Center for the Common Good
Joseph McKeen

With Maine's vast tracts of corporate and recently-divested forest lands, and with its many struggling timber-dependent communities, our state shares more in common with large Western states than with the rest of New England.

Kathryn DeMaster and Melanie Parker will draw parallels and contrasts between the cultural and economic landscapes of Maine's forested northern rim and the American West, both of which have been shaped by large absentee landowners. In light of Maine's on-going dialogue over development of Plum Creek lands in the Moosehead Lake region, these issues resonate locally.

Kathryn DeMaster's work centers on sustainable agriculture and rural development. She is an Assistant Professor of Agriculture, Society and Food Security at UC Berkeley. Melanie Parker is a charismatic and outspoken national leader in conservation-oriented sustainable rural development. In 2007 in her home state of Montana, Parker helped broker the nation's largest land conservation deal to date, protecting over 310,000 acres under unique conservation easements. She is the Founder and Executive Director of
Northwest Connections.

Together, DeMaster and Parker are investigating opportunities for resilient multifunctional rural development in Montana's Swan Valley.

Who Are They?
What Can YOU Do?

The 30-minute documentary was produced by the Lewiston Youth Advisory Council to build awareness about the approximately 200 homeless youth in Lewiston.  According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, one out of every three homeless persons are under the age of 18, and nationwide, over 1.6 million people under the age of 18 experience homelessness each year.

The documentary features Kat Borghoff and Kendra Sprague, both previously homeless teens, who received life-changing support from New Beginnings and Volunteers of America Northern New England.  Borghoff and Sprague share elements of their personal journeys, which include living in a car and sleeping on a kitchen floor.

Join Kon Maiwan, Chair of the Lewiston Youth Advisory Council, for this screening and discussion with LYAC students.

This event is co-sponsored by the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good and Upward Bound.

This events is sponsored by the Small Enterprise Growth Fund & Maine Technology Institute.

In these sessions, you or your team meet one-on-one with investors and experienced entrepreneurs to discuss your business idea, learn more about resources for Maine businesses, and find out what investors look for in companies.
Share your idea, explain your most pressing challenge, talk about whatever is on your entrepreneurial mind and, in the process, perhaps build a basis for a relationship going forward.

Sessions are limited to a maximum of 20 minutes.

To sign up, please contact Terri Wark, 504-1999 or terri@segfmaine.com.

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

THEATER OF WAR & END OF LIFE
Presented at Bowdoin College

Featuring: 
Adam Driver
TV/Film credits include:
Girls
Lincoln
J. Edgar

END OF LIFE
Friday, February 8th, 2013
12:30-1:30 PM
VAC - Kresge Auditorium

End of Life is an innovative project that presents readings of ancient Greek plays as a catalyst for town hall discussions with the public about suffering and death as it touches patients, families, and health professionals who work in the fields of medicine, palliative care, hospice, geriatrics, nursing and clinical bioethics.  This unique, participatory event is intended to promote healthy discussion among diverse communities--public and professional--fostering compassion, cooperation, and understanding about living with chronic suffering and the mortality we all share.

Admission is free.  Seating is limited. 
Questions? Contact: jkosak @ bowdoin.edu or call 207-725-3617.

Translated, directed, and facilitated by Bryan Doerries.  Produced by Phyllis Kaufman.

Sponsored by the Jasper Jacob Stahl Lecture Fund, the Classics Department, the Sociology Department, The Department of Theater and Dance, and the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good,

To become a part of this project, host a performance in your community, support our efforts, continue the discussion online, or for additional information, please contact Bryan Doerries, Artistic Director or Phyllis Kaufman, Producing Director at info @ outsidethewirellc.com 

For more information, visit our website:  www.outsidethewirellc.com

Outside the Wire, a social impact company, will present performances of Theater of War and End of Life at Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, at Bowdoin College, February 7 and 8, 2013.

Theater of War will be presented Thursday, February 7, at 7 p.m., and End of Life will be presented Friday, February 8, at 12:30 p.m.

The performances are free and open to the public.
 
Theater of War presents readings of Sophocles' Ajax and Philoctetes to military and civilian communities across the United States, Europe and Japan. These ancient plays timelessly and universally depict the psychological and physical wounds inflicted upon warriors by war.

By presenting these plays to military and civilian audiences, the hope is to de-stigmatize psychological injury, increase awareness of post-deployment psychological health issues, disseminate information regarding available resources, and foster greater family, community, and troop resilience.

