Event Archive: 2017-2018

Did you miss a Clough Center event? Explore our archive below for past event information and visit our YouTube page for videos of recent conferences and lectures. 

SPRING 2018 LECTURES & CONFERENCES


Clough

"The Catalan Crisis in Global Context" with César Arjona 
Sebastia

Tuesday, January 23, 2018
12:00 p.m.

10 Stone Ave, Room 201
Boston College

After years of conflict between Catalan and Spanish authorities, two different Governments simultaneously claimed legitimate authority over the region of Catalonia. What used to be a merely domestic dispute became front-page material in international media. Far from being a parochial issue, this rare political conflict within the European Union is inextricably linked with global tendencies and is indicative of the way law and legal thinking are evolving in a post-Westphalian world.

César Arjona (JSD, Cornell; LL.M.; M.Phil) is Professor at ESADE Law School in Barcelona, where he teaches in the fields of Legal Theory and Ethics. He has published extensively in English and Spanish. His research interests include professional legal ethics and the theory of transnational law. He has been a visiting professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), ICADE (Madrid), Bucerius Law School (Hamburg), and at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies (London), where he also served as academic co-director. He has been a speaker in several European and North-American institutions, including the Free University of Berlin, the Max Planck Institute in Halle, the University of Southampton, Santa Clara University, Boston College and Georgetown. He is a non-practicing member of the Law Society of Barcelona. 


Clough

“The Political Economy of Populism” with Liubomir Topaloff

Tuesday, February 6, 2018
12:00 p.m.

10 Stone Ave. Room 201
Boston College


Clough

"Islamophobia as a Challenge to European Democracies" with Susanna Mancini from the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University

Tuesday, February 27, 2018
12:00 p.m.

10 Stone Ave. Room 201
Boston College


Clough

The Current State of Russian Relations- Beyond Reciprocity

Wednesday, March 14, 2018
12:00 p.m.

Barat House
Boston College Law School

Co-Sponsored by the BCLS International Law Society and The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy


Clough

"The State of the World: Challenges and Opportunities" with Samantha Power, Former US Ambassador to the United Nations 

Thursday, March 22, 2018
4:00 p.m.

The Heights Room, Corcoran Commons
Boston College


Clough

Islam in the Post-Obama Era

Frida, March 23—Saturday, March 24, 2018

Gasson Hall Room 100 (Friday)
Stokes Hall Room S195 (Saturday)
Boston College

Co-Sponsored by the Institute for the Liberal Arts and the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy.


Clough

Europe’s Descent into Authoritarian Populism: Lessons for Democracy in America

Tuesday, March 27, 2018
12:00 p.m.

10 Stone Ave. Room 201
Boston College


Clough

The Public Roots of Private Ordering: An Institutional Account of the Origins of Modern American Arbitration

Tuesday, April 10, 2018
4:30 p.m.

Barat House
Boston College Law School

Amalia D. Kessler is the Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies and Professor (by courtesy) of History at Stanford University, as well as the Director of the Stanford Center for Law and History and the Jean-Paul Gimon Director of the France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.  Her research has ranged broadly, including work that explores the intersections between law, market culture and process norms in both France and the United States.  Her most recent book—Inventing American Exceptionalism: The Origins of American Adversarial Legal Culture, 1800-1877 (Yale University Press)—appeared in 2017.  Her first book, A Revolution in Commerce: The Parisian Merchant Court and the Rise of Commercial Society in Eighteenth-Century France (Yale University Press) was awarded the American Historical Association’s J. Russell Major Prize for the best book in English on any aspect of French history.  She has also received article prizes from the American Society for Legal History and the American Society of Comparative Law.  While based primarily at Stanford, she has held visiting professorships at various universities around the world, including the Yale Law School, the Université Panthéon-Assas, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Osgoode Hall Law School, and the Tel Aviv Law School.


Clough

Workshop: The Legitimacy of Transnational Orders: Discussing the Idea of a World State

Thursday, April 12-Friday, April 13, 2018
Boston College


Clough

Kant and the Cosmopolitan Constitution

Tuesday, April 17, 2018
12:00 p.m.

10 Stone Ave, Room 201
Boston College


FALL 2017 LECTURES & CONFERENCES


Clough

The Constitutional Crisis in Venezuela with José Ignacio Hernández G. 

