Hadley P. Arkes, the Edward Ney Professor of American Institutions at Amherst College, will present a Brigham Young University Wheatley Institution lecture Thursday, Jan. 20, at 5 p.m. in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium.
His presentation is hosted by the Wheatley Institution and the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and is titled “Constitutionalism and Its Presuppositions” under the topic of “Foundations of Civic Life.”
Arkes has written five books, the most recent being “Natural Rights and the Right to Choose.” His articles have appeared in professional journals, and he has also become known to a wider audience through his writings in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Weekly Standard and National Review. For eight years he wrote a column for Crisis magazine under the title of "Lifewatch," and he resumes that column occasionally with pieces for National Review online.
He is the founder of the Committee for the American Founding at Amherst, a group of alumni and students seeking to preserve the doctrines of “natural rights” taught by the American founders and Abraham Lincoln.
Arkes received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois and a doctorate from the University of Chicago. He served as visiting professor of public and international affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and as Vaughan Fellow in the Madison Program at Princeton University. He also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The Wheatley Institution was founded in 2007 to enhance the academic climate and scholarly reputation of BYU and to enrich faculty and student experiences by contributing recognized scholarship that lifts society by preserving and strengthening its core institutions.
For more information about the presentation, visit wheatley.byu.edu or contact Lee Simons at (801) 422-2652 or lee_simons@byu.edu.
Writer: Mel Gardner
