Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
feature of social and
cultural life at CMC

 

Welcome to The Athenaeum

Unique in American higher education, the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum (the “Ath”) is a signature program of Claremont McKenna College. Four nights a week during the school year, the Ath brings scholars, public figures, thought leaders, artists, and innovators to engage with the CMC and Claremont College community. In addition, the Ath also hosts lunch speakers, roundtables, and smaller presentations in its two auxiliary dining rooms.

For decades, the Ath has hosted a spectrum of luminaries with expertise and insight on a wide range of topics, both historical and contemporary. In the Ath’s intimate yet stimulating setting, students, faculty, staff, and other community members gather to hear the speaker, pose questions, and to build community and exchange ideas over a shared meal.

At the core of the Ath is a longstanding commitment to student growth and learning. Central to the Ath are its student fellows, selected annually to host, introduce, and moderate discussion with the featured speaker. Priority is given to students in attendance during the question-and-answer session following every presentation. Moreover, speakers often take extra time to visit a class, meet with student interest groups, or give an interview to the student press and podcast team.

Thu, March 28, 2024
Dinner Program
Zongyuan Zoe Liu

No other country in history has so rapidly transformed its economy from being among the world’s poorest and most isolated to one of the world’s largest economies, at the heart of the global supply chain, and a leading source of international investment capital. For the last two decades, China’s sovereign funds have played a significant role in China’s economy, mitigating financial crises and tempering exogenous shocks. In this talk, Dr. Zongyuan Zoe Liu, the Maurice R. Greenberg Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, will discuss how sovereign funds have supported China’s industrial policies by financing the state’s procurement of strategic overseas assets, bankrolling Chinese enterprises’ mergers and acquisitions abroad, and sponsoring the development of indigenous Chinese technology startups. As Liu makes clear, sovereign funds are not just for oil exporters. The Communist Party of China is a leader in both foreign exchange reserves investment and economic statecraft, using state capital to encourage domestic economic activity and create spheres of influence worldwide.
 

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Zongyuan Zoe Liu is Maurice R. Greenberg Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She researches issues in the areas of international political economy, global financial markets, and energy security in East Asia and the Middle East. Dr. Liu is the author of Can BRICS De-dollarize the Global Financial System? (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Sovereign Funds: How the Communist Party of China Finances Its Global Ambitions (Harvard University Press, 2023). She is also a columnist at Foreign Policy. Dr. Liu received her PhD in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and she is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Dr. Liu's visit to the Athenaeum is co-sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC.

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This event is no longer open for registrations.

Mon, April 1, 2024
Dinner Program
Ambassador Dennis Ross and Ghaith al-Omari

Join two experts who have both been involved in peace negotiations in the Israel-Palestine conflict for a conversation about the current war in the Middle East. Ambassador Dennis Ross has played an important role in shaping US foreign policy towards the Middle East under multiple presidential administrations, and Ghaith al-Omari has served in a variety of positions within the Palestinian Authority, including as advisor to the negotiating team during the 1999-2001 permanent status talks. Together, they will share their insight on how we got to the current war, what comes next, what peace between Israelis and Palestinians might look like, and what needs to happen to reach that point.

This is the third and final event in the Athenaeum's three-part series, "Perspectives on Israel and Palestine." We encourage attendees to remain open to listening and seeking to understand multiple viewpoints by registering for all three events. The other events are: the Yousef Munayyer talk on Monday, March 18, "Israel's Genocide in Gaza and Our Complicity," and the CMC faculty panel on Tuesday, March 26, "Talking About Israel and Palestine: Faculty Perspectives." 

**ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED TO ATTEND THIS TALK – This is a "flipped Ath" event, in conjunction with the Open Academy: the reception will be held at 5:30 PM as usual, followed directly by the presentation at 6:00 PM. Dinner (and conversation!) will follow at 6:45 PM, and then Q&A at 7:30 PM.** Dates and water will be provided for those observing iftar. Those breaking their fast may also request a boxed vegetarian dinner to be provided - please reply to your registration confirmation with this request.

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Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He served two and half years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, spending the first 6 months of the Administration as the special advisor on Iran to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Ghaith al-Omari, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Irwin Levy Family Program on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship, is the former executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine. He served as advisor to the negotiating team during the 1999–2001 permanent-status talks in addition to holding various other positions within the Palestinian Authority.

