Marketplace of ideas

This spring’s roster of guest lectures pulled no punches, with a vast array of challenging, occasionally inspiring, and often provocative arguments. Just a few highlights:

“Racial Profiling: We All Have a Role in the Solution” and “‘Partial Birth’ Abortion,” by Alphonse Gerhardstein, civil rights litigator

“The Hidden Jesus Revealed: How the Discovery of a Lost Gospel Changed the Study of Christianity,” by Elaine Pagels, Princeton University

“The Future of Welfare Reform in America: Tommy Thompson and the Department of Health and Human Services,” by Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel, Institute for Wisconsin’s Future

“Impossible Facts and Absurd Exaggerations? The History of the New World in the Enlightenment: Perspectives from Metropolis and Periphery,” by Jorge Cañizares Esguerra, SUNY-Buffalo

And from Skidmore’s federally funded series on global environmental issues:

“Building Democracy in the Czech Republic: The Case of the Temelin Nuclear Power Plant,” by Regina Axelrod, Adelphi University
“Global Warming, Jobs, and the Politics of Kyoto,” by Eban Goodstein, Lewis and Clark College
“Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Energy in the Twenty-first Century,” by former U.S. Ambassador John Ritch, World Nuclear Association
“Environmental Policy in the European Union: A German Perspective,” by Sascha Müller-Kr”nner, Heinrich Böll Foundation
“From the Amazon Forest to the College Campus: The Ecology of Disturbance, Restoration, and Sustainability,” by Christopher Uhl, Pennsylvania State University