On October 10, 2018, Professor of Sociology Kim Lane Scheppele kicked of the inaugural series of talks launched by the Humanities Council named the Old Dominion Public Lectures. In her talk titled “In the Ruins of Constitutional Government,” Scheppele described how newly elected leaders around the world are eschewing the checks and balances of a civil society and undermining the existing constitutional constraints on executive power. She explored how and why these leaders have appeared at the same time across the globe and how the constitutional government could be restored.
In the Spring, Simon Gikandi (English) will give a talk titled “On Art and Suffering,” followed by Sean Wilentz (History) on “The Politics of Early American Abolitionism,” and Michael Flower (Classics) on “Seven Types of Fiction in Historical Narrative: Or, Why You Cannot Trust Herodotus or Thucydides.”
Old Dominion Research Professors are appointed annually by the Humanities Council to provide faculty additional research time and resources to engage with humanities communities more widely.
Read more about Old Dominion Research Professorships here.
