Release date: Nov. 20, 2003
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Students Devote Study to Loyalty in Emory Seminar

With the United States involved in an international war on terror and a contentious presidential election looming on the horizon, students in Emory University professor Harvey Klehr's freshman seminar titled "Loyalty" have found a topical subject to explore by looking at various kinds of allegiances, and how one makes decisions when they conflict.

Klehr's class explores the theme of loyalty in a variety of settings: The decision of filmmaker Elia Kazan to "name names" of old friends as fellow communists before the Un-American Activities Committee; the betrayals of friends and family by such people as Linda Tripp and Bill Clinton during the impeachment scandals; Socrates' decision to die rather than to flee Athens; and loyalty to a religion or ethnic group versus loyalty to the state, and others.

"I want my students to understand how complicated loyalty is, how many different kinds there are, and that often they are not congruent," says Klehr, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Political Science at Emory.

Using both current events and classics, Klehr's students have examined how people have resolved conflicts of loyalty in history and in such works of literature as "Antigone," "The Crucible" and the Book of Job. Patriotism and wartime loyalty issues have been on the table for class as well, with current events providing food for thought. Topics of discussion have included the backlash against Americans expressing viewpoints that question foreign policy or war as a means to an end.

Jason Bradford, a first-year student from Chicago majoring in political science and philosophy, says he wanted to study from a political science perspective, "the things that drive people to show devotion to one another."

"I've learned a lot, but I've come away with more questions than answers. I think that's what you get out of a good class when you've been challenged by the topic," he says. "The subject matter is not concrete, and we've discovered that the definitions of loyalty are fluid. Dr. Klehr is great at facilitating and directing discussion, allowing you to learn from yourself and your fellow students."

The seminar grew out of Klehr's work on the American Communist Party, and was first offered around the time of the controversy surrounding Kazan's lifetime achievement Academy Award. "I'd been thinking about questions of loyalty and those in the American Communist Party who betrayed their country," Klehr says. "In the case of Kazan, he testified against his comrades and was still hated for it 40 years later."

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