Carleton Convos

Carleton Convo with Mariela Shaker | February 28, 2025

Syrian-American violinist Mariela Shaker delivered Carleton’s convocation address on Friday, February 28 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Her address is titled, “Tragedy and Triumph: My Bow Bends for Peace.” An internationally recognized violinist and motivational speaker, Shaker was named a Champion of Change for World Refugees by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2015. Shaker strongly believes in music as a tool to bring people from different backgrounds together and to foster peace and love in the world. She uses her music to build bridges, promote peace, and raise awareness for the plight of refugees and vulnerable children around the world. She strives to inspire her students to express themselves freely and to find their own unique voice as performing artists.
Shaker discovered her love of violin in 1999 after joining the Arabic Institute of Music in Aleppo, Syria. After graduating with distinction in 2004, Shaker taught violin at the Institute for five years while earning her degree in business administration at Aleppo University. Shaker received a full scholarship to Monmouth College, a nationally ranked American liberal arts college located in central Illinois, in 2013 for music performance, where she graduated with the highest honor of Excellence in Music Performance. She realized while she was studying at Monmouth that she would not be able to return home to Syria due to the country’s ongoing conflict. After completing her degree at Monmouth, Shaker received a full tuition scholarship to acquire a masters in music performance at Chicago’s DePaul University, from which she graduated in 2017. While in the U.S., she taught violin at Knox College as well as Monmouth, where she also served as the concertmaster for the College’s chamber orchestra. In 2020, Shaker founded the Highams Park Music Academy in London, where she serves as director.
Shaker’s musical accolades are extensive. Her debut as a soloist was on June 20, 2015, at the Kennedy Center, to commemorate World Refugee Day, organized by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). She has performed as a soloist with Mesopotamian Symphony Orchestra at the California Theatre, and before Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan. In 2016, Shaker was invited by Cate Blanchett to perform in London, and by the first Scottish Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, at the Beyond Borders International Festival in Scotland. In 2017, she was appointed a UNHCR High Profile Supporter and honored with the Anne Frank Promise Keeper Award in New York City. 
Shaker has also performed at various programs for the United Nations, the White House, the Aspen Ideas Festival, Harvard University, MIT, Yale, Northwestern University, King’s College Chapel, and Georgetown University, among other prestigious venues. She has given recitals and masterclasses at more than 200 international venues, including venues in the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the U.A.E., Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the U.S. 
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Claire McFadden ’13 | February 21, 2025

Comedy writer and performer Claire McFadden ’13 delivered Carleton’s convocation address on Friday, February 21, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Her talk is titled, “Make it Yourself: How to Pursue a Creative Career After Carleton Even If You Majored in Something Completely Unrelated Like ENTS and the Path Forward Seems Shrouded in Mystery and Fear (A Convocation Speech).”
McFadden has performed her improv and sketch comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest performance arts festival; San Francisco Sketchfest; Out of Bounds; and Chicago Sketchfest. She has also starred repeatedly in the Mainstage Revue at The Second City in Chicago.
McFadden’s short romantic comedy, Kim’s Big Date, which she wrote, directed, and edited, premiered in 2019 at the Windy City International Film Festival, where it won Best Chicago Comedy. After its premiere, Kim’s Big Date was screened at 12 more film festivals across the U.S. McFadden wrote the film in celebration of friendship, saying, “I wanted to make a movie that celebrates how deeply my friends and I have been involved in each other’s lives, especially when navigating choppy, unknown romantic waters. They psych me up, calm me down, ghostwrite my texts, and lint-roll my pants.” McFadden also created and acted in the improvised web series Framed (2018) based on her year of working as a custom picture framer. Framed gained recognition through its inclusion on the Official Selection of the 2018 New York Television Film Festival.
Previously, McFadden was a managing editor and staff writer for Jackbox Games, where she pitched the games Blather ‘Round and Quixort, and wrote for the popular games Quiplash, Drawful, and Trivia Murder Party.  
McFadden graduated from Carleton in 2013 with a degree in environmental studies. She was a proud member of student organizations Lenny Dee and Cujokra.
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Dr. Bryant Simon | February 14, 2025

