George Washington Forum News and Events

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.

Steven Pincus (Yale University)

Steven Pincus is Bradford Durfee Professor of History and co-director of CHESS at Yale University. He received his PhD from Harvard University, after completing his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Protestantism and Patriotism: Ideologies and the Making of English Foreign Policy, 1650-1688 (Cambridge, 1996) and 1688: The First Modern Revolution (Yale, 2009). His latest book is The Heart of the Declaration: The Founders’ Case for an Activist Government (Yale, 2016).

Ben Domenech (The Federalist)

Ben Domenech is the publisher of The Federalist, host of The Federalist Radio Hour, and writes The Transom, a daily subscription newsletter for political insiders. He was previously a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute; editor in chief of The City, an academic journal on faith and culture; and a speechwriter for HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas. He co-founded Redstate and co-hosted Coffee & Markets, an award-winning economic podcast. His writing has been published in The Daily Beast, Politico, Commentary, Reason and GQ. He appears regularly on FOX News, MSNBC, CNN and CBS’s Face the Nation.

Kimberley A. Strassel (Wall Street Journal)

Kimberley A. Strassel is a member of Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, based in Washington. Since 2007 she has written the Potomac Watch column. She joined the editorial page in 1999 as an assistant editorial features editor for The Wall Street Journal after covering real estate for Journal’s news pages and spending four years in London writing about technology for the Wall Street Journal Europe. She joined the Editorial Board in 2005. Strassel is a graduate of Princeton University.