The Eighteenth Annual Series (2006-2007)
of the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy
and the LeFrak Forum
This year’s
program will feature a conference and a lecture series,
on different themes.
A. Conference: The Supreme Court and the Idea of Constitutionalism, January 26-28
After the death
of Chief Justice Rehnquist, the retirement of Justice O’Connor, and the debates over the confirmations of their replacements, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, the question of the place of the United States Supreme Court in our constitutional structure is again near the top of the nation’s political agenda. In recent decades — from Brown v. Board of Education to Roe v. Wade to Bush v. Gore — the
Supreme Court has gradually assumed an increasingly prominent
and controversial place in American political life. At least
among activists, few questions today divide the Democratic
and the Republican Party more profoundly than the question
of the proper tasks of the Supreme Court, as protector of
our liberties and guardian of our constitutional design.
(This conference will approach this political and intellectual
ferment from some distance.)
It will bring together
scholars to discuss the idea of constitutionalism, and the
place of an institution like the United States Supreme Court
in our own constitutionalism, from a variety of disciplinary
or methodological perspectives — historical, comparative,
philosophical, and social scientific, as well as legal and
jurisprudential. Our aim is to move beyond the questions
that divide the parties or, rather, to raise those urgent
questions in the light of more fundamental questions about
the nature of constitutionalism in general and of American
constitutionalism in particular.
The conference will be held in Kellogg Center from Friday, January 26 through Sunday, January 28. There will be six sessions: three on Friday, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday. All sessions are free and open to the public.
Dr. Bruce Cole, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will deliver the keynote address. President Simon will introduce Dr. Cole.
Professors Lawrence Alexander (University of San Diego Law School), Leslie Friedman Goldstein (University of Delaware), Gary Jacobsohn (University of Texas), Steven Kautz (Michigan State University), Benjamin Kleinerman (Virginia Military Institute and Harvard University), Rogers Smith (University of Pennsylvania), Nathan Tarcov (University of Chicago), Mark Tushnet (Harvard Law School), Keith Whittington (Princeton University), and Michael Zuckert (University of Notre Dame) will deliver the principal papers.
Professors James Ceaser (University of Virginia), Stephen Macedo (Princeton University and New York University Law School), Richard Primus (University of Michigan Law School), James Stoner (Louisiana State University), and Vickie Sullivan (Tufts University) will serve as respondents.
The conference is supported, in part, by a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a grant from the Earhart Foundation.
B. Lecture Series: Mario Vargas Llosa on Literature and History, February 26-28
Mario Vargas Llosa
is one of Latin America’s — and the world’s — greatest
writers. He was born in Arequipa, Peru, attended the University
of San Marcos in Lima, and earned a doctorate from the University
of Madrid.
His many novels
include The Green House, Conversation in the Cathedral, Aunt
Julia and the Script Writer, The War of the End of the World,
The Storyteller, In Praise of the Stepmother, Death in the
Andes, The Notebooks of Don Rigeborto, and, more recently,
The Feast of the Goat and The Way to Paradise. He is also
the author of A Fish in the Water — a memoir of his
foray into Peruvian politics when he lost a bitter 1990 presidential
election to Alberto Fujimori. In 1995, Vargas Llosa was awarded
two of the world's most distinguished literary honors, the
Cervantes Prize and the Jerusalem Prize.
Throughout his career, Vargas Llosa has been fascinated by the relationship between literature and history. Many of his novels are historical. In a series of three lectures, Vargas Llosa will explore this complex relationship, using three of his novels as illustrations: Conversation in the Cathedral, which is set in Peru against the background of the military dictatorship of General Odria (1948-1956); The War of the End of the World, which retells the civil war in Canudos, Brazil, precipitated by the messianic rebellion of the Conselheiro in Bahia (1903); and The Feast of the Goat, which treats the dictatorship of Generalisimo Trujillo in the Dominican Republic (1930-1961).
Vargas Llosa will discuss the making of these three novels, how historical material was the source of each, and the ways in which invention and fantasy reconstruct the history in order to transform it into fiction. In particular, he will explore the problem of truth in historical novels and the place of invention and fantasy in all historical writings.
The first lecture
will be delivered on Monday, February 26, at 7:30 pm, in
Wharton Center’s Great Hall. It is part of TIAA-CREF’s
World View Lecture Series. Tickets are required for this
lecture. They are free to Michigan State faculty, staff,
and students, and can be obtained at the box office 72 hours
prior to the lecture. For all others, tickets are $20. They
can be purchased on-line (www.whartoncenter.com), by phone
(517/432-2000 or 800-Wharton), or at the box office.
The second lecture
will be delivered on Tuesday, February 27,at 8:00 pm, in
Kellogg Center’s Auditorium. The third lecture will
be delivered on Wednesday, February 28 at 10:00 am in the
Kellogg Center Auditorium. No tickets are required for these
lectures. They are free and open to the public.
The lecture series is supported, in part, by a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, TIAA-CREF (Wharton Center World View), the Office of the President, and James Madison College.
We invite you to participate in the Symposium and the LeFrak Forum, either attending upcoming lectures at Michigan State University, or by visiting the Archives for past lectures. Go to the Schedule of Events for times and dates of this year's programs. |