This performance runs two hours.

End of Life presents readings of Sophocles' Women of Trachis as a catalyst for town hall discussions with the audience about suffering and death as it touches patients, families, and health professionals who work in the fields of medicine, palliative care, hospice, geriatrics, nursing and clinical bioethics.

This unique, participatory event is intended to promote healthy discussion among diverse communities -- public and professional -- fostering compassion, cooperation, and understanding about living with chronic suffering and the mortality we all share.

This performance runs one hour.

Both play readings will be followed by a discussion with panelists from the community and facilitated town-hall style audience discussions.

These performances will feature Adam Driver (Girls, Lincoln, J. Edgar), Joanne Tucker (Through the Yellow Hour, The Cherry Orchard), and Reg E. Cathey (The Wire, Lights Out, American Psycho); are translated, directed and facilitated by Bryan Doerries; and are produced by Phyllis Kaufman.

Outside the Wire's two-day visit at Bowdoin is sponsored by the Jacob Jasper Stahl Lectureship in the Humanities; the Bowdoin Departments of Classics, English, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, and Theater and Dance; the Gender and Women's Studies Program; and the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good.

About Outside the Wire   
Outside the Wire is a social impact company that uses theater and a variety of other media to address pressing public health and social issues, such as combat-related psychological injury, end of life care, prison reform, political violence and torture, and the de-stigmatization of the treatment of substance abuse and addiction.

To date, there have been over 200 performances of Theater of War for military and civilian communities throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Over 40,000 service members, veterans, and their families have attended and participated in Theater of War performances and discussions.

Go to Outside the Wire's website www.outsidethewirellc.com to find more information about the project, watch a short video of a performance, and find out about recent and upcoming performances. You can also find Theater of War on Facebook.

The Education Department is hosting an open discussion about strategies to engage "at-risk" and "hard to reach" secondary school students.

Invited guest panelists will include Dr. Glen Cummings, the president and executive director of the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences at Good Will-Hinckley; Martin Mackey, assistant principal at REAL School at Mackworth Island; Peter Hill '02, eighth grade science teacher at King Middle School; Hank Ogilby, global studies teacher and Focus 9 Program at the Freeport High School; and Terrie Anne Hoops, literacy teacher at Lyman Moore Middle School.

This event is free and open to the public.

This campus celebration will feature performances by Bowdoin students, an invocation by Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Robert Ives, and a short reflection on Dr. King's life and legacy by Brian Purnell, assistant professor of Africana Studies.

Students will perform select readings, songs, and spoken word around themes central to Dr. King's legacy--the creation of the Beloved Community through collective non-violent struggle to combat poverty.

The program will include a piano prelude, Franz Liszt's Widmung (Liebeslied, S. 566, of Robert Schumann, performed by Allen Wong Yu '14; an invocation by Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Robert Ives; a performance by the Bowdoin Community Gospel Choir; a poetry reading by Daniel Eloy '15; Lift Every Voice and Sing performed by Alexis Little '14; the Longfellows performing MLK by U2; and a silent contemplation of an excerpt from a King speech.

The Bowdoin College Library presents their annual "A Children's Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr."

Children's book authors Margy Burns Knight, Anne Sibley O'Brien, and Rohan Henry, as well as songwriter Josephine Cameron, will present a program of illustrated storytelling, music, and crafts in remembrance of Dr. King.

The celebration is geared toward children ages 5 and up. Admission is free and refreshments will be served. Copies of selected titles by each presenter will be available for purchase.

For more information contact the Bowdoin College Library, 207-725-3155. In the case of inclement weather, call 207-725-3000, option 3, for event information.

Join Ben Richmond '13 and Micah Ludwig '13 to hear about their experiences in South Africa and Bolivia.

Their trips were funded in part by the Global Citizens Grant.

The Global Citizens Grant provides students with the opportunity to pursue summer volunteer and public service projects outside of the United States. The intent of the program is to support student projects that are independently designed and focus on providing direct service by working in local communities. By enabling students to immerse themselves in foreign cultures, the Global Citizens Grant aims to encourage a broadening of perspective among volunteers, the foreign communities in which they will work, and the Bowdoin community to which they will return.

Applications for 2013 will be available on Monday, October 15 and due on Friday, February 1, 2013.

Join Lucy Walker '14 and Julie Bender '13 to hear about their experiences in South Africa and Bolivia.

Their trips were funded in part by the Global Citizens Grant.

