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This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library.

This presentation will offer attendees an introduction to Generative AI and its applications for marketing, productivity, and everyday business management of small businesses.

Various tools such as ChatGPT and Canva will be presented along with tips for getting started, a comparison of free versus paid tools, and privacy considerations for safe and ethical handling of data. The presenters will introduce how small businesses can take advantage of emerging AI capabilities such as AI agents, automated workflows, and AI-powered features in tools like Excel. Attendees will receive a PDF handout listing various tools, tips and prompt templates for Generative AI. This session will be recorded and available for later viewing on our YouTube Channel.

From the presenters:
Naga Pranay Tumuluri is a seasoned leader with over 18 years of experience in risk, compliance, and digital transformation across global financial services. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and a Master’s in Finance from Texas A&M University. Naga has held leadership roles at Citibank and Ernst & Young, where he also received multiple awards for training excellence and on-the-job coaching. Currently, he leads AI-driven education and innovation initiatives, helping managers harness the power of Generative AI to drive productivity and strategic growth.

Dr. Kushal Shah is an AI and data science educator with over 15 years of experience across academia and industry. A B.Tech and Ph.D. graduate from IIT Madras, he has held faculty positions at IIT Delhi, IISER Bhopal, and a few other universities in India, and worked as a data scientist in the biomedical and analytics sectors. He is passionate about applying AI to real-world problems and making advanced technology education accessible to all.

This event was recorded on November 05, 2025.

Presented in partnership by Princeton Public LIbrary, the Criminal Justice Initiative at the School of Public and International Affairs and the Effron Center for the Study of America at Princeton University. Sociologist Karida L. Brown, joined in conversation by Laurence Ralph, presents her new book, "The Battle for the Black Mind."

About the book (from the publisher):
"The Battle for the Black Mind" is an explosive historical account of the struggle for educational justice in America. Drawing on over a decade of archival research, personal reflection, and keen sociological insight, this book traces a century of segregated schooling, examining how early efforts to control Black minds through education systems has laid the foundation for the systemic inequities we still live with today. NAACP Image Award-winning author Karida L. Brown, takes readers from the rural South to the bustling cities of the North and connects the dots between the experiences of Black students and educators across the nation. From the founding of early Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), such as Hampton, Atlanta, and Tuskegee University, to the rise of the Black freedom struggle, The Battle for the Black Mind weaves together the stories of pioneering Black leaders and the institutions they built to educate future generations.

Far from dwelling solely on oppression, this book offers powerful insight into how Black people have always fought to create environments where Black minds could thrive. Brown concludes with an urgent and empowering call to action, equipping everyday Americans with practical steps—both big and small—to ensure that Black minds can continue to flourish, even as our education system itself comes under attack.

Grounded in both historical rigor and astute social commentary, "The Battle for the Black Mind" speaks directly to today’s national fight over the American classroom, making it clear that the battle for Black minds is far from over. This book will resonate deeply if one comprehends the transformative power of education and is invested in understanding how education has always played a role in shaping the moral conscience of America.

In Conversation:
Karida L. Brown is a professor of sociology at Emory University, an NAACP Image Award-winning author and public intellectual. A professor at Emory University, Brown is a leading scholar of systemic racism and the study of Black life. Her work, which spans over a decade of groundbreaking research and analysis, has earned her both national and international acclaim. She is the author co-author of "The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families," continuing the legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois by centering Black narratives and empowering Black futures. Photo Credit: Marie Thomas (cropped)

Laurence Ralph is a professor of anthropology at Princeton University and previously a professor at Harvard University for nearly a decade. His research explores how police abuse, mass incarceration, and the drug trade make disease, disability, and premature death seem natural for urban residents of color, who are often seen as disposable. His first book "Renegade Dreams" (University of Chicago Press, 2014), received the C Wright Mills Award. His second book, "The Torture Letters" (University of Chicago Press, 2020), explores a decades-long scandal in which hundreds of Black men were tortured in police custody. His writing has been featured in The Paris Review, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The Chicago Review of Books, Boston Review, and Foreign Affairs.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library and sponsored by Princeton Federal Credit Union (PFCU). The author is joined by Megan McCafferty to discuss her recently released book "The Siren and the Star."

About the Book (from the publisher):
A promising young singer recovers from a traumatic experience by traveling to Venice and connecting with the work of a 17th-century female composer in this novel-in-verse from the acclaimed author of "Call Me Athena."

Introverted and homeschooled, vocal prodigy Luciana "Lula" Gabroni is ready to become the star she’s trained all her life to be. After entering the New England Conservatory of Music, she is immediately chosen to join an elite ensemble of peers who will compete in a prestigious music festival in modern-day Venice, Italy.

