As you plan your coverage of the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, please consider the inaugural conference of Wayne State University's new Center for the Study of Citizenship.

Titled "The Many Faces of Patriotism," the conference will feature scholars and public figures from the U.S. and abroad who will discuss patriotism and its relationship to nationalism, multiculturalism, dissent and the events of Sept. 11, 2001. On the agenda are speeches, discussions, a film and even a commissioned song. It will take place Thursday, Sept. 11 and Friday, Sept. 12 at WSU's McGregor Memorial Conference Center, which was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the World Trade Center.

"It is particularly appropriate that the Center holds its first conference on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, which highlighted the importance of citizenship and infused Americans with a new sense of patriotism," said Marc W. Kruman, WSU Department of History Chair and Director of the Center for the Study of Citizenship. "The speakers will explore the idea of patriotism in the U.S. and around the world."

The conference will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until late afternoon both days. Among the speakers will be Roger Wilkins, the former assistant attorney general and Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer for the Washington Post and New York Times; former U.S. Rep. David Bonior and former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, the new president of the American Bar Association. Among the international scholars participating in the conference are: Sakhela Buhlungu, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; and Gerhard Mare, University of Natal, South Africa.

The conference is the first undertaking of WSU's recently established Center for the Study of Citizenship, which has developed an ambitious agenda to promote the study of citizenship by scholars, students, and the broader citizenry through conferences, lectures, publications, seminars, fellowships, classes, a web site and, in February 2004, a student concert and art show.

A live web cast of the conference will be available for a limited time at http://www.utv.wayne.edu/map.ram.