CULTURAL CENTER

At its core, the mission of higher education is to generate and share knowledge for the betterment of society. Faculty members dedicate years to advanced study in their chosen fields, preparing for a life of scholarship, teaching, and discovery. But why do they do it? Why commit a career to the careful exploration of a particular corner of human knowledge?

Surely, it is not only for the intellectual rigor or the responsibility of transmitting knowledge. There is often something more—a spark of inspiration, a sense of wonder, an emotional connection that draws one person to literature and another to physics; one to music, another to medicine. At the heart of this calling, we propose, lies beauty.

This year’s presidential symposium, The Beauty of…, invites faculty to explore and share the beauty they have found within their disciplines—the beauty that first drew them in, that continues to inspire their work, and that animates the questions they ask and the knowledge they seek.

Whether it is the elegance of mathematical proof, the lyricism of a poem, the graceful design of a structure, the awe of the cosmos, or the quiet satisfaction of a breakthrough in the lab, this symposium celebrates the deeply human motivations behind scholarly inquiry.

All sessions will be held in the Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, South Campus, unless otherwise noted.

Free and open to the public. RSVP is required. For more information, please visit Hofstra Presidential Symposium 2025.

President
Hofstra University 
John Cranford Adams Playhouse
Followed by BBQ on Roosevelt Quad

Free and open to the public. RSVP is required. For more information, please visit Hofstra Presidential Symposium 2025.

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Peter Kuznick PhD, Associate Professor of American History and Founder of American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute
Co-Director with Oliver Stone of the documentary, The Untold History of the United States.

With commentary by Hofstra Professor
Carolyn Eisenberg, Department of History

International Scene Series Co-Directors:
Professor Carolyn Eisenberg, Department of History
Professor Linda Longmire, Global Studies Program
Professor Martin Melkonian, Department of Economics
Hofstra University

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Fergal Mythen, Irish Ambassador to the United Nations
“Saving the future generations from the scourge of war”

With commentary by Hofstra Professors
Carolyn Eisenberg, Department of History
David Green, Department of Political Science

International Scene Series Co-Directors:
Professor Carolyn Eisenberg, Department of History
Professor Linda Longmire, Global Studies Program
Professor Martin Melkonian, Department of Economics
Hofstra University

Presented by the Center for Civic Engagement’s Institute for Peace Studies and the Hofstra Cultural Center
in collaboration with L.I. Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives.

Location for both lectures:
Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

For more information, call Professor Martin Melkonian at 516-463-5595

Join us for a a special preview screening of a powerful new documentary by Dr. Kristal B. Zook and Sekiya Dorsett. Followed by a conversation with

Professor Bill Jennings
Chair, Department of Radio, Television, Film

Dr. Aisha M. Wilson-Carter
Executive Director for Equity and Inclusion

Dr. Jonathan Lightfoot
Director, Center for “Race”, Culture and Social Justice

Presented by the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication and the Hofstra Cultural Center.

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

9:40-11:05 a.m.
Finding a Way to “Keep on Keeping On”: Courage and Persistence in LGBTQ+ Activism During Disheartening Times
MODERATOR: Lisa Dresner, PhD, Associate Professor of Writing Studies and Rhetoric, Director of LGBTQ+ Studies, Hofstra University
SPEAKER: Juli Grey-Owens, Executive Director and Board President, Gender Equality New York (GENY)

11:20 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
Radical Changes in Immigration Policy Under the Trump Administration
MODERATOR: Andrea Libresco, EdD, Leo A. Guthart Distinguished Professor in Teaching Excellence, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Technology, Hofstra University
SPEAKERS: Juana Cortes de Torres, Esq., Director of Immigrant Legal Rights Project, Rural & Migrant Ministry; Jessica Greenberg, Esq., Legal Director, CARECEN – Central American Refugee Center; Susan Gottehrer, MPA/MA, Director, Nassau County New York Civil Liberties Union; Francisco Lara-Garcia, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Hofstra University

1-2:25 p.m.
Are We Nearer to Peace? Thoughts on U.S. Foreign Policy
Presentation by Aaron Maté, New York City-based journalist and producer, with student/faculty panel
MODERATORS: Carolyn Eisenberg, PhD, Professor of History, Hofstra University, and Martin Melkonian, MA, Adjunct Associate Professor of Economics, Hofstra University

2:40-4:05 p.m.
Long Island’s Environmental Challenges, 2025: Renewable Energy and Water Quality
How can we learn more about these issues, and what can local officials do to protect the people and environment of the place we call home?
MODERATOR: Rosanna Perotti, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Hofstra Votes Coordinator
SPEAKER: Joseph Stallone, Long Island Political Campaign Manager, New York League of Conservation Voters