Dr. Bryant Simon, an American historian and professor at Temple University, was delivered the convocation address at Carleton on Friday, February 14 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. His speech, “The history of public bathrooms: A story of American inequality,” is based on a book he is currently writing on the topic, which is set to be published by University of Chicago Press. 
Simon has previously published four books — The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, Cheap Lives (2017); Everything But the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks (2009); Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (2004); and A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands (1998). Simon has also produced three co-edited collections as well as numerous essays that have appeared in media outlets ranging from The Washington Post to the Christian Science Monitor. Beyond writing, he has appeared as a talking head in documentaries about Starbucks, the history of American food, blue jeans, the Jersey Shore, the board game Monopoly, and the Alabama-based rock and roll band Drive-By Truckers. 
The academic chair of the University Honors Program at Temple University in Philadelphia, Simon is also Laura H. Carnell Professor of History and the 2020 recipient of Temple’s Great Teacher Award. Simon founded and runs the Temple history department’s Global U.S. Studies Program, which features graduate exchange with the University of Erfurt, the University of Cologne, and Sorbonne University. Beyond his teaching, Simon’s academic work is widely recognized in his field; he is an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Speaker, an elected member of the Society of American Historians, and the previous president of the Southern Labor Studies Association. 
Simon earned both his BA and PhD from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. 
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. | February 7, 2025

Printmaker Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. delivered the Carleton convocation on Friday, February 7, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. His address is titled, “A Tirade Against Boomers.” Visit the convo website for an introductory poem Kennedy provided before his address.
As a self-described “humble negro printer,”  Kennedy harnesses his printmaking abilities to produce social and political commentaries, often through posters. Kennedy’s passion for books and letters began at the age of four, yet it wasn’t until the age of 40, when Kennedy visited the living history museum of Colonial Williamsburg, that he was captivated by an eighteenth-century bookbinding and printmaking demonstration. This was the spark that inspired Kennedy to learn printmaking at a community-based letterpress shop in Chicago. Within a year, Kennedy made the leap and quit his job of nearly two decades as an AT&T systems analyst to further his education, and continued with the master book designer Walter Hamady at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating with an MFA in 1997. Today, Kennedy owns a letterpress print shop in Detroit, Michigan. 
Kennedy’s work is motivated by his understanding of Black identity formed through his upbringing during the Civil Rights Era, witnessing the rise of Black Nationalism in the 1970s, and living in the current Post-Civil Rights Era. Using a blend of social commentary, folk art, and graphic design, Kennedy embraces his unique style to address violence, oppression, and dehumanizing stereotypes that the Black community faces, among many other issues. He is recognized as a Glasgow Fellow in Crafts (2015) and an Individual Laureate of the American Printing History Association (2021), and he received the Outstanding Printmaker Award from the Mid Atlantic Print Council (2022), among other honors.
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Bob Daily ’82 | January 31, 2025

Screenwriter and producer Bob Daily ’82 delivered convocation at Carleton College on Friday, January 31 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Through his address “On Creativity: Nine lessons I’ve learned, stolen and ignored,” Daily highlighted his path from Carleton to the entertainment industry. 
Daily began his television career as a writer and producer on the famed NBC series Frasier, for which he was awarded back-to-back Writers Guild Awards for Outstanding Script in Television Comedy in 2003 and 2004. Daily wrote 15 episodes of Frasier — one of which was included in the book, Very Best of Frasier — over the course of five seasons. During his time on the show, he also received an Emmy nomination, and is currently working as a consulting producer on the latest Frasier series for Paramount Plus. 
Beyond his work on Frasier, Daily served as an executive producer and eventual showrunner for Desperate Housewives from 2006 to 2012, earning him a Golden Globe nomination. Daily is also the co-creator of Superior Donuts and served as its executive producer and showrunner for two seasons. He served as executive producer on the ABC/Hulu series The Wonder Years, which won the Peabody Award in 2021 and was nominated for a 2023 NAACP Image Award.  His other executive producer credits include B Positive, Perfect Harmony, and The Odd Couple. Daily is currently working as an executive producer on the new hit ABC/Hulu series Shifting Gears while working as a consulting producer on the reboot of King of the Hill for Hulu. 
Daily graduated from Carleton with a BA in English, and later earned an MA in English from University of Chicago. Before working in entertainment, Daily worked as a journalist, writing for a variety of publications including Chicago Magazine, Spy, Men’s Journal, the Chicago Tribune, and The Boston Globe. He has also published six children’s books. He is married to Janet Kerrigan Daily and has two children, Emma and Owen. 
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Noah Tarnow ’97 | January 24, 2025

