Holy Cross Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture to Sponsor November Series of Public Events

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross is sponsoring a number of lectures by noted experts in the next month. Unless otherwise stated, the talks, which are free and open to the public, will take place in Rehm Library in Smith Hall on the campus.

Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. — Rev. John Staudenmaier, S.J., historian of technology and editor of Technology and Culture, will give a talk titled “Whatever Happened to ‘Holy Dark’? Electric Lights, Intimacy, and Modernity.” Fr. Staudenmaier will speak on the impact of technology on social life and spirituality.

Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. — Dr. James Collins ’87, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, will give a talk titled “Building a Bionic Jesuit: Enhancing Human Function with Medical Technology.” Collins was named one of Scientific American’s 50 outstanding leaders in science and technology in 2005 and is the winner of a MacArthur “genius grant” fellowship in 2003.

Nov. 9 at 4 p.m. — Rev. William J. Clark, S.J., assistant professor of religious studies at Holy Cross, will give a talk as part of the “Celebration of Books” series with a discussion on his book, A Voice of Their Own: The Authority of the Local Parish (Cambridge University Press, 2005).  In light of three parish studies, Fr. Clark’s book examines community, intimacy, and authority, and claims that a fundamental aspect of ecclesial authority resides in the local community.

Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. in Smith Hall, Room 201 — Rev. Lawrence Daka, S.J., international visiting Jesuit fellow at Holy Cross, will speak on “Sen’s Capability Approach and His Discontent with Ethical and Economic Theories.” The talk is part of the Philosophy Colloquium series.

Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. — Michael Berenbaum, director of the Ziering Institute and professor of philosophy at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, will give a talk titled “Effects of the Passing of Shoah Survivors: What Happens to Memory When the Witnesses are Gone?” Berenbaum is a writer, lecturer, and teacher who specializes in the study of the memorialization of the Holocaust. He is the author and editor of twelve books, scores of scholarly articles and hundreds of journalistic pieces.

Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. — Rev. James Bernauer, S.J., professor of philosophy at Boston College, will give a talk titled “Jesuits and Jews: The Holocaust and the Search for Forgiveness.”

Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. — Robert Paul Wolff, professor of philosophy and African-American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will give a talk titled “The Pimple on Adonis’ Nose: On the Allocation of Social Resources and Medicine in the United States.”

Nov. 30 at 4 p.m. — Dr. Phyllis Zagano, visiting associate professor of Catholic Studies at Hofstra University, will give a talk titled “Twenty-first Century Catholicism: What About Ordaining Women?” Zagano is an expert in the history of the diaconate in the Catholic Church.