Lecture

Former CIA director promotes translucence, not transparency

Ruby Shao

Espionage defends liberty by promoting national security, former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Hayden argued on Thursday. “The secret pursuit of secret truth is not only compatible with, but essential to, American democracy,” he said.

NEWS | 04/06/2017

U. Professor Falk blocked from lecturing in UK over anti-Israel report

U. Professor Falk blocked from lecturing in UK over anti-Israel report

Abhiram Karuppur

University Professor Emeritus of International Law Richard Falk was blocked from lecturing in two universities in the United Kingdom after co-authoring a report calling Israel an "apartheid" regime.

NEWS | 03/27/2017

Journalists debate similarities between Trump, Putin

Claire Thornton

He explained that now, the newest evolution of Russia–U.S. relations is becoming clear: the United States is experiencing a governmental collapse comparable to the fall of the Soviet Union, and meanwhile the leaders of the U.S. and Russia see eye-to- eye on a long list of issues.

NEWS | 03/10/2017

Greitens discusses increases in Chinese security spending

Sam Oh

In a public lecture on March 2, Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri and First Lady of Missouri, spoke about increases in security spending in the People’s Republic of China from the late 20th century to present. Greitens is a leading scholar in comparative politics and international relations in East Asia. In a small, densely packed room of professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students, Greitens challenged listeners to look beyond Western media projections of Chinese security spending and truly analyze released statistics. She emphasized the need to depart from media preconceptions about Chinese security spending, as well as the need to carefully analyze what few numerical sources the Chinese government releases to the international community. “The lecture that I am presenting today is focused on China,” Greitens explained, “but is also focused on trying to put some numbers that we often hear from China that we often hear in the media and the press and in the policy world in the cross national perspective and see what this means for China.” Greitens began by rebutting the media-created gloom that appears to surround the rise of China’s security spending.

NEWS | 03/02/2017

Refugees caught in global sociopolitical turmoil, says David Miliband

Audrey Spensley

President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee David Miliband travels all over the world to support refugees. Yet he started his lecture, “The Global Refugee Crisis and What To Do About It,” by pointing out his connection to the University.

NEWS | 03/01/2017

Truex '07 cautions against belief that Chinese government will change

Jisu Jeong

“There’s a tendency for observers — particularly Western observers — to get optimistic when we see a leadership transition [in China],” said Truex. However, he argued, in reality China will remain the same over the next five, ten, and 15 years.

NEWS | 02/27/2017

Junot Díaz addresses community on activism's role on college campuses

Emily Spalding

On Friday, Feb. 24, approximately 300 people gathered in McCosh 50 to hear acclaimed writer and activist Junot Díaz speak on the issues of white supremacy and racism, and how to combat them through activism.

NEWS | 02/26/2017

North Korean defector, now activist Ji Seong-Ho speaks out for human rights

Jane Sul

“In North Korea, the state had no system set to take care of citizens who went through an accident or physical disability,” he said. “I had no choice but to leave North Korea, cross the Tumen river, and go through the escape of 6000 miles on wooden crutches."

NEWS | 02/25/2017

New honor society aims to reward science research

Ariel Chen

The Princeton Biomedical Engineering Society hosted an informational presentation on Feb. 22 with Elise Mochizuki, investment analyst at the Akemi Capital family office. She is the founder of the honor society Epsilon Alpha Mu and the nonprofit organization The Elise Foundation, which aims to make available new sources of funding for STEM research and pursuits on campus.

NEWS | 02/23/2017

Speaker advocates for friendly U.S.-Russia relations under Trump administration

Speaker advocates for friendly U.S.-Russia relations under Trump administration

Samuel Oh

“Contact with Russians have become suspect in some way, and efforts to work with the Russians to find solutions in our differences have been construed as selling out to the Russians," Graham said. "It is particularly dispiriting for people like me who have engaged in this relationship for well over 25 to 30 years.”

NEWS | 02/23/2017

Journalists, scholars discuss "fake news" in "post-fact era"

Marcia Brown

“Journalism proper has seized to exist,” Wampole said. “American news often infantilizes its audience.”

NEWS | 02/22/2017

Anthropologist discusses biology of love

Jisu Jeong

Fisher said that “we’re moving into ... an era of slow love. I think people today are terrified of divorce.” Thus, she said, people take a long time before they get married, even though they have sex quite early on. She called the occurrence “fast sex: slow love.”

NEWS | 02/20/2017

Former detainee Mihara discusses cause of Japanese internment during WWII

Ruby Shao

Japanese internment camps existed because of prejudice, hysteria, and failures in leadership, former detainee Sam Mihara argued at a Monday lecture. A San Francisco native, Mihara was first taken to a temporary camp in Pomona, California.

NEWS | 02/20/2017

U.-funded expert explains 'vaccine court'

Samvida Venkatesh

In response to an audience question on whether the government was being unethical in forcing children to be given vaccines that could harm their bodies, Kirkland explained that any vaccines approved for use must go through a rigorous approval process mandated by the FDA and were deemed to be safe in clinical trials run on tens of thousands of children. She agreed with an audience member who noted in response that the diseases that the vaccines were preventing children against, such as measles, pertussis and whooping cough, were themselves incredibly harmful and often caused death.

NEWS | 02/20/2017

Michael Froman '85, co-creator of the TPP, discusses U.S. trade policy

Michael Froman, Assistant to the President and Dep. National Security Advisor for Int'l Economics, in his office at the EEOB, in Washington, May 1, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Michael Froman '85, co-creator of the TPP, discusses U.S. trade policy

Allie Spensley

World trade policy can’t be advanced in the future without a stronger focus on workers displaced in an economically uncertain world, Michael B.G. Froman ’85, retired Ambassador and former U.S. Trade Representative under President Barack Obama, said in a lecture Thursday. The lecture responded to steps President Trump has made to change existing United States trade policy by withdrawing from the negotiation stage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

NEWS | 02/16/2017

Lecture: Nicholas Schmidle discusses digging for the facts

Samuel Garfinkle

The evaluation of factual information is not only a qualitative exercise, but also, crucially, a qualitative judgement of both the information and its source, according to New Yorker staff writer Nicholas Schmidle.

NEWS | 02/14/2017

Ecology lecture focuses on global environmental challenges

Jacob Tyles

It’s an exciting time to be an ecologist, said visiting lecturer Jonathan Levine from STEM university ETH Zurich who stood in front of an eager crowd of students, postdocs, and faculty gathered to hear him speak.

NEWS | 02/09/2017

SPEAR panel argues University should divest from private prisons

Audrey Spensley

The University should divest itself from private prisons, argued three speakers at a panel hosted by SPEAR (Students for Prison Education and Reform) and Princeton Private Prison Divest. The panelists discussed the history of prison privatization, the results of privatization in terms of efficiency and human rights, and the ethical implications of incentivizing incarceration.

NEWS | 02/07/2017

Arens discusses personal comfort systems

Hamna Khurram

“What’s interesting about these results is that under cool conditions it’s one set of body parts that dominates, and in warm conditions it’s another set that dominates,” said Arens.

NEWS | 02/06/2017

Panel discusses how external forces distort democracy

Ruby Shao

Democracy around the world is being distorted by external forces and corroded from within by officials who fail to conform to its processes and values, according to politics professor and University Center for Human Values director Melissa Lane, who presented the argument at a panel on Friday, Jan. 20.

NEWS | 01/22/2017

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