Michael W. Clune, Ph.D. – Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

Every year since 2001, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is met with commentary about how they “changed everything” – or, maybe, did not.

For this week’s edition of the Friday Public Affairs Discussions, three of our faculty will open up discussion on the various dimensions of how 9/11 has shaped our current political conflicts and controversies, and how we live. Professor of English Michael W. Clune will talk more about culture. Marcus A. Hanna Associate Professor of Political Science Pete Moore will talk more about international politics. Joe White, Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy, will talk more about domestic politics. But these topics overlap, so the speakers might not stay entirely in their lanes. And this is a subject on which many participants are sure to have interesting thoughts. So our plan is for each of the speakers to talk only briefly, and to try to provoke as much discussion as possible. Come to share your ideas and identify puzzles. Perhaps we will conclude that any important changes are more a result of how Americans and others were disposed to react, rather than a logical consequence of the attacks.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guests

Michael W. Clune specializes in American literature, literature and science, and poetry. His work investigates two basic questions: What difference does literature make? What methods might best illuminate that difference in the context of the modern research university? His first book, American Literature and the Free Market (Cambridge University Press, 2010), examines how postwar writing from Frank O’Hara’s poetry to nineties gangster rap takes on social power by offering an escape from society.

His second book, Writing Against Time (Stanford University Press, 2013), explores the effort to create an image immune to the erosive effects of neurobiological time. Elements of this project have appeared in the journals Representations, Criticism, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Clune’s first work of creative nonfiction, White Out, was chosen as a Best Book of 2013 by The New Yorker, NPR’s “On Point,” The Millions, and other venues. His second memoir, Gamelife, on computer games as spiritual education, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in fall 2015. He is at work on a series of articles on what literature knows.

Pete W. Moore’s research focuses on economic development and state-society relations in the Middle East and Africa; specifically, Gulf Arab States and Levant; business-state relations, privatization, and decentralization; sub-state conflict and regional security. Professor Moore currently serves on the Editorial Board of Middle East Report and is a member of the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies. Through NOCMES, Professor Moore has brought a wide range of speakers to our campus and other universities and venues in the region. He is author of Doing Business in the Middle East: Politics and Economic Crisis in Jordan and Kuwait (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and co-author of Beyond the Arab Spring: Authoritarianism and Democratization in the Arab World (Lynne Rienner, 2012).

Joseph White also serves as the Director of the Center for Policy Studies and has a secondary appointment as Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. His research focuses on federal budget politics and policy; health care, especially cost control and reform; the politics of social insurance programs such as Medicare and Social Security; and differences between rich democracies’ health care systems. He is author or coauthor of three books and six dozen articles or book chapters. Some of Joe’s writings on health policy and budgeting can be found at http://policy.case.edu/research/health-care-federal-budget-articles/

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. For a few weeks construction on East Boulevard will block northbound traffic to the Severance garage. So if you are coming from Euclid Ave, please turn north at Ford Drive, then left at Bellflower and left from Bellflower onto East Boulevard, heading south. From the Severance lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can also get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

September 18: The New Wave of Abortion Restrictions. With B. Jessie Hill, Judge Ben C. Green Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

September 25: What’s Happening in Lake Erie? With Gerald Matisoff, Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences.

October 2: Moving Towards Health Care Justice: Navigating the ACA and Beyond. With Rachel Rosen DeGolia, Director, Universal Health Care Action Network and Health Benefits Exchange navigator.

October 9: China’s Aging Population: Policy Decisions and Program Challenges. With M.C. “Terry” Hokenstad, Distinguished University Professor and Ralph S. and Dorothy P. Schmitt Professor, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. ***Alternate Location: Mather House Room 100***

October 16: The Issues About Issue 3, The Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative. With Mark Naymik, Columnist, The Plain Dealer.

October 23: Energy, Climate, and the Historian’s View of the Future. With Peter A. Shulman, Associate Professor of History.

October 30: From “9 to 5” to What? New Work Patterns and Their Implications. With Jenny Rae Hawkins, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics.

November 6: A Year Away from the 2016 Election…. With Paul Herrnson, Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut.

November 13: Why Virtual Schools are Growing So Fast, and What it Might Mean for the Future of Public Education. With Peter Robertson, Senior Vice President of School Operations, Connections Education.

November 20: Integrating the Inner City Through Mixed-Income Development. With Mark Joseph, Associate Professor at MSASS and Director, National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities; Taryn Gross, Project Coordinator for the Initiative, and Emily Miller, Project Associate for the Initiative. Co-sponsored with the Schubert Center for Child Studies. ***Alternate Location: Mandel Community Studies Center Room 115, 11402 Bellflower Road***

November 27: Thanksgiving Break

December 4: Making Clean Energy Work. With Walter Money, Whole House Energy Solutions.