Gordon in the News: last updated 02/15/2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2007
MEDIA CONTACT:
Ashley Hopkins
Office of Gordon College Communications
978.867.4569
[email protected]
Barbara LeBlanc
Saint Anselm College Communications
(603) 641-7241
[email protected]
WENHAM, MA-Together the Council on Faith and International Affairs (CFIA), The New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College (NHIOP) and the Center for Christian Studies at Gordon College are co-sponsoring the "Faith and Foreign Policy" event being held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, on November 10-11, 2007. Faculty from Gordon and other selected colleges will speak on Saturday, Nov. 10 and Presidential candidates from both major parties have been invited to speak on Sunday, Nov. 11, on the increasingly critical intersection of religion and international affairs. The Saturday event is free and open to the public; Sunday is by invitation only.
"We're very pleased to be participating in the Faith and Foreign Policy event, particularly because it ties in directly with work that the Center for Christian Studies and the other sponsors started last September at the 'USA with the World' project," says Harold Heie, senior fellow and founding director of the Center for Christian Studies at Gordon."Topics ranged from faith & globalization to reconciliation ethics for peace-building, so in many ways the 'USA with the World' project was a catalyst for the Faith and Foreign Policy event."
On Saturday, Nov. 10, the following Gordon College professors will speak at the event: Ruth Melkonian-Hoover, assistant professor of political studies, will address "Religion and Immigration," Dorothy Boorse, associate professor of biology, will speak on "Religion and Global Environmental Issues" and Tim Sherratt, professor of political studies, will speak on "Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy Rhetoric."
"It is our hope that by disseminating Christian perspectives regarding the role of the United States with other countries world-wide, this event will contribute to a larger public conversation on religion and foreign affairs as our country prepares for the 2008 presidential election," adds Heie.
Ruth Melkonian-Hoover teaches Latin American Politics, Developing Nations, and Women and Politics at Gordon. She is co-chair of the International Affairs major and recently co-authored "Democratic Progress and Regress," published in Political Research Quarterly. Melkonian-Hoover holds a B.A. from Biola University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Emory University.
Dorothy Boorse's primary research and teaching interests are in aquatic community ecology and invasive species. She spends a great deal of time connecting science to non-scientists and looking at ways science and faith integrate, particularly in the area of environmental ethics. As a representative of the Noah Alliance, Dorothy testified on behalf of a Christian environmental ethic in a House of Representatives Subcommittee hearing in June 2005. Dorothy is the author of Global City, a set of interactive activities published by Prentice-Hall to accompany Environmental Science, a textbook by Richard Wright. Boorse holds a B.S. from Gordon College, an M.S. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tim Sherratt teaches American Politics, Constitutional Law and Political Theory at Gordon. He is the pre-law advisor and he also coordinates the Pew Honors program and has co-authored Saints as Citizens (Baker Books, 1995). Sherratt holds a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky.
David Gergen, political contributor to CNN and regular guest on Anderson Cooper 360 and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, is the confirmed moderator for the Presidential candidate portion of the "Faith and Foreign Policy" event. Gergen was a political consultant and advisor during the Republican administrations of Nixon, Ford, and Reagan and was a campaign staffer for George H. W. Bush's 1980 presidential campaign.
For more information on the "Faith and Foreign Policy" event or to set-up interviews with participating Gordon faculty members, please contact Ashley Hopkins at 978.867.4569 or e-mail [email protected].
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Gordon College is a Christian college of the liberal arts and sciences on Boston's North Shore. The college offers majors in 36 fields and has graduate programs in education and music education. Leading the way in Christian college merit, Gordon is nationally ranked for its excellence in academics and its role in character building. These achievements recognize Gordon as one of the nation's top Christian colleges.