Providence College is pleased to announce the 2008 Convocation speaker as:

Austin D. Sarat, PH.D. '69, '08Hon.
William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudentce and Political Science, Amherst College
Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor, Amherst College
Senior Advisor to the Dean of the Faculty, Amherst College

An internationally renowned scholar of capital punishment, Dr. Austin D. Sarat is also a pioneer in the development of legal study in the liberal arts and in the humanistic and cultural study of law.

He is a graduate of Providence College's Liberal Arts Honors Program, which is concluding its 50th-anniversary celebration.  He also holds master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin and a juris doctor degree from Yale Law School.

Sarat has taught since 1974 at Amherst, where he has earned a reputation for his extraordinary commitment and skill as a teacher.  He is founder and chairperson of the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst, as well as the founder of the national scholarly organization, the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities (ASLCH).

Throughout his career, Sarat has authored or edited more than 60 books, including The Killing State: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics and Culture (Oxford University Press, 2001), and The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment: Comparative Perspectives (Stanford University Press, 2005).

He also has made numerous guest expert appearances on National Public Radio, The News Hour, Odyssey and The O'Reilly Factor. 

Sarat's scholarship and literary contributions have been recognized numerous times.  He is the recipient of the 1997 Harry Kalven Award, given by the Law Society Association for distinguished research on law and society.

He also received the 2004 Reginald Heber Smith Award, given biennially to honor the best scholarship on the subject of equal access to justice, and the ASLCH's James Boyd White Award, given for distinguished scholarly achievement and "outstanding and innovative" contributions to the humanistic study of law.

Sarat lives in Amherst, MA. with his wife, Stephanie Sandler.  The couple has three children.