The Scripps College Humanities Institute fall 2004 program, “The Politics of Knowledge Production,” will bring a lecture, symposium and film to campus in late October. For more information and a complete schedule of events, please call the Humanities Institute at (909) 621-8326. The October event dates and descriptions follow:
Film: October 21, 7:15 p.m.
In connection with the fall program, the Humanities Institute offers a film screening of Orwell Rolls in His Grave, directed by Robert Kane Pappas, in the Boone Recital Hall at the Scripps College Performing Arts Center. A discussion with the director will be held immediately following the screening.
Orwell Rolls in His Grave is an independent documentary that examines how mass media in the United States is controlled by a handful of large corporations. Papas brought together a former 60 Minutes producer, a U.S. Congressman, and some of the country’s leading intellectual voices on the media to examine the mix of business, politics and ideology within modern media.
Lecture: November 15 (rescheduled from October 25)
Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute and Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), will lecture on, “Su Voto Es Su Voz: Civic Engagement and Public Policy.” The lecture begins at noon in the Hampton Room of the Malott Commons, and is free and open to the public. Bring your lunch or purchase one in the Scripps College dining hall downstairs.
Antonio Gonzalez is a leading expert on Latino voting characteristics and tendencies. SVREP is the largest and oldest non-partisan Latino voter participation organization in the United States. Gonzalez, through his work with SVREP, has been a central figure in the dramatic growth of Latino political participation. Gonzalez was the architect of the Latino Vote USA and Latino Vote campaigns in 1996 and 2000. Currently, Gonzalez is leading two national nonpartisan voter mobilization alliances, the Ten Four Campaign and the Campaign for Communities, which aim to raise Latino voting to a record 10 million registered and 7.5 million votes cast in 2004. Gonzalez currently appears as a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s “Tavis Smiley Show.” He also hosts his own weekly show, “Strategy Session,” on Pacifica KPFK radio.
Symposium: October 28, 4:15 p.m.
Lee Cokorinos and Eugene B. Meyer will present lectures as part of a Humanities Institute symposium. Cokorinos, executive director of the Capacity Development Group, will present, “Does Knowledge Really Matter? Think Tanks and the Assault on Diversity.” In addition, Meyer, president of the Federalist Society, will present, “The Federalist Society: Broadening the Debate in the Law Schools in Theory and in Practice.” The symposium begins at 4:15 p.m. in the Hampton Room of the Malott Commons at Scripps College, and is free and open to the public.
As executive director of the Capacity Development Group, Lee Cokorinos works to advance progressive change by assisting nongovernmental organizations in strategic planning and organizational development. He is the author of, The Assault on Diversity: An Organized Challenge to Racial and Gender Justice, a study examining right-wing organizations that have waged a legal and political campaign against affirmative action and other social justice initiatives. Cokorinos’ other publications have focused on antifeminist organizations, the Federalist Society, attacks on reproductive freedom, and on the Promise Keepers evangelical men’s movement. He previously directed the Southern African Literature Society in Botswana, a nongovernmental organization devoted to closing the “book gap” in southern Africa, and was research director at the Institute for Democracy Studies.
Eugene B. Meyer has served as the president and the executive director of the Federalist Society for 20 years. He is responsible for growing the organization from a small group of conservative law students to a community of more than 25,000 lawyers and law students with a budget of more than $4 million. The Federalist Society currently has more than 200 chapters nationwide and a national speaker’s bureau at major law schools.
Under the leadership of Institute Director Julia E. Liss, the fall Humanities Institute program will include several other lectures and films. Program guests include journalists, authors, artists, scholars, and activists who will explore the connections among knowledge, information, and power. The approach will be interdisciplinary and wide-ranging, including such topics as the way information is created and used in policy-making and the formation of political culture; the role of think tanks; and relationships among the academy, public policy and social movements.
For a full schedule of events related to the fall 2004 program, contact the Scripps College Humanities Institute at (909) 621-8326.