Session One
Moral Imagination, Liberal Arts, and the Good Society
Rebecca Chopp
Moral imagination is the ability to renew the world, to create new horizons, to set aright wrongs, and to imagine new possibilities. But in our increasingly consumer-driven culture, moral imagination is not a consumer good. …
The Case for Big Government: The Case Americans Don’t Want to Hear
Mark Kuperberg
Although America was founded on the principle of limited government, it was established when all existing governments were tyrannical to a large degree. …
180 Degrees
Steve Wang
Sometimes you’re wrong. Sometimes you think you’re right, but it turns out that you’re wrong. Sometimes you’re sure you’re right because the answer is obvious, and yet you’re still wrong anyway—maybe even dead wrong, 180 degrees wrong. This talk is about the last situation. …
Marketeers of Misery: The Never-ending Business of Fighting Poverty, Wars, and Famines
Stephanie Nyombayire ’08
Every day, the dignity of entire communities continues to be traded for ready-made …
Session Two
On Beyond Glory: The Architecture of Acting
Stephen Lang ’73
Lang speaks about the creative evolution of Beyond Glory, a solo play that he began working on in 2003 and has performed more than 300 times. …
What Children (and Everyone Else) Need to Read
Donna Jo Napoli
Children’s books often are banned because people feel that the vulnerability of childhood gives them the right and responsibility to protect children. …
Innovation, Empathy, and the Future of Human-Machine Interaction
Corinna Lathan ’88
What if instead of a dictatorial society, the Borg had used their neural interconnections to create an advanced egalitarian society? …
A Tapestry of Narratives: Conversations through Poetry
Mary Jean Chan ’12
Ideas about what constitutes a “good” society can only emerge from the tapestry of narratives that we weave every day of our lives. …
Session Three
Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform
Paul Starr P’13
Starr explores how the United States became so stubbornly different in health care and …
Creativity, Communication, and Compassion: The Role of Science and Science Literacy
Amy Cheng Vollmer
A “good society” benefits from having specialists. Among those specialists who lend their creative skills to society are scientists. …
Are We Good Enough for Chester?
John Alston
The children in the Chester Children’s Chorus and I have much to be proud of. …
Why Justice Isn’t Enough
Barry Schwartz
Whatever else a good society should be, it should be a just society. But what does it mean to say that a society is just? …