Allen to deliver “University as Citizen?” lecture Oct. 4

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Danielle Allen will speak at Lehigh Oct. 4.

Danielle Allen, a MacArthur Prize-winning political theorist and classicist will give a public lecture entitled “University as Citizen?” on October 4 at 7 p.m. in Linderman Library’s Room 200.

Allen’s lecture is the first event in the Humanities Center’s 2007-2008 lecture series “New Bethlehem: Urban Utopias, Dystopias and Transformations.”

“The Humanities Center and the South Side Initiative have invited Danielle to campus in the hope that we can learn from her experience, as we consider ways of developing stronger partnerships between Lehigh and our own South Side community,” said Seth Moglen, associate professor of English and interim director of the Lehigh Humanities Center.

Allen, who is also conducting a related seminar for administrators and faculty on October 5, was Dean of Humanities at the University of Chicago until this fall, when she joined the faculty of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. She is the author of two books: Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education and The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens.

As Dean of Humanities, Allen worked to develop strategies for strengthening relations between the University of Chicago and its ethnically diverse urban South Side community. She’ll share her experiences in Chicago as it relates to the relationship between Lehigh and South Side Bethlehem.

The South Side Initiative brings together the university community, the people of Bethlehem, government officials, experts and developers to learn about the Bethlehem Steel site plans and address the needs of the community. Additional public lectures hosted by both the Humanities Center and the South Side Initiative will occur throughout the year.

--Tricia Long