Duke Graduate Conference in Political Theory 2020

It is our pleasure to invite you to the sixth annual Duke Graduate Conference in Political Theory, which will take place on February 6-7 in Gross Hall 230E. The conference papers are available for download here. All panels are open the public.

Eric Nelson, the Robert M. Beren Professor of Government at Harvard University, will serve as the keynote speaker for the conference. His keynote address, “Beyond the ‘Wretched Subterfuge’: Liberalism, Freedom, and Responsibility,” will take place from 1:00-2:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7, in Gross Hall 230E on Duke’s West Campus.

Professor Nelson will also be speaking at the Providential Modernity Seminar, hosted by the Kenan Institute for Ethics. The seminar will take place from 1:00-2:30p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6, in West Duke 101 on Duke’s East Campus. More information on the seminar is available here.

Through a highly competitive blind review process, we have selected six graduate students from the U.S. and Canada to present papers on a range of topics in political theory. We are pleased that Duke faculty have agreed to serve as discussants: we thank Jack Knight, Alexander Kirshner, Geneviève Rousselière, Martin Eisner, Ian MacMullen, and Michael Gillespie for their willingness to contribute in this capacity.

We would also like to thank the Program in American Values and Institutions, the Department of Political Science, the Graduate School, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and Duke University Center for International and Global Studies for their generous support in making this event possible. For further information about the conference, please visit our website: https://sites.duke.edu/gcpt/.