The Global Citizens Grant provides students with the opportunity to pursue summer volunteer and public service projects outside of the United States. The intent of the program is to support student projects that are independently designed and focus on providing direct service by working in local communities. By enabling students to immerse themselves in foreign cultures, the Global Citizens Grant aims to encourage a broadening of perspective among volunteers, the foreign communities in which they will work, and the Bowdoin community to which they will return.

Applications for 2013 will be available on Monday, October 15 and due on Friday, February 1, 2013.

ELLEN CONDLIFFE LAGEMANN is the Levy Institute Research Professor at Bard College, where she is also a Distinguished Fellow in the Bard Prison Initiative. She was previously the Charles Warren Professor of the History of American Education at Harvard University and Dean of the Graduate School of Education. Before that, Lagemann was President of the Spencer Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, and a Professor at New York University (where she was also Director of the Center for the Study of American Culture and Education). She began her career as a high-school social studies teacher and then teaching the history of American education at Barnard, Columbia, and Teachers College, Columbia University (where she was also Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Politics of Education and Editor of the Teachers College Record).

Lagemann is the author or editor of eleven books and many articles, the most recent being What is College For? The Public Purpose of Higher Education, which she edited with Harry Lewis. She has been President of the National Academy of Education and of the History of Education Society. From 2005-2010, she chaired the Committee on Teacher Preparation of the National Research Council, whose final report, Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy, appeared in 2010. She was a member of the Teaching Commission, founded by Louis Gerstner, and has served on many boards, including those of the Russell Sage, Markle, Greenwall, and Spencer Foundations, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (at Stanford), Jobs for the Future, the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, and the District Management Council (all in Boston, MA). She is currently a member of the board of FairTest and of the Fund for Columbia County of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

Leadership and Entrepreneurship in a Rapidly Changing World

Karen Gordon Mills was sworn in as administrator of the Small Business Administration in April 2009 after being appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. She has served in the president's cabinet since January 2012. As part of the cabinet, Administrator Mills is a key member of the president's economic leadership team, reflecting the important role that small businesses and entrepreneurs play in our nation's long-term economic growth and prosperity. Mills leads a team of more than 3,000 employees and manages a portfolio of more than $90 billion in loan guarantees. The agency also helps small businesses access nearly $100 billion in federal contracts each year and supports counseling and technical assistance to more than one million entrepreneurs. Prior to the SBA, Mills held leadership positions in the private sector. Most recently, she was president of the MMP Group, which invested and grew businesses in sectors such as consumer products, food, textiles, and industrial components.

Moderated by Daniela Chediak '13, President, Bowdoin Student Government. Co-sponsored by the Office of Student Activities Leadership Series with support from the Healey Family Fund for Leadership Development.

To view the Fall 2012 Common Hour program in its entirety, please visit us at: Events and Summer Programs: Common Hour

Each year hundreds of thousands of people attempt to enter the United States from Mexico without authorization through various means including crossing the Sonoran Desert of Arizona on foot or using false identification at ports of entry. During this crossing process people actively construct, contest, and obfuscate a multiplicity of identities through various forms of material culture including clothing, identification paperwork (or lack thereof), and other items. In addition, people often purposefully or accidentally leave these objects behind during the crossing process.

Using a combination of ethnographic work conducted at migrant shelters in Mexico and archaeological research in the deserts of Arizona, Jason DeLeon examines what the objects that people carry with them across the border can tell us about how they prepare for this process and how federal enforcement policies have shaped perceptions of migrant lives and deaths. In this lecture, DeLeon posits that he notion of citizenship along the U.S.-Mexico border plays a crucial role in the construction, maintenance, and obfuscation of various types of violence including a form that occurs post-mortem.

Jason DeLeon is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. Please join us for his lecture "Citizenship, Materiality, and Necroviolence Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: Recent Research from the Undocumented Migration Project."

Thursday, October 18, 2012
7:00 p.m.
Beam Classroom, VAC

Hosted by the Latin American Studies Program with support from the McKeen Center for the Common Good, the Sociology and Anthropology Department, the Latin American Students Organization, and the Lectures and Concerts Committee.
Photo (c) Michael Wells

Craig Anthony Bannister is a native New Yorker. He currently resides in Brooklyn, works as performer on stage and off. Besides N.Y. and regional credits including playing Bobo in A Raisin in the Sun directed by Arthur French and Cardinal Richelieu in Connecticut Free Shakespeare's production of The Three Musketeers.   Currently he is a company member of Only Make Believe, a non profit theatre company that takes interactive theatre to children in hospitals and care facilities. His theatre practice works with women's shelters, law schools and most recently senior and teen workshops.

