Morality, Politics, and Policy in Historical Perspective Conference

Morality, Politics, and Policy in Historical Perspective Conference

April 1-2, 2011 | Arizona State University, Tempe campus | University Club

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This conference/workshop explores the politics and policies of moral issues within an historical framework. The conference/workshop opens with a political overview by David Courtwright, followed by six historians and political scientists--Caroline Acker, Beth Bailey, Ian Dowbiggin, Andrew Hartman,Michael Nelson, and Daniel Williams--who will examine the political and policy clashes over drug policy, gays in the military, euthanasia, school curricula, gambling, and abortion.

Presenters will give a five minute summary of their papers, followed by comments from selected conference commentators/participants. Each session is scheduled for one hour to allow a full scholarly discussion of each paper. Revised essays will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Policy History, edited by David Courtwright. 

The conference is sponsored by the Barry M. Goldwater Chair of American Institutions Donald Critchlow and by the School of Historical Philosophical and Religious Studies.  

Caroline Acker, “Addiction, Morality, and Disease: Recurring Tensions in American History.”

An associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, Acker is the author of Creating the American Junkie: Addiction Research in the Classic Era of Narcotic Control (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002) and co-editor of Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800-2000 (U. of Massachusetts Press, 2004).  

 

Beth Bailey, “The Politics of Dancing: ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell,’ Public Policy, and Moral Claims.”

 

Bailey is a professor of history at Temple University and the author of several books, including America’s Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force (Harvard University Press, 2009) and Sex in the Heartland: Politics, Culture, and the Sexual Revolution (Harvard University Press, 1999). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Courtwright, “Disconnect: Conservative Politics and Public Policy in the Age of Culture War.” 

 

Courtwright is presidential professor of history at the University of North Florida and the author of books on drug use and policy, social history, and politics, most recently No Right Turn: Conservative Politics in a Liberal America (Harvard University Press, 2010).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donald T. Critchlow, Barry M. Goldwater Chair of American Institutions and Editor Journal of Policy History

Donald T. Critchlow  has authored  and edited  seventeen books including The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Made Political History (Harvard University Press, 2007); Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism (Princeton University Press, 2005); Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government (Oxford University Press, 1999, pap. 2001);  Studebaker: The Life and Death of an American Corporations (Indiana University Press, 1997); and the Brookings Institution: Expertise and the Public Interest in a Democratic Society (Northern Illinois University Press, 1989).

 

 

 

Ian Dowbiggin, “From Sander to Schiavo: Morality, Partisan Politics, and America’s Cultural War over Euthanasia.”

 

Dowbiggin, a professor of history at the University of Prince Edward Island, is the author of several books on psychiatry, eugenics and euthanasia, most recently A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America  (Oxford University Press, 2003). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Hartman, “‘A Trojan Horse for Social Engineering’: The Curriculum Wars in Recent American History.”

 

Hartman is an assistant professor of history at Illinois State University and author of Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School (Palgrave Macmillan 2008).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Nelson, “Morality, Public Policy, and State Politics: A Comparative Case Study of Gambling Legalization in Mississippi and Tennessee.”

 

Nelson is the Fulmer professor of political science at Rhodes College and coauthor of Governing Gambling: Politics and Policy in State, Tribe and Nation (Century Foundation Press, 2001) and How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation (Louisiana State University Press, 2007).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel Williams, “Abortion Law Liberalization and the Emergence of the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life Movements, 1959-1973.”

 

An assistant professor of history at the University of West Georgia, Williams is the author of God’s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right (Oxford University Press, 2010).