There’s going to be a sort of one-day conference at Berry on November 9 on Democracy in Athens, America, and Rick’s, or on Plato, Tocqueville, and CASABLANCA.
The featured speaker will be James Pontuso of Hampden-Sydney College, editor of POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY GOES TO RICK’S and fine books on the dissidents Solzhenitsyn and Havel.
Much of the conference will showcase the good work Berry students are doing on Plato, Tocqueville, and films this semester.
But we also are soliciting a few presentations from scholars on the above topics. Better still would be accounts of ways they are connected--Plato and Tocqueville, Tocqueville and CASABLANCA etc.
The date is November 9. Unfortunately, litte to no funding is available for travel or honoraria. (Let me know your situation and I may be able to work with you.) Contact me very soon if you want to [email protected]. (I hope posting that address doesn’t flood me with blog groupies.)
In honor of this conference, I’m soliciting your opinions on 1.The relevance of Tocqueville for understanding America today and 2. CASABLANCA as political commentary.
Jim Pontuso’s book on Havel is really good. And he’s a very engaging speaker. If you can, go to the conference. I can’t, but I’ll pop Casablanca in the VCR.