Spring 2021 Events
Upcoming Events
Due to concerns regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and in keeping our campus community safe, all Clough events will be virtual. Registration will be required.
Climate Constitutionalism Series
Constitutional Environmentalism and Environmental Justice
With Barry E. Hill
Adjunct Professor of Law at Vermont Law School, and a Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute
Former Director of the Office of Environmental Justice at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a leading authority on systemic environmental inequities
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 | 12:00 p.m. | Online via Zoom
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Free and open to the public.
Professor Hill has had an extensive legal career in the public and private sectors, as well as in academia. He has taught an environmental justice course at Vermont Law School for 24 years. He has written extensively on the topic. He is currently working on the 5th edition of his textbook/handbook, "Environmental Justice: Legal Theory and Practice," which will be published in the Spring 2022. He has lectured in the Middle East, Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean on a variety of environmental law and policy topics.
Climate Constitutionalism Series
Alternatives to a Failed Economy
With Dr. James Gustave Speth
Co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, former Dean of the Yale School of the Environment, and everything else in between, a leading intellect in the field
Thursday, April 22, 2021 | 12:00 p.m. | Online via Zoom
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Free and open to the public.
He was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1942. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1964, attended Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and graduated from Yale Law School, where he was a member of the Yale Law Journal, in 1969. He served in 1969 and 1970 as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black.
Speth was a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he served as senior attorney from 1970 to 1977.
He served from 1977 to 1981 as a Member and then for two years as Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President. As Jimmy Carter's Council on Environmental Quality Chairman, he was a principal adviser on matters affecting the environment and had overall responsibility for developing and coordinating the President's environmental program. In 1981 and 1982, he was Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching environmental and constitutional law.
In 1982, he founded the World Resources Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental think tank, and served as its president until January 1993. He was a senior adviser to President-elect Bill Clinton's transition team, heading the group that examined the U.S.'s role in natural resources, energy and the environment.
In 1991, he chaired a U.S. task force on international development and environmental security which produced the report Partnership for Sustainable Development: A New U.S. Agenda.
In 1990 he led the Western Hemisphere Dialogue on Environment and Development which produced the report Compact for a New World.
From 1993 to 1999, he served as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme; he served as Special Coordinator for Economic and Social Affairs under Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, piloted the United Nations Development Assistance Plan and also served as Chair of the United Nations Development Group.
In 1999, he became the dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. He served the school as the Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean and Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor in the Practice of Environmental Policy when he retired from Yale in 2009 to assume a professorship at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vermont.[3] Speth was succeeded as Dean at Yale by Sir Peter Crane.
In 2014 he published his memoir Angels by the River. In that year, he was also board member of the New Economy Coalition.
Speth currently serves on the Advisory Council of Represent.Us, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization.
The Clough Arts and Culture of Democracy Series:
Private Grief and Public Woes: Poetry and a Renewed Public Discourse
Join us as Ed Hirsch presents poems about heartbreak and grief, both individual and collective, against a background of the history of poetry and democracy in America. The poems in his new anthology, 100 Poems to Break Your Heart, offer expressions of grief and tumult, opening possibilities for renewal of our much-frayed public culture.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 | 6:00PM-7:00PM | Virtual Event
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Ed Hirsch
Edward Hirsch, a MacArthur Fellow, has published ten collections of poems, including Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son, and Stranger by Night (2020). He has also published six prose books about poetry, which include A Poet’s Glossary (2014), a full compendium of poetic terms, and his new book, 100 Poems to Break Your Heart (2021). He is President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Free and open to the public.
Climate Constitutionalism Series
Impacts of Climate Change on Communities of Color in the U.S. and Internationally
With Dr. Lisa Benjamin
Lewis & Clark Law School and a member of the Kyoto Compliance Committee
Thursday, April 15, 2021 | 6:00 p.m. | Online via Zoom
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Free and open to the public.
Professor Lisa Benjamin, the newest faculty member of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program, has been appointed to be a member of the Compliance Committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for a three-year term from 2019-2021.
Professor Lisa Benjamin, the newest faculty member of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program, has been appointed to be a member of the Compliance Committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for a three-year term from 2019-2021.
A globally recognized expert and scholar in energy, climate change, corporate law, and the intersections between them, Dr. Benjamin was nominated by the Latin American and Caribbean region at the Conference of the Parties meeting in December 2018.
The Compliance Committee was established under the Kyoto Protocol with two branches: a facilitative branch and an enforcement branch. Dr. Benjamin will serve as a member of the facilitative branch, charged with providing advice and assistance to parties in an effort to promote compliance. The enforcement branch is responsible for determining the consequences for parties that fail to meet their commitments.
“With its two branches, it is one of the most comprehensive compliance systems ever agreed to under a multilateral environmental agreement,” Benjamin said. “Serving on the facilitative branch provides direct insight into parties’ efforts under the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the complex machinery of the UNFCCC reporting system. It also provides an excellent opportunity for me to work closely with other compliance committee members from around the world, as well as with technical experts who review party submissions.”
Parties to the Protocol nominate 10 members to serve for a fixed term. Parties make their nominations from each of the five official regions recognized by the United Nations, Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Others, as well as one member from small island developing states, and two members each from ‘Annex I parties’ under the Protocol (effectively developed country parties) and ‘non-Annex I parties’ (effectively developing country parties).
The committee also meets in a plenary composed of members of both branches and a bureau – made up of the chairperson and vice-chairperson of each branch – supports its work. Decisions of the plenary and the facilitative branch may be taken by a three-quarters majority, while decisions of the enforcement branch require, in addition, a double majority of both Annex I and non-Annex I Parties.
