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Sept. 20, 2010
 Stephen Carter, Yale law professor and author of seven acclaimed works of nonfiction and four bestselling novels, will be the featured speaker for the 2010 Waitt Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 19, in Eppley Auditorium, 3625 Garretson Avenue, on the Morningside College campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Carter’s lecture is titled “Civility and Democracy” and is based on his 1998 book “Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy.” In the book, Carter made the case that manners really do matter to the future of America and wrote about the importance of generosity and trust, respecting diversity and dissent, and resolving conflict through dialogue rather than mandate.
Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale, where he has taught for nearly 30 years. Carter, who has been described as one of America’s leading public intellectuals, teaches courses at Yale on law and religion, intellectual property, contracts, professional responsibility, and the ethics of warfare.
Throughout his career, Carter has helped to shape the national debate on issues ranging from the role of religion in politics and culture to the role of integrity and civility in the daily lives of Americans. He has published dozens of articles in law reviews and many op-ed columns in the nation’s leading newspapers.
Nonfiction books Carter has authored include “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion” (1993); “Integrity’ (1997) and “God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics” (2000). His next nonfiction book, “The Violence of Peace: America's Wars in the Age of Obama,” will be published in January of 2011. His first novel, “The Emperor of Ocean Park” (2002) was on the New York Times best-seller list for 11 weeks. Carter’s next novel deals with a hypothetical impeachment trial of Abraham Lincoln and will be published in 2011.
Carter received his bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford in 1976 and his law degree from Yale in 1979. After law school, he served as a clerk for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and then to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Norman Waitt Jr., a 1986 Morningside graduate and a former member of the Morningside College Board of Directors, established the Waitt Lecture Series at Morningside College in 1997. Recent speakers in the series have included economist and humorist Ben Stein (2009) and filmmaker Ken Burns (2008). The Waitt Lecture Series is endowed by The Kind World Foundation.
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