Brown University researchers are creating a technology that will allow doctors and scientists to do the seemingly impossible: see inside living humans and animals and watch their bones move in 3-D as they run, fly, jump, swim and slither. This high-resolution, high-speed imaging system will contribute to better treatments for knee, shoulder, wrist and back injuries and help scientists understand the evolution of complex movements, from the flight of birds to the leap of frogs.

Professor Elizabeth Brainerd is overseeing development of the new system. Professor Brainerd received an A.B. in Biology from Harvard in 1985 and a Ph.D from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard in 1991. Dr. Brainerd came to Brown in 2005 and is currently a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Watch video of Professor Brainerd's remarks to the Brown Club of Southern California on March 9, 2008 (62 minutes).

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Professor Howard Chudacoff’s new book, Children At Play: An American History, has been featured twice in The New York Times and has generated considerable debate on radio talk shows across the country. Focusing on the tensions between what adults wanted children to do and what children wanted to do for themselves, Chudacoff traces the history of how children have played and raises questions about how much freedom children have had, and should have, in their play.

Howard Chudacoff has been a member of the Brown history faculty since 1970. He is now George L. Littlefield Professor of American History and Professor of Urban Studies. His other books include How Old Are You? Age Consciousness in American Culture; The Age of the Bachelor: Creating an American Subculture; The Evolution of American Urban Society (now in its 6th edition). He also is co-author of the U.S. history text, A People and a Nation, now in its 8th edition.

Watch video of Professor Chudacoff's remarks to the Brown Club of Oregon on March 27, 2008.

Lecture (34 minutes):

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Q & A (22 minutes):

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In this presentation, Professor Loury argues that Americans should recognize a kind of social responsibility for the massive expansion of the incarceration complex in American life over the past two generations. Society at large is implicated in the wrongful acts freely chosen by individual persons, because we have acquiesced in - perhaps actively supported, through our taxes and votes, words and deeds - arrangements which shape his consciousness and sense of identity in such a way that the choices he makes, which we may condemn, are nevertheless an entirely understandable response to circumstance.

Professor Loury has contributed to a variety of areas in applied microeconomic theory: welfare economics, game theory, industrial organization, natural resource economics, and the economics of income distribution. His essays and reviews on racial inequality and social policy have appeared in dozens of journals of public affairs in the U.S. and abroad. Professor Loury's books include One by One, From the Inside Out: Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America; The Anatomy of Racial Inequality; and, Ethnicity, Social Mobility and Public Policy: Comparing the US and the UK.

Watch video of Professor Loury's remarks to the Brown club of Boston on March 13, 2008.

Lecture (55 minutes):

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Q & A (20 minutes):

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Former Senator Lincoln D. Chafee ’75, distinguished visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, delivers a multifaceted discussion on his experiences over seven years in the U.S. Senate. The presentation includes Senator Chafee’s perspectives on the following major political occurrences during this seven-year period; the vote to go to war in Iraq, Bush’s tax cut program, the 2004 election and the return of Congress to a Democratic majority.

Chafee served two terms on the Warwick City Council, was elected Mayor of the City four times, and was then appointed to fill the unexpired term of his father, the late Senator John H. Chafee. During his term in the U.S. Senate, he was a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

Watch video of Former Senator Chafee's remarks to the Brown University Club in New York on March 6, 2008.

Lecture (41 minutes):

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Q & A (18 minutes):

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In 2003, Brown University President Ruth Simmons appointed a Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice to investigate the University’s historical relationship to slavery and the slave trade. The committee was also charged to organize public programs that would help the Brown community reflect in a serious, sustained way about the complex historical, political, legal and moral questions that this history raises. The committee presented its final report to President Simmons and the Brown community in October 2006.

In this presentation, Professor James Campbell, who chaired the Steering Committee, discusses the committee’s findings and entertains questions, comments, criticisms, and suggestions about its work. The final report is available online, along with an archive of historical documents and video excerpts of committee-sponsored programs.

James T. Campbell received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1989 and a B.A. from Yale University in 1980. He is a Professor of American Civilization, Africana Studies and History at Brown University. His research focuses on African American history and the wider history of the Black Atlantic. His most recent book, Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005, was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History.

Watch video of Professor Campbell's remarks to the Brown Club of Georgia on January 31, 2007.

Segment 1: Why the Committee was created; its goals (16 minutes)
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Segment 2: Overview of the Committee's work and discoveries (11 minutes)
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Segment 3: Voyage of the slave ship "Sally"; conclusions (19 minutes)
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