2007 Annual Meeting

THE REAL TEST: 
Liberal Education and Democracy’s Big Questions

Opening Night Forum
Wednesday, January 17, 7:00-8:30 pm

Through the Prism of Katrina: 
Engaging Students in the World

Sister Helen Prejean is the author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1993, and subject of the motion picture Dead Man Walking.  She is also the author of The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (2004).  Sister Helen was born in Louisiana and is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille.  Her ministry among people in poverty began in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where her home and office were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  Sister Helen Prejean’s life is a testament to the spirit of engaged citizenship and commited action. 

PODCAST OF OPENING FORUM

The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project

The Play Project, based on the stage play written by film director Tim Robbins, reaches dozens of schools and colleges each year.  Convinced of the power of the arts to stir reflection and deepen public discourse, Robbins and Sister Helen designed this unique Play Project, which enables schools to not only produce the stage play, but also to engage -- with their local communities -- in an interdisciplinary dialogue about a major social issue.  To further the discourse, one of Tim Robbin's requirements for schools participating in the project has been that the issue of the death penalty be taken up in at least two departments, such as sociology, law, philosophy, religious studies, other than the theater department.

Americans who debate and question government policies and law do so because they love this nation and want to see it live up to its true potential. To engage in vigorous examination of issues that affect us is to live up to the noble ideas enshrined in our Constitution.

                    - From the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project