Western Civilization and American Liberty Program Lectures Set

Contact: Joe Carr at 581-3571, joecarr@maine.edu

ORONO — The University of Maine will host three February lectures, presented by its Program in Western Civilization and American Liberty Program.

Ray Raymond, a U.S. Military Academy lecturer who’s also a Fellow of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City and a Fellow of the Royal Society of arts in London, will make two Friday, Feb. 12 presentations.

Raymond is also a 20-year veteran of the the UK diplomatic corps, a former senior adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair and a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

From 11-11:50 am. in 110 Little Hall, he will present a preview of the upcoming Public Broadcasting documentary, “Benedict Arnold: Hero, Victim or Traitor?”  Raymond is that program’s co-producer and co-writer.

Later on Friday, from 3:10-4:30 p.m., Raymond will give a talk, “The War in Afghanistan: Just, Necessary and Winnable.”  That presentation is scheduled for 140 Bennett Hall.

Khalil Habib, a professor at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, will visit UMaine for a Friday Feb. 19 lecture, also presented by the Program in Western Civilization and American Liberty.  That talk, scheduled for 3:10-4:30 p.m. in 140 Bennett
Hall, will be on the subject “Can Islam Co-exist with Western Civilization?”

UMaine political science professor Michael Palmer is director of the Program in Western Civilization and American Liberty.

These presentations are all free and open to the public. For more information, call 581-1879.

The University of Maine, founded in 1865, is the state’s premier public university, located in the town of Orono. It is among the most comprehensive higher education institutions in the Northeast and attracts students from across the U.S. and more than 60 countries. It currently enrolls 12,000 total undergraduate and graduate students who can directly participate in groundbreaking research working with world-class scholars. Students are offered 88 bachelor’s degree programs, 64 master’s degree programs, 25 doctoral programs and one of the oldest and most prestigious honors programs in the U.S. The university promotes environmental stewardship on its campus, with substantial efforts aimed at conserving energy, recycling and adhering to green building standards in new construction. For more information about the University of Maine visit http://www.umaine.edu