News Release
Office of News and Information
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Phone: (410) 516-7160 / Fax (410) 516-5251
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August 28, 1996
CONTACT: Leslie Rice
lnr@resource.ca.jhu.edu
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Defining Generation X: The 1996 Milton S.
Eisenhower Symposium at Hopkins
Author Douglas Coupland first used the phrase Generation
X to
describe all Americans born after Kennedy's assassination and
before the end of disco. Yet it is a generation of people that
has remained something of a puzzle for the media and advertising
industries which want desperately to know them.
This year, the Johns Hopkins University's 1996 Milton S.
Eisenhower Symposium will take a close look at the culture of
this group and attempt to come closer to defining this
inscrutable Generation X.
Throughout September and October, prominent speakers will visit
the Homewood campus to explore issues and events that have shaped
the minds of Generation Xers. Robert F. Kennedy,
Jr., supermodel
Tyra Banks, gold medal diver Greg
Louganis, best-selling author
Tom Clancy and MTV News journalist
Alison Stewart are among those
who will share their perspectives on topics like AIDS, racism,
global warming and the telecommunications explosion.
The Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium was established in 1967 by
Hopkins' undergraduate student council to honor the university's
eighth president. Every year since then, a team of two to three
students chosen by the student council has arranged and managed
all aspects of the free series. Usually about six prominent
figures are booked to address a current national issue.
Covering topics like the nuclear arms race, human sexuality,
freedom of the press and foreign policy and race, the symposium
has drawn speakers like Aaron Cropland, Kurt Vonnegut, Carl
Bernstein, former senators George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy,
Pat Robinson and Isaac Asimov.
This year's symposium chairs are seniors Jeff Shalom and
David Capece. They can be reached at (410) 516-7683.
Included are the dates and times of events scheduled so far.
Defining Generation X: The 1996 Milton S. Eisenhower
Symposium
All lectures are free and open to the public.
Monday, Sept. 9, 8 p.m.,
Shriver Hall Auditorium
MTV News journalist Alison Stewart will kick off
the symposium by
addressing the evolution of the term Generation X, which she
believes is simply a marketing label. She will discuss how
advertisers and television in general are trying to market their
products to Americans between the ages of 16 and 36.
Stewart has danced with Tony Bennett, partied with Michael Stipe
and whisked cross-dresser RuPaul through a New Jersey shopping
mall. She has interviewed rock stars from U2 lead singer Bono to
Mick Jagger. But it is her serious pieces, such as the "Choose or
Lose" campaign coverage of the 1992 presidential election that
won her a Peabody award and secured herself a place as one of
MTV's top journalists.
Wednesday, Sept. 11, 8
p.m., Glass Pavilion, Levering Hall
Should marijuana be legalized? A town hall
meeting co-sponsored
by the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public
Health.
Thursday, Sept. 19, 8
p.m., Shriver Hall Auditorium
One of the most shocking moments in recent history was the
announcement that Olympic gold medalist Greg
Louganis has been
living with AIDS. In his symposium talk, he will discuss the
impact of the AIDS epidemic on Generation X. He will share his
personal story about living with AIDS and his own message of hope
for the future.
At age 16, Louganis won his first Olympic medal for diving - a
silver on the platform in the 1976 Olympics. Since then, in 1984
and 1988, he's become the only man in Olympic history to sweep
back-to-back gold medals.
After retiring from diving, Louganis wrote his autobiography,
Breaking the Surface, which instantly reached number one on the
best-seller list. His openness concerning his sexuality, his
difficulties in the past and his hope for the future have made
him a role model for millions.
Tuesday, Sept. 24, 8
p.m., Shriver Hall Auditorium
Eric Liu, former speechwriter for President Bill
Clinton and
founder of The Next Progressive, will no doubt debunk some of the
myths and stereotypes credited with Generation X, like its
political apathy, "slacker" mentality and generational "war" with
the Baby-Boomers.
