Jean Bethke Elshtain to Visit IWU
Monday, October 29, 2012
Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain, the guest of Indiana Wesleyan's fall semester President's Author Series on October 30, will reflect on her prolific career of service as a public intellectual. She is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, with additional appointments in Political Science and the Committee on International Relations. Dr. Elshtain earned a bachelor's degree from Colorado State University, a master's degree in history as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and a doctoral degree in politics from Brandeis University. Before joining the University of Chicago in 1994, she served on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Vanderbilt University, where she was the first woman at that institution to hold an endowed professorship.
Considered one of America's leading public intellectuals, Dr. Elshtain has been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011 she was honored with the Democracy Service Award, previously given to the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, and Vaclav Havel.
Dr. Elshtain is the author of numerous books. Her publications include Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought; Meditations on Modern Political Thought; Women and War; Democracy on Trial (a New York Times' notable book for 1995); Real Politics: At the Center of Everyday Life; Augustine and the Limits of Politics; Who Are We? Critical Reflections, Hopeful Possibilities (recipient of the Theologos Award for Best Academic Book 2000 by the Association of Theological Booksellers); Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy (honored by the Society of Midland Authors in 2002); Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World (named one of the best nonfiction books of 2003 by Publishers Weekly); and Sovereignty: God, State, and Self (her Gifford Lectures, published 2008).
Dr. Elshtain will be interviewed by John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture. All are welcome to attend the conversation, which will commence sometime between 7:00 and 7:15 pm on Tuesday, October 30, in the Globe Theatre of the Barnes Student Center. Please note that because WIWU will be videotaping the event, late arrivals, which are interruptive to taping, will not be permitted.