Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Years later as an adult, Narayan turned research skills acquired as an anthropologist and folklorist towards these intriguing family stories. Though her father was no longer alive, his elderly cousin shared materials relating to Vishwakarma and Ellora gathered across seven decades. Circles of extended relatives shared a complex mythology about the transmission of artisans’ skills and tools at Ellora. 

While family stories may lay claim to a place, other perspectives offer different frames. Narayan's quest took her through libraries, archives and museums around the world, and across the borders of scholarly disciplines. In this talk she shares the making of her book, Cave of My Ancestors. 

Kirin Narayan is the author of seven books, scholarly works on South Asian anthropology and folklore as well as a family memoir, a novel, and a “how about” book on ethnographic writing with exercises and prompts. Her first book, Storytellers, Saints and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching (Pennsylvania, 1989) won the inaugural Victor Turner Prize for ethnographic writing. Her most recent book, Cave of My Ancestors: Vishwakarma and the Artisans of Ellora (Chicago, 2024), a “questography” recounts the quest to understand a family legend through the multidisciplinary tools of scholarship. 

Having earned a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, Narayan has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Australian National University. Her research has been supported by the American Institute of Indian Studies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Australian Research Council. 

Kirin Narayan's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Kutten Lectureship in Religious Studies and Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies, both at CMC. 

Sam Mihara is a national lecturer on the topic of Mass Injustice. Following his incarceration, Mihara graduated from U.C. Berkeley and UCLA Graduate School with degrees in Engineering. He was then hired by the Boeing Company where he worked as a rocket scientist for 42 years. After retirement, Sam became a national lecturer on the topic of Memories of Injustice. He has won several awards including the prestigious NEH Jefferson Lecturer for year 2024, the only Japanese American so honored.

Anderson's career trajectory combines scholarly research on transnational Japan with over 25 years of experience in public history. She has worked on numerous exhibits at multiple institutions, including the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles). She most recently led the research stage for a major project on Japanese American food. Other exhibits include Don’t Fence Me In: Coming of Age in America’s Concentration Camps (2023) and (with USC) Sutra and Bible: Faith and the Japanese American World War II Incarceration (2022-2023). At the San Diego Museum of Us, she created Cannibals: Myth and Reality (March 2016 - ongoing).

Anderson is also a scholar of religion and empire in Japan, and has published on Christianity in Japan, the Japanese empire, and Japanese immigrants before World War II. Her publications include Christianity in Modern Japan: Empire for God (Bloomsbury, 2014) and Belief and Practice in Imperial Japan and Colonial Korea (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017) as well as articles and book chapters on religion and imperialism in Japan and the Pacific. She dual majored in Literature and Philosophy at CMC (’99). She holds a PhD in modern Japanese history from UCLA (2010).

This program is a part of the Gould Center's Celebration of Coeducation Speaker Series.

Kenneth P. Miller is the Don H. and Edessa Rose Professor of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College, where he serves as Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government. Miller’s scholarship focuses on state and local politics, constitutional law, and political polarization. His publications include Texas vs. California: A History of Their Struggle for the Future of America (Oxford 2020), Direct Democracy and the Courts (Cambridge 2009), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on topics including the initiative process, political geography, state constitutionalism, state supreme courts, and voting rights.

The Rose Institute of State and Local Government, located at CMC, was founded in 1973. An unmatched resource for information on California state and local government, the Institute maintains extensive demographic, economic, and political databases on the Southern California region. Under the direction of nationally recognized faculty and staff, the best and brightest students from Claremont McKenna College play a significant role in researching, interpreting, and presenting data. 

This Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at CMC.

Michelle Berenfeld is the John A. McCarthy Professor of Classics at Pitzer College. An archaeologist and fellow of the American Academy in Rome, she has carried out research in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. Her new book, Lessons From A Lost Republic: What ancient Rome can teach us about this American Moment (Spiegel & Grau), grew from her widely read Atlantic essay, “The Roman Way to Trash a Republic,” published last year. The book offers a lively, compact history of the collapse of the Roman Republic into autocracy and offers insights for Americans who want to avoid a similar fate. This is her first book for a public audience. Her academic research has appeared in numerous scholarly publications.

