FAU Presents Conference “Defying the Facts: Lying in Politics and Counterfactuals in Narrative”

BOCA RATON, FL (January 27, 2006) – Florida Atlantic University will present a symposium on “Defying the Facts: Lying in Politics and Counterfactuals in Narrative,” a conference addressing the idea that politics today is torn by contradictions concerning the truth. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Friday, February 17 from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Live Oak Pavilion of the University Center on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road.

“What is presented as absolute fact too often turns out to be a fabrication designed to spin public opinion in one way or another,” said conference organizer Richard Shusterman, FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and professor of philosophy. “The public needs a better grasp of the cultural roots of political lying and the complexities of contemporary attitudes to truth telling.”

This conference will explore these critical issues through interdisciplinary perspectives, with lectures by two of America’s leading scholars: Catherine Gallagher, Eggers Professor of English Literature at the University of California, Berkeley; and Martin Jay, Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Both speakers have authored numerous books and have been honored as members of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences.

The conference is sponsored by FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and the Ph.D. Program in Comparative Studies. For further information, call 561-297-0851