The
Seventeenth Annual Series (2005-2006)
of the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy
and the LeFrak Forum
The
2005-06 program will consist of a lecture series and a
conference, on different themes.
A.
Lecture Series: The Supreme Court in American Life:
Justice
O‘Connor's resignation, Chief Justice Rehnquist's
death, the nomination and confirmation of Chief Justice
Roberts, the nomination and withdrawal of Harriet M‘iers,
and the nomination and confirmation of Justice Alito have,
once again, moved debates about the Supreme Court to the
top of the political agenda. In a series of four lectures,
our guests will discuss the proper role of the Supreme
Court in the American constitutional system and, more generally,
in American life.
The
schedule of events is as follows:
1.
James R. Stoner, Jr. — “Who Has Authority
Over the Constituion of the United States?"”
Professor
of Political Science, Louisiana State University, Thursday,
February 16, 8 pm, Kellogg Center Auditorium.
2.
Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. — “‘Active
Liberty’ and the Problem of Judicial Oligarchy”
Michigan
Supreme Court, Thursday, March 16, 8 pm, Kellogg Center
Auditorium.
3.
Judge Alex Kozinski — “At the Crossroads:
The Federal Judiciary and the Political Branches of Government”
United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Tuesday,
April 4, 8 pm, Kellogg Center Auditorium.
4.
Kathleen M. Sullivan — “From Rehnquest to
Roberts: How Will the Supreme Court Change?”
Stanley
Morrison Professor of Law and former Dean, Stanford Law
School, Thursday, April 20, 8 pm, Big Ten Room C, Kellogg
Center.
Professor
Stoner has published important work on the nature and origins
of constitutionalism, including, most recently, Common-Law
Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism.. Justice
Young has served on the Michigan Supreme Court since 1999
and before that on Michigan Court of Appeals (199598).
Judge Kozinski has served on the US Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit since 1985and before that as Chief Judge
of the United States Claims Court (198285). Professor Sullivan
is one of the nation's leading constitutional lawyers and
experts on the First Amendment.. Judge Kozinski, Professor
Sullivan, and Justice Young have been mentioned as potential
nominees to the United States Supreme Court.
Each
guest will lead an informal followup seminar on the morning
after his or her lecture. Times and places will be announced
before each lecture.
This
lecture series is a prelude to a major conference on the
United States Supreme Court, to be held at Michigan State
in January 2007. That conference will examine the Court
from philosophical, historical, and comparative perspectives.
The
lecture series is supported, in part, by a challenge grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
B.
Conference: Understanding Wahhabism, April 7-8, Club Spartan,
Case Hall
This
conference is co-sponsored with Michigan State’s
Muslim Studies Program, which is the principal organizer.
Much
of the popular discussion about political Islam in the
media tends to equate Islam with fundamentalism, fundamentalism
with Wahhabism, and Wahhabism with terrorism. This conference
aims to unravel the complex relationship among these various
phenomena, above all by putting them in their proper historical,
social and political contexts. There will be five sessions
and a keynote speech. The first session will discuss the
thought of Ibn Abd alWahhab (the socalled "father" of
Wahhabism) and its relationship to the contemporary ideology
of Wahhabism. The second and third will take up the relationship
between Wahhabism as a religious tradition and the Saudi
state as a political entity presided over by a regime wedded
to the Wahhabi ideology. The fourth will treat the impact
of Wahhabism (especially through the rise of religious
schools funded by the Saudis and the return to a puritanical "high" culture
among many Muslims following the spread of mass literacy)
on Muslims living outside the Arabian peninsula. The fifth
will examine the close relationship between the United
States and Saudi Arabia in the fields of security and energy
and the impact of Wahhabism on the USSaudi relationship.
The keynote speech will situate the Wahhabi tradition within
the context of reform and renewal movements in Islam during
the past two centuries and a half.
The conference is supported by the Office of the Provost, the College of Arts
and Letters, the College of Social Science, James Madison College, the Center
for Business Education and Research, the Center for European and Russian Studies,
and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
|
