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“The Canceled” series features Princeton’s Joshua Katz, former NYT journalist Bari Weiss
This 2020-21 lecture series explores the emergence of a cancel culture as a political and cultural force.
- Joshua Katz | Nov. 12, 2020, 6 p.m.
- Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics, Princeton University
- “Cancellation and Its Discontents”
- In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Professor Joshua Katz wrote that he “survived cancellation at Princeton,” despite colleagues, “friends,” and former students turning against him from one day to the next. His story of how a professor with little interest in the spotlight became newsworthy is a cautionary tale of the tidal wave of illiberalism that threatens to undermine America’s institutions.
- Register for Cancellation and Its Discontents
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Bari Weiss | Nov. 19, 2020, 6 p.m.- “Free Speech and Cancel Culture”
- Journalist Bari Weiss resigned from the New York Times editorial board after three years, citing “bullying by colleagues” and an “illiberal environment.” United Nations Watch recently announced that Ms. Weiss will be honored for her moral courage and eloquence in defending the principles of democracy and in combating anti-Semitism. A presentation on cancel culture, the norms it imposes on thought and expression, and the conformism it attempts to compel.
- Register for Free Speech and Cancel Culture
- “Free Speech and Cancel Culture”
“Community or Disunity?” series offers perspectives on our communal past and future
This 2020-21 lecture series invites reflection upon the communities that we build and the challenges that may contribute to their disintegration.
- Elizabeth Eastman | Nov. 17, 2020, 6 p.m.
- Benson Center 2020-21 Senior Scholar in Residence
- “From Shadows on the Wall to the Sun: Liberal Education and the Ascent from the Cave”
- Plato’s description of emerging from the darkness to the light as a metaphor for liberal education suggests that we detach ourselves from the familiar and engage in questioning to achieve the ends of education. By considering these concepts alongside the Center’s theme of Community or Disunity, this talk will pose questions about what role liberal education plays in building communities and whether questioning disrupts or strengthens our communities.
- Attend From Shadows on the Wall to the Sun
On the horizon
- Robert George and Cornel West | Jan. 21 2021, 7 p.m.
- Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and directs the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University.
- “Is Civil Discourse Dead? A Conversation with Robert George and Cornel West”
- Co-sponsored by the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought at CU Boulder, the CU Center for Leadership and the Benson Center
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Elizabeth Spalding | Jan. 26, 2021, 6 p.m.- Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy
- “At Home and Abroad: Forms of Community in American Foreign Relations”
- “Community or Disunity” series
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Glenn Loury | Feb. 8, 2021, 6 p.m.- Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics, Brown University
- “The Canceled” series, title TBA
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William B. Allen | Feb. 23, 2021, 6 p.m.- Chief Operating Officer, Center for Urban Renewal and Education
- “George Washington’s Warning about Party Faction”
- “Community or Disunity” series
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CU Faculty Panel Discussion | March 1, 2021, 6 p.m.- “Alexander Hamilton: The Man Behind the Musical”
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Noel Johnson | March 11, 2021, 6 p.m.- "The Church, the State, and the Emergence of Religious Freedom"
- Associate Professor, Economics Department, George Mason University
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Robert R. Reilly | March 16, 2021, 6 p.m.- Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council
- “Community or Disunity” series, title TBA
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John and Elizabeth Eastman, Special Guests TBA | April 6, 2021, 6 p.m.- Concluding program in the “Community or Disunity?” series, title TBA
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Daniel J. Mahoney | April 13, 2021, 6 p.m.- Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship, Assumption University
- Concluding program in “The Canceled” series, title TBA
All events are virtual and free of charge.
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2019/20 annual report now available
The Benson Center’s annual report outlines the Center’s major accomplishments of the past year in fulfilling its commitment to fostering research, debate and dialogue about the fundamental ideals of our time.
Highlights include the hiring of director Daniel Jacobson after a national search, thanks to generous contributions to the Bruce D. Benson Legacy Endowment Fund; distinguished visiting scholars including Colleen Sheehan, William B. Allen and John Doody; and prominent guest lecturers such as University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Additionally, the report highlights the Center’s efforts to connect with CU students and faculty through fellowships, internships, grants, courses and other opportunities.
Next faculty grant deadline is Dec.1
The Benson Center supports faculty across multiple disciplines in pursuing outreach and educational initiatives which contribute to critical reflection on the development of Western civilization. All CU Boulder faculty (including instructors) are eligible to apply. There are three award cycles per academic year. The application deadlines in any given year are September 1, December 1 and March 1.
Please see the Benson Center website for application details and recent grant awards. The Center is particularly interested in funding scholarly lectures, public lectures, conferences, educational initiatives and community outreach.
During the 2019–20 academic year, the Benson Center awarded 26 faculty grants totaling $33,175 in more than 12 disciplines.