October 11, 2004

A day-long conference at the Columbia University School of Journalism. Free and open to the public.

Antiwar writer, cultural radical and critic, prophet of an emerging "trans-national America," and inspiration to the contemporary disability rights movement, RANDOLPH BOURNE (1886-1918) has been a profound influence on the intellectual life of the modern United States. Best known for his judgment that "War is the health of the State," Bourne's writings have been at the center of debates about liberalism, pragmatism, total war, ethnic pluralism and cosmopolitanism, and the disabled in the decades ever since he first emerged as a leader of the Greenwich Village "Little Renaissance" of the 1910s.

Columbia University celebrates the life and work of one of its most distinguished graduates in a day-long symposium that will examine Bourne as a participant in the intellectual and cultural history of his day and as a writer whose legacy remains vital to contemporary debates. Speakers include historians, journalists, critics, and activists, along with actor Clark Middleton, who played Bourne in the play, "The Body of Bourne", and will give readings of Bourne's work between panels.

Among the participants are:

Michael Rosenthal
Casey N. Blake
Robert B. Westbrook
Leslie Vaughan
Chris Lehmann
Allan M. Jalon
Barbara Probst Solomon
Paul K. Longmore
George Packer
Benjamin DeMott
Todd Gitlin
Michael True

The symposium begins with registration at 9am and continues throughout the day until 5:30pm.

Wheelchair access to the School of Journalism available from the main campus entrance at 116th street and Broadway.

Sponsored by the National Arts Journalism Program, the American Studies Program, the University Seminar on Disability Studies, and the Office of the Provost at Columbia University and by the Freedom to Write Committee at the PEN American Center in New York.

For a full schedule, go to the web address given below.