McMaster School for Advancing Humanity
holds Annual Symposium March 28-29

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance College’s McMaster School for Advancing Humanity will hold its eighth annual McMaster Symposium on March 28 and 29 on the DC campus. The theme will be “The Question of Individual Liberties as Critical to Improving the Human Condition.”

Two keynote speakers are on the agenda as well as numerous learning community presentations and individual project presentations. All presentations are free and open to the public.

Keynote speaker Lee Strang is a professor of law at the University of Toledo. He will present “Protecting Individual Liberty through Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism, Natural Rights, and Human Flourishing” on Wednesday, March 28, at 7 p.m. in Schomburg Auditorium.

Professor Strang is a graduate of the University of Iowa where he was articles editor of the Iowa Law Review and Order of the Coif. He also holds a master of laws degree from Harvard Law School. Prior to teaching, Professor Strang served as a judicial clerk for Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was also an associate with Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, where he practiced in general and appellate litigation.

Professor Strang has published in the fields of constitutional law and interpretation, property law, and religion and the First Amendment. Among other scholarly projects, he is currently editing a case book on constitutional law.

Additional presentations will be given on Wednesday in Schomburg Auditorium by the McMaster School’s learning communities of Cambodia, Belize, and Ghana and the service leadership program. Poster presentations by honor students on a variety of topics will take place in the Serrick Campus Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Keynote speaker Alice Brinkman will present “Making ART within REACH” on Thursday, March 29, at 7 p.m. in Schomburg Auditorium. Brinkman is the executive Director of REACH Studio Art Center in Lansing, Mich.

Opened in 2003 to provide greater access to learning for youth in the Lansing area, REACH Studio provides programs and space for youth to make art and exercise their imaginations – key ingredients in learning to learn. Art programs at REACH help at-risk youth increase their protective factors and, besides being lots of fun, give them access to many opportunities they would not normally encounter.

Brinkman grew up in East Lansing and received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois specializing in textiles and clothing. She has operated her own dressmaking business and also produces art using cloth to create images. Seeing the significant decrease in the amount of arts education available for youth in Lansing, REACH is her attempt to fill that void.

Additional presentations scheduled in the Serrick Campus Center on Thursday include a presentation on the international perspective of the U.S. Civil Rights movement; Benjamin Franklin and individual thought; liberty and free will; Project 701 staff and projects updates; a workshop on exploring separation and connectivity; a look at females in the male dominated hip hop culture; and a discussion on the cultural insensitivity of university athletic mascots.

For more information about the symposium and a schedule, go to http://www.defiance.edu/pages/MS_speakers_symposia.html.

Defiance College, chartered in 1850, is an independent, liberal arts institution in Northwest Ohio offering more than 40 undergraduate programs of study as well as graduate programs in education and business. Defiance College has received national recognition for its educational experience of service and engagement. The college website is www.defiance.edu.

March 9, 2012