March 5, 2007 -- In a written statement to serbianna.com, professor Peter French says he has canceled his lecture at the Kent State University sponsored by the Philosophy Department where the promotional poster refers to morality of Serbs as "challenged".

Professor Peter French who was set to speak at the Kent State University on March 7 on a topic "On Being Morally Challenged by Collective Memories" blames the cancellation on the Kent State University for creating a promotional poster that gives a false impression of the intent of his lecture.

"I have chosen not to give the lecture... because the poster that Kent State prepared for the event gives a very false impression of what I have written for the paper I would have been giving," wrote professor French.

"This example [of Serbs] is discussed in two brief paragraphs of a paper that is about 20 pages long. It is in no way the focus of the paper," says French.

The Kent State promotional poster for French's lecture states that "Serbian men described themselves as compelled to rape and murder Kosovar women and children" and that such "felt necessity was provoked and sustained by collective memories nurtured in Serbs for seven centuries." Many ethnic Serbs found this deeply offensive.

"I certainly do not think that Serbian culture is morally deficient or any such thing. I do not know enough about Serbian culture to make such a judgment," wrote Peter French.

"Nowhere in my examples, nor anywhere else in my paper, do I make any claims about the morality of the Serbian people," says Peter French.

"However, after event organizers generated a poster with a blurb citing the Serbian/Kosovo example to announce the lecture and displayed it on the Kent State University campus and website, there arose an outcry of complaints and accusations regarding my supposed views about Serbs."

Professor French finds that the advertising "blurb" in the poster was "created to excite audience interest" and does not constitute his views. Nowhere in his statement, however, does he express concern that such a "blurb" has offended thousands in the ethnic Serbian community in the US and abroad.

Kent State has remained silent expressing no concern that a vast number of ethnic Serbs have been offended by actions that implicate their Philosophy Department and vows to bring back this controversial lecture sometimes in the future.

"The Philosophy Department will soon schedule a Veroni Lectures event on collective memory and moral responsibility," says the Department's web page.

It is still not clear as to who exactly is responsible for producing a racy "blurb" that has offended ethnic Serbs.

Kent State was recently involved in another controversy when US media found that one of the Kent State professors, a Muslim convert, wrote sympathetic literature for a Jihadi website.

Peter French is a 2007 Veroni Memorial Lecturer and a Lincoln Chair in Ethics Director of the Applied Ethics at the Arizona State University.

March 5, 2007 serbianna (c)