Speakers, 2008

August 10-15
The Foundations of Western Civilization and lessons learned

Dr. Noble develops the basic themes of Western Civilization from its origins in the ancient Near East in about 3000 B.C. and explores how they play out today. Is western civilization a success or failure? What are the consequences of failure? What are the ingredients of success?

Dr. Thomas F. X. Noble is Robert M. Conway Director of The Medieval Institute and Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2001. Prior to Notre Dame, he taught for 20 years at the University of Virginia.

The holder of a doctorate from Michigan State University, Professor Noble has long specialized in the Carolingian world and in early medieval Rome and the papacy. Among his many honors are a Fulbright Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, and two grants from the American Philosophical Society.

He is the author of numerous publications, scholarly papers and lectures and most notably The Republic of Peter (1984) and co-arthur of the textbook Western Civilization: The Continuing Experiment. He has three books forthcoming in 2008. Dr. Noble is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and also serves on the editorial boards of both "Speculum" and "Church History."

August 24-29
The Enlightenment: A Critical Turning Point in Western Civilization

Dr. Kors explores the intellectual revolution in Europe between 1600 and 1800 which he calls "perhaps the most profound transformation of European, if not human, life." Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Pascal, Newton, Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Hume, Diderot: these were intellectual giants who changed the world by imparting a new understanding of human possibility. Dr. Kors concludes with an evaluation of the place of enlightenment ideas in contemporary western society and their prognosis in western civilization.

Dr. Kors (B.A. Princeton University, M.A. and Ph.D Harvard University) is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught for more than thirty years. He specializes in European intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries, with a special interest in the relationship between orthodox and heterodox thought in France after 1650. He has published several books and many articles on early-modern French intellectual history and is Editor-in-Chief of the four volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment.

Professor Kors served a 6 year term on the National Council for the Humanities and currently is a member of the Board of Governors of the Historical Society. He is the recipient of fellowships from The American Council for Learned Societies, The Smith-Richardson Foundation, and The Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton. In 2003-04 he was a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, lecturing throughout the United States on early-modern intellectual history and on Academic freedom. He has won four awards for distinguished college teaching and several national awards for the defense of academic freedom.

In 2005, at the White House, he received the National Humanities Medal with the following citation: "for his study of European intellectual thought and his dedication to the study of the humanities. A widely respected teacher, he is the champion of academic freedom."

Dr. Thomas F. X. Noble

Dr. Alan Charles Kors