Sir Thomas More Lecture Series

The Sir Thomas More Lecture Series of the Conservative Party continues each Friday during the academic year at half after twelve, post meridiem, at Mory's Temple Bar, 306 York Street, New Haven. As Mory's is a private club, a jacket and tie or corresponding ladies' attire is encouraged but not required.

For information about upcoming Sir Thomas More Lectures, please contact the Rt. Hon. Chief Whip.

SPRING 2010

  • January 15      Professor Jill North
    Explaining the Direction of Time

  • January 22      N. Adam Hirst
    The Political Philosophy of Eric Hoffer

  • January 29      Provost Peter Salovey
    Emotional Intelligence and Educational Reform

  • February 5      Professor Carlos Eire
    Religious Scholarship in the Secular University

  • February 12      Professor Sean McMeekin
    The Origins of World War I

  • February 19      Professor Akhil Amar
    Conservatives and Competence: Some Thoughts on the Production of Principled and Profound Leaders

  • February 26      Dr. Theodore Bromund
    The Grand Strategy in the Lord of the Rings

  • March 5      Professor Gary Gorton
    The Financial Crisis of 2007-2008

  • March 26      Professor Christine Hayes
    God's Critics: Biblical Perspectives in Ancient Israel

  • April 2      Professor Tony Kronman
    Maistre and Burke

  • April 9      Ilan Uri Ben-Meir
    Historical Treatments of the Rise of Hitler

  • April 16      Jacob Samuel Abolafia
    Philosophy and Technology

  • April 23      Dean Daniel Tauss
    The Development of Morals in the East and West

FALL 2009

  • September 4      Professor Paul Kennedy
    U.S. Military and our Defense Bill

  • September 11      Professor Thomas Pogge
    Intellectual Property Rights

  • September 18      Professor David Bromwich
    Poems of War and Peace

  • September 25      Professor Charles Hill
    Future of the U.S. in the Middle East

  • October 2      Professor Steven Pincus
    Revolution of 1688-89

  • October 9      Admiral Joseph Callo
    The Message is the Medium

  • October 16      Professor Michael Della Rocca
    The Principle of Sufficient Reason

  • October 23      N. Dr. Justin Scott Zaremby
    The American Judiciary

  • October 30      Professor Donald Kagan
    A Practical Use for History

  • November 6      Professor Emily Greenwood
    Utopia, Atopia, and the Place for Ideas

  • November 13      Professor Matthew Kocher
    Complicity in International Politics

  • November 20      Professor Paul Freedman
    Bad Ideas in History

  • December 4      Provost Peter Salovey
    Emotional Intelligence

  • December 4      Professor Robert Grober
    Nuclear Arms Reduction

SPRING 2009

  • January 23      Miss Kathryn Anne Baldwin, SC SY
    TBA

  • January 30      Professor Pericles Lewis
    James Joyce and his Place in the Western Canon

  • February 6      Prof. Norma Thompson
    The Dignity of Philosophy: Aquinas versus Augustine

  • February 13      Professor Charles Hill
    TBA

  • February 20      Professor Roy Tsao
    TBA

  • February 27      Mr. Justin Scott Zaremby
    Liberalism, Republicanism, and the American Judiciary

  • March 6      Prof. Sean McMeekin
    TBA

  • March 27      Mr. Mike Lebowitz
    Military Expression in the Modern Armed Forces

  • April 3      Prof. Greg Gannsle
    TBA

  • April 10      Prof. Nomi Lazar
    TBA

  • April 17      Prof. Paul Bracken
    TBA

  • April 24      Danilo Petranovich
    William F. Buckley Jr. and Ronald Reagan and Modern U.S. Conservatism

FALL 2008

  • September 5      Professor Minh Luong
    China at the Crossroads of the 21st Century

  • September 12      Mr. Jay Fisher
    How to Lame a Dragon: An aspect of Indo-European Poetics in Greek Poetry

  • September 19      Professor Howard Bloch
    Animal Fables and Politics

  • September 26      Kevin Brooke Alexander
    The Falsity of the Democratic Peace Theory

  • October 3      Professor David Bromwich
    Burke's "Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol"

  • October 10      Admiral Joseph Callo
    Military Heroes: Are they important and what are they telling us?

