PTI Annual Conference

The Political Theory Institute is committed to fostering the serious study of the great questions of political theory by students, professors, and experts, and to connect political theory to current issues and events. PTI will host an annual conference on a topic at the nexus of political theory and public policy.

This conference will address a major problem facing society and explore the best theories, presented by leading experts in the field, in solutions to the quandry.

Our second annual conference, focusing on "The Morality and Future of Capitalism," took place Friday, April 5, 2013 in the Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Room.

The Morality and Future of Capitalism

View videos of each of the three conference panels below.

Friday, April 5

Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Hall

10:15 am – Noon: Is Inequality Bad for America?

Robert Lerman, American University & the Urban Institute

Robert I. Lerman is Professor of Economics at American University, an Institute Fellow at Urban Institute, and a Research Fellow at IZA in Bonn, Germany (www.iza.org). Lerman is also a leading expert on the economics of marriage and the economics of apprenticeship, serves on the board of the International Network for Innovative Apprenticeship, and is the founder of the recently formed American Institute for Innovative Apprenticeship.

Loren Lomasky, University of Virginia 

Loren Lomasky is Cory Professor of Political Philosophy, Policy and Law, and Director of the Political Philosophy, Policy and Law Program at the University of Virginia. Professor Lomasky is best known for his work in moral and political philosophy. His book Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community (1987) won the 1991 Matchette Prize and established his reputation as a leading advocate of a rights-based libertarian approach to moral and social issues.

Jerry Z. Muller, Catholic University 

Jerry Z. Muller is professor of history at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he is chair of the Department of History. He is the author of five books, most recently Capitalism and the Jews (2010).

12:00 Break

1:00 pm – 2:45 pm: What Today's Policy Makers Should Know about the Great Political Economists   

Richard Boyd, Georgetown University

Richard Boyd is Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University. Before going to Georgetown in 2007, Boyd taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, and Deep Springs College. He is author of Uncivil Society: The Perils of Pluralism and the Making of Modern Liberalism (2004); numerous journals articles on classical liberalism and civil society; and co-editor of Tocqueville and the Frontiers of Democracy (2013).

Bradley Bateman, Denison College 

Bradley W. Bateman currently serves as provost and executive vice president at Denison University in Ohio. In July, Bateman will become the 10th president of Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia. Bateman is the author of Keynes's Uncertain Revolution (1996) and co-editor of Keynes and Philosophy: Essays on the Origin of Keynes's Thought (1991); The Cambridge Companion to Keynes (2006); and Keeping Faith, Losing Faith: Religious Belief and Political Economy (2008).

Peter Boettke, George Mason University 

Peter Boettke is a University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University, the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism, and the Director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at GMU. His most recent book is Living Economics. He previously published Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School (2009) with Paul Dragos. He has written several books on the history, collapse, and transition from socialism in the former Soviet Union.

2:45 – 3:15 pm: Break, Light Refreshments

3:15 pm – 5:00 pm: Is Capitalism Moral?   

Jeffrey Reiman, American University

Jeffrey Reiman is the William Fraser McDowell Professor of Philosophy at American University. Professor Reiman has authored seven books and more than a hundred articles in journals and anthologies. His most recent book is As Free and as Just as Possible: The Theory of Marxian Liberalism (2012).

Loren Lomasky, University of Virginia 

(See bio in panel one above)   

Brandon Turner, American University 

Brandon Turner is currently the 2012-13 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Political Theory Institute at American University, where he serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs. He is currently on leave from Clemson University, where he is Assistant Professor of Political Science and, in a joint appointment, with the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism.