James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs coordinator, 308.865.8944
Experts in the historical and sociological fields from England and the Czech Republic will be featured speakers at the James E. Smith Conference on World Affairs at the University of Nebraska at Kearney on Monday, March 5.
The first speaker is Dr. Andrew Thompson, principal lecturer of sociology at the University of Glamorgan in England. Dr. Thompson will give his presentation, “Reforming Naturalization: Britain’s American Experiment,” beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Nebraskan Student Union.
In addition to directing the Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies in the Netherlands, Dr. Thompson has authored five books and serves as an external examiner for BSc Sociology at Thames Valley University in London, a grant reviewer for the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a co-editor of Contemporary Wales.
The remaining two speakers are Drs. Martin Elbel and Jan Stejskal, lecturers in the Department of History at Palacky University in the Czech Republic. Dr. Elbel will present “The Rise of Christian Fundamentalism as a Response to the Enlightenment and the Introduction of Religious Tolerance,” and Dr. Stejskal will present “The Roots of Christian Fundamentalism in Medieval Europe” beginning at 7 p.m. in the Nebraskan Student Union.
In addition to Dr. Elbel’s employment at Palacky University is his work on a visiting grant at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar, where his research topic is “Mendicant Friary in Early Modern Town.” He also is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and continues working on the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Warburg Institute in London.
Dr. Stejskal’s current research projects include the Late Middle Ages, monasticism, Hussitism and humanism. She currently is a Villa I Tatti Fellow and serves as a member of the American Academy in Rome and the Renaissance Society of America.
All three speakers will be available to talk to UNK classes about their areas of expertise March 5-6.
According to Ann Marie Harr, coordinator of the world affairs conference, UNK faculty wishing to invite one of the speakers to their classes must contact Harr and provide the subject, meeting time and location of their classes.
According to Harr, all three speakers are available March 5 during the morning hours and all day March 6, excluding 12:30-1:45 p.m.
