Author: Paul Siewers

Award-winning Irish author Paul Kingsnorth addresses an oft-mystifying phrase from the U.S. Declaration of Independence from the standpoint of his own spiritual journey from Wiccan to traditional Christian beliefs. He brings a wealth of experience as a novelist, essayist, and former prominent environmental activist, who now lives with his family on a small sustainable farm in the West of Ireland.

Wed. Oct. 23, 7 p.m., the Elaine Langone Student Center Forum, Bucknell University. All are welcome!

Do you want to strengthen your career options in communications, online media, and print or electronic journalism? Need to sharpen your writing and your professional skills in personal interactions for your beyond-Bucknell career? Do you want to be a thoughtful reader of media and thinker about objectivity in our informational world today? Check out the new Journalism Seminar, which has for-credit and non-credit options!

–Get journalism and communications experience by developing investigations and news angles with expert guidance, while considering issues of objectivity and ethics;
–Learn real-world journalism and communications skills from a Bucknell professor with professional experience at top urban and national publications;
–Build your resume with proficiency in professional communication work;
–Write concisely and fairly for a public audience, including training in reporting and researching for analysis, and in editing diverse opinions;
–Develop skills at how to approach and interview sources for information, a valuable skill in a range of professions.
–Develop a new publication for Bucknellians.

The Journalism Seminar meets twice a month for two semesters, each culminating in producing publishable articles and a publication; materials and snacks are provided.

Credit and Non-Credit Options

Those taking the course for non-credit upon successful completion at the end of the academic year will be eligible for Certificate in Journalism Education plus a $500 stipend from the Open Discourse Coalition.

Those wishing to receive full or partial Bucknell academic credit can propose an independent study with the instructor, Prof. Paul Siewers of English. Any for-credit independent study work, if approved, would involve additional meetings and writing.

Places are limited. For more information and/or to apply, please contact Prof. Siewers at asiewers@bucknell.edu.

Who can take the seminar?

This seminar is open to Bucknell students in all years and majors.

Meeting Calendar

Meetings will be on the second and third Tuesdays of each month when Bucknell is in session (with adjustments for breaks), 4-5:30 p.m.
September 10 and 17
October 8 (moved due to Fall Break) and 22
November 12 and 19
February 11 and 18
March 4 (moved due to Spring Break) and 18
April 15 and 22

About the Instructor

Prof. Paul Siewers is a former award-winning reporter and Urban Affairs Writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, and National Correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. He holds an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism along with a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois. As an undergraduate, he was contributing editor at the Brown Daily Herald and interned with the Associated Press at the Statehouse in Providence, Rhode Island. He subsequently worked as an editor at the United Press International National Broadcast Center in Chicago before joining the Sun-Times and the Monitor. He has had experience also in radio and TV journalism, as well as writing for professional online publications. A winner of the President’s Award for Teaching Excellence at Bucknell, he is a previous Chair of the English Department, and is a former Fellow at the James Madison Program for American Ideals at Institutions of Princeton University, and member of the James Madison Society.

Above: Prof. Siewers (top row left in beard) as Urban Affairs Writer, with other reporters and editors in the Chicago Sun-Times newsroom.

This Journalism Seminar offered by Prof. Siewers is co-sponsored by the Bucknell Program for American Leadership and the Open Discourse Coalition.

Are you a Bucknell student interested in intellectual conversation on great books from different cultures? Want to deepen your liberal-arts experience while at Bucknell in discussion with other students?

Great Books are books that are meaningful when read again and again, that are recognized as significant across cultures and generations, and that form an indispensable part of liberal arts education and even can become integral to our life experiences.

Consider applying for the monthly Great Books Seminar AY 2024-2025, facilitated by Prof. Paul Siewers of English Literary Studies. Free books and snacks provided, no written work but with monthly scholarship-through-discussion, all years and backgrounds welcome, no experience needed. Books and snacks provided free. And you can propose and apply for a Great Books independent study with Prof. Siewers in conjunction with the seminar, for partial or full credit, with added reading, written, and tutorial work. Non-credit options are also available for a certificate in Great Books study and a $500 stipend.

Please contact Prof. Siewers for information on options at asiewers@bucknell.edu. Spaces are limited, so please apply soon.

The monthly book discussions across academic year 2024-2025 will include “Notes from the Underground” by Fyodor Dostoevsky; “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston; “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare; Homer, “The Odyssey”; Linda Hogan, “Solar Storms”; C.S. Lewis, “Till We Have Faces.”

At the monthly seminar we’ll be reading and discussing the above relatively short texts from African-American, British, Greek, Native American, and Russian literatures, in an environment inclusive of “different cultures and diverse perspectives,” following Bucknell’s mission statement and free-expression policies. Co-sponsored by the Bucknell Program for American Literature (bpal.blogs.bucknell.edu) and the Open Discourse Coalition (opendiscoursecoalition.org).

About the Instructor: Prof./Rev. Paul Siewers is an award-winning Bucknell literature professor, former Chair of English, and prize-winning journalist, whose scholarly and teaching specialties in early literature and the history of novel provide expert background for exploring the Great Books with those at all levels from introductory to advanced. A recipient of the Bucknell President’s Award for Teaching Excellence, he is a past Fellow in Religion and Public Life of the James Madison Center for American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and has studied and researched literature at graduate and postgraduate levels at universities in Britain and Ireland. As a member of the President’s Sustainability Council at Bucknell he has helped coordinate ongoing student media projects related to the Bucknell Greenway. He is also Director of the Bucknell Program for American Leadership, and is an ordained Priest in the Orthodox Church wh is convener of the Bucknell Faculty Staff Christian Association and adviser to the Bucknell Orthodox Christian community.

