Author Joel Bakan “Childhood Under Siege” to Speak at Harker on Feb. 22

The Harker Speaker Series is pleased to announce that author Joel Bakan will be the next speaker for the 2011-12 season, appearing at 7 p.m. at Nichols Hall on the upper school campus on Feb. 22.

Bakan is the internationally bestselling author of “The Corporation,” which inspired the acclaimed documentary of the same name. His newest book is titled “Childhood Under Siege: How Big Businesses Target Children,” also currently being adapted into a documentary. Focusing on the United States in particular, Bakan demonstrates how marketers target children, and rips the cover off the industry known as “kid marketing,” something he notes was a $50 billion industry 20 years ago, and is now a $1 trillion dollar industry. “As governments retreat from their previous roles of protecting children from harm at the hands of corporations,” Bakan writes, “we, as a society, increasingly neglect children’s needs, expose them to exploitation, and thus betray what we, as individuals, cherish most in our lives.”

Bakan is a Rhodes Scholar, with degrees from Oxford, Dalhousie and Harvard. Now a professor of law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Bakan also serves as a frequent media commentator. His public speaking is popular in the United States and abroad, and Harker looks forward to hosting him.

February 8, 2012Tags: Featured Story, Harker Speaker Series