Events

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation and the Shadwell Society present the 8th annual Shadwell Speaker Series featuring Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and public speaker best known for his landmark trilogy on the civil rights era, America in the King Years. 

Join historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy for an engaging talk about his latest book, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University. O’Shaughnessy will discuss how Jefferson’s vision anticipated the modern university and profoundly influenced the development of American higher education. The University of Virginia was the most visible apex of what was a much broader educational vision that distinguishes Jefferson as one of the earliest advocates of a public education system. 

What inspires aesthetic experience? What does it mean to encounter a work of art? How can aesthetic encounters forge ties and create social bonds? What is the relationship between aesthetics and temporality? Eleven scholars from eight universities and colleges will examine these questions and more during this two-day interdisciplinary conference. Read the full schedule here. 

Join the Foundation and GAGE for a roundtable discussion about the study of war and military history. William Hitchcock, the Corcoran Professor of History at U.Va., will moderate a discussion among three leading scholars in the field: Beth Bailey, director of the Center for Military, War, and Society Studies at the University of Kansas, Caroline Janney, the John L Nau III Professor in History of American Civil War at U.Va., and Andrew Preston, professor of American history and a fellow of Clare College at Cambridge University.