President Ricardo Lagos Escobar
"Today's Latin American Challenges: What Lies Ahead after the Crisis?"

6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29 in the DiStefano Lecture Hall. RSVP by Sept. 25 to pellcenter@salve.edu or (401) 341-2927.

President Ricardo Lagos Escobar is university professor-at-large at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Widely regarded as one of Latin America's most important political leaders, Lagos served as president of Chile from 2000-2006. During his term, Lagos was known for aggressively pursuing free-trade agreements, improving health care and education legislation, and addressing the crimes of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. Since leaving office, Lagos founded the Fundación Democracia y Desarrollo (Foundation for Democracy and Development) in 2006 and currently serves as its president. He also heads the Club of Madrid, an organization of former presidents whose mission is to promote democracy, and is a U.N. special envoy for climate change.

"Courage to Speak" lecture series

Mary Beth Markey
"Tibet at a Breaking Point or a Turning Point?"

6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14 in the DiStefano Lecture Hall, Antone Academic Center. RSVP by Oct. 9 to pellcenter@salve.edu or (401) 341-2927.

Before Mary Beth Markey became the U.S. vice president for advocacy for the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), she furthered Tibet's understanding and ICT's influence in Congress and the administration as ICT's director of government relations and as executive director of the organization. Prior to working at ICT, Markey was a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for eight years. Under then-chairman Claiborne Pell (D-RI), she had a variety of responsibilities as deputy and acting press spokesperson, which included monitoring human rights and refugees issues, including those of the Tibetan people. She also worked for Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party Mission in the United States.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi

5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21 in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall, O'Hare Academic Center. RSVP by Oct. 19 to pellcenter@salve.edu or (401) 341-2927.

Romano Prodi, former prime minister of Italy and president of the European Commission, is professor-at-large at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. In addition to serving as two different terms as Italy's prime minister, he is a distinguished scholar who has served as professor of industrial organization and industrial policy at the University of Bologna's Faculty of Political Science. Prodi earned economics and law degrees from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan and a doctorate in economics from the London School of Economic and Political Science. Among Prodi's many publications are "Governare l'Italia, Manifesto per il cambiamento;" "L'Italia che vogliamo;" "Il capitalismo ben temperato;" and "Un'idea dell'Europa" (English ed. Blackwell/Polity, Oxford, 2000).

Photo by Seth Armus

"Courage to Speak" lecture series

Elizabeth Samet
"Imagining Courage: The Role of Literature in Preparing for War"

6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3 at the Pell Center, Young Building. RSVP by Oct. 30 to pellcenter@salve.edu or (401) 341-2927.

Elizabeth D. Samet is the author of "Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature through Peace and War at West Point," a memoir about her experiences teaching literature to cadets for the last decade; and "Willing Obedience: Citizens, Soldiers and the Progress of Consent in America, 1776-1898," a study of the dynamics of command and obedience in American literature and culture. "Soldier's Heart" won the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize for Current Interest; it was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2007. Samet's writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The American Scholar and elsewhere. She has just completed a manuscript on the literature of long wars. Samet received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and her doctorate in English literature from Yale University.

The views expressed in this Pell Lecture are the speaker's own and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Military Academy, the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.

"Courage to Speak" lecture series

Katherine Quinn
"The Duende of Anthony Quinn"

6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19 at the Pell Center, Young Building

Originating in the Spanish region of Andalusia, the term "duende" is difficult to translate but immediately understandable. Duende literally suggests the power of soul that gives force to art and our emotional response to that art - embracing the human conditions of joy and sorrow. When we encounter an artist who embodies the "duende," we remain forever changed by its presence. Katherine Quinn, wife of the late Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Quinn, has described her husband's duende as a "burning cauldron," full of the emotional highs and lows that defined his true artistic genius. In this presentation, which will include an exhibition of Anthony Quinn's extraordinary artwork, Katherine Quinn will describe the lifelong struggle of Anthony Quinn with his own duende, and how he was able to transform that struggle into creative work of exquisite beauty and power.