Past Events

In keeping with the Ethics/Religion and Society Focus' purpose of encouraging the ethical and religious analysis of socially significant issues, Xavier University has established a speaker series to bring to campus prominent intellectuals and public leaders having diverse perspectives on a specific issue. The speakers present a public lecture or presentation, followed by discussion and a reception. E/RS also sponsors community roundtables and other forms of public discussion. Below you will find an overview of past lectures, discussions, and other E/RS-sponsored events. 

Spring 2021

Yuval Levin 

in conversation with Dr. Steven Frankel (Philosophy), Dr. Anas Malik (Political Science), Georgia Davis (Political Science major), and Mickey Townsend (SGA President, PPP major)

Restoring Trust in Our Institutions

Our country is living through a social crisis, to which many Americans have responded with populist anger at our institutions, and metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cleaning house, draining swamps. But now is not a time to tear down. It is a time to build and rebuild by committing ourselves to the institutions around us. From the personal and local to the national and political, these institutions provide the forms and structures we need to be free. By taking concrete steps to help them be more trustworthy, we can renew the ties that bind Americans to one another.

Yuval Levin is director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; editor of National Affairs; and author of A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream.

Monday, April 5, 2021, 4:30-5:45 pm

co-sponsored by the Stephen S. Smith Center

Conversations Across the American Divide: Deb Mashek 

in conversation with

Dr. Mack Mariani (Political Science)

Dr. Kristen Renzi (English/GDST)

Alexa Ollier (Philosophy major)

Grayson Walker (Philosophy/PPP major)

Being Comfortable with Discomfort: Why and How to Pursue Difficult Conversations in the Classroom 

Dr. Deb Mashek is a social psychologist, former executive director of Heterodox Academy , and founder of Myco Consulting.

Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, 4:30-5:45 pm 

Fall 2020

Heather McGhee 

Distinguished senior fellow and former president, Demos
Author, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Conversations Across the American Divide: Finding Common Ground in an Age of Discord

November 9, 2020, 5:00-6:15 pm

Heather McGhee

in conversation with:

Prof. Jacki Lyon (English)

Shannon Hughes (Dorothy Day Center for Faith and Justice)

Prof. Myron Jackson (Philosophy and E/RS Besl Chair)

Fr. Nathan Wendt, SJ (Eigel Center)

Carson Rayhill (Finance and German major)

Gabriela Salazar (Business Analytics major)

Spring 2020

March 2, 2020

Community Conversations:

Who Do You Trust? How Cincinnati Journalists Earn it and Keep it 

Who do you trust? How Cincinnati Journalists earn it and keep it. Between print, broadcast, digital and social media, we have access to more news and information than ever before. The upside if a wealth of opportunities to learn and grow. The downside is a wealth of mis- and dis-information. From cries of 'fake news' to propaganda placement, how do citizens know what information to trust? In this panel discussion, we'll hear from local journalists who work to earn your daily trust. Hear how and why they do it and ask questions of your own. Panel includes: Beryl Love, Cincinnati Enquirer; Elissa Yancey, Journalist and educator; Jan-Michel Lemon Kearney, Cincinnati Herald; Lucy May, WCPO, Chris Wetterich, Cincinnati Business Courier and Maija Zummo, CityBeat. Monday, March 2 from 7-8 p.m., Kennedy Auditorium, CLC 412, Xavier University.  

February 26, 2020

Maternity and Childlessness: New Conversations

Maternity and childlessness. Rarely are these intimate experiences discussed together. Yet in our present day, they are changing in tandem. New figures have appeared on the cultural landscape: the voluntarily childfree, the pregnant trans man, the married lesbian mother. SO what does the past suggest about the experiences of living with, and without children? And how might the past illuminate our lives today? Join Sarah Knoww and Rachel Chrastil in a conversation. Wednesday, February 26, 2020, Kennedy Auditorium, CLC  412, Xavier campus. 

February 14, 2020

 From the director of BONHOEFFER, The Power of Forgiveness and CHAPLAINS, Revolution of the Heart, The Dorothy Day Story, a film by Martin Doblmeier

February 13, 2020, 6:30 p.m.. Xavier UNiversity Kennedy Auditorium, Conaton Learning Commons 412, Dana Ave. at St. Francis Xavier Way. Discussion with filmmaker Martin Doblmeier to follow. Free and optn to the public. Presented bu Ethics/Religion & Society and the Department of Theology.

February 17, 2020:

Conversations Across the American Divide: Booker T. Washington and the Lessons of Lincoln 

Diana Schaub, Professor of Political Science, Loyola University Maryland

in conversation with

7:00-8:15 pm, Kennedy Auditorium, CLC 412

Fall 2019

September 16, 2019:

Conversations Across the American Divide: Civil Discourse in an Uncivil Age

Alexander Heffner, host of PBS's "The Open Mind" and coauthor of A Documentary History of the United States

in conversation with Xavier faculty and students: Dr. Myron Jackson (Philosophy), Dr. Leslie Rasmussen (Communication), Zach Lippe (Math and Actuarial Science major), Kevin Thomas (English and Philosophy major; editor in chief, Xavier Newswire), and Eve Vavilis (Biology major)

 

 

October 21, 2019:

Conversations Across the American Divide: The Rural Roots of Class Politics in America

Nancy Isenberg, historian, Louisiana State University

in conversation with Dr. John Fairfield (History), Dr. Kandi Stinson (Sociology), Briana Ruzanka (PPP and Spanish major), and Isabella Serna (PPP major) 

 

November 11, 2019:

Community Conversations

My Truth is Your Propaganda: 

News in the age of cynicism, trolls, and hyper-partisanship

An event in coordination with Beyond Civility

Can you easily spot the fake news stories motivating your political rivals? Can you just as easily spot divisive stories attempting to motivate you? Our news and social media sources offer an array of information, opinion, demonstrable fact, and pure fiction. Join us to discuss the boundary between truth and propaganda and how to navigate it.

Participants:

 

Spring 2019

February 18-19, 2019

Conversations Across the American Divide:

The Mirror of Race: Reflections from Film, Photography and History

Derek Burrows, storyteller and filmmaker and Gregory Fried, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College, co-founders of The Mirror of Race Project

in conversation with Xavier faculty, staff, and students

Feb. 18:

Gregory Fried and Derek Burrows discuss race and early American photography together with panelists Bethany Henning (Dept. of Philosophy), Myron Jackson (E/RS Besl Chair) and Gregory Rust (University photographer). Many of the photographs they will discuss are on display January 25-February 22 at the Xavier Art Gallery, together with the photo-art installation Focus on Race by Gregory Rust. The early photos can also be seen online at the Mirror of Race website.

In this video by Eli Bedel, Burrows and Fried are interviewed in the Xavier Art Gallery about the Mirror of Race project:

Feb. 19:

Derek Burrows presents his film "Before the Trees Was Strange," exploring the history of his mixed-race family in the Bahamas, followed by a discussion including Gregory Fried, Myron Jackson (E/RS Besl Chair), and Ihsan Walker (Black Student Association). 

March 4, 2019:

Community Conversation:

Educating for citizenship in Cincinnati

How can we educate young people to become responsible and positive members of our community? Join educators from public and private schools and organizations as they discuss how to nurture outstanding citizens.

Dr. Laney Bender-Slack, Middle Childhood Education, Xavier University

Mary Delaney, Executive Director Community Matters/Education Matters

Libby Hunter, Executive Director, WordPlay Cincy

Azaria Pittman-Carter, University of Cincinnati Education student and WordPlay graduate

Terrence Tyrrell, Principal, St. Xavier High School

Lisa Votaw, Principal, Aiken High School

 

 

April 15, 2019:

Conversations Across the American Divide: Against (Calls for) Civility

Alan Jacobs, Professor of Humanities, Baylor University

An argument for ending the policing of tone and beginning the hard labor of turning Others into Neighbors.

Alan Jacobs is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Baylor University. His books include How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds, The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis, and The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography.

