Trovato Lecture
Dr. Harry Murray
“Hellfire from Heaven: The Morality of Weaponized Drones”
St John Fisher College
February 20
7:00 p.m. in Basil 135
On Thursday, February 20, St. John Fisher College will host the annual
Joseph A. Trovato Lecture featuring Dr. Harry Murray, Chair of the
Sociology and Anthropology Department at Nazareth College. He will
present “Hellfire from Heaven: The Morality of Weaponized Drones,”
addressing the moral and ethical issues raised by weaponized drones in
light of Catholic social teaching, biblical perspectives, and international law.Murray will address issues including the killing of civilians, drones
as a way to save American lives, the effect of drones on children and
community in the tribal areas of Pakistan, the execution of American
citizens without due process, drones in the context of international
law, the effect of drones on the growth of terrorism, and the blurring
of the line between war and peace. He will also discuss the nonviolent
resistance to weaponized drones that has arisen in Upstate New York
and throughout the country.

Murray has been teaching at Nazareth since 1987. He received a Ph.D.
in Sociology from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in
Regional Planning from Cornell University. He is the author of Do Not
Neglect Hospitality: The Catholic Worker and the Homeless
(1990) and,
most recently, co-author of “Toward a Psychology of Nonviolence” in
        Toward a Socially Responsible Psychology for a Global Era (2014).
Murray has been a member of the St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality
community since 1987, responsible for coordinating the Saturday meal.
In addition, he has been involved in the peace movement since the
1970s and has participated in nonviolent civil disobedience at the
Pentagon, Griffiss Air Force Base, Seneca Army Depot, the School of
the Americas, the Monroe County Department of Social Services, and,
most recently, Hancock Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, site of a
control center for MQ-9 Reaper drones.

The lecture is hosted by the Ethics Minor Program, and is free and
open to the public.