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[Does the President Matter? A Conference on the American Age of Political Disrepair]

Hannah Arendt Center presents:

Does the President Matter? A Conference on the American Age of Political Disrepair

Hannah Arendt Center Fifth Annual Fall Conference

Friday, September 21, 2012 – Saturday, September 22, 2012
Olin Hall

  • Overview
  • Program
  • Speakers
  • Video

Program

Friday, September 21

10:00 AM   
Introduction: Does the President Matter?

Roger Berkowitz, Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.

10:30 AM  
 
Can a President Change the Culture and Direction of the Nation?
Leon Botstein, President of Bard College.

11:00 AM
   
Is Occupy Wall Street a symptom of an irreparable loss of faith in liberal democracy?             
Todd Gitlin, Professor and Chair of the Ph.D. Program at the Columbia School of Journalism; author of many books, most recently, Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street. 
Anne Norton, Professor of Political Theory, University of Pennsylvania. Author of many books including 95 Theses on Politics, Culture, and Method.
Chair: Elizabeth Frank
Discussant: Thomas Wild

12:30 PM   Lunch

2:00 PM     
Is the Pirate Party the Answer to our Crisis of Leadership?
Rick Falkvinge, Founder of the Swedish Pirate Party.
Chair: Ian Buruma

3:00 PM
Should the President Lead or Govern?
Eric Liu, CEO of the Guiding Lights Foundation and co-founder of the True Patriots Network; formerly President Clinton's Domestic Policy Advisor and author of The Gardens of Democracy.
Kevin Gutzman,  Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, Western Connecticut State University, Author of James Madison and the Making of America.
Chair:Tabetha Ewing
Discussant: Grace Hunt

4:30 PM    Break

5:00 PM    
Serving Francois Mitterrand and Nicolas Sarkozy: Does the President Matter in the Pursuit of Human Rights?
Bernard Kouchner, Founder of Doctors Without Borders and Former Foreign Minister of France
Chair: Marina van Zuylen
Discussant: Thomas Keenan

6:00 PM
Is the President Too Weak?
Jeffrey Tulis, Associate Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin and author of The Rhetorical Presidency and The Constitutional Presidency.
Chair: Mark Lytle
Discussant: Ian Storey

Saturday, September 22

10:00 AM    
Introduction
Wyatt Mason, Senior Fellow, Hannah Arendt Center and Contributing Writer for Harpers' Magazine and the New York Times Magazine.

10:30 AM    
 
Does Our Political and Constitutional System Make it Impossible for a President to Lead?      
Bernadette Meyler, Professor of Law, Cornell University Law School
Walter Russell Mead, James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor-at-Large at the American Interest.
Chair: Mark W. Smith
Discussant: Daniel Karpowitz

12:00 PM      
Is Presidential Leadership Still Possible or Desirable?
Ralph Nader, Presidential candidate, political activist.
Chair: Jonathan Becker
Discussant: Ric Fouad 

1:30 PM     Lunch

2:15 PM     
Unveiling of the 2012 Hannah Arendt Portrait
Artist: David Schorr
Introduced by Steven Maslow

2:30 PM    
Does the President Matter: Winners of the Student Essay Contest.
Chairs: John LeJeune, Hannah Arendt Center Junior Fellows.

3:15 PM
    
Is the Era of Great Presidents In the Past?
Tracy Strong, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, UC San Diego, author most recently of Politics Without Vision. 
Richard Aldous, Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature, author most recently of Reagan and Thatcher.
David Greenberg, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. 
Chair: Laurie Naranch
Discussant: Margaret Crosby

5:00 PM    
Is the President Captain or Captive?
John Zogby, founder of the Zogby Poll and author of The Way We'll Be
James Zogby, author of Arab Voices and Founder and President of the Arab American Institute.
Chair: Jonathan Kay 
Discussant: Robyn Marasco

