Thursday November 17th, 6:30pm | 4th floor College Hall

Prof. Andy Lamas (Urban Studies)
Prof. Ania Loomba (English)
Prof. Phil Nichols (Legal Studies)

The recent, rapid growth of the Occupy movement worldwide has directed attention to widespread discontent with social and economic inequality, “corporate greed,” and the influence of corporate lobbying in government. Among both those for and against the movement, opinions vary on the significance and importance of these protests. Occupiers of all creeds insist on their continued demonstration until political and economic change is realized, but bankers ignore them and politicians such as Mitt Romney accuse them of enacting “class warfare.” Yet at the core, these protests and the surrounding debate are prompted by very real questions about the division of wealth, social justice, the government’s rule in regulation, and the freedom of an individual to attain all that he or she can.

Join the Philomathean Society and Occupy Penn for an open discussion led by a faculty panel on the historical, legal, political, and ethical dimensions of the Occupy movement. Audience questions are encouraged. Refreshments will be provided.

Tuesday November 15th, 6:00pm | the Common Press

The ubiquity of text in today’s world surpasses that of any other time in history. Are you interested in learning how fonts are designed? Join Philo and Mr. David Comberg at the Common Press to learn about digital, wood, and metal type and converse about typography, design and printing. Mr. Comberg will lead a hands-on demonstration in which those present will participate in setting a short text and printing a small keepsake. David Comberg teaches design and typography in the Fine Arts department. Please email secondcensor@philomathean.org if you are interested in attending.

http://www.design.upenn.edu/commonpress/index.html

The Common Press is the letterpress printing studio at the University of Pennsylvania, located in the basement of the Morgan Building, 205 South 34th Street, directly east of the Fine Arts Library.

Thursday November 10th, 6:00pm | 4th floor College Hall

Dr. Erwann Michel-Kerjan (Operations and Information Management)
Dr. Ben Horton (Earth and Environmental Sciences)
Dr. Adriana Petryna (Anthropology)

In our modern age, we like to believe that human beings maintain some kind of control over our surroundings . Yet there are times when we are forced to realize the shortcomings of our masterful technologies and knowledge of the world– most notably, in the event of a catastrophe. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. 9/11. The Haiti Earthquake. Hurricane Katrina. And more recently, Hurricane Irene. These events shocked us, not only in terms of the immediate trauma and devastation they wrought, but also by their far-reaching temporal and spatial aftereffects. Is there such a thing as planning or preparing for a large-scale disaster? How do disasters affect the psyche of a nation? From international aid to multinational corporations, how has globalization changed our response to disaster?

(Please enter via east door of College Hall, across from Fisher Fine Arts.)

Thursday November 3rd, 4:30pm | 4th floor College Hall

Strategic Studies is a weekly non-credit seminar series hosted by Professors Anne-Louise Antonoff and Arthur Waldron that explores questions of international strategy and international security. In honor of the Year of Games, this semester we will be studying the role and history of wargaming and war simulations.

Thursday November 3rd, 6:30pm | 4th floor College Hall

Dr. Janet Monge (Anthropology)
Dr. Sarah Tishkoff (Biology)
Dr. Michael Weisberg (Philosophy)

Only within the past five hundred years has the concept of distinct biological human “races” been used to classify human populations. Since this time, “race” has been employed to justify the abuse of groups deemed biologically inferior. From slavery to Nazi Germany’s “Master Race” and from Apartheid to eugenics, recent history is marked by frequent and long periods of racist thought and practice. However, what is the validity of the biological concept of “race?” Are humans naturally divided into the “Mongoloid,” “Negroid,” and “Caucasoid” types assigned by long-dead anthropologists and philosophers? What are the genetic and physical differences of existing human groups? What does the record of human evolution have to bear on biological concept of “race?” Finally, should “race” be abandoned from a biological perspective, as some thinkers suggest, and, if so, what terms best describe the variation seen in modern humans? Join the Philomathean Society in a discussion of the past and future of “race” in biology and its cultural and political ramifications.

Free and open to the public, with refreshments provided.