University Lecture Series

Monday, February 6th 4:30pm -- Adamson Wing//136A Baker Hall Thomas Murphy Former Mayor of Pittsburgh

CHANGING PITTSBURGH Tom Murphy was Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh from 1994-2006. The son of a Pittsburgh steelworker, he attended college at John Carroll University in Cleveland, served in the Peace Corps for two years, and took a masters degree in Urban Studies at Hunter College in New York City. As Mayor, his administration had a number of accomplishments including renovation of Pittsburgh brownfields, creation of an extensive biking and jogging trail network, improvement of neighborhood facilities, and encouragement of investment in high technology to spur economic revitalization. His administration, however, also had a number of disappointments, and former Mayor Murphy will discuss his twelve years in office in terms of both successes and failure.

Thursday, February 9th 4:30pm -- Adamson Wing//136A Baker Hall George Marsden Professor of History, Notre Dame University
HOW 'OTHERWORLDLY' AMERICAN FUNDAMENTALISM BECAME POLITICAL
Marsden is a renowned historian of American religion and will be sharing his reflections on the role of fundamentalism in American life. He has studied the multiple impacts of religion on American society. is book, The Soul of the American University (1994), traced the transformation of American colleges from religious to secular institutions. The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (1997) examined interrelationships between religious faith and professional research in the academy. His most recent book, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (2003) has received many awards, including the Bancroft Prize for Distinguished Books in American history, and the Merle Curti Award in intellectual history from the Organization of American Historians. Professor Marsden has also published widely on the history and current state of Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism in the United States, the topic of his lecture at Carnegie Mellon.