Calendar of Events
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7 p.m.
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center.
Don’t miss the only local screening of:
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE -
Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature about the U.S. government’s policies on interrogation of terror suspects.
With introductory remarks before and Q&A after with John D. Hutson
Written, produced, and directed by Alex Gibney (Oscar nominated for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), Taxi to the Dark Side is an inquiry into the suspicious death of an Afghani taxi driver at Bagram air base in 2002. Intermingling documents and records of the incident with candid testimony from eyewitnesses and participants, the film uncovers an alleged link between the tragic incidents that unfolded in Bagram and the prisoner-interrogation policies made by the United States government.
Introducing the film and entertaining questions afterwards is John D. Hutson, President and Dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center. Dean Hutson is a retired Rear Admiral and former Judge Advocate General of the Navy who was featured in the film as an expert on torture and interrogation techniques.
The film is rated R.
Tickets will be required and are currently available at the Smith Union Info Desk.
The event is free and open to the public, so we expect tickets to go fast.
Sponsored by the Government Department and the John C. Donovan Lecture Fund
Past Events
Wednesday February 6, 2008
7:30 pm
“The Other as Enigma: How Can Dialogue Make a Difference?”
Lecture by John Rensenbrink, Professor Emeritus of Government and Legal Studies
Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union
A reception will follow in Main Lounge
Free and open to the public
Professor Rensenbrink's talk is based partly on the presidential address he made at the Seventh Congress of the International Society for Universal Dialogue in Hiroshima, Japan, on June 1, 2007.
The central question posed by Rensenbrink will be, "Why is it so hard for people to work together?" He will describe an intellectual journey that propelled him beyond the many iterations of identity politics, as well as beyond the polarity of competition and cooperation. The journey eventually centered on the relationship between the being of the one and the being of the other, finding in that relationship the source and foundation of dialogue. Such dialogue, he will argue, is at the core of both philosophy and politics.
John Rensenbrink retired in 1995 after teaching at Bowdoin, mainly in political theory, since 1961 (with a hiatus of three years in Kenya and Tanzania, 1962 to 1965). He helped found the Green Party of the United States in 1984 and the Maine Green Independent Party in 1984. He is a member of the Green Party's National Committee and its International Committee. Among his published works are a book on Poland's Solidarity movement, Poland Challenges a Divided World (1988); and The Green Transformation of American Politics (1999). He lives in Topsham with his wife Carla Rensenbrink.
Sponsored by the Department of Government and Legal Studies, the Department of Philosophy, and the Environmental Studies Program
Monday March 5, 2007
Winning the Weapons War
Lessons from the Northern Ireland Peace Proces
Lecture by Andrew Sens
Andrew Sens has served on the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning since 1999. A career diplomat, Sens' last assignment was as executive secretary to the National Security Council in Washington. A senior foreign and defense policy aide to President Clinton and his national security advisor, Sens has had postings in Kampala, Tehran, Washington, Islamabad, and Buenos Aires.
Sponsored by the Mellon Fund, the Government Department, College Democrats, College Republicans, and Democratic Left
Free and open to the public. 7:30 pm Quinby House
Thursday November 16th, 2006
Who Was Leo Strauss, and Why Do They Keep Saying Such Terrible Things About Him?
Steven Smith is Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science and Master of Branford College at Yale University. Since he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1981, Smith has been one of the leading political theorists in the United States. His work has focused on the history of liberalism in European political thought and especially on the relationship between religion and politics in the liberal tradition. His many books include Hegel's Critique of Liberalism (1989), Spinoza, Liberalism, and the Question of Jewish Identity (1997), and Spinoza's Book of Life: Freedom and Redemption in the Ethics (2003). Most recently, Smith has written a critically acclaimed book on the controversial twentieth-century thinker Leo Strauss, whom some have seen as providing the philosophical underpinnings of the neoconservative foreign policy of the Bush administration. Smith's book is entitled Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism, and the title of his lecture is "Who Was Leo Strauss and Why Do They Keep Saying Such Terrible Things About Him?"
8:00 pm Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union
Lecture sponsored by the John C. Donovan Lecture Fund
The John C. Donovan Lecture Fund was established at Bowdoin College in 1990 by colleagues, friends, and members of the Donovan family, through the leadership of Shepard Lee, Bowdoin Class of 1947. This fund is used to support a lecture in the field of political science.
Lecture Series: 'Polls, Paramilitaries and Peace'
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
Dr. Khalil Shikaki
'Palestinian Politics, Peace and Hamas'
Dr. Shikaki is the Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and is currently a senior research fellow at Brandeis's Crown Center for Middle East Studies. He is author of 'The Future of Palestine' (Foreign Affairs Nov/Dec 2004) and 'Palestinians Divided' (Foreign Affairs Jan/Feb 2002).
Sponsored by the Government Department, Bowdoin Democrats, and the Middle Eastern Students Association
7:00 pm, Beam Classroom, Visual Art Center
Monday, November 6th
ED MALONEY
author of 'The Secret History of the IRA' will speak on 'The Lessons of the Irish Peace Process for the White House'.
Ed Moloney has been Northern editor of the Irish Times and the Sunday Tribune. He has written for the Washington Post, The Economist, and The Guardian, and in 1999 he was elected Irish Journalist of the Year.
7:00 pm, Cleaveland 151
Friday, December 8th
DR. AMI PEDAHZUR,
author of 'The Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism' will address the topic of 'Suicide Terrorism: Israel's Security Challenges'.
12:30 pm, Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center