TRUTHTELLING: DEMOCRACY IN AN AGE WITHOUT FACTS

Program

11:00 a.m.
Olin Auditorium

Introductory Lecture:
Roger Berkowitz, Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities.

11:30 a.m.
Olin Auditorium Keynote Address:

Lewis Lapham is the editor of Lapham's Quarterly and former Editor of Harper's Magazine. He is the author many books including, PRETENTIONS TO EMPIRE: Notes on the Criminal Folly of the Bush Administration and MONEY AND CLASS IN AMERICA: Notes on Our Civil Religion. Lapham is currently the host of The World in Time: radio discussions with scholars and historians on Bloomberg Radio.
Discussant: Francine Prose
1:00 p.m. Lunch (2:10 p.m. dance performance with Marjorie Folkman)
2:30 p.m.

Olin Auditorium Keynote Address:

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels WHITE TEETH, THE AUTOGRAPH MAN, and ON BEAUTY, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has also edited an anthology of short stories entitled THE BOOK OF OTHER PEOPLE. Her collection of essays CHANGING MY MIND was published in November 2009. She is Harper's book critic and a Professor of Creative Writing at NYU. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Chair: Wyatt Mason
3:15 p.m.

Olin Auditorium
Lecture:

Jonathan Kay is the author of AMONG THE TRUTHERS: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. He is a Managing Editor of Canada’s National Post newspaper, a columnist on the newspaper’s op-ed page, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Salon.com, and The New York Times.
Discussant: Ann Lauterbach
4:15 p.m.
Break

4:30 p.m.

Olin Auditorium

Keynote Address:

Naomi Oreskes is co-author of MERCHANTS OF DOUBT: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. She is also Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Discussant: Gregory Moynahan
6:00 p.m.

Olin Auditorium
Lecture:

Daniel Rose is Chairman of Rose Associates, Inc., a New York-based 85-year old real estate organization, and winner of four national Cicero Speechwriting Awards. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates in Engineering (Polytechnic University) and in Humane Letters (Long Island University).
Discussant: Richard Aldous
7:00 p.m.

Dinner for Speakers

Attendees should avail themselves of the Hudson Valley's fantastic culinary Culture. Reservations recommended.

Saturday, Oct. 29

10:30 a.m.

Olin Auditorium

Introductory Lecture:
Wyatt Mason is Senior Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities. He is Contributing Writer at the New York Times Magazine, Contributing Editor at Harper's, and writes regularly for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. His writing has earned him the National Book Critics Circle Citation for criticism. He is also translator of the works of Rimbaud for The Modern Library.

11:00 a.m.

Olin Auditorium

Lecture:

Wolfgang Heuer is the editor of Hannaharendt.net and author of numerous books, including COURAGEOUS ACTION (COURAGIERTES HANDELN) and CITIZEN: PERSONAL INTEGRITY AND POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY. He is Privatdozent at Otto-Suhr-Institut für politische Wissenschaft at the Freien Universität in Berlin.

Discussant: Ric Fouad
11:45 p.m.

Olin Auditorium Lecture:

Peg Birmingham is author of HANNAH ARENDT AND HUMAN RIGHTS. She is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled "A Lying World Order: Deception as a Philosophical and Political Problem." She is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University.
Discussant: Matthias Bormuth
12:30 p.m.

Lunch

1:00-2:00 p.m.

Olin Auditorium

Discussion:

Winners of the Hannah Arendt Center's Truthtelling Challenge:
J.P. Lawrence, Katya Lebedev, Jacqueline Bao, Rezarta Seferi, Steven Tatum

CoChairs: Jeff Champlin & Jennie Han
2:00 p.m.

Olin Auditorium

Keynote Address:

Sam Tanenhaus is the Editor of The New York Times Book Review. He is the author of THE DEATH OF CONSERVATISM and WHITTAKER CHAMBERS: A BIOGRAPHY.
Discussant: Roger Berkowitz
3:15 p.m. Lecture:

Benjamin Kunkel is co-founding editor of n+1 and the author of the novel INDECISION.
Discussant: Jessica Loudis '08
4:15 p.m. Break
4:30 p.m.

Olin Auditorium
Lecture:

Idith Zertal the author of many books and articles on Jewish, Zionist and Israeli history, published in a dozen languageS. Her books include, ISRAEL'S HOLOCAUST AND THE POLITICS OF NATIONHOOD and LORDS OF THE LAND: The War over Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007. In the last ten years she has written extensively on Hannah Arendt's political thought. Zertal's annotated translation into Hebrew of Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism was published in Israel in 2010. She is Professor of Contemporary History at the Institute for Jewish Studies, the University of Basel.
Discussant: Norman Manea
5:30 p.m.

Olin Auditorium Lecture:

Walter Russell Mead is the James Clark Chase Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor-at-Large of The American Interest, where he writes the blog Via Meadia. His books include GOD AND GOLD: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World, and SPECIAL PROVIDENCE: American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World.
Discussant: Ian Buruma
6:30 p.m.

