Lectures
The Dr. Donald C. Katt Institute for Constitutional Studies
SUNY Ulster founded the Institute for Constitutional Studies to help college faculty, students, teachers, business people, the legal community and the general public in the Mid-Hudson Valley deepen their understanding of the fundamental principles of the United States and the New York state constitutions, their history and their continuing relevance to current public policy debates. The event is free and open to the public. For information, contact 845-687-5262.
Donations in honor of President Emeritus Dr. Donald C. Katt or in support of the Dr.
Donald C. Katt Institute for Constitutional Studies are welcome and appreciated.
Fall 2020
Deborah N. Archer “Have We Failed to Fulfill the Promise of the 14th Amendment?”
Thursday, September 17 • 7:00 p.m. Held virtually through SUNY Ulster’s YouTube Channel and through a Facebook Watch Party
Deborah N. Archer is an Associate Professor of Clinical Law at NYU School of Law and
Co-Director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. She is a nationally recognized
expert in civil rights and racial justice, and teaches and writes in the areas of
racial justice, civil rights, and clinical pedagogy.
Professor Archer is a graduate of Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Charles G. Albom Prize, and Smith College. She previously worked as an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where she litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, and school desegregation. She was also a member of the faculty at New York Law School for fifteen years and an associate at the firm Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett. Ms. Archer is currently a member of the Board of Directors and General Counsel to the Board of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is also the chair of the American Association of Law School’s Section on Civil Rights and a former chair of the Section on Minority Groups. She previously served on the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the nation’s oldest and largest police oversight agency, and the 2018 New York City Charter Revision Commission. Ms. Archer received the Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award and the 2014 Haywood Burns/Shanara Guilbert Award from the Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference. She was recently recognized by the New York Law Journal as one of New York’s Top Women in the Law.
Fall 2019
Albert M. Rosenblatt “Is The Constitution Under Threat?”
Thursday, September 19 • 7:00 p.m. Ulster Savings Bank Community Conference Center,
Clinton Hall
Albert M. Rosenblatt is a Judge (Ret.) of the New York Court of Appeals, a Judicial Fellow at New York University Law School, of counsel to the law firm of McCabe and Mack, and a founder and past President of the Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York. His books include: “The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History,” and as co-author with Julia Rosenblatt “Historic Court Houses of the State of New York” and “Opening Statements: Law, Jurisprudence and the Legacy of Dutch New York.” Judge Rosenblatt was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School.
Fall 2018
Dr. Darryl Banks OBE: Would a Constitutional Amendment Really Help the Environment?
Monday, September 17, 6:00 p.m., College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
Dr. Darryl Banks OBE is a Rhodes Scholar, distinguished scientist, and environmental and energy policy expert. Educated at Coe College and the University of Oxford, Dr. Banks has held numerous senior management and research positions. His management roles included service at the Environmental Protection Agency, New York's Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Quality, and Vice President of the Center for American Progress. In research, he has held Senior Fellowships at the Rand Corporation, the World Resources Institute, and as Congressional Science Fellow. Dr. Banks has also held senior positions in the private sector and is the author of numerous publications in environmental and energy policy. In 2009, he was honored by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his work on US-UK scientific and academic relations.
This event is free and open to the public.
Spring 2018
The Enlightenment & America’s Founders Dr. Khalil Habib
Tuesday, May 8, 6:30 p.m. College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall 203
Dr. Khalil Habib is an Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Pell Honors program, and Faculty Fellow of the Pell Center for Public Policy and International Relations at Salve Regina University, Rhode Island. Professor Habib is a distinguished political philosopher who specializes in modern political philosophy including Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and the philosophical foundations of liberalism. He is the co-editor of numerous articles as well as several books including Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Globalization: Citizens without States and The Soul of Statesmanship.
Fall 2017
American Federalism Today: Constitutional Federalism Today
Constitutional Principle or Political Pawn?
