New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Haidt to give FREE talk at Lipscomb Thursday

Lipscomb is leading the way in bringing thought leaders to campus to expand the borders of the classroom.

Kim Chaudoin  |  10/14/2019

Lipscomb University’s College of Leadership & Public Service presents New York Times best selling author Jonathan Haidt as the speaker for the 2019 Don R. Elliott Distinguished Presidential Lecture Series on Thursday, Oct. 17.

The presentation begins at 6 p.m. in Lipscomb’s George Shinn Center. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended. Register for tickets at this link. 

Haidt is a social psychologist whose research focuses on morality––its emotional foundations, cultural variations and developmental course. His most recent books are the New York Times bestsellers, “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion” and “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.” Haidt is applying his research on moral psychology to rethink the way business ethics is studied. Since the beginning of the semester, the College of Leadership & Public Service has hosted a series of book club discussions about Haidt’s work leading up to the author’s visit to campus. 

The Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Haidt received his B. A. from Yale University in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He then did post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and in Orissa, India. He was a professor at the University of Virginia from 1995 until 2011, when he joined the Stern School of Business. Haidt is the co-developer of Moral Foundations Theory, and of the research site YourMorals.org. He uses his research to help people understand and respect the moral motives of people with whom they disagree. He has won three teaching awards from the University of Virginia and one from the governor of Virginia. His four TED talks have been viewed more than six million times. 

At NYU-Stern, Haidt is applying his research on moral psychology to business ethics, asking how companies can structure and run themselves in ways that will be resistant to ethical failures. He is also working on increasing viewpoint diversity in the academy via Heterodox Academy, a collaboration among nearly 2500 professors who are working to increase viewpoint diversity and freedom of inquiry in universities. He is also the co-developer of OpenMindPlatform.org, an educational program that teaches people and groups how to have productive conversations across many lines of difference. His next book will be “Three Stories About Capitalism: The Moral Psychology of Economic Life” expected in 2021, from Pantheon Press.

The Don R. Elliott Distinguished Presidential Lecture Series is designed to expose the Lipscomb University campus and the surrounding community to persons of influence in one or more issues of contemporary debate or discussion, with a preference for issues related to economics or political science. An endowment established at Lipscomb by the Don R. Elliott Foundation provides primary funding for the Elliott Distinguished Presidential Lecture. The lecture series is named in memory of Don R. Elliott, a native of Kerr, Arkansas, who was a Professor of Economics and Political Science at Little Rock University, Randolph-Macon College and Vanderbilt University. He founded Don Elliott and Associates, a fundraising consulting firm that directed campaigns for Lipscomb University and a host of other universities, colleges and private schools.
 
The Elliott Lecture was presented for the first time in 2010, featuring Elaine Kamarck as its inaugural speaker. Kamarck is a lecturer in public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management at Brookings Institute. A second lecture in 2012 was presented by Reagan White House veteran and Fox News commentator, James P. Pinkerton. Other featured Elliott Lecture speakers have included Thomas Friedman, New York Times foreign affairs columnist and author; National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg; Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot; and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former secretary general of NATO and prime minister of Denmark.

Lipscomb University’s College of Leadership & Public Service
Lipscomb University’s College of Leadership & Public Service has been in the making for the last 10 years. Over the past decade, Lipscomb University has built a group of institutes that serve the common good and support innovative solutions. These institutes are housed in this new college and include the Institute for Conflict Management, the Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society, the Institute for Sustainable Practice, the Nelson & Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership and the School of Public Policy. Each offers graduate degree programming in addition to other initiatives including certificate programs, Rule 31 training and more. The college is also home to signature program Leadership Tennessee. This unique initiative provides collaborative learning and dialogue spanning the state’s three grand divisions, issue-specific education for demonstrated leaders, diverse representation of participants and opportunities to affect change. It offers programs which offers programs of study in pre-law, public service, nonprofit management, corporate social justice, government and sustainability among others. The college will launch a School of Public Policy in the coming months and this fall will offer a new Master of Arts in Leadership and Public Service degree. For more information visit www.lipscomb.edu/leadership.