Special Presentations

Locations

BILL Special Presentations are held in convenient locations near the BILL office. We are grateful to these organizations willing to host our programs and welcome our audiences.

Buffalo Valley Lutheran Village Common

6 Tressler Blvd., Lewisburg
Along Reitz Blvd., between State Rt 45 & Buffalo Rd./State Rt 192. Park in front or along the sides of the parking lot circle.

St. John’s United Church of Christ Fellowship Hall

1050 Buffalo Rd., Lewisburg
At the intersection of Buffalo Rd./State Rt 192 and Reitz Blvd. The Fellowship Hall is located at the side-rear of the church building; parking outside of the entrance is plentiful.

Special Presentations:
2025 Spring Term

This spring, all of the BILL Special Presentations have been scheduled as Tea & Talk programs.

Registered attendees may arrive at 3 p.m. to enjoy light refreshments and some social time before the presentation begins at 3:30 p.m.

Post-Election Analysis

Chris Ellis, Bucknell University

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Buffalo Valley Lutheran Village Common, 6 Tressler Blvd. in Lewisburg

This talk will explore what pollsters and political scientists have to say about the results of the 2024 presidential election. We’ll work through how both scientific- and market-based forecasts of the election thought about what would happen, and how and why those predictions matched (or did not match) reality. We’ll also discuss the challenges and benefits of polling in the modern, "post-landline" context and how we should think of what polls are able to do in this environment. Finally, and most importantly, we’ll discuss what the results mean for American public policy and the near- and long-term, with a particular focus on the limits of policymaking in a polarized age.

Chris Ellis is a professor of political science at Bucknell University. He teaches courses in American politics, public opinion and the politics of higher education. He is the author of four books and many journal articles on ideology, political representation and American elections. Ellis is the director of the Bucknell survey research laboratory and multidisciplinary effort at Bucknell to support faculty research and engage students in the process of survey research. Chris earned his doctorate at the University of North Carolina and his bachelor of arts from Bucknell University.

Psychology of Pain

Wendy Sternberg, Bucknell University

Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Buffalo Valley Lutheran Village Commons*, 6 Tressler Blvd., Lewisburg

In this presentation, Provost Sternberg will provide an overview of her scientific research program that considered the many sources of variability in the experience and expression of pain in laboratory animals and human participants. Among the factors to be discussed are differences in pain behavior related to sex, hormonal status, stress, age and the social environment.

Provost Wendy Sternberg joined Bucknell University in July 2024. Prior to Bucknell, she held positions at Haverford College, Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. and most recently, Occidental College, where she served for seven years as the chief academic officer. Sternberg spent 18 years as a faculty member in Haverford's psychology department, with a specialty in behavioral neuroscience, where she taught courses and conducted research on the neural and hormonal determinants of pain and stress. Provost Sternberg holds a doctorate and master’s in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

* Please note this location change from what was published in our Fall 2024 newsletter.

Exploring Black Studies

Jaye Williams, Bucknell University

Monday, April 21, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Buffalo Valley Lutheran Village Common, 6 Tressler Blvd. in Lewisburg

What is Black study in its many contours, and why is it critical to examine today, especially in the face of all that is moving to shut down any direct engagement with it? In tackling this compound question, Williams will share with the audience her background, and why she was compelled to move from her first career in the professional theatre to her current one in academia, focusing on the intersection of the arts and Black study today.

Jaye Austin Williams is an associate professor and chair of critical Black studies at Bucknell. A scholar, director, playwright, actor, teacher, writer and consultant, her work has appeared on and off Broadway and regionally over the past thirty years. She is a specialist in the melding of drama theory, cinema and performance with critical Black studies. As a scholar-artist, Professor Williams’ applied practice in academia has been through directing works that ground students’ discovery of Black drama and performance as portals into not only the psychological underpinnings of characters’ circumstances and the gesture of uplift that might be prompted by them, but also the systemic and ongoing violence that impacts Black existence on a global scale. Jaye earned her doctorate in a joint doctoral program in drama and theatre, University of California Irvine and San Diego, her M.F.A. in dramatic writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and her bachelor in science in theatre at Skidmore College.

The Ed Cotter Memorial Lecture

In 2023, BILL introduced the Cotter Memorial Lecture to be offered annually among our Special Presentations in honor of Edward “Ed” Cotter. Professor emeritus of geology at Bucknell, Ed was instrumental in forming BILL in 2009 and served as BILL's director for its first six years.

This year's Cotter Memorial Lecture comes from Ben Hayes, Director of the Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program of Bucknell’s Center for Sustainability and the Environment. Ben’s scholarship is in the geosciences and he previously worked with Professor Cotter in the Geology department.

Buffalo Creek Watershed – Past, Present and Future

Ben Hayes, Bucknell University

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Fellowship Hall, St. John’s United Church of Christ, 1050 Buffalo Road in Lewisburg

The Buffalo Creek watershed in Union County is home to over 15,000 people and representative of most areas in central Pennsylvania, with farms, small towns and industry located in broad valleys surrounded by forested mountains. This talk synthesizes landform analyses, biological and hydrological studies, computer models and historical/social analyses that are shedding light on a number of important uncertainties, including: How does the watershed’s fascinating geologic past and anthropogenic changes over the past two centuries affect its present? What do ongoing scientific studies tell us about the health of the watershed today? What stressors are most critical to address? What do the models tell us about possible outcomes for its future? What things can we do to protect this landscape for future generations?

Ben Hayes is the director of the Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program of Bucknell’s Center for Sustainability and the Environment, where he is responsible for creating new teaching, research and outreach opportunities focusing on the hydrologic, geomorphic, ecologic and engineering sciences. Ben’s scholarly niche and research interests include fluvial geomorphology, river metabolism and behavior, catchment hydrology and he loves teaching classes in stream ecology and restoration. A registered geologist and professional river guide, he has worked in watersheds across the United States, Iceland, South Africa, Costa Rica and Canada. He currently serves on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for the Chesapeake Research Consortium and on the advisory board of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center. Ben has bachelor's of science, master’s and doctoral degrees in the geosciences as well as a master of divinity in pastoral ministries.