Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A bestselling author and award-winning reporter covering artificial intelligence, Karen Hao was the first journalist to profile OpenAI and to write the book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI, about the company, Sam Altman, and the AI industry.

Hao writes for publications like The Atlantic and leads The AI Spotlight Series, a program she designed with the Pulitzer Center that trains thousands of journalists around the world on how to cover AI.

Previously, Hao was a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal focused on AI & China, and a senior editor at MIT Technology Review, where she wrote about the latest AI research and its social impacts. She has been a fellow with the Harvard Technology and Public Purpose program, the MIT Knight Science Journalism program, and the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. Before coming to media, she was an application engineer at the first startup to spin out of Google[x].

Hao received a B.S. in mechanical engineering and a minor in energy studies from MIT.

Photo credit: Shoko Takayasu

Hussein Banai is an associate professor of international studies at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. His research focuses on international relations and political theory, with particular focus on topics in political ideologies, conflict, diplomatic history and practice, and modern Iran and he is currently working on a multi-volume project on the logic and functions of enmity in politics. 

Banai is a distinguished non-resident fellow at the Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, and research affiliate at the Center for International Studies at MIT. He is the author of several books and peer-reviewed articles on topics in US-Iran relations, Iranian political development, diplomatic theory and practice, human rights, and democratic theory. He currently serves as co-editor-in-chief of International Studies Review. 

Professor Banai’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC. 

Photo credit: Emily Wehner

Joshua Cohen is the author of six novels, one collection of short fiction, and one collection of nonfiction. Called "a major American writer" by the New York Times, and "an extraordinary prose stylist, surely one of the most prodigious at work in American fiction today" by the New Yorker, Cohen was awarded Israel’s 2013 Matanel Prize, and in 2017 was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. The Netanyahus won the 2021 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

After a selected reading from his works, Cohen will engage in a moderated conversation with Leland de la Durantaye, professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College.

Mr. Cohen’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies and the Salvatori Center, both at CMC

Mary E. Lovely is the Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. She served as the 2022 Carnegie Chair in US-China Relations with the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Lovely is professor emeritus of economics at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, where she was the Melvin A. Eggers Economics Faculty Scholar from 2010 to April 2022. She was co-editor of the China Economic Review during 2011–15.

Her current research projects investigate the effect of China's foreign direct investment policies on trade flows and entry mode, strategic reform of US tariffs on China, and recent movements in global supply chains. Lovely earned her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan and a master's degree in city and regional planning from Harvard University.

Lovely is a regular guest on news and radio programs and a frequent commentator on current international and global economic policy.

Dr. Lovely will deliver the 2025-26 McKenna Lecture in International Economics and Trade.

Based on his recent firsthand experiences in Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza, Joseph Saba will suggest practical ways and means to reinforce the practice, visibility, and efficacy of International Human Rights Law (IHRL). Drawing on cases of assistance to the displaced and advocacy for the rule of law, he will present examples of resilience and a people-oriented human rights practice. These offer practical strategies, ways and means for dynamic constructive activism that have immediate impact on peoples’ lives.

Saba is currently chairperson of ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid), a non-profit organization that delivered over $200 million in humanitarian and development aid last year to displaced people and vulnerable communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Jordan. Previously, for thirteen years he was the regional director for the Middle East at the World Bank, leading programs in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, and the GCC states. He co-led drafting the Holst Fund for Palestinians and multilateral trust funds for Afghanistan and Iraq, and co-chaired conferences for Lebanon, Libya, and UN-World Bank Iraq efforts. He resided for four years in Jerusalem and part-time in Beirut for another eight years. Finally, as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago Law School, Saba has designed and instructs a course on rule of law, conflict, and development for the university’s PROLAW program in Rome, Italy.

Before joining the World Bank in 1991, Saba was a partner in Jones Day, for which he established an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, residing there for 4 years. In addition to his law practice, he was a founder and editor of International Executive Reports, which published professional journals focused on law and doing business in the Middle East, East Europe, and East Asia.

Saba has co-authored and edited publications on development practice, donor finance, modalities, and governance reforms. Between graduate and law school, he served three years as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer assigned to the Middle East region, residing for two years in Kuwait.

Saba holds a JD from Yale Law School, an MA in Middle East Studies from Harvard University, and a BA from King’s College (PA).

Mr. Saba’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College.

Christine Porath is a professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Previously she was a faculty member at Georgetown University and at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on how to help people and communities thrive. 

Her speaking and consulting clients include Google, United Nations, Microsoft, World Bank, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, Genentech, Ford, Marriott, National Institute of Health, Cleveland Clinic, AT&T, 3M, Verizon, Southwest, Salesforce, MD Anderson, Department of Labor, Department of the Treasury, Department of Justice, and National Security Agency. 

