Professor Matthew Whitaker earned his B.A. in Sociology, B.A. in History, and M.A. in United States History, from Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. Dr. Whitaker earned his Ph.D. in History, with honors, from Michigan State University (MSU) in Lansing. After earning his doctorate, Professor Whitaker worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Comparative Black History Program at MSU; a trail blazing program founded and directed by the eminent historian and public intellectual, Dr. Darlene Clark Hine, John A. Hannah Professor of History at Michigan State University, and Board of Trustees Professor of African American Studies and History at Northwestern University. Professor Whitaker came to ASU in 2001, after completing his post-doctoral research on the Civil Rights Movement in the American West at MSU.

Dr. Whitaker specializes in Modern U.S. history, African American history, the African Diaspora, Civil and Human Rights, Critical Race Theory, sports history, popular culture and the American West. His research focuses on African American leadership, social movements, activism, and the struggle for racial, economic, and gender equality in American history and life. His articles have appeared in many scholarly journals and encyclopedias, and his latest book is entitled Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West (University of Nebraska Press, 2005). Dr. Whitaker’s commentaries on topics such as the intersection of race, class, and gender, presidential politics, the Roman Catholic Church, reparations, Black conservatism, civil liberties, and U.S./African relations, and have appeared on NPR, PBS, various newspapers, and other media outlets. He also serves on numerous boards, including the distinguished International Advisory Board of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, California Legal History, and the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in Phoenix.

To learn more, go to Dr. Whitaker's website, http://www.drmatthewwhitaker.com

Just prior to Dr. Whitaker's talk, HSGP members voted for officers for 2007.

The Humanist Book Club meets at 1:30 p.m. at Bookman's Used Book Store, northwest corner of Country Club and Southern in Mesa.

From Publishers Weekly: The "Lucifer Principle" is freelance journalist Bloom's theory that evil-which manifests in violence, destructiveness and war-is woven into our biological fabric. A corollary is that evil is a by-product of nature's strategy to move the world to greater heights of organization and power as national or religious groups follow ideologies that trigger lofty ideals as well as base cruelty. In an ambitious, often provocative study, Bloom applies the ideas of sociobiology, ethology and the "killer ape" school of anthropology to the broad canvas of history, with examples ranging from Oliver Cromwell's reputed pleasure in killing and raping to Mao Tse-tung's bloody Cultural Revolution, India's caste system and Islamic fundamentalist expansion. Bloom says Americans suffer "perceptual shutdown" that blinds them to the United States' downward slide in the pecking order of nations.

Our speaker was HSGP member Dr. Harvey Turner. Dr. Turner was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1932. His undergraduate work was at Columbia University, where he majored in psychology and contemporary civilization. He attended medical school at University of Berne, Switzerland. That was followed by an internship in 1960 and general surgery residency in Brooklyn, NY and thoracic surgery residency in Boston, MA. Dr. Turner has been an Arizona resident since 1987 and is on several hospital ethics committees. He taught medical ethics at Gateway Community College for several years. Dr. Turner retired from active practice in 2000.

George J. Seperich, Ph.D., is Professor and Associate Dean of the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at the ASU Polytechnic Campus. His academic interests include identifying necessary conditions for agribusiness economic development at the state level, corporate strategy and the development of management, and marketing agribusiness case studies as teaching tools.

Dr. Seperich received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University. He has co-authored a book, Introduction to Agribusiness Marketing, edited Case Studies in Agribusiness Management with several authors, and authored Food Science and Technology.

The Humanist Book Club meets once a month at 1:30 p.m. at Bookman's Used Book Store, northwest corner of Country Club and Southern in Mesa.

From Amazon.com: Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.

Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff

Dr. Paul Knauth is Professor of Geology at Arizona State University and Director, Stable Isotope Lab at ASU. He received his B.A. in 1966 from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in 1973 from California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech). He has published hundreds of articles and is the recipient of numerous awards, honors, and grants. To learn more about this distinguished professor, visit his homepage at: http://www.public.asu.edu/~iaclpk/.

Representative Kyrsten Sinema returned for another fascinating talk to our group about current news from Arizona's State House. Ms. Sinema is a member of Arizona House of Representatives from District 15, was born in Tucson, Arizona, and has lived in Phoenix since 1995. She holds a juris doctorate and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University. Kyrsten currently teaches at ASU in the School of Social Work and will practice criminal defense while the State Legislature is not in session.

Kyrsten was a social worker in the Washington School District in central-north Phoenix for almost a decade. As a school social worker, Kyrsten created and directed the community’s first Family Resource Center, designed and implemented community development programs, and administrated the provision of mental health services for the school community.

Kyrsten has been a vocal advocate for human rights and social justice over the past decade as a community activist, and has served on numerous boards of non-profit and advocacy organizations.

The Humanist Book Club meets once a month at 1:30 p.m. at Bookman's Used Book Store, northwest corner of Country Club and Southern in Mesa.

From Publishers Weekly: The title of political analyst Phillips's latest book may overstate his case (in the text, he prefers the term "theocratic direction"), but his analysis likely will strike chords among those troubled by our current political moment. Phillips (American Dynasty) expounds upon historical parallels for each of his three subjects. In his section on "Oil and American Supremacy," for example, he points to Britain's post-WWI involvement in the Middle East as an analogy to Iraq, and in his section on radicalized religion, he warns of "the pitfalls of imperial Christian overreach from Rome to Britain." The five major measures of U.S. debt—from national to household—keep setting records, he observes in his section on "Borrowed Prosperity," and the real estate boom spurred by the Federal Reserve, he argues, cannot continue. Phillips identifies the escalating clout of the financial services industry and suggests that Americans should emulate policies in Asia that encourage savings and in Europe that encourage manufacturing. The lesson of the past, he warns, is that intractable national issues "generate weak and compromising politicians or zealous bumblers."