The Life & Legacy of Wendell Berry
Registration: $20 students, $50 others.
Lauded Kentucky author, farmer, environmentalist, and champion for sustainability, Wendell Berry will be the focus, and featured guest, of this day-log conference hosted by Front Porch Republic (FPR). FPR, which turns 10 years old this year, is committed to restoring to the public conversation concepts such as human scale, the distribution of power, and our responsibility to the future. It's members come from different backgrounds, live in different places, and have divergent interests, but are convinced that scale, place, self-government, sustainability, limits, and variety are key terms with which any fruitful debate about our corporate future must contend. To mark this anniversary, FPR is gathering at UofL to discuss Wendell Berry’s vision and legacy. They’ll also be handing out copies of the inaugural issue of Local Culture: A Journal of the Front Porch Republic.
All are encouraged to register to attend and join us for what promises to be a rich day.
9:00 Welcome, Gary Gregg, Director of the McConnell Center
9:15-10:45 Community
- Jake Meador, Community in an Orphaned World: Belonging in a Time of Rootlessness
- Eric Miller, Creating a Current: Wendell Berry and the Fellowship of the Word
- Jeff Bilbro, Convocation: Burley Coulter and the Membership
11:00-12:30 Farms and Households
- Susannah Black, Front Porch and Empire: Political Authority and the Blessings, and Limits, of Limits
- Gracy Olmstead, “It Takes a Village”: Why the Nuclear Family Is Insufficient for Agricultural Sustainability
- Jason Peters, “Who Started the Fight?”: The Farm and the Language of Particularity
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3:00 Wendell and Mary Berry in Conversation
- Wendell Berry and Mary Berry
3:15-4:30 Empire and Law
- Caleb Stegall, Obedience to the Unenforceable: Is Port William Lawless?
- Bill Kauffman, “Where Have They Gone?” Wendell Berry on War and Peace
Concluding Remarks, Mark Mitchell, FPR President