Tuesday, August 29, 2017
12:00 p.m.
10 Stone Ave, Room 201
Boston College

Dr. José Ignacio Hernández G. is a Venezuelan attorney, specialized in Administrativa Law and Regulation.

José Ignacio earned his Ph.D Cum Laude from the Complutense University. In Venezuela he is professor of Administrative Law at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. Also, he is the Chairman of the Public Law Center of the Universidad Monteávila. He has been visiting researcher at Georgetown University Law Center.

José Ignacio is member of the International Administrative Law Association; the Ibero-American Forum of Administrative Law and the Ibero-American Association of Economic Regulation. He has conducted several investigations about regulation, international investment arbitration and Global Administrative Law.

José Ignacio is author of more than 12 books of Administrative Law, and also, he has published more than 100 articles in Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Italy.

He is partner at Grau, García, Hernández & Monaco. José Ignacio has participated in several international investment arbitrations as local advisor and as legal expert witness.


Clough

Clough Fellows Welcome Reception

Monday, September 11, 2017
5:00 p.m.


Clough

Constitution Day Panel Discussion: The Trump Administration and the Constitution 

Wednesday, September 13, 2017
12:00 p.m.
East Wing 120 • Boston College Law School

  • George Brown, Law, Boston College
  • Daniel Kanstroom, Law, Boston College
  • Heather Richardson, History, Boston College
  • Kay Schlozman, Political Science, Boston College
  • Moderator: Vincent Rougeau, Dean, Law, Boston College

Clough

The Two Primitive Modes of Imagining Property: Owning Land, Owning Human Beings with James Whitman 

Monday, September 18, 2017
5:00 p.m.
Barat House, Boston College Law School

Part of the Clough Distinguished Lectures in Jurisprudence Series. Co-sponsored by the Legal History Roundtable.

James Q. Whitman is Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale University, where he has taught since 1994, after beginning his career at Stanford.  He holds a Ph.D. in Intellectual History from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Yale.  He is the author of five books, including Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law (Princeton, 2017), Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between American and Europe (Oxford, 2003), The Origins of Reasonable Doubt (Yale, 2008), The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War (Harvard, 2012), and, along with many articles, among them “The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty,” Yale Law Journal 113 (2004): 1151-1221.  He has received a variety of awards, including an honorary doctorate from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a lifetime achievement prize from the American Society for Comparative Law.


Clough

Clough Colloquium: 
The American Spirit with David McCullough

Tuesday, September 26, 2017
4:00 p.m.
Robsham Theater, Boston College

Co-sponsorship with the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics.


Clough

After Charlottesville: A Boston College Community Event 

Wednesday, October 4, 2017
4:30 p.m.
East Wing 120, Boston College Law School

CONVENER:
Dean Vincent Rougeau, BC Law


Clough

Pro-seminar: Evolutionary Sociology of Constitutionalism with Hauke Brunkhorst 

Tuesday, October 17, 2017
3:00 p.m.
Stuart 410, Boston College Law School

Part of the Clough Distinguished Lectures in Jurisprudence Series.


Hauke Brunkhorst is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Flensburg, Germany. A political sociologist, he has authored many books, including Adorno and Critical Theory (1999) and Solidarity: From Civic Friendship to a Global Legal Community (2005). During the 2009-2010 academic year, Dr. Brunkhorst was the Theodor Heuss Professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City.


Clough

Conference: Rewriting the Canadian Constitution 

Thursday, October 19–October 20, 2017
Barat House, Boston College Law School

Boston College Law School major conference on October 19-20, 2017 to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation in Canada. The program, entitled “Rewriting the Canadian Constitution,” will feature four panels and a moderated luncheon discussion with the Hon. Russell Brown of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The conference is organized by a team of four: Kate Glover and Wade Wright, both representing the Public Law Group at Western University; Michael Pal, representing the Public Law Group at the University of Ottawa; and Richard Albert at Boston College Law School.

  • Thursday, October 19, 2017
  • 3:00 p.m.Welcoming Remarks
      

    3:15 p.m.

