Baylor Features Ancient, Modern Political Philosophy Colloquium

by Lillyan Baker, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
Celebrate the 2008 Election Week with Baylor University by attending the events for the inaugural Colloquium on Ancient and Modern Political Inquiry (CAMPI) on Thursday, Nov. 6 through Thursday, Nov. 13, featuring Josiah Ober, Danielle Allen, Stephen Salkever and Dana Gioia.
The events, which are free and open to the public, are presented by the Baylor's honors college, department of classics and department of political science.
"Baylor's new CAMPI program promotes a conversation between those engaged in contemporary politics and scholars grounded in the study of the ancient world," said Tommye Lou Davis, Associate Dean of the honors college at Baylor. "CAMPI seeks to present the best scholarship concerning ancient and modern politics with bearings upon the pressing political and cultural issues of our time."
Dr. Josiah Ober, professor of political science and classics at Stanford University will kick off the event with his lecture, "Democracy, Innovation and Learning," at 4:00 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 6, in the Alexander Reading Room on the Baylor campus.
Ober is the Constantine Mitsotakis Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. He is the author of more than 60 articles and several books, including Athenian Legacies, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule and Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens. Ober has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Danielle Allen, professor for the school of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Allen will present, "The Authority of Philosophy: On Ideas and Political Influence," at 8:00 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 6, in the Alexander Reading Room on the Baylor campus.
Allen's passion for justice and citizenship in ancient Athens and modern America is implemented in her books, The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens and Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown vs. the Board of Education. She received a doctorate in classics from Cambridge and a doctorate in government from Harvard. In 2002, Ober received a MacArthur Fellowship award for her ability to blend classic culture with modern political theory.
Dr. Stephen Salkever, the Mary Katarine Woodworth professor and chairman of political science at Bryn Mawr College in Byrn Mawr, Pa will lecture on, "Constructing Philosophical Conversations: We Moderns, the Ancient and the Problem of Democracy," at 4:00 p.m., Friday, Nov. 7, in the Alexander Reading Room on the Baylor campus.
Salkever dedication to the similarities between Aristotle's teachings and the study of political science is applied is his book, Finding the Mean: Theory and Practice in Aristotelian Political Philosophy. He is the editor of Cambridge Companion to Greek Political Thought and has written several articles and reviews based on the different time periods of political philosophy. Salkever attended Amherst College and the University of Chicago.
Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts will end the inaugural colloquium with, "The Role of Art in Human Community," at 3:00 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Foyer of Meditation at the Armstrong Browning Library on the Baylor campus.
Gioia is a poet, critic and longtime commentator for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) who retired from his job as a corporate executive at General Foods to become an author. He has written an award-winning volume of poetry, Interrogations at Noon, which received the American Book Award and Can Poetry Matter?, a book dedicated to the importance of literature and arts in democracy. Since 2004, Gioia has been the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and the United States government's art agency.
For more information about CAMPI, please contact Davis at (254)-710-3750.