April 22, 2009 

MEDIA CONTACT: Nick Massella
202-994-3087; massella@gwu.edu

BBC'S REITH LECTURES SERIES VISITS GW TO EXPLORE THE NEW POLITICS OF COMMON GOOD
JUNE 1, 2009

EVENT: 

As part of BBC's Reith Lectures series, Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, will deliver a lecture titled "A New Politics of the Common Good." Sue Lawley, one of the U.K.'s best known broadcasters and journalists, will anchor the lecture during a broadcast to a worldwide audience of more than 100 million on BBC Radio 4 and on the BBC's World Service.

WHEN:  

Monday, June 1, 2009; 6 - 8pm

WHERE: 

The George Washington University
Media and Public Affairs Building
Jack Morton Auditorium
805 21st St., NW, Washington, D.C.
Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro (Blue and Orange lines)

RSVP: 

This event is free and open to the public and will be preceded by a reception open to the audience. Audience RSVPs can be made to Recia Woods at pecia.woods@bbc.co.uk. Members of the media wishing to attend should contact Nick Massella at 202-994-3087 or massella@gwu.edu.

BACKGROUND:

This is the final lecture in the BBC series called "A New Citizenship."  Sandel's work has addressed issues such as ethics, democracy and the erosion of community and moral values. He is the author of Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy, Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics and The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. The recipient of three honorary degrees, Sandel is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. A summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University (1975), Sandel received his doctorate from Oxford University (D.Phil.,1981), where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

The Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 by the BBC to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Sir John (later Lord) Reith, the corporation?s first director-general. Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service that enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver a series of lectures on radio. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest. They are high profiled events.

Last year the historian Jonathan Spence delivered a lecture on China. In 2007, the economist Jeffrey Sachs spoke on world poverty and the year before, the composer, Daniel Barenboim discussed the power and influence of music.

For more information on BBC's Reith Lectures, visit www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2008/index.shtml.

For more news about The George Washington University, visit www.gwnewscenter.org.

- GW -