Hart to host presidential debate watch, discussion

The former senator will kick off the Hall Center lecture series Sept. 30

Former U.S. Sen. and Kansas native Gary Hart will kick off the 2004-05 Hall Center for the Humanities lecture series with a speech on national security, a presidential debate and a panel discussion.

The lecture series, which is free and open to the public, also features a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former poet laureate of the United States, a leading scholar on contemporary Islam, a KU expert on World War II soldiers and a Harvard University professor who studies human nature.

Hart, an Ottawa native, will present “Security in the New Age of the 21st Century” at 7 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Lied Center. Hart, who represented Colorado in the Senate from 1975 to 1987 and ran for president in 1984 and 1988, will draw on his extensive foreign policy and national security experience to discuss the future of American policy under the threat of terrorism.

At 8 p.m., immediately after the lecture, the first 2004 presidential debate will be shown on the big screen at the Lied Center. At 9:30 p.m., Hart will moderate a panel discussion on the debate.

Hart is the author of several books, including Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st Century America. A book signing will precede the lecture at 6:30 p.m. in the Lied Center lobby.

On Oct. 28, Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor of psychology at Harvard University, will present “The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature” at 7:30 p.m. at the Lied Center.

Rita Dove, the second African-American poet to win a Pulitzer Prize, will present “The Poet at the Dance” at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at the Lied Center.

Akbar Ahmed, a leading scholar on contemporary Islam, will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 in Woodruff Auditorium at the Kansas Union.

The final series lecture will feature Ted Wilson, professor of history and a former director of the Hall Center, at 7:30 p.m. April 7 in the Ballroom of the Kansas Union.

Wilson’s lecture, “The GI Generation: Sending American Soldiers Into Battle in World War II,” will deconstruct the popular image of the U.S. armed forces after Pearl Harbor.

For more information visit www.hallcenter.ku.edu.