Panelists:

Sela Brazier (Social Work and GDST major)
Ryan Kambich (PPP and Economics major, Xavier Newswire)
Dr. Kristen Renzi (English Department)
Dr. Kristine Suna-Koro (Theology Department) 

Fall 2018

September 17, 2018:

Conversations Across the American Divide: A Conservative Case for Immigration

Linda Chavez, Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity

in conversation with Dr. Myron Jackson (E/RS Besl Chair), Cole Branham (President, XU College Republicans), and Daphne Wilson (Vice President, XU Political Science Club)

 

October 1, 2018:

Community Conversation: Hispanic immigrants and the Cincinnati economy

Alfonso Cornejo, Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA

Carlos de Jesús, Apoyo Latino

Steve Driehaus, Cincinnati Compass

Manuel Pérez, Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center

Andrea Solís Canto, Youth Educating Society, Xavier PPP and International Studies major

Visit this page for more information on immigration and Hispanics in Cincinnati.

 October 9, 2018:

Conversations Across the American Divide:

Empathy is not Endorsement: Reflections on Dialogue and Difference

Dylan Marron, writer, performer, and video and podcast creator

in conversation with Dr. Ashley Hinck (Communication Department), Dr. Taj Smith (Director, Center for Diversity and Inclusion), Riley Head (PPP and Gender and Diversity Studies major), and Tabitha Thornburgh (Social Work major)

November 12, 2018:

Conversations Across the American Divide:

The Midterm Election: A View from Small-Town Ohio

Gary Abernathy, Hillsboro (OH) journalist and politician

in conversation with Dr. Bradley Nestheide (Political Science), Anne Marie Coriale (Young Americans for Liberty, Management major), and John Duque (Xavier Socialists, Theology major)

 Spring 2018 

February 6: E/RS Interviews: On Capitalism

In the 6^th of 6 E/RS interviews, Staff Johnson (Finance) and Tim Brownlee (Philosophy) will discuss the virtues and vices of capitalism. E/RS interviews provide an opportunity for us to get to know members of the Xavier community in a more informal way.

February 26: Lunch with Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University, is the author of the bestselling book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons on the Twentieth Century. He is also the author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, and the forthcoming work Roads to Unfreedom, which chronicles the rise of authoritarianism in Russia, Europe, and America. Co-Sponsored by Xavier's Brueggeman Center for Dialogue and The Holocaust and Humanity Center.

March 20: Jelani Cobb on Activism and Sports

Jelani Cobb is the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University. He joined the Journalism School faculty in 2016. He has contributed to The New Yorker since 2012, and became a staff writer in 2015. He is the recipient of the 2015 Sidney Hillman Award for Opinion and Analysis writing and writes frequently about race, politics, history and culture. Dr. Cobb is also a recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright and Ford Foundations.

He is the author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress as well as To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. His articles and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, The New Republic, Essence, Vibe, The Progressive, and TheRoot.com. His collection The Devil and Dave Chappelle and Other Essays was published in 2007.

April 12: Claudia Rankine on Race and Poetry

Claudia Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don't Let Me Be Lonely; she is also the editor of several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. For her book Citizen, Rankine won both the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN Literary Award, the NAACP Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry; and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Citizen also holds the distinction of being the only poetry book to be a New York Times bestseller in the nonfiction category. She teaches at Yale University as the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry.

Fall 2017 - Imagining the Good: Community, Equality, Environment

September 13: Is God Dead?

In the 5^th of 6 E/RS interviews, Waleed El-Ansary (Theology), Tim Quinn (Philosophy) and Kristine Suna-Koro (Theology) will discuss Nietzsche's infamous claim "God is dead," and, more broadly, the significance and role of God in our modern world. E/RS interviews provide an opportunity for us to get to know members of the Xavier community in a more informal way.

October 11: Michael Brownstein on Implicit Bias

Michael Brownstein is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at CUNY/John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He has published numerous papers on implicit bias, and with Jennifer Saul, he is the co-editor of the two-volume book Implicit Bias and Philosophy. He will give a talk, "The Habit Stance: Cultivating Ethical Implicit Attitudes," in the evening and a workshop on implicit bias and higher education during the afternoon in the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Lecture (7 p.m.): "The Habit Stance: Cultivating Ethical Implicit Attitudes"

While it is clear that implicit attitudes are malleable, there is much to learn about the most effective techniques for changing them. Brownstein argues for treating implicit attitudes as if they are habits. The cultivation of ethical habits involves at least three elements: pre-commitment to plans; rote practice; and attention to situational influences on behavior. He considers current research on these techniques, identifies open questions for future experimentation, and addresses conceptual concerns about the nature of ethical action.

CTE Workshop (3 p.m.): "Simple Strategies for Complex Problems: Implicit Bias and Higher Education"

Research suggests that implicit biases affect higher education in a number of ways: in faculty hiring, grading, classroom atmosphere, and more. While there is no single easy fix for these problems, university faculty and staff can embrace simple solutions to combat unintended biases. Brownstein will present both "institutional" and "individual" tactics for promoting more inclusive and egalitarian outcomes in higher education. Room CLC 309.

October 25: Adam Konopka on Sustainability and Philosophy

Adam Konopka is the Besl Chair in Ethics/Religion and Society. He is currently completing his manuscript Ecological Investigations: A Phenomenology of Habitat (Routledge, forthcoming) and teaches courses on ethics and environmental philosophy at Xavier.

Lecture (7 p.m.): "What is Sustainability? A Philosophical Perspective."

Sustainability has become the central theme of recent mainstream environmental discourses and practices and has been defined in various economic, scientific, and policy terms. A common element in the various definitions of sustainability concerns an inter-temporal relationship to future human generations. The Brundtland Commission, for example, defines sustainable development as "the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability the future generations to meet their own needs." This talk examines the relationship between present and future generations and clarifies some of the philosophical assumptions involved in this relation. In particular, the clarification of the some of the structures of intergenerational relationships helps address some of the interdisciplinary puzzles involved in sustainability discourses and imagine newer and more authentic sustainable practices.

November 16: Sally Haslanger on Feminism and Racism

Sally Haslanger is Ford Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT, and an affiliate in the MIT Women's and Gender Studies Program. Her research interests include analytic metaphysics and epistemology, ancient philosophy (especially Aristotle), and social and political philosophy, feminist theory and critical race theory. Haslanger's book Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique (Oxford 2012), collects papers published over the course of twenty years that link work in contemporary metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language with social and political issues concerning gender, race, and the family. It was awarded the 2014 Joseph B. Gittler Prize for "outstanding scholarly contribution in the field of the philosophy of one or more of the social sciences."

Lecture (7 p.m.): "Disrupting Racism: Social Meaning and Social Movements"

Description: Racism and other forms of injustice are more than just bad attitudes; after all, such injustice also involves unfair distributions of goods and resources. But attitudes play a role. How central is that role? The cognitivist argues that racism is an ideology that consists in false beliefs that arise out of and serve pernicious social conditions. In this lecture Haslanger agrees that racism is an ideology, but in her view, ideology is deeply rooted in social practices. Social practices are patterns of interaction that distribute things of value, guided by cultural meanings. Unjust practices rely on social meanings that are internalized as habits of mind that distort, obscure, and occlude important facts and result in a failure to recognize the interests of subordinated groups. How do we disrupt such practices to achieve greater justice? Haslanger argues that this is sometimes, but not always, best achieved by argument or challenging false beliefs, so social movements legitimately seek other means.

In addition to the evening talk, Dr. Haslanger will offer an afternoon workshop on Feminist Epistemology at 2pm in CLC 308.

September 10 - The E/RS Interviews: "The American Experience: Community, Equality, Environment"

In the first of six E/RS interviews, Father Graham and Paul Colella (Philosophy) will discuss dimensions of "the American experience" based on both their personal experiences and academic pursuits. The E/RS interviews provide an opportunity for us to get to know in a more informal fashion members of the Xavier community.

The Cintas Center, Duff Banquet Room, 7 p.m.

