The conference is designed to foster "intellectual sociability" among independent scholars, graduate students and faculty from a range of elite research universities and small liberal arts colleges.

"The planning committee hopes that conferees will take advantage of these opportunities, not only to visit with old friends and associates, but also to engage in conversation with a new generation of graduate students and with scholars whose interests and approaches may differ from their own," said conference co-organizer and host Andrew R. Rehfeld, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science in Arts & Sciences.

"It is also a wonderful opportunity for the Washington University community to see the vibrancy of political theory as an interdisciplinary endeavor."

Rehfeld expects about 125 participants for the gathering, which offers six regular sessions, each with four panels. The conference begins and ends with plenary presentations:

• Elizabeth Beaumont of the Carnegie Foundation and the University of Minnesota will explore political theory and civic engagement; and

• Amitai Etzioni, director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at George Washington University and past president of the American Sociological Association, will engage critics of his new book, From Empire to Community: A New Approach to International Relations.

Supported in part with contributions from WUSTL, the conference fee is $70 for faculty and fully employed individuals, $35 for non-WUSTL affiliated graduate students and $15 for students affiliated with WUSTL. Members of the WUSTL community can receive a prorated fee if they will not attend all meals.

For more information and a full conference agenda, go online to organizations.oneonta.edu/apt or contact Rehfeld at 935-5812 or rehfeld@wustl.edu.