Dr. David Conter doesn't mind four letter words being used in his classroom - at least not if they're being studied as part of his obscenity law classes in the Department of Philosophy. He also looks at what is crude, lewd, and challenging to society standards in music, film and literature, often to the piqued interest of his students. It's all part of his popular course, Obscenity Law and Constitutional Freedom of Expression. It's a great primer for students interested in pursing a law career, which many have gone on to do at such prominent Ivy League schools as Harvard and Brown, as well as Oxford University in England.
"Often when people hear philosophy they think Plato, Aristotle and old stuff, but that's not what I do. I don't buy the idea that philosophy is without application," says Conter. "In some ways what I hope to do is make law school easier for students when they get there, to give them some grasp of what the serious study of law is about before they get to the daily grind."
Conter comes to his unique field of study through his interest in hate speech and holocaust denial in the 1980s. He went on to study controversial art exhibits that clashed with evangelical thinking in the United States. "I'm interested in how you convince twelve ordinary people (on a jury) that stuff has artistic merit," he explains. "An artistic merit defence can win, but a trial is still devastating for the owner of the gallery because it costs so much money, and in the end it discourages people from doing valuable things."
His research involves finding a definition of art and examining how people can settle issues pertaining to societal standards. In the past, his classes have examined rap music banned from Canada through the 2 Live Crew case, and have looked at literature such as American Psycho. He is now increasingly involved in studying community standards on obscenity and the Internet because of the growth of online pornography. He also instructs related courses in philosophy that look at how the law of evidence works, which is often good background for students pursuing journalism studies.
Dr. Conter came to Huron College after graduating with three degrees from McGill, including a PhD in the philosophy of law. His son, Simon, is studying French and history at Huron.
