- HxA Event: "Science & Ideology" with Alan SokalClaudia Cohen Hall G14, Philadelphia, PA
Event Title:
"Science and Ideology" with Professor Alan SokalEvent Topic:
Join the Heterodox Academy campus community at the University of Pennsylvania for a lecture by Alan Sokal, Professor of Mathematics at the University College London, on "Science and Ideology". This event is co-sponsored by the Penn Mathematics Department, the Penn Philosophy Department, the Penn Politics and Government Association, and the Penn Alumni Free Speech Alliance. This event is open to the public!When: Monday, September 23 at 5:15 PM
Where: 402 Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania, PhiladelphiaAbout the Speaker:
Alan Sokal is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University whose research focuses on statistical mechanics & combinatorics. However, he is perhaps best known as a critic of postmodernism who orchestrated the so-called "Sokal affair" in 1996 when his deliberately nonsensical paper - "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" - was published by Duke University Press's journal Social Text. He co-authored a book the following year, Fashionable Nonsense, that criticized what he saw as the abuse of science by postmodernist intellectuals. He later reflected on the legacy of the debate his hoax paper provoked in his 2008 book Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy, and Culture. In 2013, he co-authored a paper criticizing the "critical positivity ratio" concept in positive psychology.More recently, in 2024, Sokal co-authored an op-ed in The Boston Globe with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins criticizing the use of the terminology "sex assigned at birth" instead of "sex" by the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Center for Disease Control. Sokal and Dawkins argued that sex is an "objective biological reality" that "is determined at conception and is then observed at birth," rather than assigned by a medical professional. Calling this "social constructionism gone amok," Sokal and Dawkins argued further that "distort[ing] the scientific facts in the service of a social cause" risks undermining trust in medical institutions. Sokal repeated these criticisms in an editorial for The Critic discussing the broader politicization of science, especially in biology and medicine.
About the Event Host:
The Heterodox Academy (HxA) is a nonpartisan collaborative of thousands of professors, administrators, and students committed to enhancing the quality of research and education by promoting open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in institutions of higher learning. It was founded in 2015 by Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, a Georgetown University law professor, and Chris Martin, an Emory University sociologist.
To learn more about their mission, go to https://heterodoxacademy.org/our-mission/ - Braver Angels Debate: "Expand Legal Immigration?"Link visible for attendees
Debate Topic:
"Resolved: Expand legal immigration"About this Event:
Among the great issues of our time few are so simultaneously public and personal, cultural and structural, national and local, rational and passionate as immigration. Touching so many other divides -- those around identity, public safety, diversity, equity and the economy to name just a few -- the topic causes us to reflect on many questions. Should America grant more immigrants legal status in our nation? Should we preserve the status quo or, on the other end of the spectrum, should we restrict the number of foreigners we welcome into our society? If we should admit more people to our country, who should be approved? What should their legal status be -- a path to citizenship, a permanent temporary status? What should the paramount considerations be in making these decisions? And what does that all mean for our great nation?Immigration is a complex and multidimensional issue. As Braver Angels enters a year of intensive discourse and deliberation on all of its aspects, we invite you to join us for this Panel Debate to hear from a handful of experts, activists, and thinkers in the field. They will help us focus in on one question: "Should the United States expand legal immigration?" With any luck, we will continue to bolster American hope along the way. Join Braver Angels Saturday September 28th @ 2 pm EDT for a panel debate on the resolution: “Resolved: Expand legal immigration."
Speakers (in alphabetical order):
* Jennie Murray is President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. Formed by her experiences in an immigrant family, throughout her career she has focused on ensuring immigrants have the services and skills they need to succeed while the country has the immigration system needed to prosper. In 2014, Murray’s program, New American Workforce, was recognized by the Obama White House for Excellence in Immigrant Integration.
* Jim Robb is Vice President for Alliances at NumbersUSA. With the immigration reform organization since its founding in 1996, he has served in several roles. NumbersUSA believes that “better immigration is possible and needed.” Robb plays a significant role in the organization’s efforts to empower grassroots supporters to achieve sensible immigration policy. He is author of Political Migrants: Hispanic Voters on the Move.
Additional speakers will be announced soon!All guests will have the opportunity to submit questions via registration and during the event. The event will be conducted as a webinar format on Zoom.
Register here on the Eventbrite page and the Zoom link will be emailed to you a couple of days prior to the event. Keep an eye out!
Questions? Email [email protected].
Registering for the Online Debate:
This is a FREE event; however, you will need to register for it. Go to the following Eventbrite link & fill out the registration form:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-panel-debate-immigration-registration-998712394657?discount=BRAVERRegistration for this debate will be closed 12 hours prior to the scheduled starting time. Check your email for the confirmation message with the Zoom link - if you don't see it, check your "Junk" folder.
- Note: Braver Angels events may be recorded, and may be shared with media or used in Braver Angels publications, including web pages. Participants who object to this may disable their video.
What is "Braver Angels"?