     

    Panel I: Proposals (and Prospects) for a New Division of Powers

    • Chair: Maxime St-Hilaire, Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté de droit
    • Discussant: John Ferejohn, New York University, School of Law
    • Erin Delaney, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
    • Noura Karazivan, Université de Montréal, Faculté de droit
    • Wade Wright, Western University, Faculty of Law
      
  • Friday, October 20, 2017
  • 8:15 a.m.

    Panel II: The Unfinished Democratic Constitution

    • Chair: Matthew Harrington, Université de Montréal, Faculté de droit
    • Discussant: Sonia Lawrence, York University, Osgoode Hall Law School 
    • Manoj Mate, Harvard Law School
    • Michael Pal, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
    • Signa Daum Shanks, York University, Osgoode Hall Law School
      

    10:00 a.m.

    Break

      
    10:15 a.m.

    Panel III: Writing the Unwritten Constitution?

    • Chair: Elena Drouin, McGill University, Faculty of Law
    • Discussant: Patrick Macklem, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law
    • Kate Glover, Western University, Faculty of Law
    • Jeff Hewitt, University of Windsor, Faculty of Law
    • Daniel Weinstock, McGill University, Faculty of Law
      

    12:15 p.m.

     

    A Conversation with The Hon. Russell Brown, Supreme Court of Canada

    • Co-chair: Richard Albert, Boston College Law School
    • Co-chair: Katharine Young, Boston College Law School
      

    1:30 p.m.

    Panel IV: The (Im)Possibility of Constitutional Amendment?

    • Chair: Warren Newman, Department of Justice, Canada
    • Discussant: Jamie Cameron, York University, Osgoode Hall Law School
    • Richard Albert, Boston College Law School
    • Erin Crandall, Acadia University, Department of Politics
    • Emmett Macfarlane, University of Waterloo, Department of Political Science
      

    3:15 p.m.

     

    Closing Remarks


Clough

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine with Anne Applebaum 

Monday, October 23, 2017
10:30 a.m.
2101 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston College

Anne Applebaum is a columnist for the Washington Post and Slate, and a historian of Central and Eastern Europe. She is the author of several books including Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, as well as Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 which was nominated for the National Book Award in 2012and won the Cundill Prize for Historical Literature. Her reviews appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and the New Republic, and she also writes occasional columns in the Daily Telegraph. She directs the program on Global Transitions at the Legatum Institute in London, and in 2012-2013 she was the Phillipe Roman visiting Professor of History and International Relations at the London School of Economics. Between 2001 and 2006 she was a member of the editorial board of the Washington Post. She is a former deputy editor of the Spectator magazine, a former political columnist for the Evening Standard newspaper, and a former Warsaw correspondent for the Economist.


Clough

Panel Discussion: Venezuela: The Origins, Development and the Future of the Crisis 

Tuesday, October 24, 2017
6:00 p.m.
McGuinn 121
Boston College

Co-sponsored by the Organization of Latin American Affairs (OLAA)

This panel will explore the most pressing topics related to the current constitutional and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Central among these are the origins of the economic downturn, recent developments in Venezuelan politics, and a prognosis for the turmoil. Drawing from the insights of two renowned experts on Latin America, as well as one BC student of the Venezuelan diaspora, this panel will be at once informative, anecdotal and analytical in nature about what is a defining issue of twenty-first-century Latin America.

Panelist:

  • Miguel Ángel Santos, International Developement, Harvard
  • Ricardo López, Economics, Brandeis International Business School

Clough

Pragmatic Confucian Democracy? In Search of Normative Confucian Democratic Theory with Sungmoon Kim 

Thursday, November 2, 2017
12:00 p.m.
10 Stone Ave, Room 201
Boston College

Sungmoon Kim is a political theorist at the City University of Hong Kong, who specializes in contemporary Confucian political and constitutional theory, history of East Asian political thought, and comparative philosophy.Kim’s research has appeared in the journals such as American Political Science ReviewJournal of PoliticsBritish Journal of Political ScienceHistory of Political ThoughtReview of PoliticsContemporary Political Theory,Philosophy East and West, and Philosophy & Social Criticism, among others. As 2016/17 Berggruen Fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Kim is the author of Confucian Democracy in East Asia: Theory and Practice (CUP, 2014), Public Reason Confucianism: Democratic Perfectionism and Constitutionalism in East Asia (CUP 2016), and Democracy after Virtue: Toward Pragmatic Confucian Democracy (OUP, forthcoming).