  • October 17      Professor David Blight
    First Things: Obama in the Long View of History

  • October 24      Mr. Raymond Kissam Price, Jr.
    The Nixon Era

  • October 31      Master Steven Smith
    What is Happening to Political Science

  • November 7      Dr. Theodore Richard Bromund
    Was Winston Churchill a Neo-Conservative?

  • November 14      Professor Paul Bloom
    Bodies and Souls

  • November 21      Mr. Matthew Charles Klein
    The Far East Origins of the First World War

  • December 5      Dean Daniel Tauss
    China's Military Philosophy and Grand Strategy

SPRING 2008

  • January 25      Prof. Celia Schultz
    Human sacrifice in ancient Rome

  • February 1      CANCELLED
    Cancelled

  • February 8      Prof. Margaret Litvin
    A Rule of Law education effort in the Middle East

  • February 15      Prof. Howard Bloch
    The Norman Conquest of 1066

  • February 22      CANCELLED
    Cancelled

  • February 29      Mr. Costin Alamariu
    Nietzsche's Advice to Conservatives

  • March 7      Prof. Jane Levin
    Gerard Manley Hopkins

  • March 28      Prof. Daniel Stein-Kokin
    Mosaic Inversions

  • April 4      Prof. Daniel Sargent
    Is the United States a Revolutionary Power?

  • April 11      Prof. Anthony Kronman
    The Case for Paganism

  • April 18      Prof. Virginia Jewiss
    WWII memorials, in particular the use of literature in a German war cemetery

  • April 25      Prof. Miroslav Volf
    Islam: Religion of Peace?

  • May 2      Prof. Joe Callo
    Major Issues of National Defense

FALL 2006

  • September 8      Prof. Charles Hill
    Middle East Crisis

  • September 15      Prof. David Bromwich
    Constitutional Opposition

  • September 22      Prof. Paul Bracken
    Democracy and Big Business

  • September 29      Prof. Gaddis Smith
    Moral Obligations

  • October 6      Prof. Paul Kennedy
    TBA

  • October 13      Prof. Youval Rotman
    Prisoners of War

  • October 20      Prof. Maria Menocal
    Middle Ages, Political Patterns Today

  • October 27      Prof. Donald Kagan
    TBA

  • November 3      Prof. Steven Smith
    Leo Strauss: Neo-Con?

  • November 10      Prof. Jane Levin
    Gods, Fate, Illiad

  • December 1      Prof. Carlos Eire
    TBA

  • December 8      Prof. Frances Rosenbluth
    Japanese Politics

FALL 2004

  • September 3      Prof. Charles Hill
    The Influence of Foreign Policy on Presidential Elections

  • September 10      Prof. John Hare
    Evolution and the Foundations of Ethics

  • September 17      Prof. Matthew Smith
    Humanitarian Intervention and Domestic Revolution

  • September 24      Prof. Carlos Norena
    Empires and Imperial Cultures: Ancient Rome and Modern America

  • October 1      Prof. Gregory Ganssle
    Theism, Naturalism and Human Flourishing

  • October 8      Captain Ryan Olivieri
    United States Marine Corps Officer Programs

  • October 15      Prof. Peter Quimby
    TBA

  • October 22      Prof. Robert Burt
    Law, Morals and Same-Sex Marriage

  • October 29      Prof. Peter Salovey
    TBA

  • November 5      Prof. Mary Habeck
    The Elections and the War on Terror

  • November 12      Prof. Jane Levin
    Thetis and Achilles

  • December 3      Prof. Keri Ames
    TBA

SPRING 2004

  • January 23      Prof. Mary Habeck
    What Should we do about Saudi Arabia?

  • January 30      Prof. Celia Schultz
    Sallust and the Course of History

  • February 6      Mr. Matthew Austin Blomerth, SSCY
    Rome: The Political Consequences of Geography

  • February 13      Prof. Jane Levin
    Sophocles and Human Understanding

  • February 20      Prof. Michael Holquist
    Kantian Lingustics

  • February 27      Mr. Larry Cohen
    The Media in Modern Politics

  • March 26      Prof. Norma Thompson
    The Flight from Judgement

  • April 2      Prof. Ryan Hanley
    Philanthropy and Misanthropy

  • April 9      Prof. Kevin Repp
    The Politics of German Film

  • April 16      Mr. Patrick J. Bumatay
    Lessons from the West Wing

  • April 23      Prof. William Metcalf
    Family Values in Antiquity

FALL 2003

  • September 5      Prof. Charles Hill
    Everything: What Does it All Mean?

