KENT, CONNECTICUT | www.KentPresents.org AN IDEAS FESTIVAL | JULY 27-29, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Schedule 4 Welcome 6 Topics and Sessions 6 Aperitifs 6 Education 7 Economics 8 Global Affairs 9 Health and Medicine 10 Law and Politics 11 Liberal Arts 11 Science, Technology and Environment 12 Social Issues 12 Visual Arts 13 Presenter Biographies 25 Attendees, Presenters and Guests 26 Charitable Grants 27 Acknowledgments Useful Information Meet the KentPresents Team SCHEDULE Detailed schedule available in Welcome Kit at Registration. THURSDAY, JULY 27 FRIDAY, JULY 28 SATURDAY, JULY 29 9:00-6:00 Registration 7:00-8:30 Continental 7:00-8:30 Continental Breakfast Breakfast 11:30-12:30 Light Lunch 8:30-12:45 Sessions 8:30-12:45 Sessions 12:45-5:35 Sessions 12:45-2:10 Lunch 12:45-2:10 Lunch 5:35-6:45 Reception 2:20-5:30 Sessions 2:20-5:30 Sessions 5:30-7:00 Reception 5:30-6:30 Reception 7:00 Dinner on 6:30-8:00 Kent Arts Night Campus in Village 2 3 WELCOME 2017 Dear Friends, Welcome to the third annual KentPresents. This event started as an idea that struck Donna and me one summer afternoon in 2014. We were looking for a way to help support deserving but often overlooked small charities, those that serve people in need. The idea became KentPresents. In a fairly short time, it’s not only achieved its original goal but has become a nationally recognized ideas festival. We like to think our festival is different. Most striking to many is that compared with others, we’re smaller. Much smaller. That’s fine with us, because we’ve discovered that size is overrated. Indeed, one of our most cited attributes is our intimacy. Aspen and Davos and TED may be larger, but few offer as we do the opportunity to chat with just about anyone attending or speaking. Another differentiation—our programming. In addition to covering the major global, intellectual and cultural topics of the time, we like to look at them in fresh ways. We also enjoy presenting fresh topics. Here are three in the next three days: • THE GENDER GAP This gap will surprise you. “The Lost Boys” asks what can be done to re-engage boys in school worldwide. All over the world, wherever girls have access to school, they eventually do better than boys. And nowhere is this gap larger than in the Middle East—where girls are consistently outperforming boys. • FORGETTING We feel that forgetting in our normal lives reflects a failure or glitch of our memory system. We are wrong. In “Forgetting: The Benefits of an Open Mind,” we learn that the benefits of normal forgetting are wide-ranging, from cognition to creativity and emotional well-being, and even to mental and societal health. • MASS INCARCERATION Reform results have been disappointing because reformers tend to focus on a conventional wisdom that emphasizes secondary causes in ways that render the primary causes almost invisible. Successful reform must target the unchecked power and peculiar incentives of prosecutors; the harshness with which we treat violent crime; and the influence of public sector unions—all areas that have generally received little to no attention. By the way, you’ll have your choice of deciding which among these and 40 more sessions to attend during your three days at KentPresents. Good luck. Ben and Donna Co-founders, KentPresents 4 5 TOPICSTOPICS AND & SESSIONS SESSIONS (cont’d.) TOPICS AND SESSIONS ECONOMICS THE WORLD ECONOMY: CALM BEFORE THE STORM All over the world, wherever girls have access to school, they MATTISON, Friday, 8:30am-9:20am APERITIFS eventually do better than boys. And nowhere is this gap larger In these parlous times, few economists other than Paul than in the Middle East—where girls are consistently out- MATTISON, Thursday, 1:45pm-3:00pm Krugman would dare to undertake analyzing the world- performing boys at every age level and in every subject in a wide economic outlook. Nobel laureate and former Princ- It’s a dilemma. This year there will be 43 sessions at diverse set of countries (including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and eton faculty member, Professor Krugman for last two years KentPresents. But the most any one person can attend over Oman). Why are so many millions of boys disengaged from has been at the Graduate Center of the City University of Kip Thorne on Gravitational Waves 2016 the three days is 18. You just cannot see them all. So you have school worldwide? And what can we learn about possible New York. This is his second appearance at KentPresents. to make choices. How to decide? With the Aperitifs. For solutions—from the places where the problem is at its most Jared Bernstein moderates. 