December 12, 2008

 

Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, introduced speaker Dr. J. Rufus Fears to an audience gathered at the Library of Congress, on Capitol Hill, for the opening keynote address of the “Bush Legacy and Lessons” conference. Dr. Fears is the David Ross Boyd Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, where he teaches courses on the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as a survey course on the history of liberty in the West. Dr. Fears also has a substantial following based on his best selling audio courses published by the Teaching Company on topics ranging from the ancient Roman republic, to a biographical history of Winston Churchill.

Professor J. Rufus Fears keynoted the Hauenstein Center’s Bush legacy conference at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Professor Fears spoke on “President George W. Bush, Economic Crisis, and the Lessons of History.”

J. Rufus Fears is David Ross Boyd Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty. Professor Fears earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and is a fellow of many distinguished organizations, such as the American Academy in Rome, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. His research has been supported by institutions such as the American Philosophical Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Before taking his post at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Fears held teaching positions at Indiana University, where he rose from assistant professor to full professor, and Boston University, where he served as Chair of the Department of Classical Studies. Professor Fears is the author of four books, including The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology, and has published a three-volume edition of Selected Writings of Lord Acton, the great British historian of liberty. He has also published more than 100 articles and reviews, and other writings on ancient history, the history of liberty, and the lessons of history for our own day.