Leo Strauss as Teacher
The Leo Strauss Center held a conference on “Leo Strauss as Teacher” on April 22-23 in Social Science 122 (a lecture hall where Strauss himself occasionally taught) on the campus of the University of Chicago. In this article video of the conference sessions is published.
The conference marked the publication on the Center’s website of digitally remastered audiofiles made from the surviving audiotapes of Leo Strauss’s courses. It provided an opportunity to remember, think about, and discuss the example Strauss provided of a great teacher and to talk about the issues involved in preparing the transcripts of his courses for publication.
The conference was divided into four panels: one panel of individuals who studied with Strauss in his early days at the University of Chicago; one panel who had studied with him late in his career, at the University of Chicago, Claremont Men’s College, or St. John’s College Annapolis; a panel of scholars who had edited transcripts on the basis of audio files and the French translator of Strauss, who is currently preparing for publication in French the transcripts of Strauss’s courses on Montesquieu, corrected against the audiofiles; and a final panel for discussion among all the speakers.
There are separate videos for each of the four panels. Here is the detailed list of conference panels and panelists, with timings showing where on the video each segment begins.
Reflections on Leo Strauss as Teacher I
| Chair: Nathan Tarcov | University of Chicago | |
| Ralph Lerner | University of Chicago | (21:30) |
| Victor Gourevitch | Wesleyan University | (35:45) |
| Hilail Gildin | Queens College, City University of New York | (59:08) |
| Robert Faulkner | Boston College | (109:30) |
| Group discussion | (122:30) |
Reflections on Leo Strauss as Teacher II
| Chair: Nathan Tarcov | University of Chicago | |
| Abram Shulsky | Hudson Institute | (1:45) |
| Richard Zinman | Michigan State University | (18:35) |
| Jerrold R. Caplan | Moorpark College | (58:47) |
| Theodore Blanton | Blanton Law Firm | (114:35) |
| Group discussion | (141:10) |
Course Transcripts
| Chair: Christopher Lynch | Carthage College | |
| Christopher Nadon | Claremont McKenna College | (00:42) |
| Steven Lenzner | Leo Strauss Project | (22:58) |
| Olivier Sedeyn | Institut Eleuthère, France | (47:30) |
| Catherine Zuckert | Notre Dame University | (118:54) |
| Group discussion | (144:20) |
General Discussion
Chair: Nathan Tarcov
All panelists