Public policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused enormous global economic disruption as have reactions from consumers and corporations. The economic turmoil is visible everywhere – in supply chains, in unemployment numbers, and in housing markets. Consumers are hoarding. The unequal distribution of economic pain in communities, sectors, and groups has worsened. Despite this, some have managed to innovate and thrive (the world has 6 more billionaires), which only escalates the widening wealth gap. Given these trends, how will this economic disruption further impact our behaviors and change the fundamentals of how markets function, and how will we treat vulnerable groups, conduct economic policy, and think about the care economy and public health infrastructure going forward? Come join the conversation with our panel who’ll tackle these questions and discuss the economic implications if these disruptions persist.
Week Three: Getting the Word Out. How do we Communicate during a Pandemic?
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Live at 6:00 pm
This event is free and open to the public.
We could see COVID-19 as a common enemy to unite us, yet several responses to the pandemic have resulted in misinformation that creates confusion, hostility, and even violence. Antagonism around how we define the crisis caused by COVID-19 inspires outrage toward mask and vaccine mandates, lockdowns, school and business closures. To make matters worse, global leaders have manipulated information, undermined trust in vaccines, and advanced political agendas by politicizing public health responses.
This evening’s expert panel will measure how effective public health information and policy have been communicated by governments, public health officials, media, and civic organizations. They will also discuss ways to combat misinformation as we make our way through the pandemic. Join us to continue our survey course on how the complexities and challenges of the crisis impact and impede our ability to fight the pandemic.
Week 2: Vaccinating the World: Will Diplomacy, Nationalism or Profit Motive Prevail?
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Live at 6:00 pm.
This event is free and open to the public
How can nations gain influence, strengthen alliances and protect their own populations against a global threat? Here’s one way: provide support in the battle against the common enemy. With less than 10 percent of the globe vaccinated and surges in infections from the COVID-19 Delta variant on the rise, getting shots in arms everywhere should be a public health priority, a national security strategy, and a moral imperative, especially for high-income countries. Yet vaccine nationalism, underfunded international organizations, and arguments over intellectual property rights, rather than vaccine diplomacy and robust international coordination, have slowed progress.
This week Elise Labott, a global correspondent for Foreign Affairs moderates a panel discussion to help us understand the complex issues governing the global response to the pandemic to date, the prospects for getting it right in the future, and how Covid-19 is shaping geopolitics in a changing world.
Week One: From Outbreak to Pandemic: Year Two and Counting
Wednesday, July 14, 2021 Live at 6:00 pm This event is free and open to the public.
As we move into the second year of COVID-19, some communities are emerging from months of isolation, assessing damages, removing masks, and navigating toward a “new normal.” While it’s tempting to feel like a finish line has been crossed with some incredible progress having been made, the pandemic is far from over. It still rages across the globe, with infections, deaths, and more transmissible variants emerging faster than the availability and pace of vaccinations. The juxtaposition is striking given that almost four million people have died globally, and the death rate in 2021 already exceeds that of 2020.
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the economy, politics, trust in institutions, and reshaped lives in ways not yet understood. In this series, we invite experts into our virtual classroom to assess how far we have come, how far we have to go until the world is vaccinated and to examine some of the most consequential and inequitable outcomes to date. Although many of us are quite literally sick of COVID, in this 2nd edition of our survey course for everyone, we’ll offer a unique take on the politics of the global public policy response, present a diversity of perspectives on what the post-pandemic new normal will be, and explore whether we will be any better prepared for the next global crisis.
Week No. 8 Assessing Biden’s First 100 Days: Where do we go from here?
Thursday, April 21, 2021
Live at 6:00 pm via Zoom
This event is free and open to the public
The 100-day mark is an important yardstick for assessing a modern President’s performance. It’s traditionally been the “honeymoon” period, providing a window of opportunity for new Administrations to move campaign promises from rhetoric to reality. Although most Americans can’t seem to agree on much these days, we can probably agree that these are atypical times, and that makes Biden’s “honeymoon” a complex one. The Biden-Harris Administration faces numerous historic challenges at home and abroad, all while attempting to move its agenda forward. Join us as we discuss where the Administration has and has not made headway and why and also for a conversation about what comes next.