Porath is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. She has taught in various executive programs at Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California. 

Before getting her Ph.D., she worked for International Management Group (IMG), a leading sports management and marketing firm. 

Porath received her Ph.D. from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her bachelor's degree in economics from College of the Holy Cross where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the women’s basketball and soccer teams. 

Duncan Scott is senior vice president of Strategic Sourcing & Quality for New Balance Athletic Shoe, a leading manufacturer of branded athletic footwear, apparel and equipment since 1906. 

Currently based in Boston, Scott started his career in the industry in 1986 and has held global leadership roles in footwear & apparel sourcing and manufacturing in Korea, Taiwan, China, Brazil, and Hong Kong. He was Country Manager of China for Reebok, Head of Social & Environmental Compliance at Adidas, and subsequently Head of Global Footwear Sourcing for Adidas and VP of Sourcing for Sportswear at VF. Scott also served as Head of Latin American Sourcing for adidas, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil before joining New Balance in 2010. 

Scott has been active in corporate social responsibility forums and organizations during his career and has represented New Balance since 2017 in the Industry Summit initiative, a coalition of 13 global brands focused on social and environmental issues. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Global Labor Institute, which drives new conversations about work in global supply chains powered by quantitative research and action. Scott also serves as Vice Chair of the ESG Committee for the World Federation of Sporting Goods

He is a 1981 graduate of Cornell University, where he was an English major in the College of Arts & Sciences and ran for the varsity Cross Country & Track Teams.

Ryan Patel is currently a William F. Podlich Distinguished Fellow at CMC. Patel is an expert in scaling businesses and has served both startups and publicly traded firms. Listed as one of the “Creators to Follow” by LinkedIn Editor in Chief and recognized as a “Top Voice” on Linkedin, Patel is a news commentator Board Director. Patel also hosts "The Moment with Ryan Patel," featuring conversations with top innovators and executives. 

 

Ken Liu is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards for his fiction, he has also won top genre honors in Japan, Spain, and France.

Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. His latest book, All That We See or Seem, is a techno-thriller about the fight against loneliness in the age of AI.

He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include The Regular, under development as a TV series; Good Hunting, adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.

Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.

Mr. Liu is the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies' 2025-26 Ricardo J. Quinones Lecturer. 

Photo credit: Lisa Tang Liu

Šumit Ganguly is a Senior Fellow and directs the Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is also Distinguished Professor and the Tagore Chair Emeritus at Indiana University—Bloomington. 

Ganguly is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of over twenty books on the contemporary politics of South Asia. His most recent book, co-edited with Klaus Brummer, is States and their Nationals Abroad: Support, Co-Opt and Repress (Cambridge University Press, 2024). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Ganguly’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC.

 

Nadine Strossen, the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and past president of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008), is a Senior Fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education) and a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. She serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.

The National Law Journal has named Strossen one of America’s "100 Most Influential Lawyers," and several other publications have named her one of the country’s most influential women. Her many honorary degrees and awards include the American Bar Association’s prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2017). In 2023, the National Coalition Against Censorship (an alliance of more than 50 national non-profit organizations) selected Strossen for its Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech.

When Strossen stepped down as ACLU President, three ideologically diverse Supreme Court Justices participated in her farewell/tribute luncheon: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and David Souter.

She is the author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018) and Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know (2023). She is also the host and project consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series on free speech that was released on public television in 2023, and now available on YouTube.

Her book Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights was named a New York Times “notable book” of 1995 and was republished in 2024 as part of the New York University Press “Classic” series. Her book HATE was selected as the “Common Read” by Washington University and Washburn University.

Strossen has made thousands of public presentations before diverse audiences around the world, including on more than 500 different campuses and in many foreign countries, and she has appeared on virtually every national television news program. Her hundreds of publications have appeared in many scholarly and general interest publications.

Strossen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Before becoming a law professor, she practiced law in her home town of Minneapolis and in New York City. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Professor Strossen’s Athenaeum program is the Salvatori Center's 2025-26 Lofgren Lecture on American Constitutionalism and is also co-sponsored by the Open Academy at CMC. 

Debak Das is an assistant professor in peace and security at the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs at the University of Denver. His research interests lie at the intersection of international security, nuclear proliferation, crises, and international history. His research and writing have been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Global Studies Quarterly, H-Diplo Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum, International Studies Review, Lawfare, Political Science Quarterly, Research and Politics, Security Studies, Texas National Security Review, The Washington Post, and War on the Rocks.