Ambassador Ross and Mr. al-Omari's visit to the Athenaeum is co-sponsored by Hillel International.

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Tue, April 2, 2024
Lunch Program
Anoush Tamar Suni

Before the 1915 Genocide of Ottoman Armenians, the region of Van, in contemporary southeastern Turkey, held hundreds of active Armenian churches and monasteries. After the destruction of the Armenian community, these ruined structures took on new afterlives as they became part of the evolving environments and communities around them. These ruined spaces play a role in the everyday lives of the people who live among them and shape their historical understandings and relationships with the local history and geography. In this talk, Dr. Suni interrogates the afterlives of one abandoned monastery and examines how local Kurds imagine, narrate, and enact the politics of the past and the present through that space of material ruin.

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Anoush Tamar Suni is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Promise Armenian Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to coming to UCLA, she was the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University, and a Manoogian Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Armenian Studies Program and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2019. She is currently working on her book project, which investigates questions of memory and the material legacies of state violence in the region of Van with a focus on the historic Armenian and contemporary Kurdish communities. Her research was recently published in the journals Comparative Studies in Society and History and Anthropological Quarterly.

Dr. Suni's visit to the Athenaeum is co-sponsored by the History Department at CMC, the Anthropology Department at Pomona, and the Anthropology Department and MENA Studies Program at Scripps.

 

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Tue, April 2, 2024
Dinner Program
Shaun Harper, Aya Waller-Bey, and Devon Westhill, panelists
Ken Miller, moderator

In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (and 6-3 in its companion case, Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina) that the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions decisions was unconstitutional. This ruling effectively overturned the 2003 decision Grutter v. Bollinger, which had previously permitted the consideration of race in admissions decisions. Both supporters and critics of the ruling believe that it will have far-reaching implications within American higher education and beyond, even as colleges and universities attempt to maintain racially diverse student bodies without explicitly considering race. Join a panel of experts on higher education, race, and admissions, for a discussion of the impact of the decision, how it may affect the content of admissions essays, and the broader implications for American higher education and society.

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Shaun Harper is one of the nation’s most highly respected racial equity experts. He is a Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education, Marshall School of Business, and Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. Dr. Harper also is the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership, founder and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, and a Forbes contributor. He served as the 2020-21 American Educational Research Association president and the 2016-17 Association for the Study of Higher Education president. He was inducted into the National Academy of Education in 2021. Professor Harper has published 12 books and over 100 academic papers. The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and several thousand other news outlets have quoted Dr. Harper and featured his research. He has interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, and NPR. He also has testified twice to the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Aya M. Waller-Bey is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Michigan, examining trauma narratives in college essays. A researcher, writer, and storyteller, Aya’s work critically informs growing discourse about the commodification of racialized trauma by postsecondary institutions, non-profits, and foundations, and a growing concern about how institutions of higher education entice minoritized groups to place their trauma and struggle on display for access and rewards. She's authored op-eds for Forbes and the Atlantic on trauma in college essays and affirmative action, with interviews and citations in publications like The New York Times, The Guardian, MarketWatch, and Slate. She’s also given dozens of local and national invited talks, including Aspen Center for Physics, TEDxDetroit, The New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the National Association of Fellowship Advisors and SXSW EDU. She is a decorated scholar selected as a Ford Foundation Predoctoral and Dissertation Fellowship awardee—a prestigious fellowship awarded by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine aimed to increase the diversity of the national college and university professoriate. Aya holds a B.A. in Sociology from Georgetown University and earned the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship in 2015, completing her Master of Philosophy in Education at the University of Cambridge. She also holds an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Aya is a proud Detroiter, first-generation college student, and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

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Devon Westhill is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, and is an attorney focused on matters of constitutional and civil rights. He researches, speaks, and writes about civil rights, civil liberties, and related issues such as race relations, social change, and equal opportunity.

Mr. Westhill's writing has been published in numerous outlets including Newsweek, National Review, and The Wall Street Journal. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio programs, and has appeared on cable television channels including Fox News, Newsmax, and CSPAN. Mr. Westhill has also provided expert testimony to both houses of the U.S. Congress, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Mr. Westhill led the civil rights office at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the Trump administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. He has also worked at the U.S. Department of Labor, Federalist Society, and as a criminal trial lawyer in private practice. Mr. Westhill is a U.S. Navy veteran with degrees from UNC at Chapel Hill and the University of Florida.

