2015 Socrates Winter Seminars
Weekend long seminars include roundtable discussion and outdoor activities.
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Who Is Us? Reimagining American Civic Identity; moderated by Eric Liu, author and Director of the Aspen Program on Citizenship and American Identity
From the start, the American project has been to create an unum greater than the sum of its pluribus parts. That project has never been more challenging — or more full of promise. On the one hand, the market has relentlessly sliced us up into narrower demographic niches. We are fragmented. On the other hand, the burgeoning diversity of our people means that we now have an unprecedented opportunity to build a mass multicultural democratic republic — one that can last. Can it be done? That is this generation’s great question, and in this session of the Socrates Seminar, we will explore the ethical values, the cultural content, the constitutional creed, and the historical touchstones that must undergird a coherent American civic identity. Without whitewashing difference or downplaying unity, we will attempt to answer, in a capacious way, this nation’s enduring question: Who is us?
Competition and Care: How can we strike a balance between work and family for women and men?; moderated by Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO, New America Foundation and Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University
Competition and Care are two major drivers of human behavior that tap different parts of our nature and follow different logical progressions. Competition is about the self, achieving our personal goals and excelling individually; while care is about enabling others. Both provide deep satisfaction to both men and women; both have a place at home and in the workplace.
If women have moved from being confined entirely to the world of care to being both competitors and caregivers in various combinations, where does this leave men? Are men still stuck in a world where their self-worth is essentially measured by their ability to win? Are we all capable of providing care and still remaining competitive? Instead of trying to strike a balance between work and family, how can we strike a balance between competition and care for everyone?
Can Business Fix Government?, moderated by Peter Orszag, Vice Chairman of Global Banking, Citigroup
President Obama has placed private sector leaders such as Robert Mc Donald, Procter and Gamble, CEO in cabinet positions with a mission to overhaul agencies plagued with bureaucratic delays and other inefficiencies to help them improve the way they do business. Can business leaders apply strategies used in business to find success in repairing government? Can and should businesses lead where governments fail? Is there polarization between the two sectors and, if so, can this be repaired? Are there successful public-private partnerships in the US and abroad and if so in which sectors are they most likely to have success? This seminar will examine the relationships and responsibilities of business to government.
Weekend long seminars include roundtable discussion and outdoor activities.