Join Tasha Sandoval '13 and Emma James '13 to hear about their experiences in South Africa and Bolivia.

Their trips were funded in part by the Global Citizens Grant.

The Global Citizens Grant provides students with the opportunity to pursue summer volunteer and public service projects outside of the United States. The intent of the program is to support student projects that are independently designed and focus on providing direct service by working in local communities. By enabling students to immerse themselves in foreign cultures, the Global Citizens Grant aims to encourage a broadening of perspective among volunteers, the foreign communities in which they will work, and the Bowdoin community to which they will return.

Applications for 2013 will be available on Monday, October 15 and due on Friday, February 1, 2013.

Michael Burawoy has taught sociology at the University of California, Berkeley for 35 years. His research is based on working as an unskilled laborer in Zambia, US, Hungary and Russia. He is now President of the International Sociological Association and he is a former President of the American Sociological Association.

Adapting to Change: An interactive Panel Discussion on Climate Adaptation & Preparedness
Wed. Oct 3 7:00-8:30 pm
Searles Hall, Room 315
Bowdoin College

A Pre-conference panel discussion of the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association. The panel discussion will provide an opportunity for attendees to converse with outstanding speakers on a number of climate adaption issues dealing with infrastructure, wildlife habitat, and adapting to our ever-changing coastal area in New England.
This event is free and open to the public free of charge.

Keynote: "The Future's In the Dirt," Ben Hewitt

Ben Hewitt is a farmer in Cabot, Vermont, and the author of two books, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food and Making Supper Safe: One Man's Quest to Learn the Truth About Food Safety and an upcoming book, Saved: How to Break the Spell of Money, Live Well, and Change the World. His writing has also appeared in numerous national publications including New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, and Outside. His work focuses on how a regionalized food-based system can be used to create economic development, how weaning Americans off their dependence on industrial food improves public health, and how communities all over New England can become sustainable food hubs similar to what has been created in his hometown.

Cosponsored with Local Farms-Local Food, a program of the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust and the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust. 

Bullied is a documentary film that chronicles one student's ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies and offers an inspiring message of hope to those fighting harassment today. The film will be followed by a panel discussion about gender- and sexuality-based harassment in schools.

Sponsored by the Department of Education and the Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity.

Sarah Lipinoga Gallo is a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Situated in a recently established Mexican immigrant community, her ethnographic research focuses on a new generation of Mexican immigrant fathers' complicated politics of recognition across public, private, and institutional contexts. This talk will examine the implementation of current immigration policies, which have come to equate "illegal" with "Mexican immigrant." She will discuss how the enforcement of these policies, which overwhelmingly target Mexican immigrant men, affect immigrant children and their schooling in powerful ways. She will also highlight how targeting Mexican adult males, especially for minor infractions, is likely to create educational challenges for their children, a younger generation of DREAMers and U.S. citizens.

Sarah Lipinoga Gallo is a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Situated in a recently established Mexican immigrant community, her ethnographic research focuses on a new generation of Mexican immigrant fathers' complicated politics of recognition across public, private, and institutional contexts. This talk will examine the implementation of current immigration policies, which have come to equate "illegal" with "Mexican immigrant." She will discuss how the enforcement of these policies, which overwhelmingly target Mexican immigrant men, affect immigrant children and their schooling in powerful ways. She will also highlight how targeting Mexican adult males, especially for minor infractions, is likely to create educational challenges for their children, a younger generation of DREAMers and U.S. citizens.

Based on the conviction that musicians can play an important public service role, Community MusicWorks has created an opportunity for a professional string quartet to build and transform its own urban community. Through the permanent residency of the Providence String Quartet, Community MusicWorks provides free after-school education and performance programs that build meaningful long-term relationships between professional musicians, children, and families in urban neighborhoods of Providence, Rhode Island.

Leaders and students will perform and share information about their unique program. Through the storefront residency of professional musicians, Community MusicWorks is exploring the concept of music as activism, building long-term learning and mentoring relationships between musicians, youth, and families in the most underserved neighborhoods of Providence, Rhode Island. At the center of this mission are the teaching, mentoring, program design, and performance activities of the Community MusicWorks Players, the organization's musicians-in-residence.

