Carol Moseley-Braun, former U.S. Senator and ambassador, will be the keynote speaker at Thursday's closing night of the three-day conference, Religion and the American Presidency. She will speak at 6:45 p.m. at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on The Religion Factor in the 2004 Election. Her lecture is free and open to the public. With more than 25 scholars from around the nation, the conference will explore how religion and faith communities have shaped the domestic and foreign policy of recent American presidents, as well the impact of today's seismic demographic, ethnic and religious shifts on modern presidential politics.
Keynote speakers:
6:45 p.m., Tuesday, April 5: David Aikman, former TIME reporter and author, A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush; and Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and the Global Balance of Power, will discuss Media, Religion, and the 2004 Election.
6: 45 p.m. Thursday, April 7: Carol Moseley-Braun, former United States Senator, ambassador, and 2004 Presidential candidate, discussing The Religion Factor in the 2004 Election.
Session topics will include:
The complicated and often utilitarian relationship between American presidents and African American, Latino, Asian American, and female voters;
relationships between American presidents and voters of Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Muslim, and Jewish faith, highlighting the increasingly visible and vocal role of these groups on the American political process;
Media, religion, and the 2004 election;
Mormons, non-religious, and the presidency.
"The conference will fill an important niche in national politics by exploring the increasingly prominent and controversial role that religion, race, ethnicity and gender play in the White House," says conference director and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at CMC, Gast?n Espinosa. "American presidents have proactively brought their faith into the White House and sought to transform society into their own image, yet within the academic community, there is still much to explore."
For speaker information and registration, visit online at http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/raap/. Registration before March 28 is $95 for three days or $35 per day; after March 28, $150 for three days, $50 per day. Free of charge to students, faculty, and staff of The Claremont Colleges; discounted for non-Claremont students and clergy, $75 for three days, $30 per day.
Religion and the American Presidency is sponsored by Claremont McKenna College and CMC departments and institutes, including: The Office of the President, Office of the Dean of the Faculty, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, The Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World, the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, the Teaching Resource Center, the Kravis Leadership Institute, and the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies; and the Pomona College Department of Religious Studies.
For conference questions and information, contact Professor Espinosa, gaston.espinosa@claremontmckenna.edu. For media arrangements, contact Evie Lazzarino 909-607-9099; evie.lazzarino@claremontmckenna.edu.