4:20-5:45 p.m.
Long Island and the Legacy of Eugenics
Presentation by Mark Torres, JD, author, historian, and adjunct assistant professor of economics at Hofstra University
MODERATOR: Mary Anne Trasciatti, PhD, Professor of Rhetoric and Public Advocacy; Director, Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy, Hofstra University

All sessions take place in the Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater,
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

A 2019 MacArthur Fellow and Professor of Interdisciplinary Creativity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Barry has spent her career exploring the power of art across boundaries – between text and image, story and memory, classroom and community. Her books include The Good Times Are Killing me, What It Is, Cruddy, and Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor, invite us to see creativity not as specialized talent, but as a vital capacity. Through her teaching and art, she exemplifies the kind of interdisciplinary that is a pillar of astro’s mission Hofstra’s mission. Her visit also resonates perfectly with the theme of this year’s recent presidential symposium, The Beauty of…, as she continually reminds us of how beauty emerges in unexpected forms, from the margins, and through the act of making itself. Lynda Barry has worked as a painter cartoonist writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator, and teacher and has found they are very much alike. The New York Times has subscribed Barry as” among this country’s greatest conjoiners of words and images known for plumbing all kinds of touchy subjects in cartoons, comic strips and novels both graphic and illustrated.”

The Helene Fortunoff Theater, Monroe Lecture Center
California Avenue, South Campus

This presentation will assess the impact of soft power and foreign funds on intellectual antisemitism, contemporary discourse, and campus politics.

Dr. Charles Asher Small is the founding director and president of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) and the director of the ISGAP-Woolf Institute Fellowship Training Programme in Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies, Discrimination and Human Rights at the Woolf Institute, Cambridge, UK.

He is also a Goldman Fellow at the Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies, Tel Aviv University. Seating limited.

105 Breslin Hall, South Campus

Civil Rights Day is an all-day event that examines some of the major civil rights issues of today that continue to challenge activists, policymakers, and an array of civil rights issues. It is held in February to commemorate the anniversary of the Woolworth’s lunch counter student sit-in in 1960.

8-9:25 a.m.
Dialogue and Breakfast: Let’s Talk About Free Speech
246 East Library Wing, Axinn Library
The Center for Civic Engagement and the Office for Intercultural Engagement and Inclusion invite you to join a dialogue about free speech. What is free speech? Are there limits to it? Who gets to decide? How can we protect it? Are the goals of diversity and free speech in opposition to each other? What are our priorities? Please RSVP so we can email our issue guide to you (sphpdd@hofstra.edu)

9:40 -11:05 a.m. Panel Discussion: LGBTQIA+ Rights During a Second Trump Administration: What Can We Expect? Shortly after his inauguration President Trump signed a flurry of executive orders, several of which have implications for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Join Hofstra Professor Lauris Wren, Director of LGBTQIA+ Fellowship Program, Deane School of Law, Juli Grey-Owens, Executive Director, Gender Equality New York, Inc. (GENY), and Charlie Arrowood, Senior Counsel to the Richard C. Failla LGBTQ Commission of the New York Court Systemin a discussion on what these and other actions by the new administration mean for the LGBTQIA+ community going forward.

4:20-5:45 p.m.
Keynote speaker: Jeannette E. Jones (Hofstra ’93, History), Happold Professor of History
and Ethnic Studies; director, 19th Century Studies Program, University of Nebraska.
Dr. Jones is a historian of the United States, with expertise in American cultural and intellectual history, African American History and Studies and precolonial Africa. Her research reflects her desire to contribute to the larger critical conversations taking place in these fields, specifically around the role of race in shaping American cultural and intellectual discourse and production.

Journalist and Host, Pushback on the Grayzone
Aaron Maté has an extensive background as a journalist and producer for media outlets, including Democracy Now, The Real News Network, Al Jazeera and The Nation. He is an award-winning investigative reporter for The Grayzone and Useful Idiots.

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater

Dr. Shakeshaft will discuss her new book, Organizational Betrayal: How Schools Enable Sexual Misconduct and How to Stop It. Shakeshaft advocates a system-wide approach for safeguarding K-12 students against educator sexual misconduct. She shows that practical interventions such as simply asking questions can advance the safety of children.

Author’s book will be available for sale and book signing @$25 cash ONLY.

