Alan Wolfe, a political scientist and sociologist who often writes for The New Republic, will speak twice on Tuesday, April 20: at 11 a.m. in the Konover Auditorium of the Dodd Center, and at 4 p.m. at a ceremony in Jorgensen Auditorium honoring the University's top students and faculty on Scholars Day.

His morning talk will focus on "Moral Freedom" and his afternoon presentation will be titled "In Defense of Academic Pluralism."

The Scholars Day event recognizes Babbidge Scholars, who maintained a 4.0 grade point average during 1998; New England Scholars, who maintained a 3.5 graduate point average or higher during 1998; University Scholars, who are selected by the University to receive special recognition; and the 1998 University's Teaching Fellows.

Wolfe, university professor and professor of political science and sociology at Boston University, is the author or editor of more than 10 books, including the 1997 Marginalized in the Middle and the newly released One Nation, After All: What Americans Really Think About God, Country, Family, Racism, Welfare, Immigration, Homosexuality, Work, The Right, The Left, and Each Other.

Interviews for his latest book, published by Viking Penguin, were conducted using a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.

He has also received two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct summer seminars for college teachers on "Morality and Society."

Wolfe, who serves on the academic advisory board of the National Marriage Project, is a consulting editor of The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly, and writes often for them, as well as for Commonweal, The New York Times, Harper's, The Washington Post, and other magazines and newspapers.

He was an adviser to President Clinton for preparation of the 1995 State of the Union address and has lectured widely at American and European universities. Wolfe also has been a Fulbright professor of American studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Wolfe's morning lecture is jointly sponsored by the Husky Renaissance Committee, the Honors Program, the School of Family Studies and the Departments of Political Science and Sociology.

Karen Grava