Jerome K. Wang, MD is Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He has served administratively as Medical Director/CMO since 2017 and is incoming President & CEO in 2027 for the Providence St. Joseph and St. Jude Heritage Medical Group (SJJHMG) in Orange County. Working with multiple hospital partners within an integrated healthcare delivery system, the medical group employs 375 physicians and 150+ NPs and PAs across 25 different medical and surgical specialties. 

Prior to joining Providence, Dr. Wang received his medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA as Regents Scholar, residency training at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC), and served as clinical faculty at Cedars-Sinai and UCLA, attaining full Clinical Professorship through progressive leadership, teaching, excellence in patient care and publishing in major journals. 

Dr. Wang has thrived as a clinician and physician executive, bringing his personal story, broad experience and unwavering passion to the forefront. He is deeply aligned with the Mission and Ministry focus of his current organization and is committed to fostering a strong culture of physician engagement and servant-based leadership, patient-centric delivery of care, and integrated care to the community.

Drawing from his own mental health struggles during college, his journey toward recovery, and the loss of his father and grandfather to suicide, Rivedal uses humor and lived experience to open conversations that can be difficult to have. Students will learn practical strategies for managing stress and supporting mental health, recognizing signs of depression and suicide risk, helping a friend who may be struggling, and connecting with resources, including support for a diverse array of communities. Along the way, you’ll laugh, learn a few life-saving skills, and leave better equipped to help yourselves and the people you care about.

Joshua Rivedal is a speaker, author, mental health educator, and stand-up comedian who has presented on mental health and suicide prevention across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia. He is the founder of The i’Mpossible Project and Changing Minds, a mental health-based curriculum, and the author of six books. His suicide prevention coursework is taught to healthcare professionals in Washington State, and he has co-authored three peer-reviewed journal articles on suicide loss, chronic illness, and trauma.

Joshua also works as a professional actor and voiceover artist, appearing in national commercials for McDonald’s, Dunkin’, and Dell. He has trained in coaching at NYU and emotional intelligence at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence. Joshua lives in Philadelphia, performs stand-up comedy, loves to cook, and holds a first-degree black belt in Taekwondo.

An engaged voice in conversations about artificial intelligence and education, Dr. Smith advocates for thoughtful approaches to preparing students for a future shaped by emerging technologies. Her perspective is grounded in her work as an historian, examining how periods of technological and social transformation reshape institutions, communities, and human experience.

Theresa Smith, Ph.D. holds a Bachelor of Arts in history with a minor in Spanish from UC Berkeley, a Master of Arts in history from UC San Diego, and a Ph.D. in history from UC San Diego with focuses in early modern European history, modern European history and colonial Latin American history. She is the author of The Emerging Female Citizen: Gender & Enlightenment in Spain, published by UC Press in 2006.

Steven Zhou (Moderator) is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at Claremont McKenna College. His research is in the application of multivariate statistics and data science (including natural language processing and generative AI) to questions of leadership, career development, and personality at work. 

Tom Le (PRO side) is an Associate Professor of Politics at Pomona College. His research focuses on demographics and security, how violence is legitimized in international relations, and developing a cradle-to-grave theory of how states utilize their populations for national security. 

C. Monica Capra (PRO side) is a Professor of Economic Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Her research investigates the complexities of human decision-making, involves interdisciplinary collaboration with data scientists and neuroscientists, and explores how advanced AI technologies can enhance behavioral and experimental research methodologies.

Sarah Marzen (PRO side) is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Department of Natural Sciences. Her research uses machine learning to better understand biological data, interprets biological organisms as machine learners, and uses science to producesocietally positive results across various disciplines.

Joseph Osborn (CON side) studies AI and videogames as an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Pomona. He is particularly interested in how game players' and designers' understanding of games differ. Joseph also works in digital game preservation and archiving and plays Splatoon 3 competitively.

Avaneesh Narla (CON side) is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Sciences at Claremont McKenna College. His interdisciplinary research in physics, biology, and mathematics focuses on how individual elements interact to create complex collective behaviors.

Yuval Avnur (CON side) is a Professor of Philosophy at Scripps College. His research focuses on doubt, skepticism, and its history as it applies to everything from whether this is reality to how we get our news online these days.

This event is organized by the CTL AI Faculty Fellows Bana Dahi (Visiting Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literature, Pomona), Cory Kohn (Biology Education Specialist, Scripps), Ashley Larson (Arts & Humanities Librarian), and Steven Zhou with support from Nicole Dawson (PsyD student, CGU).