Liu graduated from Yale University in 1990 and then served
as speechwriter for President Clinton and Secretary of State
Warren Christopher. He is also founder and editor of The Next
Progressive, an acclaimed journal of political thought produced
by men and women in their twenties. He is editor of the anthology
NEXT: Young American Writers on the New Generation and an author
of a book on Asian-Americans and the politics of race. Currently,
Mr. Liu is a Generation X political correspondent for MC-NBC, the
newly launched Microsoft-NBC News cable channel. He is also
finishing his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Thursday, Sept. 26, 8
p.m., Shriver Hall Auditorium
Supermodel and actress Tyra Banks will talk
about how the fashion
industry has been a major player in the consumer culture of
Generation X. Banks, who was also a regular on The Fresh Prince
of Bel-Air and held a leading role in the movie Higher Learning,
will offer her opinions on image, fashion trends and popular
perceptions of beauty. She will also talk about her experiences
as one of the few African-American supermodels in the fashion
industry, the one industry she says "that can be openly racist."
Banks will also discuss her efforts to change the portrayal of
African-American young women in the media.
Thursday, Oct. 3, 8 p.m.,
Shriver Hall Auditorium
Best-selling author Tom Clancy's books have
covered international
and political topics like the Cold War, the Irish Republican
Army, Columbian drug cartels and the inner-workings of the CIA.
During his talk, Clancy will share his perspective on the
international events that have significantly impacted Generation
X. He will also discuss the challenges that lie ahead for this
generation in the post-Cold War international arena.
The story of Clancy's success is a publishing fairy tale come
true. His first novel, The Hunt for Red October, sold briskly as
a result of rave reviews, then catapulted onto The New York Times
best-seller list. He has also written Red Storm Rising, Patriot
Games, Clear and Present Danger and Executive Order. All of
Clancy's books have sold by the millions and have been ranked #1
on The New York Times best-seller list for both paperback and
hardcover novels.
Oct. 9, 8 p.m., Shriver
Hall Auditorium
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s will talk about the
challenges that lie
ahead for this generation in confronting pollution and global
warming. Kennedy's reputation as a resolute defender of the
environment stems from a history of successful legal actions:
prosecuting governments and companies for polluting the Hudson
River and Long Island Sound; winning settlements for the Hudson
Riverkeeper; arguing cases to expand citizen access to the shore
line and suing sewage treatment plants to force compliance of the
Clean Water Act.
Kennedy is a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the
Environmental Litigation Clinic at the Pace University Law
School, a senior staff attorney for the Hudson River Fisherman's
Association and a senior attorney for the Natural Resources
Defense Council. He is also an author of several books and has
worked on several political campaigns.
Wednesday, Oct. 16, 8
p.m., Shriver Hall Auditorium
Dr. Judy Kuriansky has taken love and sex advice
to new heights
with her radio call-in show, Love Phones. Among the many dramatic
moments of her show, Kuriansky has stopped a child molester from
shooting his daughter, prevented an obsessed fan from killing a
soap star and talked a suicidal man down from a ledge. Her
counsel and humor is so compelling that Love Phones is the No. 1
radio show in New York and other markets across the country.
In her entertaining and educational presentation, "Dr. Judy" will
discuss the impact of the sexual revolution on Generation X. She
will offer straightforward, honest questions about AIDS and other
sexually transmitted diseases and anything else related to
sex.
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 8
p.m., Shriver Hall Auditorium
The beginnings of symposium speaker Michael
Bloomberg's financial
empire can be traced to the founding of Bloomberg Financial
Markets in 1981. Bloomberg Financial Markets has since become the
leader in the financial markets industry, providing important
information to more than 60,000 terminals at investment and
security firms worldwide. Bloomberg's clients include most of the
world's central banks, commercial banks investment institutions
and United States government agencies.
Today Bloomberg is in a position to help shape the future of
Johns Hopkins University. A 1964 Hopkins graduate, he is now
chairman of the university's board of trustees and the largest
individual donor in the university's history.
During his talk, Bloomberg will discuss how recent technological
advances in the telecommunications and computer industries will
impact the lives of Generation Xers for years to come. He will
also address the challenges this generation will face as they
strive towards the American Dream.
Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the
World Wide Web at
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/
Information on automatic e-mail delivery
of science and medical news releases is available at the
same address.
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