This event is presented by the Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse and the Chicago Center on Democracy at the University of Chicago. Over the past few years, there has been much debate about the tensions between protecting free speech and creating an inclusive environment on university campuses. There are many interesting and unresolved questions in this area, such as:

What is the role of “civility” in conversations on campus? Are calls for civility a weapon used by those who wish to silence certain voices, or is civility a necessary condition for productive discussion?

Please join student-curator Kathryn Schechel ’21 for an introduction to her senior essay exhibit, “Free the New Haven Panthers”: The New Haven Nine, Yale, and the May Day 1970 Protests That Brought Them Together.

Global environmental expert Susan Tambi Matambo (MEM ‘04) joins Lydia Monk (Pierson ‘24) and Nicholas Perez (JE ‘24) to break down the disparities in climate impacts and solutions, and what can be done about it.
This is one of five Live Explainers being held during Yale Earth Week 2021. To register for these and other events, please visit earthweek.yale.edu!

Since its “discovery,” America has been imagined as a heavenly destination, identified with the New Jerusalem of the Bible as a paradise and refuge. This apocalyptic metaphor has also helped create exclusionary and violent policies against unwanted people groups. This talk by Professor Yii-Jan Lin, Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Yale Divinity School, will focus on US policies and attitudes toward Chinese immigration and the influence of apocalyptic metaphors and conceptualizations of America.

Often when we discuss the development of chemicals and substances, the conversation usually focuses on how scientists and inventors synthesized them. In this talk, materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez will highlight how simple materials and the inventions they enabled shaped society. Based on her new book The Alchemy of Us, she will show how everyday inventions had a hand in fashioning language, politics, and even our bodies.