On June 3, Witherspoon Distinguished Senior Fellow Chen Guangcheng gave his first public address ever in English commenting on the 25th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chen’s speech recounted the student protests and other events preceding June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops killed unknown numbers of civilians demonstrating peacefully in the main square in central Beijing. Chen pointed out that despite great recent economic progress in China, there has been little political reform [Read more…] about Chen Guangcheng on the 25th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square
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Research Fellow Daniel Mark appointed to U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Research Fellow Daniel I. Mark to the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Mark is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, where he teaches political theory, philosophy of law, American government, and politics and religion. At Villanova, he is a faculty associate of the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good. Mark holds his BA, MA, and PhD from the Department of Politics at Princeton University, where he was affiliated with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, the Program in Law and Public Affairs, and the Penn-Princeton Bioethics Forum. [Read more…] about Research Fellow Daniel Mark appointed to U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
“Libertad Religiosa” presented to Pope Francis at Christianity and Freedom Conference in Rome
Senior Fellow Thomas F. Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center, presents Pope Francis with a copy of Libertad Religiosa, a Spanish translation of the Witherspoon Institute’s Religious Freedom: Why Now? Defending an Embattled Human Right, at the Vatican, on December 14, 2013. The pope gave a private audience to the sixty participants in a conference held in Rome titled “Christianity and Freedom: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives,” hosted by the Religious Freedom Project and co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute. [Read more…] about “Libertad Religiosa” presented to Pope Francis at Christianity and Freedom Conference in Rome
Under God at Gettysburg? Lincoln’s Moral Constitution: A Public Lecture by Allen C. Guelzo
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce the first annual William E. and Carol G. Simon Lecture on Religion in American Public Life with a lecture given by the distinguished Civil War historian Allen C. Guelzo, who is Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era Professor of History at Gettysburg College. The lecture, titled “Under God at Gettysburg? Lincoln’s Moral Constitution,” will be held on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, at 4:30 PM. It will take place in McCormick Hall Room 101, on the campus of Princeton University. The lecture is co-sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University and marks the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. All are welcome to attend. [Read more…] about Under God at Gettysburg? Lincoln’s Moral Constitution: A Public Lecture by Allen C. Guelzo
Chen Guangcheng Appointed Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights of the Institute
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Chen Guangcheng as Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution. Mr. Chen is a Chinese civil rights lawyer and activist who has been a persistent voice for freedom, human dignity, and the rule of law in his native country. Working in rural communities in China, where he was known as the “barefoot lawyer,” Chen advocated for the rights of disabled people, and organized class-action litigation against the government’s violent enforcement of its one-child policy. Blind since his childhood, Chen is self-taught in the law. His human rights activism resulted in his imprisonment by the Chinese government for four years, beginning in 2006. After his release he remained under house arrest, until his escape from confinement in 2012, whereupon he came to the United States, where he was a fellow at NYU School of Law in 2012-13. [Read more…] about Chen Guangcheng Appointed Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights of the Institute
Jean Bethke Elshtain, 1941-2013
The Witherspoon Institute mourns the passing of our friend Jean Bethke Elshtain. She was the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago and the Thomas and Dorothy Leavy Chair in the Foundations of American Freedom at Georgetown University. Jean was a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute and a member of the Editorial Board of Public Discourse, our online journal. She was 72. [Read more…] about Jean Bethke Elshtain, 1941-2013
