​​​​​Jeffrey Barg, Former Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist

Jeffrey Barg, better known as the Angry Grammarian, writes about how grammar, language and punctuation shape our world. The former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist will discuss how your linguistic foibles affect those around you - and how we all can do better. His talk will include a humorous song or two from his 2024 musical, The Angry Grammarian.

Lisa Meeden, Professor of Computer Science, Swarthmore College

What does it mean for a machine to learn? In this talk we will see machine learning models in action, training them from scratch to learn several categorization tasks. We will explore how these models work, highlighting both their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss the ethical implications that arise as a result of how they work an are used today.

Michael X. Delli Carpini, Ph.D., Oscar H. Gandy Emeritus Professor of Communication & Democracy, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Recent politics has been characterized by an onslaught of controversial and difficult policy issues; record levels of hyper-partisanship, incivility, and disinformation; and declining trust in the media and institutions of government. In this lecture, Delli Carpini will assess the results of the November 5th U.S. elections, put them in the context of recent trends, and discuss their short-and longer-term implications for the future of American democracy.

Martha Hodes, Author and Professor of History, New York University

On September 6, 1970, twelve-year-old Hodes and her thirteen-year-old sister were flying home from Israel unaccompanied when their plane was hijacked by the secular Marxist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Decades later, beginning with her own hazy memories, Professor Hodes drew on her skills as a historian to re-create her week as a hostage in the Jordanian desert. The experience, then and now, prompted her to learn about the lives and causes of her captors, pondering a deadly divide that continues today— ultimately prompting a complex confrontation with trauma and empathy.