Events!

Classes ended on Monday, and I can no longer put off completing this post about events at Fletcher this fall.  I started it in October and added to it in November, but I didn’t finish either time, and the notices about events kept pouring in.  The consequence of my procrastination is a bulging email folder into which I’ve shoved all the notices, while I waited for a day when I’d have enough time to sift through them and give readers a sense of the many ways to keep busy at Fletcher.

Some of each semester’s events are student organized.  There was a November screening of Restrepo, sponsored by Fletcher Students in Security, and a talk on “The U.S. Foreign Service: Behind the Scenes of American Diplomacy” sponsored by three student groups.  Earlier this month, the Asia Club, the Post-Soviet Nations Club, and Fletcher Students in Security organized an in-depth conversation about the effect of energy resources on the geopolitics of Central Asia.  The groups arranged for current students and alumni with expertise in the area to lead the discussion.  And there was my favorite annual event, Military 101, at which the Fletcher military fellows help students gain familiarity with the different military services.

The World Peace Foundation has done its part to keep students busy, offering a roundtable on the Crisis in Mali, a panel discussion of “Libya Today,” and a talk by Mary Kaldor, entitled “The New Peace.”  Dr. Kaldor left campus with a new honor for her c.v. — the University’s Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award.

There were special annual lectures, such as the 16th Richard E. Snyder Presidential Lecture at Tufts, which was delivered this year by Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, whose talk was titled, “Sticks and Stones: Freedom of Expression and Political Correctness.”  And there was the Constantine G. Karamanlis Chair in Hellenic and European Studies Annual Lecture, this year offered by Charles Dallara, Managing Director of the Institute of International Finance (and Fletcher graduate), who spoke on “The Greek Economy at a Crossroads.”

There was a timely election-related talk on “Election Aftermath: Why Should I Believe What I See on the News?” by Marian Porges, Senior Director of News Standards and Practices at NBC News (and Tufts graduate).  And business-focused students might have attended talks in the Institute for Business in the Global Context Speaker Series, including:

The Development folks made my life simple by capturing everything on a poster.

And there were the yearly Charles Francis Adams lectures, including:

  • Ambassador Robert R. King, Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, on “United States Policy on Human Rights in North Korea”
  • Ambassador Ron Prosor, on “The Jewish State on the Global Stage: A View from Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations”

But it wasn’t all lectures!  Other events included:

  • Library workshops on Bloomberg and Global Insight Workshop;
  • A research colloquium sponsored by The Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs to describe the current Fletcher School research projects that the Hitachi Center funds;
  • The Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Internship Panel at which students described their experiences to students;
  • And there was cake to note the anniversary of the Marine Corps’s founding.

At an Information Session a few weeks ago, the student session leader, Hillary, summed things up by saying that there are more talks, presentations, and conferences on topics she’s interested in than she could ever attend.  And that would be true for people of all interests in this multidisciplinary community.  Ultimately, there are way more events than I can capture in one blog post.  But I hope this short list gives you an idea of all that’s happening at Fletcher during each week of the semester.   Scroll through the Fletcher calendar to see what might interest you.

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