{"id":239,"date":"2021-03-25T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-political-science\/mitaulecture\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:22:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:22:47","slug":"mitaulecture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/mitaulecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Theodore Mitau Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"video-embed block-container\" >\n\t    <div class=\"video-embed__container\">\n    \t<div class=\"embed-container\">\n    \t    \t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Macalester Annual Mitau Lecture 2026 Featuring Alyssa Battistoni\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1167837134?h=b534649ba3&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe> \n    \t<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"160\" height=\"176\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/589\/2011\/06\/mitau.gif\" alt=\"Photo of Theodore Mitau\" class=\"wp-image-198\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Theodore Mitau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Theodore Mitau was born in Berlin in 1920 to a well-established Jewish family. By the age of fourteen, he had to adorn the Star of David to the clothes he wore to school, and soon thereafter realized that further educational possibilities would be severely constrained by Nazi policies toward the Jews. During the mid-1930s, German Jews primarily feared increased discrimination and exclusion; no one had yet thought of genocide. Accordingly, he left for the United States, where he completed his undergraduate studies at 日韩精品, and earned a doctorate in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. No other member of his family survived the Holocaust. Despite all efforts to get his mother to safety in the United States, Rosel Mitau eventually perished in the Theresienstadt concentration camp near Prague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though he buried within himself much of this personal tragedy, even from his wife and children, his daughter Andrea Mitau Kircher notes \u201c It made him that much more determined to accomplish something, to try to make the world a better place.\u201d No doubt, the energy and passion with which he threw himself into his teaching and research stemmed from this intensely personal sense of mission. One can see it captured in photographs of Mitau the teacher; one can sense it in the anecdotes alumni recount of this small, wiry man with boundless enthusiasm who, in a probing but joyful Socratic manner, invariably managed to elicit from them the best, individually and collectively. Under Theodore Mitau\u2019 s leadership, Macalester\u2019 s new Political Science Department flowered into one of the most preeminent at the College, and soon generated both state and national attention, given its association with Hubert Humphrey, Mitau\u2019 s colleague, and Walter Mondale, a student of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike older German academic expatriates who were formed in a tradition at once culturally brilliant but politically and pedagogically autocratic, Mitau fully embraced American democratic institutions and values. His scholarly interests largely centered on U.S. Politics, primarily the areas of state and local government, and the Supreme Court. His major books include: Politics in Minnesota (1960); Proximate Solutions: Case Studies in State and Local Government (1964); State and Local Government: Politics and Processes (1966); and Decade of Decision: The Supreme Court and the Constitutional Revolution (1967). He addressed similar topics in numerous articles published in professional journals of law and the social sciences. Mitau\u2019 s intense commitment to democratic institutions was also reflected in an active public life quite unusual for otherwise busy and engaged academics. He was a consultant to governmental agencies, commissions, and committees, as well as to public service associations (U.S. Civil Service Commission; U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; U.S. Senate Committee on Constitutional Revision; Minnesota Legislative Commission on Election Laws; and the Minnesota Historical Society). In March 1968, he left Macalester to become Chancellor of the Minnesota State University System where he instituted innovative methods of teaching and reached out to a broad spectrum of non-traditional students. In 1976, he was appointed a Distinguished Service Professor by the Board of Trustees of the state system, recognizing his manifold contributions as well as his desire to pursue his teaching and research interests. That same year, he returned to 日韩精品 as an adjunct professor of Political Science. At the time of his untimely death in 1979, Mitau was working on a new volume entitled Constitutional Frontiers in Personal Privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lectures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2026 Mitau Lecture<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Alyssa Battistoni<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2025 Mitau Lecture<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Charmaine Chua<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;What Does Anti-Imperial Working Class Internationalism Mean Today?&#8221;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2024 Mitau Lecture<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Omar Wasaw<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Narrative Power: How the Civil Rights Movement Overthrew Jim Crow&#8221;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2023 Mitau Lecture<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Adom Getachew<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Universal Race: Garveyism and the Practices of Pan Americanism.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2022 Mitau Lecture<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>John Ikenberry<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Does the Liberal Order Have a Future?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2021 Mitau Lecture<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>William Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-first&nbsp;Century&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tiffany Willoughby-Herard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m Really Sorry about What Happened to You but, You&#8217;re Not One of Us, You&#8217;re a Foreigner&#8217;: A History of Afrophobia in Contemporary South Africa&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><div>Patrick J. Deneen<\/div> <div>The Case for Illiberal Democracy<\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cathy Cohen<br>Race, Race, and Vulnerability: The Politics of millennials in the Era of Trump<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2018<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Jill Locke<br>The Trump Presidency and the Death of Shame<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2017<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Jennifer L. Hochschild<br>Here They Treat Us Like a Different Race: Political Implications of Class-in-Race