See brochure below for details.

Feb. 13, 2024

April 19, 2024

Culture and the Constitution: The First Amendment and Curriculum Controversies

Video of program: https://mediaspace.bucknell.edu/media/1_h8l38ft2

Tues., April 18, 7 p.m., ELC Forum

Current debates over how best to educate young people on U.S. history and race, and on sex and gender, affect all levels of American education. They reflect cultural divisions on issues of social and personal identities. The First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech raises questions over rights of various constituencies in the debates—students, educators, parents, voters, taxpayers, cultural minorities, elected officials. Four speakers with experience in addressing the key issues offer different perspectives on constituencies and curriculum debates.

In-Person:

–Bion Bartning, founder of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), entrepreneur and investor.

–Prof. Ashley White, Education Department, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Inaugural Education Fellow for Equity and Opportunity with the NAACP; previously a teacher for 15 years.

By Zoom:

—Prof. Amy Brainer, Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the LGBTQ Studies Certificate, University of Michigan at Dearborn.

—Prof. Mark Regnerus, Sociology Department at University of Texas at Austin. Researcher on sexual behavior, family, marriage, and religion.

Culture and the Constitution: The First Amendment and Curricular Debates

Hosted by the Bucknell Program for American Leadership, a Bucknell faculty and staff association dedicated to Bucknell’s mission statement of encouraging “different cultures and diverse perspectives” in the liberal arts tradition, with generous support from the Bucknell alumni of the Open Discourse Coalition.

Video of talk: https://mediaspace.bucknell.edu/media/t/1_q0fglfow

Video of related Bucknell Diversity Symposium session on “How to Help People of Faiths Belong Better at Bucknell: Secular Privilege at a Secular University”: https://mediaspace.bucknell.edu/media/1_7xuo8382

Culture and the Constitution: The First Amendment’s “Free Exercise”of Religion and Elite Anti-Christian Bias Today
Tues. March 28, 7 p.m., Bucknell Hall

The US Supreme Court in the 2022 Kennedy case ruled on school prayer issues that highlight tension in American culture between the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion and increasingly dominant secular views, which often correlate with anti-Christian bias in the global West. Sociologist George Yancey of Baylor University will address his research on such bias, and tension between it and the “free exercise” tradition of the U.S. Constitution. Prof. Yancey is author of Compromising Scholarship (Baylor University Press), which explores religious and political biases in academia; What Motivates Cultural Progressives (Baylor), which examines activists who oppose the Christian Right; There is no God (Rowman and Littlefield), which investigates atheism in the United States; and So Many Christians, So Few Lions (Rowman and Littlefield), which assesses U.S. “Christianophobia” today.  He also is co-author of  Investigating Political Tolerance at Conservative Protestant Colleges and Universities (Routledge) and of Prejudice in the Press?: Investigating Bias in Coverage of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Religion (McFarland), and among other writings authored an article in the Journal of Contemporary Religion on “Is Christianity Still the Dominant Religion in the United States?” The focus of this event will also relate to a campus discussion in the Bucknell Diversity Symposium on March 31 on “How to Help People of Faiths Belong Better at Bucknell: Dealing with Secular Privilege at a Secular University.

Prof. Yancey’s talk is part of the “Culture and the Constitution” series hosted by the Bucknell Program for American Leadership, a Bucknell faculty association, and is generously sponsored by Bucknell alumni in the Open Discourse Coalition, in support of Bucknell values encouraging “different cultures and diverse perspectives” (from the Bucknell mission statement).   About the series: The US Constitution in many ways serves as a symbolic Venn diagram between culture and government in America, in place of -old-style monarchy; a focus today for both unity and division over historical memory and social aspirations. In this sense it functions like a “national novel” in which Americans often find themselves to be both characters and readers. This ongoing series seeks to shed light on the relation of the Constitution to culture in the twenty-first century, especially through the lens of recent controversial SCOTUS decisions, while helping to bring balance to the spectrum of views available on campus and in the local community. Previous programs in the series have focused on the Dobbs decision and abortion, and on the Bruen decision and gun rights.

“Culture and the Constitution:

The Right to Bear Arms and the Bruen Case“

Tues. Nov. 15, 7 p.m., Elaine Langone Forum

Video of event: https://mediaspace.bucknell.edu/media/1_t1gafqve

For the first time in recent memory, a forum at Bucknell features two prominent scholars of the Second Amendment debating it and gun issues. Prof. Joseph Blocher of Duke Law School (top below) and Prof. Nelson Lund (bottom below) of Scalia Law School at George Mason will discuss whether/how the right to bear arms is a relevant constitutional “check and balance” today, what type of gun-control regulations are permissible under the Second Amendment in light of SCOTUS trends, and where issues about “gun rights” and “gun control” will lead in 21st-century America life.

Whether you are in favor of the right to bear arms or the right to arm bears, don’t miss what promises to be substantive expert discussion from different perspectives on a controversial topic: The role of guns in the culture of the American republic.

About the series: The recent death of Queen Elizabeth II reminded many of the symbolic Venn diagram between culture and government. The US Constitution in many ways performs that symbolic function in America, a focus today for both unity and division over historical memory and social aspirations. This series seeks to shed light on the relation of the Constitution to culture in the twenty-first century, especially through the lens of recent controversial SCOTUS decisions, while helping to bring balance to the spectrum of views available on campus and in the local community.

Hosted by the Bucknell Program for American Leadership, a faculty-staff association, with generous support from the Open Discourse Coalition, an alumni association.