FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Doug Stone
September 15, 2003 Barbara K. Laskin
(651) 696-6203

2003 Václav Havel Civil Society Symposium Features Internationally Renowned Political Theorist

St. Paul, MN - Dr. Benjamin R. Barber, an internationally renowned political theorist, and Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland, will give the keynote address, "On a Civil Society," for the 2003 Václav Havel Civil Society Symposium at Macalester College, Monday, September 29, 2003, at 12 Noon, in the Hill Ballroom, Kagin Commons, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN.
The lecture is free and open to the public but tickets are necessary and can be picked up after September 15th at the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center at Macalester College, at the Box Office, lower level Murray-Herrick Campus Center, the University of St. Thomas, the House of Hope and through Czech and Slovak Sokol Minnesota.

Barber is the Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Wilson H. Elkins Professor at the University of Maryland. He is also a principal in The Democracy Collaborative, a component of the University of Maryland's Civil Society Initiative that brings together an international consortium of the world's leading academic centers and citizen engagement organizations.
As an author, Barber has written 17 books including the international best seller Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism's Challenge to Democracy; the theory classic Strong Democracy; and The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House. Barber's latest book, Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy in an Age of Interdependence, is being published this month.

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Barber served as director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University for 12 years, where he also held the Walt Whitman Chair of Political Science. He has consulted widely with political and civic leaders, including former President Bill Clinton. His honors include Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, the Palmes Academiques (Chevalier) of the French Government, and the Berlin Prize of the American Academy of Berlin. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University, and a B.A. and honorary doctorate from Grinnell College.
The symposium is a cooperative effort of Macalester College, the University of St. Thomas, The House of Hope, and the Minnesota Czech Community. Its purpose is to encourage discourse among church members, students, faculty, and the community at large on the rights and responsibilities of citizens. Previous symposium speakers were Václav Havel (1999), president of the Czech Republic, and Madeleine Albright (2001), former secretary of state.