Are We in a State of Endless War?

Celebrated author and academic, Professor Mary L. Dudziak, gives Annual American Studies Lecture at the University of Leicester on Monday March 15th.

At the University of Leicester's Annual American Studies Lecture called 'Law, War, and the History of Time', Professor Mary L. Dudziak will look at the relationship between war and time to ask if we are already in a state of endless war.

War is often understood as a temporary state, but America's continuous involvement in military action overseas throughout the twentieth century challenges this notion. In her lecture, Professor Dudziak will examine differing legal interpretations of the end of wars in the United States. In particular, she will take World War Two as an example of a conflict that is commonly believed to have taken place for a clearly defined period of time, despite the fact that legal attempts to define the war's end cover a span of 7 years.

This fuzziness in the timings of wars, and the way wartimes bleed into one another, has resulted in very few periods of peace on the timeline of twentieth century US history.

Professor Dudziak's lecture will also discuss the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and the unsettling possibility that a state of endless war might mean endless detention for those held at Guantanamo.

Dr George Lewis, Director of American Studies at the University of Leicester, commented:

"The Centre for American Studies is delighted that Professor Dudziak has agreed to deliver the 8th Annual American Studies Lecture, which remains the flagship American Studies lecture series in the United Kingdom."

"Professor Dudziak's work has had a major impact across a number of different fields and disciplines. In the crowded historical field of the US civil rights movement, for example, she is one of the very few scholars whose work has changed the paradigm through which we understand civil rights activity. The inter-disciplinary nature of her work dovetails with the approach of the Centre for American Studies here at Leicester and the research interests of a number of scholars within the CAS. What is more, the intersection of historical and legal approaches will be of particular appeal to those in the University's newly formed College of Arts, Humanities, and Law."

"The nature of contemporary debates over the Bush Administration's 'War on Terror,' and the difficulties involved in defining - let alone fighting - the current wars in the Middle East, will mean that the subject matter of the talk will be of interest to members of the general public, students and University staff."

'Law, War, and the History of Time' is at 5.30pm on Monday 15 March in the University Film Theatre, Attenborough Tower, University of Leicester. The lecture is free and open to all.

About Professor Mary L. Dudziak:

Professor Dudziak is the Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Professor of Law, History and Political Science at the University of Southern California Law School. Her research focuses on international approaches to American legal history. She has written extensively about the impact of foreign affairs on civil rights policy during the Cold War and other topics in 20th-century American legal history. Her books include Cold War, Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy, Thurgood Marshall's African Journey, September 11 in History, and she is the editor of Legal Borderlands: Law and the Construction of American Borders.