Formerly known as "Better Angels", Braver Angels is an organization founded in 2016 to depolarize American politics through grassroots organizing. They do this primarily by hosting events for cross-partisan dialogue & civil debate. To learn more, go to https://braverangels.org/About Braver Angels debates:
You probably haven’t experienced anything like a Braver Angels Debate. This is a highly structured conversation in which a group of people think together, listen carefully to one another, and allow themselves to be touched and perhaps changed by each other’s ideas.To learn more about our debates, you can view this video of a sample debate (it lasts about 15 minutes). For more information, to find upcoming events or view recordings of some of our past debates please visit: https://braverangels.org/what-we-do/debates/.
- NCC Event - "For or Against Originalism? A Debate"Link visible for attendees
Event Title: "For or Against Constitutional Originalism?: A Debate"
Date & Time: Tues., Oct. 8, 2024, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. EST
- PLEASE NOTE: This is a FREE event, but will be hosted online. Be sure to register in advance to receive the Zoom link: https://constitutioncenter.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xcMl6SvdR-2RxVA6t0IBjQ#/registration
Cost: FREE
About the Event:
Stanford University professor Jonathan Gienapp, author of the new book, Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique (2024), is joined by Stephen Sachs of Harvard Law School to discuss Gienapp’s challenge to originalists’ unspoken assumptions about the Constitution, the history of originalism as a constitutional methodology, and its role in constitutional interpretation today.About the Speakers & Host:
- Jonathan Gienapp is an Associate Professor of History and Associate Professor of Law at Stanford University. He specializes in the constitutional, political, legal, and intellectual history of the early United States. His first book, The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in the Founding Era (2018), rethinks the conventional story of American constitutional creation by exploring how and why founding-era Americans’ understanding of their Constitution transformed in the earliest years of the document’s existence.
- Stephen E. Sachs is the Antonin Scalia Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches civil procedure, conflict of laws, and seminars on constitutional law and jurisprudence. His research focuses on the law and theory of constitutional interpretation. He has authored numerous articles about originalism including "Originalism as a Theory of Legal Change" (2015), "Originalism's Bite" (2016), "Originalism Without Text" (2017), "Grounding Originalism" (2019), "Originalism: Standard and Procedure" (2022), and "Dobbs and the Originalists" (2024).
- Jeffrey Rosen, the host, is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, as well as a professor of law at George Washington University and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
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- Village Square Event: "What's Our Problem?" with Tim UrbanLink visible for attendees
Event Topic:
"Tim Urban: What's Our Problem?"About this Event:
Between 2013 and 2016, Tim Urban became one of the world's most popular bloggers at Wait But Why , writing dozens of viral, long-form articles about everything from AI to colonizing Mars to procrastination. Then, he turned his attention to a new topic: the society around him. Why was everything such a mess? Why was everyone acting like such a baby? When did things get so tribal? Why do humans do this stuff?This massive topic sent Tim tumbling down his deepest rabbit hole yet, through mountains of history, evolutionary psychology, political theory, neuroscience, and modern-day political movements, as he tried to figure out the answer to a simple question: What's our problem?
Six years later, he emerged from the hole with a book. What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies is a deep and expansive analysis of our modern times that provides an entirely new framework and language for thinking and talking about today's complex world. Instead of focusing on the usual left-center-right horizontal political axis, which is all about what we think, the book introduces a vertical axis that explores how we think, as individuals and as groups.
More about our speaker:
Tim Urban is best-known as a writer and illustrator from his popular blog "Wait But Why" that covers a wide variety of complex topics in an easy-to-understand format complete with stick-figure drawings. Thanks to his blog's popularity, Tim got an opportunity to give a TED Talk in 2016 entitled "Insider the Mind of a Master Procrastinator", as well as speaking opportunities at MIT, Stevens Institute of Technology, and several tech companies like SpaceX, Google, and Y Combinator. He's also the co-founder of the test prep firm Arbor Bridge, and has personally tutored nearly every academic subject and prepared students for the SAT, ACT, GRE and ISEE tests. He graduated from Harvard with an A.B. in government in 2004.Registering for the Online Event:
This is a FREE event; however, you will need to register for it. Go to the following Eventbrite link & fill out the registration form:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tim-urban-whats-our-problem-tickets-1007236279827?aff=oddtdtcreatorCheck your email for the confirmation message with the Zoom link - if you don't see it, check your "Junk" folder.
About the Event Host:
The Village Square is a non-profit, non-partisan public educational forum founded in 2006 by Liz Joyner, Allan Katz, and Bill Law in Tallahassee, Florida. They lamented the lack of a shared civic space where people could air their differences of opinion, so they created one. They now spearhead a variety of programming centered around civility and community-building, especially among political opponents. The group is dedicated to maintaining factual accuracy in civic and political debate by growing civil discourse on divisive issues, and recalling the history and principles at the foundation of our democracy.NOTE: This evening's program is part of the "UNUM: Democracy Reignited" series in partnership with Florida Humanities, which explores the past, present and future of the American idea — as it exists on paper, in the hearts of our people, and as it manifests in our lives. Find the full series online here: https://tlh.villagesquare.us/democracy-reignited/
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