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This panel will be moderated by Ken Miller, the Rose Professor of State and Local Government and Director of the Rose Institute at CMC.

This event is co-sponsored by the Jerome H. Garris Dialogue Series at CMC with additional support from the Presidential Initiative on Anti-Racism and the Black Experience in America, all at CMC.

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Wed, April 3, 2024
Dinner Program
Fabrice Guerrier

How do we imagine the future in the context of addressing, navigating, and transforming environmental, social, and cultural challenges, seeking innovative ways to create inclusive and sustainable futures? Join sci-fi and fantasy publishing visionary Fabrice Guerrier on an exploration of worldbuilding in fiction and imagination. By embracing the notion of 'creolization,' Guerrier will investigate how the blending of diverse cultural, intellectual, and social elements can forge new, resilient pathways for humanity.

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Fabrice j. Guerrier is the award-winning founder of Syllble Studios, a pioneering sci-fi and fantasy production and publishing house that develops diverse writing talent through collaborative worldbuilding. At Syllble, Guerrier leads a radically new process of creating unique fictional worlds by connecting underrepresented creative writers, visual artists and inspired creators from different countries, backgrounds, and cultures through artist collectives. Drawing from his cultural heritage and his interests in syncretism, creolization, Haitian futurism, African spiritual traditions, and worldbuilding, Guerrier's science-fantasy shared-world "Ayitiverse" aims to unraveled the universal history of the world’s first modern Black nation, Haiti.

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1991, Guerrier moved to the United States at the young age of 13 in 2004. He holds a Bachelor’s in International Affairs and a Leadership Studies Certificate from Florida State University, as well as a Master’s in Conflict Transformation at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP). While at CJP, he helped found a local chapter of Coming to the Table (CTTT), a national racial reconciliation organization founded by descendants of the enslaved and enslavers from the same plantation in the United States. He then went on to become the youngest national president of CTTT's board of directors.

Guerrier’s TED Talk, “Gone are the days of the lone genius,” illuminates future transformation and the need for collective thinking. He is the author of No More Vagabonds, No More Obscure Wars: Poems (2023), Medusa’s Descendant (2023), Breaking Free From Mass-Produced Consciousness: A Little Book for Artists, Entrepreneurs, and the Leaders of Tomorrow (2021) and Golden Veins: A Collection Of Stories (2019). He was selected as a 2022 PEN Emerging Voices Fellow finalist and a PEN Haiti Fellow by PEN America. Guerrier was inducted into Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Art & Style and named to The Root Magazine‘s 100 Most Influential African-Americans. He lives in Los Angeles, CA. 

Guerrier will deliver the 2024 Golo Mann Lecture, sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at CMC.

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Thu, April 4, 2024
Lunch Program
Vernon C. Grigg III and George Thomas

Join the Kravis Lab for the fourth installment of Civitas Sessions, an Athenaeum lunch series designed to build real-world civic skills and the knowledge needed to live thoughtful, productive lives as responsible community members and leaders. Each session will deliver practical knowledge and discuss the application of the subject matter to important current issues. With a welcoming ‘come-as-you-are’ atmosphere, the Civitas Sessions focus on the stuff you need to know before it becomes the stuff I wish I had known… 

In this session Vernon C Grigg III, J.D., Executive Director of the Kravis Lab, and George Thomas, the Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions at CMC, will present a refresher on Articles I, II, and III of the Constitution, and discuss their importance to today’s world.

(Parents Dining Room - lunch served at 12:00 noon, program begins at 12:15 PM, but feel free to come a little late if you're getting out of class)

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Civitas Sessions is organized by the Kravis Lab and moderated by Executive Director Vernon C. Grigg III, JD. A lawyer by training, Grigg holds degrees from Yale Law School (J.D.), the London School of Economics (G.SC.), and the University of Michigan (BA).  Vernon comes to the Kravis Lab from his role as CEO & President of Up with People, a fifty-five-year-old international nonprofit education and arts organization. He managed a global team of 50 employees across three continents as he led the nonprofit to sustainability and health despite the challenges of the worldwide pandemic.

