Westbrook to Deliver Annual Eric Scott Pitman Lecture at St. Joe's Collegiate

Westbrook to Deliver Annual Eric Scott Pitman Lecture at St. Joe's Collegiate

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- David A. Westbrook, PhD, professor and Floyd H. and Hilda L. Hurst Scholar, University at Buffalo Law School, will present a lecture April 13 at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute as part of the second annual series, Ripples of Hope -- The Eric Scott Pitman Lectures in Ethics and Social Justice.

Westbrook's talk, "Deploying Ourselves: Islamic Violence and the Responsible Projection of U.S. Force," is free of charge and open to the public. It will take place at the Cullen Center at St. Joe's, 845 Kenmore Ave., Kenmore, at 2:45 p.m.

The lecture title mirrors that of Westbrook's latest book, "Deploying Ourselves: Islamist Violence, Globalization and the Responsible Projection of U.S. Force" (Paradigm Publishers, April, 2011), which has been applauded widely by critics in the academic, legal and military fields as an excellent, direct and realistic work that cuts through the cant surrounding the global war on terror.

"I believe -- and my book argues," says Westbrook, "that the moral stance of the nation matters, not merely to social justice (broadly, indeed globally, conceived), but to security in a world in which we are contesting notions of modernity."

Frank Vogel, former director of Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard University, where he held the Custodians of the Two Mosques Chair in the Harvard Law School, said the book "makes a powerful case for understanding the U.S. war against Muslim extremism as also and, ultimately, a political battle for Muslim hearts and mind. (It is) a realistic rethinking of the arts of both war and statecraft in a global age."

The Eric Scott Pitman Lectures in Ethics and Social Justice series was created last year to honor the memory of Pitman, a St. Joe's student who died of a streptococcal pneumonia infection in 2007, his freshman year.

Eric was the son of Marcia and E. Bruce Pitman, PhD, associate dean for research and sponsored programs, UB College of Arts and Sciences; professor, Department of Mathematics and adjunct professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

R. Scott Burns, vice president of St. Joe's said, "Eric, who would have been a senior this year, known throughout his life by teachers, friends and relatives as a compassionate young man, became particularly interested in the study and practice of ethics and social justice.

"It is my hope that the series will inspire students and community members to explore ethics and social justice, and have not only continuity but momentum."

More information on Westbrook and his book can be found at http://www.law.buffalo.edu/Faculty_And_Staff/submenu/Westbrook/deploying11.asp.