This event continues a new spring series, No. 46: Examining the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration, that focuses on the most important developments in the early days of the Biden Administration. Guest speakers over the semester examine the ability of the 46th President and his team to affect change in some of the most vital policy areas that impact all of us.
Week No. 7: Fixing What’s Broken: Uncivil War and American Democracy
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Live at 6:00 pm via Zoom
This event is free and open to the public
Fourteen days after a mob stormed the Capitol attempting to “stop the steal,” President Biden declared in his inaugural address that we must “end this Uncivil War” threatening our democracy. Hyperpolarization, partisan tribalism, the politics of outrage, incivility, refusal to compromise, and truth decay have led to a state of division and politically motivated violence we’ve not seen since the Civil War. GBH News political reporter Mike Deehan moderates a discussion with U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern, political scientist Lilliana Mason, and political strategist Ron Christie on what can be done to turn the temperature down, answer President Biden’s call for “unity” and focus on the urgent business of governing our nation.
This event continues a new spring series, No. 46: Examining the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration, that focuses on the most important developments in the early days of the Biden Administration. Guest speakers over the semester examine the ability of the 46th President and his team to affect change in some of the most vital policy areas that impact all of us.
Join Stanley Sheldon, incomparable bass guitar player best known for his work with the acclaimed British rock star Peter Frampton and notable as an early adopter of the fretless bass for rock music, who will discuss his studies on nineteenth-century slave society in Latin American countries and how its influence on past music continues to affect the transformation and the hybridization of world music today. The evening’s moderator is Iani Moreno, associate professor, World Languages & Cultural Studies Department, Suffolk University.
Drawing on his Latin American Studies, Sheldon will discuss the colonial Caribbean American slave trade, which gave rise to flourishing societies made up of escaped slaves who had fled the harsh conditions endured in the sugar plantations. A strong correlation between regionally specific intensive sugar production and Afro-Caribbean art can be observed in all the major regions where enslaved people were brought to work. Afro-Caribbean music and dance evolved not only in and around the plantations but also in more remote mountainous regions of the islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, Cimarron culture is regarded as a “culture of the drum,” bearing a striking resemblance to the aboriginal African rhythms but nonetheless uniquely Afro-American. Afro-Caribbean music is not only important as an integrating, democratic force, it also at times displays a voice’ challenging and defying hegemony.
Week No. 6: Fixing what’s broken: America’s Place in the World
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Live at 6:00 pm
This event is free and open to the public.
Even as President Biden moved swiftly to re-engage allies by rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, addressing the G-7 and Munich Security Conference, and announcing plans to host a “Summit for Democracy,” his declaration that “America is back” has been met with cautious optimism at best and even outright skepticism. Join the conversation with our panel of foreign policy experts as we examine the many challenges, crises, and opportunities that the Biden Administration faces in determining America’s role in a rapidly changing world order.
This event continues a new spring series, No. 46: Examining the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration, that focuses on the most important developments in the early days of the Biden Administration. Guest speakers over the semester examine the ability of the 46th President and his team to affect change in some of the most vital policy areas that impact all of us.
Join us as four fascinating storytellers grace the Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University Zoom stage:
Catherine Filloux, award-winning playwright, human rights and social justice advocate, Alicia Partnoy, acclaimed poet, memoirist, scholar, survivor, and human rights activist, Mu Sochua, outspoken and respected Cambodian politician who has dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights and democracy in Southeast Asia, and Amira Al- Sharif, Yemeni photojournalist who in her nearly two-decade career has documented the multi-cultural lives of women, the beauty in ordinary daily life, and the horror of a long raging and brutal war.
Week 3
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Live via Zoom at 4:00 pm
This event is free and open to the public.
