Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: How do candidates apply this cherished, ubiquitous, and abstract value to specific campaign contexts? What issues and other values have candidates linked to freedom in recent history? Are there meaningful patterns of usage across time and party?

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: On February 1, 1961, James Farmer became National Director of the Congress
of Racial Equality. Farmer’s 1961 ascension was the final stage in a
restructuring of CORE that occurred between December 4, 1960 and the first
day in his new position. This restructuring coincided with a dramatic change
in the nature and direction of the Civil Rights Movement, as a vibrant,
active wave of students pushed the struggle against white supremacy toward a
more aggressive approach to civil rights across the South. The first
project of the newly aligned CORE would be the Freedom Rides, a
direct-action challenge to segregated interstate transportation, which would
use as its model the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, itself a joint project
of CORE and the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. This paper will
explore the restructuring of CORE and the organization’s planning of the
Freedom Rides and will provide a window into the ways in which civil rights
organizations operated structurally and on the ground in the early 1960s.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will interrogate critically the proposals put forward for reform of the United Nations (UN) by UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, in his report ?In Larger Freedom: Toward Development, Security and Human Rights for All?. This paper addresses three issues in particular: first, the third freedom identified in the report (?freedom to live in dignity?); second, the notion of legitimacy with which the report operates; and third, the issue of international context. This paper examines the implications of the 'third freedom' identified by the Secretary General for ideas of collective security, and especially the doctrine of the responsibility to protect. This paper will analyse the potential of the ?third freedom? to expand the boundaries of the ?responsibility to protect? doctrine. Using this anaylsis as a base, this paper then examines the concept of legitimacy that underpins the report as a whole. This paper concludes by considering the failure of the report to address the issue of the context within which a reformed UN will operate ? namely, a world with a radically transformed conception of international law, and one in which regional organisations are gaining increasing prominence at the expense of the UN.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Therapeutic religion may create and reinforce many excesses, including excess freedom. This is a case study of a therapeutic religious community that serves GLBT African Americans, many of whom have traumatized histories. The congregation at the center of this study permits and encourages self-expressions, typical of therapeutic societies, but these freedoms have contributed to a sexually charged church environment, where sexual displays and sexual behaviors are highly visible, and graphic sexual language is common in sermons. But this is not to say that this congregation disregards conventional norms altogether, or that therapy is used simply as an excuse for behavioral excesses. Rather, this study suggests that, in spite of the occasional “messiness” that may arise, therapeutic societies that serve marginalized and traumatized populations necessarily need to expand their functions. For religious organizations, this requires that the congregation integrate diverse functions (i.e., the therapeutic functions) into its religious repertoire. This is particularly the case if the immediate goal of the congregation is to eliminate human suffering, in which case a distinctly therapeutic and highly experimental form of religion may be pivotal in helping to reintegrate the wounded back into the community folds.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Muhammad cartoon controversy conflict catalyzed numerous debates on the topics of freedom of the press, its limits, and the balance in accordance with other human rights. This study analyzes this discussion about freedom of speech in 3 German newspapers. It concentrates on the thematic focus of discourse content and its fluctuations in the course of time. Thereby, 5 argumentation patterns are identified: Articles approving limitations of freedom of speech or disapproving them (religious limitations play a major role in these 2 clusters), articles concentrating on censorship, articles concentrating on other endangerments of freedom of speech, and articles discussing the general necessity for safeguarding freedom of speech. Furthermore, the viewpoint of the media, which do not only report on the discussion but are affected by it themselves, is analyzed. The media use editorial pages to express their disapproval about limiting their freedom. Reasons for freedom of speech and its advantages hardly occur in the German media.