Barbara Strozzi is a poor young woman living in 17th-century Venice who dreams of making her mark on the world through her gift of song. She is determined to fight against the prescribed path of an illegitimate servant girl, daring to envision a life filled with intellect, pleasure, and independence—even as the restrictions of her gender and status threaten to silence her forever.

When Lula comes across Barbara’s bold and seductive music in the Conservatory library, she immediately feels a striking kinship with the mysterious female composer. After an incident at school sends Lula searching to reclaim her voice, she soon realizes she must connect with the ghosts of the past to find her heart’s true song once again.

About the Author:
Colby Cedar Smith is an award-winning poet, novelist, and educator, and the author of two novels in verse: "The Siren and the Star" and "Call Me Athena." Her work has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, a Cybils Award Poetry Finalist, a Goodreads Choice Best Poetry nominee, a Kids’ Book Choice nominee, Independent Publisher Book Award winner, a Nautilus Award winner, a Michigan Notable Book, and a winner of the Midwest Book Award for YA Fiction. Colby has also been a recipient of the New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. You can find her on Instagram @Colby_Cedar_Smith.

About the Moderator:
Megan McCafferty has written about adolescence for two decades. The author of 13 novels, she is best known for the original Jessica Darling series which was described by the Wall Street Journal as "Judy Blume meets Dorothy Parker." Before she was a novelist, she wrote and edited for Glamour, Seventeen and Cosmopolitan among many other national magazines. Megan lives with her husband and son in Princeton where she works in Youth Services at Princeton Public Library. She has volunteered for HiTOPS and Good Grief and is Princeton University Community Fellow for Mathey College. For more, she’s @mccafferty.megan on Instagram though she mostly uses it to make comments on her favorite podcasts and post news about New Yacht City, the band she is currently singing with.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Eric Heinze, joined in conversation by Shamus Khan, presents his new book, "Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left.

About the book (from the publisher):
What has gone wrong with the left—and what leftists must do if they want to change politics, ethics, and minds.

Leftists have long taught that people in the West must take responsibility for centuries of classism, racism, colonialism, patriarchy, and other gross injustices. Of course, right-wingers constantly ridicule this claim for its "wokeness."

In "Coming Clean," Eric Heinze rejects the idea that we should be less woke. In fact, we need more wokeness, but of a new kind. Yes, we must teach about these bleak pasts, but we must also educate the public about the left's own support for regimes that damaged and destroyed millions of lives for over a century—Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia, or the Kim dynasty in North Korea.

Criticisms of Western wrongdoing are certainly important, yet Heinze explains that leftists have rarely engaged in the kinds of open and public self-scrutiny that they demand from others. Citing examples as different as the Ukraine war, LGBTQ+ people in Cuba, the concept of "hatred," and the problem of leftwing antisemitism, Heinze explains why and how the left must change its memory politics if it is to claim any ethical high ground.

In conversation:
Eric Heinze is professor of law and humanities at Queen Mary University of London, where he directs the Centre for Law, Democracy and Society (CLDS). After completing degrees in the University of Paris, Eric Heinze earned law degrees from Harvard Law School (JD 1991) and the University of Leiden (PhD 1994). His prior books include "The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech Is Everything" (The MIT Press, 2022), "Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship" (Oxford University Press, 2016), "The Concept of Injustice" (Routledge, 2013), "The Logic of Constitutional Rights" (Routledge, 2005), "The Logic of Liberal Rights" (Routledge, 2003); "The Logic of Equality" (Routledge, 2003), and "Sexual Orientation: A Human Right" (Nijhoff, 1995). Heinze currently serves as General Editor for major collections including "The Oxford Handbook of Hate Speech" (Oxford University Press, 2025) and "The Criminalisation of Hate Speech" (Springer, 2024). He also serves on the Advisory Boards of The International Journal of Human Rights (2008 – present), University of Bologna Law Review (2018 – present), Heliopolis: Culture Civiltà Politica (2020 – present), Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica (journal of the Italian Society of Political Philosophy, 2021 – present); Social Theory and Practice (2022 – present), Law – Human – Environment (2024 – present), Routledge Studies in Law, Rights and Justice (2023 – present).

