2016-2017 Schedule
War & Peacebuilding
SEPTEMBER
Kelly Denton-Borhaug lecture, “Resisting the Sacred Canopy over U.S. Ways of War”
Sept. 6, 7 p.m. in Seegers Union’s Great Room
Denton-Borhaug, associate professor of religion and co-director of peace and justice studies at Moravian College will give a talk based on her book “U.S. War-Culture, Sacrifice and Salvation,” which examines the culture of sacrificial rhetoric enabled by Christian understandings of redemption that underpins American dealings with war.
Andrew Bacevich lecture and book signing, “America’s War for the Greater Middle East”
Sept. 19, 7 p.m. in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum
Military historian Bacevich will deliver a talk based on his new book, “America’s War for the Greater Middle East,” which chronicles and critiques US military involvement in the Middle East dating to the Carter administration. A book signing will follow.
Woodrow Wilson Fellow David Frakt lecture, “Ethics, Politics and the Quest for Justice at Guantanamo: Reflections of a Gitmo Defense Lawyer”
Sept. 27, 7 p.m. in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum
Renowned lawyer, human rights activist, military officer and scholar Frakt, the only defense counsel to successfully defend a detainee charged with war crimes before the Guantanamo military commissions, will reflect on this experience and discuss the broader ethical, legal, political and moral aspects of U.S. detention policies.
OCTOBER
Eric Fair reading and discussion of “Consequences, a Memoir”
Oct. 25, 7 p.m. in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum
Fair, a Bethlehem native and resident, will do a reading and discussion from his book “Consequences, a Memoir,” which chronicles Eric's role as a contract interrogator for the U.S. military during the Iraq War. It is a powerful exploration of moral injury and was heralded by Phil Klay, writer and veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, as “An act of incredible bravery.”
NOVEMBER
Campus Reads program on Pat Barker's novel, “Regeneration”
Nov. 11, Common Hour, locations around campus
On Veteran's Day the Center for Ethics will mark centennial explorations of WWI by coordinating a campus reads program. CFE will invite faculty, staff and students to join in reading Pat Barker's novel, “Regeneration,” which explores complex issues around sanity, injury and war, and resonates well in the current moment. CFE will be asking people to sign up for the program by the end of September and will provide a free copy of the book for all participants. Participants will be assigned to groups and provided a location for meeting during Common Hour on Nov. 11 to discuss the novel. Prior to group discussions, coffee and refreshments will be available for participants in the Fireside Lounge of Seegers Union.
JANUARY
Chris Cuomo lecture, ““The Importance of Peace Politics in the Omnipresence of War”
Jan. 27, 2 p.m. in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum (Common Hour)
Focusing on how the omnipresence of war or and the preparation for war affects both the construction of gendered identity and the natural environment, Cuomo suggests it makes little sense to consider times of war as distinct from times of “peace.” In her talk, Cuomo will assert that Just War theory, including feminist Just War theory, problematically obscures the way warfare has consequences even during times when combat isn’t being waged.
Cuomo is a professor of philosophy and women's studies at the University of Georgia and an affiliate faculty member of the Environmental Ethics Certificate Program, the Institute for African-American Studies and the Institute for Native American Studies. The author and editor of articles and books in feminist, postcolonial and environmental philosophy, Cuomo served as director of the Institute for Women's Studies from 2006-2009. Her book, “The Philosopher Queen,” a reflection on post-9/11 anti-war feminist politics, was nominated for a Lambda Award and an APA book award.
FEBRUARY
Mark Harris lecture, “Is War Propaganda Ever Good?: American Filmmaking During World War II”
Feb. 7, 7 p.m. in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum
Harris will examine how, after Pearl Harbor, Hollywood and Washington entered into an unprecedented—and uncomfortable—partnership in which the rules of war and the principles of news and entertainment were all bent for what was considered to be the greater good. Some of Hollywood's greatest directors of fiction were recruited to film—and sometimes to restage—the war, while the filmmakers who stayed in Hollywood were strongly encouraged to include government-approved talking points in their films. What were the lines separating documentaries from entertainment, facts from propaganda and information from what would now be called “fake news”?
Harris is best known as writer of “Pictures at a Revolution” and “Five Came Back.” He is a former executive editor at Entertainment Weekly, and has written for a number of other top publications. Harris remains a columnist for Entertainment Weekly. In 2014, Harris published “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War.” The work is an examination of five U.S. film directors and their frontline work during WWII. The New York Times called the book “a tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable work.”
Brian Orend lecture
Feb. 20, 7 p.m. in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum
Orend is the director of international studies and a professor of philosophy at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He is the author of six books, with two more forthcoming. His most acclaimed, and most widely-used, book is “The Morality of War.” The updated second edition was released in Fall 2013, and has attracted expert praise for being “splendid…easily the most important work, in its field, in a generation.”
MARCH
Pete Giugni presentation and discussion, “Humanitarian Operations in Insecure Environments”
March 14, 7 p.m. in Moyer Hall's Miller Forum
Giugni, Protection of Civilians Delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for the Regional Delegation of the United States and Canada, will give a brief presentation and be part of an open discussion that explores his experience of helping to facilitate humanitarian aid in multiple combat zones around the world. He joined the ICRC in 2004 and has worked in various protection and managerial roles in India (Kashmir), Afghanistan (Kandahar, Khost and Faryab), the Philippines (Mindanao) and Tajikistan (Dushanbe).
Michael Kazin lecture, “Should the U.S. Have Fought in World War One”
March 28, 7 p.m. in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum
Kazin will examine the debate over whether the U.S. should prepare for and then declare war on Imperial Germany, which was one of the most contentious and significant in American history. In the early spring of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson reluctantly sided with the pro-war party, and large majorities in Congress endorsed his stand. A century later, it is difficult to defend what they did.
Kazin is professor of history at Georgetown University and has been co-editor of “Dissent” since 2009. He is the award-winning author of “War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918,” “American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation” and more. In addition, he is editor-in-chief of “The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History,” co-editor of the anthology “Americanism,” and editor of “In Search of Progressive America.”
APRIL
LVAIC Conference From War to Peace, with presentation by Theatre of War
April 7, 8:30-4, locations around campus
Theatre of War performance at 1:30 in Seegers Union’s Event Space
Theater of War Productions is a social impact company that uses theater and other media to address pressing public health and social issues, such as combat-related psychological injury.
Matthew Payne lecture
First week of April; exact date, time and location TBD
A talk by Matthew Payne, assistant professor of film, television and theatre at the University of Notre Dame, is being confirmed for the first week of April.
