Political Science Department | St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa

The prestigious Folwell Chair Endowment was established in 2001 by Jane Folwell, an energetic volunteer and generous benefactor for educational, health and community groups and initiatives, including Junior Achievement, Genesis Health Services Foundation, and St. Ambrose University. Mrs. Folwell's husband, Frank was a highly respected Quad City businessman and philanthropist who passed away in 1997.

Endowed academic chairs are among the most esteemed resources at universities and colleges. Endowment funds are invested in perpetuity, with their earnings applied toward faculty salaries, lectureships, scholarships, and other academic resources.

Dr. Susan Martin The Donald Hertzberg Associate Professor of International Migration Georgetown University

"Dr. Martin is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar of her leading expertise on immigration and refugee policy," says SAU Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Duk Kim. "During the lecture, she takes the audience on a journey to understand immigration and refugee policy by illustrating different modes of analysis."

Dr. Martin served as the Executive Director of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. Prior to joining the Commission's staff, Martin was the Director of Research and Programs at the Refugee Policy Group, a Washington-based center for analysis of U.S. and international refugee policy and programs. She was assistant professor at the American Studies Department of Brandeis University and lecturer for the History of American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania. Martin has authored “Refugee Women,” as well as numerous monographs and articles on immigration and refugee policy. Martin received her B.A. from Rutgers University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Sixth Annual Folwell Lecture

Dr. James W. Ceaser Professor of Politics University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008
Rogalski Center Ballroom

“The 2008 Presidential Election"

“Dr. Ceaser is renowned for his expertise in many areas of political science, including the American presidency and elections,” says SAU Assistant Professor of Political Science Joseph Hebert. “Whatever our prior impressions of this historic and breathtaking presidential contest, Dr. Ceaser's analysis is sure to deepen our insights into the significance of the choice Americans will make in November.”

Ceaser has taught at the University of Virginia since 1976 and has written several books on American politics and political thought, including “Presidential Selection” (Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.) and “Nature and History in American Political Development.” (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.). Ceaser has held visiting professorships at the University of Florence, Italy; the University of Basel, Switzerland; Oxford University, United Kingdom; and the University of Bordeaux and the University of Rennes, both in France. Ceaser is a frequent contributor to the popular press, and is often featured on Voice of America.

“Teaching Political Animals: How the Great Books and Great Teachers of Political Thought Contribute to a Liberal Education.”

Dr. Palmer has an amazing ability to take seemingly arcane subjects and complex ideas and bring them to life in the minds of his audience,” says SAU Assistant Professor of Political Science Joseph Hebert. “He makes us see how the questions raised by ancient authors like Aristotle—who famously said that human beings are ‘political animals’—can have a tremendous impact on the way we see ourselves and live our lives today.”

Palmer earned his doctorate from Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass., and since 1983 has taught at the University of Maine, Orono. He is the author of “Love of Glory and the Common Good: Aspects of the Political Thought of Thucydides,” and contributing co-editor of “Political Philosophy and the Human Soul: Essays in Memory of Allan Bloom.”

His articles and reviews on Aristotle, Thucydides, Machiavelli, Rousseau, and contemporary political theorists have appeared in leading scholarly journals, including the American Political Science Review, Canadian Journal of Political Science and the Review of Politics. His collected essays, including new interpretations of Plato's “Republic” and Machiavelli's “Prince,” were published in 2001. Palmer is the recipient of numerous academic awards and distinctions, including several National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer fellowships. Palmer has directed summer seminars for the NEH and has served twice on the executive committee of the Northeastern Political Science Association.

The Fourth Annual Folwell Lecture

Jean Bethke Elsthain, Political Philosopher University of Chicago Divinity School

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006 Rogalski Center Ballroom

"We Hold These Truths: John Courtney Murray and the American Experiment"

"The subject of this year's Folwell lecture is very appropriate as St. Ambrose takes time to reflect on its history and future as a Catholic institution in America," says SAU Assistant Professor of Political Science Joseph Hebert. "Elshtain is a renowned scholar whose work on ethics, religion and politics is both illuminating and influential."

Elshtain received her doctoral degree in politics from Brandeis University, and served on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and at Vanderbilt University, where she was the first woman to hold an endowed professorship in the history of that institution. She has been a visiting professor at Oberlin College, Yale University and Harvard University. In 1995, Elshtain was appointed to her current position at the University of Chicago, where she is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics.

Elshtain has given several hundred guest lectures—many of them endowed lectureships—and is the author of more than 500 essays in scholarly journals of civic opinion, as well as a contributing editor for The New Republic. She has written or edited 20 books, including "Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World," which was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2003 by Publishers Weekly.

Elshtain is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and chair of the Council on Civil Society. She received the 2002 Frank J. Goodnow Award, the American Political Science Association's highest award for distinguished service to the profession. Earlier this year, Elshtain was appointed to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities by President George W. Bush.

Dr. Berthold Rittberger, Professor of Political Science Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern, Germany

According to Rittberger, “When the member states of the European Union embarked on the process to draft a Constitution, hopes were high that the spirit of ‘Philadelphia 1776’ would animate the decision makers in Brussels. For many policy makers and commentators, the rejection of the Constitution by popular referenda in two founding members—France and the Netherlands—plunged the European Union into a deep crisis.”

Rittberger will explore the implications of the rejection, in particular whether the hopes of those who believed the Constitution would reconnect the peoples of the EU with its political elite are shattered for good, and if the EU will have to scale down its ambitions as an economic and political superpower on the international stage.

Rittberger holds a Vordiplom (first diploma) from the University of Konstanz, a master of science degree with distinction, from the London School of Economics and Political Science and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford. He has researched and taught at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, the University of Mannheim, the University of London, and the University of Oxford.

The author of many articles and volumes on the European Union and its proposed Constitution, Rittberger’s dissertation was named, “Best Dissertation in EU Studies” in 2005 by the European Union Studies Association, and was published by Oxford University Press.

"The War on Terrorism: Constitutional Perspectives on the Guantanamo Detainee Cases"

The effects of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, continue to reverberate through the American political system. One effect has been the struggle to achieve the difficult balance between the demands of national security and individual liberty.

That balance tipped slightly toward individual liberty on June 28, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rasul v. Bush that the captives being held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, have a constitutional right to access U.S. courts.

Tung Yin, Associate Professor in the College of Law at the University of Iowa, will explain this case and its significance for the American legal system and the War on Terrorism in a lecture entitled “The War on Terrorism: Constitutional Perspectives on the Guantanamo Detainee Cases,” for the Second Annual Folwell Lecture in Political Science and Pre-Law. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is on Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the University Center at St. Ambrose University, Davenport.

“As a teacher in Constitutional Law, Professor Yin has a deep understanding of the political issues surrounding this case,” says Nathan Schlueter PhD, who holds the Folwell Chair in Political Science and Pre-law. “This is an especially timely and important topic as the country moves forward into the unfamiliar territory of conducting a war against an enemy that’s not readily identifiable.”

Yin holds a bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology, a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a juris doctor degree from Boalt Hall, also at Berkeley. He joined the University of Iowa College of Law faculty in 2002.


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