Lectures & Events

Department of Statistics & Data Science Seminar

Monday, Oct. 16, 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Doherty Hall A302 (Refreshments 3:30-4:00 pm in the Baker Hall 232 lobby)
Alexandre Tsybakov, a professor and head of the Laboratory of Statistics of CREST at ENSAE, will give a talk titled “ Optimal and Adaptive Variable Selection."

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SafeZone Training

Monday, Oct. 16, 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., McKenna/Peter/Wright Room, CUC
SafeZone is a network of allies made up of CMU faculty, staff and students who are committed to providing a safe and affirming environment for all at CMU, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.

Registration is required 

Dietrich College Fall Fest

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m., The Mall (between Baker and Doherty Halls)
Dietrich College students, faculty and staff are invited to Dietrich College Fall Fest for an apple bar, giveaways for Dietrich students, raffles, caricature artists, hot cocoa and cider.

Spotify @ CMU Tech Talk + Mixer

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., Margarert Morrison Room 103

You're invited to have the opportunity to hear from a member of the Spotify Band (employees) on some of the awesome things Spotify is working on. Ever wonder about the technology behind the music? Come attend Tech Talk + Mixer to find out more. Attendees will also get the chance to hear from a number of Spotifiers on their experience and careers, learning more about our internship opportunities, and score some free food! Spotify is looking for both technical and non-technical students passionate about the music-tech industry for a variety of business, engineering and analytics internships.

Applications for our opportunities will be posted in late September on our careers website. Please join us to learn more about the opportunities to #JoinTheBand. Space is limited. Registration is required. 

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Frankenstein 200 Panel Discussion: “Creation and Consequence”

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., Danforth Conference Room, Cohon University Center (CUC)
Two hundred years ago, Mary Shelley introduced the ill-fated scientist Victor Frankenstein and his unnamed creation. Although many critics focus on Frankenstein as a figure of hubris, working against the will of gods and natural law, he can also be considered in terms of his obsession: the quest to create life, without thought for the results or consequences. At this event, a panel of scholars from across CMU will examine the relevance of Shelley’s novel today, particularly how it helps frame the responsibility of investigators to consider the consequences of artificial intelligence and a technologically-augmented human society.

Presented by the University Libraries in collaboration with the Alumni Association’s CMUThink program.

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Statistics & Data Science Taco Truck

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., CFA Lawn
Statistics & Data Science is hosting a taco truck to celebrate our new name! Come learn about our name and get some tacos!

The Promise (and False Promises?) of Digital Humanities

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Baker Hall 154R
Tatyana Gershkovich (Assistant Professor of Russian Studies) will discuss Beyond the Ant Brotherhood, her digital project to create dynamic timelines of Leo Tolstoy’s life and works.

Christopher Phillips (Assistant Professor of History) will discuss his similarly public-facing digital project entitled The Carnegie Mellon Encyclopedia of Science History.

Presenting their projects side by side, they will aim to illustrate some of the possibilities and limitations of digital tools as a means to pursue humanistic research.

Panel Discussion: “Robotics, Pittsburgh and the End of Work”

Thursday, October 19, 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Porter Hall 100
Pittsburgh has been constantly in the news as a futurist tech city since the arrival of Uber’s driverless cars. Some economists predict that robots will outnumber human workers as early as 2040. While many of us at CMU hope to be among the 30% of American humans who still have jobs, in this panel discussion we will talk about how we can plan for this seismic change in our economy and way of life. This event will feature a panel of CMU faculty as well as corporate and city officials.

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Talk by NIH's Nora Volkow, Andrew Carnegie Prize Ceremony

Thursday, Oct. 19, 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Gates Hillman Center
A pioneer of using brain imaging to investigate the toxic and addictive properties of abusable drugs, National Institute of Health’s Nora Volkow will receive the fifth annual Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences and present a talk, “Molecular Imaging of Addictive Disorders.”

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Kathi Weeks and James Livingston, “The End of Work”

Thursday, Oct. 19, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., Location TBA
At this evening event we welcome two experts on the topic of the end of work and its discontents. In their respective books, Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Anti-work Politics and Postwork Imaginaries, and James Livingston, No More Work: Why Full Employment is a Bad Idea, these engaging scholars offer lessons for us as we go forward in our thinking about policy, politics, and our own careers. As one reviewer wrote about Livingston, he “is bracingly impolite about the cult of capitalistic productivity” as he brazenly suggests that we leisure more and toil less. As for Weeks’ book, one reviewer argues that Weeks “stares back [at the neoliberal cult of market valuation] without blinking and demands something different.” Come hear Weeks and Livingston argue for a universal basic income, and new ways of defining worth in a post-work society.

Sponsored by the Humanities Center.

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Women in Transportation and Government

Monday, Oct. 23, 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., Hamburg Hall A301
First Lady of Pennsylvania Frances Wolf and Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Leslie S. Richards welcome you to a town hall for "A Conversation on the Importance of Women and Diversity in the Fields of Transportation and Public Service." Courtney Ehrlichman, deputy executive director of CMU's Traffic21 Institute, will join the discussion along with moderator Melanie Harrington, president and CEO of Vibrant Pittsburgh. CMU Interim Provost Laurie Weingart will provide opening remarks.

Literary and Cultural Studies Colloquium: Marc Bousquet

Monday, Oct. 23, 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Baker Hall 255B (Swank Room)
Marc Bousquet, author of How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation and associate professor of media studies at Emory University, will be presenting on the topic of "The University in Platform Capitalism."

