point Exchange: A New Season of Conversation Begins at Bowdoin

Upcoming Speakers

All talks are open to the public.

Loretta J. Ross, "The Radical Power of Calling In Those You'd Rather Cancel," September 24

Activist, public Intellectual, professor, and podcaster, Ross is the author of Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel. She speaks, trains, and consults on the issues of reproductive justice, appropriate whiteness, human rights, violence against women, and what she calls "calling in the calling-out culture." She is an associate professor of the study of women and gender at Smith College.

Yair Rosenberg, and dinner, "The Turn Against the Jews: The Societal Shifts Behind American Antisemitism," October 22

Rosenberg is a staff writer for The Atlantic, where he publishes his Deep Shtetl newsletter about politics, culture, and religion. He was previously a senior writer at Tablet Magazine, and is a regular speaker and commentator on antisemitism in the modern era and on strategies to combat abuse on online platforms.

Marla Brettschneider, October 27

Brettschneider is a professor of political and feminist theory at the University of New Hampshire with a joint appointment in the departments of political science and women's and genders studies. Her work is mainly in the field of Jewish diversity politics and political theory, using the co-constituted critical tools of feminist, queer, anti-racist, class-based, de-colonial, and Jewish theory.

Ken Stern, and dinner, November 4

Director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, Stern is an author and attorney, and is the former director of the American Jewish Committee's division on antisemitism and extremism for 25 years. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court, testified before the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, was an invited presenter at the White House Conference on Hate Crimes. He is the author of The Conflict Over the Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate.

Khalil Abdur-Rashid, "Understanding Islam, Muslims in America, and Islamophobia," November 13

Abdur-Rashid is the first full-time Muslim chaplain at Harvard University, where he's also an instructor of Muslim studies at the Divinity School, and a public policy lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government. He has been an advisor to the NYPD Police Commissioner, served as imam for several years in New York City, and co-founded, with his wife, the Islamic Seminary of America in Dallas.

Film, Culture and Climate: a conversation with dream hampton, November 14

dream hampton is an award-winning filmmaker and writer from Detroit. Her recent works include the award-winning short film Freshwater and Ladies First . Other films includer Treasure, Finding Justice, It's A Hard Truth Ain't It, and the Emmy-nominated Surviving R. Kelly, which broke ratings records on Netflix and earned her a Peabody Award. In 2019, hampton was named one of TIME 100's most influential people in the world.

Howard French, and dinner, November 19

French is a journalist, most recently with the New York Times, and the author of four books, including Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power, and China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa. He has also published a book of photography, Disappearing Shanghai: Photographs and Poems of an Intimate Way of Life.

More speakers will be announced in the spring.