Political Scientist Elizabeth Cohen to Present Gitner Lecture on 9/28
Elizabeth Cohen, Maxwell Professor of United States Citizenship and CISS affiliate will present the Gitner Family Lecture on Saturday, September 28, 3–5 p.m., in PHO 206, 8 St. Mary’s St. Register for the lecture here.
Dr. Cohen will discuss Reflections on immigration in the 21st century. Where do we go from here? The United States is in the grip of a moral panic in response to the arrival of asylum seekers at our southern border. How did we transform from a country that encouraged immigration to one arming its borders for an imaginary war against asylum seekers? What can be done to end this state of panic? We will turn to our history and a sober analysis of our present to help answer these questions.
Dr. Cohen is the author of four books: Illegal: How America’s Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All (Basic Books, 2020); The Political Value of Time: Citizenship, Duration, and Democratic Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2018; winner of 2019 APSA Best Book in Migration and Citizenship); Semi-Citizenship in Democratic Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2009); and Citizenship (with Cyril Ghosh) (Polity Press, 2019). Her scholarly articles and reviews have appeared in venues such as Ethics in International Affairs, Citizenship Studies, Perspectives on Politics, Polity, Ethics, and the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public. She serves as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Political Science. She received a BA from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. from Yale University. She has been a visiting scholar at the Princeton University Center for Human Values, Russell Sage Foundation and the Wagner School of Public Service, New York University. In addition to her scholarly writing, Cohen has also published op-eds in newspapers such as the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Politico and El Pais.
The annual Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family College of Arts & Sciences Lecture is designed to highlight current CAS faculty members, in any field, whose teaching and research addresses topics of major importance for the broad interest and benefit of the BU community. It is held in the fall, usually in conjunction with Alumni Weekend.
Gerald Gitner (CAS ’66) graduated with a B.A. in History, cum laude, and was elected to Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society. Additionally, he has an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester, where he is a member of the Simon Advisory Board. He is a Trustee Emeritus of Boston University (serving as Trustee 1984-1996) and a current member of the CAS Dean’s Advisory Board and the Pardee School for Global Studies Dean’s Advisory Board. Gitner is a principal of Cross Continent Capital LLC, an investment company he co-founded. He serves as Chairman of Global Aero Holdings Ltd. and D. G. Associates, Inc., and has a long and varied career as an executive, including serving as Chairman and CEO Of Trans World Airlines, Inc. and Vice Chairman of Pan American World Airways. This lecture series was established by Gitner and his wife, Deanne. Gitner and his family have long been generous and engaged members of the Boston University community.