News & Events
September 14, 2026
For 26 years, I worked at Berkshire Community College in western Massachusetts in various capacities. Although my doctorate is in the humanities (American Studies), I led the Business Division, then the Sciences and Engineering Division, and later served as Director of Special Programs.
In September, I will return to BCC to give a talk for its enrichment program for seniors at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). In partnership with Williams College, BCC was one of the first institutions to offer this innovative program, which has since expanded nationwide.
The presentation is titled "Envisioning a Better Future" and will be offered both in person and virtually at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, September 14.
You can register at https://berkshireolli.org/event-6781589/Registration or by calling (413) 236-2190, ext. 2362.
October 3, 2026
I will be presenting at the Communal Studies Association 2026 CSA Conference: “Communal History is American History” at Oneida Community Mansion House, 170 Kenwood Ave, Oneida, NY, 13421.
The topic will be “The Current Meaning Crisis Through the Lens of Intentional Communities.”
Information and online registration here.
Time and date are subject to change, please check back on their event site to confirm.
OCTOBER 24, 2026
I will be speaking at the Awakened Education Conference at Columbia Teachers College on Saturday, October 24.
In my presentation, titled "Inspired Education: Engine for Social Transformation" I will develop a theme from my book that ties in with the work of the conference's sponsoring organization, the Collaborative for Spirituality in Education.
The organization was founded several years ago by Teachers College psychology professor Lisa Miller, together with Steven Rockefeller (a driving force behind The Earth Charter) and others. It is highly inclusive, has no sectarian agenda, and seeks to acknowledge that children have a spiritual dimension that should not be ignored by their educators.
November 8, 2026
I will be giving a talk “Envision the Future” at 2:00 pm at the Kinderhook Memorial Library located at:
18 Hudson St.
Kinderhook, NY 12106.
PREVIOUS Events
In June 2026 I was invited to spend the day with students working on a substance abuse prevention project at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. To counter the large amount of misinformation about marijuana, the students review scientific papers on the impact of THC, particularly on the brain, and then translate what they have learned so that the general public and other students can understand it. The website they have set up is trueweed.org.
I was asked to talk about how building lives with meaning and purpose can impact substance abuse recovery and prevention.
Jonathan Rowson is a Scottish philosopher and chess grand master, who directs Perspecteeva. Based in London, Perspecteeva publishes books, sponsors the annual Realisation Festival, and promotes a deeper understanding of current developments and events. The following is a June 1, 2026 post from Jonathan’s Substack.
Writing About the Future in Your Eighties
In the early summer of 2024, I met Christopher Nye, who had travelled far from his home in what he calls “Geezer Valley,” a retirement community in New Mexico, USA, to attend The Realisation Festival in Dorset. He was eager to talk, and we spoke in the repose between the late afternoon session and dinner, walking the grounds of St Giles House. It felt like one of those conversations that were meant to happen.
The Tucson Festival of Books typically turns out 140,000 people on a sunny weekend in March. The mall of the University of Arizona is filled with 600 booths hosted by in booksellers, local nonprofits, and food vendors. There are numerous book talks and panels, covering every imaginable type of book. A fiesta atmosphere prevails. This year I decided to experiment and got a booth to sell my recently released book. The kinds of people most interested in the ideas I talk about were retired professionals on the one hand, and students on the other.