September 14 - Benjamin Barber: "If Mayors Ruled the World" and "Consumption Justice" Lectures

Benjamin Barber (CUNY, The Graduate Center), in If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations and Rising Cities, argues that cities have, in the age of globalization, "once again become democracy's best hope." Barber presents a way of rethinking the challenge of democracy: cities, unlike the limping nation-state, are positioned to connect local democratic participation with social and political power to promote lasting change. In Consumed Barber examines how markets "corrupt children, infantilize adults, and swallow citizens whole" effectively undermining the health of our democracy and the environment. Co-sponsored by the Brueggeman Center and Sustainability Committee.

Dr. Barber will be a part of two events on September 14. The first event is Xavier's Sustainability Day, where Barber will discuss issues of Consumption Justice and his book Consumed. At the the second event he will discuss his most recent book If Mayors Ruled the World.

1. Consumption Justice, Sustainability Day: Kennedy Auditorium in CLC, 3 p.m.
2. If Mayors Ruled the World: The Cintas Center, Duff Banquet Room, 7 p.m.

October 15 - Michael Sandel: What is the Right thing to Do?

Michael Sandel (Harvard University) has been called "the most famous teacher of philosophy in the world" and his Justice: What is the Right Thing to Do? and What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets have reached far beyond academic audiences as international bestsellers. In Justice he shows how the political philosophies of Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Rawls can help us think about the most pressing ethical issues of our time and in What Money Can't Buy he argues that we have "drifted from having a market economy to being a market society." Co-sponsored by the Cintas Institute for Business Ethics and the Brueggeman Center.

The Cintas Center, Duff Banquet Room, 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations required.

October 29 - Ross Gay: Poetry, Race, and the Environment

Ross Gay (Indiana University, Bloomington) is a poet, critic, and a gardener. He is the author of Bringing the Shovel Down and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude and the essay "Some Thoughts on Mercy" which critically examines his experiences with racism. He is currently writing a book on African-American gardening and farming. In addition to an E/RS lecture, there will be poetry reading at Evanston's Community Blend."

1. Talk, "Saving the Seeds: Loving the Land, Again" in Conaton Board Room, 4 p.m.

2. Poetry Reading, Community Blend (Coffee Shop in Evanston), 7 p.m.

November 12 - The Cooperative Economy: A Panel on Cooperatives in Cincinnati

In spring 2016, E/RS will host a major conference on cooperative business. As a lead up to the conference, there will be a panel session focusing on the blossoming cooperative movement in Cincinnati. How do we build a more inclusive and cooperative economy? With a shrinking middle class, growing inequalities, and fluctuating global markets what kind of social and economic models can sustainably support communities in need? There are three standard social and economic models available: 1) government models, 2) for-profit models, and 3) non-profit models. But, these models are not meeting the needs of many struggling communities. A fourth additional option is the cooperative model, which is inclusive, compassionate, environmentally sustainable, and collaborative in ways the standard three models are not. The aim of the panel is to investigate the fourth model as an option for communities in Cincinnati.

The Cintas Center, Duff Banquet Room, 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations required.

November 19 - Dylan Yeats: Yellow Peril and Anti-Asian Fear

Dylan Yeats (NYU) is author and editor (with John Kuo Wei Tchen) of Yellow Peril: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear. The "yellow peril" is one of the most long-standing and pervasive racist ideas in Western culture-indeed, his book traces its history to the Enlightenment era. While Fu Manchu evokes a fading historical memory, yellow peril ideology persists, animating, for example, campaign commercials from the 2012 presidential election.

Kennedy Auditorium, CLC, 7pm.

2013-2014 Speakers

Gayatri Spivak

• September, 19, 2013 at 7:00 PM
• James and Carolin Duff Banquet Center in the Cintas Center

Prof. Spivak is director of the Center for Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She writes on postmodernism, feminism and Marxism, and her scholarship has been honored around the world. Among her many publications are: Translation of and introduction to Derrida's Of Grammatology (Johns Hopkins Press, 1976); In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (Methuen, 1987); Selected Subaltern Studies (Oxford University Press, 1988); Outside In the Teaching Machine (London: Routledge, 1993); The Spivak Reader (Routledge, 1996); A Critique of Post-Colonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present (Harvard University Press, 1999); Death of a Discipline (Columbia University Press, 2003). She will speak on justice and diversity from the perspective of postmodern feminism.

Kwame Anthony Appiah

• October 3, 2013 at 7:00 PM
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall).

Prof. Appiah teaches philosophy and African-American studies at Princeton. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters; he is a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Democracy Fund and Chair of the Board of the American Council of Learned Societies. Among his writings are: In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (Oxford University Press, 1992); Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race (Princeton University Press,1996); Bu Me Be: The Proverbs of the Akan with Peggy Appiah and Ivor Agyeman-Duah (The Center for Intellectual Renewal, 2002); Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2003); The Ethics of Identity (Princeton University Press, 2005); Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Norton, 2006); Experiments in Ethics. (Harvard University Press, forthcoming). His lecture is titled, "Respecting Gay People: Justice and the Interpretation of Scriptures."

Mark Jordan

• November 11, 2013 at 7:00 PM
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall).

The Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity in the Harvard School of Divinity, Prof. Jordan writes on sexual ethics. His publications include: The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (University of Chicago Press, 1997); The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism (University of Chicago Press, 2002); The Ethics of Sex (Wiley-Blackwell, 2002); Telling Truths in Church: Scandal, Flesh, and Christian Speech (Beacon, 2004); Rewritten Theology: Aquinas after His Readers (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006); and Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press, 2011).

James Campbell

• Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 7:00 PM
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall)

The Distinguished University Professor at the University of Toledo, Prof. Campbell writes on American Philosophy. His books include The Community Reconstructs: the Meaning of Pragmatic Social Thought (University of Illinois Press), Understanding John Dewey: Nature and Cooperative Intelligence (Open Court), and Recovering Benjamin Franklin: An Exploration of a Life of Science and Service (Open Court). He has been a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Innsbruck (1990-91), and the University of Munich (2003-04).

Robert George

• January 23, 2014 at 7:00 PM
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall)

Prof. George teaches law at Princeton University. He founded and directs the James Madison program at Princeton University. He writes on law, politics and ethics. He has been a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the President's Council on Bioethics, the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court. He has received the Presidential Citizens Medal and a Bradley Award for Civic and Intellectual Achievement. His many publications include: Making Men Moral (Clarendon, 1995); Great Cases in Constitutional Law (Princeton University Press, 2000); In Defense of Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 2001); Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion and Morality in Crisis (ISI, 2002); The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals (Spence, 2006); Body-Self Dualism (Cambridge University Press, 2007); Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (Doubleday, 2008).

Fr. Virgilio Elizondo

• January 29, 2014 (CANCELED)
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall)

Prof. Elizondo teaches pastoral and Hispanic theology at University of Notre Dame. A leading authority on Latino religion in the United States, Fr. Elizondo is a recipient of the Quasten Medal, the Laetare Medal and the Pro Eccleisa et Pontifice Medal; he was named in 2000 by Time magazine as one of the leading spiritual innovators of the new century. He has produced many television programs, and his publications include the following: The Treasure of Guadalupe (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006); Latino Religions and Civic Activism in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2005); A God of Incredible Surprises, Jesus of Galilee (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003); San Fernando Cathedral: Soul of the City (Orbis, 1999); Mestizo Worship (Collegeville, 1998); Guadalupe: Mother of the New Creation (Orbis, 1997).

Waleed El-Ansary and Muhammad Zia ul-Haq

• Tuesday, February 11, 2014; 7:00 pm
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall)

Waleed El-Ansary is University Chair of Islamic Studies at Xavier University. Prof. El-Ansary received an MA in Economics from the University of Maryland and his PhD in the Human Sciences with a concentration in Islamic Studies from George Washington University. He is the author of Not by Bread Alone: Lectures of E. F. Schumacher (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom Books, forthcoming) and co-editor of Muslim and Christian Understanding: Theory and Application of "A Common Word" (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Muhammad Zia ul-Haq is dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Islamic International University in Islamabad. Prof. Zia ul-Haq received his doctorate in Islamic law from the Institute Superieuer Du Theologie, Ezzituna University, Tunis, Tunisia and he also has graduate degrees in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He is the author of numerous books on Islamic law.