Clough

The Supreme Court of Israel within a Jewish and Democratic State with Judge Rubenstein of the Supreme Court of Israel

Monday, November 6, 2017
1:00 p.m.
Boston College Law School


Clough

Conference: Educating for Modern Democracy

Thursday, November 7–Friday, November 10, 2017
Gasson Hall
Boston College

Plenary lectures by:

  • David Campbell (University of Notre Dame)
  • Jose Casanova (Georgetown University)
  • Judith Green (Fordham University)
  • Charles Mathewes (University of Virginia)
  • Eduardo Mendieta (Pennsylvania State University)
  • Candace Vogler (University of Chicago)
  • George Yancy (Emory University)

Tuesday, November 7, 2017, Gasson Hall 100

7:00 p.m.

Welcoming Remarks
David Quigley, Provost, Boston College
Jeffrey Bloechl, Boston College

  

7:15 p.m.

 

 

Modern Democracy, the Present Situation, and Higher Education. A Public Conversation.

Charles Taylor (Department of Philosophy, McGill University)**
Jose Casanova (Department of Sociology and Berkley Center, Georgetown University)
Moderated by Erik Owens (Boston College, Department of Theology, Boisi Center)

**Important notice: Unfortunately, Charles Taylor has had to withdraw from participation. Public discussion will proceed in the form of a conversation with Jose Casanova, moderated by Erik Owens, and fully open to questions and thoughts from the public audience.

  

Wednesday, November 8, 2017, Gasson Hall 112

10:00 a.m.

Welcome, Introductory Remarks

  

10:00 a.m.

An Almost-Chosen People: The Prospects, Promise, and Perils of Public Theology in the Twenty-First Century United States

Charles Mathewes (Department of Religion, University of Virginia)

  

12:00 p.m.

Lunch Break

  

1:00 p.m.

 

Civility in Public Discourse a panel discussion

M. Cathy Kaveny (Department of Theology and Law School, Boston College)

Vincent Rougeau (Law School, Boston College)

  

2:30 p.m.

"Politics and Economics," a panel discussion

Kay Schlozman (Department of Political Science, Boston College)

Marc Landy (Department of Political Science, Boston College)

  

4:00 p.m.

 

"Religion and Civic Engagement in Secular Age"

David Campbell (Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame)

 

5:30 p.m.

Dinner

 

6:30 p.m.

 

 

 

COMIUCAP International Panel

Maria Guadalupe Trejo Estrada (Universidad Vasco de Quiroga, Mexico)
"Family, Communication and Democracy, Reflections on the Construction of Society from its Roots"

Nikolo Panganoro (University of the Philippines Diliman)
"The Philippine Experience of Democracy and the Task of Archipelagic Thinking"

Ivan Garzon Vallejo (Georgetown University)
"Violence, Religion and Democracy in Colombia"

Reception and open meeting organized by COMIUCAP

 

Thursday, November 9, 2017, Gasson Hall 112

10:00 a.m.

 

"The Castoff Children of Cain: de la Malinche a DACA"

Eduardo Mendieta (Department of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University)

  

11:30 a.m.

"The Anti-theological and Neo-Liberal Problem of Whiteness: Toward and Ontology of No Edges"

George Yancy (Department of Philosophy, Emory University)

  

12:45 p.m.

Lunch Break

  

2:00 p.m.

 

Secularism and its Discontents

Gregory Floyd (Department of Philosophy, Seton Hall)
"Between the World and Me. The Critical Religions in the Secular Square"

Nicholas Buck (Divinity School, University of Chicago)
"To Live in Dialogue, Theorizing Democracy with the Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

Joseph Petitt (Department of Philosophy, Morgan State University)
"The Democratic Imperative for Racial Justice"

  

3:30 p.m.

"Politics and the Environment," a panel discussion

Brian Treanor (Department of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University)

David Storey (Department of Philosophy, Boston College)

  

5:00 p.m.

 

Democracy and Post-Secular Religion

E. Paul Colella (Department of Philosophy, Xavier University)
"William James's Philosophy of Religion and the Varieties of Democratic Experience"

Brendan Sweetman (Department of Philosophy, Rockhurst University)
"Post-secularism, Religion and Democracy"

6:30 p.m.