75 minutes, one speaker after another will give you a brief extreme? Panelists are Amanda Ripley and Safwan Masri. PERMANENT SABBATICAL: WHAT preview of his/her forthcoming panel session. In just 150 Valerie Strauss moderates. IS INEQUALITY UNSTOPPABLE? HAPPENS TO US WHEN ALGORITHMS seconds. Max. Any longer and they get the hook from MATTISON, Friday, 10:50am-11:40am LEADING AN ELITE UNIVERSITY: WASN’T TAKE OUR JOBS moderator John Donvan. RECITAL HALL, Saturday, 2:20pm-3:10pm IT SIMPLER ONCE? This panel will discuss the forces responsible for the growth RECITAL HALL, Friday, 10:50am-11:40am in the inequality of economic outcomes in the US and other This past year, the prognostications have picked up pace: the EDUCATION economies. To what extent are these forces structural, mean- chilling futurist forecast of a world where automation has Woodrow Wilson was considered a powerful college presi- ing the inevitable outcome of technological change and glo- so fully overtaken the workplace that available slots in most dent (Princeton, 1902-10). Dwight Eisenhower, not quite REINVENTING AMERICAN EDUCATION balization, and to what extent are they the result of skewed occupations—yes, most—will be handled by algorithms and as much (Columbia, 1948-53). Neither man, however, likely DICKINSON, Thursday, 3:40pm-4:30pm policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of the poor and machines. The timeframe? Mere decades, according to some imagined the kinds of challenges that face university heads middle class? The panelists will also discuss whether public crystal balls, which project advances in artificial intelligence The fastest improving cities in American education also today, required not only to function as educators and man- policies can or should push back on inequality. Panelists are as happening so fast that white collar professionals will be as happen to be those that have embraced charter schools. In agers, but also to serve as diplomats, media personalities, and Jared Bernstein, Paul Krugman and Paul Romer. Darren vulnerable as blue collar workers are already, crushing career 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, negotiators through choppy waters related to race on campus, Walker moderates. options in medicine, law, IT, financial services and more. Is the city got an unexpected opportunity to recreate its school arguments over what constitutes free speech, the status of this dour picture of mass joblessness an exaggeration? Is it system from scratch. The state’s Recovery School District the liberal arts education, and the resiliency of students. And TYLER COWEN AND PAUL ROMER something technology itself will solve? How do we prepare (RSD), created to turn around failing schools, gradually then, there’s the fundraising. Oh, the fundraising. University IN CONVERSATION for it? And, is there any upside here? Panelists are Jim Bessen, transformed most New Orleans schools into charters, and presidents Michael Roth, of Wesleyan, and Ronald Daniels, RECITAL HALL, Saturday, 8:30am-9:20am Jared Bernstein and Tyler Cowen. John Donvan moderates. the results have been dramatic. Test scores, graduation and of Johns Hopkins, talk with moderator John Donvan about dropout rates, ACT scores, college-going rates, and indepen- learning the leader’s job, and getting it done. Two of America’s leading economists consider the long- IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE TAX REFORM run challenges facing both the rich and poor nations, dent studies all tell the same story: the city’s RSD schools DICKINSON, Friday, 11:55am-12:45pm have doubled or tripled their effectiveness in eight years. Now THE OLYMPICS OF THE MIND: WHAT WILL and what we can do to bring about a better future. What other cities are following suit, from Washington D.C. to Indi- IT TAKE FOR THE U.S. EDUCATION SYSTEM causes economic miracles, and how can we extend those How should America reform its tax system? How much anapolis and Denver to Memphis. In today’s world, author TO BECOME WORLD-CLASS? principles more broadly? The myriad interests of George can this boost economic growth, wages, and job creation? David Osborne argues, we should treat every public school RECITAL HALL, Friday, 8:30am-9:20am Mason’s Tyler Cowen and the World Bank’s Paul Romer Who will be the winners and losers? What is actually likely like a charter school, with operational autonomy, accountabil- add to the fun. to happen in the Trump Administration? Panelists are Larry ity for performance, diversity of school designs, and paren- We now know more than ever about how much kids are Kudlow and Tyler Cowen. Jared Bernstein moderates. tal choice. Panelists are David Osborne and Tom Loveless. learning all around the world. We can identify more than a Valerie Strauss moderates. dozen countries where governments spend less on education than the U.S.—but achieve substantially better results. We THE LOST BOYS: WHAT CAN BE can even find countries with significant levels of child poverty DONE TO RE-ENGAGE BOYS IN SCHOOL and immigration and strong and equitable education systems.