Incoming students to Case Western Reserve University will learn about responding to difficult and complex questions

Incoming students to Case Western Reserve University will learn about responding to difficult and complex questions when they read Harvard University Professor Michael Sandel’s “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?”

The university announced Sandel’s book as its 2011 Common Reading selection. All new students receive a copy of the book and are encouraged to read it and participate in group discussions during the opening of school activities. 

The author also will visit the Case Western Reserve campus as the featured speaker during the university’s Fall Convocation on Wednesday, Aug. 31, at 4:30 p.m. in Severance Hall. Tickets for the free, public event will be available later in the summer at the Severance Hall Box Office. Check case.edu/events/convocation for ticket availability.

“I am delighted that the members of the Class of 2015 will begin their Case Western Reserve experience with Professor Sandel’s work,” President Barbara R. Snyder said. “I hope they find it provocative and enlightening, and that they take full advantage of the opportunity to debate the text with classmates when they arrive in August.”

The New York Times best-selling author is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University. Some 15,000 students have taken his popular Justice class, where he explores what is right or wrong in big questions related to politics, ethics, human rights and other pertinent questions in everyday life. 

Due to its popularity, Harvard launched Justice into the public realm, making it the university’s first undergraduate course available to the public online at www.JusticeHarvard.org and on public television.

He also has taught and lectured at the Sorbonne in Paris, Oxford University in England and at universities in China. The BBC broadcast his delivery of the prestigious BBC Reith Lectures throughout the UK and worldwide on its BBC World Service network.

Sandel’s engaging speaking and writing has extended into the lecture hall, where his teaching has earned him the Harvard-Radcliffe Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize and recognition by the American Political Science Association in 2008 for his contributions to teaching excellence.