Conferences
Jean Bethke Elshtain: The Engaged Mind
February 25-26, 2010
3rd Floor Lecture Hall
Divinity School
University of Chicago
Over the next five years, the Divinity School will be hosting a series of four conferences on the scholarly contributions of Jean Bethke Elshtain across diverse fields of study. This multiyear project is funded by a generous grant from the McDonald Agape Foundation.
The series will bring together senior scholars, many of whom have been Professor Elshtain's interlocutors during her thirty-five year career, to discuss themes ranging from gender and family relationships to war. Conference panels will be designed to foster dialogue among the speakers about the themes, arguments, and controversies raised by Professor Elshtain's work, particularly as it intersects with their own areas of expertise.
The first conference will focus on feminism, the family, and civil society, particularly the themes set out in Public Man, Private Woman, now considered a classic work in modern political theory. Confirmed speakers include David Blankenhorn (Institute for American Values), Don Browning (Chicago), Amitai Etzioni (George Washington University), William Galston (Brookings Institution), Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard Law), Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn (Syracuse), and Arlene Saxenhouse (Michigan), with a keynote address by John Witte, Jr. (Emory Law). The conference is planned for Thursday, February 25 and Friday, February 26, 2010. Professor Elshtain will be present during discussion and will offer her own response at the close of the conference.
Future conference themes will be civil society, democracy, and religion; theology, religion, and politics; and gender, international relations, and just war. Each concentrates on a particular period in Professor Elshtain's career, drawing out the debates most central to her work at that time. All conferences will be interdisciplinary in scope and designed to be of interest to a broad audience.
Watch this space for full details. The full list of speakers for the first conference is as follows:
David Blankenhorn, Institute for American Values
Don Browning, University of Chicago
Kristine Culp, University of Chicago
Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University
William Galston, The Brookings Institution
Richard Garnett, Notre Dame Law
Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law
Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Syracuse University
Arlene Saxonhouse, University of Michigan
Christina Traina, Northwestern University
Linda Waite, University of Chicago
John Witte, Jr., Emory University (also keynote)
Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago
For more information, contact Debra Erickson, conference coordinator, at engagedmind@gmail.com.
