Sotirios Barber, professor of political science, University of Notre Dame
Barber will argue that the founding act should be distinguished from its product, the Constitution, and that we should commemorate the former instead of celebrating the latter. He will then explore the implication of this thesis for the conduct of constitutional studies at Notre Dame, a new subfield in Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science.
At a time when debates regarding the Constitution have become a part of mainstream American political life, this talk will be of interest to specialists and the general public alike. Barber has published extensively in constitutional theory, and he has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. His present projects include books on the theories of American federalism and the concept of constitutional failure.
Sponsored by the Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into the Place of Religion in American Public Life, the Jack Miller Center, and the Potenziani Program of Constitutional Studies