Weissman Center for Leadership
and the Liberal Arts

Spring 2007

 

 

 

 

Family Matters

In every conceivable manner, the family is the link
to our past [and the] bridge to our future.
─ Alex Haley

The spring 2007 series of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts, will focus on two compelling contemporary issues that are shaping and redefining families in and beyond the United States.
Photo: Family Diversity Project

The series will begin with Civil Rites: Marriage, Partnerships, and Same-Sex Unions, an event that will set in historical, political, legal and social context the ongoing events, activism, and debates relating to marriage and civil unions. Panelists also will consider contemporary issues relating to partnerships and same-sex unions.

Photo: Rodney White
and the Des Moines Register

Home Fronts: Women and the Realities of War, the second public program, will address the substantial ways in which women are shaping today's American military and responding, at home and on the front lines abroad, to the war on terror and the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through public roundtable discussions and workshops, we will consider the ways in which the family functions and evolves as a private and public entity.

Family Matters also will feature student leadership workshops. These sessions, held on the morning following the public discussions, enable students to meet with guest speakers and to learn more about event-related academic and professional opportunities.