Noah Tarnow ’97 delivered convocation at Carleton College on Friday, January 24 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Tarnow detailed his unique path from Carleton alum to senior quizmaster in an address titled, “The Trivial Benefits of a Carleton Education (or, How One Alum Made Himself a Game Show Host),” which, of course, included trivia questions throughout. 
Originally a biweekly nightlife event, Tarnow’s The Big Quiz Thing (BQT) evolved from a DIY quiz program into the nationwide customizable trivia event company that it is today, for which Tarnow serves as CEO, creative director, and senior quizmaster. In the two decades of its development, BQT has entertained hundreds of thousands of people across the country through its innovative take on classic bar-style trivia. BQT has even been adapted to television, as the world’s first bar-trivia-style TV show. 
During his Carleton experience, Tarnow — a lifetime lover of obscure facts and habitual devourer of quirky reference books — became determined to study popular culture, despite the College’s then-lack of classes on the subject. Majoring in American studies with a media studies concentration, Tarnow managed to overcome some faculty doubts to write his comps about the history of Batman as a pop culture icon, carrying that knowledge and novelty to New York City as a magazine editor. By his late 20s, the novelty had worn off — his magazine career was stagnant, and a diversion into stand-up comedy was utterly unremarkable. Yet undeterred, Tarnow repurposed his love of being on stage (in some capacity) and formulated the DIY quiz program that became BQT.
Tarnow now lives in San Francisco, where he also co-hosts the podcast I Don’t Get It: The Pop Culture Get-Off-My-Lawn Cast, and returns to Carleton when he can to check up on the Libe’s ever-growing section of graphic novels. 
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Lawrence R. Jacobs | January 17, 2025

Political scientist Lawrence R. Jacobs delivered convocation at Carleton College on Friday, January 17 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Jacobs’ address, “American Democracy in Fractured Times,” stemmed from his expertise in American political science and was informed by the content of his latest book, Democracy Under Fire: Donald Trump and the Breaking of American History.
Jacobs is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance (CSPG) at the University of Minnesota. He also serves as the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and holds the McKnight Presidential Chair — one of the highest faculty honors at the University of Minnesota — for his research work and contributions to the advancement of the university.
In 2020, Jacobs was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Beyond that, Jacobs has written or collaborated on over 100 scholarly articles, 17 books, and numerous media essays and reports. Jacobs is a specialized expert in national and Minnesota elections, Midwestern swing states, presidential and legislative politics, political communications, health care reform, economic inequality, Social Security, and third party politics.
Jacobs earned his BA in history and English from Oberlin College in 1981 and his PhD in political science from Columbia University in 1990.
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Abby Kiesa | November 1, 2024

