George Washington Forum News and Events

Peter Lake (Vanderbilt University)

Peter Lake is University Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of the History of Christianity in the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University. Before coming to Vanderbilt in 2008, he taught at Princeton University and Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of four books, including The Trials of Margaret Clitherow (2011); The Antichrist’s Lewd Hat (2002), The Boxmaker’s Revenge (2002); Anglicans and Puritans? (1988) and Moderate Puritans and the Elizabethan Church (1982). In 2010-2011, he gave the Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford. He is currently completing a book on Shakespeare’s history plays.

Richard W. Garnett (University of Notre Dame Law School)

Richard W. Garnett is the Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School. A graduate of Yale Law School, he clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and practiced law briefly before joining the Notre Dame faculty in 1999. He teaches and writes about the freedoms of speech, association, and religion, and also about constitutional law more generally. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding the role of religious believers and beliefs in politics and society. He has published widely on these matters, and is the author of dozens of law-review articles and book chapters. In addition, he has written widely on religion and the Constitution for places such as the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, National Review, Los Angeles Times and USA Today and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR and FOX News to discuss his work. He is currently completing a book called Two There Are: Understanding the Separation of Church and State, which will be published by Cambridge University Press.

The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the George Washington Forum are sponsoring this event.

Patrick Allitt (Emory University)

Patrick Allitt is the Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University. An Americanist specializing in religious, intellectual and environmental history, he earned his PhD in history from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of six books, including I’m the Teacher, You’re the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom (2004) and The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History (2009). He is currently completing a book, which will be published by Yale University Press, on the history of the intellectual and political opponents of environmentalism, from the 1960s to the early twenty-first century.

David Ruderman (University of Pennsylvania)

This conference will examine the origins, character and consequences of the Enlightenment, especially regarding religion. David Ruderman (Penn) will deliver the keynote, while Justin Champion (London), Jonathan Clark (Kansas), Sarah Ellenzweig (Rice), Brad Gregory (Notre Dame), Paul Lim (Vanderbilt), Joan Pau Rubies (LSE), Jonathan Sheehan (University of California, Berkeley), and Dale Van Kley (Ohio State) will deliver plenary addresses.

Harold James (Princeton University)

Harold James, Professor of History at Princeton University, studies economic and financial history and modern German history. He was educated at Cambridge University (Ph.D. in 1982) and was a Fellow of Peterhouse for eight years before coming to Princeton University in 1986. He has written books on the interwar depression in Gemrany, German national identity, Deutsche Bank, and globalization. His latest book is The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle (2009).