2019 National Conference

Twenty-Ninth Annual National Conference

The Character of the University

Baylor University, Waco, Texas

October 18-20, 2019


 

The 29th National Conference, The Character of the University, co-sponsored by Baylor's Institute of Faith and Learning, will take place on the campus of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on October 18-20, 2019. 

Videos of the plenary sessions are now available:
Talbot Brewer and Candace Vogler: "Pathologies and Prospects"
Francis Su and Elizabeth Newman: "How Do We Make Room for Human Flourishing?"
Thomas Hibbs: "Liberal Education at the Margins"

From their inception in the high Middle Ages, universities saw their essential mission as the formation of their students’ character, involving the cultivation of moral and intellectual virtue animated by eternal truth. In contemporary times, many prominent critics of higher education lament that the modern academy has all but forgotten—even rejected—character formation.   

But there are signs that character education is alive and well. Due in part to the contemporary revival of virtue ethics in philosophy and theology, a broad range of academic disciplines and research programs are now focusing on the nature of the virtues and how character might be shaped in the context of families, schools, and faith communities.

The Character of the University will explore the challenges and opportunities for character formation in the context of 21st-century higher education. How might educators better understand and practice their shared aims to help students grow in virtue as they prepare to pursue lives of meaning and purpose? How might this task require colleges and universities to re-examine their own intellectual, moral, and even spiritual commitments?

You can still visit Baylor's conference website here.

Noteworthy News

September LFP Update

The Current LFP Update for September 2023 is now available. Click here.


Registration is now open for the 2023 National Conference

Registration is now closed for the 2023 National Conference, "Contemplating Integral Ecology for the Common Good," on October 20-22 at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. Click here for more information about the conference, including the schedule. 


Registration is now open for the 2023 Administrators Workshop

Registration is now closed for the 2023 Workshop for Senior Administrators on the topic, "Fostering Hope in a Polarized Age," October 19-20, at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. Click here for more information about the workshop, including the schedule.


Announcing the winner of the 2022 Arlin G. Meyer Prize

We are pleased to announce Gordon Johnston, Professor of Creative Writing at Mercer University, as the winner of the 2022 Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Imaginative Writing for his book of poetry, Scaring the Bears. For more information and to see the finalist for this prize, click here.


Lilly Network of Church- Related Colleges and Universities

If you are interested in learning more about membership in the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities, please contact us here.


New edition of Leading Lives that Matter released

In their second edition of Leading Lives That Matter, editors Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass compile a wide range of texts—from ancient and contemporary literature, social commentary, and philosophy—related to questions of vital interest for those who are trying to decide what to do with their lives and what kind of human beings they hope to become. Leading Lives that Matter has been an important text in many of our fellowship and grant programs, and it contains excellent resources. Click here for more information and an excerpt.