Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Hany Farid is a professor with joint appointments in the School of Information and Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the co-founder and chief science officer at GetReal Security. His research focuses on digital forensics, forensic science, misinformation, image analysis, and human perception. 

Farid received his undergraduate degree in computer science and applied mathematics from the University of Rochester in 1989, and his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. Following a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, he joined the faculty at Dartmouth College in 1999 where he remained until 2019 when he joined the faculty at UC Berkeley. He is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Henry Olsen '83 was previously an editor at UnHerd.com and a regular contributor to American Greatness, City Journal, and World Magazine. His work has been featured in many prominent publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Guardian, and The Weekly Standard.

His predictions of the 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 elections were particularly praised for their remarkable accuracy. In the 2016 campaign, he accurately identified the factors fueling the rise of Donald Trump early in the race, and his election-eve predictions were among the most accurate of any major analyst or commentator. Olsen regularly speaks about American political trends and global populism in the United State, Europe, and Australia.

Olsen has worked in senior executive positions at many center-right think tanks. He most recently served from 2006 to 2013 as Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. He previously worked as Vice President of Programs at the Manhattan Institute and President of the Commonwealth Foundation.

Olsen has a B.A. in government from Claremont McKenna College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government. 

Mr. Olsen's Athenaeum presentation is sponsored by Rose Institute of State and Local Government at CMC.

Sharon Sliwinski is professor of Information and Media Studies at Western University in Canada. Her interdisciplinary work brings together the fields of visual culture, political theory, and psychosocial studies. She has written extensively on photography, human rights, and the social imaginary. In 2017, she was elected to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. Her latest book, An Alphabet for Dreamers, will be published by MIT Press in October 2025.

Professor Sliwinski’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at CMC.

 

Yoshiko M. Herrera is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research on Russian politics: nationalism, identity, and ethnic politics; political economy and state statistics (national accounts); and international norms, has been published with Cambridge University Press, Cornell University Press, the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Politics, Political Analysis, Journal of Peach Research, Social Science Quarterly, Post-Soviet Affairs, and other outlets.

At UW–Madison, Herrera teaches courses on comparative politics, the Russian War on Ukraine, social identities and diversity, and post-communist politics. In 2021, she was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award at UW-Madison. 

Herrera received her B.A. from Dartmouth College and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Before arriving in Madison in 2007, Herrera was the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Sciences in the Government Department at Harvard University (1999-2007).  

Professor Herrera's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC.

Alan J. Auerbach is Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was previously the Robert D. Burch Professor of Economics and Law and director of the Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and also previously taught at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. 

Auerbach was Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation in 1992. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, having previously served as an Executive Committee Member and Vice President of that association and as Editor of its Journal of Economic Perspectives and American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. Auerbach is a past President of the Western Economic Association International and the National Tax Association and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society.

Professor Auerbach’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Lowe Institute of Political Economy at CMC.

Srivani Jade is a captivating performer and story-teller of the folk and classical traditions of North India. She is a singer, composer and educator, and has performed in major festivals in India, North America, and Europe. She has recorded eight solo albums; her debut album ‘Meera’s Love’ won an IMA nomination in 2009. Her background scores for films (Tapasya, 2003, Siddhanto, 2014) and the Tom Stoppard play ‘Indian Ink’ (Sound Theater Company, 2014) received much critical acclaim worldwide. She is a three-times Washington State Master grant recipient, a Visiting Artist at the University of Washington, and has won grants, awards and residencies at the national level. In addition to vocals, Jade is a an accomplished tanpura player.

Anindita Das was born and raised in Bangladesh, where she was trained in North Indian classical music and different forms of light music by different Gurus. She was an enlisted “Nazrul Geeti” singer in Bangladesh National Television and Radio and won many prestigious music competitions at the national level. Her first Bengali album was released in 2008, for which she received the “Best Debut Singer” award in Bangladesh. 

Suchitra Iyer is an Indian classical vocalist in the Hindustani tradition. She has been passionate about music from a young age, starting her journey with the south Indian Carnatic genre. Her years of rigorous Carnatic training helped make a smooth transition to the Hindustani khayal genre.

Aryan Prakash, currently an undergraduate student at U.C. San Diego, has learnt the samvadini, or harmonium, under the tutelage of renowned gurus. He began his musical journey in Southern California as an accompanying artist, and has recently performed to acclaim in the Festival of Tabla. 

Shivam Sudame, on tabla, has been learning and playing tabla since the age of 7 and has trained and performed with leading tabla maestros in India, the U.S., and around the world.

The Srivani Jade Ensemble's Athenaeum performance is part of a 4-part musical series for this academic year: Devotional and Spiritual World Music featuring Ghanian, South Asian, American Gospel, and Brazilian traditions.