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

9:40-11:05 a.m., Cultural Center Theater
VOICES OF CHANGE: YOUNG PEOPLE INSPIRING ACTION
Panelists:
Elmer Flores, Release Aging People in Prison Campaign (RAPP)
Skyler Johnson, New Hour For Women and Children
David Osorio, Long Island Progressive Coalition
This event features three young activists from Long Island. They have worked to raise awareness and to make change. With the challenges many see ahead, they are visiting to share their experiences and to motivate fellow young people to get active and make the changes they hope to see!

11:20 a.m.-12:40 p.m., Cultural Center Theater
ADDRESSING GLOBAL HEALTH INEQUITIES: THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION AND 
RHETORIC IN RACIAL JUSTICE ADVOCACY
Panelists:
Dr. Martine Hackett, School of Health Sciences
Dr. Tomeka Robinson, Rabinowitz Honors College
Dr. Isma Chaudhry, School of Health Sciences
Dr. Meshack Achore, School of Health Sciences
This event will explore how communication strategies and rhetorical approaches shape public discourse, policy, and advocacy efforts to combat racial disparities in healthcare. Experts in public health, communication, and social justice will examine the power of language in framing health, narratives, mobilizing communities, and influencing systemic change. Through insightful conversations, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how rhetoric can be leveraged to promote health equity and racial justice on a global scale.

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater

In this roundtable discussion, we will hear back from the Hofstra students and faculty members who participated in the Hofstra Study Abroad Program to Havana in January 2025. We will explore the long history of the U.S. strategy of regime change in Cuba since the triumph of the revolution in 1959, and provide a systematic overview of the economic, political, and information stranglehold that both Republican and Democratic administrations have applied to Cuba, resulting in an ever-expanding crisis for the people on the island.

With the participation of several student members of the Hofstra in Cuba trip, alongside Hofstra University professors Mario A. Murillo, vice dean of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, and Dr. Conrad Herold, professor of Economics.

Presented by the The Lawrence School of Communication,Department of Economics and The Hofstra Cultural Center.
Organized by the Center for Civic Engagement, as part of Global Justice Day, in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program

Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Join Professor Aashish Kumar, Radio, Television, Film, and Alexandra Giordano, Director of the Hofstra University Museum of Art, for a film screening of DAHOMEY (68 mins. Winner, Golden Bear, 2024 Berlinale). From acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop, the documentary charts 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey that are due to leave Paris and return to their country of origin: the present-day Republic of Benin. A panel discussion and Q&A will follow the film screening with Sally Charnow, professor of Modern European and Postcolonial History; Fennik Lindstedt, BA Film Production and Studies, Herbert School of Communication, and Bradley Phillipi, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director, Center for Public Archaeology and at Hofstra University. Light refreshments will be served.

Presented by the Center for Civic Engagement.

In collaboration with the Hofstra Cultural Center, Herbert School of Communication, International Scene Lecture Series, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program.

https://e.issuu.com/embed.html?d=dahomey_a_film_screening_and_discussion&u=hofstra

Student Center Theater
Mack Student Center, North Campus

In just the first few weeks of the new presidential administration, many fear the U.S. may be on the verge of constitutional crisis that could fundamentally alter the democratic system. Join Hofstra Political Science Faculty Paul Fritz, David Green and Rosanna Perotti as they examine the latest developments and provide ways to understand the actions of the new administration.

Presented by the Peter S. Kalikow Center for The Study Of The American Presidency, Hofstra Department of Political Science  and the Political Science Talks Politics

Leo A. Guthart Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Directed by Jayson McNamara and Andrea Carbonatto Tortonese
A mother’s search for her missing son accelerates the defeat of the dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s and inspires a new global generation of women fighting for their freedoms.

Film Screening 2:40-4:05 p.m.
Introduction by Sarah A. Schoellkopf, Producer, DoctoraStories.
Her work includes Norita and Ferguson Rising (2021)

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Discussion 4:20-5:45 p.m.
Discussion facilitated by Sarah A. Schoellkopf

246 East Library Wing
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Co-sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program, The Kalikow School Public Policy and Public Service Program (PPPS), Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, and the Stuart and Nancy Rabinowitz Honors College

Leo A. Guthart Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Our vital public services are under attack, and we must come together to protect them! The Postal Service, Social Security, and Veterans’ care are at risk – services that millions living in the US depend on every day. Without these services, our communities will be. Join community and labor advocates as we unite to learn how this impacts us all and how to fight back. Your voice matters!

Presented by Long Island Jobs with Justice and Hofstra University’s Labor Studies Program, Center for Civic Engagement, Hofstra Cultural Center and the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy.

This event is FREE and open to the public for both in person and via Zoom. Zoom registrants will receive an email with the Zoom link to join the event.

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus