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Seminars

InFocus - Scarcity: Poverty & Inequality

Seminars

Two “InFocus Seminars” are in progress, connecting faculty research with the issues of “scarcity,” in context of Poverty and Inequality with opportunities for students; these seminars will run the entire academic year. Each seminar incorporates six faculty members and between seven to ten students who meet approximately six times each semester. The seminars are “think tanks” for learning and research, building of knowledge, and development of projects, including at least one public talk to the wider community each semester. 


InFocus Seminar on Interrelation between Inequality, Climate Change Denial, and Migration

This seminar aims to engage with the political problem that Bruno Latour (2018) defines as--how to come down to earth--and discuss how to begin answering this challenge. Latour uses the election of Donald Trump to observe the connections between three relevant phenomena: (1) the forces of globalization and deregulation; (2) the explosion of inequalities; and (3) a systematic effort to deny the reality of climate change. Latour’s hypothesis is, “that we can understand nothing about the politics of the last 50 years if we do not put the question of climate change and its denial front and center.”  We will approach this problem from perspectives that draw on; science and technology studies, the critical-constructive approach in religious studies, philosophy, Africana, disability, cultural, and women’s gender and sexuality studies with particular attention to “democratizing knowledge.”  

Faculty:  

  • Tristan Gleason headshot Tristan Gleason, Education
  • Kin Cheung  Kin Cheung, Global Religions
  • Daniel Proud  Daniel Proud, Biology
  •   Carol Moeller, Philosophy
  • Hugo Ceron-Anaya  Hugo Ceron-Anaya, Sociology (Lehigh University)
  • Users Image  Ariel Otruba, Sociology

Students: 

  • To be selected

InFocus Seminar on Scarcity of Justice and Health

This seminar will explore how the access to health care is organized, how the obstacles to the restoration and preservation of health have been coped with in the past. More particularly, we are interested in knowing how the scarcity of justice and health plays and has played out globally. We will explore these questions from different methodological perspectives, including history, public health, biology, philosophy, and economics. 

Faculty:

 

  • Kara Mosovsky photo  Kara Mosovsky, Biology
  •   James Teufel, Public Health
  • Josh Lord photo  Joshua Lord, Biology
  • Bernie 7.jpg  Bernie Cantens, Philosophy
  •   Sonia Aziz, Economics
  • Heikki Lempa  Heikki Lempa, History

Students:

  • To be selected