Phi Theta offering several satellite seminars this fall

The Coffeyville Community College Honors Program and Phi Theta Kappa Chapter are pleased to present for the Coffeyville area, the 2007 Satellite Seminar Series, a four-part speaker series brought to participants via satellite. The lectures will focus on the 2006-08 Phi Theta Kappa Honors Study Topic, Gold, Gods, and Glory: The Global Dynamics of Power. The seminars provide participants with the opportunity to engage in discussions of current issues such as the war on terror, the economic relationship between China and America, the current state of Afghanistan, and the role of politics, radical religion, oil, and borrowed money in the American political system and its impact on the global dynamics of power. The series will be broadcast via satellite on Tuesday evenings throughout the fall 2007 semester. The interactive nature of the Series allows participants to call-in or e-mail questions for the speaker to address live.

Coffeyville Community College is offering the series for one credit hour in humanities. However, the seminars are free of charge to the public. Dates of the live broadcasts are October 16, 30, and November 13. The first seminar which was viewed on Tuesday, October 2, is available free of charge on DVD. The remaining presentations will be viewed in room 171 of the Arts and Sciences Building beginning at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provided and discussion will follow each program.

The Honors Satellite Seminar Presenters include: How to Win a Cosmic War, presenter Reza Aslan. Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions. He is the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, and the soon to be published How to Win a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Santa Clara University, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of Iowa, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Sociology of Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

America and China: Raising the Barricades, presenter Zanny Minton Beddoes. Beddoes is The Economist's Washington economics editor. She is responsible for coverage of the American economy, economic policy and issues surrounding globalization. Before moving to Washington in April 1996, Minton Beddoes was The Economist's emerging-markets correspondent based in London. She has written surveys of the World Economy, Latin American finance, global finance and Central Asia.

Afghanistan after the Taliban, presenter Tamim Ansary. Afghan-American author Ansary wrote West of Kabul, East of New York and co-authored The Other Side of the Sky with Afghan land mine victim Farah Ahmadi. He directs the San Francisco Writers Workshop, writes a monthly column for Encarta.com, and teaches sporadically at the SF Osher Institute. His work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Alternet, TomPaine.com, Zzyzyva, Edutopia, and many other publications.

American Theocracies: Politics, Radical Religion, Oil and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century, presenter Kevin Phillips. For more than three decades, Kevin Phillips has been consistently and "transcendentally right" (as one reviewer has put it) about the dynamics of political change in America and an avid analyst of the role of wealth in democracy. Phillips's best-selling books have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself. In his two most recent New York Times bestsellers, American Dynasty and Wealth and Democracy, Phillips established himself as a powerful critic of the political and economic forces that are ruling and imperiling the U.S. Called a "modern Thomas Paine," Kevin Phillips is a regular commentator for National Public Radio and a former commentator for CBS News.

For more information, contact Linda McFate, Phi Theta Kappa Advisor at 251-7700 ext. 2076 or lindam@coffeyville.edu.