Saturday, February 14th, 12:00 noon Boston Athenæum, 10½ Beacon Street
Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is an Oscar-winning biography of newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane (in essence, a thinly veiled portrait of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst), who becomes one of America’s most influential men.
The film will be introduced by DAVID REEDER, visiting assistant professor in the Communications and Journalism Department at Suffolk University. Reeder earned his B.F.A. from the University of Kentucky in 1985 specializing in photography and sculpture and worked as a camera assistant for 20 years perfecting his craft as a filmmaker. His credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Fried Green Tomatoes, Ace Ventura 2, RoboCop3, and the NBC television series “In the Heat of the Night.”
David Gergen, Inaugural Lecture: Wednesday, Feb. 11th, 2009 6:00pm C. Walsh Theatre
Television and the Internet have become indispensable tools for presidential leadership. In fact, the media are a primary institutional force an effective president must manage by cooperation, charm, and persuasion. The Obama administration’s future success will be partly measured by its ability to manage the media in order to communicate its legislative goals to the nation. David Gergen is an experienced journalist, presidential adviser, and sought-after political analyst. In this talk, he will share his views on how the media have an impact on our nation’s policy focus, what the Obama administration must do to ensure that the members of the media do not resist Obama’s goals, and lessons to be learned from presidential media greats, such as Roosevelt, and mistakes to avoid.
David Gergen is editor-at-large at U.S. News and World Report, a senior political analyst for CNN, a professor of public service at the Harvard Kennedy School and director of its Center for Public Leadership, and author of the best-selling book Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton. Gergen is a former advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton.
Reservations will be accepted starting Jan. 26 at 617-720-7600.
Civic Discourse is a new initiative sponsored by The Boston Athenæum and Suffolk University. The institutions will jointly present a series of programs each year, devoted to a topic of national significance. The inaugural series will focus on Media and Democracy and will include lectures, panel discussions and films. Events are free and open to the public by advance reservation and will take place at the Boston Athenæum and on Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill campus.
“With the civic discourse initiative, our goal is to reactivate the role of the Boston Athenæum as an institution in which the most pressing issues of the day would find a full and intelligent hearing,” said Stanford Calderwood Director and Librarian Richard Wendorf. “We would like to make the Boston Athenæum synonymous not only with our collections and programming in the humanities, but also with the discussion of important political, social and scientific concerns. We are very fortunate to have been able to forge a relationship with the College of Arts and Sciences at Suffolk University, a major institutional presence in our neighborhood.”
Kenneth S. Greenberg, Dean of Suffolk University’s College of Arts and Sciences, said: “Our goal with the civic discourse initiative is to treat significant – and significantly complex – issues as thoroughly as possible and from a variety of perspectives. We believe the topic Media and Democracy will provide great resonance following the recent national elections. In addition to talks by leading national political and media figures, the series will feature many of Suffolk’s faculty members, particularly professors in the Communication and Journalism Department.”
Funding for the Civic Discourse Initiative has been provided by the Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Programming Fund at the Boston Athenæum and by Suffolk University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
