THE ACADEMY OF PHILOSOPHY & LETTERS

2022 Annual Conference

“After Disorder: Looking Backward to Move Forward”

June 2-4, 2022

College Park Marriott

University of Maryland

College Park, MD

For decades, commentators have wrung their collective hands over the decline of the American Republic, the vulgarization of culture, and the desecration of sacred symbols (religious and political). Yet crime declined and our economy prospered. What is there to worry? The violence, social mayhem, technocratic arrogance, bureaucratic incompetence, and government overreach of 2020 and 2021 have given lie to the charade. As our law enforcement failed at home to protect our cities and our military failed abroad to win its war in Afghanistan, our society seems to have at last harvested the bitter social fruit of cultural seeds sown for decades. This much seems clear. But what do we do now?

Fortunately, the human race did not spring from the earth yesterday. Our past shapes—while it does not dictate—our future. This conference will explore the roots of present disorder as well as mine the past for political parallels and cultural comparisons that may aid in the forging of a humane cultural, social, and political order. What are the parallels between our current circumstances and those of the West in the 1960s or the 1930s? 1916 Russia? Late Republican Rome? Periclean Athens? China at the end of the Han dynasty? Presentations and speeches will explore lessons we can learn from the past to understand the present and to plan for the future. Speakers include Claes Ryn, Justin Shubow, Timon Cline, and Samuel Goldman.

View the Conference Schedule.

View speaker bios.

Register for conference.

Reserve your hotel room.

Submit all inquiries to apl@philosophyandletters.org.