Inequality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2016<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ian F. Haney L\u00f3pez<br>Trumpeting&nbsp;Racism: Race, Politics, and Economic Jeopardy for All<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2015<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Adolph Reed<br>How The Left Redefined Social Justice: Capitalist Class Power and Inequality from FDR to Obama<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2014<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Alfie Kohn<br><em>Many Children Left Behind: &#8220;School Reform&#8221; and Corporate-Style Education Policy<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2013<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Harold Hongju Koh<br><em>International Law As Smart Power<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2012<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lani Guinier<br>Rethinking Race and Class<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2011<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rogers Smith<br>Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2010<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Paul Light<br>Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service, NYU Wagner<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2009<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wendy Brown<br>Professor of Political Science At University of California, Berkeley<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2008<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Alexander Wendt<br>Mershon Professor of International Security At The Ohio State University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2007<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Derrick Bell<br>日韩精品ing Professor of Law At New York University School of Law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2006<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ann-Marie Slaughter<br>Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs At Princeton University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2005<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kathryn Sikkink<br>Arleen Carlson Professor of Political Science At the University of Minnesota<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2004<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Orlando Patterson<br>John Cowles Professor of Sociology At Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2003<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Michael Ignatieff<br>Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy At Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2002<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Jeffrey Rosen<br>Associate Professor at the George Washington University Law School<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2001<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Michael Walzer<br>UPS Foundations Professor and Executive Officer of the School of Social Science, Institute for Advance Study, At Princeton University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2000<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Martha C. Nussbaum<br>Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at The University of Chicago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1999<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Michael J. Sandel<br>Professor of Government at Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1998<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Randall Kennedy<br>Professor at the Harvard Law School<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1997<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Jean Bethke Elshtain<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, University of Chicago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1996<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Theodore J. Lowi<br>John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions, Cornell University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1994<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Nancy Fraser<br>Professor or Philosophy, Northwestern University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1993<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Andrew Ross<br>Professor of American Studies, Princeton University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1992<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Richard Mohr<br>Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1991<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sylvia A. Law<br>Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry, New York University Law School<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1990<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Benjamin R. Barber<br>Professor and Walt Whitman Chair of Political Science, Rutgers University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1989<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Robert Ellis Smith<br>Editor, <em> The Privacy Journal <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1988<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Frances Olsen,<br>Professor or Law, UCLA and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Patricia Williams<br>Professor of Law, City University of New York at Queens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1986<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Philip B. Kurland<br>Professor of Law, New York University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1985<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Howard Zinn,<br>Professor of Political Science, Boston University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1984<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ruth Macklin<br>Professor of Bioethics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1983<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fred W. Friendly<br>CBS Broadcast Journalist<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1982<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Alan F. Westin<br>Professor of Law and Government, Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1981<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Arthur R. Miller<br>Professor of Law, Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1980<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Stephen K. Bailey<br>Professor of Public Policy and Education, Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1979<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Honorable Walter F. Mondale<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theodore Mitau was born in Berlin in 1920 to a well-established Jewish family. By the age of fourteen, he had to adorn the Star of David to the clothes he wore to school, and soon thereafter realized that further educational possibilities would be severely constrained by Nazi policies toward the Jews. During the mid-1930s, German [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-239","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3043,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions\/3043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/political-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}