“Truth in the Liberal Arts” Honors Symposium

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Andrew Delbanco, and Roy Peter Clark ’70, To Headline Providence College’s “Truth in the Liberal Arts” Honors Symposium
Friday, October 21 & Saturday, October 22, 2016
Providence, RI – Noted historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin will kick off the Providence College Liberal Arts Honors Symposium, to be held the weekend of October 21 and 22 at the College. Goodwin, who authored such bestsellers as Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, Wait Till Next Year, and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, will give the opening address, “The Presence of the Greatness of the Past” on Friday, October 21, at 7:00 p.m. at ’64 Hall, located in PC’s Slavin Center. 

The Symposium also features two panel discussions, which will be held in the Ruane Center for the Humanities in Room 105 on Saturday, Oct. 22nd. The first, at 9:30 a.m., is “Truth in Contemporary Media.” The moderator will be Kelly Malone ’86, a member of the English faculty at Sewanee: The University of the South. She will be joined by author and Providence College alum Roy Peter Clark ’70, one of the trustees of The Poynter Institute, a teaching center for journalists located in Florida. Also participating are Charles Sennott ’03 Hon., founder and executive director of the Ground Truth Project; and Eric Bennett, associate professor of English at Providence College.

A second panel discussion titled “Truth in Philosophy, Science and Religion” follows at 1:00 p.m. It will be moderated by Colin King, assistant professor of Philosophy at Providence College. Panelists include Meghan Sullivan, Rev. John A. O’Brien Collegiate and associate professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and Rev. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., associate professor of Biology and Theology at Providence College.

The final guest for the day is Andrew Delbanco, the featured speaker. He is the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University, and the author of Melville: His World and Work (2005), which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. Delbanco will present the keynote address, “The Liberal Arts:  Past, Present, and Future” on Saturday at 2:45 p.m. in ’64 Hall.

This symposium is presented by the Liberal Arts Honors Program at Providence College. The Doris Kearns Goodwin lecture is free and open to the public, although advance registration is required. Tickets for the Saturday symposium are $50.00, and include lunch. To register, please go to honors@providence.edu. Attendees should enter the College via the main gate at the corner of River Ave. and Eaton St. From there they will be directed where to park.

Founded in 1917, Providence College is the only college or university in the United States administered by the Dominican Friars. The Catholic, liberal arts college has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 3,900 students and offers degrees in 49 academic majors.  Since 1997, Providence College consistently has been ranked among the top five regional universities in the North according to U.S. News & World Reports’ “America’s Best Colleges.”

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