David Blanchflower, COVID and Mental Health in the U.S.

David Blanchflower (Economics) will explore what the research literature tell us about the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for mental health in the U.S.

September 25 at 5 pm in Carpenter 13.

This will be the first of three PEP lectures by Prof. Blanchflower in F23 on mental health and society.

The event is free and open to the public.

Melani Cammett (Harvard), Middle East Uprisings and the Emergence of Social Pacts

Melani Cammett (Harvard) will speak on Tuesday Sept. 26, at 4:30 pm in Haldeman 041. 

Cammett is the author of the award-winning Compassionate Communalism: Welfare and Sectarianism in Lebanon (2014), and numerous other titles. Her research explores identity politics, development, migration, and authoritarianism in the Middle East and other contexts. She is currently researching how people live together after violence, focusing on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland.

Co-sponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Program, the Department of Government, the Political Economy Project, and the Dickey Center.

This event will be livestreamed; register at dartgo.org/dickey_cammett. 

Made possible by the E.M. Skowrup 1937 Fund.

Eric Hendriks-Kim, Why Chinese Communists Love Western Conservatives

Eric Hendriks-Kim (Mathias Corvinus Collegium), Why Chinese Communists Love Western Conservatives, Sept. 29 at 5 pm in Carpenter 13.

Though China is still formally communist, its intellectuals show surprising affection for Western conservative authors and viewpoints. Samuel Huntington and Leo Strauss are favorites, and Chinese interpretations of American politics often track those of the American Right. What accounts for these affinities? Hendriks-Kim, a Dutch sociologist, revisits his important essay "Why China Loves Conservatives,” which first appeared in First Things. This event is co-sponsored by the Daniel Webster Program and the Political Economy Project.

Nassim Taleb, Will AI Worsen Global 'Fragility'? Oct. 3 in Filene at 5

Nassim Taleb, Will AI Worsen Global ‘Fragility’? Oct. 3, Filene Auditorium at 5 pm.

A conversation with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan.

Moderated by Bernard Avishai (Government), regular contributor to The New Yorker. Nassim Taleb is one of the world’s most influential thinkers. Having endured civil war in his native Lebanon, and after studying in Paris and Wharton, he spent two decades as an options trader, devoting himself to the analysis of risk. He remains focused on the mitigation of events which, though not probable, could be catastrophic. His books The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder have transformed thinking about uncertainty. His work has been translated into over fifty languages.

Meir Kohn (Economics), Capitalism and Communism: What They Are and How They Differ

Oct. 9 at 5 pm in Carpenter 13.

Dartmouth economist Meir Kohn explains why terms like “capitalism” and “communism” do more to obscure than to illuminate any real understanding of the economic world around us.