University Scholars Discuss Symposium Topics and Keynote Speakers at 2012 Fall Retreat
The University Scholars gathered at the annual USP Fall Retreat to visit with returning Unis, meet the new graduate, professional and undergraduate Unis, and to brainstorm ideas for seminars and the annual spring symposium. This year’s topic, “Futures,” provoked animated discussion and great ideas for symposium topics and keynote speakers. The ideas flew fast and furious as USP Director Victoria Lodewick scrambled to jot things down on the white board.
Suggested keynote speakers for USP “Futures” symposium
Proposals for keynote speakers for the “Futures” symposium included:
Pradav Mehta (sp?) creator (?) of “How It’s Made” television show (n.b. I couldn’t find any connection between someone named Pradav Mehta and the show. I welcome clarification from whoever made the suggestion.
Bill and/or Melinda Gates – The foundation’s work on contemporary efforts to fight diseases – what’s next in the arsenal, what’s the next big disease battlefield?
Mark Jordan, professor of Religion at Washington University of St. Louis – future of religion
James Reynolds, professor of Environmental Science and Biology at Duke- human domination of the earth
Alex Galloway, professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU with a Ph.D. from Duke’s renowned Program in Literature. Galloway is a founding member of the Radical Software Collective, works on gaming and network theory, and contemporary continental philosophy.
Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian philosopher of psychoanalysis, political and cultural theory (for a more in depth perspective, see Zizek’s biography from the European Graduate School website), frequent visitor to Duke’s Program in Literature
More keynote speaker suggestions
A science fiction writer working on near future possibilities – suggestions for names welcome!
Winner of Royal Canadian Mint electronic wallet challenge, a.k.a. “The MintChip Challenge”
Elon Musk – co-founder of Paypal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and Solar City
Achille Mbembe, visiting professor and Franklin Humanities Institute Research Scholar in Romance Studies and English at Duke, is a Cameroonian philosopher working on globalization, decolonialism, post/modernity and contemporaneity. He’s teaching a course at Duke this semester on “The Future of Nature”. He is also affiliated with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Sci fi writer – Greg Egan. Has a BA in mathematics, his fiction is quite rigorous, and everyone should read Permutation City!
Dipesh Chakrabarty is another possibility. He’s a historian at the University of Chicago, but he (like Zizek) comes to Duke now and again. He, Zizek, and Mbembe are all in conversation over the futures of nature / climate crisis question, so any of the three would be wonderful.
Ray Kurzweil, author of “The Singularity is near” on human-computer interaction.
While I like the science fiction theme, I think it might be nice to have a speaker like Jim Reynolds to bring the future back to earth, so to speak, at least as a bookend on the symposium.
I’d like to make a suggestion, along the same lines as Bill & Melinda Gates (if that’s possible, ha): Chris Wilson, MD.
Taken from the Gates Foundation website: “Dr. Chris Wilson, director of the Global Health Discovery & Translational Sciences program, leads a team that targets fundamental scientific and technological advances in global health that could lead to new ways to prevent, treat, and diagnose disease.”
Here’s a link to his bio: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/leadership/Pages/chris-wilson.aspx (sorry I can’t seem to make it hyperlink)
Just a thought.
What about Dr. Cathy Davidson or Dr. David Bell? Both are directors of the Ph.D. Lab in Digital Knowledge this year and could discuss the future of education with a special focus on digital technology and higher education.
Also, I like the suggestion of Mark Jordan or Bill and Melinda Gates.
I think bringing back either Bill or Melinda Gates would be fantastic, especially because they were so integral in the founding of the program. They could discuss the future of the work that they are doing with the Gates Foundation, and Bill could even discuss the future of Microsoft/the tech space.
Also, I was the one who suggested Elon Musk. He is just awesome. (Wants to do ridiculous things like put a man on Mars in 10 years, and the scary part is that he’s driven enough to make it happen).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-s_3b5fRd8
Elon Musk – that would be astronomic.
Now – if we’re looking for someone ‘local’ I would suggest Ambassador Duddy. He has represented the USA almost everywhere in Latin America and I strongly believe that he is as charismatic a public speaker as he is in one-on-ones. He is simply amazing, interesting and fun. He has met the people of the past and the future in Latin America, be it Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia etc. And there is much to talk about futures in the emerging markets…
I think to have Bill or Melinda Gates speaking would be ideal, regarding their tireless fight against diseases and poverty; how philanthropists see the future of their fight against extreme inequalities etc.. My second suggestion would be to have either Zizek or Chomsky to talk on “the future of governments” – I think we are living through an interesting period of tremendous change and chaos; authoritarian regimes are falling like flies, liberal democracies bathing in economic disasters, quasi-socialist capitalist regimes seem to be thriving yet threatened by the massive technological changes which demands governance and censorship to a new level. While the dream of united states of europe fades, globalization introduces new challenges to the nation-state.
Palden Gyal
Neil Degrass Tyson – science popularizer, space advocate
Phil Plait – bad science denouncer
OR: anyone of the science fiction authors from the list that went around at the retreat. They made predictions about the future in 1987. Gregory Benford was the most accurate. I’d be interested to see if he could do it twice.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is the man.