Speakers at Marquette – Page 77 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Maraniss: Finding New Insights in the Personal Roots of President Obama

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:August 29, 2012
Post category:Public Speakers at Marquette

There were points in researching his new biography, Barack Obama: The Story, when David Maraniss says he was struck by the obvious but profound thought of how amazing the personal story of the current President of the United States is.

In an “On the Issues” session Wednesday with Mike Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, Maraniss discussed his extraordinarily deep research into the family roots and early life of Obama, touching upon episodes and influences that would not conventionally be associated with a path to the presidency. The suicide of a great-grandmother. An absent father with alcohol problems who abused wives. Several years as a child in Indonesia, living in modest circumstances. A period in Obama’s youth where his two major interests were basketball and marijuana.

Maraniss contrasted the two presidents who have been the subject of high critically-acclaimed biographies that he wrote: Bill Clinton, “who was running for president from the day he was born basically,” and Obama, who “showed no inclination to what he was to become.” Maraniss said he stood in the neighborhood where the elementary-school age Obama lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, and was hit by the thought of “that incredible journey” from there to the White House.

Starting the Conversation: Leaders Pledge Milwaukee-Chicago Economic Cooperation

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:July 17, 2012
Post category:Marquette Law School Milwaukee Public Speakers at Marquette

A majority of people in Wisconsin support the idea of more economic cooperation between Milwaukee and Chicago. A roster of major political and corporate leaders want to see more economic cooperation between Milwaukee and Chicago. A major international organization is urging more cooperation.

But will it happen?

That was the question hanging over a provocative and timely conference Tuesday in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall. “Milwaukee’s Future in the Chicago Megacity” was sponsored by Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Fund for Public Policy Research and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

October Conference to Consider the History, Legacy of America’s First Crime Commission

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:July 11, 2012
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Public Speakers at Marquette

Along with my colleagues Dan Blinka, Dean Strang, and Gordon Hylton, I’ve been organizing a conference at Marquette Law School on the Wickersham Commission, America’s first national crime commission. Appointed by President Hoover (left) and including many legal luminaries of the day, the Wickersham Commission produced an extraordinary series of reports in 1931 that examined in great detail the causes of crime and the operation of the American criminal-justice system. Perhaps best remembered for the critical light it cast on extreme police interrogation tactics, the Commission’s work might also be thought of as the coming-of-age of American criminology, as a progenitor of the contemporary “evidence-based decision making” movement, and as a centerpiece of the first presidential effort to craft a comprehensive federal crime-control policy.

The conference will kick off at 4:30 on October 4 with a keynote address by one of my favorite authors on crime policy, Professor Frank Zimring of Berkeley. Registration information for the keynote is here.

The conference will continue with a series of panels beginning at 8:30 a.m. on October 5. Speakers will include distinguished historians, law professors, and criminologists. CLE credits will be applied for. Additional details and registration information are available here.