Resources for Teachers and Students

Mary Robinson

Climate Justice - Hope, Resilience and the Fight for a Sustainable Future
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
7PM | Gasson Hall, Room 100

Website:

Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice: https://www.mrfcj.org/

Podcast:

Mothers of Invention: https://www.mothersofinvention.online/
Available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and other podcasting platforms.

Recommended episodes: All Rise, The White Man Stole the Weather, Specialsode: Displaced with Mary Robinson

Interviews/Profiles:

• “Mary Robinson on climate change: ‘Feeling “This is too big for me” is no use to anybody’”: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/12/mary-robinson-climate-change-former-president-ireland-ipcc-report

Reviews:

• “Climate Justice review: Irish sins cloud inspiring stories”: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/climate-justice-review-irish-sins-cloud-inspiring-stories-1.3643596
• “Climate Justice by Mary Robinson review—power to the people”: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/14/climate-change-hope-resilience-fight-for-sustainable-future-mary-robinson-review
• “In dispatches from the front lines of global warming, a former president pushes for humane climate policies”: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2018/08/27/climate-justice/
  

Videos:

• “Mary Robinson: Why climate change is a threat to human rights”
  https://www.ted.com/talks/mary_robinson_why_climate_change_is_a_threat_to_human_rights

Related:

• "Women's Crucial Role in Combating Climate Change": https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/us/womens-crucial-role-in-combating-climate-change.html
• “Women on the Move in a Changing Climate”: https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/uploads-wysiwig/Women%20On%20The%20Move%20In%20A%20Changing%20Climate%20report.pdf

Kiese Laymon

“Heavy”
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
7PM | Gasson Hall, Room 100

Website:

https://www.kieselaymon.com/  

Interviews:

• “A Reckoning is Different than a Tell-All: An Interview with Kiese Laymon”: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/10/18/a-reckoning-is-different-than-a-tell-all-an-interview-with-kiese-laymon/
• “Kiese Laymon: ‘I Didn’t Want to Be a Silent Survivor of Moral Failure Anymore’”: https://www.guernicamag.com/kiese-laymon-i-didnt-want-to-be-a-silent-survivor-of-moral-failure-anymore/
• "The Fucked-Up Thing Is You Don't Know You're Burning: A Conversation with Kiese Laymon" https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-fucked-up-thing-is-you-dont-know-youre-burning-a-conversation-with-kiese-laymon/
  

Reviews:

• “In ‘Heavy’, Kiese Laymon Recalls the Weight of Where He’s Been”: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/books/review-heavy-american-memoir-kiese-laymon.html
• “Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon review—bodies and the legacy of slavery”:  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/01/heavy-an-american-memoir-review-kiese-laymon
• “‘Heavy’ Brilliantly Renders The Struggle To Become Fully Realized”: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/657824190/heavy-brilliantly-renders-the-struggle-to-become-fully-realized
• “‘Heavy” by Kiese Laymon may be the most important memoir you read this year”: https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-laymon-heavy-20181012-story.html

Teachable Short Stories/Essays:

• “What I Pledge Allegiance To” https://www.thefader.com/2016/09/19/my-mississippi-pledge-kiese-laymon
• “What Bill Cosby Taught Me About Sexual Violence and Flying” https://lithub.com/what-bill-cosby-taught-me-about-sexual-violence-and-flying/
• “The Worst of White Folks” https://gawker.com/the-worst-of-white-folks-882334097

Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
7PM | Conte Forum, Gate C

Websites:

• https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson
• https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.biography&personid=20315
  

Interviews:

• “Bryan Stevenson On What Well-Meaning White People Need To Know About Race” https://psmag.com/magazine/bryan-stevenson-ps-interview
• “Breaking Bonds of Silence: An Interview with Bryan Stevenson” https://nationsmedia.org/bryan-stevenson/
• “Bryan Stevenson Wants the U.S. to Face Its History” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/magazine/bryan-stevenson-wants-the-us-to-face-its-history.html

Reviews:

• “‘Just Mercy’ by Bryan Stevenson”  https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/books/review/just-mercy-by-bryan-stevenson.html
• “One Lawyer’s Fight For Young Blacks and ‘Just Mercy’” https://www.npr.org/2014/10/20/356964925/one-lawyers-fight-for-young-blacks-and-just-mercy
• “Book Review: ‘Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption’ by Bryan Stevenson” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-just-mercy-a-story-of-justice-and-redemption-by-bryan-stevenson/2014/10/23/5d590580-3f67-11e4-9587-5dafd96295f0_story.html?utm_term=.7333c170d60d

