Uncovering Truth: Dickinson’s Clarke Forum Announces March 2026 Public Events
Lectures, performance explore truth-seeking in different contexts
What can forensic science tell us about a century-ago riot that claimed the lives of untold Black men? What’s the cost of relying on tech companies and government agencies to mitigate online harm, and is there a better way forward? Can an Israeli American channel the arts to open new doors to ideas about family, identity and the ephemerality of memory? You’ll find answers to these questions and more during The Clarke Forum’s March 2026 public lectures.
Tuesday, March 17, 7 p.m.
Bruce R. Andrews Lecture: Combating Online Harms: The Importance of Rigorous Scientific Testing of Proposed Interventions
Joshua A. Tucker, New York University
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Joshua A. Tucker of New York University will share findings indicating that “doing your own research” via search engines can paradoxically increase belief in misinformation. He’ll also discuss the limitations of source credibility labels and the results of the U.S. 2020 Facebook & Instagram Election Study, which found that altering feed algorithms to reduce virality or like-minded content did not reduce political polarization. He will conclude by examining the emerging challenges of generative AI, the danger that skepticism of fake content will lead citizens to doubt the truth and the critical need for data access to understand the evolving threats to democracy.
Tucker is New York University’s Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor, director of the Jordan Center for Advanced Study of Russia and co-director of the Center for Social Media and Politics. He teaches politics at New York University. Tucker has given more than 250 invited research presentations, and his research has been published in top science and political-science journals, including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and The Journal of Politics. His most recent books are the co-authored Communism’s Shadow: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Political Attitudes (Princeton University Press, 2017) and the co-edited Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Learn more about this event.
Wednesday, March 25, 7 p.m.
Finding Unity in History: Our Community Process Recovering Victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
Phoebe R. Stubblefield, C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Phoebe R. Stubblefield, esteemed forensics expert and director of the University of Florida forensic anthropology laboratory, will discuss ongoing work into an investigation, begun in 2020, into the 1921 looting and burning of the unincorporated city of Greenwood, Oklahoma, by a white mob, and the ensuing deaths of African American men. The event derived from an attempted lynching of a young African American man, Dick Rowland. Thirty-nine deaths of African American males were documented, but the total number of deaths is still unknown. Stubblefield is part of a team of forensic analysts that has recovered more than 50 individuals from unmarked graves, each with gunshot wounds. The first such victim, Pvt. C.L. Daniel, was identified in 2024.
This program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of anthropology, American studies and geosciences.
Stubblefield is the director of the University of Florida’s C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory and a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She served two terms as chair of the Anthropology Section, University of Florida. As director of the Forensic Science Program at the University of North Dakota, she created a trace-evidence teaching laboratory and assisted undergraduates with entry into the spectrum of forensic science careers. In the late nineties she joined the scientific consultants for the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, and she now serves as the lead forensic anthropologist in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Investigation. In 2023 she was inducted as a Fellow in Section H (Anthropology) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, recognizing her contributions to the Tulsa Race Massacre Investigation. Learn more about this event.
Tuesday, March 31, 7 p.m.
The Archive: Neta Pulvermacher, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
Mathers Theatre, HUB
Israeli American artist and performer Neta Pulvermacher creatively explores her German-Jewish family history through a one-woman show. It is a jarring, witty and deeply moving performance that traces her family’s history to Frankfurt and to Berlin. As she sifts through documents, photographs and personal artifacts, Pulvermacher will sing, dance and tell stories that call us to consider the ephemerality of memory, history and experience. The Archive premiered at Villa 102/KFW Stiftung in Frankfurt and has since toured to NYC, Florida, Duisburg, Germany, and throughout Israel. Before the performance, the audience will be invited to explore Pulvermacher’s personal family archive of documents, photographs, letters and artifacts. An audience discussion will follow the show.
This program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and cosponsored by The Rhonda ’76 and Ted ’73 Ebert Fund for Judaic Studies, The Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life and the departments of German and theatre & dance. Learn more about this event.
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Published January 28, 2026