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OBERLIN COLLEGE PRESENTS 2001-2002 CONVOCATION SERIES: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW EXPERT STEPHEN CARTER OPENS SPEAKERS' PROGRAM SEPT. 4
AUGUST
17, 2001--Constitutional law expert Stephen
Carter—"one of the nation's leading intellectuals" (New
York Times)—will open Oberlin College 's annual Convocation series
at 8 p.m. Tuesday, September 4 in Finney Chapel. His address, titled "Reflections
on the Public Square," will mark the opening of Oberlin's 169th academic
year.
All events in the
Convocation series are free and open to the public.
Carter, who has helped
shape the national debate on issues ranging from the role of religion
in politics and culture to the role of integrity and civility in daily
life, was selected by Time magazine as one of the 50 leaders for
the new millennium.
The William Nelson
Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale, Carter is the author of seven critically
acclaimed books that were published in the last nine years. New Oberlin
students are reading his Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette
of Democracy and will discuss it with faculty members during the week
preceding Carter's talk as part of orientation.
The Convocation series
continues Oberlin 's long tradition of bringing prominent thinkers and
performers to explore the critical issues of the day. In addition to the
address by Carter, this year's series will include a performance by the
world-renowned African-American female a cappella ensemble, Sweet Honey
in the Rock, at 8 p.m. on October 14, plus talks by:
- Philosopher Martha
C. Nussbaum: "Global Duties: Western Philosophy's Problematic Legacy"
at 8 p.m., November 13;
- Ohio Congresswoman
Stephanie Tubbs Jones: "The Next Frontier: No Political Strength
Without Economic Strength" at 8 p.m., February 4;
- Author, poet and
screenwriter Sherman Alexie: "Killing Indians: Myths, Lies and
Exaggerations" at 8 p.m., March 5;
- Civil rights leader
Julian Bond: "Civil Rights Then and Now" at 8 p.m., April
3;
- Organizational
learning expert Paul Duguid: "The Social Life of Liberal Education"
at 8 p.m., April 9.
All Convocation events
take place in the College's Finney Chapel, located on the corner of North
Professor and West Lorain Streets. The series is presented under the auspices
of Oberlin's Finney Lecture Committee with support from the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Office of the President of Oberlin College.
Oberlin 2001-2002
Convocation
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973, Sweet Honey in the Rock is
the Grammy Award-winning African-American female a cappella ensemble with
deep musical roots in the music of Africa and the sacred music of the
black church as well as in jazz and the blues. The sextet, which is composed
of five singers and an American Sign Language interpreter, encompasses
all styles of vocal music, combining powerful voices with hand-held and
foot percussion, movement and narrative.
Martha C. Nussbaum
The Ernst Freund Distinguished Services Professor of Law and Ethics at
the University of Chicago, Nussbaum is "The most prominent female
philosopher in America," according to The New York Times.
She is a regular contributor to The New Republic and The New
York Review of Books. She first attracted notice in 1987 with a scathing
critique of Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. Among
her recent books is Cultivating Humanity: A Classi-cal Defense of Radical
Reform in Higher Education.
Stephanie Tubbs Jones
The U.S. Representative from the 11th Congressional District of Ohio,
in 1998 Tubbs Jones became the first African-American woman elected to
the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio. Before joining Congress,
she served as the first African-American and the first female Cuyahoga
County prosecutor. She also was the first African-American woman to sit
on Common Pleas bench in Ohio and was a municipal court judge in Cleveland.
Sherman Alexie
Alexie is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian from Washington state. The award-winning
author of 14 books of poetry and fiction, Alexie was named one of the
top writers for the 21st century by The New Yorker. His first screen-play,
the widely-heralded Smoke Signals, was the first feature film produced,
written and directed by American Indians. It premiered at the 1998 Sundance
Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy.
Julian Bond
Julian Bond is a Georgia State Senator and an early leader of the 1960s'
Civil Rights Movement. As a student, he helped found the Committee on
Appeal for Human Rights and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
He served four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and was elected
to the State Senate in 1974, where he continues to serve. He is president
of the Southern Poverty Law Center and a member of the board of directors
of the NAACP.
Paul Duguid
Paul Duguid is an independent scholar affiliated with the University of
California, Berkeley, and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center .With John
Seely Brown he co-authored The Social Life of Information and numerous
articles on topics from the design of interfaces to the design of organizations.
Their papers on "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning,"
and the future of "The University in the Digital Age" are widely
read, and their paper on orga-nizational learning is one of the most widely
cited and republished in the field.
Media Contact: Alex Pfeifer
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