Lectures spotlight: Annual Dawn Gideon and Adolf Grünbaum talks on schedule

Dawn Gideon lecture and webcast: “Reading the Sign Posts: How Healthcare Organizations are Using Social Determinants of Health to Address Health Disparities”
1 p.m. Nov. 11, University Club, Ballroom B

The Dawn Gideon Lecture is an annual educational event funded by the Dawn Gideon Foundation and conducted by the Department of Health Policy and Management in cooperation with the HPM Alumni Association and the contributing sponsorship of the Healthcare Council of Western Pennsylvania. Panelists include: Melinda Buntin, chair, Department of Health Policy, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine; Maureen Hydok, Healthcare Senior Director, Huron Consulting Group; and Thuy Bui, associate professor of Medicine; director, Social Medicine Fellows Program, Pitt School of Medicine. Ebbin Dotson, assistant professor of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health, will moderate.

 

“Did Testosterone Cause the Crash of 2008? Science and Myths of Gender, Social Class, and Risk” by Rebecca Jordan-Young, chair of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College
5-6:30 p.m. Nov. 14, 111 Barco Law Building

Co-sponsored by Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and the Humanities Center

 

Adolf Grünbaum Memorial Lecture: Indirect Causation” by Michael Strevens, professor of Philosophy, New York University
3:30 p.m. Nov. 22, 1008 Cathedral of Learning

ABSTRACT: If scientists are to think intelligently and fruitfully about causation, then they need a vocabulary that directly represents causal relations. I will argue that they also need to represent what I call “indirect causal generalizations”, which mix causal relations with what I call relations of “entanglement”. Entanglement is a real but non-causal connection, knowledge of which helps us to investigate the causal structure of the world. Most of the causal generalizations of the high-level sciences (e.g., obesity causes diabetes) are indirect: they represent chains of entanglement and causality. There are interesting implications for the philosophy of scientific explanation.

 

Gender and Sexuality in the L2 Classroom: A Round Table for Faculty and Grad Students
3-4 p.m. Nov. 20, 1219 Cathedral of Learning

Moderator by Todd Reeser, Chair, Department of French & Italian, will lead four presenters in a discussion about gender and sexuality in the second language (L2) classroom. How do we teach gender and sexuality in undergraduate courses ranging from the first week of a first-semester language course to advanced special topics courses? How can language curricula be more gender-diverse at all levels? Can gender theory be brought to bear on the language classroom?