Renaissance Humanism, Democracy, and the University

How does an engagement with Renaissance Humanism help us understand the contemporary role, and potential futures, of the university’s contributions to democratic life? Join us for a conversation between Christopher Celenza, a scholar of the Renaissance and Dean of the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins, and Chad Wellmon, a scholar of knowledge and information and Professor of German and History at UVA. They will discuss the connections between their two new books – Celenza’s The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities & Wellmon’s Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age – and how their research shapes their perspectives on the contemporary university.

The conversation will be moderated by Jacqueline Allain-Montagne, a specialist on education and democracy in the ancient world, who was recently hired in the Classics Department as part of the Democracy Initiative’s faculty hiring initiative.