4-Part Series to Study the Tyranny of Communism

In collaboration with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the Ashbrook Center, the Ashland University College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference will host a 4-part series designed to inform and create awareness about the tyranny of communism including:

• A viewing and panel discussion of The Lives of Others, an Oscar Winning Film about a member of the East German Secret Police who conducts surveillance on a writer and an actress
• A lecture on Czech dissidents under the Soviet Union’s Satellite State of Czechoslovakia by Dr. Flagg Taylor, an expert on Totalitarianism
• Talks by two victims of communism:
• Grace Jo who escaped the horrors of North Korea
• Enrique Altimari, an advocate for the Venezuelan Republic and a vocal critic of the Socialist Party’s rule under Chávez and Maduro

All four programs are free and open to the public.

The series begins on Wednesday, Mar. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Heritage Room of the Myers Convocation Center with a film screening and panel discussion of The Lives of Others. The movie follows a member of the East German Secret Police (Stasi) who is conducting surveillance on a writer and an actress, and finding himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives. It is a beautiful, tragic story about life under tyrannical government. The film will be followed by an audience discussion of the film with Maura Grady, Department of English; Rene Paddags and Greg McBrayer, Department of History & Political Science.

On Thursday, Mar. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Alumni Room of the Myers Convocation Center, Grace Jo, a defector of the brutal Kim regime in North Korea, will share her personal story of survival with the campus and wider Ashland community. Grace was born in North Korea and lost most of her family to tyranny and starvation before escaping to China, later resettling in the United States. “My life completely changed after I came to America,” she said. “I think that’s called freedom. It’s a very cherished thing for my family and for me.” Grace became a U.S. citizen in 2013. 

On Monday, Mar. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Heritage Room of the Myers Convocation Center, Enrique Altimari, a dissident and critic of his native Venezuela, will explore the downfall of the Venezuelan democracy and will describe the coordinates of the regime’s ideology. He will focus on lessons learned from the process and warn against the use of reductive ideologies and populist-messianic politics.

The series will conclude on Thursday, Mar. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center Auditorium with a lecture by Dr. Flagg Taylor about Václav Havel, one of the leaders of the Charter 77 movement in Communist Czechoslovakia. Havel was an astute analyst of how an ideological tyranny sought to dissuade its inhabitants from being truth seekers in their everyday lives. Taylor will consider Havel’s arguments, discuss how he sought to encourage truth seeking through his essays and plays, and consider what lessons Havel’s writings might have for us today.

Portrayal of Suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt to Celebrate 19th Amendment

In observance and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing and protecting women's right to vote, the Ashland University College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference will present Dr. Deleasa Randall-Griffiths' living history performance of suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt on Monday, Mar. 2 at 7 p.m. in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.  

Carrie Chapman Catt was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1920 when the 19th amendment became part of the United States Constitution. This performance will highlight the early efforts occurring long before Catt became involved in women’s rights, along with her own part of the woman suffrage story. 

Presented in a Chautauqua format, the performance by Dr. Randall Griffiths, Professor of Communication Studies, will begin with a pre-show slide presentation on the suffrage movement with music to orient the audience to the theme and context while serving as a lead into the performance which includes three parts:

1. An in character monologue
2. An in character Q&A session with the audience
3. An out of character Q&A to cover broader topics, including controversial aspects of suffrage work, and things that occurred after Catt’s death

Dr. Deleasa Randall-Griffiths is a Professor and Director of the Online Communication Program
in the Department of Communication Studies at Ashland University. Randall-Griffiths co-chairs
the Ashland Chautauqua Planning Committee, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019.
Each summer this committee brings history to life through performance. In 2015, she began her
own Chauatauqua performance career as suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt. Like Catt, she
uses her communication skills to educate, advocate, and celebrate the accomplishments of
women’s suffrage leaders. 

In 2012, Randall-Griffiths won the Ohio Communication Association’s Innovative Teacher Award. She teaches a wide range of classes at Ashland University, including human communication, family communication, interpersonal communication, health communication, and intercultural communication. She received her B.A. in Theatre from Indiana University and her M.S. in Performance Studies and Ph.D. in Interpersonal Communication from the Department of Speech Communication at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

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 Ashland community — toward a deeper understanding of difficult issues and toward creative personal and corporate responses.

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 2019-2020 theme of “Liberty & Responsibility” seeks to understand and find productive responses to the constant and unavoidable tension between liberty and responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility Panel, 2/12

As an essential component of the free market, do corporations have any social responsibility beyond maximizing profits? Is it enough that they simply do no harm to society? Or do they have a responsibility to do some good?

Together with the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and Conscious Capitalism, the Ashland University Political Economy Program will host a panel discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Heritage Room of the Myers Convocation Center. The event is presented as part of the College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference which focuses on the theme of "Liberty and Responsibility." The event is free and open to the public.

The panel will consist of Jon L. Pritchett, President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy; Signè Thomas, Project Director for the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University; Josh Harrison, President of Improving - Columbus; and will be moderated by the AU Political Economy Director, Dr. Greg McBrayer.

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 Ashland community — toward a deeper understanding of difficult issues and toward creative personal and corporate responses.

OSU Prof. to Detail His Work on Improving Local Air Quality Measurements

Dr. Andrew May, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic  Engineering at The Ohio State University, will present details about his work in improving the measurements of local air quality on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Ronk Lecture Hall. The event is presented as part of the Environmental Lecture Series and the College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference which are both focusing on the theme of "Liberty and Responsibility." The event is free and open to the public.

Across the US, air pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act are monitoring at fixed-location sites, and based on these measurements, the majority of the US does not experience air quality issues. However, these measurement sites may be sparsely distributed through space. Dr. May will discuss two of his projects that seeks to address this issue by providing data with improved spatial resolution in areas where people live, work, and play using low-cost sensors.

These projects include deploying sensors on a transit bus to provide regular, repeated measurements in an urban environment and collaborating with high schools near Columbus, OH to establish a network of sensors throughout the local community. Improved spatial resolution can provide better estimates of localized air pollutant concentrations and better protect children, the elderly, and other groups who may be more sensitive to poor air quality.

Dr. May holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Clarkson University, and a BE in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware. Subsequent to his PhD, he was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Dr. May’s research has two main focus areas: 1) emission, fate, and transport of atmospheric pollutants and 2) indoor environmental quality. These efforts include both laboratory and field studies as well as computational  approaches. He also has on-going collaborations with three high schools in Central Ohio that enable students to collect localized air quality data using low-cost sensors.

The University's Environmental Lecture Series specifically focused this year's programming to complement the Symposium Against Indifference's "Liberty and Responsibility" theme by organizing a series of events encompassing a diverse set of discussions across disciplines to focus on "Environmental laws and Ohio wildlife, natural resources and quality of life."  The goal of this year’s Environmental Lecture Series is to engage with this theme through examples of the application of Ohio's environmental laws and policies.

Fifty years ago on January 1, 1970, President Nixon signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act. Later that year, Nixon ordered the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with responsibility for maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws. Nixon signed other laws focused on environmental health, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act. This began a nearly six-decade period in which U.S. citizens were expected to take more responsibility for their actions in the natural environment. Over this same time period, some individuals and communities objected to new restrictions on liberty with respect to use of natural areas. This tension remains for many examples of both national laws and local policies.

Support for the Environmental Lecture Series is provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation, donations from individuals and additional support from Ashland University.