OXFORD, Miss. – A noted public intellectual will discuss the topic of Utopia Wednesday (Feb. 29) at the University of Mississippi.
Drawing from works in literature, film, and philosophical and religious texts, Matthew Holbreich, lecturer in government and postdoctoral fellow of the Political Theory Institute at American University, will explore the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the idea of a Utopia, as well as its aspirations.
“The draw of the talk is the simple fact that all of us want to live in a perfect world, but none of us can say what, exactly, would make a world perfect,” said Vince Evans, Barksdale Fellow in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. “Perhaps that is why we find the idea of a Utopia so seductive.”
Sponsored by the Honors College and University Lecture Series, the 7 p.m. event in Bryant Hall, Room 111, is free and open to the public.
“I invited Dr. Holbreich to give the lecture after a conversation we had about some similarities he saw between the early Greek poet Hesiod, the Book of Genesis and Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life,'” Evans said. “I taught a course organized around the theme of self and society in the fall and asked if he would mind developing a talk about the idea of a Utopia.
“I thought it would be of particular interest to my students, but realized that it would have a wider appeal as well, and that is why we have decided to make it open to the public.”
Individuals in the departments of English, political science, philosophy and religion, and public policy leadership, have expressed significant interest in the lecture, Evans said.
“Dr. Holbreich’s interdisciplinary approach to the idea of a Utopia reflects his conviction that the Big Questions are most fruitfully addressed not when they are pursued within the narrow confines of a single academic department, but rather when the virtues of several disciplines combine to reveal previously unseen connections between important parts of human life.”
Holbreich earned his doctorate in 2011 from the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He completed a master’s degree from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and a bachelor’s from Tufts University.
His awards include a Tufts University Class of 1842 Prize, granted to three students deemed most likely to be outstanding professors. He has also won national essay contests and has presented papers at more than a dozen professional conferences.
In 2010-11, he worked as an editorial intern for the online journal Review of Politics, and he is completing a two-article series on the political and religious thought of Abraham Lincoln.
For more information or to request assistance related to a disability, contact Vince Evans.