The David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University will host two Area Focus Lectures about political issues in Iraq and Columbia Thursday, Feb. 23, in 238 Herald R. Clark Building.
James E. Sanders, an assistant professor of history at Utah State University, will present “Contentious Republicans: Popular Politics, Race, and Class in Nineteenth-Century Colombia” at 11 a.m.
David J. Scheffer, a visiting clinical professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, will present “Political Theatre or Justice in Saddam Hussein’s Trial” at 1:30 p.m.
Admission is free to both lectures and the public is welcome.
Sanders, a specialist in the history of 19th-century Latin America and the Atlantic world, wrote the book “Contentious Republicans.” The book explores how indigenous groups, ex-slaves and small farmers created democratic politics in 19th-century Colombia.
He has lived and conducted research in several countries such as Columbia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. He also has taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Southern Methodist University and Brooklyn College.
Sanders received a bachelor’s degree in history with an anthropology minor from the University of Florida and a master’s and doctoral degree in history from the University of Pittsburgh.
Scheffer served as the U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues from 1997 to 2001, and led the U.S. delegation in U.N. talks to establish the International Criminal Court.
During the first term of the Clinton Administration, Scheffer served as senior adviser and counsel to Madeleine Albright and as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and he served on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council.
He is also a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars, chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Law Students Association and a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law.
Scheffer received a bachelor’s degree from the Honour School of Jurisprudence at Oxford University and a Master of Laws from Georgetown University.
Both lectures will be archived online. For more information on Kennedy Center events, visit kennedy.byu.edu.
Writer: Brian Rust