Speakers

Keynote Speakers
  • Ralph Nader — Presidential candidate, political activist
  • Bernard Kouchner — Former Foreign Minister of France and the co-founder of Doctors Without Borders
  • Rick Falkvinge —Founder of the Swedish Pirate Party
  • Jeffrey Tulis —author of The Rhetorical Presidency  and The Limits of Constitutional Democracy
  • James Zogby — Author of Arab Voices
  • John Zogby — Founder of the Zogby Poll and author of The Way We'll Be
Featured Speakers
  • Richard Aldous —Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature at Bard College, and author of Reagan and Thatcher.
  • Jonathan Becker -Vice President and Dean for International Affairs and Civic Engagement; Associate Professor of Political Studies, Bard College
  • Ian Buruma —Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College.
  • Margaret Crosby - Visiting Scholar, Department of History, Columbia University; list editor, H-German
  • Tabetha Ewing - Dean of Studies, Bard High School Early College Manhattan; Associate Professor of History, Bard College
  • Ric Fouad - Lawyer, New York, New York
  • Elizabeth Frank —Joseph E. Harry Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Louise Bogan: A Portrait.
  • Todd Gitlin —Chair of Communications Dept. at Columbia University and author of Occupy Nation).
  • David Greenberg—Associate Professor of History, Journalism, and Media Studies at Rutgers University and author of Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image. 
  • Kevin Gutzman-Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University and author of James Madison and the Making of America
  • Grace Hunt - Postdoctoral Fellow, Hannah Arendt Center
  • Daniel Karpowitz - Director of Policy and Academics, Bard Prison Initiative; Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Studies; Lecturer in Law and the Humanities, Bard College
  • Jonathan Kay—Editorial Page Editor of the Toronto National Post and author of Among the Truthers. 
  • Thomas Keenan - Director, Human Rights Project; Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Bard College
  • John LeJeune-- Junior Teaching Fellow, Hannah Arendt Center
  • Eric Liu —CEO of the Guiding Lights Foundation and President Clinton's Domestic Policy Advisor.
    Robyn Marasco—Assistant Professor of Politics, Hunter College. 
  • Steven Maslow--Chief Financial and Operating Officer, New York Physical Rehabilitation and Wellness; Chairman Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College.
  • Walter Russell Mead — James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor-at-Large at the American Interest.
  • Bernadette Meyler — Professor, Cornell Law School.
  • Laurie Naranch—Associate Professor of Politics, Siena College. 
  • Anne Norton — Professor of Politics, University of Pennsylvania, and author of 95 Theses on Politics, Culture & Method.
  • David Schorr--Artist, New York, New York;  Professor of Art at Wesleyan University.
  • Mark W. Smith--Lawyer, New York, New York and author of The Official Handbook of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and Disrobed: The New Battle Plan to Break the Left's Stranglehold on the Courts .
  • Ian Storey -- Postdoctoral Fellow, Hannah Arendt Center.
  • Tracy Strong — Distinguished Professor of Political Science, UC San Diego and author of Politics Without Vision.
  • Marina van Zuylen - Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Bard College
  • Thomas Wild - Research Associate, Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities; Assistant Professor of German, Bard College

Video

Coming soon! Check back shortly!
http://www.totalwebcasting.com/live/bard
This event occurred on:  We are suffering a crisis of leadership. From Europe to Japan, from Russia to Egypt, and from China to the United States, political leaders are proving singularly inept at addressing the turmoil of our times. It is as if leaders have gone on strike; unwilling—or unable—to make decisions anymore, except when forced to. Amidst this worldwide need for leadership, the United States is about to elect a President. But what will be the effect?

Arendt believed that freedom requires requires courage. Political leaders, she argued, are those who act in unexpected ways and whose actions are so surprising and yet meaningful as to inspire the citizens to re-imagine their sense of belonging to a common people with a common purpose. How can our overly cautious and hyper-critical age encourage the kind of action that Arendt saw was necessary in politics?

Our Conference will bring together artists, ex-politicians, businessmen, academics, and public intellectuals to explore how we can re-imagine presidential leadership for today.


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