Dr. Conor Barry: "Democracy and the University"
7PM
BMH 101
St. Thomas University is pleased to invite academic colleagues, students, and the general public to our 2024-25 Public Lecture Series. This series is designed to enable 91²Ö¿â faculty researchers to be able to present ideas and research results to a wide and diverse audience on issues of broad public interest.
The third lecture will be delivered by Dr. Conor Barry on November 20 on "Democracy and the University."
A major purpose of university teaching in the Humanities and Social Sciences is to lead people to consider and to think seriously about fundamental ethical and political questions. Dialogue and reflection on politics are inescapable and integral to existing political practice in a democracy. Such theoretical reflection cannot be entirely distinct from political activity and engagement. There is an inescapable interrelation between academic life and ordinary, democratic political culture. The university is already interwoven into the democratic political culture of our existing world. Even if it were desirable to escape the shaping influence of the university on ordinary political life, it would be practically impossible to do so.