George Washington Forum News and Events

Carter Snead (University of Notre Dame Law School)

O. Carter Snead is William P. and Hazel B. White Director of the Center for Ethics and Culture and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2005. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University after completing his undergraduate degree at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. After clerking for Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, he served as general counsel to the President’s Council on Bioethics. He is recognized as a leading expert in public bioethics. His research explores issues relating to neuroethics, enhancement, stem cell research, abortion, and end-of-life decision-making. He has authored more than 40 journal articles, book chapters, and essays. His scholarly works appear in such publications as the New York University Law Review, the Harvard Law Review Forum, the Vanderbilt Law Review, Constitutional Commentary, Quaderni Costituzionali, the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and Political Science Quarterly.

This event was rescheduled from 7 February owing to inclement weather.

Mark Lilla (Columbia University)

Mark Lilla is Professor of Humanities at Columbia University. He received his PhD from Harvard University. Before moving to Columbia in 2007, he taught in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and at New York University. A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, he is the author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics (2017), The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction (2016), The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007),The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics (2001),and G.B. Vico: The Making of an Anti-Modern (1993). Lilla’s talk is co-sponsored by the George Washington Forum, the Office of Student Affairs and Ohio University’s LGBT Center.

Jeffrey Collins (Queen's University, Canada)

Jeffrey R. Collins is an Associate Professor of History at Queen’s. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1999 and served, for three years, as a Harper Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. He has published numerous articles on early modern religion, politics, and political thought, and is regular book reviewer for publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Times Literary Supplement. His first book, The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes, was published by Oxford University Press in 2005. He is currently writing a second book on early modern religious conflict and the origins of liberal political order.

Paul Cantor (University of Virginia)

Paul Cantor is Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English at the University of Virginia. He received both his BA and PhD from Harvard University. He is the author of seven books, on subjects ranging from Shakespeare, Romanticism, Austrian economics and pop culture. His most recent book is Shakespeare’s Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of the Ancient World (Chicago, 2017).

This conference will consider the history of the freedom of speech, 1550– 1850. Debora Shuger (UCLA), Ann Thomson (European University Institute), David Womersley (Oxford) and David Como (Stanford) will deliver plenary lectures.