CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Academic and community organizations are sponsoring a Conference on Processes of Change to mark Adjunct Professor Melvin H. King's 25 years of leadership with the Community Fellows Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The conference will bring together scholars and community leaders to analyze the technological and social changes taking place in the world and to collectively address emerging problems.
The conference begins on Friday morning, Nov. 10, and will continue through Sunday morning, Nov. 12. Conference registration will be located in Bldg. 6-120 at the end of the central corridor of MIT.
As a state representative, candidate for mayor of Boston, and candidate for U.S. Congress, Professor King has been a leader in community issues and, at MIT, in making academic resources available to community leaders.
Organizers say the conference is an effort to continue this tradition and chart the changes in national policies needed to liberate people from the burden of material want, introduce universal higher education, unleash the new electronic technologies for truly democratic communication and provide health care, housing and opportunity for all.
Sessions on Friday, Nov. 10 include: Changes in the Natural World; Transformations in Agriculture & Food Production; The Revolution in Communications Technology; The Technological Revolution and the Future of Work; Forces Which Drive Societal Change; Local Consequences of the Globalized Economy.
Sessions on Saturday, Nov. 11 include: Higher Education Under Siege; Defending and Deepening Democracy; Personal Change in Periods of Social Transformation; New Technologies--Public or Private; Responding to the Attacks on Affirmative Action; Higher Education for All; Technology for Democracy; Time for a Basic Income/Guaranteed Annual Wage; Not by Bread Alone; Deepening Poverty and the Rise of a New Class.
Sessions on Sunday Morning, Nov. 12 include: Breakfast with Mel King; Emergence of New Forms of Social and Political Organization; The End of Want: Visions of a Sustainable Future.
Speakers (*=Program Committee) include: Abdul Alkalimat*, Elaine Bernard, John Bonifaz, Margaret Burnham, Steve Chorover, Richard Cloward, Ellen Convisser, Rich Cowan, Diane Dujon*, Paul Epstein, Herman Feshbach, Deborah Fitzgerald, Rev. Jane Gould, Gary Hicks, Patricia Hynes, Joy James, Jennifer Jones*, Evelyn Fox Keller, Robin Kilson*, Jonathan King*, Mel King*, Marian Kramer, Sheldon Krimsky, Richard Levins*, Roger Lewin, Richard Lewontin, Kenneth Manning, Rev. Joan Martin, Anthony Mazzocchi, Wendy McGoodwin, Marcia McNutt, Peter Miller, Steve Miller, Ayida Mthembu, Carolyn Mugar*, Clare Nader, Rev. Scott Paradise, Nelson Peery, Ken Peres, Ruth Perry, Frances Fox Piven, Margery Resnick, Mitch Resnick, Grace Ross, Carin Schiewe, Alan Shihadeh, Holly Sklar, Richard Stallman, Dottie Stevens, William Strickland, Coralee Whitcomb, Dessima Williams, Rand Wilson, Ann Withorn.
Sponsoring organizations include: MIT Community Fellows Program; MIT Lutheran/Episcopal Ministry; MIT Alternative News Collective; MIT Black Students Union; MassachusettsWelfare Rights Union; Students Together Ending Poverty; Council for Responsible Genetics; Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; The Center for Voting & Democracy; Playing to Win Network.