George Thomas is Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions and Director of the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author, most recently, of The (Un)Written Constitution, as well as The Madisonian Constitution and The Founders and the Idea of a National University: Constituting the American Mind, and co-author of the two-volume American Constitutional Law: Essays, Cases, and Comparative Notes. He has published numerous scholarly articles on Constitutional Law and American Constitutionalism, and his essays have appeared in The Atlantic and The Washington Post. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Huntington Library, and is the recipient of the Alexander George Award from the American Political Science Association.

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Thu, April 4, 2024
Dinner Program
Cate Taylor

“The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives”, wrote three Supreme Court Justices in 1992. Cate Taylor's research investigates the degree to which this is true. In summer of 2022, the Supreme Court overturned a nearly fifty-year precedent of Roe v. Wade, which mandated the constitutional right to abortion, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Consequently, abortion is now illegal, or very difficult to access, in at least twenty-four states. Taylor will share her new research showing the consequences of millions of people losing access to abortion since summer of 2022. Such consequences include negative impacts on women’s ability to get an education and keep themselves and their families out of financial precarity. Losing access to abortion also means that pregnant people lose access important medical care during pregnancy—even during wanted pregnancies.
 

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Cate Taylor is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UCSB, in Santa Barbara, CA. Formerly, she was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana with a joint appointment in the Department of Gender Studies and a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University. She earned her PhD at Cornell University. Her main research and teaching areas are gender, work, health, reproduction, social psychology, and social inequality.

Professor Taylor's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Berger Institute for Individual and Social Development at CMC.

 

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Mon, April 8, 2024
Dinner Program
Jean Michel Habineza

As Rwanda commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Genocide Against the Tutsis, a significant demographic shift has emerged. With over 50% of the population born after the atrocities, a new generation is grappling with the weight of history and the imperative of preventing such horrors from repeating. In this talk, Jean Michel Habineza will delve into the complex dynamics of memory, prevention, and reconciliation in a society shaped by the scars of its past. Join us as we explore the challenges, fears, and aspirations of a generation living in the aftermath of unspeakable tragedy, seeking answers and forging a path towards healing and understanding.

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Jean Michel Habineza has worked in the field of Genocide Prevention and Youth Empowerment since 2007. He was one of the founders of Peace and Love Proclaimers “Youth for A Change”, an organization aimed at creating positive change in Rwanda. PLP (as it is commonly referred to) was the creator of Walk to Remember, a commemorative walk that brings together young people from all over the world to end mass atrocities. The walk has taken place in 25 countries around the world and attended by dignitaries such Rwandan President Kagame and the First Lady, William Hague, foreign secretary of the UK, and Samantha Powers (the US ambassador to the UN) among others.

In 2012, Jean Michel co-founded iDebate Rwanda, a debate program that teaches students the art of civil discourse. iDebate currently works with 150 schools and serves more than 6000 students. Through his leadership, Rwandan students won the 2017 African Debate Championship and the Rollins Cup, a prestigious cup whose past winners include Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Jean Michel is a TEDx speaker and has spoken at more than 60 universities in the USA through his project “Voices From a Post Genocide Generation” about the importance of civil discourse, and his work has been featured in Foreign Policy Journal, and Huffington Post.

Jean Michel is the co-author of Rwanda Rising: Debate as Global Pedagogy, a book that aims at sharing the importance of civil discourse to curtail propaganda. The book was inspired by the 2019 Dreamers Academy, a holiday program started by iDebate Rwanda.  In 2016, he was named the 2016 Public Advocate of the Year, an award given by CEDA, the largest intercollegiate debate program in the USA. Jean Michel holds a MA in Social Entrepreneurship and Change from Pepperdine University and a BA in International Relations from Towson University.

Mr. Habineza’s talk is co-sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Genocide Against the Tutsis.
 

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Tue, April 9, 2024
Dinner Program
Ryan Patel, Jeffrey Hausman, Faye Karnavy Sahai, and Tim Hall

Join Ryan Patel, a global business executive and CMC's William F. Podlich Distinguished Fellow, along with a panel of CMC alumni in executive roles in the tech field--Jeffrey Hausman '90 (Chief Product Development Officer at PagerDuty), Faye Karnavy Sahai '90 (Founding Managing General Partner, Telosity Ventures), and Tim Hall '92 (Chief Product Officer at Redis)--for an enlightening exploration of the groundbreaking advancements in technology, as we delve into the dynamic realms of the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI. These experts will not only unravel the intricate web of innovation but also expose the crucial data aspects that underpin these transformative technologies. Throughout this session, they will shed light on the profound impacts on society, showcasing how the synergy between data, IoT, and AI is reshaping industries and influencing daily life. From unraveling the complexities of data-driven decision-making to understanding the ethical considerations of AI, they will discuss the far-reaching implications of these technologies and the evolving landscape they create.
 

