A spring lecture series at Kenyon College will highlight a number of modern challenges facing America’s core liberal principles — those enshrined in the Bill of Rights and a broader respect for the rule of law and a market society.
Guests addressing the issue from both domestic and international perspectives will include academic experts from across the political spectrum as well as Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who was a foreign policy official in both the Clinton and Obama administrations.
A widely published author on American foreign policy who also served on the National Security Council, Daalder will speak Monday, Feb. 9, on the topic, “The Future of the Western Alliance.” The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Archon Auditorium in Kenyon’s Oden Hall, 107 College Drive.
The event — like the entire lecture series from Kenyon’s Center for the Study of American Democracy (CSAD) — is free and open to the public. Parking is available on site behind Chalmers Library in the West Quad Parking Garage.
“America was founded on classical, liberal principles, and after the Second World War, the U.S. set up an international order that had institutions that promoted those liberal values. Now, that order is starting to decay pretty significantly,” said Joseph L. Klesner, CSAD director and a professor of political science and international studies. ”The kinds of conversations that we're trying to have this semester are about what we're losing, what others are seeking to replace it with, and, consequently, what our future is.”
Other speakers will visit campus over the course of the semester — beginning this week — as part of the CSAD lecture series. All will be speaking in Archon Auditorium unless otherwise noted.
Michael Clune, a professor at the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society at The Ohio State University, will speak on the topic, “What is Viewpoint Diversity?” during an appearance Thursday, Jan. 22. The 4:10 p.m. event is cosponsored by Kenyon’s Integrated Program in Humane Studies and the Department of Political Science. It will be held in The Gund’s Community Foundation Theater, 101 ½ College Drive.
On Monday, Jan. 26, two faculty from Carleton College in Minnesota — Amna Khalid, professor of history, and Jeff Snyder, professor of educational studies — will give a 7:30 p.m. presentation called, “Speak Up! Why Free Expression is Essential for Diversity, Democracy and Education.”
Laura K. Field, senior advisor with the illiberalism studies program at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., will give a Wednesday, Feb. 4, lecture at 7:30 about “Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right.” Her book of the same title, published in November by Princeton University Press, tells the story of the conservative intellectual movement shaping President Donald Trump’s agenda.
On Tuesday, Feb. 17, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University, will speak on the topic “History in the Crosshairs: Educators, the Public Square and the Fight for the American Past.” The 7:30 p.m. event is cosponsored by Kenyon’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Two distinguished thinkers will come together on Wednesday, March 18, to discuss criticism, culture and public life in the lecture, “Can Theory Save the World?” The 7:30 p.m. discussion will feature Rita Felski, John Stewart Bryan Professor of English at the University of Virginia, and Jeffrey Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Yale University. It is cosponsored by Kenyon’s NEH Distinguished Teaching Chair.
The series will conclude on Wednesday, March 25, when Lily Geismer, a professor of history at Claremont McKenna College in California, talks about “Professional-Class Liberals and the Fate of the Democratic Party.” The event will take place at 7:30 p.m.
Established in 2007, Kenyon’s Center for the Study of American Democracy organizes conferences, lectures and seminars with the goal of stimulating nonpartisan civic and political discourse. It also provides teaching and research opportunities for faculty and students and promotes student internships in Washington, D.C.
For more information, contact the Center for the Study of American Democracy at americandemocracy@kenyon.edu or 740-427-5855.