Olin Auditorium Concluding Lecture:

Jerome Kohn is Trustee of the Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust and editor of the many volumes of Arendt's unpublished and uncollected writings: THE PROMISE OF POLITICS, ESSAYS ON UNDERSTANDING 1930-1954, RESPONSIBILITY AND JUDGMENT, and THE JEWISH WRITINGS (with Ron Feldman).
Discussant: Roger Berkowitz
7:15 p.m. Wrap-up
7:30 p.m.
Dinner for Speakers

Speakers

Peg Birmingham is Chair of the Philosophy Department at DePaul University. She is the author of Hannah Arendt and Human Rights. She is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled "A Lying World Order: Deception as a Philosophical and Political Problem."

Matthias Bormuth is the author of Lifeconduct in Modern Times. Karl Jaspers and Psychoanalysis as well as many works in German including, Mimesis und Der christliche Gentleman – Erich Auerbach und Karl Löwith.

Leon Botstein is President of Bard College and Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and the Jerusalem Philharmonic. He is author of Jefferson's Children: Education and The Promise of American Culture, among many other books and CDs.

Wolfgang Heuer is Privatdozent at Otto-Suhr-Institut für politische Wissenschaft at the Freien Universität in Berlin. He is the editor of Hannaharendt.net and author of numerous books, including Couragiertes Handeln.

Jonathan Kay is the author of Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. He is a Managing Editor of Canada’s National Post newspaper, a columnist on the newspaper’s op-ed page, and a regular blogger on the Post’s web site. In addition, he is a contributor to Commentary magazine, the New York Post and Reader’s Digest.

Jerome Kohn is Trustee of the Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust and editor of the following volumes of Arendt's unpublished and uncollected writings: The Promise of Politics, Essays on Understanding 1930-1954, Responsibility and Judgment, and The Jewish Writings (with Ron Feldman).

Benjamin Kunkel is a founding editor of n+1 and the author of the novel Indecision.

Lewis Lapham is the editor of Lapham's Quarterly and former Editor of Harpers Magazine. He is the author of Theatre of War and Pretensions to Empire: Notes on the Criminal Folly of the Bush Administration. (Keynote speaker)

Wyatt Mason's writing for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harpers has earned him the National Book Critics Circle Citation for criticism. He is also a Contributing Writer for The New York TImes Magazine and translator of the works of Rimbaud for The Modern Library.

Walter Russell Mead is James Clarke Chance Professor in Foreign Affairs and the Humanities at Bard College and Editor-at-Large of The American Interest. He is the author of several books, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (2001, winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize and nominated for the 2002 Arthur Ross Book Award); Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America’s Grand Strategy in a World at Risk (2004); God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World (2008).

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She is also co-author of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. (Keynote speaker)

Daniel Rose is Chairman of Rose Associates, Inc., a New York-based real estate organization. He has pursued a career involving a broad range of professional, civic and non-profit activities. Professionally, he has developed such properties as the award-winning Pentagon City complex in Arlington, VA and the One Financial Center office tower in Boston, MA. Mr. Rose was appointed by President Clinton as Vice Chairman of the Baltic-American Enterprise Fund, a U.S.-government-funded organization that for 15 years stimulated free market business activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. He is now a Director of the Baltic- American Freedom Foundation, its "legacy" philanthropic foundation. Winner of four national Cicero Speechwriting Awards, he has been awarded Honorary Doctorates in Engineering (Polytechnic University) and in Humane Letters (Long Island University). Mr. Rose has served as "Expert Advisor" to The Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as "Expert/Consultant" to the Commissioner of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; Among his many other awards for a broad range of governmental, philanthropic and cultural activities are the City of New York Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding’s Joseph Papp Racial Harmony Award, the Abyssinian Development Corporation’s Harlem Renaissance Award and the W.E.B. DuBois Award of Harvard’s W.E.B. DuBois Institute.

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels WHITE TEETH, THE AUTOGRAPH MAN, and ON BEAUTY, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has also edited an anthology of short stories entitled THE BOOK OF OTHER PEOPLE. Her collection of essays CHANGING MY MIND was published in November 2009. She is Harper's book critic and a Professor of Creative Writing at NYU. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Sam Tanenhaus is the Editor of The New York Times Book Review. He has also contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, National Review, The New Criterion, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, Fortune, The American Scholar, Partisan Review, Commentary, Correspondence, and Slate. He is the author of The Death of Conservatism (2009) and Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (1997, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography in 1997, finalist for both the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1997 and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1998). (Keynote Speaker)

Idith Zertal is Professor of Contemporary History, and an Israeli essayist, currently teaching and researching at the Institute for Jewish Studies, the University of Basel. Zertal is the author of many books and articles on Jewish, Zionist and Israeli history, published in a dozen of languages, including: Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007, and Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood. In the last ten years she has written extensively on Hannah Arendt's political thought. Zertal's annotated translation into Hebrew of Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism was published in Israel in 2010.

Video