Professors El-Ansary and Zia ul-Haq will speak on justice, tolerance and diversity in Islam.

Stephen Long

• February 24, 2014 at 7:00 PM
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall)

Dr. Long is a professor of systematic theology at Marquette University. His doctorate is from Duke University. He is an ordained United Methodist and served in Honduras and North Carolina. He has published eight books: Living the Discipline: United Methodist Theological Reflections on War, Civilization, and Holiness (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmanns, 1992), Tragedy, Tradition, Transformism: The Ethics of Paul Ramsey (Boulder, Oxford: Westview Press, 1993) Divine Economy: Theology and the Market (London and New York, Routledge, 2000) The Goodness of God: Theology, Church and Social Order, (Brazos Press, 2001) John Wesley's Moral Theology: The Quest for God and Goodness (Kingswood, 2005), Calculated Futures, (Baylor, 2007), Theology and Culture (Cascade, 2007), Speaking of God: Theology, Truth and Language (Eerdmann, 2008).

Thomas Hibbs

• March 17, 2014 7:00 PM
• Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall)

Prof. Hibbs taught at Boston College for 13 years and is currently Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Culture and Dean of the Honors College at Baylor University, where he also directs the Great Texts Program and the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. His writings include: Dialectic and Narrative in Aquinas: An Interpretation of the Summa Contra Gentiles (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995); Shows About Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture from The Exorcist to Seinfeld (Spence Publications, 2000) Virtue's Splendor: Wisdom, Prudence, and the Human Good (Fordham University Press, 2001); Aquinas, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion: Metaphysics and Practice (Indiana University Press, 2007); Arts of Darkness: American Noir and the Quest for Redemption (Spence, 2008); and, in addition to scholarly articles, numerous popular book and film reviews.

Fr. Thomas Guarino

• Date to be determined

Prof. Guarino teaches at Seton Hall and writes on theology and postmodernism. He is a Fellow of the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton and on the Board of The Center for Catholic and Evangelical Dialogue. Among his writings are: Vattimo and Theology (T and T Clark International, 2009); Foundations of Systematic Theology (T and T Clark International, 2005); Revelation and Truth: Unity and Plurality in Contemporary Theology (University of Scranton).

Spring 2013

• Fred Evans: Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 7:00 pm in Conaton Learning Commons 412. Dr. Evans is a professor of Philosophy and coordinator of the Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research at Duquesne University. He received his BA and MA in philosophy from Indiana University and his PhD in philosophy from the State University of New York at StonyBrook. He also has an MA in Psychology from the University of Regina in Canada and worked for an NGO in Laos during the 1970s. Among his many publications are the following: The Multivoiced Body: Society and Communication in the Age of Diversity (Columbia University Press, 2008; paperback edition, 2011), Chiasms: Merleau-Ponty's Notion of the Flesh, eds. Fred Evans and Leonard Lawlor (State University of New York Press, 2000), Psychology and Nihilism: A Genealogical Critique of the Computational Model of Mind (State University of New York Press, 1993). Prof. Evans will speak on diversity and postmodernism in a lecture titled, The Dilemma of Diversity: Democracy, Justice and the Primacy of Voices.
• Paul Gavrilyuk: Friday, March 22nd, 2013 at 3:00 pm in the Conaton Board Room (second floor of Schmidt Hall). Dr. Gavrilyuk is a professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas. He received a BS from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and an MTS and PhD (theology) from Southern Methodist University. As an Eastern Orthodox historian and theologian, he offers courses in the history of Christian doctrine, Christianity in late antiquity, liturgical studies, and Russian religious thought. He has lectured in Italy, France, Belgium, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan; he has been a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School. His recent publications include two books: The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004; paperback in 2006) and Histoire du catechumenat dans leglise ancienne [A History of the Catechumenate in the Early Church] (Paris: Cerf, 2007), which was originally published in Russian in 2001. His scholarly articles appeared in The Journal of Theological Studies, Scottish Journal of Theology, and Vigiliae Christianae, among others. Prof. Gavrilyuk will speak on Eastern Orthodoxy and diversity.
• Susannah Heschel: Monday, April 8th at 7:00 pm in the James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center at the Cintas Center. Prof. Heschel teaches Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and has held visiting professorships at Princeton, Tufts, the University of Frankfurt, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Cape Town. She writes on Jewish-Christian relations, the history of biblical scholarship, and the history of anti-Semitism. Her award-winning publications include: The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton University Press, 2010), and Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (University of Chicago, 1998).
• Camille Paglia: Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 at 7:00 pm in the James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center at the Cintas Center. Prof. Paglia teaches at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. She is a well known writer on sex, art and religion. A co-founding contributor to Salon, she is also on the editorial board of Arion. Her books include Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale University Press, 1990); Sex, Art, and American Culture (Vintage Books, 1992); Vamps and Tramps: New Essays (Vintage Books, 1994); Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems (Pantheon, 2005). Most recently she is the author of Glittering Images: A Journey through Art from Egypt to Star Wars (Pantheon Books, 2012).
• Peter Huff: Tuesday, April 23rd at 7:00 pm in Conaton Learning Commons, 412 (Kennedy Auditorium). Dr. Huff holds the Besl Chair, an endowed chair that is part of the Ethics/Religion and Society Program at Xavier University. He is is currently on leave from Centenary College of Louisiana, where he holds the T. L. James chair in religious studies. Prof. Huff studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mercer University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Indiana University; he received his Ph.D. in historical theology from Saint Louis University. Prof. Huff has been a significant contributor to dialogue between Christians and Buddhists and between Christians and Mormons. His books include Allen Tate and the Catholic Revival, What Are They Saying About Fundamentalisms, Knowledge and Belief in America, Tradition and Pluralism, and most recently, two books on the Second Vatican Council: Vatican II: Its Impact on You (Liguori, 2011) and The Voice of Vatican II: Words for Our Church Today (Liguori, 2012). He will speak on diversity and the Catholic Church: "Dignum et Justum: Justice, Diversity, and the Mystery of Catholicity."