  • September 12      Prof. John Gaddis
    Americans and the World: How Conservatives are Becoming Liberals

  • September 19      Prof. Steven Smith
    The Challenges of Capitalism: The Paradox of Organized Labor

  • September 26      Prof. Jon Butler
    Religion and the State in America

  • October 3      Prof. David Bromwich
    Why Liberals are Liberal and Why Conservatives are Conservative

  • October 10      Prof. Carlos Eire
    Discerning idols: faith and objectivity in the study of religion.

  • October 17      Prof. Jay Winter
    Ethics and Morality in Collective Memory

  • October 24      Prof. Cyrus Hamlin
    Is there a crisis in the Humanities at Yale?

  • October 31      Miss Julia Mary Haag
    Faulkner and Literature's Defiance of the End of Man

  • November 7      CANCELLED
    Cancelled

  • November 14      Prof. Michael Della Rocca
    Locke and Personal Identity

  • December 5      Prof. Theodore Richard Bromund
    Peace, Love, and Understanding: The Strange Origins and Disgusting Evolution of the Modern Olympics

SPRING 2001

  • January 12      Prof. Daniel Howe
    The Confederate Constitution

  • January 19      Fr. Peter Rogers
    Orthodoxy And Heresy In The Early Church

  • January 26      Prof. Leslie Brisman
    On Civility And Consensus: The Model Of Judges 19-21

  • February 2      Prof. William Sledge
    The Psychiatric Aspects Of Flight Crews

  • February 9      Miss Tatiana Sergeyevna Diykova, S.C.
    Conservative Gentlemen And The Women Who Made Them Weep - Medieval Ideals Of Courtly Love

  • February 16      Prof. Steven Smith
    A Fool For Love: Thoughts On Isaac Bashevis Singer's Spinoza

  • February 23      Prof. Joseph Gordon
    Ladies Of Shalott: 19th-Century Britain Looks At Its Medieval Past

  • March 2      Prof. Mary Habeck
    The Soviets In The Spanish Civil War: The Continuing Controversy

  • March 23      Prof. Mattias Risse
    What's So Good About Equality Of Opportunity?

  • March 30      Prof. Michael Weber
    Is Patriotism Like Racism?

  • April 6      Prof. Howard Bloch
    The Medieval 401K: Invention Of Purgatory And The Individual Retirement Account

  • April 20      Miss JoAnne Marie Faupel
    Immanentize The Enneagram

FALL 2000

  • September 8      Prof. Donald Kagan
    While America Sleeps: A Comparison Of American And British Foreign Policy

  • September 15      Prof. Charles Hill
    Power Is Power Perceived

  • September 22      Mr. Morton Klein
    Thoughts On The American Zionist Movement

  • September 29      Prof. Cyrus Hamlin
    The Challenge Of Comparing Cultural Discourses: The Hellenic And The Biblical Traditions

  • October 6      Prof. Rogers Smith
    The Challenges Of Genetic Enhancement

  • October 13      Prof. Michael Thurston
    Breathing Lessons: Poetry As Ethical Practice

  • October 20      Prof. Norma Thompson
    The Ship Of State As A Political Metaphor

  • October 27      Rabbi Samuel Hecht
    A Conversation With Myself: Reflections On The Jewish Faith

  • November 3      Mr. Justin Scott Zaremby
    Max Weber And The Protestant Ethic

  • November 10      Prof. Annabel Patterson
    Sir Thomas More's Great-Great-Nephew, John Donne: Making Poetry Out Of Persuasion

  • November 13      Prof. Francis Fukuyama
    Restarting History: Science After The End

  • December 1      Mr. Christopher David Arendt
    The Traditions Of Christmas

  • December 8      Prof. Paul Kennedy
    The Global Gap: Ethics And Politics Between Worlds