McMaster School for Advancing Humanity to hold Annual Symposium April 3-4

March 21, 2013

 

DEFIANCE, Ohio - Defiance College’s McMaster School for Advancing Humanity will hold its ninth annual McMaster Symposium on April 3 and 4 on the DC campus. The theme will be “The Question of Individual Liberties as Critical to Improving the Human Condition.” All presentations are free and open to the public.

Keynote speaker Lawrence Reed will speak on Wednesday, April 3, at 7 p.m. in Schomburg Auditorium.

Reed has served as president of the Foundation for Economic Education since 2008. Prior to that, he was a founder and president for 20 years of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Mich. He also taught economics full-time and chaired the Department of Economics at Northwood University in Michigan from 1977 to 1984.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Grove City College and a master’s degree in history from Slippery Rock State University, both in Pennsylvania. He holds two honorary doctorates, one from Central Michigan University in public administration and Northwood University in Laws.

A champion for liberty, Reed has authored more than1,000 newspaper columns and articles, dozens of articles in magazines and journals in the U.S. and abroad. He has authored or co-authored five books, the most recent ones being A Republic - If We Can Keep It and Striking the Root: Essays on Liberty. Reed is a member of the prestigious Mont Pelerin Society and an advisor to numerous organizations around the world. He served for 15 years as a member of the board (and one term as president) of the State Policy Network.

Additional presentations will be given throughout the day Wednesday in Schomburg Auditorium by the McMaster School’s learning communities of Cambodia and Belize and recent Imagine initiative trip participants. Poster presentations by honor students on a variety of topics will take place in the Serrick Campus Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On Thursday, the day begins with a screening of the film “Crossing Borders” in Schomburg Auditorium at 9:30 a.m.

"Crossing Borders" is a 70-minute documentary that follows four Moroccan and four American university students as they travel together through Morocco and, in the process of discovering "the other," discover themselves. With group travels and frank discussions, the students confront the complex implications of the supposed "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West. The relationships formed through shared experiences contrast sharply with the media-shaped views Americans and Muslims have of each other. Humor, honesty and a willingness to be challenged all bring individuals closer to each other and the relationships that develop disarm hidden stereotypes.

Additional presentations scheduled for Thursday beginning at 12:45 p.m. in the Serrick Campus Center include Lincoln’s Liberties: Presidential Prerogatives and Individual Rights during the Civil War; Ironic Appropriation: the Rhetorical Logic of the Stewart/Colbert Universe; The Politics of/in Education; DC and the UCC Connection; Philosophical and Historical overview of Democratic Education; Sociological and Pedagogical Implications; and Modern Slavery. For more information about the symposium and a schedule, go to http://www.defiance.edu/pages/MS_speakers_symposia.html.

Defiance College, chartered in 1850, is an independent, liberal arts institution in Northwest Ohio offering more than 40 undergraduate programs of study as well as graduate programs in education and business. Defiance College has received national recognition for its educational experience of service and engagement. The college website is www.defiance.edu.