2011-2012

• Remi Brague: Thursday, September 22nd, 2011; James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center at the Cintas Center, 7:00 pm. Prof. Brague teaches Arabic and religious philosophy at the University of Paris and the University of Munich. He is one of the foremost authorities on the diversity of influences in Western civilization, particularly with regard to the relation of Islamic, Jewish and Latin sources of European culture. Among his works translated into English are: The Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (University Of Chicago Press, 2011); Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization (St. Augustine Press, 2009); The Law of God: The Philosophical History of An Idea (University of Chicago Press, 2008); The Wisdom of the World: The Human Experience of the Universe in Western Thought (University of Chicago Press, 2004).
• Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres: Sunday, September 25th, 2011; James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center at the Cintas Center, 7:00 pm. Prof. Guinier became the first woman of color tenured professor at the Harvard Law School. When she was nominated by President Clinton to head the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, her writings on race, representative democracy and affirmative action became the subject of a fierce debate, and her writings continue to be at the forefront of political and legal discussions of justice and minority rights. Among her many publications are The Tyranny of the Majority: Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy (The Free Press, 1994) and, with Gerald Torres, The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2002). Prof. Torres teaches law at the University of Texas. He has written extensively on critical race theory and environmental ethics. He has been president of the Association of American Law Schools, he has served in the Justice Department, and he has been recognized for his work on behalf of Latino legal rights. The title of the lecture is: Just Diversity: Why We Need a New Grammar of Race, Class and Power.
• Russell Hittinger: Sunday, October 30th, 2011; James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center at the Cintas Center, 7:00 pm. Prof. Hittinger teaches at the Center for Law and Religion in the University of Tulsa. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas in Vatican City and he is on the editorial boards of The Review of Politics and The American Journal of Jurisprudence. He writes on the relation between law and revelation, and his publications include Paper Wars: Catholic Social Doctrine and the Modern State (Yale University Press, forthcoming); The First Grace; Rediscovering Natural Law in a Post Christian Age (ISI, 2007); A Critique of the New Natural Law Theory (University of Notre Dame Press, 1987). The title of Prof. Hittinger's lecture is Ordered Justice and the Diversity of Rights and Nations in Pacem in terris.
• Jorge and Laura Garcia [two lectures]: January, 2012. Jorge Garcia is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and a fellow of the Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. He writes on ethics, medical ethics and race. He is the author of The Heart of Racism: Essays on Diversity, Race, and Relativism (Rowman and Littlefield, forthcoming) and more than 80 articles. The title of his lecture is Racism under Ethical Analysis: Indignity, Disrespect, and Injustice.Laura Garcia, a scholar in residence at Boston College, has taught at Boston College, Calvin College, the University of Notre Dame, the University of St. Thomas, The Catholic University of America, Georgetown University and Rutgers. She writes on natural theology, ethics and feminism. The title of her lecture is "A Feminist Defense of Male/Female Complementarity."
• William Wagner: Tuesday, February 28th, 2012; James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center at the Cintas Center, 7:00 pm. Prof. Wagner teaches law at The Catholic University of America and directs the Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Religion. He has been a Fulbright research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany, and is the author of The Contractual Reallocation of Procreative Resources and Parental Rights: The Natural Endowment Critique (Dartmouth Press, 1995). He will present two lectures, one on John Courtney Murray and the Vatican II Declaration on Religious Liberty and another on law and diversity.
• Waheed Hussain: Monday, March 12, 2012; The Schiff Family Conference Room in the Cintas Center, 7:00 pm. Prof. Hussain teaches legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of Business. He writes on the intersection of morality and public life. He will present two lectures, one on Islam and business and another more general discussion of Islam and modernity.
• Terence Marshall: 30 August 2012; Conaton Learning Commons 412, 7:00 pm. Prof. Marshall has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina State University , the University of Paris I (Sorbonne -Pantheon), l'Ecole Normale Superieure, and the University of Paris X - Nanterre. He is the author of A la recherche de l'humanite. Science, poesie ou raison pratique dans la philosophie politique de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leo Strauss et James Madison (Press Universitaires de France, 2009), and he is one of the translators of the Collected Writings of Rousseau (Dartmouth, 1993). Supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, he is currently writing a commentary on Rousseau's Emile. He will speak on justice and diversity from the perspective of Jean-Jacquse Rousseau; this year is the 300th anniversary of Rousseau's birth.
• Shawn Copeland: 9 October 2012; James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center at the Cintas Center, 7:00 pm. Prof. Copeland is a professor of theology at Boston College. She has been president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and holds honorary degrees from the Catholic Theological Union and the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; she has received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Black Religious Scholars Group. She writes on theological anthropology and race and gender in the Catholic Church, and among her publications are: Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being (Fortress Press, 2010); Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experience (Orbis Books, 2009); The Subversive Power of Love: The Vision of Henriette Delille (Paulist Press, 2009).
• David Solomon: 15 November 2012; Conaton Learning Commons 412, 7:00 pm. Prof. Solomon teaches at the University of Notre Dame and is the founder and director of the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame. He has been a National Endowment of Humanities Research Fellow at Oxford University, a Milbank Research Fellow at Boston University, and a University Research Fellow at Oxford University; he has lectured at more than 100 American and European colleges and universities. He writes on ethics, and he is currently writing a monograph on the recent revival of virtue ethics and two volumes of collected materials from the annual Notre Dame Conference on Medical Ethics. He will speak on the relation between justice and diversity from the perspective of the contemporary ethical debate over human dignity.
• David Novak: 19 November 2012; Conaton Learning Commons 412, 7:00 pm. Prof. Novak is Chair of Jewish Studies, a professor of Religion, and a professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He completed his undergraduate studies and an M.H.L. (Master of Hebrew Literature) from the University of Chicago; his rabbinic diploma is from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America ,and his doctorate in philosophy is from Georgetown University . He is a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research and the Academy for Jewish Philosophy, a member of the Board of Consulting Scholars of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University and has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He delivered the Lancaster/Yarnton Lectures at Oxford University and was a Charles E. Test, M.D. Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Princeton University. Prof. Novak is the author fourteen books, including: In Defense of Religious Liberty (ISI Books. 2009), The Jewish Social Contract: A Essay in Political Theology (Princeton University Press, 2005), and Talking with Christians: Musings of a Jewish Theologian (Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005). His book, Covenantal Rights: A Study in Jewish Political Theory (Princeton University Press, 2000) won the award of the American Academy of Religion for best book in constructive religious thought in 2000. He has edited four books, and is the author of over 200 articles in scholarly and intellectual journals. He will speak on the relation between justice and diversity from the perspective of Judaism.

2010-2011

• Ecology and Sustainability: Green Urbanism
  Co-Sponsored by the City of Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati's President's Advisory Council on Environment and Sustainability
  Will Allen, Sunday, September 26, 2010, 7:00 pm
  "Growing Power and the Urban Farming Revolution"
  Co-sponsored by the Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati, the Civic Garden Center and the Central Ohio River Valley Local Foods Initiative
  Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production and delivery of healthy foods in urban areas. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are the hallmark of Growing Power, the non-profit organization he directs and cofounded. Allen's work recognizes that health problems prevalent in urban populations, such as obesity and diabetes , often stem from limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Through low-cost farming technologies, Growing Power produces vast amounts of food year-round on two acres of land within Milwaukee's city limits. He is the recipient of a 2008 MacArthur Genius Award.
• William McDonough, Monday, October 25, 2010, 7:00 pm
  "Cradle to Cradle--Designing a Hopeful Future with Inspiration from Living Systems"
  Sponsored by the Brueggeman Center for Dialogue; Co-sponsored by E/RS
  Renowned designer William McDonough draws inspiration from the astonishing effectiveness of regenerative living systems to envision an environmentally and economically intelligent future. He is the author of Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability and co-author with Michael Braungart of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. McDonough is alumni research professor at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and consulting professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. He is also U.S. chairman of the Board of Councilors of the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development. In 1996, he received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, and in 1999 and 2007 Time magazine recognized him as a Hero for the Planet.
• Michael Brownlee and Karen Lanphear, Sunday, November 7, 2010, 7:00 pm
  "Transition Towns--Inspiring Pathways to Community Resilience"
  Brownlee and Lanphear are leaders in the U.S. Transition Town movement, which aims to transition cities from fossil fuels. The movement originated in the United Kingdom in response to the converging global crises of climate change, economic instability, diminishing biodiversity and declining reserves of fossil fuels. It emphasizes the importance of using creativity and cooperation to unleash the collective genius within our local communities, leading to a more resilient, abundant, connected and healthier future for all. Brownlee is co-founder of Transition Boulder County Colorado, the first Transition initiative in North America. Lanphear is the co-founder of Sandpoint Transition in Idado, the second-oldest Transition initiative in the U.S.
• Richard Louv, Sunday, March 27, 2011, 7:00 pm
  "Last Child in the Woods--Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder"
  Co-sponsored by the Department of Childhood Education and Literacy Center
  Richard Louv is an author and journalist focused on nature, family and community. His book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, stimulated an international conversation about the future relationship between children and nature. He serves as the chairman of the Children and Nature Network, which encourages and supports people and organizations worldwide working to reconnect children with nature. The network provides access to the latest news and research in the field and a peer-to-peer network of researchers, parents, educators and organizations dedicated to children's health and well-being.
• Jackie Brookner, Sunday, April 10, 2011, 7:00 pm
  "On the Waterfront--Living Cities, Water and Expanded Art Practice"
  Co-sponsored by the Department of Art
• Jackie Brookner collaborates with ecologists, design professionals, communities and policy makers to create water remediation systems for wetlands, rivers, streams and stormwater runoff that are works of public art. Her biosculptures are evocative, plant-based living systems that clean polluted water and integrate ecological revitalization with the metaphoric and aesthetic qualities of sculpture. Her recent projects include Laughing Brook in Salway Park in Cincinnati, part of the Millcreek Restoration Project. She is a contributing author to Urban Rain: Stormwater as Resource and a former teaching fellow at Harvard University.

