Revolutionaries, Reformers, and Radicals: Liberty Emerges

July 27-August 2 ● Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA area

Benjamin Berger

Political Theory, Swarthmore College
Ben Berger received his A.B. from Princeton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he worked with Harvey Mansfield, Michael Sandel, and Peter Berkowitz. He is now associate professor of political science at Swarthmore College, where he serves as co-faculty director of the Center for Innovation and Leadership.  Berger specializes in modern political theory, with particular emphases on civil society and the works of Alexis de Tocqueville and Hannah Arendt.  His book, Attention Deficit Democracy: the paradox of civic engagement—published by Princeton University Press—won the NASSP (North American Society for Social Philosophy) Book Award for the best social philosophy book published in 2011.  It was also named one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2011 by Zocalo Public Square, a California think tank.  Berger has written for a variety of political science journals as well as for The National Review.  He is a frequent guest on the nationally syndicated NPR program “Radio Times.”  Current research interests include the role of moral engagement and disengagement in civil society—a subject that straddles the boundaries of political theory and cognitive neuroscience— and the affinities between Alexis de Tocqueville and Friedrich Hayek.  He has been teaching at IHS seminars since 2007.

Kevin Gutzman

History, Western Connecticut State University

Kevin R. C. Gutzman, J.D., Ph.D., Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History at Western Connecticut State University, is author of three books and co-author of one.  His most recent, James Madison and the Making of America, appeared in paperback with a new introductory essay, "James Madison and the American Ideal of Religious Liberty," in February.  Dr. Gutzman is a two-time Humane Studies Fellow.

Geoffrey Lea

Economics, University of Illinois-Springfield
Geoffrey Lea is a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Springfield.  He received his BA in Economics and Greek at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and his MA and PhD in Economics from George Mason University.  Prior to coming to Springfield, he worked as the director of programs and seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education and as a Lecturer in Economics at Hillsdale College.  His research interests are Austrian economics, constitutional political economy, the history of economic thought, business cycle theory, and the political economy of the ancient world.

Roderick Long

Philosophy, Auburn University
Roderick Long specializes in Greek philosophy, moral psychology, ethics, philosophy of social science, and political philosophy (with an emphasis on libertarian/anarchist theory). He has also taught medieval philosophy and eastern philosophy. He is the author of Reason and Value: Aristotle Versus Rand (Objectivist Center, 2000), Wittgenstein, Austrian Economics, and the Logic of Action (Routledge, forthcoming 2009), and many other titles.

Camille Paglia

Humanities and Media Studies, University of the Arts in Philadelphia
Camille Paglia is the University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she has taught since 1984.  She is the author of six books:  Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990); Sex, Art, and American Culture(1992); Vamps & Tramps (1994); The Birds, a study of Alfred Hitchcock published in 1998 by the British Film Institute in its Film Classics Series; Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems (2005); and Glittering Images: A Journey through Art from Egypt to Star Wars(2012).  She has written many articles on art, literature, popular culture, feminism, politics, and religion for publications around the world. 

James Stacey Taylor

Philosophy, The College of New Jersey
A transplant from Scotland to the United States James Stacey Taylor is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at The College of New Jersey. Branded a heretic by the London Times for his arguments in favor of legalizing markets in human organs in his book Stakes and Kidneys: Why markets in human organs are morally imperative (Ashgate, 2005) he is also the author of Practical Autonomy and Bioethics (Routledge, 2009), and Death, Posthumous Harm, and Bioethics (Routledge, 2012). He is the editor of Personal Autonomy: New essays (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and Death: Metaphysics and Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2013). He is currently working on a book defending markets in everything, including votes and children.