GCPL newsletter, September 2025
Our fall seminar is now planned, with the title of the event being “Nuclear Options”, featuring Hiram alum and career US intelligence officer and arms control negotiator, John Lauder. Our new GCPL scholars are now onboarded into the program, and we have begun coordinating our fundraising efforts with the new development VP.
Fall Seminar
Our fall seminar is now fully planned. It will take place during the evening of October 28. The seminar title is “Nuclear Options” with the description of the event as follows: In the wake of the US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, and following recent great power diplomacy relating to military and economic crises, the topics of nuclear policy, proliferation, and strategy are once again center stage. The Garfield Center's fall seminar will therefore feature a conversation with John Lauder — a Hiram alum and career US intelligence officer and arms control negotiator — for a discussion of the nuclear situation in the Middle East and globally.
During an event in the summer, which the GCPL organized and hosted, John Lauder did an excellent job moderating a similar conversation on a much smaller scale via an online discussion with friends and scholars of the program. That discussion was decided upon, publicized, and held, all within 48 hours, and had – despite the impromptu nature of the event – a strong turnout with a highly engaged audience. John Lauder is an ideal speaker on this topic, and as a close friend and steering committee member of the program, we are happy to now bring this conversation to a larger, in-person audience at Hiram.
New GCPL Scholars Onboarded
We’ve now held our first two GCPL class sessions of the year with our current 2025-2026 cohort of GCPL students. The students in this group include majors and/or minors in Political Science, Accounting, Psychology, Neuroscience, Biomedical Humanities, English, History, Education, Chemistry, Theater, Nursing, Entrepreneurship, and more. So far this current group looks very strong and very engaged. We are particularly pleased with our first two class discussions this semester. For each class, we’ve begun the session by spending time discussing paintings by the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli.
Botticelli’s two major works – Primavera, and The Birth of Venus – convey key themes/ideas from the Renaissance, which tie-in, in turn, to ideas relating to the birth of modern political philosophy. By studying these paintings, therefore, the students are not only getting prepped for the GCPL trip to Florence (and hence for the in-person examination of Renaissance art) in March 2026, but, thanks to these examinations, they will also better appreciate the core ideas which led to the phenomenon of modern nationalism, which is another core GCPL theme for this year.
Meeting Hiram's New Vice President of Development
In August, GCPL personnel met with the new Hiram VP for Development and Alumni Relations, Shawn Dailey, along with other members of the Development team. The purpose of this meeting was to talk to Shawn about all the GCPL fundraising efforts which have been underway for the last many months, and to discuss next steps for strategizing in this regard. Shawn is clearly very proactive, and I think that between his efforts, and our efforts in GCPL, combined with all the work we’ve been doing heretofore with Hiram Development officers, we can achieve a lot for the program and for the College in the days ahead.
James Thompson, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science
ThompsonJA@Hiram.edu
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