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West, George to present next Ubben Lecture
Two prominent educators and intellectuals – Cornel West, an outspoken voice in progressive politics in the United States, and Robert P. George, who has been called America’s “most influential conservative Christian thinker” – are coming to DePauw University on Thursday, April 7.
The two men will discuss the nation’s partisan divide and offer ways for each of us to find common ground with those whose views are different from our own.
The Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture, “Embracing Civility: Finding Common Ground in Uncommonly Fractured Times,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in DePauw’s Kresge Auditorium, located within the Green Center for the Performing Arts. Like all Ubben Lectures, it is presented free of admission charge and is open to all. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis, and no tickets will be distributed.
In a poll released this month, the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public found that 43 percent of Americans believe that politics has become less civil in the past year and that voters continue to rank political division as one of the most important issues facing the country (21 percent), along with the rising cost of living (23 percent) and jobs and the economy (22 percent). The poll asked voters to rate on a scale of 0-100 the level of political division in America, with 100 being the highest level. The mean score was 70.36.
Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard and the University of Paris. West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton.
He has written 20 books and has edited 13, including “Democracy Matters,” “Race Matters” and his most recent work, “Black Prophetic Fire.” West has made several previous visits to DePauw and was the university’s 1996 commencement speaker.
Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He has frequently been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, teaching philosophy of law and related subjects. George has served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on the President’s Council on Bioethics, as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology, and is a former Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States.
His books include “Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality” and “Conscience and Its Enemies.” A graduate of Swarthmore College, Professor George holds MTS and JD degrees from Harvard University and the degrees of DPhil, BCL, DCL and DLitt from Oxford University.
Both men have received many honors, and together received the inaugural Open Mind Award of Heterodox Academy for their leadership in scholarship and the movement to advance viewpoint diversity and reform American higher education.
Established in 1986 through the support of 1958 DePauw graduates Timothy H. and Sharon Williams Ubben, the lecture series was designed to “bring the world to Greencastle.” It has presented 116 events over the past 36 years. Previous Ubben Lecturers have included Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Spike Lee, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall, Tony Blair and Jimmy Kimmel. Earlier in this academic year, basketball Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings presented a Nov. 22 Ubben Lecture.