative experiences and ideas reported by late 20th century activists in six urban communities across the nation.
Dr. Seidman is director of the Southern Oral History Program and adjunct professor of history, American studies, and gender studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was a 2019 Fulbright Scholar to Finland, focusing on the U.S. women’s movement and oral history as related to medical humanities.
Richard Davis and Elizabeth Bennion – State Debate Coalition
Monday, March 16 at Noon (Sturgis Hall)
Since 1960, most presidential campaigns have included debates between the two major party candidates. Thanks to the Presidential Debate Commission, debates at the general election level have become regularized since 1988. No major party candidate has refused to participate in their debates, nor can they dictate details of such debates, including dates, times, and places.
However, state level debates are still uncoordinated in nearly all states. The State Debate Coalition was formed last year by three existing state debate commissions (Indiana, Utah, and Ohio) and the Open Debate Coalition. Using models similar to the Presidential Debate Commission, the individual state commissions have organized scores of debates in their respective states that have won plaudits from media outlets, community organizations, and educators.
The purpose of the State Debate Coalition is to help create similar state debate commissions in other states around the nation. It has organized to encourage key players in states to form debate commissions that can offer professional, neutral, and regularized debates that transcend individual candidates and their efforts to set the rules of debate. These debate commissions are best composed by a combination of diverse participants, including commercial and public television and radio outlets, universities and colleges, and community leaders.
Panel Discussion with The Rep on “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”
Thursday, March 26 at Noon (Sturgis Hall)
Fifteen-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain. He is exceptional at mathematics, but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. And now he is on a mission – an investigative adventure that will upturn the world of his family and community forever.
Based on the award-winning novel that has sold more than 5.5 million copies world-wide, “Curious Incident” is the winner of seven Olivier Awards and five Tony Awards, including Best Play. Hailed by The London Times as “a phenomenal combination of storytelling and spectacle,” it is a breathtaking theatrical experience with visionary design that will fill you with hope and put you inside the brilliant mind of a boy who sees the world as most of us can only imagine.
Join us for a discussion with the cast and crew.
Michael Nelson – “Clinton’s Elections: 1992, 1996, and the Birth of a New Era of Governance”
Monday, March 30 at Noon (Sturgis Hall)
Book signing to follow
Michael Nelson is the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College, a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and Senior Contributing Editor and Book Editor of the Cook Political Report.
In 2015, the American Political Science Association gave Nelson the Richard E. Neustadt Award for the Outstanding book on the Presidency and Executive Politics published during the previous year for “Resilient America: Electing Nixon in 1968, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government.” He and his former student and colleague, John Lyman Mason, won the Southern Political Science Association’s 2009 V.O. Key Award for Outstanding Book on Southern Politics for “How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation.”
As coeditor and coauthor with Miller Center colleagues, Nelson has recently published Cornell University Press books on two of the presidents studied in the Presidential Leadership Scholars program: “41: Inside the George H.W. Bush Presidency” with Barbara A. Perry and the forthcoming “42: Inside the Bill Clinton Presidency” with Perry and Russell L. Riley.
South Words: Leesa Cross-Smith – “So We Can Glow”
Tuesday, March 31 | Doors open at 6 p.m.; Program starts at 6:30 p.m. (Ron Robinson Theater)
Book signing to follow
In partnership with Oxford American
From Kentucky to the California desert, these forty-two short stories expose the glossy and matte hearts of girls and women in moments of obsessive desire and fantasy, wildness and bad behavior, brokenness, and fearlessness.
“Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts.” —Roxane Gay, author of “Bad Feminist”
The Oxford American is proud to conclude its 2019-2020 South Words readers series with Leesa Cross-Smith, author of “So We Can Glow: Stories.”
Moderating the discussion is OA contributor and author of “A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip,” Kevin Brockmeier.
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