Stanford Alumni Speaker Events Stanford Alumni Association

In a world of increasing turmoil, should America be acting as the global “moral police?” When is our nation responsible for stopping genocide, fighting poverty and addressing other pressing issues we face as a country “with a conscience?” And how do we balance our domestic concerns with those outside of our borders? Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS discusses these challenges.

This event was recorded on Tuesday, May 10, 2016."

Nightline anchor Juju Chang, ’87 interviews New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, ’91, MA ’92 about public service, diversity in the political arena and his new book United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good. (Photo Credit: Kelly Campbell).

This event was recorded on Saturday, February 20, 2016.

Stanford psychology PhD candidate Eleanor Chestnut is interested in whether the way we talk about the world can influence how we think about it. In this talk, Eleanor discusses the biases that underlie a deceptively simple statement about boys and girls, and talks about how language can reinforce or undermine gender equality.

Stanford physics PhD candidate Natalie Paquette studies the interactions between physics and pure mathematics. In this talk, she proposes that string theory can prompt interesting questions in the field of mathematics, and vice versa, using the Calabi-Yau quintic manifold as an example.

Stanford Modern Thought and Literature PhD candidate Brian Johnsrud studies how the Crusades and other violent histories have served as popular metaphors for relations between the U.S. and Middle East since the First Gulf War, especially after 9/11. In this talk, Brian describes those metaphors and discusses his interdisciplinary journey.

Stanford anthropology PhD candidate Dean Chahim studies how people come to believe in the overwhelming power of technology to resolve environmental crises—and whether that faith is misplaced. In this talk, Dean describes how early solutions to Mexico City’s water crisis diffused, rather than completely solved, the problem over time.