Cosponsored by the McKeen Center for the Common Good, the Office of Career Planning and the Department of Music

Based on the conviction that musicians can play an important public service role, Community MusicWorks has created an opportunity for a professional string quartet to build and transform its own urban community. Through the permanent residency of the Providence String Quartet, Community MusicWorks provides free after-school education and performance programs that build meaningful long-term relationships between professional musicians, children, and families in urban neighborhoods of Providence, Rhode Island. Leaders and students will perform and share information about their unique program. Through the storefront residency of professional musicians, Community MusicWorks is exploring the concept of music as activism, building long-term learning and mentoring relationships between musicians, youth, and families in the most underserved neighborhoods of Providence, Rhode Island. At the center of this mission are the teaching, mentoring, program design, and performance activities of the Community MusicWorks Players, the organization's musicians-in-residence.Cosponsored by the McKeen Center for the Common Good, the Office of Career Planning and the Department of Music

A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof is an extraordinary thinker, human rights advocate, and chronicler of humanity. A seasoned journalist, he offers a compassionate glimpse into global health, poverty, and gender in the developing world. Mr. Kristof will discuss his latest book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

A Book Signing and Reception will be held immediately after the lecture in Drake Lobby (lower level).

Ticket UPDATE: Tickets are required. If you did not pick up a ticket in advance, please come by the Pickard Theater Box Office beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 20. A small block of tickets will be made available at the door so please join us! Tickets are FREE for Bowdoin students, faculty, staff with Bowdoin ID (LIMIT 2 PER ID, PLEASE) and $10 for the general public. Seating is limited; please arrive early to secure a ticket. Please call the Events Office, 207-725-3433, or email events@bowdoin.edu if you have any questions.

Sponsored by: Charles Weston Pickard Lecture Fund

An extraordinary group of 11 Alaskan Iñupiat and Yup'ik hunters and leaders will gather on the Bowdoin College campus September 18 through 20, 2012, for a series of meetings to look at issues of marine mammal protection and indigenous subsistence activities in light of climate change, as well as growing gas and petroleum development and ship traffic in the region.

On Thursday, September 20, the leaders will participate in a panel discussion, "Navigating Alaskan Waters: Natives, Science, and Politics" from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.

George Noongwook, a representative of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, will be the keynote speaker. Representatives of the five Alaskan marine mammal commissions will join him in discussions moderated by Martin Robards of the Arctic Beringia Program.

The panelists are the heads of Alaska's five marine mammal commissions (whale, beluga, polar bear, seal, and walrus). They will talk about the challenges and opportunities their families and communities face in light of intensification of oil and gas development in Alaska, dramatic increases in ship traffic as ice disappears from northern waters, and climate change. They will also reflect on the importance and difficulty of integrating traditional knowledge, science, and policy when trying to safeguard marine mammal habitat and traditional cultural lifeways.

The commissioners work with state and federal authorities to ensure marine mammal populations stay healthy and indigenous hunters can continue their traditional harvesting of animals.

Along with representatives of local Alaskan community governments, they are conducting two days of meetings at Bowdoin College to work on common community concerns, most immediately the dramatic increase in international ship traffic through Alaskan waters. They will be finalizing a statement to be presented to the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Congressional Delegation, and the federal Marine Mammal Commission detailing key concerns about shipping and measures that should be taken to ensure the safety of marine mammals, indigenous subsistence activities, and food security.

 While at Bowdoin the Alaskans will visit a number of anthropology, sociology, and environmental studies classes where they will talk with Bowdoin students about how the Iñupiat and Yup'ik organizations work with local, state, federal, and international organizations. 

This gathering of Alaskan leaders on the Bowdoin College campus is funded by the Oak Foundation and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center, whose current exhibition, "Animal Allies, Inuit Views of the natural World," highlights traditional knowledge of Alaskan and Canadian northern hunters.

For more information about the panel discussion call 207-725-3062 or 207-725-3416.

Photo by Anne Henshaw.

Bowdoin's 14th Annual Common Good Day will take place on Saturday, September 15th from 11:30am to 4:30pm. Over five hundred Bowdoin students, faculty, staff and alumni will volunteer with dozens of local organizations and complete a variety of projects including trail maintenance, arts and crafts, gardening, dog-walking, tutoring and sorting food. All participants will also receive lunch and a free t-shirt. Join us on September 15th to get involved, give back and get to know your community! Register starting September 4th at www.bowdoin.edu/mckeen-center . Contact Melanie Gaynes at mgaynes@bowdoin.edu or 207-798-4191 with questions.