The Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) released their 2016 speaker lineup Sunday. This year’s theme, Architects of the Future, was announced on Wednesday, Jan. 27. The symposium’s headline speaker is Edward Snowden, who will speak via virtual discussion on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. in Shriver Hall.
Speakers other than Snowden include Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black, Naomi Klein, environmental activist and author of New York Times bestseller This Changes Everything and Ezra Klein, former Washington Post Journalist and editor in chief of Vox.
There will also be a panel, The Future of Policing in America, which will feature Donovan Ramsey from The Atlantic, Mark Puente from The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, Melissa Hyatt also of the Baltimore Police Department and Linda Sarsour, cofounder of Muslims for Ferguson.
World Bicycle Relief is this year’s recipient of the Anne Smedinghoff Award. Smedinghoff, Class of 2009 and former executive director of FAS, was killed while delivering books in Afghanistan to school children.
The honor goes to a person or organization dedicated to the principles of education, global harmony and development.
World Bicycle Relief provides bicycles to entrepreneurs, students and healthcare workers in impoverished areas, focusing their efforts primarily in Africa. The bicycles shorten commutes that used to require walking and provide a more efficient way for entrepreneurs to bring products to market. The organization will talk on April 7 in Mudd Hall at 7 p.m.
FAS Executive Directors Mona Jia, Jack Laylin and Alex Sadler spoke about planning this year’s symposium and discussed the process of selecting and choosing speakers.
The Architects of the Future theme is designed to bring in proactive young people who are critically thinking about topical innovations and the future.
“It’s hard to fit it exactly, but I think we did a good job of keeping youngish people who seem to be really designing the conversation of the future,” Sadler said.
Laylin commented that the theme is often a starting point for determining who to invite.
“I would say usually when we’re trying to figure out who to invite, the first thing we try to figure out is what the theme is for the semester,” Laylin said.
Laylin discussed in further depth the process of choosing speakers. He mentioned that this year FAS set out to cover a broad swath of issues, but contacting potential speakers can be difficult.
Some speakers might choose to decline invitations based on factors like what the school supports and the campus climate. Some speakers feel these elements would create a good platform for them to share their ideas, but is not always the case.
FAS started contacting people in September, which was when Snowden was booked. His talk was not announced until November.
“If we talked to anyone, it wouldn’t have happened,” Laylin said.
Sadler also mentioned criticism FAS had received for hosting Snowden.
“A lot of people disagree with a lot of what he stands for,” Sadler said. “We’ve already received emails criticizing us for that.”
Sadler compared the process of booking speakers to the college process.
“Like when you’re applying to colleges, you have your reach-people that you really, really want, but you know it’s going to be tough,” Sadler said.
One component of choosing speakers was thinking about the desired topics to be covered. Laylin mentioned that part of their mission is to cover a broad range of topics with a broad range of speakers.
Laylin further discussed the idea of having an informative symposium that remained, as much as possible, neutral.
“The idea is not to take a side,” Laylin said. “We’re presenting people for other people to learn more.”
Sadler mentioned that he was unsure whether people would have heard of many of the names in this year’s lineup.
“One of our concerns with the people coming in is that people wouldn’t recognize their names,” Sadler said. “But we’re really excited about all of our speakers.”
FAS has also employed innovative marketing techniques, like using animated profile pictures on Facebook to advertise the symposium’s theme.
“I designed all the promotional materials this year,” Laylin said. “I would say we really turned around the marketing campaigns on campus. I think we’ve noticed the work that we’ve done and the ground that we’ve broken with FAS marketing has shown up in other people’s campaigns in a really positive way.”
The launch event was held in the Mudd atrium, and free food was served. Sophomore Tim Shieh and Freshman Reily Gibson, both members of the development committee, discussed the event.
“We released the lineup last week, so this event is really an extension,” Shieh said.
Gibson mentioned that the marketing committee was particularly involved in planning the event.
Overall, students had positive responses to the lineup.
“I’m planning on going to Piper Kerman,” sophomore Carolyn Duman said. “I’m very interested in hearing what she has to say about prison and prison reform.”
Senior Lauren Blachowiak also commented on this year’s symposium.
“It look like a really great lineup. I’m especially excited for Edward Snowden,” she said.
Laylin spoke about what he hopes people will get from it.
“In the end, it’s just about conversation,” he said. “It’s not about us endorsing a particular view.”
