2008-2009 Scheduled Speakers
John Edwards
Former 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate and US Senator
(Sharing the stage with Karl Rove)
Friday, September 26, 8 pm
Alumni Arena, UB’s North (Amherst) Campus
The son of a North Carolina textile mill worker, John Edwards was the first in his family to attend college. He went on to earn a law degree with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
As a nationally recognized attorney, he represented families in cases of malpractice, product liability and insurance claims. His work established the North Carolina precedent of physician and hospital liability for failing to determine if a patient understood the risk of a particular procedure. In regards to another case, he and his law partner earned the Association of Trial Lawyers of America’s national award for public service.
In 1998, Edwards ran for the US Senate and won against the Republican incumbent. As Senator of North Carolina, he co-sponsored approximately 200 bills, served on the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and US Senate Committee on Judiciary, and was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.
Toward the end of his senate term, Edwards became Senator John Kerry’s vice presidential running mate in the 2004 election. Following the Republican win, Edwards accepted the Council on Foreign Relations’ appointment of him as co-chair of the Task Force on US Policy Toward Russia. The task force released a report entitled, Russia’s Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do, asserting the significance of Russia’s cooperation to achieving American interests.
Most recently, Senator Edwards campaigned for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President. Edwards’ campaign message focused on quality education for all children, enhanced national security and fighting the war on poverty. Edwards often described an unfortunate existence of two America’s: one for the privileged and one for everyone else who struggles to get by. He advocated the College for Everyone program which would pay the tuition of young people during their first year of college, in return for community service work.
Poverty has been a central theme to much of Edwards’ work. Since 2004, he has been the director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of NC at Chapel Hill. In honor of their late son, Edwards and his wife Elizabeth founded the Wade Edwards Foundation which provides scholarships and strives to inspire young people.
Edwards (with John Auchard) has also published a book, Four Trials.
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Karl Rove
Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, 2000-2007
(Sharing the stage with John Edwards)
Friday, September 26, 8 pm
Alumni Arena, UB’s North (Amherst) Campus
Karl Rove has been described by respected author and columnist Michael Barone in US News as “unique...no Presidential appointee has ever had such a strong influence on politics and policy, and none is likely to do so again anytime soon.” Rove has been called a master political strategist whose “game has always been long term,” says columnist David Broder, “and he plays it with an intensity and attention to detail that few can match.” The political writer Fred Barnes calls him “The greatest political mind of his generation and probably of any generation… He knows history, understands the moods of the public, and is a visionary on matters of public policy.”
Karl Rove is keeping this election season exciting by providing a "genuine feel of inside knowledge" (David Zurawik, TV critic, The Baltimore Sun). Other members of the media have said: "As you can imagine, Rove can slice delegates and demographics incredibly fine. His insights into the GOP race are particularly amazing." (Franklin Foer, Editor, The New Republic); "focused his punditry on what he knows best: strategy" (Megan Garber, Assistant Editor, Columbia Journalism Review); "Rove's substantive contributions [as a Fox News contributor] may now inspire a little work ethic among the celebrity talking heads who may be forced to bring to the news a little more data and a little less opinion, a recalibration that would be welcome to its devoted viewers." (Tobin Harshaw, Op-Ed Editor, The New York Times)
Karl Rove served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush. Mr. Rove oversaw the strategic planning, political affairs, public liaison, and intergovernmental affairs efforts of the White House. He was also Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating the White House policymaking process.
Karl Rove was the architect of the President’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns and, for the 18 years before the start of the 2000 campaign, president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin, Texas-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, non-partisan causes, and non-profit groups. His clients have included over 75 Republican U.S. Senate, Congressional and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, as well as the Moderate Party of Sweden.
The Colorado native attended the University of Utah, George Mason University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Mr. Rove has graduate students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and undergraduates in a joint appointment from the Journalism and Government Departments at the University of Texas at Austin and was also faculty member at the Salzburg Seminar.
He was a member of the Board of International Broadcasting, which oversaw operations of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, and served on the board of the McDonald Observatory. He was also a member of the boards of regents of two Texas state universities.
Mr. Rove and his wife, Darby, have one son.
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Khaled Hosseini
Best-Selling Author of the UB Reads 2008 Book Selection: The Kite Runner
Thursday, October 16, 8 pm
Alumni Arena, UB’s North (Amherst) Campus
Khaled Hosseini is the author of the international best-selling novel and UB Reads 2008 selection, The Kite Runner. Published in 2003 and subsequently translated into 40 languages the book tells the story of Amir, the son of an Afghan diplomat, growing up in 1970’s Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir’s life is shaped by a boyhood friendship and an unspeakable event during which he betrays that friendship. His shame follows him to America after the Soviet invasion of his birth country, and 26 years later, back to a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan where he finds a chance for redemption.
The first novel by an Afghan author to be published in English, The Kite Runner reminds readers in this post 9/11 world that in our humanity, we all share and relate to common emotions and experiences that transcend cultural divides and stereotypes. Consequently, the US Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees named Khaled Hosseini the 2006 Humanitarian of the Year.
Like the character Amir, Hosseini was born in Kabul, the son of a diplomat with the Afghan Foreign Ministry. After the communist coup and Soviet invasion, the family was granted political asylum in 1980 and moved to the US where Hosseini completed high school and eventually went on to earn a medical degree from the University of California. He began his writing career while practicing internal medicine.
His first novel, The Kite Runner has been made into a movie. His second and most recent novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns provides an emotional glimpse into the lives of Afghan women.
For more Information, please visit:The full line-up of 2008-09 Distinguished Speakers will be announced in late July, at which time series subscriptions will be available for sale. Individual program tickets, including those for the Edwards/Rove and Khaled Hosseini events, are expected to go on sale a short time later. Series Subscribers from the 2007-08 Distinguished Speakers Series and Patrons on our Series mailing list will be contacted with information on the full 2008-09 speaker line-up and the opportunity to purchase tickets when the entire series lineup is finalized later this month. Please re-visit this site periodically for more updates.
