Roger Howell Jr. Professor of History David Gordon discusses his interpretation of the African legend “the Lunda love story” as a peace treaty of sorts, along with his research using art and oral tradition and archival sources to explore nineteenth-century political transformations in the central African interior. In the course of the conversation, he talks about the reason African art can be found in Portuguese museums and tells the story of a statue that goes missing in the 1970s right from its display case. Gordon, who teaches history, earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and his PhD at Princeton.

Bowdoin Visiting Professor of English Zahir Janmohamed explores, as a writer and from the standpoint of his experience in Congress and in humanitarian work, how storytelling and understanding the complex messiness of every person and of our history can combine to result in political and social change. But only when the will is there to make it happen.

Denise Gitsham ’99 has worked in the Department of Justice, the White House, the Senate, and ran for Congress in 2016. She’s a conservative who believes we all need to talk to and strive to understand our neighbors. She’s optimistic that we can engage with one another with civility, kindness, and respect—and that one person being right doesn’t have to mean the other is wrong. Listen, stay humble, and learn a lot along the way.

Emily Hubbard ’07, assistant director with the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC, talks about how we’ve traditionally defined work and employment in the context of citizenship and why many of those definitions are flawed. What does modern citizenship mean in consideration of modern notions and realities of labor? How can labor law help to protect and evolve our democracy?

Kate Dempsey ’88, Maine's state director for The Nature Conservancy, will talk about the climate crisis in the context of certain challenges it poses for our democracy. Is our liberal democratic process too slow and cumbersome to effectively address an acute climate challenge? What is the relationship between solving our climate crisis and democracy?