Summer@Brown Speaker Series

Co-Curricular Events and Activities

Each summer, Brown invites faculty, alumni, and other distinguished speakers to talk about important issues unfolding on the world stage today. You are invited to join these provocative and engaging discussions that promote critical thinking and debate from multiple perspectives. Past speakers have included Sergei N. Khrushchev, David Macaulay, Joe Trippi, Stephen Marshall, and many of Brown’s world renowned faculty.

2009 Speakers Series (2010 speakers will be announced as they are confirmed):

Karl Jacoby:"The Frontiers of Historical Interpretation: National History and Native American History"

Karl Jacoby received his A.B. in 1987 from Brown University, and his Ph.D. in American history in 1997 from Yale University. After a year as a visiting assistant professor at Oberlin College, he returned to Brown as an assistant professor of history in 1999. He was promoted to an associate professor with tenure in 2003.

Katherine Chon: Human Trafficking

As a senior at Brown University in 2001, Chon was shocked to hear fellow classmate Derek Ellerman talking about present-day human trafficking (forcing someone to perform a service against their will). At Ellerman's urging, she searched online and found a newspaper clipping about six Korean women who had been rented for sex just down the street from her home in Providence, Rhode Island. "It hit hard when I read they were about my age and from my native country," Chon says. When she found few resources for victims, she and Ellerman created a business plan--which won second place and a $12,500 prize in Brown's annual entrepreneurship contest--for a Web site that would offer fast, hands-on help. By 2003, they had established an office in Washington, DC. "We wanted to build a community-based response where social change was coming from the ground up instead of strictly top down," Chon says. When a victim calls in, Chon and volunteers leap into action, tracking down police, lawyers, and the victim's family.

Roland Laird: "Creating Graphic Novels"

Roland will be speaking about the graphic novel format and its rise in popularity. Roland Laird is a critically acclaimed author with a passion for his culture and his community. In October 2008, at the height of the U.S. financial crisis, Roland left his position as a VP of Technology at a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Global Fortune 100 company to grow his near 20-year-old side business Posro Media into the country's leading convergent entertainment company specializing in African American culture. A graduate of Brown University, Roland co-founded the NY Chapter of Brown University's Inman Page Black Alumni Council and its affiliate the Ethel Tremaine Robinson Foundation.  Roland co-authored with his wife Taneshia Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans, a critically acclaimed work with an impressive scope: the entire history of Black America, told in an accessible 216 page graphic-novel form. Originally published in 1997, it was recently updated and now extends from the arrival of the first Africans in 1619 right through to Senator Barack Obama's groundbreaking presidential campaign.

Read a review of Mr. Laird's new book in the Brown Alumni Magazine »

Dan Smith

Daniel Jordan Smith joined the Department of Anthropology at Brown University in July 2001. He received an AB in Sociology from Harvard University (1983), an MPH from Johns Hopkins University (1989) and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Emory University (1999). Since arriving at Brown he has completed several research projects with grants awarded by Wenner-Gren, NSF and NIH, with a major focus in the HIV epidemic in Nigeria. In 2004 he was named the Stanley J. Bernstein Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences. Since 2006 he has been Associate Director of the Population Studies and Training Center. His first book, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria, was published by Princeton University Press in 2007. Smith is the recipient of the 2007-9 William C. McGloughlin Award for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences. In July 2007 he was promoted to Associate Professor of Anthropology with tenure.