Marjorie Kelly, ethicist, commentator and author of the "The Divine Right of Capital," spoke at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, in the Mitchell Auditorium on The College of St. Scholastica campus.
Kelly's talk, "Democracy and the Corporation," is the first in the College's Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice Lecture Series for 2009-2010. The series, entitled "The Future of Capitalism," will focus on the systemic and moral foundation of our economic and financial system.
"The goal of the lecture series is to host speakers with varying viewpoints in order to prompt meaningful reflection and discourse on the topic," says Tom Morgan, director of the Alworth Center, and associate professor in the Department of Languages and International Studies.
Kelly is a senior associate at Tellus Institute, an interdisciplinary not-for-profit research and policy organization in Boston, MA. She is cofounder of Corporation 20/20, a project to create the vision and chart the course for the future corporation.
Kelly was also cofounder and president of the company that published Business Ethics, a national magazine on corporate social responsibility she launched in 1987. It is known for its annual listing of the "100 Best Corporate Citizens."
She is author of the book "The Divine Right of Capital," which offers an analysis of the design of the corporate form, and explores ideas for creating a more democratically responsible corporate design. Library Journal named it one of the best business books of the year.
Kelly's writings have appeared in publications including the Harvard Business Review, Utne Reader, Chief Executive, San Francisco Chronicle, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Boston Globe, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Kelly is a board member of Great Neighborhoods! Development Corporation in Minneapolis and of Salem Alliance for the Environment in her hometown of Salem, MA. She has been a member of the steering committee of the Strategic Corporate Initiative sponsored by Corporate Ethics International, as well as serving on advisory boards for the International Institute for Corporate Governance and Accountability at George Washington University Law School, the Capital Ownership Group, and the Citizen Works Corporate Reform Commission.
Kelly holds a master's in magazine journalism and a bachelor's in English, cum laude, from the University of Missouri. She has been inducted into the portrait gallery of "Americans Who Tell the Truth." Kelly lived in Minneapolis for 15 years, where she was active at Dharma Field Zen Center and chaired the Advisory Board of Citizens for Corporate Responsibility.
The series is sponsored by the Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice and funded in part by the Lee and Rose Warner Foundation, the Global Awareness Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and Reader Weekly. These lectures also have received special support form the DeWitt and Caroline Van Evera Foundation and from Mary C. Van Evera in memory of William P. Van Evera, former trustee of the College.
Additional lectures in the series:
All lectures will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Mitchell Auditorium on campus.
Tuesday, Oct. 20
"We're Better Off Than We Think" with W. Michael Cox, author of "Myths of Rich and Poor."
Tuesday, March 9
"The Wealth of Communities" with Bill McKibben, author of "Deep Economy."