Abby Kiesa, deputy director of CIRCLE, delivered the Carleton convocation address on Friday, November 1 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Her talk was titled, “Including youth in ‘we the people’: Youth voice in U.S. democracy.”
CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) is part of Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life. The Center conducts research and collaborates on systems change initiatives to build what’s needed for more young people and young adults in the United States to have a voice in community decision-making and democracy.
Kiesa joined CIRCLE in 2005 after working with students across the country for several years to build more support for youth and student civic engagement. As deputy director of CIRCLE — and throughout her over 15 years of work on this issue — Kiesa has specialized in how research and data insights can influence policy and practice for stronger democracy and thriving communities. Well-versed in the wide range of youth civic and political engagement efforts and practice, Kiesa brings a broad view of the institutions and interventions that can make up ecosystems for civic development among all youth. She is most interested in how to effect change in community, institutional, and political systems to reduce inequality.
Kiesa has been cited by news outlets such as The New York Times, CSPAN, NPR, and PolitiFact. Her publications include, “Getting Young People to Vote: Seven Tips for the Classroom” and “A Civic Imperative for Media Literacy.” She has a BA in sociology from Villanova University and an MA in American studies from the University of Maryland.
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Convo with Theda Skocpol | October 25, 2024

Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, delivered the Carleton convocation address on Friday, October 25 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel.
Skocpol’s work addresses a broad spectrum of questions about socio-political change, including health care reform, public policy, and civic engagement amid shifting inequalities in American democracy; currently, she is probing partisan polarization and Republican Party radicalization.
An internationally recognized scholar, Skocpol has received multiple honorary degrees — most recently from Oxford University in 2022 — and has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. In 2007, she received the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for her “visionary analysis of the significance of the state for revolutions, welfare, and political trust, pursued with theoretical depth and empirical evidence.” Awarded annually by the Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University in Sweden, the Skytte Prize is one of the most prestigious in political science.
In addition to her teaching and research at Harvard, Skocpol also serves as director of the Scholars Strategy Network, an organization with dozens of regional chapters that encourages nonpartisan public engagement by university-based scholars, building ties between academics and policymakers, civic groups, and journalists. Skocpol herself speaks regularly to community groups and writes for blogs and public-interest magazines.
Among Skocpol’s major books are two multiple-award-winners — States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China and Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Other books include Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, Health Care Reform and American Politics, and The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. Her most recent books are Upending American Politics: Polarizing Parties, Ideological Elites, and Citizen Activists from the Tea Party to the Anti-Trump Resistance (co-edited with Caroline Tervo) and Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party (co-authored with Lainey Newman).
Although she has lived for many years in Cambridge, Massachusetts — and in Maine during the summer — Skocpol was born and raised in Michigan and received her BA from Michigan State University in 1969. She and her husband, Bill Skocpol, a retired Boston University physics professor, celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on June 10, 2017. They have one son, Michael, a graduate of Stanford Law School, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor in 2018–19 and now works for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Skocpol does not work all the time! She loves to visit antique malls, looking for various kinds of Americana — including old membership ribbon badges from unions and fraternal associations. She is also a devoted football fan who closely follows all NFL teams, but above all, the New England Patriots.
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Carleton Family Weekend Convo with Pat Sukhum ’96 | October 18, 2024

Pat Sukhum ’96, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Twin Cities, delivered the Carleton convocation address for Family Weekend on Friday, October 18 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel.
After 25 years in the bustling world of health tech startups, Sukhum found himself — somewhat unexpectedly — as the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Twin Cities, the largest Minnesota arm of the nationwide nonprofit youth mentoring organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. While the timing might have seemed sudden, the journey leading him there was anything but. It all began 25 years ago when he became a mentor (a “Big”) in the very program he now leads.
A Minnesota kid, Sukhum was born in St. Paul to first-generation Thai immigrant parents. During his teenage years, his family moved to central Minnesota, where he graduated from high school, adding a “small-town twist” to his story.
Sukhum’s career in health tech startups saw its fair share of highs and learnings, co-founding companies which flourished with acquisitions by UnitedHealthcare and Virgin Pulse, as well as others that didn’t go quite as planned. He also managed to squeeze in four fabulous years at Carleton, scurrying late to classes in Willis, trying to learn a forehand flick, and, once in a while, dozing off in the back of the Chapel at convo.
Sukhum loves that everyone has a story to tell. He’s returning to Carleton to share his. As he notes, “maybe you’ll take something away from it, maybe you won’t.” Either way, Sukhum’s “pretty psyched and incredibly grateful for you showing up”… and if you happen to nod off in the back of the room? No judgment — he’s been there.
Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations