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Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain Lectures on "America and the World"
HOUGHTON, N.Y. – Jean Bethke Elshtain is the third speaker in Houghton College’s Spring lecture series. Dr. Elshtain will be delivering a lecture entitled “America and the World” at 8 p.m. in Wesley Chapel on April 15, 2010. It is open to the public.
Jean Bethke Elshtain is currently the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. She is a well-published author and editor as well as “one of America’s foremost public intellectuals.” (http://divinity. uchicago.edu/faculty/elshtain.shtml) She often writes for journals of civic opinion and lectures around the world on themes of democracy, ethical dilemmas, international relations as well as religion and politics. Dr. Elshtain has been tasked as a political philosopher to show the connections between our political and ethical convictions.
Some of her books include Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, which was named “One of the Best Non-Fiction Books of 2003” by Publishers Weekly. Her book, Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy, was runner-up to the “Best Biography of the Year” by the Society of Midland Authors. The American Society of Theological Booksellers named Who Are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities. Politics and Ethical Discourse the “Best Book of 2000.” Dr. Elshtain has also written more than 500 essays in scholarly journals.
In 2008, Dr. Elshtain was appointed to the President’s Council on Bioethics, and in 2006 she was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2002, Dr. Elshtain received the Goodnow Award for “distinguished service to the profession” (http://divinity.uchicago.edu/faculty/elshtain.shtml). The Goodnow Award is the highest award given by the American Political Science Association. She received the Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award in 1991 for excellence in classroom teaching - the highest award for undergraduate teaching at Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Elshtain currently serves as co-chair of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, and chair of the Council on Families in America. She sits on the boards of the National Humanities Center, the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and the National Endowment Democracy. Additionally, Dr. Elshtain is a member of the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Scholars Council of the Library of Congress.
