Art and Security Experts to Hold Forum at SMU on Oct. 1

DALLAS (SMU) — As atrocities are being perpetrated by ISIS militants on some of history’s most irreplaceable treasures and their guardians, a distinguished panel of art and international security experts will discuss “Art & Power: War, Politics and the Destruction of Ancient Treasures,” Thursday, Oct. 1, at 5:30 p.m. in Jones Great Hall at Meadows Museum, 5900 Bishop Blvd.

The forum, sponsored by SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies, will be free and open to the public, but reservations are required by 5 p.m. Weds., Sept. 30, by emailing tower@smu.edu.

Featured speakers will be:

Anita M. Difanis, director of government affairs for the Association of Art Museum Directors in New York City, who has combined a passion for politics with the joy of art since joining the AAMD in 1992. Before then, Difanis worked with the American Arts Alliance. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Michigan State University.

Mark A. Roglán, director of the Meadows Museum and adjunct associate professor of art history at SMU, is an authority on Spanish art, art history and community art engagement. His leadership has resulted in an array of creative acquisitions, exhibitions and community outreach events at the Meadows, which features one of the finest repositories of Spanish art in the nation. In 2010, Roglán was knighted for his contributions to arts and culture by King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Joshua Rovner, moderator of the forum, is John G. Tower Distinguished Chair of International Politics and National Security and acting director of the Tower Center, a program within SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. Rovner writes frequently on strategy, international security and U.S. foreign policy. He is the author of Fixing the Facts: National Security and the Politics of Intelligence (Cornell University Press, 2011), which won the International Studies Association Best Book Award for security studies, and the Edgar S. Furniss Book Award.

For more information about the Tower Center and its upcoming events, visit http://www.smu.edu/towercenter or call (214) 768-3954.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls approximately 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

In the spirit of John Tower’s commitment to educate and inspire a new generation of thoughtful leaders, the Tower Center seeks to bridge the gap between the world of ideas, scholarship and teaching, as well as the practice of politics. The primary mission of the Tower Center is to promote the study of politics and international affairs and to stimulate an interest in ethical public service among undergraduates. The Tower Center is an academic center where all parties and views are heard in a marketplace of ideas, and the Center pursues its mission in a non-partisan manner.