Trustee Annette Gordon-Reed '81, a professor at Harvard Law School and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, discussed history's role in race relations and the historical portrayals of race in America. The dynamic between whites and blacks in America is a direct product of America's history of slavery and segregation, she said.
"America has always been a multicultural nation," she said. "Becoming Americans was a process that Africans and whites went through at the same time."
Former trustee and Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science Director Al Mulley '70 said citizens must play a vocal role in fixing the problems of the health care system. Individuals should clearly describe health care preferences to policy makers and doctors so that an efficient, responsive system can be designed according to the public's needs and wishes, Mulley said.
Psychology and brain sciences professor Thalia Wheatley, whose lecture drew from her research involving human perception of faces, said human brains specifically seek out other faces, which is why people will often see faces in inanimate objects, such as clouds, buildings and "even grilled cheese sandwiches."
After just several milliseconds of looking at a face, humans will then distinguish whether or not the face is alive and associated with a mind, according to Wheatley.
The key feature that humans use to determine whether a face is alive is the eyes, according to Wheatley. Without being able to see the rest of the face, people are able to distinguish between human and doll faces by looking only at an eye, she said.
While doing research in a remote village in Cambodia, Wheatley and her colleagues discovered that people were only able to distinguish between human and doll faces that looked like people with whom they were familiar.
When participants were provided with pictures of Caucasian faces, they were unable to accurately distinguish between the humans and dolls pictured. When the study used pictures of Cambodian faces, however, participants were easily able to recognize which faces were alive and which ones were not, according to Wheatley.
Government professor Benjamin Valentino discussed the causes of genocide in different parts of the world. Although ethnic divisions exist in many countries, few of these divisions develop into violent ethnic conflicts or genocide, according to Valentino.
Mass killings in certain regions and as the result of certain conflicts are generally carried out by a relatively small number of organized and armed people, Valentino said. Contrary to popular belief, genocide does not usually result from massive numbers of individuals rising up and killing their neighbors, he said.
Most Americans are not concerned that the United States will be the site of a mass genocide, despite the presence of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. In the United States, unlike many other countries where genocide emerges, powerful military and police forces can quell the violent efforts of these groups, he said.
Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering Joseph Helble said institutions need to invest more in the education of engineers and physical scientists in order to develop the alternative energy industry in the United States.
"I would argue that it is not just enough to produce scientists, we need to produce engineers," he said. "We need to produce more engineers than we have in the past."
Computer science professor Hany Farid discussed flaws in human perception, using several images to illustrate the brain's tendency to incorrectly perceive dimensions or lighting. He focused on the famous photo of former President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, which has been considered by some to have been forged to cover up a greater conspiracy due to the photo's seemingly incongruent shadows and lighting. Farid demonstrated through computer-generated models that although the brain thinks something is wrong with the image, the shadow placement and lighting are actually logical.
Classics and linguistics lecturer Timothy Pulju reconstructed the Proto-Indo-European language which was never a written language but is the common ancestor of many modern languages to demonstrate the value of linguistics. Studying languages is essential in learning about the people and cultures of previous eras, according to Pulju.
Richard D'Aveni, a professor at the Tuck School of Business, presented on the "capitalist cold war" that he said is currently occurring between nations. Varieties of capitalism, like laissez-faire, social market, and managed capitalism are evolving and competing at an unprecedented rate. In order to continue competing in a global economy, the United States will have to take a radically different approach to capitalism, according to D'Aveni.
"It is an almost racist thought to expect the world to continue to be in our favor," D'Aveni said, explaining that the form of capitalism used by the United States is unsustainable in the modern world.
Anise Vance '11 presented research he conducted for his Senior Fellowship project on identity and space in Hartford, Conn. Vance explained the concept of "post-memory" the way a second generation relates to the traumatic experiences of the generation that preceded it in the way people construct their own identity.
Harry Enten '11 explained his methodology for how to predict the winner of the 2012 presidential election, citing factors including the economy, the number of military fatalities, the political climate of Congress and the term number of the candidate. The resulting estimate, according to Enten's model, is that Obama will be re-elected with 51.4 percent of the vote in 2012.
The event also included a piano performance by Alexander Arnold '14 and a slam poetry performance by Bobby Esnard '14. Trustee William Helman '80 and English professor Michael Chaney also spoke at the event.
TED is a non-profit organization "devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading" according to the TEDx Dartmouth website. The annual TEDx conference invites speakers from various fields to speak for a maximum of 18 minutes on a chosen topic. Local TEDx conferences are held at various locations around the country and are independently organized with oversight from TED, according to its website.
TEDx began at Dartmouth last year after Branko Cerny '13 decided to organize a TEDx event at the College.
"I wanted to create an avenue to combine the social aspect that Dartmouth kids like and bring people together in an event that can spread inspiration around campus," Cerny said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Cerny is a member of The Dartmouth Business Staff.
Cerny served as president of this year's event's organizational committee, while Sarah Cashdollar '13 and Jason Goodman '12 served as vice presidents. The committee also included 20 other students, according to the TEDx Dartmouth website.
The TEDx event has been uniquely cast at the College, as organizers chose to only include speakers from the Dartmouth community. Speakers were chosen through a selective process based on student feedback, innovative ideas, academic diversity, original research and other qualities, Goodman said.
Thayer, the Special Programs and Events Committee and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center sponsored the event.
