Tuesday, January 03, 2006

DePaul's "Confronting Empire" series strikes out

The craziness at Chicago's DePaul University continues into the new year.

Besides the Thomas Klocek free speech battle, the attempt to silence the College Republicans there, now DePaul is going after "Empire."

To the far-Left, "Empire" is of course a code word for the United States.

From FrontPage Magazine and friend-of-the-blog Steven Plaut:

Q: How do you know when America has crossed the line into an oppressive, occupational empire?

A: When DePaul University begins studying it.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at DePaul and its Dean, one Chuck Suchar (a sociologist), have officially announced a "College Theme Series" entitled "Confronting Empire" for the 2005-6 academic year. This is a DePaul faculty initiative involving the participation of various departments and programs throughout the college. The organizers call themselves the "Empire Committee," sounding like something out of Star Wars. Naturally, the evil empire under examination is the United States.

The "Empire Committe" has invited a Who's Who of radical anti-Americanism to campus for the series. The roster includes pro-terror communist Tariq Ali, who thinks that 9/11 was caused by American fundamentalism; Bill Goodman from the so-called "Center for Constitutional Rights," which devotes most of its time to defending the terrorists in Gitmo; and Seungsook Moon from the Department of Sociology at Vassar, who will speak on "Politics of Gender and Sexuality in the Global U.S. Military Empire." The DePaul "Anti-Empirists" are also featuring an evening of "anti-nationalist" poetry and readings, and an evening of "theater" featuring the play "Guantanamo," based upon the writings of Gitmo terrorist detainees.

According to the Dean, DePaul hopes through the "Theme Series" to achieve the following objectives:

1. to engage in a College wide (and broader) conversation about the current state of and developing trends in the global order, not only for the purpose of advancing a theme of great interest to faculty and students but also to significantly enhance the community of intellect and engagement in the University;
2. to promote a wide range of views and participants in this conversation about empire and opposition in its contemporary and historical dimensions utilizing the increasingly global interests of our faculty and students;
3. to question the nature of the American role and the role of other nations and interests in the emerging order and consider the forms of appropriate action, engagement and scholarship in light of that assessment.


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