“We welcome Professor Benjamin’s participation in this global body, giving her the opportunity to directly influence the direction of global climate change policy,” said Dean Jennifer Johnson. “Her experiences there will be uniquely valuable to our students, as they consider how to make an impact on world events with their career paths.” Dr. Benjamin will join the Lewis & Clark faculty in fall 2019.
Good Governance Project Presents
Faith & Democracy
Moderated by Ian Ramsey-North
This event will focus on the importance of having faith in our democracy and community, how religious texts provide guidance on what values should underlie community decisions, and how to resist corrupting influences.
Co-sponsored by the Jewish Law Students Association
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 | 6:00PM-7:00PM | Webinar via zoom
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Free and open to the public.
Speakers:
Reverend Irene Monroe
Speaker, Theologian, and Syndicated Columnist
Rabbi Michael Pollack
Executive Director, March on Harrisburg
Fr. Nathaniel Romano, SJ.
Visiting Lecturer and Drinan Scholar
Good Governance Project Presents
Privacy & Democracy: Threats and Opportunities in the Digital Age
Moderated by Deborah Hurley, Professor of Privacy Law and Computer Science at Boston College, Brown, and Harvard University
Please join us for a conversation on privacy, technology and democracy. We will discuss how privacy is an integral part of democracy and community, how technology can limit or enhance democracy, and the barriers to privacy and technology reforms.
Co-sponsored by BC Law’s Intellectual Property & Technology Forum
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 | 6:00PM-7:00PM | Webinar via zoom
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Free and open to the public.
Speakers:
Kade Crockford
Director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts
Amanda Renteria
CEO of Code for America
Alfred Yen
Boston College Professor of Internet and Intellectual Property Law
The Clough Arts and Culture of Democracy Series:
The Political Life of Poetry: Reimagining the Culture of Democracy
Join us as we revisit “The Political Life of Poetry,” first explored in the 2014 Clough Arts and Democracy series. Poet Ed Hirsch returns to explore themes first raised in that series, in light of developments in both our political life and our poetry.
Tuesday, March 23, 2021 | 6:00PM-7:00PM | Virtual Event
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Ed Hirsch
Edward Hirsch, a MacArthur Fellow, has published ten collections of poems, including Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son, and Stranger by Night (2020). He has also published six prose books about poetry, which include A Poet’s Glossary (2014), a full compendium of poetic terms, and his new book, 100 Poems to Break Your Heart (2021). He is President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Free and open to the public.
Good Governance Project Presents
Racial Justice & Democracy
Moderated by BC Law Student, BLSA Treasurer, Jordan Wilson, with Introductory Remarks by BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau
Co-sponsored by the BC Black Law Students Association
Thursday, March 11, 2021 | 12:00PM-1:00PM | Webinar
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Free and open to the public.
Speakers:
William Galvin
Massachusetts Secretary of State
Melissa Nobles
Kenan Sahin Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and Professor of Political Science
Rahsaan Hall
Director of the Racial Justice Program for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts
The Biden Presidency, A Clough Center Conversation
Moderated by Vlad Perju, BC Law School, Director of the Clough Center
Monday, February 15, 2021 | 1:00PM-2:00PM | Panel Discussion, Webinar
Registration is required. Zoom link will be sent before the day of the event.
Free and open to the public.
Speakers:
David Hopkins
BC Professor of Political Science
His research and teaching interests include American political parties and elections, the U.S. Congress, voting behavior, public opinion, media and culture, and research methods. His book Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics (Cambridge University Press) explains how the rise of the culture war, in combination with winner-take-all elections, has produced a regionally divided electorate and an ideologically polarized party system in the United States. Paul Pierson of the University of California, Berkeley described Red Fighting Blue as “path-breaking” and “brilliant,” while Alan Abramowitz of Emory University wrote that “anyone interested in understanding American politics in the 21st century will find David Hopkins’ analysis of the geographic underpinnings of our polarized politics to be extremely helpful." Red Fighting Blue was rated "essential” and named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine.
Marc Landy
Recipient of the 2009 Teaching Award, Faculty Chair of the Boston College Irish Institute, BC Professor of Political Science
He and Sidney Milkis wrote Presidential Greatness (Kansas U. Press, 2000) and a textbook American Government: Balancing Liberty and Democracy, the third edition of which will appear in 2011. He is an author of The Environmental Protection Agency From Nixon to Clinton: Asking the Wrong Questions (1994). He is an editor of Creating Competitive Markets: The Politics and Economics of Regulatory Reform (2007); Seeking the Center: Politics and Policymaking at the New Century (2001); and The New Politics of Public Policy (1995). His recent articles include: "Terror and the Executive," National Affairs, Spring 2010; EPA and Nanotechnology: The Need for a Grand Bargain?, in Christopher J. Bosso, ed., Governing Uncertainty: Environmental Regulation in the Age of Nanotechnology (Washington DC: RFF Press, 2010); (Sidney Milkis, co-author), The Presidency in the Eye of the Storm, The Presidency and the Political System, Ninth Edition (CQ Press, Washington DC. 2010); "Mega-Disasters and Federalism," Public Administration Review, Vol. 68, Issue 6, October 2008; and "Great Presidents are Agents of Democratic Change," in Richard Ellis and Michael Nelson, eds., Debating the Presidency, CQ Press, 2006.
Kay L. Schlozman
J. Joseph Moakley Endowed Professor of Political Science at Boston College
Among her professional activities, she has served as Secretary of the American Political Science Association and as chair of the APSA’s organized section on Elections, Public Opinion and Voting Behavior. She is the winner of the APSA’s 2006 Frank Goodnow Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession of Political Science; the 2016 Samuel Eldersveld Career Achievement Award; and the American Political Science Association’s 2018 Warren E. Miller Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors an outstanding career of intellectual accomplishment and service to the profession in the field of elections, public opinion, and voting behavior. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.