Each year, the CCSS annual lecture brings eminent thinkers to Cornell to address the campus and Ithaca community on pressing social issues.
Dr. Leah Stokes, University of California, Santa Barbara
Co-sponsored by:
Coming 2024-25!
Dr. Leah Stokes is the 2023-24 Jeffrey S. and Margaret Mais Padnos Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of California Santa Barbara. She is also affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Environmental Studies Department. Stokes focuses her research on climate policy and politics. Her recent book Short Circuiting Policy examines why we are behind on climate action, telling the history of electric utilities promoting climate denial and delay. It was named the Best Energy Book of 2020 by the American Energy Society, listed as a top 5 climate book from 2020 by The New York Times, and won 3 awards from the American Political Science Association. For her exceptional engaged scholarship, Stokes was recently recognized on the 2022 TIME100 Next and Business Insider Climate Action 30 lists. Her academic work is published in top journals and is widely read and cited. She is quoted frequently in national media, has written for top outlets including The New York Times, and hosts a popular climate podcast, “A Matter of Degrees.”
What We See and What We Value: AI With a Human Perspective
Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Stanford University
Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute
Co-sponsors: Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and the Center for Data Science for Enterprise & Society Data Science
In this talk, Dr. Li presented her research with students and collaborators to develop intelligent visual machines using machine learning and deep learning methods. The talk focused on how neuroscience and cognitive science inspired the development of algorithms that enabled computers to see what humans see and how we can develop computer algorithms and applications to allow computers to see what humans don’t see. Dr. Li also discussed social and ethical considerations about what we do not want to see or do not want to be seen, and corresponding work on privacy computing in computer vision, as well as the importance of addressing data bias in vision algorithms. She concluded by discussing her current work in smart cameras and robots in healthcare as well as household robots as examples of AI’s potential to augment human capabilities.
For more on Fei-Fei Li, visit her website here.
News Coverage of Dr. Fei-Fei Li
- The Worlds I See, Dr. Li's new book, listed as one of Barack Obama's recommended books on AI and voted one of Financial Times' best books of 2023
- View Chronicle coverage of this event
- Dr. Li named one of TIME100's Most Influential People in AI
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Thursday, October 5, 2023
Improving Equality of Opportunity in America: New Insights from Big Data
Raj Chetty, Harvard University
William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Co-sponsor: Cornell Department of Economics
For more on Raj Chetty, visit his website here.
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Monday, April 18, 2022
Our Racial Moment of Truth
Isabel Wilkerson
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Co-sponsors: Cornell Migrations: A Global Grand Challenge and Office of Faculty Development and Diversity
For more on Isabel Wilkerson, view her website here.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Democracy, Today: Fake News, Social Networks and Algorithms
David Lazer, Northeastern University
Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer and Information Science
Check out the video recording here.
Co-sponsors: Communication, Computer Science, Information Science
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Thursday, October 24, 2019
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People
Mahzarin Banaji, Harvard University
Richard Clark Cabot Professor of Social Ethics and Chair in the Department of Psychology
Co-sponsors: Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, Department of Psychology, Center of Bright Beams
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Monday, February 11, 2019
Racism and the New Racial Science
Dorothy Roberts, University of Pennsylvania
George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights
Co-sponsors: Cornell Law School, African Studies and Research Center
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Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Matthew Desmond, Princeton University
Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology
Co-sponsor: Center for the Study of Inequality
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Wednesday, November 16, 2016
The CCSS is committed to providing universal access to all of our events and facilities. For disability accommodations (e.g, sign language interpreters, alternative formats) please contact Katie Anderson at socialsciences@cornell.edu or 607-255-3408 as soon as possible.