Michael Oakeshott Association Conference
November 12-14, 2009
Baylor University
Waco, Texas

2009 marks the fifth meeting of the Michael Oakeshott Association, a group founded in 2001 to encourage the study of one of the 20th century’s most important political philosophers. Previous conferences have taken place at the London School of Economics, Colorado College, and the University of Jena in Germany.

This year, Baylor University will host the conference, broadening its scope to include the thought of Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin. Because Oakeshott, Strauss and Voegelin overlapped so extensively in their interests and yet differed sharply on certain points of method and teaching, comparisons among them often prove fruitful and enlightening. This is why readers of one thinker often become serious readers of the others. And yet we rarely if ever have an occasion to come together as a group and to benefit directly from each other’s insights.

We thus especially invite papers on topics that all three thinkers address, such as the function and place of liberal education, the fruitful tensions between reason and revelation, the relationship of religion and politics, the meaning of political philosophy, the crisis of modernity, and the role that studying the ancients may play in better understanding our modern situation. This list is not exhaustive, but we strongly encourage potential presenters to engage such comparative topics.

Abstracts, no more than 500 words, should be sent by April 30, 2009 to Elizabeth_Corey@baylor.edu. Abstracts should also include: title of paper, full name(s), affiliation, current position, and an email address.

The conference will take place at the Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.