Of Related Interest

• October 15-17, 2010
  Bioneers Conference on Green Urbanism
  Sponsored by the Brueggeman Center for Dialogue;
  Co-sponsored by E/RS
  The keystone goals of the Bioneers are to connect people with solutions by popularizing breakthrough ideas and practices and to grow social capital by catalyzing, connecting and strengthening strategic networks. A live stream of the national Bioneers Conference will be complemented by local workshops. For more information, contact the Brueggeman Center at 513-745-3922.

2009-2010

• Ecology and Sustainability: Food and Agriculture
  Michael Pollan, September 27, 2009, 1:00 pm
  In Defense of Food: The Omnivore's Solution
  Co-sponsored by the Cincinnati Public Library
  Michael Pollan is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California Berkeley. He is the nationally recognized author of numerous books including In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (2008) and the award-winning Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006). Prior to the November election, he published an open letter in the Times to the Farmer-in-Chief of the United States, claiming that agricultural and food policies will become the next administration's most important agenda item even though they figured little in the national election campaigns.
• Vandana Shiva, October 28, 2009, 7:00 pm
  Soil Not Oil: Food Security in times of Climate Change
  Co-sponsored by the Brueggeman Center and the Women's Center
  Vandana Shiva is a physicist, author, and environmental activist from India. She has worked for changes in agricultural and food production systems, calling for greater protection of indigenous rights to biodiversity, particularly for seeds of food crops. She also has played an important role in the ecofeminist movement, calling for greater participation of women in agriculture as a means to achieve sustainability. Among her books are Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (1997), Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, and Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed (2007).
• David Montgomery, March 14, 2010, 7:00 pm
  Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations
  Co-sponsored by the University of Cincinnati's President's Advisory Council on Environment and Sustainability
  David Montgomery is a 2008 MacArthur Fellow. He is a geologist at the University of Washington described by the MacArthur Foundation as someone who is making fundamental contributions to our understanding of the geophysical forces that determine landscape evolution and of how our use of soils and rivers has shaped civilizations past and present.He will be speaking about his second book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (2007), which explores the crucial role of soil fertility in the course of ancient and contemporary societies.
• Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson and Gene Logsdon, April 11, 2010, 7:00 pm
• An Informal Conversation
  Co-sponsored by the University of Cincinnati's President's Advisory Council on Environment and Sustainability and the Brueggeman Center for Dialogue
  Wendell Berry is a Kentucky farmer and writer, described by the New York Review of Books as perhaps the great moral essayist of our day.He is the author of more than forty novels, anthologies of essays, and books of poetry that use his intimate knowledge of his Kentucky River farm home as the starting point for eloquent and penetrating critiques of the modern agricultural system and its consequences for communities, families, and politics. Wes Jackson is the President and co-founder of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, a research and demonstration center dedicated to developing polyculture perennial grains as an alternative to our current annual grain monocultures. Gene Logsdon farms in northern Ohio and has written numerous books and magazine articles on the subject of small farms, rural living, cottage farming, homesteading, alternative farming practices, organic gardening, composting, aquaculture, and other types of alternative agriculture.
• Wes Jackson, April 12, 2010, 1:30 pm
  "The Necessity and Possibility of an Agriculture Where Nature is the Measure"
  Kelley Auditiorium, Alter Hall
  Wes Jackson is president and co-founder of the Land Institute in Salina, Kan., a research and demonstration center dedicated to developing polyculture perennial grains as an alternative to our current annual grain monocultures.

2008-2009

• Ecology and Sustainability: Global Climate Change
  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
  Thursday, October 2, 2008, 7:00 pm Schiff Family Conference Center
  Our Environmental Destiny
  Co-Sponsored with the Brueggeman Center and Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens
  Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s reputation as a resolute defender of the environment stems from a litany of successful legal actions. Mr. Kennedy was named one of Time magazine's Heroes for the Planet? for his success in helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. The group's achievement helped spawn more than 160 Waterkeeper organizations across the globe. Mr. Kennedy serves as senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law's Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio. Earlier in his career, he served as assistant district attorney in New York City. Among Mr. Kennedy's published books are the New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Nature (2004); The Riverkeepers (1997); and Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr: A Biography (1977)
• Archbishop Celestino Migliore and Jame Schaefer
  Sunday, October 26, 2008, 7:00 pm Schiff Family Conference Center
  "The Lord God Took the Man and Put Him in the Garden of Eden to Till It and Keep It (Gen 2:15)."
  Co-Sponsored with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Theology Department
  Archbishop Celestino Migliore has served since 2002 as Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. In 2007, he addressed the U.N. General Assembly on the topic of global climate change. Migliore has a master's degree in theology from the Center of Theological Studies in Fossano and a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Lateran University. His service to the Holy See's diplomatic corps includes work in Angola, Egypt, Warsaw, Strasbourg, and several Asian countries.
  
  Jame Schaefer, respondent to Migliore's lecture, is associate professor of theology at Marquette University. Her work focuses on the constructive relationship between theology and the natural sciences with special attention to religious foundations for ecological ethics. Her theological publications include articles in Cistercian Studies Quarterly, Theological Studies, and Worldviews: Religion, Culture, Science, all of which explore promising notions in the Christian tradition for addressing ecological degradation. In progress are more articles exploring Christian notions for responding to ecological concerns, an anthology for Catholic University of America Press entitled Theocentric Foundations for Environmental Ethics: Promising Patristic and Medieval Sources.
• John R. McNeill
  Sunday, March 29, 2009, 7:00 pm Schiff Family Conference Center
  An Age of Turbulence: Global Environmental History since 1890
  Since 1985, John McNeill has been a faculty member of the School of Foreign Service and History Department at Georgetown where he teaches world history, environmental history, and international history. From 2003 until 2006, he held the Cinco Hermanos Chair in Environmental and International Affairs at Georgetown. His most recent book, Epidemics and Geopolitics in the American Tropics, 1640-1920 came out last year. His earlier books include: The Human Web: A Bird's-eye View of World History (2003) with W.H. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th-Century World (2000) and The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History (1992).
• David W. Orr
  Sunday, April 5, 2009, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center
  "Some Like It Hot ... But Lots More Do Not: The Changing Climate of US Politics"
  Co-Sponsored with the Brueggeman Center
  David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. He is also a James Marsh Professor at large at the University of Vermont. He is the author of five books including: Design on the Edge: The Making of a High Performance Building (2006); The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment (2004); Earth in Mind (1994/2004); Ecological Literacy (1992) and The Campus and Environmental Responsibility (1992). He is best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design. He raised funds for and spearheaded the effort to design and build a $7.2 million Environmental Studies Center at Oberlin College, a building described by the New York Times as the most remarkable of a new generation of college buildings and by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of thirty milestone buildings of the 20th century.

2007-2008: Ethics and Globalization

• Ms. Farooka Gauhari
  Women's Future in Afghanistan
  Sunday, October 21, 2007, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center; Monday, October 22, 2007, 1:30-2:30 pm, Conaton Board Room.
  Informal discussion with students and faculty. Farooka Gauhari published her memoirs, Searching for Saleem: An Afghan Woman's Odyssey in 1997. At the time no Afghan woman had published an English memoir in book form. Her personal account covers her search for her missing husband, Saleem, her country's turmoil after the Russian-backed Communist takeover, and the declining role of women in politics. A former professor of biology at Kabul University, Ms. Gauhari fled to the United States in 1980. She now teaches biology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
• Hassan Abbas
  Can Democracy Work in the Arab World
  Sunday, November 11, 2007, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center; Monday, November 12, 2007, 1:30-2:30 pm, Conaton Board Room.
  Informal discussion with students and faculty. Hassan Abbas is a research fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center and author of the recent book Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism. Previously, he served in the administration of President General Pervez Musharaf (1999-2000) and Prime Minister Benzir Bhutto (1995-1996). He also served as a senior police officer in the Northwest Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan during 1997-1998. Hassan has regularly appeared on MSNBC and NECN as an analyst on issues related to Pakistan, Afghanistan and international terrorism. He is also a political commentator for BBC and VOA.
• Kwame Anthony Appiah
  Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
  Sunday, March 30, 2008, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center; Monday, March 31, 2008, 1:30-2:30 pm, Conaton Board Room.
  Informal discussion with students and faculty. Kwame Anthony Appiah is one of America's leading public intellectuals. As a person of mixed-race ancestry and a scholar of African and African-American Studies, Professor Appiah probes questions of identity and ethical behavior in a world where race, ethnicity, religion and nationalism remain strong dividers. In his newest book, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006) he challenges readers to look beyond the boundaries, real and imagined, that divide us, to see our common humanity. His earlier works include In My Father's House on African struggles for self-determination and Africana: The Encyclopedia of African and African-American Experience (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.).
• Robin Wright
  Future of the Middle East: Dreams and Shadows
  Sunday, April 13, 2008, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center; Sunday, April 13, 2008, 3:00 pm, Edgecliff Recital Hall.
  Informal discussion with political science students and faculty. Robin Wright is the author of Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam and The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran. Her forthcoming book is entitled Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East. She is currently the diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post. She has worked for a number of major newspapers in the United States and Great Britain including the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday Times of London and the Christian Science Monitor. In 2003 she was awarded the United Nations correspondents Gold Medal for coverage of international affairs. In that same year she became a regular panelist on the Meet the Press roundtable. This event is co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee.