Shamus Khan is Willard Thorp Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Princeton University. He writes on culture, inequality, gender, and elites. He is the author of over 100 articles, books, and essays, including "Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School" (Princeton), "The Practice of Research" (Oxford, with Dana Fisher), "Approaches to Ethnography: Modes of Representation and Analysis in Participant Observation" (Oxford, with Colin Jerolmack), and "Sexual Citizens: Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus" (W.W. Norton, with Jennifer Hirsch), which was named a best book of 2020 by NPR. He was a co-principal investigator of SHIFT, a multi-year study of sexual health and sexual violence at Columbia University. He directed the working group on the political influence of economic elites at the Russell Sage Foundation, is the series editor of "The Middle Range" at Columbia University Press, and served as the editor of the journal Public Culture. He writes regularly for the popular press such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and has served as a columnist for Time Magazine. In 2016 he was awarded Columbia University’s highest teaching honor, the Presidential Teaching Award, and in 2018 he was awarded the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize from Upsala University for "the best sociologist under 40."

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on October 28, 2025.

Presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and the Princeton Filipino Community. Due to a technical error with the speakers' audio equipment, it was not possible to preserve a complete recording of the speakers' conversation and the question & answer session at this program.

Salazar Parreñas was in conversation with Martina Vandenberg, presents her book "The Trafficker Next Door: How Household Employers Exploit Domestic Workers." This book launch is offered in recognition of Filipino American History Month. Learn more about this observance through the Filipino American National Historical Society's website.

About the Book (from the publisher):
"Kaya mo ba?" Can you take it? An instructor asks this of a group of migrant workers in the Philippines, as they prepare for domestic work in wealthier countries. Can you take the grueling work? "Kaya," the women say. "We can."

The phrase "human trafficking" often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation, but Rhacel Salazar Parreñas reveals that the vast majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers who suffer abuse not at the hands of shadowy crime lords but rather "ordinary" family employers.

Drawing on twenty years of groundbreaking research across three continents, Parreñas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labor due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronizing "employer savior complex," foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over "their" domestic workers.

Through powerful firsthand accounts—including harrowing stories of workers living in hot, windowless rooms, experiencing food deprivation, having their makeup, jewelry, and phones confiscated, and having their wages stolen—Parreñas illustrates the migrants’ desperation, and the power dynamics that lead to a global network of exploitation. Parreñas’s urgent narrative challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.

Rhacel Salazar Parreñas is the Doris Stevens Professor in Women’s Studies and Professor of Sociology and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. Her research examines the experiences of women from the Philippines to understand how gender shapes migration, how states manage migration, how gendered economies operate in globalization and how worker unfreedom is a constitutive element of development. She is a scholar of gender, migration, labor, and economic sociology. She has completed four ethnographic studies including "Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States," which was recognized with the 2023 Distinguished Scholarly Book Award by the American Sociological Association. Her other books include "Servants of Globalization: Migration and Domestic Work;" "Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes;" and "Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo." She is the co-editor of a book series for Stanford University Press, Globalization in Everyday Life. Her articles have been published in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology and Gender & Society. In 2019, she received the Jessie Bernard Award from the American Sociological Association, which is the discipline’s highest award given to a gender scholar. For her commitment to transformative scholarship, she received the 2018 Feminist Activist Award from the ASA Sex and Gender Section. Her mentorship of junior scholars was recognized in 2020 with a Mentoring Award from Sociologists for Women in Society. Professor Parreñas has received research funding from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and National Science Foundation, and fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Study. Her writings have been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Spanish. She has given keynote and named lectures in over 20 countries.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on October 21, 2025.

The symposium began with a day at Princeton Public Library focusing on "Lunaape Books" and "Local Histories."

This event continues and deepens ongoing relationships with Lunaapeewak from Munsee-speaking tribal nations as they gather on their own traditional territory, Lunaapahkiing, with students, staff, fellows, and faculty from Princeton and IAS. This year’s theme was "Reconnecting with Lunaape Land, Language, and History." The 2025 symposium sessions took place: Oct. 16: Princeton Public Library; Oct. 17: American Museum of Natural History, New York City; Oct. 18: The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, and The Seed Farm at Princeton.

Session 3: Local Lunaape Histories

Eve Mandel (Historical Society of Princeton), an overview of the Historical Society of Princeton’s Native American initiatives

Claire Garland (Sand Hill / Navesink) on the new Minisink Trail markers

Paul Ligati, with Achutan Raghushri (West Windsor Historical Society), on the Moses Tunda Tatamy Trail

Presented by the Effron Center for the Study of America, Princeton University and co-sponsored by the Princeton University Office of the Provost, Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES), Program in Linguistics, SPIA in NJ, and The Seed Farm at Princeton; Princeton Public Library; the American Museum of Natural History; and the School of Historical Studies and the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Collaborative Research at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on October 16, 2025.