Bennington College’s Social Science Colloquium examines Hurricane Katrina during a term-long lecture series. All lectures, which are free and open to the public, will take place in the College’s Barn 100 at 7:00 p.m.

Monday, September 11:  Solving Katrina:  Preventing the Next Disaster by Mark Fischetti.

Fischetti is a veteran science writer, a contributing editor to Scientific American, and is currently issue editor for Scientific American Mind. His 2001 article, “Drowning New Orleans,” published in Scientific American predicted the widespread disaster that a hurricane like Katrina would impose.

Monday, September 18: From Tipping Points to Meta-Crises: Management, Media, and Hurricane Katrina by Chad Lavin. 
Lavin is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University.  He has written about international economic aid, police brutality, democratic ethics, and characterizations of the Mississippi River as a battleground in a "war against nature.” Formerly Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Tulane University, he lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. 

Monday, September 25: Lessons of Katrina for the Future of Democracy by Edward Woodhouse.
Edward Woodhouse is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Woodhouse seeks to slow unnecessarily risky technologies such as robotics, nanotechnology, and cloning, while stimulating publicly beneficial innovations such as hybrid/electric vehicles, green housing, and benign-by-design chemicals.

Monday, October 2: Vulnerability and All That Jazz: Addressing Vulnerability in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina by Brent Yarnal. 
Yarnal is Professor of Geography and Director of the Center for Integrated Regional Assessment at The Pennsylvania State University.  His research focus is complex environmental science—the integration of physical science, social science, information science, and the humanities to solve environmental problems with an emphasis on global change in local places. 

Monday, October 9:  Policing the Black Body: Katrina, New Orleans, and the 'New' Urban Landscape.By Joy James and Kim Holder. 
James is the John B. and John T. McCoy Presidential Professor of Africana Studies & College Professor in Political Science at Williams College. Her work focuses on political and feminist theory, critical race theory, and incarceration. Holder is a professor of education at Rowan University and a long-time activist who works with Katrina survivors and organizers.

Monday, November 6:  Reflections on Katrina by Kai Erikson.
Erikson is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Sociology and American Studies at Yale University.  He has written extensively on disasters over the past 30 years. He now serves as Chair of the Task Force on Katrina of the Social Science Research Council. 

For a full listing of events and the most current event information, please visit www.bennington.edu, as dates, times, and locations are subject to change.