CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The impact of external threats on the United States is the topic of an April 4 symposium at the University of Illinois.
The 2002 Richard G. and Carole J. Cline symposium, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3 p.m. in the auditorium of the Beckman Institute, 405 N. Mathews, Urbana, with a forum on "Terrorism and Public Life: The Legacies of the Sept. 11 Attacks."
The symposium and forum's special guest is Theda Skocpol (pronounced SCOTCH-pole), the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology and director of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University.
Skocpol also will deliver the symposium's keynote lecture at 7:30 p.m. the same day and in the same location. Her topic will be "War and Civic Democracy in America: From the Civil War to the Struggle Against Global Terror."
The following day, Skocpol and distinguished alumni of the department will take part in discussions with students in the semester-long Cline Seminar on Civic Engagement.
Skocpol is president-elect of the American Political Science Association and fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is author of the highly acclaimed book "Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States," and editor of "Civic Engagement in American Democracy."
Forum discussants will address a variety of topics, including the impacts of the attacks on American foreign policy and the media and the war.
Other discussants are UI professors of political science Scott Althaus (also in the department of speech communication), Ira Carmen, Paul Diehl and Brian Gaines. Peter Nardulli, head of the department of political science, will moderate the forum.
The Cline Symposium is an annual event sponsored by the UI department of political science and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Among previous keynote speakers were John B. Anderson, Thomas L. Friedman, Samuel Huntington, Robert Putman, Edward O. Wilson and James Q. Wilson.