Chomsky is widely considered the father of modern linguistics, but also is known as a political dissident and anarchist. He has authored more than 150 books including “The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory,” “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance” and “Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World.”

Chomsky attended the University of Pennsylvania and received his master’s degree in 1951. While working on his doctorate, Chomsky spent time in 1953 living in the HaZore’a kibbutz in Israel. In a 2005 interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Chomsky said he enjoyed the commune-like living of the kibbutz, but did not care for what he called the ideological atmosphere of Stalinized Israel. After returning to the U.S., he received his doctorate in linguistics in 1955.

He joined the staff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that same year and in 1961 became a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Chomsky continues to teach at MIT today.

Chomsky was a leading critic of the Vietnam War. His criticisms of U.S. power and foreign policy over the years have made him a controversial figure.

Chomsky’s visit to UT Knoxville is sponsored by the campus’s Central Programming Council and the Issues Committee. For more information visit http://activities.utk.edu/cpc/.

—

CONTACT:

Rebekah Winkler (865-974-8307, rwinkler@utk.edu)

Sponsored by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy and the Department of Economics, Holtz-Eakin’s talk — titled “Policy Challenges Facing the U.S.: Navigating the Future” — begins at 7 p.m. in the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Holtz-Eakin was the sixth director of the Congressio­nal Budget Office, the chief analytical arm and impartial arbiter of the costs associated with new legislation. He served for 18 months as chief economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under George W. Bush and for two years as senior staff economist for President George H. W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. Holtz-Eakin also served as director of domestic and economic policy for the McCain presidential campaign.

Holtz-Eakin also has recently been senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, the director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.

He has held academic appointments at Columbia and Princeton Universities and was Trustee Professor of Economics at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

He has advised several state governments and was principal investigator for several research initiatives funded by federal government agencies.

In 2006, Holtz-Eakin was the recipient of the Morris and Edna Zale Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research and Public Service.

Holtz-Eakin is now president of the American Action Forum (http://www.americanactionforum.org), a new think tank that “seeks to promote common-sense, innovative, and solutions-based policies that will reform government, challenge out-dated assumptions, and create a smaller, smarter government that will serve its citizens better.”

In the blog The Hill, John Feehery said the American Action Forum is “one of the few places in Washington that the left and the right can have a grown-up discussion about the future.”

—

C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)

The event, free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at the Baker Center, 1640 Cumberland Ave.

Mike Fitzgerald, professor in the Department of Political Science, will introduce the program by discussing the shift from the political dialogue characteristic of civil partisanship to the current political atmosphere of incivility and a lack of cooperation.

UT law professor Glenn Reynolds, creator of Instapundit, a highly read political blog, will talk about the role that blogs and social media play in increasing dialogue on policy issues, as well as increasing polarization on issues and political incivility.

Blogs, Social Media and Political Incivility can be watched live via webcast: http://160.36.161.128/UTK/Viewer/?peid=820239f809404e37922b914e252dec5e.

On March 30, to complement this event, the Baker Center and the SGA-Government Affairs Committee will hold a workshop on learning the process of bipartisan dialogue. Free and open to the public, the workshop, “Training Future Leaders in Civility of Governance,” will be held at 6:30 p.m. on March 30 in the Toyota Auditorium.

The Baker Center, which opened at UT in 2003, develops programs and promotes research to further the public’s knowledge of our system of governance, and to highlight the critical importance of public service, a hallmark of Sen. Baker’s career.

For more about the Baker Center, see http://www.bakercenter.utk.edu.

—

C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)