Conferences
January 9th to 11th, 2009, in Washington, D.C.
We are at the initial planning stage for our next general conference (the thirteenth such convocation) to be held at the Washington (D.C.) Marriott Hotel on the weekend of Friday, January 9, to Sunday, January 11, 2009. This Marriott hosted our conferences in 1996 and 2002, and it will be just the right place to be on the advent of a new administration. The theme of the conference will be The Changing Landscape of American Higher Education. Please set aside that January weekend, because we are looking forward to the usual enthusiastic turn-out of members and friends of the NAS.
At our twelfth national conference, held in Cambridge, MA, from the 17th to the 19th of November, 2006, we discussed What Works in Higher Education Reform: A Report from the Front. Our conference featured Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund, who addressed a breakfast gathering. Alan Charles Kors and Harvey Silverglate, cofounders of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education addressed the state of academic freedom. We honored Robert P. George, director of Princeton's James Madison Program, with our Sidney Hook Memorial Award. The schedule posted HERE contains information about what took place.
The eleventh general meeting took place from 21 to 23 May 2004 at the Roosevelt Hotel, New York City. The theme was What Our Universities and Schools Owe Each Other. Diane Ravitch delivered the keynote speech. The NAS bestowed the Sidney Hook Award on Stanley Rothman of Smith College, Click HERE for a schedule of what went on.
Our tenth national meeting occurred in Washington DC from 31 May through 2 June 2002. Its theme was Higher Education and Democracy in Peace and War. The conference program is recorded here. Insight Magazine made it the cover story of their 1-8 June 2002 issue.
Our ninth national meeting in New York took place on the weekend of 12 January 2001. Its theme was Taking Measure: Higher Education at the Turn of the Century. Click here for a complete schedule of what went on.
The Eighth National NAS Conference was held in Chicago, April 1999, at the Regal Knickerbocker Hotel. The theme: Our Universites and Our Culture. John R. Searle delivered the keynote address. We bestowed the Hook Award on Gertrude Himmelfarb. John M. Ellis received the Shaw Award, and we recognized the efforts of Joseph M. Horn with the Gross Award.
The Seventh National NAS Conference was held in New Orleans, December 1997, at Le Meridien Hotel. The theme: Multiculturalism and the Future of Higher Education. The keynote speaker was Shelby Steele. Thomas Sowell received the Hook Award and other prizes went to Mary R. Lefkowitz, Glynn Custred, and Thomas E. Wood.
The Sixth National Conference was held at the Washington Marriott in Washington, D.C., May 1996. The theme of the conference was The New Higher Education Reform Movement: Its Shape, Direction, and Future, and featured were William Bennett and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Our Fifth National Conference was held in November 1994 in Cambridge, Massachusetts on the theme: Truth and Objectivity in the Natural Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities. Earlier NAS conferences were held in New York City, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. Information about these may be obtained by contacting the NAS headquarters in Princeton.