Behind the Lens: Unveiling Misconceptions and Documenting the War with Amira Al-Sharif
In her nearly two-decade career as a photojournalist, Yemeni photographer Amira Al-Sharif documented the multi-cultural lives of women, the beauty in ordinary daily life, and now the horror of a long-raging and brutal war. Through stunning images of her beloved country of Yemen, Amira bears witness to what has been termed “the worst man-made humanitarian crisis in the world.” In this conversation, Amira will talk about her life-long bond with the camera, her work to unveil misconceptions, and her struggles to keep documenting the lived experiences, while finding glimmers of hope, in a place consumed by conflict and suffering. Using the lens of her camera, and unlocking her “bitter-sweet” memories, Amira relives her artistic mission to rescue “the fleeting, hiding, or missing scenes” from her journey as a war photographer.
Speaker and Moderator (Click on their name to view their bio)
As we begin to inch closer to the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel and with the passage of “The American Rescue Plan,” President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package and first big legislative win, where does the economy stand? Which groups and sectors have been most ravaged by the Covid economy and what will be the impact of this newest measure from Congress? How long will “recovery” take and what will a post-pandemic economy and the future of work look like? Join us as we take a deeper dive into these questions, the answers to which will impact all of us, but in very different ways.
This event continues a new spring series, No. 46: Examining the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration, that focuses on the most important developments in the early days of the Biden Administration. Guest speakers over the semester examine the ability of the 46th President and his team to affect change in some of the most vital policy areas that impact all of us.
Join us as four fascinating storytellers grace the Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University Zoom stage:
Catherine Filloux, award-winning playwright, human rights and social justice advocate, Alicia Partnoy, acclaimed poet, memoirist, scholar, survivor, and human rights activist, Mu Sochua, outspoken and respected Cambodian politician who has dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights and democracy in Southeast Asia, and Amira Al- Sharif, Yemeni photojournalist who in her nearly two-decade career has documented the multi-cultural lives of women, the beauty in ordinary daily life, and the horror of a long raging and brutal war.
WEEK 2
Thursday, March 11, 2021 When Two Voices Aren’t Enough with Alicia Partnoy Live via Zoom at 7:00 pm This event is free and open to the public.
When we say that poems and stories move us, we usually mean that they make us feel more deeply, or that they open us up to new knowledge or new ways of thinking. Alicia Partnoy, acclaimed poet, memoirist, scholar, and human rights activist and the author of the book, The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival, which chronicles her abduction from her home in Argentina by secret police and her imprisonment and torture at a concentration camp, joins pioneering women’s studies scholar Amy Kaminsky in conversation as they discuss how poetry and storytelling are not just solitary practices. They are critical elements in the struggle for human rights, for survival, and for justice. They call on readers to become participants, to raise their own voices in solidarity.
Join us as four fascinating storytellers grace the Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University Zoom stage: Catherine Filloux, award-winning playwright, human rights and social justice advocate, Alicia Partnoy, esteemed poet, author, survivor, and professor of modern languages, Loyola Marymount University, Mu Sochua, outspoken and respected Cambodian politician who has dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights and democracy in Southeast Asia, and Amira Al-Sharif, Yemeni photojournalist who in her nearly two-decade career has documented the multi-cultural lives of women, the beauty in ordinary daily life, and the horror of a long-raging and brutal war.
Week 1: Thursday, March 4, 2021 with Catherine Filloux and Mu Sochua Live via Zoom at 7:00 pm THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
“turning your body into a compass” Catherine Filloux is an award-winning playwright who has been writing plays about human rights and social justice for over twenty-five years. The evening will include Filloux’s work both in the U.S. and in Cambodia. She will discuss her web play “turning your body into a compass” about children and deportation in the U.S., performed live as a 360° online experience. She will also share her work addressing issues of memory and complicity in relation to the experiences of Cambodians who suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Filloux will be joined by Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Mu Sochua, the Cambodian politician and rights activist. The moderator is Alexa Jordan, a playwright, and actress who served as associate producer and outreach coordinator on “turning your body into a compass.”
Learn more about our program participants. (Click their names for more information)
No. 46: Examining the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Live at 6:00 pm
This event is free and open to the public.
