What does Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy, Titus Andronicus, have to teach us about democratic governance?

Yale University law professor Kenji Yoshino will enlist Shakespeare’s ruthless tyrant Titus Andronicus as the focus of a discussion of democratic governance, when he delivers the 2008 Joseph C. Hostetler – Baker & Hostetler lecture on September 9 at 5 p.m. at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, located at the corner of East 18th Street and Euclid Avenue.

Yoshino’s lecture, The Return of Shakespeare's Reviled Tragedy: Titus Andronicus and the Rule of Law, is free, open to the public and offers one free hour of CLE credit.

Yoshino, Yale Law School’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Law, brings a keen humanistic perspective to his teaching and writing. In COVERING, THE HIDDEN ASSAULT ON OUR CIVIL RIGHTS (Random House 2006), he discusses an unanticipated consequence of civil rights legislation: the phenomenon of “covering,” which he defines as the human pressure to disguise aspects of one’s cultural, racial and sexual identity in the interest of assimilation but at risk of compromising autonomy and basic civil liberties. In The City and the Poet (YALE LAW JOURNAL 2005), he uses Plato’s discussion of the relationship between philosophy and poetry as an analogue for a discussion of the role of literature in law.

Prior to joining the NYU faculty of law, he was the inaugural Guido Calabresi Professor of Law and Deputy Dean of Intellectual Life at Yale Law School. In addition to his scholarly work, Yoshino’s byline often appears in such popular venues as The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post. He has appeared on "The Charlie Rose Show," "The O'Reilly Factor," "Washington Journal" and "The Tavis Smiley Show." His Cleveland-Marshall lecture will draw upon his current research project: a book on Shakespeare and the law.

Yoshino’s undergraduate degree is from Harvard University, his MSc is from Oxford University and his JD is from Yale Law School.

The Joseph C. Hostetler-Baker & Hostetler Endowment was created in 1988 by the late John Deaver Drinko, Senior Advisor to the Policy Committee of the Baker & Hostetler firm, and by friends and alumni of the law school at the firm. In succeeding years, the Baker & Hostetler Endowment has supported the visits of distinguished humanities scholars to the campus and the city.

For details, please call 216.687.6886 or visit www.law.csuohio.edu.

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