2006-2007: Ethics and Globalization

"Responding Ethically to a Changing World Community"

• Derek Walcott
  The Impact of Globalization on Caribbean Life and Culture
  October 8, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center Cintas Center.
  Winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature, Derek Walcott has published five books of plays, including Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays, which won the Obie Award for distinguished foreign play. Walcott's poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, London Magazine, Antaeusand other periodicals. Walcott has published 10 books of poetry, including Collected Poems 1948-1984, which won the 1986 Los Angeles Timesbook prize for poetry.
• Ariel Dorfman
  Living, Feeling, Writing in Many Worlds: Reaching Out to the Global Community
  November 12, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center Cintas Center.
  Hailed by Newsweek as "one of the greatest living Latin American novelists," Dorfman was forced to flee his homeland of Chile in 1973 because he feared for his life at the hands of a corrupt and dangerous regime. He is perhaps best known for his acclaimed play Death and the Maiden. After winning the Olivier Award for best play in London, it was brought to the screen by Roman Polanski and starred Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley. In his artfully assembled memoir, Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey, readers learn of Dorfman's own chilling political adventures while reveling in his prose.
• Deborah Lipstadt
  The New Global Anti-Semitism
  March 18, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center Cintas Center.
  Deborah E. Lipstadt, director of the Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, in an internationally respected Holocaust scholar. Lipstadt is author of the books History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving and Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. History on Trialdescribes in a fascinating way her libel trial in London when David Irving sued her for calling him a Holocaust denier and right wing extremist. The Daily Telegraph (London) proclaimed that the libel trial had "done for the new century what the Nuremberg tribunals on the Eichmann trial did for earlier generations." Lipstadt appears courtesy of the B'nai B'rith Lecture Bureau.
• Paul Farmer
  HIV/AIDS Crisis: Research and Advocacy
  April 23, 7:00 pm, Schiff Family Conference Center Cintas Center.
  Dr. Paul Farmer (M.D. and Ph.D.) works tirelessly to bring transformative health care to the developing world. He is a co-founder of Partners in Health, an organization that brings the benefits of modern medical science to the poorest and sickest communities. Farmer is internationally known for his innovations in community-based health care models. He is director of Harvard Medical School's program in infectious disease and social change and a winner of several humanitarian awards. Farmer is also a featured panelist at the Town Hall meeting on April 22, which is sponsored by the Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue.

2005-2006: Ethics and Globalization

"175 Years of Xavier in Cincinnati: Responding Ethically to the Changing Face of the Community"

• Roger Fortin
  Xavier University and the Community: Fulfilling its Jesuit Mission
  October 2, 7:00 p.m., Schiff Family Conference Center, Cintas Center.
  Roger Fortin, provost and academic vice president for Xavier University, is a historian very familiar with Xavier's and Cincinnati's historical experience. He is reflecting on the University's responses to a changing community. Fortin is also exploring when Xavier has responded ethically to the community and when it has not. He is the author of Faith and Action: A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, 1821-1996. He recently finished a history of the University.
• Linda Chavez
  The Changing Face of America
  October 9, 7:00 p.m., Schiff Family Conference Center, Cintas Center.
  Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity (a non-profit public policy organization) and political analyst for the FOX News Channel, is suggesting ways in which Xavier University and Cincinnati can respond ethically to the burgeoning Hispanic community. Chavez is author of the critically acclaimed book, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal. She worked in the White House as director of public liaison during former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's second term in office.
• Jackie Brookner
  Community and the Being of Human
  February 12, 7:00 p.m., Schiff Family Conference Center, Cintas Center.
  Jackie Brookner, internationally renowned eco-sculptor, is speaking about the "Laughing Brook" pilot project for the Mill Creek Greenway system. This series of biosculptures and wetland habitats creates a focal point for Salway Park while it filters stormwater runoff from parking lots, sidewalks and ballfields before the water enters Mill Creek, one of North America's most endangered rivers. The recipient of numerous awards, Brookner has taught sculpture at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Bard College.
• Jerry Mitchell
  Investigating Murders against Civil Rights Leaders
  March 26, 7:00 p.m. Schiff Family Conference Center, Cintas Center.
  Jerry Mitchell, reporter with the Clarion-Ledger, is speaking about his investigative reporting of closed murder cases from the Civil Rights era. Recently featured in Newsweek magazine's "America's Best" series, Mitchell's reporting has helped to bring about the successful prosecution and conviction of 22 criminals, including Byron De La Beckwith, who assassinated Medgar Evers. This story is depicted in the movie, "Ghosts of Mississippi."
• Karen Armstrong
  Understanding Islam
  April 25, 7:00 p.m., Schiff Family Conference Center, Cintas Center.
  Karen Armstrong, an original and inclusive thinker on the role of religion in the modern world. Both understands the acute differences among the world's great religions and calls our attention to their profound similarities. She is the author of The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This event is intended to honor the Islamic Center on its 10th anniversary. Armstrong is a featured panelist at the Town Hall meeting on April 23. Co-sponsored by the Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue.

2004-2005: Ethics and Globalization

"Ethics and U.S. Foreign Policy"

• G. John Ikenberry, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, delivered a public lecture entitled "American Power and World Order: Between Empire" and a Community of Democracies on October 14, 2004 in the Schiff Family Conference Center. He also held an informal meeting the next day in the Conaton Board Room for faculty and students. Max Boot, a senior fellow in national security studies on the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, delivered a public lecture entitled Liberal Internationalists vs. Conservative Internationalists: Bush vs. Kerry on October 20, 2004 in the Schiff Family Conference Center. He also held an informal meeting the next day in the Conaton Board Room for faculty and students. Samantha Power, a lecturer in public policy in the John F. School of Government at Harvard University, delivered a public lecture entitled "Can American Foreign Policy" be Fixed on March 8, 2005 in the Schiff Family Conference Center. She also held an informal meeting earlier the same day in the Conaton Board Room for faculty and students.
• Vandana Shiva, the director for the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology, and world-renowned environmental leader and thinker, delivered a public lecture entitled The Environment, Globalization and U.S. Foreign Policy on April 19, 2005 in the Schiff Family Conference Center. She had also been the keynote speaker for the Town Hall Meeting that E/RS cosponsors with the Brueggeman Center. The latter event took place on April 17, 2005 the same location.

