+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
 |
1918, The Flu Epidemic
Wednesday, October 4, 5:30–7pm
Twenty-five million people died of the Spanish flu, but few recall the details of the pandemic today. With the advent of avian flu come new fears and new preparedness efforts, but how much concern is too much-or not enough? Issues of crisis communications, class-based medical services, media hype, and epidemics and globalization will be discussed by Dr. David Gifford, head of the RI Health Department; artist and activist Jay Critchley; Dr. Kirsty Duncan, medical geographer and author of Hunting The 1918 Flu: One Scientist's Search For A Killer Virus; and Dr. Leonard A. Mermel, Medical Director for the Department of Epidemiology and Infection Control at the Rhode Island Hospital. |
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + |
 |
1933, Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy
Wednesday, October 11, 5:30–7pm
President Franklin D. Roosevelt's anti-interventionist shift in Central and South America aimed to ease authoritarian relations. Today, with Latin-American leaders thumbing their noses at US aid, it's not just the US deciding who's friend or foe. Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Center
for International Development at Harvard University; Greg Grandin,
author of Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the
Rise of the New Imperialism; and Charlotte Dennett and Gerard Colby, co-authors of Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, will discuss cultural
stereotypes, fair trade, and the new face of foreign relations.
|
|
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
|
 |
1979, Three Mile Island
Wednesday, October 18, 5:30–7pm
When Pennsylvania's nuclear power plant melted down, who would have predicted that 27 years later the founder of Greenpeace would herald nuclear energy as our best hope in the Washington Post? Nuclear power, long associated with nightmarish disasters, is becoming a green favorite, but stigmas die hard. Alternative energy, environmental policy, public relations efforts, and worst-case scenarios will be the subjects for Mike Pintek, the radio host who was first to report on the crisis; Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Watchdog Project at Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Harold Denton, President Carter's pointman on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the crisis; and Lisa Stiles-Shell, Manager of State Initiatives, Grassroots and Coalitions, at the Nuclear Energy Institute.
|
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + |
 |
1968, Whole Earth Catalogue
Wednesday, October 25, 5:30–7pm
Stewart Brand's watershed publication, the Sears catalogue of alternative culture, promised to feed the material needs and the soul of off-the-grid America. It also foreshadowed both the Internet and anti-capitalist marketing campaigns. What are idyllic dreams made of today? Hardware or software? Open fields or open source? Art Kleiner, a former editor of Whole Earth, will join Simon Sadler, Professor of Architectural and Urban History at UC Davis, and Diana Leafe Christian, editor of Communities magazine, to discuss networks, self-help, and the social promise and threat of technology today.
|
|
