“American Constitutional Politics in Perspective: Why Parchment Barriers are Insufficient” is the title of the fourth annual Constitution Day public lecture to be held at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Wednesday, September 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the UTC University Center Auditorium, located on the second floor of the building. The Center for Reflective Citizenship at UTC will sponsor the event, with support from the Jack C. Miller Center and the Apgar Foundation.
In this lecture, Dr. Michael Federici articulates why the underlying “Unwritten Constitution”—the attitudes about ethics and religion, human nature, the individual, and the role of government in society, has and always will shape American constitutional theory, practice, and our public and private lives. Federici is Professor and Chair of the Political Science, Department at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Federici earned his B.S. in economics from Elizabethtown College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in politics from The Catholic University of America.
He has published five books, The Challenge of Populism (1991), Eric Voegelin: The Restoration of Order (2002), The Political Philosophy of Alexander Hamilton (June 2012), was editor of Rethinking the Teaching of American History (2012), and, most recently, co-edited a collection of essays entitled, The Culture of Immodesty in American Life and Politics: The Modest Republic (May 2013).
Federici serves on the editorial board for the journal Humanitas and is the author of numerous articles and reviews.
He has taught American Government for the Junior Statesmen Foundation Summer School at Yale University and Georgetown University. He has given lectures at Notre Dame Law School and Berkeley University.
Founded in 2011, The Center for Reflective Citizenship (CRC) is a unit of UTC’s College of Health, Education, and Professional Studies. The CRC is dedicated to the revitalization of civic education in American schools and universities, and the equipping of a new generation of thoughtful citizens for the practice of democracy. The CRC, directed by Dr. Lucien Ellington, has an interdisciplinary focus.