Dr. Stephen Schechter
Tuesday, September 19
7:00 pm
College Lounge
Free and open to the public
Dr. Stephen Schechter, Professor of Political Science and History and Director of the Council for Citizenship Education, Russell Sage College. Professor Schechter is a distinguished scholar of US and Comparative Federalism and author of multiple books and articles including Roots of the Republic. Most recently, he is Editor in Chief of the 5 volume Encyclopedia of American Governance and senior author of Exploring Political Ideas.
Sponsored by the Ulster Community College Foundation, Inc.
SPRING 2017
Federalism and the Importance of State Consitutions
Presented by the the Dr. Donald C. Katt Institute for Constitutional Studies
The Honorable Judge Albert Rosenblatt
Wednesday, April 19
7:00 p.m.
College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall 203
The Honorable Judge Albert Rosenblatt, New York State Court of Appeals (retired),
Distinguished Judicial Fellow, New York University Law School will present “Federalism
and the Importance of State Constitutions,” on Wednesday, April 19, at 7:00 p.m. in
the Vanderlyn Hall, College Lounge. Sponsored by the Ulster Community College Foundation,
Inc.
SPRING 2016
Combatting Terrorism: Challenges to Traditional Constitutional Norms
Presented by the the Dr. Donald C. Katt Institute for Constitutional Studies
Dr. Schuyler Foerster
Monday, March 14
7:00 p.m.
College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
Dr. Schuyler Foerster, Brent Scowcroft Professor of National Security Studies at the
United States Air Force Academy, examines how terrorism is different from traditional
conflict, how it blurs the lines between “war” and “crime,” and how it crosses traditional
boundaries between domestic and foreign policy. He also examines the role of the military,
the role and limits of intelligence, and the treatment of “combatants vs. criminals”
whether U.S. citizens or not.
FALL 2015
The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure American Liberties
Presented by the the Dr. Donald C. Katt Institute for Constitutional Studies
Dr. Carol Berkin
Monday, September 28, 2015
6:30 p.m.
College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
The award winning author of six major books on American history from the Revolution
to the Civil War, Dr. Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of American Colonial and
Revolutionary History and Women’s History, Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at
Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, will speak on the topic “The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure American Liberties.” She serves on the Board of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and
the Board of the National Council for History Education.
SPRING 2015
Finding the Framers: Making Sense of the Consitutions after Ratification
Presented by the the Dr. Donald C. Katt Institute for Constitutional Studies
Dr. Simon Gilhooley
March 24, 2015
7:00 p.m.
College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
Gilhooley, Bard College Assistant Professor of Political Studies, was educated at the University of Edinburgh, the University of London and Cornell University. He has been a member of the Bard College faculty since 2013, teaching courses on contemporary American politics, American political history, American political thought and constitutional practice.
Before joining the Bard faculty, Gilhooley taught at Ithaca College. His research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the McNeill Center for Early American Studies.
SUNY Ulster President Don Katt and Dr. Ray Raymond, Associate Professor of Government and History at SUNY Ulster, founded the Institute for Constitutional Studies in 2009 to help College faculty, students, teachers, business people, the legal community and the general public in the Mid-Hudson Valley deepen their understanding of the fundamental principles of the United States and the New York state constitutions, their history and their continuing relevance to current public policy debates.
The event is free and open to the public. For information, contact (845) 687-5262.
FALL 2014
John Adams and James Madison as Constitutional Thinkers
Presented by the the Dr. Donald C. Katt Institute for Constitutional Studies
Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.
College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
Revisiting two key American founding fathers, New York Law School professor and New York Times best-selling author, Richard Bernstein explores both John Adams and James Madison as the indispensable thinking politicians of the American Revolution.
PAST CONSTITUTIONAL STUDIES LECTURES
Fall 2013: Harold Holzer, noted Lincoln scholar
Fall 2012: Pulitzer Prize nominee William Howard Adams on “Gouverneur Morris: The Uncommon Founder.”
Fall 2011: The Prophet of American Constitutionalism, or, How John Adams Became a Founding Father - Richard Bernstein, Constitutional Historian and New York Law School Professor
Spring 2011: Freedom of Speech: The First Amendment, The Citizens United Case and American Politics - Daniel Feldman, Former New York Deputy Attorney General.