The E/RS program has also cosponsored these events:

• Rev. Mpho Tutu came to Xavier to talk about AIDS and debt in Africa. She spoke as part of the Global AIDS Alliance. Rev. Tutu was accompanied by the director of GAA, David Bryden. The event took place on September 19, 2004 in the Cintas Center.
• Bangladeshi Workers Tour: this presentation described the abysmal working conditions of factory workers in Bangladesh. The event took place on September 20, 2004 in the Gallagher Center Theater.
• Dr. Ronald Glossop, author of Confronting War and of World Federation A Critical Analysis of Federal World Government presented a paper on September 20, 2004 on The Force of Law as an Alternative.
• The Question of Iraq: Past, Present and Future: Dr. Thielman and Dr. Adeed Dawisha debated the war in Iraq. September 23, 2004. The event took place in Kelly Auditorium.
• David Schilling, director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, delivered a public lecture on October 19, 2004. The lecture addressed pressing corporations to adopt strong global codes of conduct that are independently monitored, paying sustainable living wages, working to eliminate sweatshop conditions in the contract supplier system, addressing the human rights context in which they operate and urging companies to issue public reports.
• Roger Fine, former corporate vice president and general counsel of Johnson and Johnson, delivered a public lecture on March 14, 2005 in the Schiff Family Conference Center entitled The Johnson and Johnson Credo: A Conversation with Roger Fine.
• Farid Esack, the current Besl Family Chair, and Paul Knitter, meritus professor of theology, engaged in a debate on interfaith dialogue. The debate, Interfaith Dialogue: Whose Agenda,took place on March 15, 2005 in the Schiff Family Conference Center.
• The Faces of Genocide High Stakes in Sudan: Reflections on the Future of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights: Featuring Sudanese immigrant Sabit O'Kuwa and Sharon E. Hutchinson, author, human rights monitor and professor of anthropology and African studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The event took place on April 5, 2005 in the Cintas Center.
• Eammon Wall, the Smurfit-Stone professor of Irish Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, presented a public reading of selections of poetry from his newest work, Refuge at DeSoto Bend. The event took place on April 8, 2005 at the Joseph Beth Bookstore in the Rookwood Pavilion Shopping Center.
• America's Response to the Holocaust: What we now know and why it matters:Featuring Dr. Rafael Medoff presenting the Kreitzer Family Lecture as part of the Holocaust Awareness Weeks organized by the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education of Hebrew Union College. Medoff, author of the recently published A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust (coauthored with David S. Wyman), is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies; the associate editor of the scholarly journal American Jewish History; Visiting Scholar in the Jewish Studies Program at Purchase College of the State University of New York; and author of seven books about the Holocaust, Zionism, and the history of American Jewry. The event took place on April 10, 2005 in the Cintas Center.

The E/RS committee also cosponsored this year's Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Ethics Institute that took place on May 11, 2005.

2003-2004: Ethics and Globalization, Ethical Leadership

• William McDonough
  Leadership in the Face of the Environmental Crisis
  Sept. 28, 2003
  William McDonough is an innovative and visionary architect is working on the next industrial revolution the challenge of reinventing architecture, design, and manufacturing to achieve positive and sustainable relationships with nature and better health for humans. With industrial chemist Michael Braungart, McDonough is the author of From Cradle to Cradle (2002), explaining how choices can be made to continue modern life without toxic substances in building or manufacturing. McDonough is founder of an architectural firm in Charlottesville, Virginia and the co-founder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, a product and process design firm that creates new ways of producing eco-effective goods from cars to carpets.
• Donald Cozzens
  The Future of Leadership in the Catholic Church
  Donald Cozzens is priest, theologian and psychologist. He currently teaches at John Carroll University in Cleveland and his scholarship and practice have made him a critical and discerning voice in the face of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. He is the author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A Reflection on the Priest's Crisis of Soul and Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church".
• W. Deen Mohammed
  Leadership in the African American Religious Community
  Imam W. Deen Mohammed is the son of the late Elijah Muhammad, the former leader of the Nation of Islam. Since his election as the group's leader in 1975, W. Deen has strongly promoted the teachings of the Quran. Louis Farrakan and his followers broke from the original group in 1979, but retained the Nation of Islam name. Since then, Imam Mohammed has overseen the transformation of his followers from the Black Muslims to the progressive American Society of Muslims. This religious group has mosques schools in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. W. Deen is active in interreligious dialogue among Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
• Mary Robinson
  Human Rights and Ethical Globalization
  Mary Robinson is the former President of Ireland (1990-1997) and the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002). Now based in New York, Robinson is the Director of the Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI), a non-governmental organization that seeks to integrate human rights standards into a more ethical globalization process and to support local and national human rights capacity building efforts. EGI is currently working with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). The goal is develop new principled partnerships between governments, the business sector, non-governmental activists, and academics which will be committed to using human rights as a shared framework for solving real world dilemmas.

2002-2003: Building Diversity

• Derrick Bell
  Ethical Ambition in Race Relations
  Sept. 29, 2002
  Derrick Bell is a compelling voice on issues of race and class in this society. The first tenured black professor at the Harvard Law School is best known for his series of allegorical stories including the books And We Are Not Saved, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism, Gospel Choirs: Psalms of Survival in an Alien Land Called Home, and Afrolantica Legacies. Bell has served as Executive Director of the Western Center on Law and Poverty at the University of Southern California Law School, Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Deputy Director of the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
• Riffat Hassan, Professor of Religious Studies and Humanities at the University of Louisville.
  The Challenge of Global Terrorism: A Muslim Woman's Perspective
  Nov. 10, 2002
  Hassan is a feminist Muslim theologian and is renowned for her work in progressive Muslim thought. Born in Pakistan and educated at the University of Durham, England, Hassan founded The International Network for the Rights of Female Victims of Violence in Pakistan in 1999. She writes on Women in Islam, Islam and Interreligious Dialogue, Human Rights in Islam, and Peace Education in Islam.
• Patricia Williams, Professor of Law at Columbia University School of Law.
  Feb. 9, 2003
  Dr. Williams also serves on the boards of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Society of American Law Teachers. She has published widely in both scholarly journals and the press in the areas of race, gender, and law. Her books include The Rooster's Egg and Seeing A Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race. Her book, The Alchemy of Race and Rights, was named one of the twenty-five best books of 1991 by Voice Literary Supplement.

2001-2002

• David Orr, Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College.
  Environmental Justice and Higher Education
  Oct. 14, 2001
• Robert Bullard, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.
  Racism and Environmental Justice
  Nov. 11, 2001
• James P. Buchanan, Besl Family Chair and University Professor of Ethics, Religion, and Society, Xavier University.
  A Systems Response to the Crisis of Environmental Justice
  Jan. 27, 2002
• Sandra Steingraber, Cornell University.
  Living Downstream: Women, Health and Environmental Justice
  Feb. 10, 2002
• Ralph Nader, Consumer Advocate.
  Globalization and Environmental Justice
  March 10, 2002
• Hans Kung, Catholic Theologian.
  A Global Ethics for a New Paradigm of Global Relations
  April 14, 2002
• Hans Kung, Paul Knitter.
  Standing Firm and Remaining Open: The Challenge of Interreligious Dialogue
  April 15, 2002

1999-2000: Human Nature and Human Rights

• Dr. Mary Frances Berry, Chairperson, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
  Human Rights and Challenges in the Third Millennium
  Sept. 26, 1999
• Most Reverend Thomas J. Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, Dr. Michael Novak, The George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC.
  Economic Justice in the New Millennium
  Oct. 17, 1999
• Dr. Keith Campbell, Head of Embryology, PPL Therapeutics, Scotland.
  The Ethics of Cloning and Transgenic Technology
  Jan. 30, 2000
• Dr. Theodore Peters, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, CA, John Robinson, Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, IN.
  Playing God Ethics, Law, and the Cloning Controversy
  March 12, 2000

1998-1999: Justice and Race in the United States

• Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Pastor of Greater New Light Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Most Reverend Daniel E. Pilarczyk, Archbishop of Cincinnati Roman Catholic Church,
  Dr. Michael G. Rapp, Director of Jewish Community Relations, Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, Mr. Ilyas Nashid, Imam of the Cincinnati Islamic Center.
  Forum on Justice and Race
  Sept. 27, 1998
• Dr. Abigail Thernstrom, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute, Dr. Stephan Thernstrom, Professor of History, Harvard University.
  Black Progress: Myth or Reality
  Oct. 18, 1998
• Mr. Julian Bond, Chairman, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
  Civil Rights: Now and Then, Then and Now
  Feb. 7, 1999.