Four Nights, Four Intriguing Questions: Dickinson Announces April Lectures
Experts explore language, belonging, human rights, collective futures
Can multilingualism build better-functioning brains? How can we support justice amid collapsing international order? Four compelling thinkers and scholars visit Dickinson in April to discuss how we think, belong and build collective futures. From Zen wisdom and political strategy for a living in a complicated world to the unraveling of international human-rights frameworks, the contradictions of secularism in France and the cognitive power of multilingualism, these timely conversations invite audiences to engage deeply with ideas shaping the present and future.
Tuesday, April 7, 7 p.m.
The World As We Would Have It Be: Collective Thriving in the Timeplace of Collapse
Norma Kawelokū Wong, Native Hawaiian and Hakka Writer/Teacher, Zen master and Political Strategist
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
During a time of rapid systemic breakdown and in the face of an increasingly uncertain future, Zen Master Norma Kawelokū Wong and Charles A. Dana Professor David L. McMahan discuss who we are becoming, how we relate to one another and what kinds of collectives we must build. Drawing on Zen and Indigenous wisdom, storytelling and practice—and engaging Wong’s recent books—the discussion imagines pathways toward shared purpose and collective possibility. This program is presented as part of the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues’ Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty series. Learn more about this event.
Monday, April 13, 7 p.m.
The Canary in the Coal Mine: The 1951 Refugee Convention and the Collapse of the Post WWII International Order
Seyla Benhabib, Yale University
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
The 1951 Refugee Convention embodied a post–World War II hope that persecution could be overcome through a new international order grounded in human rights. In this talk, Seyla Benhabib, a senior research fellow at Columbia Law School and an emerita Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University, examines how the convention’s failure may have been built into its original design. This program is presented by the Clarke Forum in partnership with Penn State Dickinson Law, the Center for Global Study & Engagement and Dickinson’s departments of environmental studies and international studies. Learn more about this event.
Monday, April 20, 7 p.m.
Muslim France and the Contradictions of Laïcité: A History of the Present
Mayanthi Fernando, UC Santa Cruz
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
In 1989, three Muslim schoolgirls refused to remove their headscarves and ignited a debate that continues to shape questions of belonging, religion and citizenship in France. In this talk, anthropologist Mayanthi Fernando complicates the dominant narrative of laïcité. Discussing the 2004 ban on “conspicuous religious signs,” she traces how legal distinctions rooted in Christian and Protestant frameworks have left Muslim French communities caught within the internal contradictions of secularism. This program is presented by the Clarke Forum and co-sponsored by numerous campus partners. Learn more about this event and its sponsors.
Thursday, April 23, 7 p.m.
The Power of Language: How Knowing More Than One Language Transforms the Mind and Society
Viorica Marian, Northwestern University
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Research shows that managing multiple languages fundamentally reshapes individuals’ cognitive and neural systems. Drawing on behavioral and neuroimaging evidence, Viorica Marian demonstrates that people who speak more than one language continuously activate and integrate multiple languages, strengthening neural connections and influencing perception, decision making, and higher-order thinking throughout their lives. This supports metalinguistic awareness in children, enhanced cognitive flexibility and creativity in adults, and reduced dementia risk in older age. Marian further argues that studying diverse multilingual experiences is essential to understanding human cognition—and even to improving models of artificial intelligence. Learn more about this event.
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Published March 30, 2026