Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Peter Langland-Hassan is a professor of philosophy at the University of Cincinnati and author of the book Explaining Imagination. He has published many articles in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science on topics ranging from creativity, to inner speech, to consciousness, and episodic memory. 

Though a philosopher at heart, his research involves designing and carrying out psychological experiments and exploring questions such as, among others: What is imagination? How does imagination help us do things like pretend, reason hypothetically, enjoy fiction, and be creative? How do we know our own minds?

His recent work explores the relevance of contemporary AI to theories of human cognition.

Professor Langland-Hassan’s Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at CMC and is part of the Center’s AI and the Humanities series. 

Coleman Hughes’ writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Quillette, City Journal, The Spectator, and the Washington Examiner. Hughes was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a fellow and contributing editor at their City Journal, and he is the host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman. 

Hughes appeared on Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2021. In 2019, Hughes testified before the U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee at a hearing on reparations for slavery. He has appeared on TV shows and podcasts including The View, Real Time with Bill Maher, the Joe Rogan Experience, and Making Sense with Sam Harris. He is also a columnist at the Free Press and a contributor at CNN.

Mr. Hughes’ Athenaeum event is co-sponsored by the Valach Speaker Series and the Open Academy at CMC.

Photo credit: Evan Mann

David Autor is the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, co-director of the NBER Labor Studies Program and the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative. His scholarship explores the labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality, and electoral outcomes.

The Economist magazine labeled Autor in 2019 as “The academic voice of the American worker.” Later that same year, and with equal justification, he was christened “Twerpy MIT Economist” by John Oliver of Last Week Tonight in a segment on automation and employment.

Autor has received numerous awards for both his scholarship—the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of Labor Economics, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2019, the Society for Progress Medal in 2021—and for his teaching, including the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellowship. In 2020, Autor received the Heinz 25th Special Recognition Award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his work “transforming our understanding of how globalization and technological change are impacting jobs and earning prospects for American workers.” In 2023, Autor was selected as one of two researchers across all scientific fields a NOMIS Distinguished Scientist.

Professor Autor will deliver the 2025 McKenna Lecture on International Trade and Economics.

Matt Garcia is Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of History, Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies, and Human Relations at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Eli and the Octopus: The CEO Who Tried to Reform One of the World’s Most Notorious Corporations, published by Harvard University Press in 2023.  He is also the author of A World of Its Own: Race, Labor and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles, 1900-1970 published by the University of North Carolina in 2002, and From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement, published by the University of California Press in 2012. He is the co-editor of Food Across Borders with Melanie DuPuis and Don Mitchell published by Rutgers University Press in 2017. His archive of his research resides at Claremont Honnold Library, Special Collections.
 

Funie Hsu/Chhî (she/they) is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work melds American studies, Asian American studies, Buddhist studies, education, and other fields. Hsu/Chhî is currently associate professor of American studies at San José State University. She received a Ph.D. in education with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to her academic career, she was an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She is currently working on a book project that examines race, religion, and the popular secularization of Buddhist mindfulness in the context of American public schools. Her scholarship and essays have appeared in American Quarterly; Journal of Global Buddhism; Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies; Educational Studies; CATESOL; L2 Journal; The Immanent Frame; Lion's Roar;  Buddhadharma; The Progressive, and elsewhere. Hsu/Chhî is a co-organizer of May We Gather, a national Buddhist memorial ceremony for Asian American ancestors.

Professor Hsu/Chhî's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Kutten Lectureship in Religious Studies at CMC.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Nathan Cheung is known for his versatility as a solo pianist, collaborator, composer, and improviser. He has won top prizes in over 15 international and national competitions. His performances have taken him across the country and around the world.

In addition to his active performing schedule, Cheung serves as an instructor of collaboration at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music and was previously a visiting assistant professor of Collaborative Piano at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A sought-after educator, he has designed compositions and online practice intensives for piano students of all levels.

Cheung received his doctorate and two master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music, as well as a bachelor's degree from Stanford University. In his free time, he enjoys learning languages, reading, and self-teaching himself the guitar.

Curated by Sheena Hui '19, this Athenaeum performance is part of a four-part 2024-25 Athenaeum Concert Series, In Freundschaft — In Friendship.

Program Notes:
Liszt, Les jeux d'eaux à la villa d'Este
Ravel, Jeux d'eau
Busoni, Sonatina No. 6, Fantasia da camera super Carmen
Suesse, Jazz Nocturne
Cheung, Rapid Fire
Improvisation on notes selected by the audience
Gershwin-Wild, Virtuoso Etudes
 

Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies, and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. 

Between 2012 and 2019 he served as the Dean of the School, and between 2009 and 2011 as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. 

Nasr has advised world leaders and major corporations, and is the author of several books including, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History; How Sanctions Work, Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare; The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat; The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future; and Democracy in Iran; as well as articles in scholarly journals, and commentary in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. 

He is the recipient of Carnegie Scholar Award, and the Frank Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundation research fellowships. He was selected as Henry Alfred Kissinger Resident Scholar at Library of Congress for 2024-25.

Professor Nasr’s Athenaeum presentation is part of the “Middle East: What Now?” series, co-sponsored by the President’s Leadership Fund.