Das earned his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University in 2021. He was the MacArthur Nuclear Security Pre-Doctoral Fellow in 2019-2020, and a Stanton Nuclear Security Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University in 2021-2022. Das also holds an M.Phil in Diplomacy and Disarmament, and an M.A. in Politics (with specialization in International Relations) from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Das is also an affiliate at CISAC at Stanford University, the Centre de Recherche Internationales (CERI) at Sciences Po, Paris, and at the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, New Delhi.

Drawing on decades in the arena—and insights from his book Soul Venture, Ashwin Gulati ’90 provides a unique insider's view of the entrepreneurial journey. From launching international ventures to becoming a seasoned executive brought in to help companies take off or land, Gulati has helped pilot the complex transitional moments for more than 100 companies in a variety of industries. He has worked in the UK, Spain, France and the U.S. After nearly three decades in the trenches, he has identified the hidden pitfalls, unspoken truths, and personal twists that ultimately determine a venture’s success or failure.

In addition to these professional insights, Gulati will share lessons from his own journey, from arriving in the U.S. from India at age 13, to pursuing his interwoven passion for tennis and business, and asking the difficult questions about work/life balance and personal success.

Gulati holds a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Claremont McKenna College, including studies at King's College in England and the London School of Economics.

Jessica Fagerstrom ‘06, medical physicist and educator, specializes in radiation oncology physics and works with advanced technologies such as high dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy and precision radiation therapy to deliver life-saving care. Her clinical and educational work emphasizes that science in medicine is not only about technology—it is about improving lives, ensuring patient safety, and inspiring the next generation of innovators. Fagerstrom is currently in the department of radiation oncology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

As an alumna of Claremont McKenna College, Fagerstrom credits her liberal arts education with shaping the interdisciplinary approach she brings to healthcare. Her career blends deep technical expertise with a commitment to public engagement, including developing hands-on learning experiences to make complex medical science accessible to students of all ages. By connecting scientific innovation to its human impact, she encourages broader participation in science and a deeper understanding of its role in society.

Michael Bridge is a musical maverick. “A wizard of the accordion” (CBC), he’s a virtuoso performer on both the acoustic accordion and its 21^st century cousin, the digital accordion. His concerts and improvisations capture the energy and panache of stadium rock with the elegance and discipline of chamber music.

It all began when Bridge was 5 years old, growing up in Calgary, when his mom bought him a $5 accordion at a garage sale. He has since performed throughout Europe, 25 U.S. states, and all Canadian provinces. He received his doctorate in accordion performance from the University of Toronto. He’s at home with classical, contemporary, jazz, and folk music and has premiered 60 new works.

Bridge embraces a musical aesthetic that is alternatively irreverent, deadly serious, meticulously prepared and completely in-the-moment. Ultimately, he aims to make your world more bearable, beautiful and human—even if only for the length of a concert.

Grace Stewart ’17 is a mezzo-soprano who performs opera, musical theater, and choral repertoire throughout the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, and Orange County regions. She received her M.M. in Opera Performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at Cal State Long Beach. Opera credits include Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro at CSULB and chorus in numerous Pacific Opera Project productions including L’elisir d’amore, Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury, Die Fledermaus, Don Bucefalo, and HMS Pinafore. Favorite theater credits include featured dancer in Something Rotten at Rialto Community Players and Legendary Productions’ Beauty and the Beast as Madame de la Grande Bouche and Into the Woods as Lucinda. Grace sings with Pacific Chorale, and she has also sung as a member and soloist of Inland Master Chorale, including as Mother in a concert performance of the musical Ragtime. 

Stewart graduated from CMC in 2017 with a major in Environmental Analysis. While at CMC, she took voice lessons at Scripps and gave a senior recital at the Athenaeum in April 2017.

The first biography of the writer-composer-actor-director, Lin-Manuel Miranda draws on more than one hundred fifty interviews with Miranda’s family, friends, partners, and mentors—from his elementary school music teacher to Andrew Lloyd Webber—as well as Miranda himself. Examining Miranda’s development from his early musicals in high school and college through the genesis of his professional masterworks, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner reveals the sources of creativity—not in immutable genius, but in exceptional openness, curiosity, and collaboration.

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner teaches English and theater at Portland State University. He received the Graves Award from the American Council of Learned Societies for outstanding teaching in the humanities. As a cultural historian and theater critic, his articles about playwrights from Shakespeare to Quiara Alegría Hudes have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. His pandemic spoof, What Shakespeare Actually Did During the Plague, was adapted into an Emmy-winning broadcast for PBS, and his New Yorker profile of Cherokee playwright and lawyer Mary Kathryn Nagle is being adapted into a feature documentary. He is the scholar-in-residence at the Portland Shakespeare Project and a frequent guest lecturer at theaters around the country.

Born and raised in Oregon, Pollack-Pelzer received his B.A. in History from Yale and his Ph.D. in English from Harvard.