The politics of horror films, the intersection of human rights and international development, and an overview of world religions come under discussion in three lectures at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College during March.

Jason Middleton, assistant professor of English and film and media studies at the University of Rochester, offers a talk titled American Horror Cinema in the “Age of Terror”: Reading the Politics of Eli Roth’s “Hostel” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 8, in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

A professor of international humanitarian studies at Tufts University, Peter Uvin addresses the topic When Development Practitioners Care About Human Rights, What Do They Do Differently? at 5 p.m. Monday, March 15, also in the Keck Classroom.

Stephen Prothero, author of bestselling books about religion, gives the lecture The Work of Doing Nothing: Wandering in the World’s Religions at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 24, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

The events are sponsored by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Lectures Committee and are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact this adaugero@bates.edu.

Middleton will analyze contemporary American horror film in the geopolitical context of the recent Bush administration’s “war on terror.” He will focus on the 2003 film Hostel, which initially presents a critique of American aggression and cultural arrogance, Middleton says, but ultimately justifies American violence in a manner resonant with the policies of the Bush administration.

While it might be tempting just to dismiss such films as egregious examples of sadism and exploitation, Middleton believes, the confluence of their popularity with the outrage they often provoked demands a kind of critical attention that has been applied to their progenitors — slasher horror and exploitation films, and pornography.

Middleton co-edited the collection Medium Cool: Music Videos from Soundies to Cellphones (Duke University Press, 2007). He is also an experimental filmmaker.

At Tufts, Uvin is also the director of the Fletcher School’s Institute for Human Security, which promotes research and at the intersection of humanitarianism, development, human rights and conflict resolution. His book Human Rights and Development (Kumarian Press, 2004) advocates a rights-based approach to development. Uvin shows how development practitioners can surmount tough ethical and human-rights obstacles they encounter.

His 1998 book Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda (Kumarian Press, 1998) made the bold, influential argument that development aid was complicit in the structural conflicts that resulted in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Prothero is professor of religion at Boston University and the author of several books including American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003) and The New York Times bestseller Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know (HarperOne, 2007).

He has commented on religion for National Public Radio and major television networks, and has been a guest on “The Daily Show” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” A regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, he has written for The New York Times Magazine and New York Times Book Review, Slate, Salon, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe.

Robert Drinan, an ordained Jesuit priest, professor of law at Georgetown University and internationally recognized human rights advocate, will discuss the ethical and legal challenges facing the United States as it pursues national domestic security in a talk titled America’s War on Terrorism: Human Rights, Civil Rights and Homeland Security at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

Drinan has advocated for international human rights for more than three decades. During the 10 years between his deanship at Boston College Law School and joining the Georgetown Law Center faculty in 1981, he represented Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District in Congress from 1971 to 1981. Drinan chaired the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee. Drinan has served on private delegations to the Netherlands, South Africa, Sudan, Israel and the former Soviet Union, and on privately sponsored human rights missions to Chile, the Philippines, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, France and Vietnam.

A regular contributor to law reviews and journals of policy and opinion, Dinan is the author of The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights (Yale University Press, 2001). Anyone interested in human rights will read Robert Drinan’s informative, passionate and challenging book with deep concern and hope,” said author Elie Wiesel.

Drinan’s other books include The Fractured Dream (Crossroad, 1991); Stories From the American Soul (Loyola U. Press, 1990); Cry of the Oppressed: The History and Hope of the Human Rights Revolution (Harper & Row, 1987); God and Caesar on the Potomac: A Pilgrimage of Conscience (Michael Glazier, 1985); Beyond the Nuclear Freeze (Seabury, 1983); Honor the Promise: America’s Commitment to Israel (Doubleday, 1977); Vietnam and Armageddon (Sheed & Ward, 1970); Democracy, Dissent and Disorder (Seabury, 1969); and Religion, the Courts and Public Policy (McGraw-Hill, 1963).

Drinan serves on numerous committees devoted to human rights. Currently a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates, Drinan is a past chair of the ABA Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of the International League for Human Rights, the Lawyers’ Committee for International Human Rights, the Council for a Livable World Educational Fund, Americans for Democratic Action, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He is one of the founders of the Lawyer’s Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry.