One of the greatest perks of an Ivy League education is having all sorts of guest lecturers and talks hosted right on campus. Yet many of these great talks are not publicized enough. Enter  Bucket List, a weekly feature that aggregates these events in a single location that will hopefully make you realize, like Bwog has, how special our campus is. Our recommendations for this week are below; the full list is after the jump. Have a gander, who knows what you’ll find! Plus, it’s performance time! So, we’ve compiled a separate list of upcoming artistic achievements and fall festivities.

Recommended Lectures:

If “various” is listed next to the event, it means there we haven’t found out who the speakers are yet. Maybe they haven’t finalized the speaker list or there’s a surprise guest. After all, only special people get to talk about AIDS in Low… FYI: It’s World AIDS week!

Mon Nov 29

• “Nuclear Energy and Climate Change” 106 Greene Hall, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Susan Eisenhower, Barton Cowan, Robert Alvarez, Peter Bradford, and Michael Gerrard
• “Who’s the Boss? Women’s Religious Leadership in Judaism and Islam” James Room, 4^th Floor Barnard Hall, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Various
• “HIV and African Diaspora” Earl Hall Auditorium, 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Robert Fullilove

Tues Nov 30

• “Tea Leaves: The Right, before and after the Election” Davis Auditorium, Schapiro Center, 6:15 pm – 8:15 pm, Jill Lepore
• “How Not to Help” 707 IAB, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm, Kate Cronin-Furman and Amanda Taub
• “Capital Punishment Debate between CU Dems and CU College Republicans” Roone Arledge Auditorium, Lerner Hall, 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm, Students

Wed Dec 1

• “The Aftermath of the Financial Crisis: Towards a New Framework for Monetary Policy” Rotunda, Low Library, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Jacques de Larosiere
• “Somalia: Rebuilding a Failed State” Satow Room, Lerner Hall, 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Abukar Arman
• “Perspectives on Manhattanville” 313 Fayerweather, 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm, Various

Thurs Dec 2

• “Reclaiming AIDS: On the Dawn of 30 Years with HIV/AIDS” Rotunda, Low Library, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm, Various

Fri Dec 3

• “Afghanistan: Prospects for Peace” 1501 IAB, 9:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Zalmay Khalilzad, Jean-Marie Guehenno, Randy George, Anthony Cordesman, Abraham Wagner, Austin Long, Hassan Abbas, Christine Fair, Joshua Foust, Gilles Dorronsoro, Michael Semple, Dante Paradiso, Clare Lockhart, and James Shinn
• “The Genesis Projects: From Forming Stars to Forming Life—Followed by Guided Stargazing” Pupin Laboratories, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Daniel Wolf-Savin

Sat Dec 4

• “The International Criminal Court in Motion: An Analysis of Its Seven Years of Activities and Perspectives” 1501 IAB, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Luis Moreno-Ocampo

Sun Dec 5

• “Environmental Racism and Inner-City Politics” Intercultural Resource Center 552 W 114th, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm, Tour

Wildcard Lecture:

Thurs Dec 2

• “Stories of the Stigma, Stories of the Strength: Ethnographic Oral History with Sanitation Workers in New York City” 754 Schermerhorn, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Robin Nagle

Arts Addendum & Fall Festivities:

Thurs Dec 2

• “Bacchanal Fall Concert: Mickey Avalon and Night Eyes” Roone Arledge Auditorium, Lerner Hall, 8:30 pm – 1:00 am
• “LateNite Fall Performance” Black Box Theater, Lerner Hall, 11:00 pm – 1:00 am, Runs Dec 3 11 pm, Dec 4 8 pm and 11 pm, LateNite Theatre

Fri Dec 3

• “Bhangra in the Heights” Roone Arledge Auditorium, Lerner Hall, 8:30 pm – 1:00 am, Anakh-e-Gabroo, NYU Bhangra, Rutgers Bhangra, SMD Bhangra Club, and CU Bhangra
• First Friday: The Vagina Ball” Lefrak Gymnasium, Barnard Hall, 11:00 pm – 2:00 am, Simon Herzog and Others

Sat Dec 4

• “Om for the Holidays” 569 Lerner Hall, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Pandit Dasa

Sun Dec 5

• “Columbia University Orchestra Concert” Roone Arledge Auditorium, Lerner Hall, 8:00 pm, Runs through Dec 7th, Music Director Jeffrey Milarsky
• “World Music Ensemble Concert” 301 Philosophy Hall, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm, Columbia Klezmer Band and Lion in the Grass Bluegrass Band
• “Shalhevet Israeli Dance Troupe” Rennert Auditorium, Kraft Center, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Read more…

Contessa Gayles woke up very, very early to meditate and hang out with Columbia’s Bhakti Club. After a 7:00 AM mantra meditation session, she sat down to talk with Gadadhara Pandit Dasa, the current—and first ever— Hindu chaplain at Columbia. They spoke about a typical day in the life of a Hare Krishna monk, and what it’s like to be a monk in New York City.

Why did you decide to become a monk?

That question could take about an hour to answer! It definitely wasn’t something like, I woke up and decided; Hey, you know I want to become a monk! I always had spiritual questions growing up. Questions like, what happens to me when I die? Do I come back to this world as something else, or does my existence just come to a halt all together? Since I grew up in the Hindu tradition, I always believed in the idea of reincarnation; that life will continue, and I just accepted that, but it was hard to understand or grasp it really. Also, questions like, what is God? Is it a person? An individual? Can I relate? Is it just an energy? How is it that I’ve been so fortunate in life? I had everything growing up that I wanted, and there are so many people in India that are very impoverished. How is it that I somehow was born to a set of parents that could immigrate over to America? Why wasn’t I born to a set of parents who were just struggling to get a meal every day? Somehow I landed this…how did that take place? And many times when I experienced misfortune in my life, I wondered, what have I done to deserve this? These are questions that anybody can have. It wasn’t until there was a severe financial difficulty that my family faced that I really inquired deeper; I feel like I’m just a piece on a chess board. Who is in control here? To make a long story short, I came across the Bhagavad Gita, which is the main spiritual text of India. As I started reading it, it started giving me the answers to the questions that I was always pondering and I found myself becoming a little bit more peaceful. When you’re uncertain about something, that’s when anxiety comes up and when you’re certain about something, even if you’re not comfortable with the explanation, it is easier to deal with. So for about five years I studied this and other spiritual texts, I started talking to monks and in 1999, I decided to quit my job as a loan officer in a mortgage company and go to India and explore my spirituality. I didn’t even go there with the intention of becoming a monk. I just wanted to take a break from life, because life already took me through a roller coaster.

After a six month monastic stay in Bombay, Pandit returned to New York City and lived in a monastery for a summer, an experience which he describes as the happiest he had been in his entire life. Ten years later, he continues his life at the same NYC monastery.

Read more…