 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 lecture 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. A discussion with Xavier faculty, staff, and students is usually held on the following day. Below you will find an overview of past lecture series at Xavier.
2006-2007 E/R & S LECTURE
SERIES
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 Newsweekas
"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 E/R & S Lecture
Series
"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
& 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 E/R&S Lecture
Series
“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 & 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 & Social
Responsibility Ethics Institute that took place on May
11, 2005.
___________________
2003-2004 ERS Lecture Series
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.”
Nov. 4, 2003. 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." Feb. 15, 2004.
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 Qur’an. 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.” April 18, 2004. 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
Series - Building Diverse
"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.
"The Challenge of Global Terrorism: A
Muslim Woman's Perspective." Nov. 10, 2002.
Riffat Hassan, Professor of Religious
Studies and Humanities at the University of Louisville.
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, Feb. 9, 2003.
Patricia Williams, Professor of Law at
Columbia University School of Law. 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 Series
Environmental Justice and
Higher Education, Oct. 14, 2001.
David Orr, Professor and Chair of the Environmental
Studies Program, Oberlin College.
Racism and Environmental Justice,
Nov. 11, 2001. Robert Bullard, Professor
of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice
Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.
A Systems Response to the
Crisis of Environmental Justice,
Jan. 27, 2002. James P. Buchanan, Besl Family
Chair and University Professor of Ethics, Religion,
and Society, Xavier University.
Living Downstream: Women,
Health and Environmental Justice,
Feb. 10, 2002. Sandra Steingraber,
Cornell University.
Globalization and Environmental
Justice, March 10, 2002.
Ralph Nader,
Consumer Advocate
A Global Ethics for a New
Paradigm of Global Relations, April 14, 2002.
Hans Kung, Catholic Theologian.
Standing Firm and Remaining
Open: The Challenge of Interreligious Dialogue, April
15, 2002. Hans Kung, Paul Knitter.
1999-2000 Series - Human Nature and Human Rights
Sept. 26, 1999, Human Rights and Challenges
in the Third Millennium Dr. Mary Frances Berry,
Chairperson, U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights
Oct. 17, 1999, Economic Justice in the New
Millennium
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
Jan. 30, 2000, The Ethics of Cloning and
Transgenic Technology Dr. Keith Campbell, Head of
Embryology, PPL
Therapeutics, Scotland
March 12, 2000, Playing God? Ethics, Law,
and the Cloning Controversy
Dr. Theodore Peters, Pacific
Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, CA
John Robinson, Notre
Dame Law School, Notre Dame, IN
1998-1999 Series - Justice and Race
in the United States
Sept.
27, 1998
Forum on Justice and Race
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
Oct. 18, 1998
Black Progress: Myth or Reality?
Dr. Abigail Thernstrom, Senior Fellow, Manhattan
Institute
Dr. Stephan Thernstrom, Professor of History, Harvard
University
Feb. 7, 1999
Civil Rights: Now and Then, Then and Now
Mr. Julian Bond, Chairman, National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
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