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Ryan Patel is a globally recognized futurist and go-to authority on global business, political economy, and corporate governance. An expert in scaling businesses, he's served startups and publicly traded firms. Listed as one of the “Creators to Follow” by Linkedin Editor in Chief Daniel Roth and recognized as a “Top Voice” on Linkedin, Patel is a sought-after TV news commentator and Board Director. Patel also hosts "The Moment with Ryan Patel," featuring conversations with top innovators and executives filmed at the iconic HP Garage, the birthplace of Silicon Valley. He complements his literary talents with domestic and international keynote appearances, leading campaigns with corporations and universities such as the World Economic Forum, Davos, Mastercard, HP, Adobe, The Economist, Reuters, and more.

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Jeffrey Hausman '90 is the Chief Product Development Officer at PagerDuty, where he leads their Operations Cloud platform strategy and all product innovation including Generative AI offerings. Prior to PagerDuty, Hausman was the Chief Product Officer at Samsara, and served as ServiceNow Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Operations Management Portfolio - ITOM, ITAM, Security, Risk and ESG. He brings a strong track record of over 25 years leading product development as a senior executive across a wide range of products at McAfee, Symantec, Hewlett-Packard and Veritas. 

Hausman received his MBA at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and graduated from CMC with degrees in mathematics and economics.

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Faye Karnavy Sahai '90 is Founding Managing Partner at Telosity Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in digital wellness and mental health. Prior to this, she hah 25+ years of experience in healthcare, financial institutions, and technology innovation executive at Kaiser Permanente, Schwab, AIG, Blue Shield and Deloitte Consulting and founded 3 of her own startups.

She has served an Advisor and Board member to over a dozen companies including Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, UCSF Catalyst, ANA Innovation Advisory, Samsung Emerging Technology Advisory, Innovation Executive Forum, CMC Alumni Board, the Berger Institute and Ascend Leadership NorCal Chair.

Sahai holds a BA in Economics and Psychology from CMC and an MBA from UCLA.

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Tim Hall '92 is the Chief Product Officer at Redis, and is passionate about building products that developers love to use and that are easy to run and manage for customers. For more than a decade in senior leadership positions, his teams have been focused on executing to make these values a reality for leading open source, enterprise software, and cloud-based platforms at Redis, InfluxData, Hortonworks, Oracle, and HP. Previously, Hall worked in professional services, building solutions and delivering systems integration projects for a wide variety of customers, from financial services to distribution and logistics companies and more.

Hall holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in science and management with a concentration in physics from Claremont McKenna College.

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This Athenaeum presentation recognizes Ryan Patel's William F. Podlich Distinguished Fellowship at CMC, and is also part of the Athenaeum's 40th Anniversary Series, which celebrates the achievements of CMC alumni from across the years and invites them to return home to Claremont.

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Wed, April 10, 2024
Lunch Program
Tani Cantil-Sakauye

Join Tani Cantil-Sakauye, President and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California and former Chief Justice of California, for a conversation about the importance of civic engagement and civic discourse in society.  California and the nation are at inflection points and the debates that will determine policy and law for the coming decades require widespread civic participation.  Come discuss how today’s rising generation of leaders can promote that goal, now and in the future.

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Tani Cantil-Sakauye is President and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, where she holds the Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California’s Future. From 2011 to 2022, she served as the 28th Chief Justice of California and led the judiciary as the chair of the Judicial Council—the constitutional policy and rule making body of the judicial branch—the first person of color and the second woman to do so. Before she was elected statewide as the Chief Justice of California, she served more than 20 years on California appellate and trial courts and was appointed or elevated to higher office by three governors. Earlier in her career she served as a deputy district attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and on the senior staff of Governor Deukmejian, first as deputy legal affairs secretary and later as a deputy legislative secretary. She holds a BA and a JD from the University of California, Davis.

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Rose Institute for State and Local Government at CMC.

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Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
385 E. Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711

Contact

Phone: (909) 621-8244 
Fax: (909) 621-8579 
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