What is the relationship of US colleges and universities to platforms and communicative capitalism? Rather than universities following behind corporate developments, early platforms borrowed their accumulation strategies and universities have been critical players in contemporary communicative accumulation. For instance, the networked experiences of pre-digital campuses were already being monetized by universities and their users, providing a model for Facebook, LinkedIn, participatory MOOCs and other platforms. This talk presents research for a book Bousquet is finishing for Johns Hopkins University Press called Monetizing the Student: The University as Accumulation Machine, and investigates how platform developers have in turn influenced campus administration, teaching, and research.

Coffee, soft drinks, and snacks will be served.

History Department Ice Cream Social

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Baker Hall 246A
Get the Scoop on history courses (and enjoy some Dave & Andy’s ice cream too).

Talk informally with faculty and history advisors about the wide variety of History Department Courses.

You, Unedited: Confronting Injustice Through Personal Narrative

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., The Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion, Cohon Univeristy Center (CUC)
Join us on Wednesday, October 25 in the Center for a campus-wide conversation about the ways in which local and global injustices affect us both as individuals and as members of the Carnegie Mellon University community.  This event, co-sponsored by the MLK Day Writing Awards, will emphasize the impact that experiential writing and personal narrative can have on our ability to process, reflect upon, and find strength in uncertain times.  In addition to sharing your own story, you can learn from the experiences of others and help create a space for self-expression, reflection, and solidarity in our community.  The conversation will be facilitated by Jim Daniels & M. Shernell Smith.

Slobodan Perović - Center for Formal Epistemology Lunchtime Talk

Thursday, Oct. 26, 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., Baker Hall Room 150
“How Theories of Induction Can Streamline Measurements of Scientific Performance”

An inductive approach to the scientific reasoning process can streamline operational assessments of scientific performance, e.g. citation metric analysis, by determining whether the scientific domain at stake is inductively suitable for such assessment. This approach aims to identify a methodologically coherent scientific pursuit, which ensures that the citation metrics track internal inductive dynamics and efficiency of the reasoning process in the analyzed domain. We demonstrate inductive streamlining (drawing on Formal/Machine Learning Theory) in the cases of high energy physics experimentation and phylogenetics research. A general test defining basic internal inductive and external practical conditions can ensure epistemically transparent operational, citation-based, analysis of scientific networks.

Slobodan Perović is with the Department of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, Serbia.

This talk is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy.

English Department and CMU’s 3 Rivers Rhetoric Society of America's Faculty/Graduate Student Lunch Series

Friday, Oct. 27, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m., Wean Hall 1320
John Oddo shares his current research. Lunch provided.

Dana Scott, Carnegie Mellon University (emeritus) Pure and Applied Logic Colloquium

Friday, Oct. 27, 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., Baker Hall A53

This talk is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy

International Relations and Politics Accelerated Masters Program, Information Session  

Monday, Oct. 30, 4:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m., Baker Hall 154R  
Are you interested in learning more about the Accelerated Master of Science in International Relations and Politics (IRP/AMP)?  I will be holding an information session on Monday, October 30, 4:30-5:15PM, to review the program and answer any questions.  Current master's students will also attend to answer your questions.  

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CIRP Policy Forum, Laura Chinchilla, "Latin America: Hope in Times of Populism?"

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 5:00 p.m. -6:00p.m., Rashid Auditorium (GHC 4401)
Laura Chinchilla was the first woman to ascend to presidency in Costa Rica, and the fifth ever woman president in America's history. In her four years in office, between 2010 and 2014, her major achievements were centered and focused on reducing crime, improving public safety, controlling inflation (under 5%) and establishing public healthcare.

As a member of the National Liberation Party (PNL), she had positions in government under Jose Maria Figueres where she was first appointed Viceministra de Seguridad Pública (1994-1996), advancing that platform between 1996 and 1998. To register, email the Center for International Relations and Politics.

Sponsored by the Center for International Relations and Politics, the Office of Government Relations, and the Department of Modern Languages.

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Jennifer Epps-Addison, “Building Communities of Power and Resistance in the Age of Trump”

Thursday, Nov. 2, 4:30 p.m., Porter Hall 100
One question we’ll be asking this year is this: what would Marx be doing if he were alive today? We’d like to think that he might be working alongside Jennifer Epps-Addison at the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD)—a high profile social justice organization focused on progressive policy-making and grassroots organizing.

Epps-Addison, currently co-director of the CPD, came from her stint as the Chief Program Officer at the Liberty Hill Foundation, an LA-based social justice foundation that funds grassroots community organizing campaigns for social change. Prior to joining Liberty Hill, Epps-Addison helped coordinate the Fight for $15 campaign with Wisconsin Jobs Now. In 2012 Epps-Addison led a campaign to pass the Milwaukee Jobs Act, which created entry-level construction opportunities for unemployed city residents.

This lecture is part of the Marx at 200 Fall Events Series sponsored by the CMU Humanities Center.

Panel: Black Women, Convict Labor, and the Carceral State: Chained in Silence and No Mercy Here

Friday, Nov. 3, 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Rangos 3, Cohon University Center (CUC)
Sarah Haley, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies and African American Studies, UCLA Talitha LeFlouria, Lisa Smith Discovery Associate Professor, African and African-American Studies, University of Virginia Chair: Kevin Mumford, Professor of History, University of Illinois.

Sponsored by CAUSE.

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