Illinois Institute of Technology Announces
Benjamin Franklin Project Symposium
“Founding Science and the Making of a Modern Republic”
Chicago, March 30, 2012 — How did the Founding Fathers’ views about science, law, and
philosophy influence their efforts to create “a more perfect union?” Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) welcomes a panel of scholars to discuss this issue at a symposium, “Founding Science and the Making of a Modern Republic,” April 26 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Hermann Hall Ballroom, 3241 S. Federal, Chicago, IL. The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP at alumni.iit.edu/benfranklin2.
This is the second event in the school’s new Benjamin Franklin Project, which offers IIT students and the community new opportunities to learn about the American founding.
The day’s schedule will include:
10:30 a.m.-noon – Session One – The Foundations of Our Modern World: Bacon and Descartes
- “Francis Bacon and the Americans’ ‘New Order of the Ages,’” Ralph Lerner, Benjamin Franklin Professor Emeritus and Professor in the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
- “Descartes’ Prescription for America,” Stuart Warner, associate professor of philosophy, Roosevelt University
- Russell Betts, Dean, IIT College of Science and Letters, moderator
Noon-1:00 p.m. Lunch Break
1:00 p.m. -2:30 p.m. – Session Two – From Foundational Science to Political and Cultural Foundations: Scientific Understanding and a New Political Science
- “The Science of the Legislator: Experiment and Reform in 18th-Century Jurisprudence,” David Lieberman, Jefferson E. Peyser Professor of Law and Professor of History; Director, Kadish Center for Morality, Law and Public Affairs, University of California, Berkeley
- “Joseph Priestley: Scientific Knowledge and Public Enlightenment,” Jan Golinski, Professor of History and Humanities, Chair of the Department of History, University of New Hampshire.
- Harold Krent, Dean, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, moderator
“The Benjamin Franklin Project will allow students and scholars to explore the full range of the founders’ work—from their most practical domestic devices to the extraordinary ideas and architecture of the New Republic,” said Christena Nippert-Eng, chair of the IIT Department of Social Sciences. “The project focuses especially on the Enlightenment and on the framers as scientists, inventors and designers in both the social and the natural realms, exploring how all these elements continue to spark imaginations and shape priorities in today’s highly interconnected world.”
The BFP will develop an optional curriculum that will guide students through primary core texts, providing them with a common body of reading and instruction in modern Western ideas. A postdoctoral fellow associated with the program will begin teaching in fall of 2012.
“The relationship between new understandings of law and new approaches to science was key for the Framers. The exploration of that relationship is the driving question of the Benjamin Franklin Project,” said Pamela Edwards, director of academic initiatives at the Jack Miller Center.
“This symposium will bring eminent historians of science, philosophers and scholars of politics and law together with the IIT community of students and faculty to explore these themes. The JMC is very excited about the possibilities of this event and very proud to support it.”
The Benjamin Franklin Project joins a network of JMC partner programs initiatives on 46 college campuses in the Chicago area and across the United States. Additional support is being provided by the Brinson Foundation, IIT’s College of Science and Letters and Department of Social Sciences, and JMC donor partners in the Chicago area.
About IIT
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,700 students in engineering, natural and social sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.
About the Jack Miller Center
The JMC’s mission is to reinvigorate education in America’s Founding Principles and history on college campuses across the United States. The JMC works with established faculty to start and grow programs to advance education and helps young scholars in history and political science to advance their careers through fellowships and other programs that help them secure teaching positions. There are nearly 500 scholars in the JMC faculty network on 179 campuses including Ivy League Institutions, flagship state universities and leading liberal arts colleges across the United States. An advisory council that includes many leading scholars in American history and political science provides guidance to the JMC’s staff regarding academic programs.
The JMC was founded by Jack Miller, a prominent Chicago entrepreneur and philanthropist who began his efforts to reinvigorate higher education in 2004 in response to mounting evidence that college graduates— the future leaders of our country—lacked the knowledge of America’s Founding Principles and history necessary to be informed and engaged citizens. The JMC was incorporated as a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501 (C) (3) foundation with headquarters in Philadelphia in 2007. Mr. Miller was the founder and chief executive officer of the Quill Corporation which became the largest independent marketer of office products with sales in excess of $630 million when the company was acquired by Staples in 1998.
Contact: Evan Venie, 312-567-3202, venie@iit.edu
Professor Andrea Radasanu has been selected to receive NIU’s 2012 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. This is one of NIU’s most prestigious awards and stands as the institution’s oldest faculty honor. Andrea is one of only three faculty members across the university community to receive this award this year; and she is only the seventh political scientist at NIU to win this award. Past POLS recipients include Little (1966), Dionisopoulous (1971), Glenn (1995), Hilton (1996), Jones (2002), and Swedlow (2011).
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