Conference Program/Schedule

British Abolitionism, Moral Progress, & Big Questions in History




Wednesday 25 -Thursday,  26 April 2007

    Conference participants arrive; check in

Thursday, 26 April 2007

5:00pm
Dinner in Bistro 51 (hotel)

7:30pm
Reception/David Brion Davis Book Signing at Central Hall Westminster, Library

8:00pm
Public Lecture at Central Hall Westminster, Library
David Brion Davis (Yale University): Slavery, Emancipation and Human Progress

Friday, 27 April 2007
Breakfast at hotel

9:00am
Session 1: British Abolitionism (Edwardian Room, II, Crowne Plaza St. James, London)

Eric Arnesen (University of Illinois at Chicago/President of the  Historical Society): The Recent Historiography of British Abolitionism: Academic Scholarship, Popular History, and the Question of Broader Reading Publics

Jeremy Black (University of Exeter): Suppressing the Slave Trade

David Hempton (Harvard Divinity School): Popular Evangelicalism and the Shaping of British Moral Sensibilities

10:30am
Break

11:00am    
Response: David Brion Davis (Yale University)
Discussion

12:30pm
Lunch

2:00pm
Session 2: Religion in History (Edwardian Room, II)

Lamin Sanneh (Yale University): Slavery, Antislavery, and the Religious Response

Peter Harrison (Oxford University): Religion, Science, and Modernity

George M. Marsden (Notre Dame University): More Religion, More Moral Progress? The Problem of Correlation

3:30pm
Break

4:00pm
Response: Eamon Duffy (Cambridge University)
   
Discussion

5:30
End of session

7:00pm
Depart for Wine Tasting Dinner at the Royal Society of Arts

Saturday, 28 April 2007

Breakfast at hotel

9:00am
Session 3: Progress in History (Edwardian Room, II)

Wilfred M. McClay (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga): The Chastening of Progress: Revisiting Butterfield, Dawson, and Niebuhr

Jon H. Roberts (Boston University): American Liberal Protestants and the Idea of Progress, 1870-1940

Gary M. Walton (University of California Davis): A Long-Term Economic Perspective on Recent Human Progress

10:30am
Break

11:00am
Response: Thomas L. Haskell (Rice University)

Discussion

12:00pm
Lunch

1:00pm
Session 4: Meta-historical Considerations (Edwardian Room, II)

Bruce Kuklick (University of Pennsylvania): Progress, Religion, and the Discipline of History

Allan Megill (University of Virginia): Moral Progress in History

Behan McCullagh (La Trobe University): The Lessons of History: Traditions, Generalizations, and Inspirations

2:30pm
Break

3:00pm
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, The Biggest Questions for Historians

Discussion

4:00pm
Session 5: Possibilities for Future Research Initiatives (Edwardian Room, II)

Charles Harper (Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation)

Kimon Sargeant (Vice President of Human Sciences, John Templeton Foundation)

5:00pm
Conference Ends

6:00pm
Reception & Panel, Templeton Board of Advisors (Crowne Plaza St. James Hotel) (optional)

8:00pm
Dinner (optional)

Photographs from the conference




For more information, contact: Donald Yerxa, yerxad@bu.edu






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