Western Civilization, American Liberty Lectures Scheduled
Contact: Michael Palmer, 329-5015
ORONO — Thanks to an anonymous individual or individuals, a professor in the UMaine Department of Political Science has received financial backing to create a new controversial speakers series on campus.
The first speaker inaugurates the series today from 3:15-4:30 p.m. in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union. James W. Ceaser, professor of politics at the University of Virginia, will speak on “Presidential Politics and the American Constitution: 2008 and Beyond.” The lecture is free and open to the public.
Ceaser comes to the University of Maine through the new Program in Western Civilization and American Liberty Lecture Series, which was started last year by political science professor Michael Palmer, the Abraham Lincoln Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Political Science at UMaine.
Though the funding is a mystery, according to Palmer, the intent of the lecture series is not. Palmer, who has a reputation as a straight-talking conservative on campus, says he was approached last year by a Virginia-based attorney representing an anonymous donor who wanted to know what Palmer would do with a fund that could be used at his discretion.
Palmer replied that he would bring some of the best speakers in North America to campus to express views on controversial topics, views “that are not usually heard on the University of Maine campus,” Palmer says.
The donor made $15,000 available to Palmer, and for 2009, increased the amount to $18,000 and stipulated that the speaker’s series be titled the Program in Western Civilization and American Liberty. The donor also instructed that Palmer, as director of the lecture series, would be recognized as the Abraham Lincoln Professor of Political Philosophy at UMaine.
Palmer insists he has no idea who his program’s benefactor is or specifically why he was selected to create a speaker series that brings to UMaine voices and positions that may be contrary to more liberal thinking.
“I really have no idea whatsoever,” he says. “I really haven’t the foggiest notion.”
Palmer says the benefactor indicated he, she or it would fund the new speaker series for several years. Palmer anticipates that 10 or more speakers per academic year will be part of his program.
The first 2009 speaker, James Ceaser, has taught politics at Virginia since 1976, and has written several books on American politics and political thought, including Presidential Selection, Liberal Democracy and Political Science, Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought, and Nature and History in American Political Development. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Florence, the University of Basel, Oxford University, the University of Bordeaux, and the University of Rennes. Ceaser is a frequent contributor to the popular press, and he often comments on American Politics for the Voice of America.
Other speakers in the series are:
Feb. 2: Michael C. Munger, Department of Political Science, Duke University,
“Why the United States Is Not a Democracy…and Shouldn’t Be! (With an Application to Campus Smoking Bans),” Bangor Room, Memorial Union, 3:15-4:30 p.m.
Feb. 16: Steven Kautz, Department of Political Science, Michigan State University
The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Lecture, “‘Every Honorable Device’:
The Democratic Statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln,'” Room 100, Neville Hall, 3:15-4:30 p.m.
March 20: Richard Morgan, Department of Government, Bowdoin College, “Resisting Judicial Supremacy: What Do We Do When the Supreme Court is Wrong?” Room 100, Neville Hall, 3:15-4:30 p.m.
March 27: Jeremy Rabkin, George Mason University School of Law, “The War on Terror and the Law of Nature,” Bangor Room, Memorial Union, 3:15-4:30 p.m.
April 3: Paul A. Cantor, Department of English, University of Virginia, “SOUTH PARK and the Tradition of American Comedy and Liberty,” Bangor Room, Memorial Union, 3:15-4:30 p.m.
And April 27: Colin D. Pearce, Department of Political Science, University of Guelph, “Postmodern Observations on the Improvement of Mankind: Or, God is Dead and We Did It for the Kids!” Room 100, Neville Hall, 3:15-4:30 p.m.