Benson Center Newsletter - Benson Center Newsletter - Summer 2024

Patrick J. Deneen, Professor of Political Science and David A. Potenziani Memorial Chair of Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame University, will join the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado Boulder as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for academic year 2024-25.

Deneen is the author of Why Liberalism Failed (Yale University Press, 2018), which has been translated into over 20 languages and won praise across the political spectrum, including from former president Barack Obama. He has published many articles and seven other books, most recently Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future. His teaching and writing interests focus on the history of political thought, American political thought, liberalism, conservatism, and constitutionalism.

Deneen was awarded the A.P.S.A.'s Leo Strauss Award for Best Dissertation in Political Theory in 1995, and an honorable mention for the A.P.S.A.'s Best First Book Award in 2000. He has been awarded research fellowships from Princeton University, Earhart Foundation, and the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Virginia.

Deneen received a B.A. in English Literature and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University. From 1995-1997 he was Speechwriter and Special Advisor to the Director of the United States Information Agency. From 1997-2005 he was Assistant Professor of Government at Princeton University, and from 2005-2012 the Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University, before joining the faculty of Notre Dame in Fall 2012. He is the author and editor of several books and numerous articles and reviews and has delivered invited lectures around the world.

James Strasburg is an Associate Professor of History and the Charles F. Kline Chair in History at Hillsdale College. His research explores Christianity's encounter with key political, economic, and international developments in the twentieth century. His first book, God's Marshall Plan: American Protestants and the Struggle for the Soul of Europe, appeared in 2021 with Oxford University Press. His current book project, Heavenly Marketplace: A History of Christianity and Capitalism, 1945-2008, explores the connections between Christian theology and political economy in the United States and Europe after 1945. 

The Roubos Scholar in Residence position is made possible by the generous support of Roubos Scholar in Residence Endowed Fund.

Matthew G. Nagler is a Professor of Economics at The City College of New York. Previously, he served on the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team in the White House of President Barack Obama. He specializes in behavioral economics, social economics, and applied microeconomics and has been published in the Journal of Public Economics, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, and numerous other outlets. His work has been featured in Popular Science, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company. His current work relates altruistic behavior to the efficient function of markets. 

Joseph Porter is an associate teaching professor at the Benson Center who specializes in political philosophy, PPE (philosophy, politics, and economics), and ethics. He received his PhD in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2022. Before coming to UNC, he studied philosophy and religion at Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School. His personal website may be found here. 

In fall 2024, Porter will co-teach CWCV 2010: Antiquity to the Renaissance with Dr. Daniel Jacobson. We are thrilled to announce that Porter has been appointed for a three-year term, allowing the Center to reach a greater number of students.

In this seminar we will read a number of works by thinkers who are critical of various aspects of “modernity” - such as utilitarianism, secularism, individualism, liberalism, capitalism, industrialism, progressivism, and technologism.  Among the authors we will read include Leo Strauss, Alasdair MacIntyre, Wendell Berry, Christopher Lasch, and Matthew Crawford.

While these thinkers differ not only in emphases, but also in substance and remedies, they all believe a modern crisis has arisen because of departures from an older wisdom - whether religious, philosophical, or practical. In addition to delving into their respective analyses of the sources of the contemporary crisis, as well as the potential paths for correction, we will also explore the question of why, and whether, such a crisis requires, or makes impossible, some kind of “return.”

Class specifics: CWCV 2010-002, In person, MW 3:35 - 4:50 pm. Taught by Patrick Deneen, Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy (VSCTP).

Current CU Boulder students can register in the Buff Portal. Auditors are welcome to enroll as space allows (students receive priority enrollment); instructions can be found on the Continuing Education website. Please direct questions to bensoncenter@colorado.edu.

The Western Tradition is a two-term survey of some of the great works in Western moral and political theory. The first term covers Antiquity to the Renaissance, and the second term covers the Enlightenment to Modernity. The course will focus on primary sources: canonical texts that will be closely studied and placed in historical perspective. Study of the canon of Western moral and political thought has fallen out of favor, but there is immense value in acquaintance with the works of a tradition that transformed the world and informed the American Revolution and the founding of the United States. We will consider the universalist ambitions of this tradition, which aspires to vindicate liberty, social equality and human rights. There will be two lectures and a discussion section meeting each week.

Class specifics: CWCV 2010-001, In person, MWF 1:25 - 2:15 pm. Taught by Daniel Jacobson (Director) and Joseph Porter (Associate Teaching Professor).

Current CU Boulder students can register in the Buff Portal. Auditors are welcome to enroll as space allows (students receive priority enrollment); instructions can be found on the Continuing Education website. Please direct questions to bensoncenter@colorado.edu.