Recent Happenings at BHFH

1/11/13

Our resident speaker series, Where our passion meets our mission, is in full swing. Our first speaker was Seth Alter on December 5 with a talk on “Changing the Face of Education (One Video Game at a Time).” His talk contrasted the typical educational video game that may relate a concept but be boring and therefore ineffective with games that are fun and engaging but do not impart learning based on real world principles. Seth told us about the game he created, Neocolonialism, and assured us that by playing it

you will learn about Marxist macroeconomics in the process of having fun! Learn more about the game at this page.

Our second speaker was Ben Lawent, who spoke on January 8 on “The Abolitionist Legacy in Modern America.” He spoke about highlights from the book Bury the Chainsby Adam Hochschild, which tells the story of the abolition of slavery in Great Britain in the first half of the 19th century. Ben was especially interested in the role of Quakers in this story and highlighted their integral participation in British abolition. Ben’s talk stimulated a spirited discussion among attendees concerning parallels with American abolition, parallels with current injustices in the world, and other topics.

We are looking forward to the next two topics in the series, “The Mosaic of Gender Identity and Expression” (LeLaina Romero and Mykal Slack) on February 6, and “The Vilna Shul: Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture” (Rachel Spilecki) on March 6.