SPRING 2013 EVENTS
April 4-5 2013: "Thinking About Politics": A Conference Dedicated to Explaining and Perpetuating the Political Insights of James Q. Wilson
See full program here.
AUTUMN 2012 EVENTS
September 20-21, 2012: A conference on the 25th anniversary of Allan Bloom’s bestseller The Closing of the American Mind.
The conference will begin with an address by Harvey Mansfield on Thursday, September 20 at 6 pm, CGIS South, Belfer Auditorium. On Friday, September 21 the conference will continue at the Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, from 9 am to 4 pm, with three panel discussions. The first panel, on Students, beginning at 9 am, will be chaired by Arthur Melzer, with Kathryn Sensen, James Hankins, and Paul Cantor as speakers; the second, on the University, from 11 am to 1 pm, will be chaired by R. Shep Melnick, with Nannerl Keohane, Rita Koganzon, and James Piereson; the third, chaired by William Kristol, will run from 2 pm to 4 pm, with Margaret Soltan, Michael Davis and Thomas Pangle as speakers. Lunch will be served from 1 to 2 pm.
November 8, 2012: William Kristol, William Galston and Michael W. McConnell, with an analysis of the November 6 election.
William Kristol and William Galston will be meeting on this occasion for the tenth time in their much anticipated biennial debate, offering the perspectives of two reflective political participants and shrewd observers, both of them experts gifted with what might be called partisan objectivity. They will be joined by Michael McConnell, who will add remarks on the role of the Supreme Court in the election. This event will take place at Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South, with presentations from 4 pm to 6:15, followed by a light supper, and resuming with discussion for an hour or more at 7:15.
November 29, 2012: Devin Stauffer, on Leo Strauss’s book on Socrates and Aristophanes.
Devin Stauffer is Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, and is the author of Plato’s Introduction to the Question of Justice (2001), and The Unity of Plato’s Gorgias: Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life (2006). He has received teaching awards at Kenyon College and at Texas. His talk will be held 4 to 6 pm, at a place TBA.
Devin Stauffer is Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, and is the author of Plato’s Introduction to the Question of Justice (2001), and The Unity of Plato’s Gorgias: Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life (2006). He has received teaching awards at Kenyon College and at Texas. His talk will be held 4 to 6 pm, at a place TBA.
SPRING 2012 EVENTS
February 6, 2012: A conversation with Peter Thiel and Niall Ferguson.
To be held at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics Forum, 6 pm. Peter Thiel is a business magnate and venture capitalist, co-founder of PayPal, an investor in Facebook (featured in the film The Social Network), and author of articles such as “The End of the Future” (National Review, October 3, 2011). Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard. He is the author of The World’s Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild (1998), Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire (2004), the The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (2008), and other publications. His most recent books are High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg (2010) and Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011).
To be held at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics Forum, 6 pm. Peter Thiel is a business magnate and venture capitalist, co-founder of PayPal, an investor in Facebook (featured in the film The Social Network), and author of articles such as “The End of the Future” (National Review, October 3, 2011). Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard. He is the author of The World’s Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild (1998), Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire (2004), the The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (2008), and other publications. His most recent books are High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg (2010) and Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011).
February 21, 2012: Christopher Caldwell, on the doubtful survival of Europe.
4:15 pm, at the Center for European Studies. Christopher Caldwell is a writer for the Financial Times and The Weekly Standard, and author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West (2009).
4:15 pm, at the Center for European Studies. Christopher Caldwell is a writer for the Financial Times and The Weekly Standard, and author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West (2009).
March 30, 2012: Harvey Mansfield’s students and friends, to celebrate his 80th birthday discussing a selection of his writings in five sessions from 10 am to 5 pm in the afternoon, with lunch provided from 12-2 pm. The five sessions, each one hour long, will be: Party Government; Liberalism and Conservatism; Executive Power; Machiavelli and Indirect Government; Manliness and Thumos. Conference schedule and readings.
April 19, 2012: Robert Bartlett, on “Sophistry: How to Make It Work for You.”
To be held in the Government Department’s Political Theory Colloquium, Thursday, 4-6 pm, room TBA. Robert Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. Among other books, he is the author of The Idea of Enlightenment (2001), translator and commentator of The Protagoras and Meno (2004), Xenophon’s Shorter Socratic Writings(1996), and, with Susan Collins, of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (2011).
To be held in the Government Department’s Political Theory Colloquium, Thursday, 4-6 pm, room TBA. Robert Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. Among other books, he is the author of The Idea of Enlightenment (2001), translator and commentator of The Protagoras and Meno (2004), Xenophon’s Shorter Socratic Writings(1996), and, with Susan Collins, of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (2011).
Note: Videos of past events are available on YouTube.