Presidential Symposium Series Lecture Will Stress Value of a Liberal Education

November 22, 2010

Follow us on Twitter: @BaylorUMediaCom

Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago, will lecture at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, in Kayser Auditorium of the Hankamer School of Business on the Baylor campus.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is a part of the Presidential Symposium Series presented in honor of Baylor President Ken Starr's first year in office. The series features scholars from across the United States speaking on topics relevant to the Baylor mission.

In her lecture "The Sovereign Self and Liberal Learning," Elshtain will speak on the value of a liberal education.

Elshtain is a political philosopher who works to show the connections between political and ethical convictions. She has written numerous books, including: "Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought," "Meditations on Modern Political Thought" and "Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World."

Elshtain also has written for journals of civic opinion and presented lectures on themes of democracy, ethical dilemmas, and religion and politics. She received her bachelor's degree from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1963, and her doctoral degree in politics from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., in 1973.

She has taught at the University of Chicago since 1995 and also is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation, holder of the Maguire Chair in Ethics at the Library of Congress and a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton.

Four future speakers are scheduled throughout the year as a part of the Presidential Symposium Series. This semester's remaining speaker is Dr. Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University. She will speak on engagement of the university within the community at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, in Blume Banquet Hall of the Cashion Academic Center.

by Katy McDowall, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805