Ashland University continues ‘Symposium Against Indifference’
The 10th biennial Ashland University College of Arts & Sciences Symposium Against Indifference continues its theme of “Liberty & Responsibility” with a full slate of events for the spring 2020 semester, beginning Jan. 23. The full schedule of events is available online at www.bit.ly/AgainstIndiffSP20.
The spring events include an environmental science lecture on low-cost improvements to measuring air pollutants in Columbus, a panel discussion about corporate social responsibility, a living-history performance of Carrie Chapman Catt’s woman’s suffrage story, and a four-part series on the victims of Communism including a personal story from a North Korean defector, a film screening of “The Lives of Others” that follows an East German surveillance, lessons learned on the downfall of the Venezuelan democracy from a Venezuelan dissident and a lecture on Havel’s “Rhetoric of Truth” through Communist Czechoslovakia.
Inspired by the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing and protecting women’s right to vote, along with the ratification and appeal of the 18th Amendment prohibiting liquor, the 2019-20 theme of “Liberty & Responsibility” seeks to understand and find productive responses to the constant and unavoidable tension between liberty and responsibility.
The College of Arts and Sciences at Ashland University inaugurated the Symposium Against Indifference in 2001 as a biennial series of events and lectures dedicated to overcoming apathy in the face of human concerns by raising awareness and promoting compassionate engagement. The symposium seeks to challenge the university community — as well as the wider community — toward a deeper understanding of difficult affairs and toward creative personal and corporate responses.
Symposium themes from previous years include the Holocaust, human nature, terrorism, the promises and perils of technology, inquiry into what makes a hero, globalization, Latin America, and building bridges through dialogue.
For more information visit www.cas-symposium.blogspot.com or call Tricia Applegate, coordinator of CAS communication, at 419-289-5950 or email tapplega@ashland.edu.