George Washington Forum News and Events

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.

Bruce Caldwell (Duke University)

Bruce Caldwell is Research Professor of Economics and director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University. He earned his PhD in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after completing his undergraduate degree at the College of William and Mary. Since 2002, he has served as the general editor of the book series, The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, published by the University of Chicago Press. He has written two books, edited ten others and published more than six dozen refereed articles and nearly two dozen more book chapters. Caldwell’s lecture is co-sponsored by the George Washington Forum and the Wealth and Poverty Theme.