[UC] Amy Gutmann Inaugural Symposia

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I attended two dynamite panel discussions this afternoon on the occasion of Amy Gutmann's installation as Penn's 8th President. They were both studded with academic and media superstars and like blew me away. Hopefully transcripts of both will be available sometime soon, because they're impossible to summarize.   High points for me were sociologist Elijah Anderson's discussion of his study of the Reading Terminal Market in terms of a "Cosmopolitan Canopy" and Fernando Pereira's presentation on how scientific information wants to be free, demonstrating both how free scientific information is being dispersed on the Web, and also how the old paradigm of paper publishing is trying to hold back progress.   Another high point was Skip Gates' description of how Jean Genet came to Yale during the strike in 1970 when Bobby Seale was being tried in New Haven. Shortly thereafter Cornel West, in an enormous Afro, stood up in the audience and mentioned Martin Luther King, Frantz Fanon, and the Dark Side of the New American Empire in one breath. BTW he was sitting near or beside Amy. These dudes seem to ADORE her, for some reason.   Keep tuned in to the biggest reality show in town, as we probe the continuing question of whether a nice white lady who makes a million bucks a year can bring happiness to all the disadvantaged black chilluns in West Philadelphia and thereby avert a violent class struggle and revolution.   Ross Bender http://rossbender.org       1. Creating and Communicating Knowledge in an Unequal World How, in an era of staggering complexity and instant global communication, can the flow of new knowledge and information among widely disparate populations strengthen democracy, enhance individual lives, and promote mutual respect and understanding? Panel Chair: Ms. Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News Panelists: Professor Elijah Anderson, Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Sciences Professor John J. Dilulio, Jr., Department of Political Science, School of Arts and Sciences Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Annenberg School for Communication Professor Fernando Pereira, Department of Computer and Information Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science 5. Making the Most of Our Cultural Differences How does diversity â of peoples, values, ideas, and experiences â enhance the educational and research capacities of universities and become an invaluable resource for democratic societies facing the challenges of an increasingly demanding, dangerous, and unpredictable world? Panel Chair: Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Department of African and African-American Studies, Harvard University Panelists: Professor K. Anthony Appiah, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University Professor Howard F. Chang, Law School Professor Ania Loomba, Department of English, School of Arts and Sciences Professor Barbara Savage, Department of History, School of Arts and Sciences