President Biden has promised an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackling climate change, which he has described as an existential threat. He has created two new positions in the National Security Agency with an exclusive focus on climate, internationally and domestically. He has infused ecology in the portfolios of directors of agencies not typically associated with these issues, such as National Intelligence, Defense, and Treasury. Finally, he has taken swift action during his first weeks in office to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, revoke the permit for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and order the review of hundreds of executive orders harmful to the environment. Will these steps make progress? Will a deeply divided Congress be able to act decisively and swiftly in order to take the necessary steps, along with the rest of the world, to slow, stop or reverse climate change? Join us as we discuss the promises and obstacles to achieving Biden’s climate agenda.
No. 46: Examining the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration
Thursday, February 11, 2021
LIVE 6 PM
This event is free and open to the public.
The last four divisive years follow decades of frustration from a lack of progress for racial justice and gender equity. Anger has moved the debate into the streets, most notably with the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement and #MeToo protests sometimes met with opposition from far-right and white supremacist groups holding their own rallies and spurring on riots.
President Biden has made ambitious promises to address the country’s polarization born out of discrimination and inequality. The early days of his Administration have featured a down payment on this promise with a flurry of executive actions and the record-setting pace for creating his own team, but can he bring about more lasting change with the help of Congress? Can he change the hearts and minds of Americans at large? Join us as we discuss the problems, the promises, and the possibilities of Biden’s “Equity Agenda.”
Who is President Biden appointing to key senior leadership and cabinet positions and what does this tell us about the administration’s policy priorities and strategies? How quickly can Biden address one of President Trump’s legacies – four years of a concerted effort to deconstruct the administrative state? How does the Biden transition compare to previous ones? In this conversation, we survey the obstacles and opportunities Biden’s team has and discuss how the actions taken in the first few months will impact his ambitious policy agenda.
This event is part of a new spring series that will focus on the most important developments in the early days of the Biden Administration. Guest speakers over the Spring semester will examine the ability of the 46th President and his team to affect change in some of the most vital policy areas that impact all of us.
Presented by the Suffolk University Department of Political Science & Legal Studies, in collaboration with the Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University and hosted by GBH’s Forum Network
Too Fat For China follows Phoebe Potts, a comic storyteller, and a self-described “professional Jew” as she tries, fails, and eventually succeeds to adopt a baby. Potts is the daughter of journalists from Brooklyn, where everyone was indignant before breakfast and stories were the currency of relationships. After a U.S. adoption goes horribly wrong, Potts finds herself surprised, disgusted, and ultimately resigned to the role she plays as a middle-class white woman in the business of adopting babies in the U.S. and internationally. Potts’ tragicomic journey is about looking for more – more love, more life, and more family. She will do anything to get it, including having her morals and values fold in on themselves. With humor and honesty, Potts tells the story of the terrible things she did for love. The evening’s moderator is Dr. Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber, associate professor, Communication, Journalism, and Media Department, Suffolk University.
Beyond Borders: Women’s Stories and the Art of Bearing Witness
Join us in October as four fascinating storytellers talk to three Suffolk University professors via Zoom. Laura Levitt, professor, Religion, Jewish Studies and Gender, Temple University, Alba Jaramillo, executive director, Arizona Justice For Our Neighbors and nationally recognized human rights and social justice advocate, Patricia Davis, noted author, poet, and playwright, and Phoebe Potts, director, Family Learning, Sylvia Cohen Religious School, memoirist, and comic. These four captivating women will share their work, which bears witness to struggles about human rights, memory, belonging, and love.
Week Two: October 15, 2020
Live at 7:00 pm
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Alba Jaramillo and Patricia Davis talk about Digna. Written by Patricia Davis, the one-woman play starring Jaramillo follows Digna Ochoa, a prominent Mexican human rights lawyer who suffered torturous attacks following her defense of environmentalist peasants in Mexico. By the age of 37, she had met President Clinton, became close to the Kennedy family, and won a MacArthur Fellowship and the Amnesty International’s Enduring Spirit Award. In 2001, she was killed in her Mexico City office. In the play, Digna comes back from the dead in response to the worsening human rights crisis in Mexico. Jaramillo, an immigrant, human rights lawyer, and activist herself, plays the role of Digna with conviction, passion, and self-reflection. In telling her story and confronting her own doubts, Digna finds her strength and courage as she invites us to find our own. The evening’s moderator is Iani Moreno, PhD, associate professor, World Languages and Cultural Studies Department, Suffolk University.
Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, WGBH Forum Network, the Communication, Journalism & Media and World Languages & Cultural Studies departments, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Global and Cultural Studies Program at Suffolk University present:
A Virtual Three-Week Storytelling Series
Beyond Borders: Women’s Stories and the Art of Bearing Witness
Join us in October as four fascinating storytellers talk to three Suffolk University professors via Zoom. Laura Levitt, professor, Religion, Jewish Studies and Gender, Temple University, Alba Jaramillo, executive director, Arizona Justice For Our Neighbors and nationally recognized human rights and social justice advocate, Patricia Davis, noted author, poet, and playwright, and Phoebe Potts, director, Family Learning, Sylvia Cohen Religious School, memoirist, and comic. These four captivating women will share their work, which bears witness to struggles about human rights, memory, belonging, and love.
The Objects That Remain is Laura Levitt’s memoir and fascinating examination of the ways in which the material remains of violent crimes inform our thinking about trauma and loss. Considering artifacts in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and evidence in police storage facilities across the country, Levitt’s story moves between intimate trauma, the story of an unsolved rape, and genocide. She asks what it might mean to do justice to these violent pasts outside the justice system or through historical accounts. The evening’s moderator is Barbara Abrams, associate professor and director, Global and Cultural Studies program, Suffolk University.
October 15, 2020
Live at 7:00 pm
Alba Jaramillo and Patricia Davis talk about Digna. Written by Patricia Davis, the one-woman play follows Digna Ochoa, played by Alba Jaramillo, a prominent Mexican human rights lawyer who suffered torturous attacks following her defense of environmentalist peasants in Mexico. By the age of 37 she had met President Clinton, became close to the Kennedy family, and won a MacArthur Fellowship and the Amnesty International’s Enduring Spirit award. In 2001, she was killed in her Mexico City office. In the play Digna comes back from the dead in response to the worsening human rights crisis in Mexico. Jaramillo, an immigrant, human rights lawyer and activist herself, plays the role of Digna with conviction, passion and self-reflection. In telling her story and confronting her own doubts, Digna finds her strength and courage as she invites us to find our own. The evening’s moderator is Iani Moreno, associate professor, World Languages and Cultural Studies Department, Suffolk University.
October 29, 2020
Live at 7:00 pm
Too Fat For China: follows Phoebe Potts, comic storyteller and a self-described “professional Jew” as she tries, fails and eventually succeeds to adopt a baby. Potts is the daughter of journalists from Brooklyn, where everyone was indignant before breakfast and stories were the currency of relationships. After a U.S. adoption goes horribly wrong, Potts finds herself surprised, disgusted and ultimately resigned to the role she plays as a middle-class white lady in the business of adopting babies in the U.S. and internationally. Potts’ tragicomic journey is about looking for more – more love, more life, and more family. She will do anything to get it, including having her morals and values fold in on themselves. With humor and honesty, Potts tells the story of the terrible things she did for love. The evening’s moderator is Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber, associate professor, Communication, Journalism, and Media Department, Suffolk University.
Alba Jaramillo is one of Arizona’s community leaders in the area of social justice and human rights and the arts. Alba holds a Juris Doctor from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and Bachelor of Arts in theatre arts and anthropology from the University of Arizona. Her background in theatre arts and law and her experience as an activist and community organizer for immigrant rights promoted her to create Teatro Dignidad, a theater company in Tucson that produces plays that promotes human rights.
Alba also has 20 years of experience in building programs to raise awareness about gender-based violence, immigrant rights, and human rights. She was the youngest executive director in the country serving as a statewide director for Virginia’s sexual and domestic violence coalition. Alba has created programs that has serve hundreds of immigrants. Currently she is the Executive Director of Arizona Justice For Our Neighbors, a non-profit organization that provides legal services and advocacy for immigrants and asylum seekers.
Week 4:The Economics of Pandemic Disruption