Videos:

• “We need to talk about an injustice” TED
  https://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice?language=en

Shorter Pieces/Teachable Texts:

• “Book extract: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/just-mercy-extract-bryan-stevenson-ian-manuel
• “Excerpt from Just Mercy” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/224792/just-mercy-by-bryan-stevenson/9780812984965/excerpt

Michael Witmore

Civic Shakespeare
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
7PM | Gasson Hall, Room 100

Website:

https://www.folger.edu/staff/dr-michael-witmore

Lectures:

• “The Wisdom of Will” (Transcript) https://www.folger.edu/michael-witmore-the-wisdom-of-will-transcript

Interviews:

• “Q&A: Michael Witmore, Director” https://collation.folger.edu/2011/09/q-a-michael-witmore/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheCollation+%28The+Collation%29
• “Q&A with Michael Witmore” (Video and Transcript) https://www.c-span.org/video/?325662-1/qa-michael-witmore, https://www.c-span.org/video/transcript/?id=47064

Videos:

• “The Scholars: Michael Witmore”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOd-hhsQQL0

Carl Hart

Drug Use for Grownups: A Human Rights Perspective
November 14, 2019
7:00 p.m. • Gasson Hall, Room 100

Presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series. 

Website:

https://drcarlhart.com/

Interviews/Public Intellectualism: 

• “Carl Hart: ‘Swiss policy on drugs is inspiring’” https://www.invivomagazine.com/en/mens_sana/interview/article/234/carl-hart-swiss-policy-on-drugs-is-inspiring
• “The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/science/the-rational-choices-of-crack-addicts.html
• “This Professor Teaches About Drug Use, Including His Own” https://www.wnyc.org/story/professor-drug-use-addiction-students/
• “Deal With the Pain That Leads to the Drug Problem” https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/03/17/lowering-the-deadly-cost-of-drug-abuse/deal-with-the-pain-that-leads-to-the-drug-problem
• “The Real Opioid Emergency” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/opioids-drugs-race-treatment.html
• “Reefer Madness, an Unfortunate Redux” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/opinion/reefer-madness-an-unfortunate-redux.html

Reviews:

• “High Price: Drugs, Neuroscience, and Discovering Myself by Carl Hart—review”  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/05/high-price-carl-hart-review
• “‘High Price’ by Carl Hart”https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/06/16/book-review-high-price-carl-hart/ktS67xhIRXA2Lvzj5VnLIK/story.html

Videos:

• “Let’s quit abusing drug users” TEDMED https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9HMifCoSko

Kwame Anthony Appiah: 

Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
December 5, 2019
7:00 p.m. • McGuinn Hall, Room 121

Website:

http://appiah.net/

 
Interviews/Public Intellectualism: 

• “The blinding power of nationalism” https://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2018/01/29/anthony-appiah-interview
• “Stories about People and Communities: Talking to Kwame Anthony Appiah” https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/interviews/stories-people-communities-talking-kwame-anthony-appiah/
• “Philosopher and New York Times Magazine Columnist Born England, Raised Ghana 2017 ‘Great Immigrant’: In His Own Words” https://www.carnegie.org/multimedia/great-immigrants-kwame-anthony-appiah/
• “Socrates Questions, a Contemporary Philosopher Answers” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/theater/socrates-democracy-public-theater.html?searchResultPosition=1
• “Go Ahead, Speak for Yourself” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/opinion/sunday/speak-for-yourself.html
• “There is no such thing as western civilisation” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/09/western-civilisation-appiah-reith-lecture

 
Reviews:

• “Myths that shape our notion of reality” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/myths-that-shape-our-notion-of-identity/2018/08/23/46d3430a-969a-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html?utm_term=.211757d49dee
• “Book Review: The Lies That Bind” https://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/book-review-lies-bind
• “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/23/the-lies-that-bind-rethinking-identity-kwame-anthony-appiah-review
• “In ‘The Lies That Bind’ Kwame Anthony Appiah Takes On Identity Politics” https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/in-the-lies-that-bind-kwame-anthony-appiah-takes-on-identity-politics/

 
Videos:

• “Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question) TED https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOd-hhsQQL0
• “Kwame Anthony Appiah: Exploring Questions of Ethics and Identity” Goldman Sachs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yao9zb7PD2I