 

Reception
Banquet in Faculty Dining Room

 

 

 

Friday, November 10, 2017, Gasson Hall 112

10:00 a.m.

 

"On the Sources and Direction of Anglophone Gender and Sexuality Studies-Opening a Conversation"

Candace Vogler (Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago)

  

11:30 a.m.

"Inclusive Gender Education and Democratic Imperative to Love Our Neighbors"

Judith Green (Department of Philosophy, Fordham University)

  

12:45 p.m.

Lunch Break

  

2:00 p.m.

 

Christianity, Philosophy and the Public Square

Pablo Iturrieta (Department of Philosophy, Dominican University, Ottawa), "Aquinas, Religion and the Public Square"

Maria Sozopoulou (Department of Philosophy, University of Ioannina), "Plato's Critique of Democracy"

Kevin Kennedy (Department of Philosophy, St. Johns University), "J.H. Newman and Educating for Democracy in a Pluralist Society"

  

3:30 p.m.

Christianity Gender and Self-Determination

Todd Salzman (Department of Theology, Creighton University),
"Religious Liberty, Gender, Sexual Orientation and Nondiscrimination Legislation: A Critical Analysis of the Catholic Perspective"

Mara Willard (Department of Religion, Oklahoma University)
"Lumen Gentium is the Best Disinfectant: Catholic Women Educated for Citizenship and the 2002 'Crisis in the Church'"

  

5:00 p.m.

 

Closing Remarks


Clough

Pro-seminar: The Mathematics of Partisan Gerrymandering

Monday, November 13, 2017
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
10 Stone Ave. Room 201

with Moon Duchin, Department of Mathematics Associate Professor at Tufts University and Mira Bernstein who holds a research faculty position in the interdisciplinary program in Science, Technology, and Society at Tufts University.


Clough

Conference: Obedience and Disobedience

A Clough Center – Sciences Po Initiative

Monday, December 4–Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Boston College
Open to BC faculty and students only

Monday, December 4, 2017

9:00-9:20 a.m.Coffee and Registration
  

9:20-9:40 a.m.

 

Welcoming Remarks by Vincent Rougeau (Dean, BC Law School), Vlad Perju (Director, Clough Center), and Astrid Von Busekist (Humanités Politiques, SPO)
  

9:40-11:00 a.m.

 

Roundtable 1 On Disobedience

  • Frédéric Gros. “The Pentagon of Disobedience: the Ethical Styles of the Political Subject” (Sciences Po, CEVIFOP)
  • Julie Saada. ‘Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.’ Claims, Conscientious Objection and Civil Disobedience. (Sciences Po, Law School)
  
11:00-11:15 a.m.Coffee Break
  

11:15-12:30 p.m.

 

Roundtable 2 On Obedience

  • Paulo Barrozo, “The Role of Obedience and Disobedience in the Evolution of The Political” (BC, Law School)
  • Julian Bourg. “The Desire for Obedience: Claude Lefort on Étienne de la Boétie’s Discourse on Voluntary Servitude” (BC, History Department)
  
12:30-1:30 p.m.Lunch
  

Tuesday, December 5, 2017
 

9:30-10:00 a.m.Coffee
  

10:00- 11:45 a.m.

Roundtable 4 On Law

  • Guillaume Tusseau. “Obeying or not Obeying Constitutional Judges: blurring the mandatory status of the “supreme law of the land” (Sciences Po, Law School)
  • Mikhail Xifaras "Obedience and Disobedience within the Law (Sciences Po, Law School)
  • Vlad Perju, Respondent (BC, Law School)
  
12:00-1:00 p.m.

Clough Graduate Workshop  

  • Fumi Inoue, PhD candidate- History Department, “The 1970 Koza Riot in U.S. Occupied Okinawa and the Politics of Anti-Base Protest.”
  

1:30-3:15 p.m.

 

Roundtable 5 On Religion

  • Astrid von Busekist. “The laws of obedience: between religious commandments and democratic citizenship” (Sciences Po, CERI)
  • Susan Shell. “Duties as [instar] Divine Commands: Kant’s Moral Amphiboly and the Relation between Ethics and Religion (BC, Political Science Department)
  • Jim Bernauer. "As a dead body" : On Religious Obedience (BC, Philosophy Department)
  
3:15 p.m.Final Remarks