Pulaski Technical College: two year community college in central Arkansas

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Legal scholar, author to address civil liberty issues
9/27/2007

Pulaski Tech kicks off its weeklong Banned Books Week celebration on Monday with two lectures by Roger Newman, an author and noted authority on civil liberties and censorship.

Newman will speak on "Civil Liberties, Surveillance and Terrorism" at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday in the R.J. Wills Lecture Hall, located on the second floor of the Campus Center.

Newman lectures frequently on the subject of civil liberties at colleges and universities across the country. According to Newman, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, have cast American citizens' civil liberties in a new light and given rise to increased surveillance of private communication.

"We can never preserve our freedom by eliminating it," Newman insists. "We have come to value privacy, for example, as much as the right to speak our minds."

Newman teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, has been editor-in-chief of a four-volume encyclopedia on the Constitution and is currently editing the Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, as well as working on a book on President Clinton's Supreme Court appointments.

His biography of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Hugo Black: A Biography, won the Scribes Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1995.

Newman's visit is sponsored by Pulaski Tech's Ottenheimer Library Committee and the Division of Fine Arts and Humanities.

The purpose of Banned Books Week is to celebrate the freedom to read banned or challenged books, to raise awareness about material that has been banned or challenged in a variety of settings, and to discuss issues relating to intellectual freedom.

Pulaski Tech's celebration of Banned Books Week runs Oct. 1-5 with readings from banned and challenged materials performed by faculty and staff and with a panel discussion entitled "Shock of the New: Visual Art and the College Experience".

Schedule of Readings:

Tuesday, Oct. 2, Campus Center Plaza (main campus)
11:00 a.m.: Sandy Longhorn -- Handmaid's Tale
11:10 a.m.: Jonathan Purkiss -- A Brave New World ?
11:20 a.m.: Brian Walker -- Song of Songs
11:30 a.m.: Amy Baldwin -- Forever
11:40 a.m.: Caroline Lewis -- Grapes of Wrath
11:50 a.m.: David Warren -- Dracula
12-1 p.m. Panel "Shock of the New: Visual Art and the College Experience"

Wednesday: October 3, on the Campus Center Plaza (main campus)
11 a.m.: Joey Cole -- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
11:10 a.m.: Melissa Myers -- The Bell Jar
11:20 a.m.: Michelle Palmer - As I Lay Dying
11:30 a.m.: Sandy Longhorn -- Candide
11:40 a.m.: Discussion
11:50 a.m.: Joey Cole --
12 p.m.: Allen Loibner - Footnote to "Howl" and "Babelogue" Patti Smith
12:10 p.m.: Wade Derden -- Appeal
12:20 p.m.: Angie Macri -- Leaves of Grass
12:30 p.m.: Sarah Clements -- Shel Silverstein
12:40 p.m.: Sandy Longhorn -- Harry Potter
12:50 p.m.: Discussion